Teknics 1/48
F9F-2/3 'Down & Dirty' Conversion

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-2P

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 more than fulfilled my number one wish. This detail set provides some beautifully cast replacement parts which include:

• New outer wings that retain the kit's trailing edge flap well and rivet patterns
• Outer wings now have details at the wing fold
• Tip tanks have the correct diameter
• Tip tanks now have detailed fuel dump vents
• New replacement fuselage underside retains main wheel well details and is drop-in replacement for kit part
• Fuselage underside now has separately molded flaps and detailed flap wells
• To replicate later service F9F-2/3 Panthers, this set also includes wing fences for installation just outboard of the engine intakes

So what does this set get you? While the stock kit can be posed with the wings folded, the kit provides separately molded trailing edge flaps that cannot be accurately posed in the down position without the corresponding underside flaps and leading edge flaps deployed. This set provides the changes needed to pose your Panther 'Down and Dirty'. One interesting note is that while it is unusual to see many US Navy aircraft parked on the carrier deck with the wings folded and the flaps deployed, the Panther was evidently one of the exceptions as there are many photos 'out there' with the Panther doing just that.

With this set, you can pose your F9F-2/3 with its wings in flight position or folded and the flaps deployed. If you want the corrected tanks and wing fold detail without the flaps deployed, Teknics has that set available as well (reviewed here). Since the wings and fuselage underside parts are literally drop-in replacements for kit parts, there is no surgery required to use this set other than carefully removing the parts from their molding stubs.

Conclusions

This set will definitely create an eye-catching cat spotted on your scale carrier deck and is a very simple conversion to either the Hobbycraft or Trumpeter F9F-2/3 or F9F-2P kits.

Definitely recommended!

My sincere thanks to Meteor Productions for this review sample!