Fuerza Aérea Hondureña

Continuing with my "Latin American Air Forces" fever of this year, now I present my Honduran F4U-4 Corsair identified as FAH-615 which served in the short but bloody war between Honduras and El Salvador in July of 1969. I choose this one because it was the only Latin American Corsair that wore the checkered nose art so common on WWII airplanes. This particular aircraft, in hands of pilot Marco Tulio Rivera, was the responsible of the damage and forced landing of a Salvadoran C-47 in July 15, but achieved no air-to-air kills like the famous Fernando Soto's FAH-609, so I decided to remember this shadowed protagonist of the so called "100 Hour War" or "Soccer War" fought forty years ago.

THE KIT

It is the Italeri F4U-4B, which is really good. It shows fine engraved panel lines, accurate shape and nice interior details in cockpit and wheel bays. However, there are only some few minor flaws, such as the fit of the wing piece to the lower fuselage, which leaves a large seam line that needs more putty and sanding than expected. Ten HVAR rockets, two bombs and a single fuel drop tank are included. At last, I finally found an easy project that needed no more scratchbuilding…

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CONSTRUCTION

As the FAH-615 was a F4U-4 and not a 4B, I had to make few modifications since the kit included both 4 and 4B cowlings. The most important adjustment done was the replacement of the 20mm guns with six holes for 50cal machine guns. I drilled and fill them with small plastic rods to act as machine gun muzzles.  

There was no detailed gun sight and it was build from a reference picture. Nothing else was done apart of these few details plus the additional blade dorsal antenna present in these post-war warriors. 

PAINTING

I think this was the major challenge for this project, because the FAH had their planes under heavy exposure to the humid and sunny environment of the tropics. In addition, there is some controversy about the right color schemes of FAH airplanes during the short but active 1969 air war campaign.  

At this point, I realized that the color guide of Aztec showed some panels in a lighter blue color. Also, many FAH Corsair models I have found in internet galleries show excessively faded panels. However, pictures of the planes in flight show them darker, so I preferred to use pictures of the real aircraft as my final reference. In accordance to historical sources, I concluded that the right color to use was Dark Sea Blue overall. For sunshade effect on panels I lightened the base color with Bright Blue, which gave the exact faded tone I wanted in the center of the panels. For the first time I painted a model using only enamel paints, and I found them easier to handle as I initially thought. Darker panels in wings upper sections and anti-glare panels were painted with a coat of acryl Tamiya NATO Flat Black, which looked closer to the true color seen in pictures. These panels were also slightly faded with this same base color lightened with White.  

DECALS

They came from the Aztec Decals set "Latin Eagles IV: Mayan Gods" and were very easy to handle and fit perfectly in terms of size and shape. The only issue is that you must consider to apply a coat of flat white on rudder and wingtips in order to prevent some transparency of the dark color below the white portions of the decals. 

WEATHERING

It was mostly done during the painting stage and it was a chance to prove my ability to do complex post-shading effects with my single action airbrush. Believe me, the secret for this is how much you dilute the paint.  

Some airbrush passes of acryl Gray and Black pastel were enough to replicate exhaust stains and few touches of silver dry-brush on sections of frequent use by maintenance crews. Panel lines were highlighted with a light oil wash of gray to show some dirt.  

CONCLUSION

I wanted to have a FAH Corsair in my collection from long time and finally it was done with almost no suffering or excessive time in the workbench. I tried to do my best and I feel very satisfied with the outcome. I hope you think the same…  

REFERENCES

• "Latin American Air Wars 1912-1969", Dan Hagedorn. Hikoki Publications. 

• "F4U Corsair in Action", Squadron/Signal Publications 

• Articles  from the Air Combat Information Group website

Thank you all and regards from Monterrey, México.

Fernando I. Moreno Villa

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