1/32 Combat vacuform F9F-5 Panther- DONE 12/27/24

[ghodges]

Over the decades I've grown fond of building vac kits.... I guess that makes me a plastic masochist! But... it has allowed me to put models on the shelves that were otherwise unavailable in that scale. Since the 1/32 Fisher resin Panther is long out of production, I decided I'd tackle the old Combat vacuform kit so I could have a larger scale example of one of the most important Korean War era aircraft to go with my 1/32 F-80s and F-84G. This is what came in the box... just the airframe and canopy parts, without any landing gear. Those will have to be scratchbuilt.

I actually scratchbuilt built this cockpit, main panel, and ejection seat many years ago when I first bought the Combat kit, but for some reason safely boxed it away and didn't start the kit til now. At least having this done gives me a head start!

After getting all of the parts cut out and sanded down, I started by installing a floor for my cockpit and also building up the nose gear bay and the speed brake well. Note the lengths of sheet plastic along the fuselage seams that interlock when you put both halves together. This prevents the thin edges from slipping up over one another and also reinforces the seams.

Test fitting my cockpit showed that some side walls needed to be added in order to close off gaps on either side of the side consoles and to create interior side walls.

I made 2 wing spars with bulkheads and also installed a 3rd smaller sheet of plastic to serve as a locator tab for the rear chine of the wing. This also shows the circular bulkhead used to support the inner flame dampener for the engine tail pipe.

A rear view of the flame dampener assembly that the tail pipe will fit over. Don't take this as being accurate.... but it at least adds some detailing to an otherwise hollow pipe.

and this shows the brass tubing tail pipe that will be able to be painted and added at the end of the build since there's an assembly inside to attach it to.

Test fitting the wing spars and fuselage....frequent and repeated test fitting is a MUST when building vacs! You can also see the angled locator tab for the rear wing chine. The opening in the side leads to the inner main gear bay, which won't be seen since the inner gear doors will be left up.

With the wings assembled, the outer landing gear bay doors were cut out and the bays boxed in. Those lightening holes in the outer walls aren't just for detailing; they allowed me to grip them with tweezers to install them!

Very thin sheet plastic was bent to fit inside of the intake lips and superglued in place to create rudimentary intake ducting. Rather than trying to cut something to fit exactly, oversized pieces were folded and glued and the the excess trimmed away.

The slots for fitting the wing tip tanks were measured, marked, and cut open before assembling the tanks. This allowed me to work on the openings from the inside and outside to get the best fit.

The kit vacuform canopy was in one piece and slightly yellowed, so I made new vac bucks by cutting it apart, damming them off, and pouring plaster of Paris into them. 

This little item is the form for vacking an instrument panel coaming which will sit under the windscreen.

This is a loose test fit of one of the coamings I vacked.

This where things sit as of today.... The fuselage is assembled and the first primer coat is on. You can see a couple of vacked clear parts made using the new canopy molds, though I'll probably try for some better copies than these. The next step is to work on refining the surface detailing before attaching the wings and tail planes. The tail planes will be cut at the centerline and butt jointed to the vertical fin after a slot for a spar has been added.

More pics when more significant progress is made. In the meantime, questions, comments, and critiques are welcome!

 

Gil 

Edited December 27, 2024 by ghodges

[VMF211]

WOW! Nice job on the scratched pit! Looks like Combat got the shape pretty close to accurate. Looking real nice so far Gil but I'll admit......THAT is way outta my league.

[Ron Bell]

When you've built a vacuform model, you know you've been "modeling" and not just gluing parts together. I know this is going to turn out great....as usual. 

[ghodges]

Trying something new..... The problem with most vacs is the maker "tries" to give you some indented surface detailing, but it's way too soft and out of scale. Even if you simply rescribe, there can be some uneven surfaces left on either side of the scribe lines. The white lines you see on the model above are strip plastic rod and half-round which has been weld-cemented into the existing surface lines. Now I'll let it dry for 2-3 days and then sand off all of the excess. Hopefully that will leave lines that have been fully filled with styrene plastic, which should then be suitable for rescribing just like the rest of the surfaces. By the way.... the lines you see that were NOT filled are ones that need DEEP scribing to help define the flaps, ailerons, wing folds, gear doors, and the speed brakes.

We'll see how it works!

 

Gil 

[Ron Bell]

I have done something similar on a smaller scale on injection kits. It does work, but the key is, as you say, letting the glue completely set so the plastic is "hard" once again. Be careful that the plastic rod is not harder or softer than the stuff the vac is made of (and some have some pretty soft plastic to facilitate the vacu-forming) or you could sand more model away than rod stock or visa-versa. 

[ghodges]

Some concrete progress! It took 4 hours of sanding to smooth out all of the plastic rod I glued into the existing panel lines. I was pleased with how that went as it did fill 95% of all of the overly soft lines. You can see all of the lines that have been rescribed and also how the control surface lines have been deepened and also some scraping done to create a slightly curved surface down into those lines. The scribing was done using a razor saw and also the UMM scribing tool.

The 2 pics above show the ApoxySculp epoxy putty that was smoothed into the wing roots to help even them out and fill them. A roll of it was laid in place and then it was squished out into shape and then contoured with a finger wet in alcohol. That helps eliminate 90% of the sanding needed since it's mostly blended in already.

I also decided that it would be easiest to cut a slot to accept the tail planes. I used tape and pencil to mark the cut lines on both sides and then carefully cut open the slot on both sides. I actually got a much tighter fit than I thought I would, though there is some wiggle room to allow for it to be aligned properly before it gets finally glued in place.

