Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy

Here's another; years ago when I was a delivery driver for a major pizza chain, we had a manager who unwittingly would tell us as we headed out the door "Be safe and hurry back!" Finally I asked him which one he wanted?! Boy, was he surprised!

I remember the trouble I got in from failing to control my mostly-quiet laughter when my former mother-in-law passed a phone message to my wife: "They just called with the results of your brain scan! They didn't see anything!" Probably didn't help that English, as you mentioned, Kurt, was not their first language even though their mastery of it was almost complete. The world's just devoid of laughter and joy....

Totally understand the word interpretation you're playing (I have done doing that myself!) But in this case it's a miss that was TOO close....

Very nice, love the loadout!

Amen!

Oh, dear God, I missed this one too, when I was away.... +++++++

Well, to be fair, I've posted a few SW projects recently, though instead of putting them in this forum I put them in the Critique Corner....

bump....

Wow, I stand corrected on the radio wire! Thanks Joe!

Thanks Brian! I think the second antenna wire is just dangling, unconnected, the angle making it look like it's connected to the horizontal stabilizer. Granted I could well be wrong, but I'd love to hear from some of the deeper F4U gurus if that was ever a true configuration. My true specialty is the Jolly Rogers aircraft lineage in general. On the prop hubs, until new evidence is uncovered, I think it's just going to come down to making the best guess with what little we have. Personally I'd enjoy seeing a blue hub! Tough to tell on the gun ports; I originally wondered, years ago, if they were stainless steel for blast protection, or if they wore the paint away from firing a lot, or what. But I think the best answer so far is that it's remnants of tape and tape residue. For many WW2 fighters when they had been reloaded/rearmed, the gun ports were taped over, and then just fired through by the opening salvoes.

I think the general consensus of opinion is, if they're all you have, it's not the end of the world, but if you have an alternative, use it!!

Yes, VERY thin. Look really great once they're on and sealed, just more trouble than the average in getting them there. I seriously advise starting with one of the least noticeable decals for practice...or, better yet, if you have a sheet with options you won't use, practice with the extras.

Here's my 1/72 build of Kepford's bird I did as part of my Jolly Rogers complete history build (30 aircraft, took about 8 years): It shows many of the things you asked about including the insignia. If I had to change anything, I'd make the bulkhead surrounding the headrest black; I think that's what it should be, maybe all the way down to the upper levels of the side consoles.

Well, I can help with some of this.... 1) The prop hubs and part of the prop blades were painted when they arrived in the war zone; it was to denote flights within the squadron, easier grouping in-flight. However, it was quickly found to be impractical. Even the rigors of normal flight operations, to say nothing of combat ops in primitive conditions, means there are always "down" aircraft for servicing, maintenance, battle damage, etc, with replacement aircraft coming from any available flight to cover downed aircraft. So, pretty much whenever a flight went out even if it was the correct pilots the aircraft they flew on any mission were often mis-matched, nullifying the intents of the painted prop hubs/blades. I suspect it may have ended before Kepford's second bird, so it may very well have had an unpainted prop hub. The good news is nobody seems to know. I tried to find that very thing out about 15 years ago and came up empty. 2) Closeup examination of the insignia on the left wing of #29 does indeed suggest it was originally a red-surround star & bar, with the red overpainted in blue; it does not seem to match the color of the rest of the disc/circle, possibly due to prior sunbleaching or simply the fact that it's older paint. 3) Yes, definitely chipping/paintwear on the leading edge of the tail, in fact ALL wings/tailplanes. Operating from crushed coral runways with the prop effectively sandblasting all this back over the airframe was absolute hell on the paintwork. 4) No idea on the radio fit; that's beyond my specialty. EDIT: Okay, I see what you mean about the radio wires. Yes, it looks like several VF-17 birds had no radio mast on the spine, #29 included. Definitely at least one wire running from top of tail to starboard side fuselage just aft of cockpit...and it looks like a second wire is dangling, unconnected, on the right-side view photo of the plane parked...maintenance I'm guessing? I'd think both wires would run forward.

Oh, by heck, that's a masterpiece!