"Good Girl Art" Corsairs?

[Ambaryerno]

Among the kits I'd like to do is an F4U-1A (my all-time favorite WWII machine). I'd really like to do a Marine tricolor Corsair, but I'm also wanting to do one with pinup nose art, which seem to be few and far between.

The only ones I know of that decals have been made for F4U-1As off hand are Vargas Cowgirl of VMF-422 (which I THINK is out of print in 1/32, and is certainly hard to find) and VMF-321 machines with the Hell's Angels squadron badge. I did see one set for Heavenly Body (VMF-321) but that was 1/48 and not in the larger scale. I've read about a Corsair called "Katy Did" (of VMF-422, previously mentioned) but haven't seen any actual pictures of the art. Has anyone seen photos of that machine?

I'd considered using a fictional scheme (I ran a squadron on Aces High back in the day, and we all made up "skins" of our own based on a typical Marine Corsair squadron) but I'd rather do something historical if possible.

 

[Donivanp]

World's Best Model Airplane Decals | Cutting Edge Decals | PYN-up Decals | Yellowhammer Decals » PYN-up Decals

 

[Ambaryerno]

Yes, I know about those sets. The only option they have for F4U-1A is Vargas Cowgirl, which I already mentioned in the OP. I'd like some OTHER options for that model.

Also, Not sure why this thread was moved because I'm not just looking for aircraft photos. I'm looking for DECALS if possible.

Can someone please move this thread back? The information I'm looking for is specficially modeling-related so ought to be there, not under a general aviation/photos board.

 

[Wurger]

Done.

 

[Ambaryerno]

Thanks.

Anyway, after some searching so far my options for a tricolor Corsair with pin-up art in 1/32 seem to be:

VMF-422 "Vargas Cowgirl"
Any VMF-321 Corsair with the squadron badge
VMF-225 "Brat III"

There's a 1/48 set of "Heavenly Body," but apparently not one in 1/32. I could PROBABLY simply have a decal printed up if I could find a good reference of the artwork, as well as the dimensions so I could correct set the scale.

Still can't find anything on "Katy Did." At most I can find one or two forum thread references, and one guy who did a B-25 with that name who referenced the Corsair. But for the life of me I'm not finding anything in the way of actual IMAGES I could make use of, or information on MoDex or BuNo. The only thing I know about her is that she was another VMF-422 machine.

I think I've seen 1/32 sheets for "Ring Dang Do" and "Skipper's Orchid," however both are in overall Glossy Sea Blue, so those are out since I want to do a tricolor Hog. I've found a few photos of nose art where there's not enough about the aircraft itself to work with, (MoDex or BuNos, and difficult to tell the color scheme) or the artwork isn't clear enough to try replicating.

Of the four potential options I have so far, the art isn't particularly prominent on any of them. "Vargas Cowgirl" probably stands out the most on the fin, which also lets me do things like open up the cowling and forward fuselage panels without disrupting the artwork. Plus it's an EXTREMELY dirty and beat-up machine (from the one photo I have it looks like the upper surface has nearly faded into the middle band in places) which I think makes the Marine Corsairs so interesting. And I really love the look of the red surround national insignia.

 

[Dana Bell]

Hi Ambaryerno,

If the only thing keeping you from building Ring Dang Doo is the color scheme, you're OK. The aircraft wore a version of the 3/4-tone scheme that is sometimes hard to see in B&W photos. Here's a photo from Guam on 15 August 1945:

You can see the white on the gear doors and make out a hint of it under the fuselage. The Intermediate Blue vertical tail shows well, as does the overspray of Semi-gloss Sea Blue at the base of the tail. The N/S Sea Blue on the fuselage has faded, been repainted, and is fading again. It appears that any Intermediate Blue that might have been on the fuselage had been overpainted with N/S Sea Blue.

Anyway, at least that gives you one additional choice...

Cheers,



Dana

 

[Ambaryerno]

So Intermediate Blue on the vertical stab, Dark Sea Blue uppers and horizontal sides, Insignia White lowers. I wonder if the outer wing panel undersides were left in Intermediate Blue or were also oversprayed in Dark Sea Blue.

Seems there's also a white tail cap and fin flash. Is that white on the leading corner of the horizontal stabs?

May at the very least be an interesting camo pattern.

 

[Dana Bell]

Outer panel undersides were almost certainly Intermediate Blue. The tips of the stabilizers, fin, and prop hub all seem to be white.

Cheers,


Dana

 

[Ambaryerno]

Ok, so that's another to add to the list, and certainly would be interesting since the uppers are likely to be more faded than the sides, and slightly lighter.

I'm curious what the pattern on the horizontal stab is. It doesn't SEEM that the white extends to the elevator itself, though it's hard to tell from this angle.

 

[Dana Bell]

I haven't many good shots of VMF-217, but these might help. It looks like the squadron insignia had been added to several aircraft by August 1945...

