Request for info: F4U-1 "Spirit of 76"

[Greebo]

I'm in the final stages of my current skin project, a Fleet Air Arm Corsair Mk I. Just need to weather it some more. I'd like to create another skin on the same F4U-1 model and I thought I'd go for a USMC variant. However, some of the more interesting nose art on  USMC Corsairs tends to be on the upper cowling, where it gets overlapped by the panel reserved for the "Jolly Roger" insignia on the AH model. This makes it awkward to do properly.

The lowermost aircraft in the picture below ought to work OK though. It is "Spirit of 76", the mount of Major Robert G Owens, CO of VMF 215 and a 7 kill ace. This also has the red bordered insignia, which I prefer.



Trouble is I can't find any photos or 3 views of this aircraft anywhere on the web or in the books I own. Does anyone here have any other shots of this particular plane? Either a web address or the name of a book would be fine. A picture posted in here would be great. Thanks in advance.

[Guppy35]

Found a photo of the plane in the Osprey Series "Corsair Aces of World War 2"

The profile you found is definately suspect, looking at the photos.  Definately not a hard break on the camo line.  It looks like it fades like the other F4Us of that time

Dan/Slack

[Greebo]

Many thanks Guppy, that is just what I was looking for. Its hard to tell for sure, but it looks like they painted dark blue over the upper rear fuselage and over the upper red band of the insignia.