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The Bridges of Toko-Ri, Lieutenant Brubaker’s Panther jet, Revell F9F

Started by Louis Gardner · 133 ≡ · ↻ 3 years ago

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David Mills said 5 years, 7 months ago:

Great start Louis@lgardner great to see this kit being built!
Tom Cleaver said 5 years, 7 months ago:

The Revell F9F-5 is correct for this airplane, and the less said about those worthless collections of scrap plastic masquerading as F9F Panther kits that Trumpeter's "F Team" (F for Failure) did, the better. Nothing right about any of them. The Revell-Monogram kit is the ONLY F9F kit in 1/48 worth doing.

Here's what the Monogram kit looks like done.
4 attached images. Click to enlarge.
Tom Cleaver said 5 years, 7 months ago:

Rick Wilkes - hate to burst your bubble regarding William Holden, but he never said anything about any of the scripts he was doing, since he was drunk every day for 40 years and did as he was told (died of drinking in 1982 when he tripped on the stairs and fell and fractured his skull - bled out and was found three days later when a neighbor complained about the smell - terribly sad way to go). The people who argued in favor of the book ending for the movie were director Mark Robson, screenwriter Valentine Davies, and Navy tech advisor CDR Marchall U. Beebe who said the book as written was a memorial to the men he knew who died doing their jobs. That carried the day with Paramount, despite the marketing department telling them it was the commercial kiss of death - which in fact it was.
Jeff Bailey said 5 years, 7 months ago:

Well fellas, the deed is done! My copy of the movie came yesterday (Tues. 25 Sep.) and I have seen it now. There are some great flying sequences for SURE! I especially liked the real shipboard flight deck operations. IModeler at the movies! Not only did I get to A) see a new to me movie, and B) and some real flying, I got to see Chester! Dennis Weaver, aka “Chester Goode” of Gunsmoke fame was the briefing officer. It was a small part to be sure. One of the things I enjoy when viewing old movies is seeing the actors who go on to become more famous in later productions.

Great movie! Thanks for introducing me to a good film, friends.
Peter Hausamann said 5 years, 6 months ago:

How's it going Louis?
david leigh-smith said 5 years, 6 months ago:

I’m glad you enjoyed the movie, Jeff. This is a great side benefit of this group build, I’m just about to tuck in to ‘Rear Window’ for about the hundredth time because of a Jimmy Stewart conversation with T.C and Paul Barber.
Louis Gardner said 5 years, 6 months ago:

Hello Chuck, @uscusn
I am very happy with the Monogram kit so far. It seem to be going together pretty good so far. I'll be posting some pictures of today's progress in a few. I have two more Panther's in the stash, but both are the Trumpeter earlier versions. from what I have been reading, these were produced as a joint effort between Hobby Craft and Trumpeter. I hope to build up these other two jets next year.

Thanks again...

Hello there Rick @fuzzmann ,
and thanks for posting those excellent photos ! I would have replied sooner, but other "life" things have been keeping us pre occupied at the moment. However today I managed to make some progress... Please keep us posted with updates on your build. If it's anything like your Accurate Miniatures "Dick Best" SBD, then it will be a jewel...

Hey there Josh @jpatt1000
and thanks for the heads up on the decals. I'll definitely keep this in mind when we get to that point. I'll also refer to your "Cat" build as a reference on occasion. It looks fantastic. I'll have to go back and check the reveal article on the "Year of the Cat" GB, to make sure your Panther was included. I may have missed it... sorry. If so I'll square that away .

Thanks again.

David LS @dirtylittlefokker

The thanks should go out to you for organizing and starting this wonderful GB. I appreciate the kind words...

Jeff @mikegolf
My fellow DAT brother... I'm glad you purchased the movie... I think you will especially like the flying scenes. I also appreciate you sending me some picture still from the movie. I'll post them up in a bit...

Peter my good friend... @tecko

I don't remember crawling either ... 🙂 but that's a possibility . Your work on the Bridge on the River Quai is progressing nicely too. I just finished reading the journal and it's amazing...

