Hope you guys don't mind my non-stop building... gotta keep doing something as its too cold to go outside.
Since I have to wait for some more items to arrive for my C-46 build, I didn't want to be too idle, so I started on this. If you don't own one of these kits, you owe it to yourself to go and purchase one. I had no idea it was as detailed and well fitting as it is. This is what has been done as of the first sitting this evening.

I plan on using one of these options from this Eaglestrike sheet. More than likely, the Blue Tail Fly.

Parts clean up is really simple as there wasn't a lot of flash, and the ejector marks inside the front wheel well area were easier to cover up with "would be" plates, than to try and sand them out and lose all the nice rivet detail. I used a digital caliper and measured the distance inside the rivets, then cut some five thou sheet to size, added a small drop of Tamiya super thin, and BAM! instant-acces-plate-ejector-mark cover-upper. Once painted they should look the part. I could add a placard or two to help the unbelieving..
Before-

After-

The cockpit is nicely detailed as is the IP straight out of the box. Some detail painting will help bring it to life.



All I have done this evening is just to clean up parts, and test fit. The majority of this plane is Gloss Sea Blue...to include the wheel well interiors which will make for some quick painting without a lot of masking. Gotta love that!
Kit supplied guns-

Replacement guns- (OUCH!) Helps to be married to a Doc.

Vintage plastic- lol.

Sanded and buffed-

The fit is extremely nice. You can see it even with it just taped together. A few minor seams to dress, but for the most part, this baby fits and fits well!

So far this is all of about an hours worth of work.

I'll keep building other things until my C-46 goodies arrive.. Stay tuned. More to follow. Thanks for looking. "Q"

Alrighty then. Day 2 of our build has some more parts clean up and a little painting in store. I was test fitting the wings and couldn't quite get the fit I was looking for. I found the culprit right here...you can see my sanding marks...still fresh!

I sanded this area down a wee bit and she fit like a glove. There is a sequence to assembling these wings and the fuselage; One upper wing half glued to the lower wing. Insert the fuselage, and then glue the other wing half on. I almost got both upper wing halves together when I tried to get the fuselage in...boy howdy did panic set in. I quickly figured out the error of my ways and yanked the one upper wing off. No damage other than my nerves. There are some areas around the intakes that will need some filling, but they should be easily taken care of after assembly. That is the reasoning behing my trying to get the wings assembled completely. Therefore I could work the seams, then install the wings to the fuselage...WRONG. Will just have to take it a little slower on these seams is all to avoid damaging the surrounding detail.
Seams-

more seams-

and yet more seams- All easily dealt with.

It came time to get some paint on this bad johnny so I could get the fuselage halves closed up. Namely, the cockpit, front wheel well and all the doo dads that go in them. I started with the seat and the well just aft of the nose gear. The front wheel well is Gloss Sea Blue and the compartment directly behind it is interior green. A couple quick passes with the Iwata HP-CH and both were wearing a nice shade of green.
I then painted the cockpit and exhaust can flat black.

Finally, I mixed up some gloss sea blue with a little Japan dryer that was suggested to help aid in the drying of gloss paints. Darned if it didn't work! The parts were safe to handle after I finished detail painting the cockpit. I like that!
Speaking of detail painting, here was the process I used for it. I like to paint all of my a/c offices using Vallejo acrylics as the dry quickly and are completely opaque. I use a wet pallet when I paint as the paint tends to dry out quickly if I don't. For the unknowning, a wet pallet is simply a paper towel or in my case a napkin that has been wetted. The moisture from the napkin keeps the paint workable for a lot longer time. The wet napkin also acts a a cleaning surface when I need to change colors. A few swipes and whatever color I was working with is cleaned away and I'm ready for the next color.
Here is the layout of my tools/equipment I used for the painting.

While there are several different brushes here, I only actually used a couple, but I like to have a choice in case I can't get the results I'm after from one, I can choose another. The art pencils come into their own and you'll see why soon. I start by adding random colored dots to various buttons/knobs. No particular order, or color. I just lay them in where they will look good. I continue this until I am satisfied with the coverage.Now comes the art pencils. I try to keep them as sharp and pointy as possible to get into the tight areas. I simply run them around the gauges and poof, all that hidden details comes to life. I add scratches and define corners and wear areas with a silver one. When I am happy with the look of it, I seal it with a coat of semi gloss clear. I used to shoot just flat, but after looking at some 1:1 stuff, there is a certain sheen that is there and I think the semi gloss conveys it pretty well. The last step is to add some Future to the lenses to simulate the glass faces. Mine ran on me, so I need to go back and touch them up.

