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F2H-3/-4 Banshee VF-11 "Red Rippers" | U.S. Navy I finished this on August 11, 2019. It is the 1991 boxing of Hobbycraft's F2H-3 (Big Banshee). The original decals were terrible (see my WIP for details), and I was fortunate enough to find decals from the 1998 boxing on ebay to complete the dark blue Banshee I always wanted to do. I had to scratch build some details on the outside, and added to the very inaccurate seat to make it at least a little more realistic. I also cut the wheel off of the nose gear and re-glued it 180 degrees to try and make it look more like the -3 gear since Hobbycraft put the -1/-2 gear in the kit (many thanks to @Tailspin Turtle for putting me on the right path early on; I may have missed it until it was too late). In general the kit was fairly well engineered despite the inaccuracies with the nose gear and cockpit and a complete lack of landing gear bay detail. I had little seam work to do along the fuselage and the wings fit reasonably well. The wings had a bit of a step, but I just positioned them so that the step was along the bottom. I black based the paint, marbling it with gray and light brown, to give a hint of sun-fading and general paint wear. After the decals were on and sealed, I did some light salt weathering to match reference photos that I put in my WIP). I think the combination made an accurate depiction of what I saw in my reference photos. It is also very hard to capture in pictures. Lots and lots of thanks to @Tailspin Turtle and @Pat C for helping me out with the details! Finishing: Seams filled with CA (superglue) Paints: Mr. Surfacer 1500 Black base > marble coat of Mr. Color Engine Gray, and highlighted with Testors Gunship Gray (darkened with a drop of black), Mr Color Wood Brown, and Testors Rust > Testors FS15042 Decanted from spray can > 2 coats of Alclad Aqua Gloss (Hand brushed) > 2 coats of Alclad Aqua Gloss (hand brushed) as a decal sealer Decals: Kit decals from 1998 Hobbycraft boxing Weathering/Wear: Oil wash on the landing gears, Salt weathering with 5 parts decanted Testors Dark Sea Blue with 1 part Model Master Light Ghost Gray and thinned heavily. Scratch-built tail bumper, pitot tube and radar altimeters: More scratch building: Scratch-built cockpit detail: and seat: Thanks for looking! Questions, comments and constructive criticism always welcomed!

Hello mates! I like tigers and cats made in USA. One can see. F9F-2 Panther of ATU-206 at NAS Pensacola ca. 1956. Hasegawa 1:72. I built this 2001. Hase didn't provide a number 53 for the rudder. The AC in front have them. There are differences in colors and sizes of insignia, not all have the same standard, AC in front grey flaps. 30 and 60 have big insignia. 53 with a small one is not in this common licensed pic. But there are, a very nice clean 53 in formation too, there are white flaps.... Cheers, Thomas