Warbird Information Exchange

Oops, me read good. Still, there seems to be something funky about the color in that pic. If you look, there seems to be only a few levels and hues, such as the white of the star being almost exactly the same as the color of the ground cover, however there are a few shades of green in the trees. While it may indeed have been originally shot and processed in Kodachrome, something has happened to it in its as shown guise.

And I thought we were discussing various variations in Corsair camouflage and how they appear in photographs, not bashing this amazing restoration.

greg v.

Don't forget the tramp stamp. Maybe done in engine turned gold leaf?

And with that sorted out, we can return to our regular unscheduled Corsair colors discussion. My turn to post some photos.

First is a -1A on the line at Bridgeport.



Underwings in intermediate blue, obviously. Two things to note here though. First, the dark blue wraps around slightly to the lower leading edge. This area is in shadow on a lot of sunlit pics of Corsairs; people are fooled into thinking the wing is all one color because they don't see a demarcation line up higher, where they're expecting it, and the existing one is concealed in shadow. Second, note the nice contrast between the intermediate blue and insignia blue. The dark blue was very close in tonal value to insignia blue, so if the insignia blue appears distinctly darker than the surrounding paint in a photo, you can be sure the surrounding paint is intermediate blue, no matter how dark it looks. The next two shots illustrate these points.



The underwings look pretty dark here. If this shot only showed the port wing, where there's no insignia, some of our friends might say it looks like dark blue. But there's too much tonal difference between the underwing color and the insignia. It's intermediate blue. I expect that if we saw the side with the insignia on the first pic Rob posted, we'd see the same thing.



Factory fresh F4U-1C. Here the underwings look far darker even than the dark sea blue on top. Aha, a clear case of dark blue underwings! But no. Look closely...



There's the demarcation line outboard of the guns, just where it was on the first photo above. Not only that, but even the sheaths around the gun barrels have a demarcation line, with dark blue on top wrapping around the tips, and lighter color below. Intermediate blue wings again! This shows how much difference light and shadow can make when it interacts with paint tone.

Bottom line, photos are darn tricky to interpret. We know that Navy spec called for intermediate blue underwings on the tri-tone scheme. I've yet to see credible evidence that the factory painted them any other way.

August

NEW web site? Hell, the thing's been around forever....we're just giving it 'deep service' and updating everything....I think you folks will like what Mike and the gang have done when we're finished!

Mark

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Mark Morris

I have a couple of potential solutions to this dilemma actually...

The wing panels were subcontracted out to Briggs Manufacturing Company. Briggs would deliver the wings, fully painted, to the assembly plants, which would then attach them to the center section. It is always possible that Briggs converted their paint to the later, all-over dark blue and shipped these wings before the factories had fully finished assembling their tri-tone batch of corsairs. That would allow for a mismatch. Also, there is the possibility that planes were cannibalized in the field such that an older tri-toned schemed fuselage might be mated with wings of newer construction (and different paint). Whatever the case may be, it is really splitting hairs at the end of the day. It is still interesting though, and worthy of discussion, so long as it doesn't get too serious. Regardless, this corsair is by far the finest restored example I have ever seen... it is simply magnificent, and I can't wait to see her in person. Many congratulations to John, and his team.

Cheers,
Richard

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Richard Mallory Allnutt - Photography - http://www.rmallnutt.com

Hello
My name is Kelly Lane and I am John Lane’s younger brother. I feel compelled to try and answer the question of the color on the under wing of the Corsair. First off I’m not an expert in anything relating to Warbird’s or Corsair’s. Most of my knowledge comes from building models for 50 years and occasionally getting to hang around my brother, which is all to infrequent these days as we live 800 miles apart.
After reading this forum last week while trying to seek info and pictures about the Corsair (I have learned not to call my brother in the weeks prior to Oshkosh), I ran across this thread. I talked to John on Monday after he had delivered the Corsair to the owner. I told him most of the comments I read seemed to be positive about the airplane with the exception of questioning the color of the underside of the wings. I understand that anytime we see something new or seemingly not documented we have a tendency to question it. I realize this is not an attack on the airplane or John or all of the folks at Airpower that toiled for years on this project. I see it as thirst for knowledge…that’s how we learn.
John’s explanation to me is, this was the ‘last’ Tri-tone scheme used on the Corsair’s and was probably only in service for a short period of time, say a few months, then the all blue scheme replaced it.
I can assure you that John and the folks at Airpower researched this paint scheme thoroughly and would not take lightly the decision to paint the airplane this way, not after years of work. John has a library of Corsair and WWII U.S Naval information that rivals most museums. One thing to remember is that the person who owns the airplane has a lot of influence as to how they want to spend their dollars and have the final say, that is why the owners name is on the canopy rail, not 100% authentic, but if it was mine I’d have my name on it too!
Thanks for letting me ramble a little, hopefully this will help answer the paint color question or maybe stir up more debate. That’s all it is folks a friendly debate, people on forums tend to be sensitive about anyone who challenges their statements and then it turns into a flame. I see this on automotive forums all the time.
I’m not sure if John will respond or not as he and Nancy are going to take some time off, then they are on to the next project.
Kelly

Thanks Kelly, and welcome.

It is good, and I'm sure comes as a surprise to nobody, to hear that the paint scheme was researched and is accurate. If you can, I think several of us would be delighted to hear something about what the nature of the evidence for the dark blue underwings is. I'm not aware of a tech order superseding order SR-2C and SR-2D, which established the 3-tone scheme with intermediate blue below the wings, before Amendment 1 to SR-2D changed the color scheme for fighters to overall glossy sea blue. New information about an official change to sea blue under the wings would be exciting for a certain small group of paint scheme nerds and modelers.

Cheers,

August

August
Your way over my head on this one.
Thanks

ROFLOL

Thanks for that, Kelly...your response just made my whole day!

Welcome to the nuthouse. Grab an open stool; I've got the first round.

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

Thanks Shady, that is absolutely true -- but I'm willing to learn! Enlighten me please!

August

August
As I said I'm not the expert here and I don't pretend to be. I don't know the first thing about Tech orders therefore I cannot enlighten, I’ll leave that to others more knowledgeable such as you. I was glad to see the airplane was painted in a flat sheen instead of gloss, that was a step in the right direction, even though it will be a nightmare to maintain.
Kelly

I agree, it looks beautiful. It was reason #2 I regretted not getting to OSH this year. (I'm very partial to Seafires.)

If John gets a chance after a well deserved rest to chime in on the wing thing, I know many of us would love to hear about it. As I've said all along, I assume he's right, so there's no antagonism here. I'd have all kinds of questions like, would this apply to both Vought and Goodyear Corsairs, did it apply to other types like Helldivers and Seagulls, and so on. I'm no expert in anything to do with warbirds, let alone Corsairs or USN finishes, so I'm sure I'll be in over my head -- but that's my favorite place, I've never cared much for the kiddie pool and love to pick the brains of real experts when they'll let me.

August

Frank passed away yesterday after a 2 year battle with cancer.

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T-6F, N81857
warbirdridesusa@gmail.com

Sad news. Frank was a very good man and instrumental in bringing 'Kathleens Dream' to life. Without his hand in it, who knows what the fate of that Corsair would have been.

John