I am about to start an F9F-5 Panther and I can’t find any colored photos of the cockpit. Anybody know where I might find such a reference? Thanks!
Best reference is the Grumman F9F Panther #59 by Steve Ginter,shows lots of cockpit shots but their all in b&w.Korean era Panthers had their cockpit colors in black and zinc chromate green.If your doing a Panther in the twilight of its career when they were in training command and in the gray and white scheme then the cocpits should be black and gray.When the A/C went thru O&R and got the new gray/white scheme thats when the change took place.Off the top of my head I think it was around 1956.I worked on Cougars in the early 60’s and the cockpits came from the factory in gray/black by that time the Panthers were all gone.Best bet is zinc chromate and black.
I think Detail and Scale Panther has color shots. I’ll have to check. I know they have color exteriors.
The Detail & Scale Panther book is your best bet for printed cockpit shots, I haven’t come across any websites with a walkaround though.
Here’s a shot of a museum bird:
Be careful when using restored aircraft as reference, they’re not always exactly as they were back in the day. This one looks pretty good though, and hopefully it’ll tide you over until you find a good book like the D & S, but they’re kinda hard to find.
Fade to Black…
Thanks, Blackwolf - you da man! I was just about to start painting. Anything you tell me about the details of the seat or the area behind the seat? The kit has a nicely detailed cockpit and I would like to do it some justice. Thanks again!
The F9F Panther cockpit was actually interior green with black consoles. The ejection seat was a Grumman- designed unit and it was painted interior green too. The headrest was flat black and the seatbelts were light gray. The Panther is my all time favorite bird, so many years of research went into the correct interior colors. I haven’t seen any 1950’s era color pics of the Panther cockpit and that includes in the Detail & Scale, In Action, and Steve Ginter’s book. Black and white pics, movies, and restorations provided me with a starting point. I do highly reccommend the Ginter books as the best avaliable on the Panther. As a side note, the landing gear wells were interior green too, the cockpit sidewalls were flat black, and the interiors of the dive brakes and wells were gloss red. I’m still not sure of the color around the tailpipe, but I believe the fuselage interior was flat black, the flow straightener was gunmetal, and the pipe interior was a kind of exhaust color. Hope this helps you out a little.
That helps out a lot, thanks. THe instructions show the gear wells as being gloss sea blue like the exterior. I’m glad you pointed out this inaccuracy. I’d love to see some pics of your builds - are they posted anywhere or could you e-mail me a few? Thanks again,
Drew
I would love to post some pics of current projects but unfortunately I don’t have a digital camera or scanner. As a side note, the I just started another Panther. I found a real F9F Panther for sale on line. You get one complete F9F-4 airframe, a “spare” F9F-5 fuselage, two Allison engines and two J-48 cores with the package for $100,00.00. I’m going to school to be an A&P mechinic so I could work on it. I want to own one and fly it sooo bad that seeing one for sale, I had to break out the Monogram kit.
I am also doing the monogram kit. Good luck getting themoney together for that Panther! that would be pretty sweet to own.
Any other tips you might give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again,
Drew
Hi all, first post for me.
Was wondering, I’m building a 1/72 Panther and Cougar. Since they will both be blue, I can paint both at the same time.
I now have enough info for the paint on the cockpit of the Panther, (thanks to all) could someone help on the Cougar???
tia
Wow, a real F9F-4. That was a pretty rare animal, if I remember correctly. Weren’t the -2 and -5 the most common ones? It’s one of my favorites, particularly from that period. And wasn’t the area around the tailpipe blue with the rest of the plane? I don’t think it had a NM area back there. Are the old In Action and D&S book (the one with the natual metal prototype on the cover) still available? Because I know I learned about the green and black cockpits somewhere, and I think it was the back cover of D&S. There are a couple of Panthers owned as warbirds, and at least two Panthers. There was a white and orange two-seat Panther flying in and out of Ellington Field in Houston for a while several years ago.
I didn’t think there were that many people interested int he Panther and Cougar. For me, they are my favorites as well.