Welcome to the 2020 Korean War Campaign! This campaign is about remembering what has been called The Forgotten War on the 70th anniversary of its beginning. The campaign will run from 1 June, 2020 through 1 April, 2021.

If you want to see the rules and sign up, go here. Post campaign related discussion and in-progress photos in this thread. Pics of finished models should be posted in the campaign gallery.

Looking forward to models remembering "The Forgotten War"!

Michael

Hi All,

I had to give this one a lot of thought! But after careful consideration, I'll be doing Trumpeter's 1/48 F9F-2P. It'll be dressed as a recon bird from VC-61, flying off of the USS Philippian Sea.



This should be lots of fun!

Here's my entry:



There are two RAAF markings for Korea, and I'll probably build George Hale's "Halestorm" in which he got one probable and one damaged MiG-15.

Form I have read depending on the author the La-7 was in use or it was only the La-9. I know the Yak9 was used, but which version. I am not fond of NMF since it does not treat me kindly.

Bob

Hi all, I've got a question, since I'm not a planes specialist at all... I have a 1/48 tamiya Corsair F4u-1a in the stash. Is it feasible to use it as it is (or with minor adaptions), paint it navy blue, and use some Korea-war decals on it? Or were the corsairs used in Korea a whole different thing altogether? I read a bit about it on the internet, but it's not clear to me... Thx!!!

My understanding is that the F4U-4 was the a/c used in the KW as an attack aircraft.

Bob

I'm pretty sure the -1a was well out of the inventory by Korea. The -4 had a number of differences, including a bigger engine, a four-bladed prop, and a different windscreen/canopy. Sorry.

Michael

I agree, F4U-1's were long gone by 1950, But there were F4U-4's, F5U-5's and AU-1's (F4U-6 modified for ground attack) in Korea. The -4 and -5 are represented in 1/72, probably also in 1/48. If you scrounge deeply, you might find a Hawk AU-1 (bet it's their F4U-1 with red white an blue national insignia.
I just finished a Korean War F4U-5N for the Bent Wing Birds campaign. :-H

Thx all for the answers! Alright, that's way too much differences indeed, so not suited for this campaign. Thx and have fun!

Hans,

The differences noted by Michael and Mark above are true.

Though, to convert the Tamiya F4U-1a to a F4U-4, wouldn't be too great, given that it doesn't sound like total scale accuracy is your goal, just something that looks the part.

It can be done, with a little work. The canopy's in the 1a kit also include the 1d sliding portion of the canopy, which was the same as the -4, easy!

The windscreens were flat in the front, as the curved portion was replaced with bullet proof glass. Sanding the front portion to match, and polishing it out should capture this. Also, depending on your audience, they may not notice.

It's true on the engine. The R-2800 was larger, however the size of the cowl is pretty much the same. Here's where it would get a bit scratchy. Since the cowling flaps on the -1a kit are open, you can take stretched sprue, or tubing to represent the exhaust pipes that came out midsection (2 on each side), not a big deal. One would have to remove some plastic where the exhausts exited on the fuselage behind the cowl flaps, and scribe some lines to show that addition. Going good on the exhaust streaking typical of this variant would distract the eyes from the actual exhaust mating regarding the depth you go. Still not too bad.

The -4 does have an airscoop on the front of the cowl underside. This would have to made using something like sheet styrene and some putty. This would then need to smoothed out and blended into the cowl. depending on your skills this would be a challenge.

Do all that, get some nice Korean Way decals, go with a Gloss Sea Blue finish (this paint did not fade!), and then go to town on weathering it hard, Marine F4u-4's looked pretty beat. Then just source a 4 blade Hamilton Standard prop. Monogram/Revell P-47, their P-61 Blackwidow (does anyone build this kit?), or even their B-26 Marauder would be good inexpensive sources.

Ideally, if you have the Tamiya P-47M in your stash, the engine crank cover with the magnetos would be an enhancement, and these kits also have all the props used by the P-47, so you would have the 4 blade Hamilton standard prop! You can use them, and still make a great P-47 with what's left in the box!!

That's my 5 cents worth, and how I'd go about it. Or, you pick up the older Hasegawa F4U-4, or their -5N, at a pretty reasonable price (given its age). Hope that helps!

Stay safe and have fun!!

John

Thanks for the elaborate answer!!! Put this way, it doesn't sound undoable. I'll think about it, the campaign runs for a year so I have time to decide if I'll go the extra mile

For informational purposes, here are a couple of drawings from Tamiya's manual on the F4U from their 1/32 kits:





Not exhaustive, but some idea of the changes, at any rate.

Michael

What a coincedent!

I recently explored the history of the Korean War as I'd thought about to purchase one of the latest Sherman kits by Tamiya.

Thus I opted for the Korean War version instead of the WWII-European Theater.

Then I droped by to look what's going on in the campaign site -
and as ordered: A fully suitable campaign for my new kit.

Nice choice!

We still need a ribbon for this campaign. I know Mark suggested in the enlistment thread ribbons from the UN, US, or South Korea, which are cool but somewhat one-sided. Is everyone down with that or does anyone else have some ideas?

Michael

Good point Michael. May be a Taegeuk on one side and a Red star on the other, all on a white background? That's a little behind my graphic capabilities.

I would like to provide a suggestion.

If you like to look at my profile site I'd once created the NATO-campaign ribbon.

AF-2 GUARDIAN ENTRIES

Here are my entries into this campaign: two AF-2 Guardians, one "Hunter" one "Killer." They both belonged to VS-931, assigned to various carriers during a deployment to Korea in 1952. The two subjects are at the top, from a Caracal decal sheet.



Here's a picture of the real "Hunter."


Aftermarket details will be minimal because there aren't many! I am using Barracuda wheels with the correct number of spokes in the wheel hubs.



One big downside of these kits is that there are no aftermarket instrument panels and not even instrument decals sheets for them. Just the plastic bevels for the instruments.

To address this, I'm going to have the fun of punching out the Airscale decals and (maybe) using brass bevels. See below.



These are BIG models.



Here's a brief history of the squadron from Wiki.




There is no doubt that VS-931 took part in ASW missions in support of the UN Korean war effort, as documented by this online history of the USS Badoeng Strait (CVE-116)






That's a pretty small flight deck for the largest single-engine propeller aircraft ever operated by the Navy off of aircraft carriers!

I normally stick to WWII A/C but this effort is a thank-you to my North Carolina friend who likes the era and is dealing with a serious illness at this time.

How about something like this:





Michael

Nize. Captures the idea of something wider than the 2 Korea's.

Alternate Ribbon Suggestion

Michael:

I threw this together quickly. Just a suggestion.

Nice one, Brian!

What does everyone else think?

Michael

Brian's post re: a friend touched a nerve so Ive enlisted and I like the ribbon.

Bob

looks good to me

Does anyone know if the TBF/M was used in Korea?

Bob

I took the liberty of cleaning up Brian's ribbon a bit and reformatting it. I think we may have a winner! How about you all?





Michael