I gloss coated the seat and the other interior green bay to prep them for washes.
I used oil washes with unscented Turpenoid to bring out the detail on the seat and the bay behind the wheel well.
Looks knida ugly at this point, but that will change-

A couple seconds with the hair dryer set on low and the items are ready for some blending. A wide flat dry brush was used to wipe away the excess thereby leaving some color in/around things. Once complete, a flat coat is sprayed over it to help with drybrushing.
Some titanium white, a flat brush, and a few light passes is all it took to bring out the detail. The same treatment was used for the interior of the fuselage.


I test fit the office and found the IP to be fouling just slightly against the fusalage sides.

I took a #11 blade and shaved off a little on each side and this fixed the problem. Shes currently sitting patiently on the work bench while I get this report typed up. I should be able to get the fuselage halves sealed up tonight. Thanks for watching, stay tuned.
"Q":)

Very nice job on the cockpit. Especially the instrument panel.

Matt

That's excellent work so far and thanks for the tip on using the art pencil in the instrument panel guages.

Hi Matthew, inspiring build! By coincidence I picked up the Monogram F9F-5 recce boxing of this kit today at my LHS for the superb price of $A20 after reading a good review in a recent magazine. From a quick look at the sprues, even the raised panel lines don't look like they should be too much trouble (not many of them cut across major build join lines), but grateful your views on this. I shall be following your build with interest!
cheers Brad

Thanks for the kind words all. Glad you are enjoying the build. Hoping to get the fuselage closed up today. I need to add some weight to the nose to keep her from becoming a tail sitter. While the instructions don't specify it, I found a clear rod for the tail which leads me to believe its needed! There is plenty of room in the nose. Just need to find the balance point. Thanks again for watching and the kudos. "Q"

Oky doky. Day three of our build brings some additional progress. I got the wings and fuselage joined together, those seams in the intakes and a few others addessed this morning. What a morning is what too.. Seems my daughter in her infinte wisdom set her alarm clock thursday night for a bright and early 2:30am wake up to go shopping on Black Friday...seems she forgot to reset it and while she spent the night at her friends house last night, I was awakened this morning to some rather loud hip hop tunes...After shutting the thing off I couldn't go back to sleep, so I dove into the Panther. Anyway, here it is some 14 hours later and here's the progress...
Theres a Panther under there somewhere-:)

Spent most of the day addressing the seams and getting a good fit. The intake seams required a lot of work, slow tedious work, but they look pretty good thus far. WIll still spend some time with them to smooth them out as much as possible. The seam at the nose and on the spine came out nice and smooth. I polished them up to check and was rewarded with no seams peeking back at me
SOme minor seams along the bottom, but they are cleaning up fine. I'll be able to replace the two panel lines I lost cleaning the forward area up-

I noticed some slight seams along the wing roots, but it may have been my eyes more than seams. I applied some Mr Surfacer 1000 onto the area and will dress and buff the area out later. I installed the horizontal stabs and see that I need to fill a little gap at the root area. Well, that's about it for tonight. Stay tuned, and thanks for looking. "Q"

Alrighty then....Preliminary Panther Painting and the tryout of a new tool is tonights segment. I have been trying to figure out how I was going to tackle the intakes and tip tanks on this build. I plan on doing Blue Tail Fly which is 1/2 silver 1/2 Glossy Sea Blue, but I didn't want to paint the silver. I wanted to try my hand a foiling it, but the intakes and the tanks would be a bear to do, soooo. I'll paint those and foil the remainder of what needs it. The plane should be aluminum and not chrome so I will use the duller side of the foil for my finish which should impart a highly polished shine instead. While checking the paint as I sprayed, I saw no glaring scratches or other flubs that will show up under the silver...lets keep our fingers crossed. I installed the windscreen yesterday and let it set until today to ensure it was good and secure. Nothing worse than popping those bad boys loose once they are on. I used a trick I saw in a recent article in Aerospace Modeler Magazine for masking the tightly curved portions of the glass. Usuing my Waldron punch set, I punched circles out that were the same radius as the curve and laid them in place.

