Completed: F3H-2M Demon in 1/48

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

Good day everyone,

I had the distinct honor or building this bird for a Veteran of the US Navy who served with VF-193 when they sailed on the USS Bon Homme Richard in the 1960’s. He located AZ Model’s release on the web and was pleasantly surprised to see it in the markings of his squadron. If memory serves me correctly, this is the former Phoenix kit with a nice complement of resin by Aires and a fret of photo etch pieces. Fit was fairly typical for a limited run kit but I tip my hat to the mold makers for their ingenuity (especially in the fore-fuselage) and general accuracy. Besides, how many Demon’s are out there in this scale?? Finally, a word of thanks to Don Hinton for the excellent reference photos. Alright, enough of my rubber-lips, on with the show:

In the beginning…

And the finished product:

Thanks for checking it out. Comments and criticism welcome.

Now, on to the Bear Trap GB… See you all soon!

2

Nice build. Appears in the photos that the starboard wingtip is sitting lower than the port. Probably a gear alignment issue but hard to tell in these photos. Also it appears that the starboard inboard missle is misaligned. Otherwise looks pretty good to me.

3

dcaponell - thank you for the feedback. Good observations: I mounted brass “pegs” in the bottom of both main gear struts and the nose wheel to facilitate the mounting of the model into a carrier deck base that was constructed by another member of our local IPMS chapter. The starboard side peg is a tad shorter than the one on the port side. As for the missile pilons, indeed the outboard stations are aligned to a different pitch angle than the inboard stations.

Good eye and I appreciate the comments.

4

I have that kit in my stash. Did you have any problems during construction?

Yours turned out very nice. I just hope mine will look as good as this one.

5

Very nice work on a fairly unusual work. The finish is superb. I hope your friend likes it.

Darwin, O.F. [aln]

6

Nice clean Build. Thanks for sharing.

Regards, Rick

7

Gents,

Many thanks for the kind words.

Hi Berny - The kit did have some fit issues but nothing unsurmountable. Two items come to mind: be careful with the intake splitter plates when you enclose the fuselage halves around the radome/cockpit subassembly, and the decals, while printed in near perfect register, are prone to disintegrated. High pucker factor here! On the other hand the lines on this bird are beautiful and one can clearly see the DNA that led to the F-110/ F-4 series.

Yardbird - Thank you, sir. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he’ll like the finished product.

8

Hi Rick,

I appreciate the kind words.

Have a great day!

9

Very cool build! Don Hinton is the president of our local IPMS chapter, (well in Spokane), so it’s cool to see his name and to know that he helped!

Josh

10

Hi Josh,

Wow, it is a small world indeed. Please pass along my gratitude to Mr Hinton the next time you see him. If it wasn’t for his photo journal, my build would have suffered from many errors. His photography is superb and lends itself very well to the modeler/ historian - I am indeed grateful.

11

Great build.

12

Great build, The colors are blinding

13

Great work! I have never seen that plane before. Hope to see some more of your work soon.

14

Thanks for the heads up FastEagle1. I’ll keep that in mind when I build mine.

15

Wow… beautiful build! [Y]

I really like the blue stripes and wingtips and the cockpit looks amazing from what I can see. Well done.

16

Stunning job.

17

Wow, that is a really sharp build. Nice stuff! [Y][Y]

Phoenix kit, eh? I’m assuming that it’s long OOP?

18

Hi Dupes,

I believe the kit is out of production. However, someone with more info may correct my guess. I’ve seen one pop up on the web here and there so I know they are still out there for the taking. I recommend this to anyone who is a fan of US Naval Aviation in quarter-scale.

Thanks everyone for the comments as I certainly do value your input and feedback. [B][B]

One a side note (to a fellow cycling bro), tough news about Floyd Landis today.

Take care!

19

Hey really nice work…how did you do your panel lines…?? very nice shadows. also do play guitar? saw one in the background? I am a singer in a blues-old rock band. Howlin wolf, beatles, cream, etc.

20

Hey really nice work…how did you do your panel lines…?? very nice shadows. also do play guitar? saw one in the background? I am a singer in a blues-old rock band. Howlin wolf, beatles, cream, etc.