f4 corsair black sheep

Dave:

Perhaps you can answer a question pertaining to "birdcage" Corsairs that had a 3-tone scheme applied in the field. I had always thought that they just had the sea blue added to the original blue-gray/light gray scheme, but one source I recently came across states that the fuselage sides and vertical tail surfaces were re-painted in intermediate blue. Seems like a lot of unnecessary work to me ! I wonder if that could have just applied to stateside aircraft, such as some of the F4U-1's that VF-17 had before they were re-equipped with F4U-1A's. If that was in fact done, and if the undersides of the outer wing panels were not re-painted, it would make an interesting model since you would have four colors instead of three. Also, in mentioning the Corsair aces book, did you really mean the one from Osprey ?

Thanks,
Jim

Any time Mario. If your interest goes beyond the model then I suggest Bruce's book "The Black Sheep, The Definitive Account of Marine Fighting Squadron VMF-214 in World War II". Just promise me you wont be disapointed that the real squadron was nothing like the TV show. This is an excellent read and includes some good photos. If there is a question I don't know the answer to I'll contact Bruce or Henry.
Take care/Dave

Awesome!!!

First, let me pardon my self for not answering for so long, I had some professional/educational/private things going on which kept me away from my PC for awhile.

I am looking forward to continue this conversation and, frankly, I don't even know where it will end since it is not only about building Blacksheep plane model, we are really into the story itself.

I already forwarded this topic with your reply to my brother in arms model builder so you can prepare to start dealing with millions of questions we have.

Of course, we haven't decided what exact plane to build yet, it's ongoing discussion, I hope you will help us with that issue too.

Cheers,

mario

I can help you on this. A good friend of mine, Henry Bourgeois (a.k.a. Boo) flew with Boyington on his 1st tour. I'm also friends with a gentleman by the name of Bruce Gamble who wrote two books on VMF-214. Actually one on the history of the squadron, and the other on Boyington. Both books have good photos in them, and I highly recommend both. They are well researched great reads.

VMF-214 on their first and 2nd tour flew The F4U-1 Birdcage and the F4U-1A. They never carried drop tanks or bombs. If you have a specific plane you would like to model let me know. I can give you some in depth detail. Probably more than you want. Something you should know is that aircraft number 86 with Boyington sitting in the cockpit was never flown by Boyington. It was a publicity shot. There is one set of decals on the market which are of one of the only nose art aircraft "Marine's Dream". Note on this decals set though. The paint scheme is wrong. Another thing you should know is that no one aircraft was assigned to any pilot. Boyington was as likely to fly a Birdcage on a mission as a 1-A model. These aircraft were also patched together more ways than you can imagine. Any aircraft is as likely to be made up of several different airplanes. Anything salvageable would end up on another plane. As an example I have a photo with national insignia under both wing bottoms.

Okay, rather than ramble on any longer, why don't you let me know what aircraft you're modeling (F4U-1 and F4U-1A) and I'll provide you with as much information as you can use. I'm going to be starting on a 214 project myself as soon as I finish my PT boat from hell.

I look forward to hearing from you. This is a subject I'm pationate about. I've met several of the other Black Sheep too. I also participate in a on-line video game called WarBirds. You guessed it, I'm part of a squad called VMF-214v The Black Sheep. V stands for virtual. Here's a link to our web site. You can see my ugly mug sitting in an FG-1D which also happens to have the "Marine's Dream" art work. Here's our web site.
http://www.vmf-214v.com/

You can find some photos of VMF-214 aircraft in the Squadron publication "Corsair Aces Of World War II". I look forward to helping you with your project.

Dave