I found this kit to be a tuff build. The wings were hard to assemble right and left a big gap between the wing and fusalage. There were other issues as well but nothing major. Once together it did look good. Molded in blue I placed the decals on then sprayed dull coat on. Looked good. I've build two and probably will build another.

As a serious modeler I was a disappointment from the moment I opened the box. Total pieces for this kit is 40 (41 if you count the pilot figure) with little to no detail. I expected more for a 1/48 scale model. The intakes are blocked off at the wing roots, the wing tip tanks are molded as part of the upper and lower wing halves and the canopy is molded as one piece. The only options I see with this kit is build with or without the pilot figure and landing gear up or down. On the other hand if you are looking for an easy build with the final product being a similar resemblance of a F9F Panther you might be happy.

For the first time in decades, Round2 Models has brought back AMT’s 1/48 scale F9F Panther kit. If you want a more detailed 1/48 F9F, look into the newer-vintage kits from Trumpeter and Monogram. The AMT kit will probably appeal most to nostalgic remember-when modelers. It doesn’t have a lot of parts and none of them are very small or hard to handle, and with the relatively low cost, kids who want to glue together an airplane model will enjoy this. It’s molded in blue plastic. Many Panthers from the Korean War era wore overall dark sea blue paint including the landing gear so not much extra paint work will be involved if the modeler is OK with a bare-plastic look. If you are going to use paint, I’d recommend wiping down the parts with paint thinner to remove the greasy mold release agent. Don’t let it sit on the parts too long lest the surface begins to melt. Parts fit is so-so. Tooling for the wing parts is such that it would be easy to create folded wings. You’ll have to fabricate your own hinge mechanism from bits of wire and/or plastic and this kit might be good for a modeler wishing to try out this sort of scratch-building for the first time. The nicest part of the kit has to be the pilot figure. It is well proportioned and detailed in contrast to the slab-bench seat. There are actually two identical instrument panel decals that in no way resemble the inaccurate crescent piece in the kit. The decal looks accurate, though, so the modeler might want to scratch-build their own version to fit the decal. The instructions don’t mention the need to put weight in the nose to avoid a tail-sitter. Three decal versions are included, but only two are shown in the instructions. It’ll be easy to find good pictures of the missing Blue Angels version online, though.