Hi
I need a little help here. A buddy of mine just got the 1/32 Hobby Craft F4U-1D Corsair. He wants to do the Royal Navy scheme. His questions and mine are these. Is there any major structural differences between the Corairs used by the Royal Navy and the ones we used ? And are there any differences in the cockpit ? Would really appreciate any and all help.
Jerry

Jerry,

RN carriers had a shorter hanger deck height than US carriers. For the Corsair to fit 8" was taken off each wing tip giving them a squared appearance. Other than that everything else was identical to US versions to the best of my knowledge. The RN used many Corsairs, Wildcats, Hellcats and Avengers. Hope this helps.

Brian

Brian
Thanks, helps alot. I might just have to pick up a Corsair myself and it in that scheme. Brian do you know if the RN Corsair showed alot of wear and tear on the paint jobs?
Thans again for the info
Jerry

Jerry,

The RN maintained there aircraft as good as anyone. According to the Osprey book "Corsair Aces of WWII" the US sent Corsairs back to the states for overhaul after they had roughly 500 hours on them. A RN pilot interviewed for the book said there Corsairs had 2000 hours on them and had not been sent back for overhaul. I would imagine as long as paint was available their planes probably did not look to bad exterior wise. There planes were either in RN Camo or overall US Dk. Sea Blue. Markings varied considerably depending on what enemy they faced German or Japanese.

Brian

Hi Jerry,
Other than the wingtips, RN corsairs had different radios
( British), seatbelts ( MK IV used late war Q type), and there are also 3 vents on the fuselage sides, although I can't remember why, I think to vent the fuselage from fumes from the forward gas tank...
I've built the Trumpeter 1/32 scale F4U-D as an RN Corsair MK IV and I'm just creating the art for the stenciling, as I can't find any in 1/32 scale. If you want decals techmod from Poland released a sheet a while ago and I got mine from Squadron
Check out the Fleet Air Arm website, lots of info and links
Hope this helps any more questions just email.
Cheers
Joker

Jerry,

Here is excerpt from a article about modeling a RN Corsair:

Fleet Air Arm aircraft were painted with a camouflage scheme of Sky on the lower surfaces, and a disruptive pattern of Extra Dark Sea Grey and Slate Grey on the upper surfaces. For all British-built aircraft and those built by Grumman, this is correct.

However, both Eastern Aircraft ­ provider of the TBM-series Tarpon/Avenger to the FAA ­ and Corsair manufacturer Chance-Vought used 'US equivalent colors.' These colors were: Sky Grey replacing Sky, Dark Grey replacing Extra Dark Sea Grey, and Olive Drab replacing Slate Grey.

All these paints are available in the Model Master line (enamel or acrylic) and already mentioned Techmod Corsair decals.

Link to the Corsair article:
http://www.squadron.com/old/f4u1atam/f4u1atamreview.htm

Hope this helps some.

Brian