ADS NOT DISPLAYED TO REGISTERED USERS.
+ Reply to Thread
Page 1 of 5 1 2 3 4 5 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 72
Like Tree1Likes

MEMBER'S CHOICE: F4U-1A of Lt. William Case, VMF-214 Blacksheep, Sept. 1943

#2 Pacific Theater of Operations Discuss MEMBER'S CHOICE: F4U-1A of Lt. William Case, VMF-214 Blacksheep, Sept. 1943 in the Group Builds forums; OK guys, here we go..... Username: LesOfPrimus Real Name: Dan Category: Judge but classified Intermediate Scale: 1:32nd Manufacturer: Trumpter Model ...

  1. #1
    Senior Member lesofprimus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Location
    Long Island Native in Mississippi
    Posts
    19,141
    Country
    United States

    MEMBER'S CHOICE: F4U-1A of Lt. William Case, VMF-214 Blacksheep, Sept. 1943

    OK guys, here we go.....



    Username: LesOfPrimus
    Real Name: Dan
    Category: Judge but classified Intermediate
    Scale: 1:32nd
    Manufacturer: Trumpter
    Model Type: F4U-1D converted to F4U-1A
    Details: BuNo. 17873, which was flown by Lt. William Northrop Case, during the First Tour Blacksheep of VMF-214, during September-October 1943...

    With 8 kills, Case was the third-highest scoring Black Sheep, and he may have been the luckiest. Like most of the experienced pilots who started in August, 1943 he only served with VMF-214 for one tour.
    Twenty-two year-old First Lieutenant William N. Case had flown with Greg Boyington earlier in VMF-122. He then served a combat tour with VMF-112 and downed a Zero over Kahili when he was flying with 112. He was one of those pilots who had a sense of invincibility, which he first noticed in a head-on encounter with a Ki-61 Tony. He bore right in, seeing but heedless of the orange and black gunfire he could see coming right at him. Case never wavered, unwittingly playing 'chicken' with the Jap pilot, who pulled up at the last second. Case's first victory as a Black Sheep (his second to-date) came on Sept. 18. He latched onto a Zero that took no evasive action at all, just a long sweeping turn into a cloud. Case was so close, only 50 feet behind, that he could still see his quarry while in the cloud. He fired, but his shots bracketed the Zero, due to the wide 15-foot spread of the Corsair's guns. Finally Case realized the problem and moved the pipper off to one side, allowing three guns on one side to destroy the plane.

    Flying Boyington's wing on an escort mission of Sept. 27, he scored his third victory. But he was shot up himself; enemy bullets punctured his F4U's oil reservoir, a 25-gallon tank under the engine. As the last of his oil drained out, he made an emergency landing at Vella Lavella. The Seabees there took care of him in just three hours, replacing the oil reservoir with one from another recently crashed Corsair. When he finally arrived back at Munda, several hours late, he found that his squadron mates had already split up his belongings. He didn't ask any questions, but went to the mess hall; when he got back to his tent, all his stuff had been returned.

    Fortune smiled on him with a couple of credits for aerial victories. On Oct. 11, 1943, he saw a Zero about a mile away, and decided to test-fire his Corsair's guns. As did so the distance had narrowed to about 800 yards; as Case fired, the Zero flew into the stream of bullets, and went down. Three days later, he got into a dogfight and saw "something, possibly a drop tank" splash in the water. During his de-briefing, he noted that he had seen the splash from 16,000 feet. He got credit for a victory, on the reasoning that any splash seen from three miles up must have been an aircraft.

    But surely, She smiled most at him on Oct. 18, his last day in combat. A short fellow, Case always raised his Corsair's seat all the way up. On this day, he lowered it a notch (the only time he ever did so). In battle, a Zero's bullet smashed into the cockpit, and just bloodied his scalp. If he had been sitting an inch higher, the bullet would have killed him. William Case survived that day, and lived for another 52 years, passing away in 1995.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails MEMBER'S CHOICE: F4U-1A of Lt. William Case, VMF-214 Blacksheep, Sept. 1943-les01.jpg   MEMBER'S CHOICE: F4U-1A of Lt. William Case, VMF-214 Blacksheep, Sept. 1943-les02.jpg  

    MEMBER'S CHOICE: F4U-1A of Lt. William Case, VMF-214 Blacksheep, Sept. 1943-les03.jpg   MEMBER'S CHOICE: F4U-1A of Lt. William Case, VMF-214 Blacksheep, Sept. 1943-les04.jpg  

    MEMBER'S CHOICE: F4U-1A of Lt. William Case, VMF-214 Blacksheep, Sept. 1943-les05.jpg   MEMBER'S CHOICE: F4U-1A of Lt. William Case, VMF-214 Blacksheep, Sept. 1943-les06.jpg  

    Last edited by DerAdlerIstGelandet; 11-28-2010 at 03:52 PM.




