McDonnell Douglas F2H-4 Banshee

• This is the Tigger vacuform kit in 1/32 scale

• I had wanted a kit in this scale since I converted the old Hawk F2H-2 1/48 kit to a -4 many years ago. The conversion took much longer than me binning it after completion. Really no satisfaction with outcome (about 40 years ago). I also did a vacuform kit of the -4 about 30 years ago, but I have forgotten who produced it. Several moves necessitated a thinning of the herd and that build is no longer in the collection

• I finally sucked up the courage to give this vacuform kit a whirl to build a Banshee in a scale I prefer these days. I bought 3 different softcover books on the Banshee by Ginter and Kinsey to help with research for the project

• Tigger Wilkes produces this kit, but it does not come with any scale drawings. Therefore, I blew up outline drawings in 1/72 scale from a couple of sources. Overall the kit is fairly accurate in its shape.

• I had a Revell 1/32 Me-262 that volunteered its life so that I could complete the intakes and exhausts.
  -Much of the landing gear is pieced together from parts box and scratch building. The gear wells were all scratch built.

• The cockpit side walls and floor were scratch built. AnyZ dials and switches were used. The instrument dials and bezels are from Aeroscale and parts box

• In order to simplify the cockpit build, I assembled the fuselage prior to doing the cockpit. Kind of a “ship in a bottle” approach. I cut out the fuselage side walls and constructed all the interior parts and pieces before gluing the side walls back.
  -Wings, drop tanks were added and work on the tail section completed.

• the ejection seat was modified from a Hunter seat. The IP cover was made from heavy paper. The main canopy and windscreen were sectioned and windscreen placed and the canopy and canopy retraction system were dealt with. Again, the parts box came in handy as did soft wiring.
  -There were many episodes with filling and sanding before I was satisfied. Tamiya became flush with what I spent on primer!

• paints used are Tamiya, ModelMaster, AK RealColors
  -Decals for the flashes were done by painting insignia red over white decal paper. The canopy and windscreen were painted with the insignia red and white decal stripes added. All that after painting the kit GSB and Corogard added
  -decals came from the decal box- with the VF-11 squadron badge and boars head decals from a friend in my model club. The large P on the vertical tail was done with homemade mask.

• the armament racks were done in resin ( again thanks to a friend in the club)after modifying racks from the parts box.

• the tail hook came from the parts box also.

The later Banshee provided service to US Navy/ Marine squadrons and the Canadian Navy squadrons in the 50s and early 60s. I had an uncle that served in the Navy in the 50s and had some photos of different aircraft from the timeframe. I was a kid that was really enamored by the early jets of the 50s. Therefore, I am proud to have served in the Navy myself as a dentist, and salute all those that have served before and after.

16 additional images. Click to enlarge.