Teknics 1/48
F9F-2P 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-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 corrected a frequently overlooked detail on the early recce Panther. This detail set provides some beautifully cast replacement parts which include:

• Move the camera opening up above the gun tray where the camera was mounted on the early F9F-2Ps
• Enlarges the camera window
• Provides cameras for the ventral as well as side-mounted position

So what does this set get you? If you attended the interesting webinar hosted by Meteor Productions, Dave provided a quick overview of the major differences between Panther versions. In the case of the F9F-2P, there never was a production version of this aircraft (there were production F9F-5Ps, but that is another story). Instead, standard F9F-2 fighters had their guns removed, cameras were mounted to the gun tray, and a window was cut into the side of the nose cone. Ventral cameras were also installed. The Trumpeter and Hobbycraft F9F-2Ps have the window in the correct location for an F9F-5P but not for the early recce version.

The nose halves are hollow-cast and are drop-in replacements for the kit nose. Even after you place the cameras behind the windows in the nose, you'll still have plenty of room for lead ballast to keep the kit sitting squarely on its nose gear.

Conclusions

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

Definitely recommended!

My sincere thanks to Meteor Productions for this review sample!