Racing Corsairs "57-2" & "74"

by Rodney Williams

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During the time I was building the Crashed F2G, a guy by the name of  Tom who used to own "Aviation Usk" contacted me about the specks on the F2G.  As a result, I got a free 1/72 scale kit from Tom.  He had decals in the kit for several racers, plus a couple Navy versions.  I was off and running on this kit.   

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With all the modifications completed. the model was ready for the decals.    I put on the flashy red and white colors, as I really missed my red and white No. 57 racer that I sold over a decade ago.

 
I got the F2G bug again, so I bought a few more kits.  In between building other models for clients, I pumped out No. 74.  I had to have Dave Newman make the decals for #74.  Dave's decals are so good that I doubled up the decals on #74, as the dark blue paint color was showing a bit through the  white.
 
Cook Cleland owned both of these F2G's.  His side-kick "Dick Becker" flew #74 in the races, while one of his employees by the name of Ben McKillen flew #57.  Number 57 was only in the 1949 Cleveland, Ohio National Air Races.
 
Yes indeed, you can see both of these models on this ARC web site:  ( www.arcair.com )  just go to the GALLERY, and open it, then click on prop, then scroll down to F2G CORSAIR.  Steve Bamford posted these four stories several years ago for me.
Rodney

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Photos and text © by Rodney Williams