The McDonnell F3H-2 Demon has always been one of my favorite U.S. Navy fighters.
HobbyBoss’ sturdy cardboard box had a small, divided section to hold and protect the clear parts and delicate photoetched metal. Even more impressive was the protective foam packaging wrapped around some of the more delicate injection-molded parts. A nice touch!
Surface detail features engraved panel lines and rivets that are fine, restrained, and consistent. The rest of the model’s details are just as impressive as the surface detail.
HobbyBoss did a good job of capturing the complex nose gear and main landing-gear struts. All the wheel wells are nicely detailed, and the engine exhaust duct and nozzle were very impressive. All of the control surfaces and flaps are molded separately, but they cannot be posed other than neutral without modifications. However, you can build it with the speed brakes deployed and the arrester hook up or down.
The wings can be folded, though you’d have to carefully separate the inner and outer wing sections along internally engraved cut lines. A sheet of photoetched brass has wing fences, speed-brake exteriors, wing spoilers and an afterburner ring.
The decal sheet has markings for four aircraft. The printing was a little soft on some of the images, and the yellows and reds were not dark enough for me. Aftermarket decals are available.
Stores include two Sparrow and two Sidewinder missiles, and two under-fuselage fuel tanks. This version of the Demon (according to my references) did not carry Sparrows. (I added them anyway.)
The cockpit has raised detail for the side consoles and instrument panel. Decals are included if you want to go that route. Adding seat belts to the multipiece ejection set would really make things pop.
The unique shape of the Demon did not present any construction difficulties, and the kit built up well. I was impressed with the overall fit of the model and needed only a tiny bit of filler on the fuselage seams — one of the nicest kits I’ve ever built in terms of overall fit.
The concise instructions were easy to follow. Color callouts are for Gunze Sangyo paints, but a separate full-color, two-sided decal and painting sheet refers to several major hobby paint manufacturers.
One important omission was no mention of adding nose weight. I had to put two large fishing sinkers upfront to keep my Demon off its tail.
I decided to wait until I had all the assembly and seam work done before attaching the photoetched-metal wing fences, not wanting to risk knocking them off and losing them. To ensure a positive glue join, I used my razor saw to cut a slot in the leading edge for the fence and super glued it into the slot. This worked really well, and my wing fences stayed put for the rest of the build.
I painted the top side light gull gray using Mr. Color cut with its leveling thinner. For the bottom white, I used Tamiya acrylics cut with Tamiya lacquer thinner. The natural-metal sections on the aft fuselage are a combination of Alclad II metallics. After letting the paint dry for a couple of days, I just had to give the model a nice black sludge wash to make all that wonderful surface detail stand out. The panel lines look terrific!
The decals went on without too much trouble, but are extremely thin; great care must be taken to avoid tearing if they’re moved around. They settled down into the surface detail all on their own; I only used a little bit of decal solvent to get the port-side national insignia to conform to the refueling probe housing. After the decals had set overnight, I noticed they had an inconsistently glossy look, so I applied some Micro Flat (only to the decals). That did the trick.
The last step was attaching the main canopy — and this is where I encountered the only minor fit issue of the whole build. The ejection seat sat a tad too tall, preventing the canopy from sitting flush. Sanding the bottom of the seat a little bit with an 80-grit stick resolved that issue.
I found HobbyBoss’ Demon was an easy build, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the finished model. In spite of all the Demon’s complexities, HobbyBoss managed to get it right.
Note: A version of this review appeared in the February 2012 issue of FSM.