Dana Bell

I wish he'd noted "Dad's" B-25 unit. The USAF collection at Archives 2 has a single, low altitude photo of several B-25s wearing Roman numerals on their tails, but we've never been able to positively identify the squadron they were assigned to! Cheers, Dana

Since some of the notes answering your questions are based on my earlier writings, please consider any of the following "corrections" to be aimed at myself, not directed at anyone here who has been trying to help. Let me confess that I've learned a great deal since retiring ten years ago! The first FM-1s were delivered with Bronze Green cockpits; this color was quickly replaced with Dull Dark Green on the production line, though I've not found a BuAer record documenting exactly when the change was made. One note has the seat color changing to "zinc chromate primer" on FM-1 BuNo 15,000, thou

Hi Matt, There was no official ratio - the AAF listed the requirements for paint performance, provided a thumbnail-sized color chip, and left it to each paint manufacturer to come up with a decent match. Cheers, Dana

Hi Peter, Eduard is describing the color as Navy blue, but the name is Sea Blue. The scheme is actually four colors - white, Intermediate Blue, Semi-gloss Sea Blue (atop the wings and horizontal tail), and Non-Specular Sea Blue (atop the fuselage and on leading edges of the wings and stabs). The last two colors differ in more than the gloss factor - non-spec is distinctly grayer and lighter than the semi-gloss. I generally refer to the scheme as 4-color to clarify the differences. There was a later version where all of the paints were glossy - it wasn't seen often, but it certainly was a

Hi Brian, I’m sure my friend and mentor Jim won’t mind if I chime in with a few new details I found at the National Archives last year. VF-2 and the F2F-1 had a few singularities that were documented in a paper trail buried in the BuAer records, and I have a few other general answers. In the order of your questions: 1) Pin striping - generally, if you find pin striping on the fuselage stripe or nose cowl, you’ll also find it on the wing chevron. 4) Hole on left side nose - in the sharpest photos I’ve found, the hole has a short, dark pipe inside, looking like some form of exhaust. On oth

Good news on the cowl color - it's almost certainly red. The 6th used red cowls in the early 1930s, and again in mid-War. I suspect that that's the color in your photo. The down side is the wing - it's almost certainly NMF and yellow. The unpainted metal looked like what we see in your photo, and the PR codes would have been replaced by 18P codes beginning in May 1940. It looks like a great subject, and I suspect you're about to deliver a great model - enjoy every minute! Cheers, Dana

Nice photo! First, a word about the wing colors - the yellow was on the trailing two-thirds only. The Alclad leading edge was left unpainted on those early Gooses (Geese?) What was at that time called a "composite wing" caused problems with the application of the national insignia, which would have had to been painted in lacquer on the leading edge and dope on the trailing edge. The Army missed the simple solution of painting with enamels or using decals, instead requiring that the national insignia be painted on the metal portions of the wing only; even that got screwed up - every example

Essentially the same aircraft, but the FG-1D stayed in production through the end of the war, while the F4U-1D line was completed by the end of 1944. That meant several minor 1945 changes were added in FG-1D production, but might have been retrofitted to F4U-1Ds in the field. Look for the carbon monoxide vents on either side of the fuselage aft of the wing and the relocation of the MHF antenna connection (just aft of the canopy) from the right side of the fuselage to the left. Most other revisions were introduced at various times to both production lines and retrofitted in the field. Cheer

A few color notes on Virginia Marie: - None of the illustrations I've seen caught the thing, white spanwise stripe on the leading edges of the outer wing panels. In some photos, the stripes look like reflections from the sun, but they were actually part of the design. - The prop spinners are sometimes shown as blue and white; they were actually blue and polished aluminum. Originally, the props were completely blue, but the group CO flipped when he saw the garish paint scheme the squadron had devised. As punishment, he ordered crews to sand off a section of each spinner using steel wool.

Hi Peter, The problem with the Monogram float is that it doesn't accurately represent the EDO or Vought float, though it has elements of both. OS2U-1s and ship-based OS2U-2s were delivered with Vought floats, but after I wrote the Aircraft Pictorial Kingfisher book I learned that the Vought float was unable to handle heavy seas - it was quickly replaced by EDO. Shore-based OS2Us and all OS2U-3s were delivered with EDO floats, though some aircraft used landing gear only. Many modelers have been happy with the Monogram/Revell kit as is, but I've never felt it looked quite right out of the bo

I'm not sure what happened on Amazon, but I'm showing four third-party sellers with prices ranging from $17.95 to $19.00. Have you tried this link? http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0985714999/ref=tmm_pap_new_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=new&sr=8-1&qid=1431863936 Cheers, Dana

I just heard from Steve Wiper that he's picking the second Corsair book up from the printer right now. It is now available on Amazon and will soon be carried by several local hobby shops. http://www.amazon.com/Aircraft-Pictorial-No-F4U-1-Corsair/dp/0985714999/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1428075977&sr=8-2&keywords=dana+f4u I hope it has been worth the wait! Cheers, Dana

Hi Stanton, What you were told was partially true - nearly a 1,000 FG-1Ds were delivered as "land planes" without tailhooks and with wing folding gear deleted; the rest had those features, which could be (and often were) restored. But to complicate matters, a service bulletin showed how to modify any Corsair into a landplane. It makes it difficult to know what sort of Corsair you might see in a photo. Cheers, Dana

Hi Jason, I've just packaged your books and will drop them in the mail in about 20 minutes. You'll find scans of the known pix of Marine's Dream in the package, so watch for the CD! Cheers, Dana

Hi Phil, Always good to see your posts - I hope to get the chance to see you in person again one day soon! (It's been far too long...) Anyhow, the famous photos of Marine's Dream were all taken on Torokina on 15 December 1943, the day of her crash. By that time she was assigned to VMF-222 with the 576 side number. Cheers, Dana