1:48 McDonnell F3H Demon Part-1

The fighter almost sunk by its own engine

The F3H Demon first flew in 1951 as the first swept-wing carrier aircraft of its company built around guided missiles. What stood in its way, however, was the powerplant it had been designed with: it never reached the promised thrust, the machines were dangerously underpowered with it and several were lost. The program was saved only by swapping the engine for a different type, after which the Demon reached the squadrons in 1956 and served until the mid-1960s. Crews nicknamed it the Lead Sled for its sluggishness, and yet its design line led directly to one of the most successful fighters of the second half of the century.

Two options on the sheet

The content is deliberately narrow and all the more detailed for it. The first marking belongs to a machine of VF-41 in 1959, when the squadron operated from the deck of the Independence, and both the serial number and the pair of letters on the vertical tail surface and the number on the nose are given. The second captures an aircraft of VF-131 in 1962 from the Constellation. For both, the later designation the type received after the unification of US military aircraft designations in 1962 is given as well.

What made the type unusual

The Demon belonged to the first generation of machines that did not rely on the gunsight of the pilot and on cannons, but on radar and on missiles carried under the wing. A single powerplant sent it into the air, which gave it an exceptionally slender forward fuselage for a carrier aircraft and deep intake ducts along the sides of the cockpit, that is shapes that were then repeated on its more famous successor.

Before you start gluing

Carrier machines of that period wore a glossy gray and white finish on which every mistake shows. Guard against silvering by polishing the surface first and only then laying the film down. You will unify the remaining sheen at the end with a single thin coat of satin clear over the whole model.