We are all
quite aware of the quality of Tamiya kits as they have well been written about
in many contributing articles. I was interested in building Ira
Kepford’s #29 because of an old set of Microscale decals (48-0038) I had since
about 1987.
Lt(jg) Ira
Kepford was a member of VF-17 and the highest scoring Navy Corsair Ace of the
war. After his first corsair was written off in a crash landing, this
second white #29, depicted here, shows his final kill tally of 16
confirmed, with 1 probable and 1 damaged.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Used
Tamiya spray synthetic AS-19 Intermediate Blue, AS-8 Navy Blue and Testors Flat
White spray paint. The old decals went on just fine with a little extra
soaking and coaxing with Micro Sol. My model was finished with Testors
“gloss” spray. I am not one to weather my models so I’m sure this
“brand new” look is a bit inaccurate.
You
may read more about VF-17 and the chapter on Navy Corsair’s in “Osprey
Aircraft of the Aces #8” publication. Note a picture of this Corsair shows a
whip antenna replacing the original mast.
Mark
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