After
building kits with complex camouflage schemes, it was time for something fast
and easy, straight out of the box. This is my first experience with a Trumpeter
kit and did not really know what to expect form this Chinese manufacturer. It
turned out to be great fun as this kit has excellent fit and parts needed only
minor clean up. I think the only down part would be the painting guide. The
insides of the wheel bays and doors, legs and airbrakes were mentioned as being
white but US NAVY colour codes for the that era state that these parts would be
the same colour as the undersides of the aircraft. I decided to deviate form the
painting guide and sprayed everything dark sea blue.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The
whole aircraft was finished first with Testors Metalizer aluminium prior
to applying the blue, followed by some chipping with an exacto #11 blade,
which gives a much better result than painting chips afterwards. After
applying a few coats of Tamiya gloss, I applied the decals which are very
thin, but somewhat translucent. Only minor weathering was done as I wanted
to depict a relatively new aircraft. I even removed most mission markings
to be in line with that! A final coat of 80% gloss and 20% flat
Revell airbrush color was mixed to create a just “off gloss” finish.
I
decided to go for folded wings, the way the aircraft would have looked when
parked on an aircraft carrier. Finally I armed my bird with 4 off 20mm cannons
in the nose, 2 off 500 pound bombs and 6 off HVAR rockets. For references I used
Squadron publications 1051 F9F Panther and Cougar in action.
Winfried van Rooij
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