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I've built a few Hasegawa Panthers in the past 2 years and the last came out with

a less than stellar finish. The Future didn't dry right and I never got the nice smooth

finish I wanted so I have decided to strip it and totally rebuild it as a different scheme.

I have some Blackbird decals left with an all yellow F9F-2KD bird that looks interesting.

I tried stripping it in Simple Green for 24 hours, nada. I then was told to soak a paper

or regular towel in Mr Color Leveling Thinner and place that over the plane. I had some

Mr Color Thinner 110 so I tried that, voila it worked like a charm! Or at least better than

Simple Green. I have started cleaning up parts and re gluing and painting some small parts.

Luckily I only lost the pitot tube and control stick, easy to scratch them up. I found a 1/72 plan

in my Detail and Scale book tat shows the wing tip shape without the tip tanks so I made a template.

I cut multiple pieces slightly oversize and stacked them to get the rough thickness of the wing.

So here I am ready to sand and fill till it looks good enough. Does anyone know if there are any other

pictures of this "canary" Panther I can use for reference? Thanks---John

SoE2HqF.jpg

tiEPzGP.jpg

xHSNZCG.jpg

yGP6XOl.jpg

 

 

 

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Question for the U.S.Navy guys out there. I have been going batty trying to figure

out what the letters on this plane's fuselage mean. I came upon a patch

on E Bay, NAEL is Naval Air Engineering Laboratory, in Philadelphia. The

(SI) is Shipboard Installations. In layman's terms what does this mean?

Why would a drone controller be part of Shipboard Installations? I found

my answer but am even more confused.---John

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11 hours ago, john53 said:

Question for the U.S.Navy guys out there. I have been going batty trying to figure

out what the letters on this plane's fuselage mean. I came upon a patch

on E Bay, NAEL is Naval Air Engineering Laboratory, in Philadelphia. The

(SI) is Shipboard Installations. In layman's terms what does this mean?

Why would a drone controller be part of Shipboard Installations? I found

my answer but am even more confused.---John

Shipboard installations here refer to the catapult and arresting gear (including the barriers/barricades) systems although there were other odds and ends. This sort of testing is where obsolescent or otherwise unwanted Navy airplanes like this F9F went to be useful before being scrapped. In this case, it was used to test the new nose-tow catapult system introduced with the E-2 and the A-6. A stricken AJ Savage was also involved in the test program.

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Thank you again Tommy. I went to the NAEL site and found some

old documents all about corrosion and corrosion resistance and

stress. A lot of mumbo jumbo about zinc chromate paint, sounds

like the military version of the "watching the paint dry" lab at most

paint manufacturers. BTW are there any other images I can use for

my build? I am guessing the plane was piloted for these tests?

I put a pilot figure in anyways. Thanks again---John

Edited by john53
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I have the stabs added, pilot installed and canopy on. I plan to

do a primer coat of either white or very light gray then the Tamiya

Camel yellow. I just need a bit of sanding on the nose and bottom

fuselage to wing join area.---John

69byzRm.jpg

 

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Thanks for the EXCELLENT information. My project is now on hold

until I figure out how to scratch a new under nose radar lump and I

guess I am seeing pylons and rocket stubs under the wings? Most interesting.---John

OOOOppppps I think I need to remove the gun barrels also, and remove the faired

wing tips?

 

Edited by john53
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I think I found a solution. I am not wanting to  cut off my hard work on the

faired wingtips. I found a picture from Tommy's site showing a Blue Angels

F9F-2 with no tip tanks. I also found a picture in my Detail and Scale book

of 2 early F9F-2s with no tip tanks and there is always the XF9F-2. Did the Blues

fly the Panther without the tip tanks at all? Must have at least to ferry it.---John

ZBpBUqd.jpg

Edited by john53
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2 hours ago, john53 said:

I think I found a solution. I am not wanting to  cut off my hard work on the

faired wingtips. I found a picture from Tommy's site showing a Blue Angels

F9F-2 with no tip tanks. I also found a picture in my Detail and Scale book

of 2 early F9F-2s with no tip tanks and there is always the XF9F-2. Did the Blues

fly the Panther without the tip tanks at all? Must have at least to ferry it.---John

ZBpBUqd.jpg

The tanks were removable and replaced with wingtip fairings but not jettisonable (the fuel in them could be dumped - the motive force to do so was provided by the hole in the nose of the tank). The Blues originally intended to fly displays without the tanks and only install them to fly longer distances between venues. The time required to remove/replace them and lack of notable performance improvement without them quickly disabused the team leader of that concept. Plus at some point it was realized that you could put colored water in the tanks for a cool visual effect.

Edited by Tailspin Turtle
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Thanks again Tommy. I am going with an early F9F-2 with no wing tip tanks .....yet. Either Bu 122563,

122567 or I can go with the second F9F-3 Bu 122561. I have pictures of these and all that's needed

is the stars and bars and a few stencils. I should have known better than to trust a decal maker, especially

when yesterday I told another modeler his decal sheet was incorrect, told him NOT to trust decal makers,

DUH! Maybe I should practice what I preach!---John

Edited by john53
grammar
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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry, actually me too until Tommy set me straight and showed the pictures of the

real "yellow bird" with no wing tips faired, just wing tip tanks removed and the structre

of the wing visible, I spent all that time fairing the wing tips in only to find the decal

company didn't do their homework and I followed suit! My problem for making a "rookie"

problem and trusting a decal maker, I should have known better.---John

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