I have been a long time member of:
"The Society of AirRace Historians," (www.airrace.com).
Via this organization, I got the Corsair building bug way back in 1984.
Some of my racing Corsairs are on this web site under the heading of F2G
Corsair. For additional race data, click on the above web site.
In 1985, I bought a race book that
had a couple of black and white photo's of JOE-90 and JOE-99.
Number 90 was used on the Corsair in 1946, while #99 was used on it in
1947. I was going to build that white Corsair a.s.a.p. Almost 20
years later in 2003, I finished building
"JOE-99," using Tamiya's 1/72 scale Vought F4U-1D Corsair
kit.
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Like the first Tamiya kit , the
second kit fit together like peanut butter and jelly goes
together. After the model was assembled, I applied a black wash all
over it. This method lets me sand off the very thin flat paint wash,
thus my missing panel lines, sink marks, etc., shows up. My black wash
consists of Tamiya's XF-1 Flat Black with a mix ration of 4 or more parts of
Denatured Alcohol, (" DA") to one part paint.
Once I repair all of the flaws,
and do some panel line re-scribing, I remove the left over
"black paint wash" build up in the panel lines with a
small fiber brush and some "DA." With lot's of clean
water, I sand the model one more time using 1,200 grit wet/dry
sandpaper and then wash the model with clean water.
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The exterior of the model is 100%
white all over. My Tamiya XF-2 Flat White has been pre-mixed with
"DA" to about 3 parts thinner to one part paint. After
spraying on a few thin coats of paint, I rub down the model with cotton
balls, and do a little wet sanding and apply a clean water wash. More
white paint is applied until I'm satisfied that I have a good solid
white cover all over the model. I repeat the rub down application
with the cotton, and sand the model with 1,500 grit wet/dry
sandpaper. Another clear water washing is necessary, including another
cotton ball rub down. The cotton rub down will shine up your flat paint
job, and on several occasions, I have successfully applied my decals right
over the paint without applying Future Floor Wax.
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For this model, I don't want to
screw-up my decals, so I go with the "Future." My floor wax
has been pre mixed with "DA," so it is applied onto the model.
Next comes the special decals I had made by Dave Newman. Dave's decals
are very thin so I have to be careful when I place them on the model. I
use my old favorite decal solution of "SET/SOL" by Microscale.
The total overall result was very satisfactory, so I sprayed on a bit more
Future to seal the decals.
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JOE-90 had a drop tank attached to
it, so I went hunting in my spare parts box. As luck would have it, I
found a drop tank, but had to scratch-build the 2 pylon's that the tank was
attached to.
The only other paint change to the
model was the propeller.
The 2 models look nice together,
but remember this: There were never two real Corsairs with JOE-90
on one and JOE-99 on the other one.
This is called Happy Modeling.
Rodney
Note from son of Pilot of
Joe-99 (on May 30 2014)
My father flew the # 99 Joe
Corsair in 1947, coming in 7th place, only to be beat out by 6 P-51's. My
father's first name is not Frank, but goes by Gene Whitton, or Col.
F.E.Whitton. He is still alive & turned 93 last Sunday. After returning
from Korea in late 51, Lockheed Burbank hired him as a test pilot, where he
remained until age 60. He also spent 30 years in the Marine Corps as a fighter
pilot, flying F-4U's in both the Marshalls in WWll & again in Korea. Just
setting the record straight.
Regards Al Whitton
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