The Monogram F9F-5 Panther is a great kit that was released in 1990, rich in detail and fairly accurate. In my opinion, it is long overdue for re-release. Because this kit is somewhat hard to find, and can be expensive if you do find it, I was a bit apprehensive of building it for fear that I may goof it up. I had wanted to do a Blue Angel scheme panther for a long time to add to my Blue Angel collection (the Panther was the last jet-powered Blue Angel that I needed to build to complete my Blue Angels). However, I equally wanted to build a "fleet" version of the Panther. After much deliberation, my conflict came to an end when I found 2 Panther kits in a German model store for 20 DM ($10!!!) each. Needless to say, I snatched them both up and came home to begin work on one of them. I decided my first Panther kit would be the Blue Angel scheme. The decal sheet for the Blue Angel Panther that I used was made by Yellowhammer. The decal sheet comes with markings for any of the Panthers used by the Blue Angels in 1953. The decal sheet also has Ted Williams’ Panther markings. These decals were very user-friendly and looked excellent on the finished model. 

Construction started in the cockpit. Then, the nose gear well and nose gear were added. I then added the tailpipe to the inside of the fuselage and joined the fuselage halves. Next, I attached the intakes to the bottom wing section. I joined the top and bottom wing halves and mated the wing assembly to the fuselage. You may need some finesse with this, as with my kit, the wing halves did not mate up snugly to the fuselage.

I used plasticard and CA to fill the gaps, sanded it smooth, and the gaps disappeared with no major difficulty. I added the landing gear and gear doors and I opted to position the air brakes in the open position. This particular version of the Panther was modeled after a Panther used by the Blue Angels in 1953. The only modifications to the Monogram kit to make it an accurate Blue Angel from the ’53 season were: the antenna on the left nose gear door (kit part # 72) is omitted, the wing fences on the kit needed to be removed, and the machine gun openings in the nose were filled in. 

Once satisfied that all the blemishes were corrected, I painted the model with a color mixed up with a combination of 3 parts Testors Insignia Blue FS15044 and one part Testors Insignia White FS17875, per the decal manufacturer’s note. After painting, I compared the paint color to all of the pictures that I could find in reference books and on the internet, and found it to be accurate, although almost every different picture I have seen of every Blue Angel in history appears to be a different shade of blue!!! 

After the paint had dried, I added the Natural Metal leading edges, wing root and then the wing tank tips which were painted with Testors Non-Buffing Aluminum. I did the canopy frame in Bare Metal Foil. After a couple of days of thorough drying, I added a coat of Future. Once dry, I added the decals. Being consistent with most of the other Blue Angel collection that I have built, I modeled the #5 lead solo aircraft. One more coat of Future, and I pronounced the model complete.

The airplane that this model depicts was flown by Lt. Harding "Mac" C. MacKnight. MacKnight flew with the Blue Angels in the 1948-49 and 1952-53 seasons.

http://www.mozeyoninn.com/BAWebsite/Aircraft/Master/Master.html

Review kit courtesy of me and my wallet!

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