Three Corsairs off the plates

October 1, 2026 · feature

The Corsair has always flown in one coat of dark sea blue. The book of profile plates on the desk has three more: a famous ace's fighter covered in kill flags, and two night fighters carrying radar out on the wing. Now all three fly over the Brick Sea, and two of them are yours today.

Three Corsairs in a loose stack off the right side: the top one dark sea blue with a big white 29, a grid of red-and-white kill flags and a small black skull-and-crossbones flag on the cowl; the middle one weathered grey with a black 201 and a white radar dome under its wingtip; the bottom one glossy dark blue, banked to show white NA letters and a radar pod under its wing, with NA on the tail, NAVY down the fuselage and 65 on the cowl — Kepford's 29 up front, Vaughan's night fighter behind, and Cawley's NA 65 below, banked to show the radar pod.

Two night fighters, free

Pick the Corsair, press 🎨 PAINT, and two new swatches are waiting. Neither needs a single kill.

Vaughan's Night Fighter is the F4U-2 that Major Everette Vaughan flew with the Marines' night fighters of VMF(N)-532, off Roi Island in the Marshalls in early 1944. It's a weathered grey-blue all over, with a black 201 painted behind the cockpit. Out on the right wingtip sits a white radar dome, the set that let a lone pilot find bombers in the dark. The propeller tips are yellow, as every fleet Corsair's were.

Cawley's NA 65 is a postwar F4U-5NL, one of the last night-fighting Corsairs. She's glossy sea blue from spinner to rudder, with big white letters everywhere. NA fills the fin above a small 65, NAVY runs down the rear fuselage, and a big 65 sits on the cowl. Roll her over and there's NA under the right wing, next to a long radar pod with a white nose.

Kepford's Jolly Roger: 16 air kills

The plate everyone turns to first is Ira Kepford's. He flew with VF-17, the Jolly Rogers, out of Bougainville in early 1944, and finished the war as the squadron's top ace. Earn 16 air kills, his own tally, and his No. 29 is yours.

She wears the Navy's three-tone scheme of the time: dark sea blue on top, a lighter blue on the fin, and white underneath. A big white 29 sits just behind the cockpit. Ahead of it, under the windscreen, are sixteen kill flags in four neat rows. A white line steps along the side of the nose, and the squadron's skull and crossbones flies on the cowl.

Where to find them

All three only paint the Corsair, so they only show up in the paint row when a Corsair is your pick, and that includes the cannon-armed F4U-1C. Climb into something else and that aircraft flies its own factory paint. Your Corsair will be waiting in whatever you last picked.

There's one more change for Corsair pilots. The other paint schemes, like Midnight Reaper, never quite took on the Corsair's sea blue. They do now, and they repaint the whole airframe.