As I was finishing Air Force Undergraduate Flying Training, the F-4 Phantom was still being given out as an assignment to fledgling pilots. In this case, however, I’m talking about the F-4U Corsair.
The F-4U is one of the classic war birds of World War II flown mainly by Marine pilots in the Pacific Theatre. Most probably remember the TV show Black Sheep Squadron where Pappy Boyington led a band of pilots flying the Corsair.Dynam released its version of the Corsair recently as one of their warbird series of models with about 1200 millimeter wingspans. Out of the box, the Corsair sports a solid Navy Blue paint scheme from the Korean War time frame. The ARF version comes with all the servos installed and a 3720 brushless motor and speed control. The recommended battery is a 2200 mAh, 4 cell lipo.As with many of Dynam’s warbird series models, the Corsair doesn’t have a lot of pieces to deal with. The fuselage, wing halves, horizontal and vertical stabilizers and cockpit are just about all there is. The tail feathers didn’t have the control horns for the servos mounted and the pilot and canopy needed to be glued in place.A potential week point for the Corsair was that the wings were just glued together – no spar. This was likely due to the gull wing shape of the Corsairs wings. I took a few extra minutes to add some carbon fiber strips across the wing joint seam to add some strength.
I also decided to change the paint scheme before assembling the model. I was afraid a solid blue aircraft might be hard to see and keep orientation on at the back end of my flying area. I decided to do the three-color scheme found on many WW II-era Corsairs. This scheme uses the dark Navy Blue for the upper wings and fuselage with a band of lighter blue amidships and on the bottom wings and on the vertical stabilizer. I found a bottle of acrylic craft paint called Coastal Blue to be perfect. I also used a craft paint called Whitewash to cover the bottom of the fuselage and the center wing between the landing gear. That color scheme has proven much easier to see. Here are some of the key measures for the Corsair:
| Wingspan |
50 inches |
| Length |
45.8 inches |
| Flying Weight |
49.5 ounces |
| Battery |
2200mAh 14.8v Lipo
|
| Motor |
3720 500kV
|
| ESC |
40 Amp
|
All in all the Corsair was a fun build that produced great looking model. I completed a series of videos to cover the build in detail. They are found below.
Part 1, Unpacking and initial assembly
Part 2, Wing and Empennage Assembly
Part 3, Final Assembly and Comments
