Beauty, it is said, is in the eye of the beholder. This is true in terms of fashion, art and other “soft” endeavours undertaken by humanity. However, sometimes there’s much more in the eye of the beholder, including the difference between life and death. Knowing where your enemy is and being able to bring force to bear quickly and efficiently has made the difference between victory and defeat since the time the first belligerent proto-humans climbed up trees or hills to ambush their prey (or enemies).
Since then, the shape of the “hill” may have changed, but the need to command the high ground and the value of timely intelligence has not. The advent of the aircraft proved to be a boon for reconnaissance and fire-direction. No longer were observers passive in static balloons; now they could roam at will over the battlefield, providing a portable “high ground” from which to direct their own artillery. At the dawn of WWII, the art of “army co-operation” (to use the singularly British term) had developed to such an extent that specialist aircraft types were being designed and equipped specifically for battlefield recon and direction. The famous Westland Lysander, as well as the HS-126 and Fi-156 are excellent examples of this. While there were a few purpose-designed American aircraft for this role, it generally fell to military versions of civil light planes, like the Piper L-4.
After WWII, though, the advent of the jet fighter started to change the game. Speeds were faster, and while a prop-job could still perform spotting and direction, the job had evolved to the point that new equipment was needed. This new task, of Forward Air Control (FAC), would take on ever-increasing importance in the Vietnam conflict; ambushes were frequent and troops-in-contact situations demanded quick reaction times to prevent devastating losses. Not only that, but the North Vietnamese forces employed increasingly accurate and dangerous weapons, creating an environment in which more traditional FAC aircraft (like the Cessna O-1 and O-2) were almost hopelessly vulnerable.
Speed was the order of the day, and some firepower wouldn’t hurt either. To provide their FACs with these attributes, the US Marine Corps started using TF-9J Cougar training aircraft to perform what became known as the “Fast FAC” mission. The “Twogars” were excellent for the job, with good visibility, relatively small size and the ability to carry both rockets (usually for target marking) and cannons. This gave the FAC the ability to not only survey and mark the battlefield, but to defend itself during its sorties or, if need be, assist the troops in contact until the “heavies” arrived.
While the TF-9J is best remembered as the Navy’s standard trainer until replaced by the TA-4J Skyhawk, the Twogar made a good showing of itself in the skies of Vietnam. Wearing the typical Navy/Marines “warpaint” of light grey over white, these Fast FACs provided an essential service to Marine commanders as well to those leading troops in the field.
Seeing as this was the only version of the Cougar to go to war, I really wanted to build one. I got my chance when I picked up the Sword 1/72 TF-9J “Blue Angels/Vietnam” boxing of their Twogar kit. However, it proved to be a little bit more unruly than I’d originally thought it would be.
To see what I started with, check out the Out of Box review.
To see all the work it took to get it to paint, you can read the Twogar Update.
Painting:
By the time I finally had the airframe ready for primer, I was, quite honestly, a bit sick of the whole project. Thankfully, the innately sexy shape of the Twogar, and the fact I’d wanted one for ages, kept things on track. I masked the canopy and held it in place with Silly Putty. I didn’t put the seats or sticks in until after all was done. Primering was easy; I simply decanted some Rustoleum White Primer from the can and airbrushed it onto the airframe. I chose to use white because it would make painting the underside easier. I know “black-basing” or “marbling” are the current-favourite methods, but I wanted to create a factory-fresh (or museum-ready) example, so they weren’t really appropriate approaches. The white also made it easy to see if I’d missed anything with my filling and sanding.
I then painted the underside white with Tamiya XF-2 Flat White mixed with some Testors Model Master Acrylic Flat White. I shot the mix with my preferred thinner: 2/3 99% alcohol, 1/3 Future floor polish. (Now that Future is extinct, I’m not sure what to do… I still have a decent stash, though!) This prevents the paint from going on too matte; the Future gives it some shine and a lot of strength. I used Tamiya Tape to make the hard demarcation line along the fuselage, as well as to cover the underside. As a note, the demarcation line seems to vary in position. Some period photos show it near the top of the intake, about even with the bottom of the bars in the “Stars and Bars” insignia. Other photos show it very low down, almost at the bottom of the intake. I chose the higher one, since the pictures of the aircraft I have decals for show it thusly.
The top was done with Tamiya XF-19 Sky Grey, thinned the same way. Tamiyas benefit from the inclusion of the Future as it allows later gloss coats to integrate more smoothly and prevent cracking/crazing. It also makes them much more resistant to handling, and since they need to be glossy for decalling anyways, it’s like two birds with one stone!
Spit and Polish:
I masked off the nose anti-glare patch and painted it with Testors Model Master Acrylic (MMA) Aircraft Interior Black. Sadly, as expected, this ran rather badly under the tape, and when I took the tape off, I was greeted with quite a mess. Thankfully, the Future-treated Tamiya grey resisted scraping, as well as allowing for easier touch-up by hand. By simply taking a drop of the thinner and mixing it with a couple drops of paint, I was able to repaint what I couldn’t scrape off.