Cheers,



Dana

 

[Ambaryerno]

I'm specifically looking for Corsairs with "girl" art, not just nose art in general. Ring Dang Doo doesn't seem to have the squadron badge, tho I'm not decided on which machine to do yet.

 

[Ambaryerno]

So this is something of what I was thinking if I were to do my "fictional" skin:

This is a version I made up for offline use in Aces High for my squadron page back in the day. I'd be taking some general ideas I'd seen from a number of aircraft:

The overall fuselage would be heavily faded; as you can see, I faded the uppers until it almost blends into the Intermediate Blue horizontal surfaces. There's extensive overspray, particularly around panel seams, along with the ubiquitous tape over the fuel tank sections. The original MoDex was painted out,. The inner wing section has been heavily sand-blasted, and a fourth gun is "faked" by the application of an extra piece of tape on the leading edge (as I understand, several Marine squadrons did this to make the Corsairs look more heavily-armed than they really were). I added a version of the white fin flash common on Marine Corsairs, though more extensive. I'm aware of the moratorium on red markings by the USN, but there are some exceptions that existed, such as Bob Galer's Wildcat at Guadalcanal. While the rest of the squadron's planes would have a white cowl lip, since I was squad leader, I gave myself the red lip because authority has its privileges, lol.

That's a simplified version of the squad badge forward of the cockpit. There are two pieces of nose art, one on the portside cowl, the other on the forward fuselage just below the fuel tank.

On a "final" version I might play around with the positioning, (IE moving the girl aft and positioned over the port wing leading edge) as well as fine-tuning some of the weathering and other markings (IE reduce the amount of white on the stab). I've also thought of borrowing from BuNo 17740 and taking an outer wing panel off another machine, perhaps a Birdcage that still had the six-place roundel (17740 was the port wing, so I might have done starboard, instead).

 

[CATCH 22]

I'm specifically looking for Corsairs with "girl" art, not just nose art in general.

Hi Ambaryerno,
I remember seeing years ago a photo of a Corsair with a pin-up nose art. I believe it was named "Marine's Dream". The interesting part of the story was that the nose art was taken from another crashed a/c with the same name, different BuNo though. I don't remember was it cut out or not. The first a/c had a different camo or a very faded out cowl and the patch with the nose art was different in colour. It was an interesting idea for a model or skin, but I lost its tracks. You might try to find it. I'm sure I've seen a model of this particular Corsair somewhere as well. Funny as it could be in real life only, there is a flying Corsair with the same nose art. It's a FG-1 - check here:
Vought F4U Corsair Registry - A Warbirds Resource Group Site
Cheers!
Yves

 

[Ambaryerno]

That Marine's Dream is a modern paint job purporting to be the markings of Ken Wash. However AFAIK, Walsh never actually flew (or at least was never officially assigned) an aircraft with markings remotely resembling that bird. It certainly falls under "fictional."

The original Marine's Dream (in the same decal sheet as "Vargas Cowgirl") was an F4U-1 (Birdcage) BuNo 02576, MoDex 576, of VMF-222. I BELIEVE the "officially" assigned pilot was Ed Oleander, NOT Walsh. Walsh's machine was 02350, White 13. Even late in the war, when Walsh was flying 4-Hogs, his official machine appeared to use the White 13 MoDex. The artwork was also QUITE different from the FG-1D depicted in your image, featuring a slightly different pose, (the girl isn't supporting herself on her hands) and the girl was in a two-piece with bared midriff. The coloring has been a subject of debate, but photos of the actual aircraft suggest the woman depicted was actually a DARK-skinned blonde (either well-tanned Caucasian, or possibly a fair-haired Polynesian/Islander).

The historical ship was apparently in blue-gray over light gray two-tone, however there's some evidence that the wing uppers had been repainted in the semi-gloss sea blue used by tricolor Corsairs (from the research I've done, while the fuselage of tricolor Hogs used non-specular paint, the wing uppers used a semi-gloss. Presumably the semi-gloss provided better aerodynamics on the lifting surfaces over the non-specular?). Notably, the machine appears to have a lighter vertical stabilizer. It's commonly depicted as light gray against the blue-gray uppers, but I'm wondering if maybe this machine was actually a tricolor bird, and the upper fuselage had simply badly faded (which was quite common of Marine Corsairs in the theater. Sea "Vargas Cowgirl," the demarcation between the sea blue and intermediate blue is very difficult to pick up). The aircraft IS also known for a very unusual, very light-colored exhaust stain on the port fuselage that's been widely been misinterpreted as a high demarcation line in the camo.

This is a profile of the "real" Marine's Dream done up in two-tone, based on the "dark-skinned" art:

And the wreck of the real bird after a landing accident:

You can definitely tell from this that the girl is fairly dark-skinned.

