The Little World

I have long admitted a weakness for bargain model kits. You have only to show me a shelf full of the expensive ones with a cheap runt at the end and you know which one I’ll take. In the case of the Hobby Boss F9F-2 Panther it was sitting next to a similar kit in an out-of-the-way shop and there was a $ 1.50 difference between them. I have no idea why, because with Hobby Boss they just box the same things up and change the artwork to make a new product.

I was further delighted at the till when the boss of the shop knocked another 50¢ off the price unbidden. Now I was at least $ 2.00 ahead of the game. The fact that I had the paint already and there was an interesting variant included on the sheet meant it was a total win.

The kit transcends the beginner ones that Hobby Boss make – not that I decry them. This has conventional left-right fuselage halves and a three-piece wing to make sure the dihedral is exact. Moulding seems well up to HB standards and would not disgrace the specialist moulders. Thankfully no idiot detail with resin or brass.

The variant I spotted on the decal sheet? Argentinian. I wouldn’t have looked at this last year but now I have completed a Brazilian jet, I can expand to more of the South and Central American air forces.