SAM F4U Corsair Comprehensive Guide
Any questions, comments, or problems, please email
me.
This review was submitted by
Thomas Voigt.
Publisher: SAM Publications
Title: The Vought F4U Corsair- A comprehensive guide
Author: Rafe Morrissey and Joe Hegedus
After publishing various volumes on modern aircraft like the Phantom, the
Harrier or the Hunter, Modelers' Datafile’s latest volume covers a World War II
Classic again: The gull-winged Vought Corsair.
108 of the books’ 143 pages cover the development history of the various
versions or sub-types, from the prototype to the post-war AU-1 and F4U-7. After
a short excursion into combat history, each chapter describes the main
characteristics of a version and its main differences to the previous type, but
as many changes have been introduced during the production process, it is not
always possible to relate each change to a production batch.
At the end of each chapter we’ll find a short description into the camouflage &
markings used by the version during its service. This section covers the
interior colour too, giving the modeler sufficient information on the different
shades of zinc chromate, interior green etc.
Each chapter is supplemented with a lot of photos and detail-drawings, a very
good combination of contemporary pictures and photos of aircraft on display in
museums all around the world. The majority of them cover details of the
aircraft, so modelers get a lot of information for building and detailing his
Corsair.
After reading the book I become more and more fond of the idea to add the photos
and drawings to the versions chapter, instead of putting them together in
separate chapters, like in some of the former volumes of the series.
The colour profile section contains 7 pages with 28 Profiles, only two of them
in non-american markings (British), which is a bit disappointing, as air forces
of New Zealand, France, Argentina and others have used the Corsair too.
The “Kiwi Corsairs” are covered better with many fotos in the “In Foreign
Service” chapter, which concentrates on this country and the Fleet Air Arm,
including some nice colour photos of FAA Corsairs in the Extra Dark Sea
Grey/Dark Slate/Grey/Sky scheme. Argentinian Corsairs are mentioned briefly and
the French in the chapter on the F4U-7.
The chapter “Modelling The Corsair” is shorter than in some other volumes of the
series, less than 20 pages. At first, I missed the detailed in-box reviews and
building reports, but the pros and cons of most of the available kits and of
some of the older ones are well described in the text or compiled in a list,
illustrated with 24 photos of very good models.
Finally the scale drawings: Nicely done, but only the F4U-1a, F4U-1c and the
“clipped winged” FAA Corsirs are covered. Why the authors have not included at
last one of the later versions is still a mystery to me, especially as many of
the kits of these later versions have more flaws in shape, than the earlier
ones.
Nevertheless I would definitely recommend the book to modelers interested in
the Corsair. Aside from the missing drawings, the authors have very well
accomplished their intention to gather the huge amount of available information
on the development of the Corsair and compile them it into one single volume.
Review by Peter Willicks via Thomas Voigt for Prime
Portal
Copyright © 2011
|