F9F-5P Recce Panther

[Sabre Freak]

Ya, I know, REAL original choice for the markings, but there doesn't seem to be many options, and it is a pretty cool scheme.

Here is the start of my first group build.

The kit was part of a package deal from John Bibay. Did I mention he is a great trader?

Edited July 23, 2008 by Sabre Freak

[Sabre Freak]

I've been working on this for a couple of days and I have an update:

First pass of cutting parts off the tree, some sink holes to fill (note the blue putty)

Had some warpage in the fuselage to fix. Little dip in some post boiling water, start at the middle of the fuse rather than the nose, looks like the fit will be a lot better.

Busy with the airbrush. Some parts Flat Black, some Flat Black + Flat White, some interior green, some a combination of all.

The walls of the part exhaust look a little thick, so I think I'm going to replace it with some brass rod

One thing that's bothered me about the Monogram Panther is the speed brakes. On all the walk around photos it is pretty obvious they are thin, have holes and you can see the red painted parts of the back up structure. So, I'm going to try to sand them down, expose the holes and add some strip on the back side to try to replicate that. The "un touched" kit part is on the left, my thinned part is on the right. Next step would be to add the backup stiffeners. I got the idea from the 1/32 Fisher version.

Going to do some more work on the pit tonight, but I won't be able to post any progress for another week...

Enjoy.

Edited July 23, 2008 by Sabre Freak

[Julien (UK)]

Looking good. Looking forward to seeing more.

Julien

[Sabre Freak]

Finally an update! Between travel & stuff I've been in a bit of a slump. Don't know if I'll be able to finish by the end, but I'm going to give it a try.

First up, been working on the tail pipe:

An original kit part next to my modified version.

Close up of the mod

Side view

Another side view, just a little bit of the outer tube sticking out

[Sabre Freak]

I've also been busy with the "office".

First up is the IP & stick

IP is lightened flat black, kit decal, a lot of decal set, some dry brushing then some Furtura to simulate glass. Stick is just some interior green, flat & gloss black and some red for the trigger

Some shots of the pit"

Same as the IP, lightened flat black, kit decal, a lot of decal set, and some dry brushing.

Here is the seat:

Flat black for the sides, dry bushed with a lighter shade of black. Interior green for the bucket, dry brushed with silver. Some yellow & red for the knobs & handles. I carefully bent some wire, then drilled some really small holes, then glued into place to simulate the rope used for the ejection pull handles. They are described as a canvas color so I painted them Sand.

Thanks for looking!

[Jack-Swiss]

That's reaally a suberb job!!!!!

great great!

cant wait to see more..keep it up mate

Cheers

[Sabre Freak]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Well, looks like I'm not going to finish this one before the deadline, but I keep plugging away.

Got the inlets glued to the lower wing and some putty to hide the seams:

Some plastic card on the uppers to "pre fill" those seams before I glue the tops on and make it real tough to sand:

I think the combination of already gluing in the intakes and that plastic card on the uppers are going to cause me some fit problems down the way.

Last shots of the fuse before I sealed it up. I dry brushed some Gunship Grey to bring out the sidewall details after I took the picture.

I made some modifications so I can slide the tail pipe in after the fuse is sealed. I cute way the lower part of the fuse that is covered by the wind and used some card to create guides for the pins on the tail pipe.