Fisher Model & Pattern | 1/32 F9F-8 Cougar

Reviewed by Gene Nollmann

Surely the 'History of the Golden Age of 32nd Scale Modeling' will record Fisher Model's new F9F-8 Cougar in the top ten of the eighty or so new kits introduced during this time. Last year their F9F-5 Panther bumped the altimeter higher for resin kits and this latest kit further elevates Fisher kits into some very rare atmosphere. From his experience as one of the premier manufacturers of 25th scale multimedia race car kits, Paul Fisher has taken on 32nd scale aircraft with sparkling success.

History

The Cougar has the feel that all its components are correct and where designed from the outset as a whole, making the Panther appear as the cobbled together and modified later generation! But the Cougar was a follow up design to the Panther. The fuselage, although looking the same, actually has several differences and was extended 8 inches (and the Panther and Cougar kit fuselages are not interchangeable, I already checked!). To the slightly modified fuselage, Grumman engineers attached a whole new swept wing design with a cambered leading edge outboard of the wing fence (a detail very nicely captured in this Fisher kit). The Cougar first flew shortly after the Korean War and was removed from Navy service before the Vietnam War making it strictly a Cold War veteran never seeing combat.

The Kit

The Fisher Models' F9F-8 Cougar is accomplished with a 12-page illustrated instruction booklet guiding the assembly of 90 pieces of polyurethane resin, 5 pieces of clear cast resin, one photo-etched brass fret with 57 pieces and 4 decal sheets. The single piece fuselage unit and the single piece wing unit make up about ninety percent of the model; without glue or filler it can yield the intro photo! The overall finish is polished and with finely engraved panel lines and incised detail for various ducts and vents.

These major pieces have been cleverly engineered to produce parts needing less clean up than I have seen on injection kits. Wherever a sprue was required to manufacture these pieces it has been skillfully removed at the factory. As can be seen from the photos, the very small parts require some trimming. Don't like resin dust? This is the kit for you; it is as close as one can get to a strictly add the pieces and paint kit.

Cockpit and Fuselage

One of the essential innovations to facilitate the single unit fuselage is the multi-function cockpit tub. As well as being the cockpit, the unit also contains the Air Brake Bay, the Nose Wheel Bay and the counter-weight tray (holding 12 pennies or 1 oz.). To the cockpit unit are attached the cockpit side walls, the nose wheel bay side walls and the instrument panel assembly.

The instruments are printed in the instruction booklet to be cut out, placed behind clear acetate and then behind the PE instrument panel and attached to the integral gun-sight, cockpit combing and instrument backing piece.

The PE fret also contains a piece for the canopy turtle deck and the armor plate behind the ejection seat. The ejection seat is a finely detailed one piece casting to which are added PE foot rest plates and seat belts and harness.

Two canopy options are available; one is vac-formed and the other is cast clear resin. Gray resin is used to cast the canopy interior framing and the sub-framing that travels over the turtle deck. The canopy is further detailed with PE 'mirrors' and, if the canopy is open, buffet tabs.

The Air Brake Speed Boards are cast into the fuselage, but a deep score line at the joint allows for easy removal. With the Bay open, the kit supplies resin casts for the Speed Board framing and perforated PE skins to be bent and applied to the framing. Air bottles and rams complete the open position option.

With the cockpit unit assembled and painted, it can be slipped snugly into the nose of the fuselage. Now the wing unit can be attached.

Wing and Landing Gear

While on the subject of the wing, this is a good place to check for scale. The F9F-8 Cougar has a wingspan of 36'-6" (414") or in 32nd scale, that would be 12.94" - the Fisher model measures exactly that at 35% humidity and 79º F. Would be interesting to check the length, but without measured drawings it is difficult to be sure the same point to point is being used.

The wing unit is a complicated casting with deeply recessed and detailed wheel bays (thankfully without spurious hydraulic lines, etc.), deep intake trunks, sensitively sculpted leading edge camber, thin wing fences and an unusual, but accurate, flat tapered wing root trailing edge. My first reaction to the trailing edge was disappointment, but checking the photo reference quickly validated this is indeed accurate and really quite a treat to see such attention to correct detail.

The Landing Gear elements are all finely detailed with a minimum of very thin flash that is easily trimmed. The gear struts are wire reinforced to be sure to support the heavy resin model. The insides and outsides of the gear doors appear to have appropriate thickness detailing and raised riveting where appropriate. A nice detail are some very small PE pieces to represent landing gear tie-down loops. The tires have a slight bulge cast in with very nicely detailed wheels. The PE set includes discs for the main wheel brakes!

The array of underwing stores includes options for 2 crescent shaped pylons to support a 150-gal. drop tank or a 1000 lb. bomb, 4 short pylons to support 500 lb. bombs, or 4 launch rails for AIM-9As. All the stores are cast as complete units requiring a minimum of cleanup. Sway braces for the 'crescent' pylons are provided as resin castings and has PE tabs to be applied to the smaller bomb loads.

Fisher Model had mentioned on their website a short while before initial intended release, that folded wings had to be abandoned on this kit since shrinkage problems could lead to an unacceptable reject rate and inordinately increase the kit price. Review of photo reference of a Cougar's wings up, one might be surprised to see just how thin the Cougar wing is and realize how warpage problems multiple with decreased resin thickness. A good challenge for someone suffering Acute Modeling Syndrome!

With the wing attached to the fuselage and the amount of handling is reduced, the finishing pieces can be attached: a refueling probe (optional), a nose barrier guard, nose gear door mounted VHF antenna blade, fuel dump blade on the side of the exhaust housing, wing flaps, lenses for wing mounted lights, horizontal tail and elevators and the markings.

Markings

The kit includes markings for 4 different aircraft:

VF-61 'Jolly Rogers' in Sea Blue
VF-61 'Jolly Rogers' in Gull Gray
VT-24 training ship in Gray and Orange
Blue Angels 1

Of the four decal sheets one is dedicated to stencil data duplicated in black and in white. The other tree sheets provide the colorful markings plus the 'wing walk' decal. Fisher has also included some small addendum Alps numerals to fill out 3 numerals overlooked on the main sheets. The decals appear to have good color density, especially important on the darker birds. See the link below to Stephen Mudgett's graphics preview, a copy of which is included in the kit for decal placement.

Conclusion

Obviously Fisher Model & Pattern have put a lot of thought into producing a very buildable kit. Although not recommended for children, it would be a great joint project with adult and older child teaming up. The kit assembly will flow well, quickly, and the results will make the building team proud! But aside from the joint effort possibility, this is a great kit and I would highly recommend it (even for collectors, this will be a highly prized kit).

In the instruction booklet, Paul Fisher fondly remembers building the old Aurora Cougar and Cutlass in his early years and has now full-filled a dream by producing this large scale Cougar. His website allows us this peak into the future - "Coming Soon: Early F9F-2 Panther kit, TF-9J two seat Cougar, and then Something really big for Navair fans...Stay Tuned !" Really big? Hummm...is an F7F really big?