Vought F4U-4B Corsair by Academy

1/48 scale
Kit No. 12353
Retail: $26.50
Decals: Four versions – two U.S. Navy aircraft for VF-32 aboard U.S.S. Leyte, 1950; and two Marine aircraft of VMA-312 aboard U.S.S. Bataan, 1951 and 1952, respectively
Comments: Engraved panel lines, two-piece canopy, armament includes two 1000 lb. bombs and eight 3.75-inch rockets

History

Chance Vought designed the F4U Corsair around the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 engine in a quest to build a fighter plane of unparalleled power and performance. The size of the engine necessitated a long nose and the aircraft featured inverted gull wings and tall landing gear in order to accommodate its oversized propeller. The result was an airplane that could exceed 400 mph. But there were downsides to the design: The long nose required a cockpit that was placed far back in the fuselage, which resulted in poor visibility during landing approaches. The plane also exhibited adverse stall characteristics at slow approach speeds, and a tendency to bounce on landing. These factors delayed introduction to carrier service, leaving it to Marine land-based squadrons to introduce the aircraft into combat in February 1943.

The Vought F4U-4B Corsair was a late World War II refinement of previous versions of the Corsair successfully operated by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. The Navy initially rejected the Corsair for carrier service and shunted it off to the Marines due to its unfortunate tendency to bounce wildly upon landing on carrier decks because of its landing gear shock struts, which were too stiff in early versions (but with modifications to the shock struts and improved training, the Corsair was eventually made seaworthy). After a litany of other improvements, including locating all armament in the wings and moving the main fuel tank from the wing center section to the fuselage just forward of the cockpit, the Corsair was declared combat ready. The first Corsair unit to see action in the Pacific was VMF-124, which received a dozen aircraft at its forward base, Henderson Field on Guadalcanal Island, on February 12, 1943.

The first F4U-4B took its maiden flight in September 1944, and reached front-line squadrons in June 1945. While initially designed as a limited modification of the F4U-1, it was a substantially better airplane than previous versions of the Corsair. The F4U-4B featured a more powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800-18W double row radial engine of 2,380 hp and a four-bladed propeller, providing a much improved climb rate of about 4,360 ft/min and higher top speed of 446 mph.

The radiator intake was moved to the bottom of the engine cowling, the aperture giving the B’s cowling its distinctive “chin.” The B also featured a redesigned cockpit including an improved, flat windscreen to remove the optical distortion of earlier versions, and the final machines in the B series (accounts vary between 140 to 287 aircraft) replaced the six .50 caliber machine guns of previous versions with four 20mm cannon. Both machine gun and cannon-armed versions could carry eight 5-inch rockets on under wing mounts, and two 1000 lb. bombs or 11.75 inch “Tiny Tim” rockets on pylons mounted beneath the wing roots.  A total of 2,357 F4U-4’s of all variants were built.

Korea

The F4U-4B only saw service in the last three months of World War II in the Pacific, but it remained in service with the post-war Navy and would come into its own during the Korean War. In the first ten months of the Korean conflict, F4U’s accounted for 82% of all close support missions flown by the Navy and Marines, attacking North Korean front-line positions, troop concentrations as well as supply columns.

The U.S. was fortunate in that upon the onset of the Korean conflict, it still had one of its best close-support aircraft of WWII readily available. As of 1950 the Corsair, the Navy’s first dedicated fighter-bomber, was still in front-line service with both the Navy and Marines, despite the arrival of new jet aircraft. Even before U.S. troops were committed to the Korean peninsula, eight F4U-4B’s of VMF-214 were launched from the U.S.S. Sicily to make rocket and bomb strikes against Jinju, a city in one of the southernmost provinces of South Korea, and the village of Sinban-ri, on August 2, 1950.

F4U-4 Corsairs flew hundreds of sorties against ground targets, and F4U-5N’s were sent up against night raiders that the North Koreans sent south after dark, chiefly Po-2 and Yak-18 light bombers, but also MiG-15’s. During one such mission, on the evening of September 10, 1952, Marine Captain Jesse G. Folmar of VMA-312 shot down a MiG-15 while piloting an F4U-5N nightfighter. Although he was soon shot down himself by a surviving MiG, he survived and was later awarded the Silver Star and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his action that night.