David M. @davem
I hope you enjoy the next installment, I actually painted some parts ! Please stay tuned for another update. Thanks

Tom C, @tcinla
Besides using Josh's plane as a reference, I'll be going to your build as well. Thanks for sharing the photos of your Panther. It looks good...

David LS my friend ... @dirtylittlefokker

I have never seen this movie, but I really liked Jimmy Stewart in Strategic Air Command. That is another movie with some good airplane scenes in it. Jimmy flew many missions over Europe during WW2.
Louis Gardner said 5 years, 6 months ago:

Now that I am caught up, here is the latest news.

My fellow US Army tanker brother Jeff Bailey @mikegolf was kind enough to stop his movie and snap a few photos for me. I had some questions about the colors used in various places. These photos answered some of the questions, just like Rick Wilkes @fuzzmann did with his cockpit photos that he posted earlier.

Here's the original picture Jeff sent me...

and he was kind enough to "edit" the picture a little by lightening it up some, which shows up the landing gear even better.

The wheels (Nose and Main) look as they are an aluminum color or some shade of metallic gray. The nose strut is very similar in color. Unfortunately, the main gear struts are not very visible. They may be the same shade as the nose gear, or they could simply be painted in a gloss Sea Blue color. The jury is still out on this part...

Another good friend Jaime Carreon @jetmex sent me some pictures of his Panther cockpit...

and it looks fantastic I should add. He used the same color combination that Rick Wilkes mentioned earlier... So with some help from my friends, I hope to have an accurately detailed model of Brubaker's plane.
Louis Gardner said 5 years, 6 months ago:

Armed with this information... I went to work spraying some parts. Here we go !

I sprayed the cockpit tub using Model Master Interior Green and Flat black for the sidewalls. The joystick handle was also painted black. The base for more detail work is now laid out.

Next the ejection seat and interior mount portion of the arrestor hook was painted with Interior Green too. The FS color I used for this was 34151. It looks close enough to me...

The nose gear well was also painted in this color... I left the strut alone and will paint it in a metal color as previously described.

Since I was spraying the color, I figured why not ? and painted the main gear wells too.

The interior portion of the landing gear doors were also sprayed green...

Here's how I painted the inside of the fuselage halves. You will notice that I used Flat Black for the side walls of the cockpit.

and this is how it looks as I'm holding the cockpit tub in place against the fuselage.

The nose gear well look pretty decent this way too. The detail should really pop with a light wash of lamp black...

Speaking of the color Flat Black: I sprayed the area that goes under the main canopy using this color.
You can also see the struts for the front gear doors have been painted with Interior Green.

Here's the Instrument panel. I'll follow Jaime's advice, and use some individual decals for the instruments. His looks spot on... Thanks again buddy.

Lastly, here's the instrument panel visor. It was painted using Flat Black too.

Later tonight I may get some more work done on this one...

Hope you all had a great weekend, and many thanks go out to my friends who provided a lot of great information on the colors used on these planes...

As usual,
Comments are encouraged.
Rick Wilkes said 5 years, 6 months ago:

Looking good Louis!
Stephen W Towle said 5 years, 6 months ago:

Youtube has some great clips...of flight scenes.

Not to mention some scenes with movie magic or models doing some bombing runs.

I couldn't find the scene with Grace Kelly kissing Holden.
david leigh-smith said 5 years, 6 months ago:

You are off to a pretty amazing start, Louis. Thanks for sharing the photos and your thoughts on the build. The photo Jeff sent would be great on a dio - you can almost feel the tension in the tie downs, like the Panther is just straining on a lead. It’d be great to try and recreate that tenseness (maybe, ‘when I have more time...’).
Louis Gardner said 5 years, 6 months ago:

Rick, @fuzzmann
Thanks my friend. I just posted some pictures on your Panther build journal. I hope they are helpful to your build, as the photos you posted about the cockpit colors were for mine. Cooperation is the key for success. Thanks again buddy...

