old stuff

[rjccjr]

Hi All:

Here are a pair of old 1/72 Grumman F9F Panther kits dating back to the late 1970s. One is the old Hasegawa kit, first released in 1978. It cost about $1.98 back then. That's the one in Marine markings. The other is a very rare bird. It came in a plastic bag and cost about 98 cents. It's an Airmodel conversion kit #141 in Navy markings. It predates the Hasegawa kit by a couple of years. If memory serves correctly, it was picked up during IPMS Noreastcon III. Accuracy and detail were not one of Airmodel's strong points, but they offered a wide variety of unusual designs.

Photo 1r is a top view of both kits. The Hasegawa kit is on the left. The weakness of Airmodel kit design, on the right, is very evident. Photo 2r shows the undersides. The accuracy of the Hasegawa kit is very obvious. Photo 3r shows the underneath of the Airmodel kit. Over all it's a bit chubby and the air intake plates are way over sized. Photo 4r shows the bottom of the Hasegawa kit. The outline is very accurate for the time. The detail is finer and the intake plates are the correct size. Photo 5r is a side view of the Airmodel kit. All by itself it doesn't look all that bad. The nose was packed with modeling clay in which a bunch of BBs were embedded, so it sits on the nose wheel very well. Photo 6r is a side view of the Hasegawa kit. Notice the nose wheel off the surface. No weight. It was propped up by a piece of sprue, which bent over the years.

Both aircraft were painted with Floquil railroad colors matched to paint chips. When finished both were over sprayed with coat of clear gloss. Photo 7r shows the nose area of the Hasegawa model. Although the model is a little dusty the decals haven't budged since the model was built. The canopy is the correct shape and fits beautifully. Photo 8r is the front of the Airmodel kit. You can see that some of the markings are hand painted. The canopy is clearer that of the Hasegawa kit, and it sits quite well on the fuselage. The decals have held up well and there is no evidence of silvering.

At the dawn of the age of the plastic model. Just about everybody produced a kit of the Panther, in all sorts of scales and with varying degrees of accuracy. At the time, yours truly was in his early teens and built most of them. Anyone remember the old Comet kits, or the Monogram Speedee Builts?

There was something handsome about the F9F. It was like the Grumman Wildcat of the early jet age. Incidentally, while researching the plane, I discovered that Ted Williams flew Panthers during the Korean war, breaking a few along the way. Even more interesting was the fact that his wing man on many of those missions was a young pilot named John Glenn!

Regards, rjccjr