Aires’ F9F Panther wingfold set comes in a bubble package, consists of 10 parts, and is made for the Hobby Boss F9F kit #87249. The pieces in the package are very nicely done and look great.

To install the Aires sections, about 1/4 inch needs to be cut out of the kit’s wings. I “under-cut” mine (slightly less than a full cut) then filed them down until I got a good fit. I had to thin the Hobby Boss leading and trailing edges on the inside of the wings to get a good fit for the resin parts.

Each fuselage side of the wingfold has 3 small tabs, and each wing side has two---these slide into the 3 on the fuselage side---just like the full size machine. But be careful; they’re very fragile. I broke one side sanding the joint and had to carefully glue them back on.

I used CA glue to attach the resin parts to the plastic and sanded them to blend in. Most panel lines lined up but a few didn’t.

I painted the model in 3 sections---the fuselage and the two outboard wings, and joined them at the end of the build. There’s no diagram or instructions on how much to fold the wings, so I used the diagram from the F9F Panther/Cougar In Action book by Squadron to get the angle.

There was nothing tricky with this detail set, except having to be careful sanding because of the very fragile wingfold parts. In the end you get a nice model, and now, if you’re out of room in your display case, you can save space by folding your wings.

Thank you to IPMS/USA and to Aires for the opportunity to review this aftermarket kit.