The Kit

Academy released its first kit of the F4U-4B in 1993. This kit, released in 2024 in the wake of the 2022 film, “Devotion,” contains new parts and represents a modification of the 1993 release, with new decals. “Devotion” chronicles the struggles of Jesse L. Brown, the U.S. Navy’s first African-American aviator, who was killed in action December 4, 1950 during the Battle of Jangjin (Chosin) Reservoir. Academy has provided VF-32 markings for Ensign Brown’s aircraft, as well as for that of his wingman, Lieutenant JG Tom Hudner. VF-32 at the time was based on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Leyte.

 

During the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, Brown and his squadron were dispatched to provide close air support for the American X Corps against the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army’s 9th Army. The pilots of the Leyte were flying dozens of missions every day. While flying one such mission supporting Marines engaged in a life-or-death fighting retreat from Chosin Reservoir, Brown’s Corsair was hit by ground fire and he was forced to crash land on a remote snowbound mountaintop in North Korea, just north of the Reservoir.

Hudner circled the crash site and upon realizing that Brown was trapped in his plane, deliberately crash landed his own aircraft in an effort to reach Brown and free him from his downed Corsair. It was bitterly cold — temperatures in the Chosin Reservior area plunged to minus 35 degrees Fahrenheit — and their position was so deep inside North Korea that they were closer to the Chinese border than they were to the 38th Parallel. Hudner was unable to free Brown, even after a Navy rescue helicopter arrived and a crewman assisted Hudner with an ax. Brown soon died of exposure and his injuries. Hudner, who had risked his own life to save his squadron mate, would later be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his efforts.

Academy’s F4U-4B is injection molded in grey plastic and consists of 91 parts, including two clear parts for the canopy and windshield. The kit has engraved panel lines throughout. The cockpit is fairly well detailed with a floor integrally molded with instrument side panels featuring raised relief and rudder pedals. This is accompanied by a main instrument panel, also with raised details, control yoke, and bucket seat with a separate cushion for the seat back.

Although the instructions reference the gun port openings in the leading edge of the wings for the earlier, .50 caliber machine gun-armed versions of the F4U-4, the kit itself does not have these apertures and instead includes four small parts representing the 20mm gun barrels. There is an engine face featuring the front half of the pistons along with a separate part for the crankcase, magnetos and piston rods.

 

The landing gear is well-detailed with diamond-tread tires that will need some light sanding due to left-over injection pin marks, but these parts are otherwise crisply molded. The kit features boxed in wheel wells with crisp ribbed internal detail, and landing gear doors with raised relief. The kit armament includes two 1,000 lb. bombs to be mounted on hard points beneath the wing roots, and eight 3.75-inch rockets, four each on the outboard sections of the under surface of each wing. Finally, the canopy features recessed rivet detail.

 

Markings

The kit includes markings for four versions of the F4U-4. The first is for the aircraft of Ensign Jesse L. Brown of VF-32 (U.S.S. Leyte), White 211, who was killed in action following a close air support mission supporting Marines fighting their way south from Chosin Reservoir on December 4, 1950. The second version is for the aircraft (White 205) of his wingman, Lieutenant JG Thomas Hudner, who was subsequently awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his efforts to save Ensign Brown following the latter’s crash landing in enemy-held territory deep inside North Korea. Both aircraft bear a white fin flash at the top of their vertical tails, with a large white “K” beneath it.

The third version is for a Marine aircraft, White 9, of VMA-312 aboard U.S.S. Bataan, circa 1951. The fourth version is for an aircraft of the same squadron, White 21. Both aircraft carry the distinctive black-and-white checkerboard marking of VMA-312 squadron on the cowling.

Conclusion

This kit is a fine example of the F4U-4B, and may be the best one available in 1/48 scale. It has historic significance as both a critical part of naval air support in the first half of the Korean War, and the aircraft of the U.S. Navy’s first African-American aviator. One note on the box art, though, which is slightly inaccurate; the kit is meant to depict an F4U-4B as flown by the Navy and Marines in Korea, but the plane on the box art is clearly an earlier version of the Corsair as it lacks the 20mm cannon and is armed instead with the .50 caliber machine gun armament of WWII. Even in light of this small defect, highly recommended.

 

References

• www.history.navy.mil
• www.migflug.com
• The Chance Vought F4U-1 Corsair: Profile Publications Number 47; Copyright 1965 Jay Frank Dial and Profile Publications Ltd., Leatherhead, Surrey, United Kingdom.
• The Chance Vought F4U-4 to F4U-7 Corsair: Profile Publications Number 150; Copyright 1967 Jay Frank Dial and Profile Publications Ltd., Leatherhead, Surrey, United Kingdom
• www.the littleaviationmuseum.au
• www.usmcuseum.com
• www.warexplorer.com