Adding the Armament and Accessories
What’s a Corsair without some armament? With relatively few reference photos to go by and none of the clear enough to see what a typical load out would be, I decided to use my judgment. I painted and installed the 5” HVARs, adding a few little hand painted placards to the nose and rocket tube of each of them. The inner most rockets are just a little long with the flaps dropped so the fin section of each of those was trimmed ever so slightly to allow for a good fit.
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I debated going with bombs vs. fuel tanks or even a combination of the two for the inner racks. In the end, I decided a couple of tanks would give the plane a more unique look, especially if I painted them in overall Sea Blue.
My references indicated that FAS 215, and other camo Corsairs, where originally delivered from the US in Overall Glossy Sea Blue or Grey. Assuming that it was likely the former and that the fuel tank s would have also been delivered in Sea Blue, I thought it a safe bet to assume that the fuel tanks would have retained their blue color. Regardless if this is totally accurate or not, I liked the extra punch of color that they provided (as if the camo scheme needed any extra punch).
With the armament and fuel tanks installed, all that remained were the little bits to close this build out.
I painted and installed the windscreen and canopy as well as the dorsal aerial. I would have liked to have added some rigging for the radio gear but according to my references, none was used on these particular Corsairs. I made a new pitot tube out of stainless tube and wire and painted the last little odds and ends including the wing tip lights.