1/50 Revell TF-9j Cougar

by Pablo Girgulsky

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This is the second part of the Argentine navy trainers trilogy..and this is the missing link, the F-9J Cougar trainer...how two of these beautiful machines ended in our country is a theme of discussion.  Some said that it was confusion, as the US didn't want to send a swept wing airplane to a country which was developing its own jet aircraft.  By the time...actually, the US Naval department offered these planes, which our pilots receive with open arms, the training for naval pilots was a terrible mess...from Texans to the F-9f-2 panther...directly.  The fact that few spares where sent after the purchase may make the first theory make sense.  The planes arrived at Buenos Aires in 1962 aboard the ARA Independencia carrier.  They had little participation on the 1963 revolution, when they almost had to shoot down a couple of Avro Lincolns that were about to drop bombs over the naval base of Punta Indio.  The end of their short career was in 1970, one remains in the naval museum in Comandente Espora, Bahia Blanca, Argentina.

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The kit is the Revell one from the early 80"...in 1/50 scale is absolutly a piece of.....but when I saw it at a local hobby shop I bought it immediately, feeling really happy for the oportunity of conversion....to the two seater.  As I was digging how I would do that, my dog grabbed a fuselage half and bit the tail...great, another thing to do.  Unfortunaly, my former camera with the in progress photos was stolen, but I can tell you it was a difficoult job: cut the nose, enlarge the fuselage, scratch build the cockpit & seats, panels, control sticks...every thing.  The nose was then rebuilt with epoxi resin, sanded until it got its conical shape.  A refulling probe was then attached.  The wings were absolutely different, so I sanded them down and rescribed them.  The exhaust was a hole, so I put a ballpoint pen cap in there, it fits perfectly.  I also scratch built the metalic thing under the tail which prevents this area touching  the ground while taking off.  The wheel bays were also redone with plastic and the same for the airbrakes.  Finally the canopy was vacuformed with thin plasic over a wodden mold (thanks to Raul Hruizdo for that!!!)

Pablo

1/48 Monogram At-6 Texan by Pablo Girgulsky
1/48 ESCI Aermachi Mb-326gb by Pablo Girgulsky 

 

Photos and text © by Pablo Girgulsky