F2H-3/-4 Banshee, "Red Rippers", 1/72 Hobbycraft

[opus999]

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!

 

 

[Learstang]

Very sharp-looking Banjo you got there!

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[RMCS]

Excellent 

[stevej60]

That's a great build of one of my favourite aircraft.

[Spitfire31]

Very smart looking bird!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Great looking Banshee !  Great build to follow as well. 

[opus999]

2 hours ago, RMCS said:

Excellent 

 

1 hour ago, Spitfire31 said:

Very smart looking bird!

Thanks, guys, I'm quite happy with it!

 

1 hour ago, stevej60 said:

That's a great build of one of my favourite aircraft.

Thanks! One of my favorites too....

 

55 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Great looking Banshee !  Great build to follow as well. 

Thanks a lot! Glad you were able to follow along and that you enjoyed it!

[Toryu]

A very attractive build with the red trimming. Great model! I love US jets from the fifties, they were still in their infancy and look a bit clumsy.

[stevehnz]

Beautifully done, superb paint job. 👍

Steve.

[71chally]

Lovely little build there, especially impressed by the final paint finish which looks just so to me!

[Pat C]

That is looking very nice!!  Grey and white one next ?

 

Pat

[Tempestwulf]

Absolutely love the finish on the Banshee Opus, breaks up the monotonous blue real well. You should be real proud

[opus999]

16 hours ago, Toryu said:

A very attractive build with the red rimming. Great model! I love US jets from the fifties, they were still in their infancy and look a bit clumsy.

Thanks! I'm with you, I love those early jets with design cues from piston fighters!

 

14 hours ago, stevehnz said:

Beautifully done, superb paint job.

Thank you Steve! Glad you could look in on the build from time to time.

 

8 hours ago, 71chally said:

Lovely little build there, especially impressed by the final paint finish which looks just so to me!

Thank you -- I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

 

2 hours ago, Pat C said:

That is looking very nice!!  Grey and white one next ?

Thank you sir! After seeing your very nice Gray and White Banshee, I'm really tempted to do one now!

 

44 minutes ago, Tempestwulf said:

Absolutely love the finish on the Banshee Opus, breaks up the monotonous blue real well. You should be real proud

Thank you very much! I'm very pleased -- I was a little nervous whether the salt weathering would turn out right or not.  

[kapam]

Beautiful!

[mdauben]

That's a real Beauty!

[Nikola Topalov]

Hi Opus,

 

Great work! I love the subtle color variation which you have mentioned. Any more would be too much in my opinion. You obviously have an eye for color finesse and know when to stop. 

Great subject too! I didn't know about this plane.  Glad I saw your work

 

Cheers,

Nikola

[opus999]

3 hours ago, Nikola Topalov said:

Hi Opus,

 

Great work! I love the subtle color variation which you have mentioned. Any more would be too much in my opinion. You obviously have an eye for color finesse and know when to stop. 

Great subject too! I didn't know about this plane.  Glad I saw your work

 

Cheers,

Nikola

Thanks! Yes, I was very happy with how this turned out. I almost put a little more on over the salt, but stopped my self and it was the right choice.  I like to put the salt coat with enamel over a clear gloss acrylic base so if it goes bad, I can wipe off and start over.  The only trouble is the flat over coat on the gloss makes it difficult to judge how it looks, but the more I've done it, the easier it has become.

[CJP]

A really  neat Banshee model - love the Red Rippers markings - good job

CJP

[Cariado]

You've achieved a top result there! Very nice indeed.

I have the Academy kit of this and it is of exactly the same aircraft. Wonder if it's a reboxing of the Hobbycraft kit? 🤔

Interesting to hear you modified the nose undercarriage. It's caused me to read about all the modifications on the -3 and -4 and it's shed a light on the subject for me.

[Jackson Duvalier]

48 minutes ago, Cariado said:

Wonder if it's a reboxing of the Hobbycraft kit? 🤔

Yep.

 

Obscureco makes (made?) a resin cockpit set some might find de rigueur.  This model seems to look oll korrect without it.

 

Lovely bird as usual, Opus.