F2H-2N Banshee Nightfighter

Sword, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Mark Davies

Sword's 1/72 scale F2H-2N Banshee is available online from Squadron.com

The Banshee was a development of the FH Phantom, with design planning under way before the Phantom even went into production. It had been planned to incorporate as many Phantom components as possible in the Banshee’s design, but operational demands for heavier armament, more fuel, and other improvements all dictated a design increasingly removed from the Phantom.
   
More powerful engines and 20-mm cannons in place of .50”machine guns led to a larger airframe. Unlike the Phantom, the Banshee was equipped with an ejection-seat and cockpit pressurization, and replaced pneumatic systems with electrical ones. However, the Banshee retained sufficient similarities to the Phantom to help McDonnell complete the first F2H-1 in August 1948; only three months after the last FH-1 left the production line.

The more capable F2H-2 soon followed with more powerful engines and improved performance. This variant had a strengthened wing with provision for 200 gal (760 l) detachable wingtip fuel tanks. Four weapon pylons were added to each wing to carry 250-lb bombs and 5” unguided rockets, whilst the F2H-2B was modified to carry a tactical nuclear weapon. The F2H-2N was a night-fighter variant with a 2’10”longer nose enclosing radar, and with the cannons relocated further back behind the radome. 

The F2H-2P photoreconnaissance version had with six cameras housed in an extended nose in place of the fighter’s cannons; making it 2’5” longer. It was the USN’s first jet-powered reconnaissance aircraft. The F2H-2Pproved to be a most useful photo-reconnaissance platform due to its relatively long range for a jet aircraft, a maximum operational altitude of 48,500 feet, and good speed. All were factors that made it difficult for other combat aircraft the early 1950s era to intercept it.

The last major development was the F2H-3 & 4, radar-equipped all-weather variants with an 8’longer fuselage than the F2H-2 to carry more fuel, a relocated tailplane moved down from the tailfin to the fuselage with added dihedral. In the F2H-3 & 4, the cannons were mounted further aft and they had an increased weapons payload with eight pylons in total.

A far more detailed background to the F2H Banshee and its history can be found at Wikipedia.

Previous 1/72 Scale F2H Banshee Kits

I am aware of four previous F2H kits in “The One True Scale”. The Airfix/MPC offered alternative noses for the F2H-2 and F2H-2P. Pro Resin offered a F2H-2/2B in one boxing and a F2H-2N night-fighter in another. Modelcraft/Academy offers the later and larger F2H-3. Falcon also offered a vac-form conversion to convert the Airfix F2H-2 to a F2H-3. Sword released modern limited-run kits of the F2H-2 and F2H-2P early last year.

The Airfix kit was a reasonable kit for its day, with raised detail and first released in 1980. The Pro Resin kits are well detailed with fine recessed panel lines and PE parts, and are quite good quality overall. They date from late 2011/early 2012. The Hobbycraft kit has limited and simplified detail (although Obscureco make a nice resin cockpit/nose wheel-well set for it), and has reasonable recessed panel lines. It dates from around the mid-1980’s. The new Sword F2H-2 and F2H2P  are both excellent limited run kits, and would be the first choice of most for these versions.

Sword’s F2H-2 probably killed off much of Pro-resin’s Banshee market due to its much lower price and greater distribution. Now Sword has driven what might be the last nail into the Pro-Resin Banshee coffin by releasing a night-fighter Banshee, as this was the last part of the Banshee market Pro-resin still had to itself.

Contents

The kit comes in an end-opening box with digital artwork on the front. The plastic parts and decals come in a zip-lock bag, with the clear, resin, and coloured PE parts further enclosed in small bags of their own.

The instructions provide a parts map and easy to follow diagrammatic assembly format. The parts map blanks out some un-required F2H-2P parts, but does not do so for others such as the bombs and rockets that are included. The instructional diagrams are well drawn, and in fact are far better than some mainstream brands. There is also a brief history of the aircraft. Generic paint colours are given in Czech and English, with all other text in English.

The painting and decal guides use adequate black & white four-view shaded drawings in the instructions and colour profiles on the rear of the box. I feel that Sword could do better here, and describe the correct colours using USN names, FS-595 equivalents, and/or model paint range cross-references.

