Description
PYN-up Decals F4U Babes-4-U Part 1. F4U-1, “Marine’s Dream,” Modex 576, VMF-222, BuNo 02576, 1st Lt. Edwin Olander, Munda, October, 1943. Although not widely recognized, clear photos of “Marine’s Dream” show the nose art was shaded and not “flat!” Olander was part of VMF-222, although this plane has been often incorrectly identified in print as being assigned to VMF-214. This is confirmed by information cards for the official Marine Corps photos (see below). This aircraft flipped over during an emergency landing at the unfinished Torokina airstrip on Bougainville on 13 December 1944. That the plane has been so well recorded in photos is due to the fact that the Marine Corps took a series of photos of its recovery that are now in the US National Archives collection. The first in this series shows the plane on its back in a large mud puddle. Subsequent photos in the series show the large truck-mounted crane pulling the aircraft back right side up. It’s unrecorded whether this plane ever flew again, but if so would have required a new fin and rudder and left outer wing, both of which were well bent in the flip over. One source notes this plane was scrapped in February 1944. This plane was painted in the early two-tone scheme of M-485 Blue Gray (non-specular) over M-495 Light Gray (non-specular). However, the scheme was extremely weathered, with a very large amount of overspraying and touch-up with fresh colors. Given the time period this plane was in combat service, it is highly likely that stocks of the Blue Gray paint were exhausted and at least some of the touch-up was in ANA 607 Non-Specular Sea Blue and/or ANA 608 Intermediate Blue. Touch-up was especially heavy on the upper inboard wings, which were almost completely covered with darker, fresher paint than the original faded camouflage. The original modex number on the fuselage was painted out with darker paint. It’s possible that ANA 608 Intermediate Blue was used, given the time period the aircraft was in service. In addition, extremely heavy, light colored exhaust staining ran from the engine exhausts back over the sides of the fuselage to well aft of the wing trailing edge. This was one beat-up bird, even before the accident! The national insignia, at the time of the landing accident, were the original large star-only cocarde with white horizontal bars added. Both the fuselage and wing insignia can easily be seen in the crash photos. At this time there was no outline to the white bars. The upper right wing star has been overpainted, leaving only an upper left wing star cocarde with plain white bars added. Note that a F4U-1D warbird is currently flying in these markings. The warbird’s markings are considerably different than the photos show for the original aircraft, and for some reason the team flying the warbird claim it was Marine ace Ken Walsh’s Corsair. While it is possible that Walsh may have flown this aircraft, it was certainly not his “regular” aircraft, which carried his Japanese flag kill markings. The currently-flying warbird has red-bordered insignia, but no photographic evidence of this on the original has been found and it’s extremely unlikely. The second subject is F4U-1A featuring kneeling Texas cowgirl artwork based on Vargas. The Modex was 8, and it was assigned to VMF-422, BuNo 17965, 1st Lt. Stout, Engibi Island, May 18, 1944.
