Teknics 1/48
F9F-2 Corrected Nose

Enter the Panther

When Hobbycraft first announced their 1/48 F9F-2 Panther kit a number of years ago, there has been a great deal of anticipation at the prospect of an early Panther for many modelers. Last year, Trumpeter announced that they were also releasing a 1/48 F9F-2 and it turned out that Hobbycraft and Trumpeter jointly developed this nice kit. For a look a the kit out of the box, go here. For a review of building the kit, look here.

While the kit is an easy build, there are a few minor discrepancies in the kit that many Panther fans were concerned about. These include:

• Wing flaps are molded separately, inboard flaps are molded closed
• Leading edge flaps are molded closed
• Tip tanks are too narrow
• Wing fold detail on wings is not provided
• Fighter nose profile is slender
• Recce nose window is wrong size and in wrong position on the F9F-2

Count on Teknics and Meteor Productions to help the AMS modeler to build a more accurate early Panther. They've produced a number of interesting detail sets to enhance or even alter the basic Hobbycraft/Trumpeter kits.

In this release, Teknics has offers an update to the stock F9F-2 and F9F-3 kits from both Hobbycraft and Trumpeter to correct the shape of the nose. This detail set provides some beautifully cast replacement parts which include:

• Correct the silhouette shape of the nose
• Adds more roundness to the nose when viewed head-on

So what does this set get you? If you're one of those that thinks the kit nose shape isn't quite right and you don't want to spend the time with the putty and sanding sticks to make the corrections, here is an easy solution. Teknics has done the work for you. The nose halves are hollow-cast and are drop-in replacements for the kit nose.

Conclusions

This set will enhance the fidelity of either the Hobbycraft or Trumpeter F9F-2 kits.

Definitely recommended!

My sincere thanks to Meteor Productions for this review sample!