This time is the American warplane right after World War II. The F9F Panther is a fighter developed by the Grumman Company in the United States. The F9F-2P was developed as a photo-reconnaissance aircraft. Why did I buy this? If I think about it now, I would have preferred a fighter plane.
Trumpeter kits sometimes contain precise film-printed meters on the cockpit panel. It is a bit troublesome in this case because it is inserted after painting each part. If it can be attached properly, it looks realistic enough. I think the detail is perfect.
Added seatbelt parts are sold separately. It’s probably a post-war aircraft, so it’s the same pattern as the WWII seatbelt. At least, I don’t think it’s like an F-15 one.
I painted small parts. Because the mold is thin, I don’t know much about it, so I use a dry brush lightly or paint the switch white. It’s easy, but it’s over the canopy, so I think this is enough.
This is my cat, Munchkin, named Chai. He always wants to go into a plastic model box. It doesn’t matter if there are parts, so I need to be careful not to damage them. I’ll remove all the parts like this or close the cover quickly.
Please move out of there! And he looked like this.
(2021/05/09)
As far as I see, it’s not a very modern aircraft. I’m worried if it will be completed properly.
It seems to be a rather weird way of attaching the main wing. As it is a carrier-based aircraft, it can fold the main wing. It’s more like raising it vertically rather than folding it.
The instruction doesn’t say how many grams of weight are needed. I think I’ll need a lot. The center of gravity is quite forward.
The rough assembly is complete. There are a lot of parts joints, so I wonder how clean it can be.
I found Taiwan pineapple at the supermarket, a topic of the China-Taiwan conflict. Of course, it is sweet and delicious. It’s a little expensive compared to pineapples in the Philippines and Indonesia. It was about 150 yen more expensive, 500 yen. But I’ve seen it sold at a high price of 3000 yen on the internet, so I think it’s good to buy it for a trial. As a modeler, Taiwan is an AFV club. I don’t want the belt type of the tank track, but I want them to put the connecting one in the kit from the beginning.
(2021/05/11)
It’s a reconnaissance plane. But in the manual, there is an entire assembly plan to equip with bombs. I think it’s better to be lightweight, like a spy plane. Many of the instructions on the trumpeter are unreliable; maybe I should do my research.
In the end, I thought the range was significant in reconnaissance missions, so I built it without bombs.
First, I painted the white FS17875 used in various places.
Masking before painting the second color Gloss Sea Blue is quite hard. The upper and lower surfaces of the fuselage rarely have the same color, but I think it will go smoothly from here.
(2021/05/13)
WWII U.S. Naval Aircraft Standard Color Set. I bought it a long time ago. Now they are sold separately in regular Mr. Color bottles. That would be better.
Gloss Sea Blue has a strong hiding power, so applying gradation coating as a primer might be challenging.
Since it is challenging to paint gradation only with the shading of the undercoating, I tried to make the panel a little brighter as a modeling performance.
It is gloss coating; decals are easy to attach. It’s simple because there aren’t many caution marks. Current jet? I don’t know if I can call it; the decal attachment process is too simple and unsatisfactory.
I removed the masking from the white part. It looks like it’s almost done.
It turned out like this when I did the inking in the panel lines though it was finished beautifully. I wanted to spread enamel paint over the small rivets; it looks like this. I will use light gray for the blue and dark gray for the white part. I had a decal with a clear coating before this process.
(2021/05/16)
The F9F-2 Panther is now complete. It was the first jet to participate in actual combat as a U.S. Navy fighter. In the Korean War, in November 1950, for the first time, a U.S. Navy jet shot down an enemy plane, the MiG-15. In other words, the Air Force had achieved results earlier?
The goal was to make a beautiful Gloss Sea Blue aircraft, but I don’t know. There are parts where the finish is not good. It was hard to file everything from the main wing, tail, and horizontal tail to the body to clean the joint. There might be some marks left. It takes time to use various kinds of sandpaper, so I worked while listening to my favorite music.
The Panther of this kit is a photo-reconnaissance plane, so there are some windows for taking photographs in the lower part of the nose.
I’m not sure, but reconnaissance missions during the war take pictures of where the enemy is. Hence, it’s a dangerous mission because it inevitably involves entering the enemy’s position.
The wing is not a sweptback wing but a straight line, so it’s an old design from right after WWII. Although its performance was inferior to that of the enemy jet fighter, it was covered by the pilot’s skill and shot down many of them. However, the primary mission seems to have been a ground attack.
It was a marking during the Korean War with the Fleet Composite Squadron 1 (VC-1) of the United States Navy in 1953 and the Babers Point Naval Air Station on Oahu, Hawaii. But I wonder if the front-line base during the Korean War was Hawaii. It seems that Barberspoint Air Base is now closed to other facilities.
The bottom of the fuselage is also tightly molded with panel lines and rivets. Therefore, I chose to leave gray paint on the mold for its appearance. I prefer to see the details from a distance.
What is the hook on the tip of the tip tank? Many F9Fs are not attached even though I attached them according to the instruction without knowing them well. When the wings are folded on the carrier deck, will they be hooked? But it doesn’t look strong.
The final clear coating was about 80% glossy. Even so, I can see the gloss when I shine the light.
At first, I had the impression that the airplane was shaped like a flying squirrel, which wasn’t more pleasant than I thought. I think the painting works well. The panel line and rivet marks were emphasized by washing, etc., and I felt it was a surprisingly beautiful streamlined airplane. If I have a chance next time, I would like to build a fighter-type F9F Panther.
(2021/05/18)