Next up is to sand those wing roots after they dry for a day or two....then prime it to see where things are! Comments, critiques, and questions welcome as always!

 

Gil 

[Mark Deliduka]

Way to go Gil! Brilliant idea with the wing roots. That scribing looks factory made!

[ghodges]

Round 1 of sanding the wing roots is done.....

 

As is round 1 of the priming..... bit of a paint run on the bottom that'll have to be sanded out.

Next up is to get the scribing done to blend that on the wings and fuselage together, as well as establish the closed gear doors and central flaps.

 

Gil 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2024 by ghodges

[ghodges]

Rounds 2 and 3 of the sanding, scribing, and priming are done. I switched to using some Tamiya rattle can silver as primer in order to better show what imperfections were still there and the work was left to be done. Overall I'm pleased with the results thus far, though there's still the final round of primer down the road before the actual painting will start. Before that happens there's some construction work left to be done, as well as some final surface detailing to be added here and there. Still.... it is taking shape and starting to look like a Grumman Panther!

 

Gil 

[johneaton]

Looks great, Gil.

[Mark Deliduka]

That is coming along nicely! Not too many imperfections to deal with so far. Brilliant work!

[ghodges]

Got a major job done!

Here you can see the detailing in the gear bays and speed brake well. Most of it is strip plastic, with some plastic tubing cut to size to use for the gear leg sockets. The blue detailing in the main gear bay floors was done using 3M plastic tape cut to shape using an eraser template. The piping was done with lead wire, which bends very easily without any "spring" to it. Also of note is that the wing fences have been added just outside each intake. That was done by sawing a slot back into each wing and then thin sheet plastic was cut to shape and slid back into each slot.

The biggest hurdle is that the landing gear has been scratchbuilt. You can see the metal and plastic tubing as well as the rod and sheet plastic used to create them. The nose gear fork and the actuators were robbed from the spare parts box. The reinforcing bands are done with more 3M plastic tape, the brake lines made from more lead wire, and the resin tires are from the spares box.

Here's the gear under a coat of primer, looking a bit more like kit parts. They'll be all gloss blue on the finished model.

Test fitting the gear to the model to check its sit. The nose tire is separate because adding it will be a one-time operation at the end of the build since the nose gear fork will require bending to get it in place!

There's still plenty to do..... the speed brakes, bomb and missile pylons, and gear doors; just to name a few.... but I'm still shooting for being done by the end of the year!

 

Gil 

[ghodges]

The main gear outer doors, nose gear doors, speed brakes, and their actuators are all done.

Next up will be he positioning of the under wing pylons and building up the bombs and rockets.

 

Gil 

[ghodges]

Some more progress....

The bomb and missile pylons have been drilled and pinned and their positions under the wings determined. Also, you can see the gun gas deflector panel (the white plastic) on the side of the nose has been scratchbuilt and added.

The vacuform windscreen and its resin under-frame have been added to the fuselage. You can also see the gunsight that was built and added to the IP coaming. You can also see the the gun gas deflectors have a very slight space on the backside, which was intentional.

The resin rockets have been assembled, drilled, and pinned (and also now primed).

I believe all of the BIG jobs have been done now.... though there's still some basic assembly things like finishing the bombs. Just about ready to start the final priming in prep for the paint job!

 

Gil 

[Mark Deliduka]

Wow!! Brilliant work Gil! This certainly shows how much more of a Master you are! Unbelievably magnificent work!

[ghodges]

Finally making some painting progress....

Got the tail and the nose radome painted. Next up is to paint the silver area with gloss black primer in prep of applying the NMF, after which the windshield and antiglare panel will be sprayed with flat black. I also need to add the blue squadron color to the top of the tail fin.

The fiddly bits are generally all painted too, with the exception of the tires and the gear oleos, plus some selective washes that need to be applied.

Hopefully the model will be fully painted before Christmas and then I can start the decaling! 

 

Gil 

[AZRhino]

Great work, as always, Gil. If I live that long, I would be happy to achieve half your skill at vacuform kits and scratchbuilding.

[ghodges]

Thanks all for the very kind words! The Panther is painted!

Used Alclad Aluminum and Duraluminum for the NMF. Decaling will be next!

 

Gil 

[ghodges]

And the markings are all on....

The plane names (it's on both sides) were hand written onto decal paper using a .03 tipped Blue Sharpie permanent marker several times and the best 2 selected for use. I sealed the artwork with some clear gloss and then when it had dried applied them as the last decals to go on. The rest of the markings all came from an assortment of 13 different decal sheets from the spares box. It pays to hunt down all of those various scale stars/bars, letters, and numbers decal sheets in the vendor areas and buy them so they're handy when the time comes!

More pics when it's done, hopefully in a day or two!

 

Gil 

[ghodges]

For better or worse.... she's done!

This model wouldn't survive 30 seconds under a judge's eye, but I'm happy overall with the result. My main goal was to pull off this paint scheme and though flawed, it looks about as good as I can expect considering the starting point. This was number 19 for this year and my 370th "recorded" build since I started doing so back in the mid '80s. If my airliner decals arrive by Monday from Joy decals, I might slide a 20th in under the wire!

Comments, critiques, and questions are welcome; as always!

 

Gil 

[Mark Deliduka]

Wow, for me it's certainly a "for better" build! I certainly cannot do that well on something like this. What an incredibly beautiful model!

 

I do hope you can finish a 20trh model this year. Be sure to post a year in review so we can see all the incredible masterpieces you did this year in one thread!