F9F Cougar in U.S. Navy & Marine Corps Service Vol.1

Detail & Scale Aviation Publications

Print and Digital available

Reviewed by Floyd S. Werner Jr.

The first in the new Color & Markings Series of books from Detail & Scale covers the F9F Cougar in US Navy and Marine markings.  The F9F Cougar was covered in detail in a Detail & Scale book in both digital and printed format. There was so much information that D&S decided to put out a Colors and Markings book in Navy and Marine Service.  This first of a series of books would feature all the colors and the show what individual units painted up their aircraft like.

Bert Kinzey along with Rock Roszak have pulled together some really remarkable photos showing the Cougar.  There were three basic paint schemes on the Cougar.  End of story close the book.  Not so fast.  While that is basically true the Navy and Marines were never shy about adding color on their aircraft and this one is no different.

Printed on 121 pages of high quality paper and featuring over 189 photos (most in color), along with over 36 color profiles done by Rock, this book is everything that a modeler needs to find inspiration to build.  On top of that this book was the inspiration for Furball Aero-design decal sheets on the airplane.  So don’t worry if you find something in here that is inspirational because chances are Furball has you covered.

The basic paint schemes are the first part of the book and have FS callouts for the paint.  That is always helpful.  My favorite paint schemes are the trainer paint schemes. Talk about colorful. and just when I thought they couldn't get any more colorful along come the drones in the drone controller colors.

The next chapter deals with the Cougar squadrons that operated in the Navy as each individual unit had different markings each one is covered. Here is where the artwork of Rock comes in extremely handy. He's able to capture all the nuances of the different units and their paint schemes. This section has trainers as well as operational aircraft. Maybe attack squadrons and marine attack squadrons are also included in the section which covers most of the book.

Another interesting feature of this book is the inclusion of the Marine Corps using Cougars in the Fast Forward Air Control or Fast FAC in Vietnam.  Some of the marine and Navy Reserve Squadrons also had some really colorful F9Fs. 

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This book includes the test and evaluation squadrons which had some really high visibility markings placed upon them, as well as, the drones.  There are some miscellaneous squadrons that flew the Cougar, like NASA/NACA but probably one of the ones that's most important to everybody is the Blue Angels who flew the Cougar from 1955-56.The Blues went through a couple of paint changes during the use of the Cougar.

You’d be hard pressed to find a book more suited to inspiring you to model this airplane.  When used in conjunction with the Detail & Scale book you’ll have the perfect combination of detail and inspiration.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  It has me looking over my Kitty Hawk Cougar and Twogar.  The first in a great series of books on the Colors & Markings of US Naval aircraft.  Can’t wait to see what is next. 

Highly recommended

You can obtain your copy by visiting their website at www.detailandscale.com .  If you order the printed copy, you will be redirected to the Amazon page to purchase it.

The book is also available in Apple books and Kindle format for less at the same place with even more pages (173), photos (199) and color profiles (74), making this an even bigger bargain.

Thanks to Detail & Scale or the sample.

Review Copyright © 2022 by Floyd S. Werner Jr.
This Page Created on 12 March, 2022
Last updated 12 March, 2022

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