FH-1 Phantom 1/72 Special Hobby

    McDonnell FH-1 Phantom is not one of the famous types that were produced in large numbers. It is an aircraft from the early jet era, so the aircraft’s performance was not too high. The maiden flight of the prototype was in 1945. A year later the FH-1 became the first jet in operational service on an aircraft carrier. Another year later, the Phantoms were assigned to the VMF-122, becoming the first US-Marines unit to operate jet-powered machines. However, the Phantoms were soon replaced by more powerful types such as the FH-2 Banshee and F-9 Panther. This meant that they did not participate in the Korean conflict.
Not surprisingly, the Phantom is not in focus of attention of either modelers or kit manufacturers. Special Hobby’s kit is the only one available on the market. I purchased it with great bargain price.

    The build was a pleasant surprise for me. It is a very nice short run. You can see that the kit makers really put a lot of effort into it. The parts of the model contain locks, so everything should fit together nicely. However, the short-run technology degrades this a bit and every part has to be cleaned up properly as we commonly do. The only point which doesn´t fit are nozzles in the fuselage. I also made the new position lights as there were bubbles in the original clear parts.
    Box offers markings of Phantoms from VMF-122. My choice was machine with code LC-2 for which I found nice color picture. Unfortunately, the decals are disappointing here and the US markings need to be replaced or retouched, as the red stripes in the insignia are not opaque due to lack of white base.