Usually, Tamiyas give me real trouble when doing hand touch-ups. The paint dries a different colour because it doesn’t have any thinner in it, or it dries flatter, etc. However, because of the Future in the thinner, this wasn’t an issue this time. While the damage from leaked black may look bad, it was surprisingly easy to clean up. Once this was done, I used a filed-down mechanical pencil to highlight the panel lines. This gives a cleaner look than pastels, and remember, I wanted a museum piece!
After this, it was a couple light coats of Aqua Gloss to seal everything together. I sanded the high spots off with about 2000-grit sand paper, and put on a new coat gloss. Several iterations of this and the fuselage was smooth enough, and shiny enough, for decals.
Decal “Oh Man!”-ia:
The decals that came with the Sword Two gar are very nice. They are printed by Techmod, and are generally thin and conform nicely to both curves and panel lines. There are some stencils, and I decided to put on a few (but not all of them) as well as the larger insignias.
Things were going along quite well at first. The problem came when my first “Marines” fuselage title got wrapped around itself. I tried, carefully, to get the decal to unroll, but no luck. What was I to do? I don’t have many Marines aircraft… then I remembered my Matchbox A-4!! I had gotten it after the Matchbox Mega Score, the single-seat A-4 being less attractive to me than the two-seater. (This, despite its frighteningly deformed “hump”; something I usually love.) I was pleased to see that yes, Marines paint was one of the schemes, giving me a way out of my conundrum!
I used the ancient Matchbox decals on my Twogar. You know what? They behaved perfectly, like all Matchbox decals. Sure, they’re a bit thicker, but they were tough and didn’t self-roll. They adhered with no issue, and unless you know to look for it (Shh… don’t tell anyone!) you won’t notice they’re not from the kit. Well, sort of… There was one concession to accuracy I had to make; the Matchbox decal didn’t have the “H&MS-13” titles below the “Marines” writing. This is no surprise, but it did mean that for both sides to be the same, I had to use the Matchbox decal on each. This means the decals aren’t technically correct, since they should both say “H&MS-13” under them. Still, this is a minor issue, and its’ better than having no “Marines” at all on the sides.
The rest of the decals went fine. I decided to leave off the mouth, though. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, I hated it. It looked dumb on the Twogar, and really broke up its elegant lines. It also didn’t have eyes, and a mouth with no eyes just made the plane look… blind. Secondly, it was legit; I’ve seen a pic of either this plane, or another one form H&MS-13 without the mouth, so there was precedent. With the decals on, everything was given a few coats of Aqua Gloss. This was then sanded down to abut 600 grit to feather in the decals for satin-coating.
Finishing Touches:
A matte coat made from Delta Ceramcoat Urethane Indoor/Outdoor Varnish was used to dull the entire airframe, and then a Future-augmented version was applied to give a semi-gloss final finish. This may not be quite historically accurate, but it looks good on display. The roundness of the Twogar’s fuselage causes it to look a bit glossier than it really is, but anything more glossy would just create glare.
With the finish done, I was able to glue on the extra bits, like the pylons and rocket pods, land gear and cockpit internals. The canopy was glued in place using Tacky Glue, since it won’t foul the transparencies with outgassing.
Conclusions:
The TF-9J Cougar was an aircraft that served long and hard with the Navy and Marines as a trainer, but it was only the Marines that took it to war. In the dangerous skies of Vietnam, the Twogar and its intrepid crews developed the techniques and tactics of the Fast FAC. Before satellite navigation and high-res targeting pods, the Marines, the Twogars and the “Mk. 1 Eyeball” combined to bring a survivable and deadly fire-control platform to the battlefield. While the tenure of the Twogar in Vietnam might not have been as long, or as famous, as other aircraft, there’s no doubt they did their part to save troops on the ground from both enemy, and friendly, fire.
The Sword TF-9J Cougar is a decent-looking kit, but one that is surprisingly more difficult to build than it appears. There’s a complication (not to be confused with complexity, for the kit is inherently simple) to this model that makes it something I cannot recommend to anyone unfamiliar with short-run kits. While this is better than a junky old Pegasus, it’s not up to the most modern standards we’ve seen for some other similar kits. Fit is iffy in a lot of spots, and the entire building procedure can best be described as “janky”. There are many, MANY areas that can lead to frustration, and a lot of time, trouble and elbow grease is needed for this one. This is definitely a kit for those who have the will, and the skill, to go head-to-head with a somewhat intractable piece of sprue.
Overall, I think the finished product looks killer. The Twogar is a beautiful machine, and, resplendent in its grey-over-white combat colours, it makes a great display piece. The plane is an important piece of history, and it’s a nice addition to a collection for anyone who’s a fan of early Navy jets or Cold War aviation in general. If, like me, you have a love of the Twogar and are willing to wrestle it to the ground, I say go for it. Just be prepared; this beauty has a propensity for poking the beholder square in the eye!
The Sprue Lagoon 