The Kit

It is a typical Sword kit with cleanly moulded parts, very fine surface detail, and narrow sprue gates. There is just a little flash in places, but this is easy to deal with. Parts break down is largely conventional for the type.

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Thumbnail panels:

There is a styrene control column and cockpit tub, the consoles of which are garnished with PE, whilst the floor is covered by a PE floor incorporating rudder pedals and footholds. The styrene tub needs to have some raised moulded detail removed in order to receive these PE items. PE also provides the upper portion of the rear cockpit bulkhead.

The instrument panel is PE and topped by a styrene housing for the camera viewing lens. PE belts, placards, and firing handles garnish the resin ejection-seat, which also has PE leg restraints. There is a choice of styrene or PE cockpit coaming (the latter needs rolling into shape). Two PE rails fit to the inside of the fuselage walls at the top-rear of the cockpit opening. I think that the real canopy rides in these, enabling it to slide up and towards the rear when opened. 

Cockpit detail is a huge advance on the old Airfix kit; and I feel that whilst Pro Resin’s cockpit may actually have slightly more detail, the effect of Sword’s coloured PE results in a better looking cockpit overall. 

This kit is uses the same main sprues as the F2H-2P photo-recon kit, so unlike the F2H-2 fighter-bomber boxing, the fuselage halves are sectioned just ahead of the cockpit. The longer radar-equipped night-fighter nose halves come on their own small sprue, and are a butt-fit to the main fuselage. The gun-ports have slight hollows moulded in place, but many will opt to drill these out a little deeper for a more realistic appearance.

The instructions would have you add the nose section to the remainder of the fuselage as a sub-component. However, unless you are very sure of a perfect fit with no step in the join, I would suggest fitting each nose section to its fuselage half separately before joining the fuselage and nose. The instructions do advise to add ballast between the camera nose and cockpit to avoid a tail-sitter, but not how much. The fuselage halves enclose the arrestor hook bay, resin nose-wheel bay, and cockpit subassembly. The arrestor hook is nicely done, and can be modelled lowered if whished.

The inner lining of the engine intakes are cast separately from the wing halves. This ensures that internal intake ducts are seamless, and they have a nice compressor face cast in their rear. The exhaust ducts are moulded with the wings, into which resin turbine sections fit. The wingtip tanks are separate items and include four small PE inspection plates to fit to each. Two payload pylons are also included.

The main wheel-wells are very small openings, as the larger doors over the wheels outboard of the wing-fold are moulded closed (per the original, in general). The small open portions include some detail and cleverly moulded sidewalls that achieve an undercut effect. The undercarriage legs are nicely done and quite adequate for the scale, with resin main-wheels replacing the slightly off-centre items included on the sprues. There are coloured PE faces for the inside of two of the styrene undercarriage doors, and PE tie-down hooks for the main-legs. 

Not much remains to mention; obviously, there is the tailplane, a pitot and nose undercarriage, all of which look fine. The two-piece canopy is clear and thin, and can be modelled open or closed. The kit includes PE parts that ride in the internal canopy slide tracks mentioned earlier. These raise the front of the canopy to the level of the fuselage rear decking as it slides backwards. Some additional parts form the internal framing of the canopy, and what I think is the seat catapult safety pin cable reel.

Finally, there is what I think is a small motor and associated gearbox to open the canopy that sits on the fuselage rear decking just under the back part of the canopy.

Overall, I should think that this kit should be a simple and enjoyable one to build.

Marking Options

Techmod prints the decals, and these are well registered with what appears to be good opacity. I am sure they will prove to be excellent to apply based on my experience of this brand.

The subjects covered are:

• 123300, “Iron Man”, VF-82, USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39), 1954.

• 123307, VC-4, USS F.D.Roosevelt (CVB-42), October 1950.

Sword’s F2H-2N Banshee kit has very nice surface and cockpit detail. It is well engineered, all components are produced to high standards, and it looks to be straightforward to build. I think that it also represents excellent value from the right supplier.

In many ways, it is Sword at its best, and equals or even surpasses the much more expensive Pro Resin kit. It definitely has the potential to produce most attractive and interesting model, and I happily recommend it.

Thanks to Sword Models for this review sample.

Review Text & Blue Background Images Copyright © 2015 by Mark Davies
Page Created 19 October, 2015
Last updated 19 October, 2015

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