I recently purchased the 1/72 scale Hobbyboss F9F Panther. To make a long story short, I screwed up the paint and had to use Easy Off to remove all of the blue paint and start over. Since the model was already built I resprayed it with primer and then midnight blue. However, the instructions showed that the leading edges of the wings, horizontal stabilizers and the vertical stabilizer were to be painted in silver. I didn’t want to go to the hassle of doing that and tried to find a decal set for an F9F that didn’t have silver leading edges. Nevertheless, I decided not to go to that expense since I’m the only one who see the model.
My question is: why do the majority of F9F Panthers I see online have the leading edges painted silver? Almost every photo I see of the Panthers have these painted edges. Rarely have I found any Panthers that are strictly blue. Most of the decal sets on Ebay are for the planes with the silver edges. Does anyone know why most of the Panthers had these leading edges in silver? Just curious. I couldn’t find any explanations online. Thanks!