  2. #2
    Senior Member lesofprimus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Location
    Long Island Native in Mississippi
    Posts
    19,141
    Country
    United States
    4 extra pics....
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails MEMBER'S CHOICE: F4U-1A of Lt. William Case, VMF-214 Blacksheep, Sept. 1943-les07.jpg   MEMBER'S CHOICE: F4U-1A of Lt. William Case, VMF-214 Blacksheep, Sept. 1943-les08.jpg  

    MEMBER'S CHOICE: F4U-1A of Lt. William Case, VMF-214 Blacksheep, Sept. 1943-les09.jpg   MEMBER'S CHOICE: F4U-1A of Lt. William Case, VMF-214 Blacksheep, Sept. 1943-les10.jpg  


  3. #3
    Senior Member B-17engineer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Revis Island.
    Posts
    14,428
    Country
    United States
    Wow Dan! Looks absolutely amazing!

    Good luck!

  4. #4
    Senior Member lesofprimus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Location
    Long Island Native in Mississippi
    Posts
    19,141
    Country
    United States
    Thank u....

  5. #5
    Siggy Master Wurger's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Poland
    Posts
    27,616
    Country
    Poland
    Lovely, Dan.

  6. #6
    Senior Member ellis995's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Easington Lane UK
    Posts
    1,051
    Country
    United Kingdom
    WOW Dan words can't say enough your grandfather would have been proud of this.

    Fighters are our salvation ,but the bombers alone provide the means of victory.

    Winston Churchill
    September 1940

  7. #7
    Senior Member lesofprimus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Location
    Long Island Native in Mississippi
    Posts
    19,141
    Country
    United States
    Thanks alot guys....

  8. #8
    Forum Mascot Lucky13's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    A Swede living in Glasgow, Scotland
    Posts
    26,308
    Country
    Scotland
    Country II
    Sweden
    Outstanding work Brother! I'm sure that had your grandfather seen this machine, the memories would have come flooding back! Fantastic!

    Jan "Felicis Tredecim"
    "I´m going back to the front to relax"
    "THE BLACK CATS FLIES TONIGHT"
    "Find your enemy and shoot him down - everything else is unimportant!"
    "When you're out of F-8's... You're out of fighters!"

  9. #9
    Senior Member lesofprimus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Location
    Long Island Native in Mississippi
    Posts
    19,141
    Country
    United States
    Thanks Jan, I'd like to think so....

  10. #10
    Senior Member dirkpitt289's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    South Plainfield New Jersey
    Posts
    2,247
    Country
    United States
    Country II
    Canada
    Words escape me.

  11. #11
    Senior Member Maglar's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Florida
    Posts
    1,534
    Country
    United States
    I think the back round information justifies the model way more in a good way. Although this model looks SUPERB and kick@$$, it brings a story to life. Well done Dan.

  12. #12
    Senior Member lesofprimus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Location
    Long Island Native in Mississippi
    Posts
    19,141
    Country
    United States
    Appreciate the comments Dirk and Mags........

  13. #13
    Senior Member 109ROAMING's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    New Zealand
    Posts
    5,999
    Country
    New Zealand
    Sweet work mate!!!

    RIP Wigram AFB 1916-1995-2009



  14. #14
    Senior Member lesofprimus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Location
    Long Island Native in Mississippi
    Posts
    19,141
    Country
    United States
    Thanks Daniel...

  15. #15
    Member Angels one-five's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Melbourne
    Posts
    53
    Country
    Australia
    Awesome finish! Really great weathering.

+ Reply to Thread
Page 1 of 5 1 2 3 4 5 LastLast

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86