Steve Ginter Publications

Naval Fighters Series 69, Navy & Marine Fleet Single-Seat F9F Cougar Squadrons

by  Steve Ginter

Reviewed By  Walt Fink, IPMS# 2447

MSRP: $19.95 ISBN: 0942612698 The Naval Fighters series is available from online book and hobby stores or direct from the publisher Steve Ginter, 1754 Warfield Circle, Simi Valley, California 93063. Phone: 805-584-9732, FAX: 805-584-6604. E-Mail nfbooks@pacbell.net. I've been a fan of Steve Ginter's series of books ever since I bought his first issue on the FH-1 Phantom. Since then, the format of his books has changed to include more data, more color, and more details. Each time I buy another one I think, "Well, he's done it again" and proceed to devour the contents. This book, Ginter's fourth in the Cougar series, was right up my alley because while I flew the Panther and the two-holer Cougar as well, this whole series of birds from the Grumman Iron Works is somewhat near and dear to my heart....no matter how many seats they carried. As a modeler, I'm more interested in various markings schemes for my plastic creations than I am in super-detailing them (eyes too old, patience too short) and in this regard, the book's right on. For the super-detailers, the first book in the Cougar series has all the nuts-and-bolts things. This sequel covers F9F-6, -7, and -8 variants, and specific modifications to those basic airframes such as -6Ds and -8Bs. Until recently, the Cougar has been largely ignored by major manufacturers in most scales except 1/72 where we've got the excellent Hasegawa kit, and the old Revell 1/48 offering. Now, fortunately for the larger-scale builders, it looks like new issues ill be coming down the pike. Unlike some other books in the Ginter series, there's no "Modeler's Section" included but for my own preferences, I don't find the omission of this feature objectionable. The couple of VF Squadron aircraft I want to add to my model shelf to keep company with the two Cougars already there are nicely illustrated in the book for my reference. I've also wanted to build a drone aircraft to add to my collection of "RPV" models for awhile and now I've got a whole assortment of color schemes to choose from, all in one book. The book has full-color front and rear covers with fifteen individual and super colorful photos of Cougars in a variety of markings. Overall Navy blue, gray-over-white, white-and-red, Navy Auxiliary Unit yellow-red-gray, and drone aircraft in various high-visibility red and day-glo schemes are included. "Profusely illustrated" would aptly describe the 170 pages between the covers - and though all these photos are black and white, captions provide color callouts and sufficient info on the markings for the modeler to duplicate any of the aircraft shown. In addition, the writeups on all the units flying the aircraft include photos of the squadron patches and mini-histories of each outfit. The work is very well-researched, and credits inside the flyleaf include a whole host of highly respectable historical and well-known photographic sources. One thing I discovered in the book was that one of my old squadrons - VU-1 (later VC-1) at Barber's Point - had Cougars before my time there. For whatever reason, they got rid of them but kept their older Panthers, which I flew. I guess they had their reasons, but on the surface, that's seems sorta like junking your new car and keeping your old beater. Along with Ginter's other two works on the different versions of the aircraft (Naval Fighters #66 covering the development of the aircraft, #67 on the photo birds, and #68 on the two-seat versions) this volume pretty much completes the set. If you like Cougars, this book's going to be right up your alley as it was mine. Many thanks to Ginter Books and to IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review this work; it was a real pleasure.

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