Yea! I finally got my Blue Angels F7U-1 Cutlass finished. It is the 1/72 Anigrand resin kit that actually went together rather well, UNTIL I dropped it on the concrete floor and re-kitted it. The parts fit very well with nothing being warped or any short shots. There were just a few minor air bubbles and pin holes, but these were easily filled. The cockpit is VERY spartan to say the least. I used a pilot and seat from the spares box. I put a coat of Wally World dollar-a-can primer on it to pick out any bad spots and then sanded nearly all of that off with progressively finer sanding pads until I finished with 6,000 grit. I put a coat of Future on it for primer and air brushed Testor’s Model Master gloss enamel 15050 Blue Angels blue. I think that the two Cutlasses that the Blues used for a short while were 15044, which is a tad darker. One more coat of Future over the paint after 3 days of curing, then the decals and 3 more coats of Future. I wound up with a pretty good shine. I used 3 shades of Model Master buffing metallics for the engine section. Comments, pro or con are most welcome.
I built the entire line of Hasegawa Blue Angel aircraft back in 1982 for a static display at an Air Show and Open House at Scott AFB, IL. The Cutlass is paired with the F9F-2 Panther that the Blues main demo team was flying at the time they used the Cutlass for solo work. The -2 Panther had a very thin polished aluminum leading edge while the later -5 version had a much wider polished area. I am somewhat surprised at how large the Cutlass is compared to the Panther.
Yes. Chance Vought made a small number of the -1 version. After ironing out some serious problems, they made the -3 version which went operational with the Navy for several years.
Any plans to add the F9F-5 Cougar? I believe it’s hasegawa that makes a 1/72 -4/5 variant.
Here’s my line-up, so far. I just finished the F9F-8 Cougar, but haven’t uploaded the pics, just yet. What get’s me, is the F9F-5 looks like the -2, but shares a nam with the -8. Them crazy folk at Grumman, LOL
BTW, is that a double seat Scooter, I see in the back left corner?
Yes, the back, left plane is the TA-4J. The 2nd plane from the right in the back row is my Cougar. Any of the straight wing F9s were Panthers and any of the swept wing versions were Cougars. I am working on a Hasegawa F6F Hellcat, but have never got around to building a BA Hornet. I would also like to add the T-33/TV-2 to the lineup.
You have done very nice work so far on your BA fleet. Keep up the good work and keep us posted with pictures.
Interesting side-note…when the Blues were flying the F-11 Tiger, they put on an airshow performance in New Orleans. One of the planes impacted gear-up on the runway during a low maneuver. The Blues just left the plane at that airfield and moved on to the next performance. This aircraft is now on display, mounted on a pole, in Reserve, LA, in front of a small general aviation airport. They did only cosmetic repairs to it and put it on the pole.