 

[CATCH 22]

I should say "with the same name", not "with the same nose art". Anyway the modern restoration was not part of what I remembered, just an addition to what I wrote, many of us have seen "live".
Yes, this is the first "Marine's Dream" you're showing - the one that crashed. I'm (almost) sure there was another a/c using the same nose art (as described before). And as I remember it, whit a darker (3 tone?) camouflage. But my memory is not the same as when I joined this forum, maybe I'm mixing up things here....
Cheers!
Yves

 

[Ambaryerno]

If there was a second Marine's Dream during the War I've certainly never seen images of it. Honestly this is my first time even hearing of it. The only two I'm aware of are 02576 and the modern FG-1D paint job.

Anywho, so far these seem to be my main options for a historical skin thus far:

Vargas Cowgirl - I always liked the red surrounds, and there's a lot of interesting weathering to play with. The inner wings almost seem to have been blasted almost completely down to bare metal.
Ring Dang Doo - A rather unusual camo pattern, however 1/32 scale decals may be hard to come by (a 1/32 set from Cutting Edge is sold out on the site Doni mentioned). Also, the girl is only a small part of the art, rather than a major feature.
Brat III - The "girl" art is almost an afterthought, being squeezed onto the national insignia.
VMF-321 with Squad Badge - Again, the art is a minor feature, this time on the squadron badge.

Still looking for other options. Has ANYONE seen anything more significant about Katy Did other than it just existing?

 

[CATCH 22]

If there was a second Marine's Dream during the War I've certainly never seen images of it.

Google helped me again. This is the article I remember:
F4U-1 Birdcage Corsair By GIANNIS MITZAS - GModel Art
It's in Greek, but Google (who else?)translated it too, in its typical "Yoda-language":

F4U-1 Corsair. Bu No.02386. "Ramblin Wreck" VMF-121. Espiritu Santo on May 8, 1944. In the famous photo. 02386. The F4U1 Corsair, which was destined to be returned to the US for refurbishment and reassignment to the Training Administration. It is painted in a modified 3-tone field of non-Spec Sea Blue (FS 35042), Intermediate Blue (35164), over existing Light Gray (FS-36440) degradations (or possibly new paints). Note the cowl panel with the nose saved from Marine's Dream. The nose of the engine holds, as the photo below shows.
The factory paint color up. Blue Gray (FS-25189) and Light Gray (FS-36440) down. It appears in the tank roll. In front of the cockpit. That the whole surface was painted and later the insulating tape was removed. It was placed for the leak of gasoline. As a result it reveals the color below Blue Gray (FS-25189) Another observation is that the folding wing is from below with the original color Blue Gray (FS-25189). Finally, because there is a piece of fabric on the cockpit, let's say that the porthole behind the cover is made of Plexiglas. Notice the 452 in the background, which retains the two-tone variant, how sunny and bright it looks.

Cheers!
Yves

 

[Ambaryerno]

Ah, yes, I see it. Sounds like Ramblin Wreck could have an interesting camo pattern, too. Sea blue uppers, blue-gray uprights, and light gray underneath, with the cowl panel from Marine's Dream in blue gray. Shame it's a birdcage since I'm doing a 1A.

 

[Dana Bell]

Hi Ambareyno,

The original Marine's Dream was delivered on 23 April 1943 in the Blue Gray/Light Gray camouflage scheme. She was delivered to Fleet Air, West Coast at San Diego for overseas mods including a complete repaint in the newly approved 4-tone scheme of White, Intermediate Blue, N/S Sea Blue, and Semi-gloss Sea Blue. At the time, San Diego was applying the fuselage upper surface camouflage with a straight demarcation; the N/S Sea Blue followed a straight line from the cowl to the tail, not dipping down to blend into the wing join.

At the moment there are only seven known photos of the aircraft, all taken on Bougainville following the 11 December 1943 crash. Only one of the photos shows the aircraft's right side, with mud covering most of the nose art there. As a result, there's still some controversy about just how the right side of the cowl appeared beneath all that mud.

Ramblin' Wreck was accepted on 30 January 1943, also in factory-applied Blue Gray/Light Gray. At that time the new graded camouflage had been approved, but the paints had not yet been ordered - the aircraft went to SoPac in her factory colors.

Records show that in-theater repaints of the upper surfaces could have been in the two Sea Grays or (far more likely) in the Navy's little-known Dark Blue camouflage paint, a paint specifically shipped to SoPac during 1943.

I hope you find the right aircraft for your project!

Cheers,



Dana
PS - not many "good girls" ended up as nose art, but a lot of naughty ones did!

 

[Ambaryerno]

Interesting about the high demarcation line. From the photos I've seen, there appears to be a "dip" in the upper surface color towards the trailing edge of the wing. And as I noted before, there's strong evidence that the high demarcation on the left side is actually the result of an exhaust stain, and not because it was deliberately painted that way.