Then cut some thin strip of Tamiya tape using this cool adjustable Excel Brand blade



and ran those up to the disks. Perfect. I then filled in the remainder of the glass with bits and pieces of tape. ( I usually use a straight edge for this, but I wanted to see how this tool performed, so hence the use. It provides the option of cutting some serious wavy strips if you want, which I find really cool.) Last but not least I taped off the cockpit and prepped her for some paint.
The gloss black I shot was Humbrol 21 that was cut with lacquer thinner and a few drops of Japan dryer to help speed up the drying process. I laid the paint on in multiple light coats building up slowly until I had good coverage. I then checked for any bare spots, runs etc. and found it to look nice and even. Time for it to cure awhile.



I'll check on it again tomorrow evening after work. If all is well, I'll prime the tail end with white, and shoot the glossy sea blue. Thanks for looking. Comments welcome. "Q"

Wow. Nice way to mask canopies. I have never seen the thin-strip-tool before though, so I guess I'll have to look for a way to make one.

Rest, by the way, ain't bad either

Thanks Tony. I shot the glossy sea blue last night and it came out well. Should be able an update in the next couple days to post the pics. I would suggest you do a search for Excel products to see if you could find one of the cutting blades. There should be somebody out there selling them via mail order. I can tell you they work best when used on glass or other firm surfaces.On a cutting mat the blades tend to seperate when pressure is applied causing the line width to vary. Thanks again for the kudos. "Q"

Look/search for "Excel 30608" or "Excel 70031", the latter is the newer design.

Don

It has been a few days since I last posted anything and you can thank a changing work schedule on that. I was initially going to foil this one, but have since changed my mind as my initial attempts proved rather dismal and I didn't want to ruin and otherwise good build. I painted the leading edges and intakes with SnJ Aluminum, masked off the glossy sea blue, and then sprayed the remainder of the plane in two different shades of aluminum to give it a little more appeal. Once dry and unmasked, I started with the decaling and have thus far gotten the top and sides of the plane done. I will let this set over night, and do the bottom tomorrow. I need to add some black decal material around the canopy area yet, but need to re-paint the windscreen as I have it in the wrong color. doh! Anyway, here she is. Thanks for looking, comments welcome. "Q"

She is now complete. Just finished putting the finishing touches to her. Thanks for watching. "Q"

That is one Beautiful Panther

Beautiful !! Thanks for sharing that build, and for the tips I picked up along the way. You should think of entering that baby in the MOM contest - I think you'd have a winner there.

Cheers,
Mike

Hello Matt:
Normally I am not fond of an airplane with no visible means to stay airborne (prop) but your build had made me take a double take. I have to go and eat some crow now after admitting that I loved your build (jet). Honestly Matt very nice work, I now will have to try a hand at an early jet and try to use some of your techniques.

Robert

Thanks guys. I'm glad you liked it. It has a few flaws on her here and there, but she photographs well. I have another one on the shelves, but it is the "P" version of her. Will try and do another build log of that one as well. Trying to decide what to build next at this point. Might do something with tracks and a big gun, or ???? Thanks again for the kudos. "Q"

I LOVE your panther matt!

The paintscheme is really special, not the all sea blue that you almost always see.

I have a question for you though. What brand paint do you mostly use? Your finishing is immaculate from the Smallest piece to the whole fuselage.

Cheers!

Emil

Emil,
Thanks for the kind words about the Panther. As to the paints that I use, mostly Model Master enamels. I do however have a healthy stock of Humbrol enamels, Alclad II, SnJ, and Talon acrylics. I all depends on what I am in the mood for as to what paint I decide to go with. Thanks again for the kind words. Much appreciated.
"Q"

Hi Matt

I just stumbled on this build. I don't know anything about the Panthers history but after seeing this build I need to look into it. The words to describe this build escape me but let me say this, This is a stunning aircraft you've built.

Turned out looking Great Matthew.

Very nice build, Matt. I have a kit of the P version as well, but in a Monogram box. I think it must be the same kit.

Thanks for sharing your great build!

Hey Jesper. We have been lurking in different areas, so I haven't seen any of your builds lately. This one came out great. I have this plane in my stash, and you have renewed my interest in it. Super job.

This build made me make a trip down to my LHS, but to my disappointment they didn't have one.