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Hello again. Time to stop resting on the ol' laurels (or is that the ol' glutes?), and get on with the next project. This is one that I began way back when, shortly after Emhar introduced their F3H-2 series of models. Unfortunately, that was also before Tommy Thomason wrote his excellent conversion article, over on Tailhook Topics, HERE. The F3H-1N was actually the first PRODUCTION model of the F3H series, and it had some problems, most notably it's under-powered J40 engine, and it's one-piece blown windscreen. The engine was known to blow out, and so was the windscreen! The 58 models of the 1N produced were eventually shipped around the country as maintenance mechanic trainers, most even being barged to final locations, as they were considered too unsafe to fly. Your tax dollars at work.... Anyway, I started the model eons ago, and eventually gave up on it, as at the time, I didn't have much info about the aircraft, or as much modeling confidence as I've achieved since. Here is the kit I used: I didn't get too far then, mostly modifying the wings and gluing up the kit cockpit and joining the fuselage halves: One of the sticking points that got to me the first time around was the auxiliary air intake doors, on each side of the fuselage, above the forward section of the wing. After the 1N, these doors were sealed shut, but still existed on the later models. That being said, I believe that I have found at least one picture of an early -2, where the doors opened, so not sure if they were sealed on the very first -2 or not. For the wings, the only 1N version drawings I could find at the time were in Squadron's (sadly, now departed!) book on the Demon. More on the wings later in the build. Above right, the fuselage as it appeared when I started over, this time. To satisfy my itch to do the auxiliary air doors (hereinafter refereed to as the "AAD"), I had no choice but to saw the fuselage apart. If you were to do this build, the fuselage halves would not be joined and the job of sawing out the little doors could easily be accomplished by scribing the outlines many times, then drilling a small hole to accommodate the blade of a jeweler's saw, shown in the next picture. The advantages of these saw is that they use very tiny blades, so they don't require a huge hole, and also, the blade is detachable at either end, so you can feed the saw blade into the hole, then reattach it to the saw: Sadly, for me it was too late, and I had to resort to the various tools and knife you see above, to get the doors scribed deep enough to fall out. They are not exactly the same, due to this extra work, but I'm banking on the idea that any irregularities will be distinguished by her dark blue paint job! There will be more about the AAD later on, but for now, I'll begin with the other mods needed on the back end for the 1N conversion. In addition to the long boat tail (already installed) the back end of the kit has a solid wall where the exhaust ring sets. I'll drill out a hole using a very clever "stepped drill", after drilling a small hole first, to guide the larger drill: Above right, a razor saw is laid atop a fingernail file to approximate the needed height, and the kit exhaust is first scored all around with the saw. My repeating the process all around, the exhaust is cut down to near final needed length, but will be sanded further as needed, later on: Above middle, I had previously found a piece of plastic "milkshake" straw, that fit both the exhaust ring, and the hole drilled into the rear end of the fuselage. Above right, the straw inserted into the new, shorter exhaust end. The inside of these pieces will be painted a dark exhaust color, while the outer part of the exhaust right will be painted a metallic color and given a black wash. Next, the shortened exhaust can exposes a rather large hole in the rear fuselage that must be filled with plastic scrap. The trick here is to cut a piece of plastic to a near fit, the glue the rearmost part only with a "hot" (fast-drying) liquid glue, in my case, Weld-ON #3. When dry, the other edges are hit with the same glue, and the back end of an X-Acto knife is used to push the plastic addition into final place, while the glue welds everything together. Mush simpler than puttying the entire hole. Above right, when dry and sanded, it's fairly smooth. I may add a little filler later on. Next, some old-school sprue stretching: Above right, in a photo shamelessly cropped from Tommy's website pointed to above, the actuators for part of the exhaust "feathers"? Perhaps our friend Tommy could jump in and give us a better (and more accurate explanation... Anyway, the stretched sprue is cut in half at the chosen spot (it took a few tries to get the more-or-less right diameter of stretched sprue!), and glued to the model on both sides. This is accomplished by using the hot liquid glue to the end of the sprue marked "A", while it is held at the opposite end, in as near a horizontal position as I could manage. As the first end is drying, a knife blade is kind of squished down, to help blend the end of the sprue (cable housing?) to the fuselage. When that had dried a minute or so, the other end of the sprue "B" was bent down a bit to try and mimic what is shown on the photo. Note that the sprue extends back over part of the exhaust: When all is dry, some Vallejo putty filler is used to "fair in" the sprue to the fuselage. I am trying the Vallejo putty as an alternative to my usual go-to for these types of filling, Perfect Plastic Putty. While PPP works great, it has one major problem -- it dries out in the tube after being opened. The Vallejo seems to work about the same, but has a much better (and much finer) applicator tip. Time will tell about the life in the tube aspects. Well, we're off to a rousing start on a rarely, if ever, seen model. I hope you'll all pull up a chair as we figure out how to build this one. Comments, kibitzing and even personal insults are welcome. Ed