Overview

The F9F-8 Cougar was a carrier based early swept wing jet that was light, fast and had good range and load carrying capacity. It was developed from the F9F Panther which was a straight wing jet. The operational career for the F9F was 1951 to 1974. It was also used as a photo recon and two seat trainer.

The Kit

Kitty Hawks 1/48 scale F9F Cougar is the first 1/48 kit since the Revell kit and a couple resin kits of the 60s and 70s. It seems the Cougar has been like the red headed stepchild of the model world. That has changed now that Kitty Hawk has the F9F-8T trainer and the F9F-8 and -8P Cougars.

The new format continues to change to even more history interspersed with the modeling. The banner at the top of the cover even states "The Best for Modelling and Reference". The blue gray background are even more prevalent including the cover. The old structure and build types are gone and this concentrates more on feature articles.

The first feature article by Andy McCabe and is a test shot build of the new Revell 1/32 FW190 F-8. The finished engine OOB is awesome and detail overall is superb. The engine access panels even open to display the kits engine and all for a very reasonable price.

Richard Bolingbroke goes full bore with a two kits builds of Eduard 1/48 Hellcat series with a F6F-3 and an F6F-5. To top it off, he summarizes the wing fold kits that have been produced and uses the Wolfpack set on both to do the kits "at ease".

Thanks to Aires/Quickboost for providing more of their excellent aftermarket parts for IPMS USA to review, and to IPMS leadership for sending it my way.

Quickboost has earned (rightfully) a reputation for providing just a bit more detail on a given area of a model; seats, cowlings, engines, can all be improved drastically with their parts. This is also the case with this set - control levers for the New Italeri F-104G/S.

One pour stub holds six parts: three control column boots/bases, and three control columns with much improved detail on the grip assembly. Room for error or second kits.

Thanks to Brengun for providing this upgrade set for the Academy B-29; and to IPMS USA for sending it to me to review!

This is a very simple set which is designed for the Academy 1/72 B-29, but could also be adapted to the Airfix B-29.

Consisting of two resin Radomes, and a fret of PE antenas, this will go a long way towards improving the plastic items in the kit.

First, the Radomes. The AN/APQ-13 antenna fit were used on some B-29’s early on; the later “bathtub” radome is in the kit, and you need to check your sources before you commit to installing these radomes. The resin is flawless, with easy to remove Pour stubs. The only thing you will need to do is hold a sheet of sandpaper over the assembled model fuselage, and sand the appropriate curve into the mating surface of the radomes before installing with epoxy or superglue. Very easy.

Thanks to Aires for providing more of their excellent aftermarket parts for IPMS USA to review, and to IPMS leadership for sending it my way.

This looks like a simple item to replace the kit ejection seat, and in practice it is. However, be forewarned that the harness assembly is not a “do it and done” loom job. Ejection seats tend to be cluttered affairs, and the Marin Baker series of seats are considered to be some of the more complex seats on the market. They WORK, but they are tough to buckle into. Tab “A” into slot “C”, when it is supposed to be slot “B”, can really ruin your day. So it is with this model seat.