Stephen, @stephen-w-towle
These YouTube videos are exactly what I was looking for. I was just talking with my friend Jaime Carreon @jetmex

about the differences he found on Brubaker's plane. This allowed me to stop and take notice to these minute but overly important things (at least to a model Geek like myself)

David, @dirtylittlefokker
That is an amazing picture ! Love it. Yes the photo Jeff so kindly shared with me is a good setting for a diorama. I'm sure you could do wonders with it... 🙂
Please stay tuned, as I have some more pictures you might enjoy...
Louis Gardner said 5 years, 6 months ago:

Thanks to assistance from Jaime and Stephen, I was able to locate some crucial pictures that will allow anyone to build a more accurate "Brubaker" Panther...

So buckle up, and hang on... Here we go !

Using the You Tube videos, I stopped them and took some pictures of my own using my cell phone camera. Some are good, and some just so-so...

Here's a Panther jet landing on the deck. Notice the exhaust colors. I posted more about this on Rick Wilkes "The Fighting Lady" build journal...

The lighting is not the best, but I'm going to guess the outside and the inside of the landing gear doors may have been Gloss Dark Blue.

This may be seen a little better in this next picture, which shows #202 landing... The main wheels are definitely a metallic color.

I just love these landing scenes.

Here's a new one for me... On the inboard area of the wingtip fuel tank, there's an area of highly polished metal. You can see it here where I zoomed in...

This picture shows the original photo I made from the clips.

Jaime Carreon pointed this feature out to me. On Brubaker's plane, there was a red arrow pointing the rear of the canopy.

David, Here's some pictures that you may consider looking at a little closer... These are diorama material...

Panther's and Skyraider's on the deck.

Notice the different tail codes on the Skyraider's. Some planes have a "B", while others have a "ND' or "NR" on the fin and rudder.

Now if you look a little closer, they have swept wing Cougars on board ! Plus they are wearing the light gray and white colors... There are a few Banshee's present too !

Here's the overall look of the flight deck...

Here's how they burned up engines trying to shift the carrier sideways during docking procedures.

Did anyone notice the TBM (or TBF) Avenger ? Extra point for you if you did... Yes they had one there too ! You can see the cowling on the right side of this picture.

Building an overall blue Korean War Skyraider is becoming appealing to me... Hmmmmmmmmmmm. The wheels are turning.

The possibilities from this movie are endless.

So if anyone wants to jump onboard with me here, and build something from the movie, I'm good with it.

Please stay tuned for the next build update. Yep, I glued and painted some more Panther stuff...
Louis Gardner said 5 years, 6 months ago:

I painted some parts, and glued some things together earlier today. Trying to stay busy...

I had fully intended to use individual decals for the instruments. Instead I chose to simply use a sharpened silver pencil and carefully highlighted the gauges instead.

The nose gear was painted in aluminum color, and the wheel wells were given an oil wash using Lamp Black to dirty things up just a little.

I applied some "Ultra Bright" Bare Metal Foil to the oleo shock on the nose gear. It looks decent.

The exhaust was sprayed using a tan color... Yes tan.

Here's why, and more can be seen on Rick Wilkes build journal.

Thanks Jaime for the tips !

The interior of the gear doors were also given an oil wash. I may end up stripping these down and repainting them using Gloss Sea Blue... I'm not exactly sure just yet though.

The side console details were taken care of, as was the seat...

Other than adding some seat belt decals, this is right out of the box.

No aftermarket parts were used other than seat belt decals.

I'm happy with how it looks, and thanks to Rick Wilkes, I'm sure this has the proper colors.

Now that all of these parts were ready, it was time to glue them in place. I also added some "Bird Shot" lead in the nose cavity to keep it from being tail heavy.

I ventured from the kit instructions and added the IP after the cockpit tub was installed. Here you can see the proper location for the IP. I'm pointing at it with the red tooth pick.

The IP will sit against the coaming as shown here.

Then I glued the other fuselage half in place...

and secured it with various clamps as things dried.

The cockpit looks the part once installed...

as does the nose gear.

I'm calling it a day.

As usual,
comments are encouraged.

Thanks for following along.

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iModeler at the Movies

The Bridges of Toko-Ri, Lieutenant Brubaker’s Panther jet, Revell F9F