F9F-5 Panther VF-781,# 106 , Year of the Cat, 1/72 Matchbox
I had built this kit a few years ago but had never put squadron markings on, I wanted to do the plane from The Bridges at Toko-Ri movie, but never found the decals. Having heard about Lt. Royce Williams encounter with Soviet Migs during the Korean war and seen Tom Cleavers excellent 1/48th version on this site, I finally got my butt in gear after reading the book ‘Such Men as These’ by David Sears, it’s about Navy air ops during the Korean War. I was surprised at the amount of Reservists that participated there.
Lt. Williams’ is covered in this book ,albeit abbreviated.[ check Tom Cleavers submission on this site he covers it better than I can] The long and the short of it he uncounted up to seven Mig 15s ultimately downing four of them. This is the old matchbox issue, the decals are a mix of Hasegawa F9F-2 decals that has the correct squadron, for the side number I used Techmod US numbers decal sheet. I bought Hasa. kit for the decals, now I have a candidate another VF-31 subject.
7 additional images. Click to enlarge.
Craig Abrahamson said on August 2, 2017
Uh…..forget a couple things, Robert? π
Craig Abrahamson said on August 2, 2017
Aha….there she be. And a nice one it is, Robert (I like that belly shot). π
George Williams said on August 3, 2017
I really like jets from this era, and those US Navy colours are very smart, nice job on this one, Robert.
Tom Bebout said on August 3, 2017
Gee that looks nice, especially at that scale.
Julian Shawyer said on August 3, 2017
Great Panther Robert.
The Bridges at Toko-Ri is one of my all time favourite movies.
Jeff Bailey said on August 3, 2017
Great job, Robert! I really like the F9F series & this one is a great representative of the type. Thanks for sharing.
Greg Kittinger said on August 3, 2017
Very nice! Love these early jets. Gotta get one of these done sometime soon!
Anthony Conway said on August 3, 2017
Looks good Robert.
Tom Cleaver said on August 3, 2017
Nice model. Sears’ book is good, but he didn’t have the access to Royce I did to get the full story.
Robert Royes said on August 3, 2017
I suspected that.
Tom Cleaver said on August 3, 2017
If you can find the last Monogram/Promodeler release of the 1/48 F9f-5 kit, it has the decals for Brubaker’s Toko-ri airplane.
Robert Royes said on August 3, 2017
Thanks all.
Drew Tarter said on August 6, 2017
Terrific work on your Panther, Robert! I have four 1/48 Panthers in the stash, and some decals to do that same plane.
Allan J Withers said on August 10, 2017
Nicely done Robert, looks good.