Luftwaffe Grumman F9F Panther, Carrier Graf Zeppelin, June 1956

[nönöbär]

Grumman F9F Panther

The Plane:

After World War II, the aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin was among the few German ships that survived the war. With the riseof tensions between the east and the west shortly after the war and the rearmament of Western Germany in 1948, the Graf Zeppelin was one of the ships that formed the core of the Bundesmarine.
(See https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php/topic,37705.0.html)
Put into service again with only minor modifications (mainly a removal of the 15 cm guns), the Bundesmarine first continued to operate the Corsairs and FW190. But it soon got obvious that those old propeller planes were outdated.
As some tests were made with Me262T jet fighters in 1944, the potential of those kind of planes were clear, but this was not the right aircraft for carrier operations.
Therefore, the Bundesmarine introduced the new Grumman F9F Panther in March of 1950. Replacing the Corsiars, 24 F9F were ordered and delivered by autumn of the same year. Operating as fighter/fighter-bomber they were were widely used as multi-purpose aircraft on the carrier, up to 12 of them were stationed on the Graf Zeppelin together.

With the fast advancing technologies, jets from the early 1950 got outdated quite fast. The German Panthers were used on board of the Graf Zeppelin until 1957 when the ship was decomissioned for a major modernization.
The remaining F9F (2 were lost during training accidents) were stationed in Flensburg until 1960 when they were finally put out of service.

The model shows a F9F on the Graf Zeppelin in June 1956 during the NATO excercise "Iron Response" in the mid-Atlantic near the Azores.
 






Together with a Liftwaffe A-7 Corsair II


The Model:
It is a Revell  1/72 kit (which is originally a former Matchbox model). Build OOB, the model was typical for the Matchbox kits which fittd quite good for their age. I rmember that I have build the same model over 30 years ago, unpinated that that time.
The only variation is the color scheme, which is like the typical German Marineflieger paint. Decals are form the spare parts box.

[Geoff]

Excellent - love it!

[sandiego89]

Very nice, i like it very much. I like your paint scheme, keeping the intake area over the inner wing a different color makes it interesting.  A great job from an old Matchbox kit. 

[NARSES2]

That's come out really well 

[PR19_Kit]

Very believable and it looks great alongside the A-7. 

[Draken35]

I like it a lot!!! 

[Spey_Phantom]

very nice work 

[The Rat]

That's just so RIGHT! 

[lancer]

I have to agree with the other comments posted here; that is excellent, as is the Corsair

[buzzbomb]

Very Nicely done.

[Captain Canada]

Beauty ! I love the look of that one.

[Dizzyfugu]

Odd, but why not? Could have been a serious alternative to the Sea Hawk, looks good! 

[Weaver]

Looks very nice indeed in that scheme - well done!