built 1/48 F4U-1A Corsair VF-17 Jolly Rogers Jim Streig

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built 1/48 F4U-1A Corsair VF-17 Jolly Rogers Jim Streig Search Hi. You are bidding on Tamiya's excellent F4U-1A Corsair in 1/48th scale. I have built this one and painted it to represent Lt. (jg) Jim Streig of Cdr. Tom Blackburn's VF-17 Jolly Rogers. Lt. Streig ended the war with 5 1/2 kills to his credit, making him one of VF-17's aces. VF-17 was the first US NAVY squadron to be equipped with the Corsair, w the bulk of the units were Marines. They "qualified" the Corsair for aircraft carrier duty, though the Navy rejected the airplane because of some dangerous tendencies. Before this was official, VF-17 were with orders aboard USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) to be the first Corsair unit to fly combat from a carrier. Enoroute to the Pacific, their orders were changed, as the Corsair was rejected for carrier duty. The reason was given later, that the supply system was not ready for the logistics of supporting a Corsair, since the spare parts available were for Hellcats in the Navy supply system, so all carrier aircraft were to be the Grumman fighter. It is difficult enough to support parts for Dauntless, Avenger, and Hellcat aboard one carrier...so two entirely different types of fighters were deemed too much to maintain a high state of combat readiness. The Corsair's rejection was also in part for the high-bounce of the landing gear design, as well as a horrible left-wing stall tendency. VF-17 were actually the fellas who redesigned the landing gear (in the field) as well as added wooden wedges to the right wing, as a stall strip for the left wing stall problem. These field repairs were re-engineered at the Vought plant, and all subsequent models incorporated these changes. VF-17 flew from Odonga air field, in the New Georgia group as a land-based unit. Jim Streig attained ace status by shooting down 5 1/2 Japanese aircraft. It is interesting to me that the "half" kill flag on his airplane comes after the 4th full kill, and before the 5th full kill flags. This is how he had it marked on his airplane, so I have done the same on this model. You will note that the fuselage behind the engine cowling is a bit darker than the rest of the airplane. Photos would indicate that Jim Streig's #3 airplane had some consistent oil leakage behind the cowling. This oil residue would have "brought back to life" the faded blue paint. I have tried to simulate this on your model. Directly behind the cowl flaps on the Corsair is a stainless steel rounded panel. These had a tendency to shed the paint from heat of the exhaust ring just forward. Lt. Streig was the third plane of Tom Blackburn's 8-plane division. Blackburn assigned a color to each of the 8-plane divisions....his being Red. He ordered the propeller hub, boss, and a few inches of each prop to be painted in the color assigned. Jim Streig's plane would have had Red. Later, these same aircraft would have newer "broad blade" propellers installed (same as the F4U-1D propeller)...and the integrity of the color assignments were compromised. These original "paddle blade" props were 13 feet, 4 inches, w the newer "broad blade" props were 13 feet, 1 inch in diameter. The later prop had better cooling for the frontal area of the radial engine, since engine overheating was a issue in the pacific. The Tamiya kit's F4U-1A sliding hood frames are incorrect for the -1A, so I have modified these structure supports to give it that "right" look. The inboard right flap has the step-hole filled, since F4U-1A aircraft did not have this feature. These VF-17 aircraft also had both aerial masts removed, presumably due to different radio equipment required for aircraft carrier duty. I have left these masts off. I have added ignition wiring details to the engine, as you can see from the photo. Cockpit is detailed, with a painted pilot which can be removed if you like, so as to see the seat belts and other cockpit details. The sliding canopy is also not glued in place allowing open or closed positioning. I have ... read more

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