The F3H Demon is a classic example of 1950's Naval jet aircraft design, meaning an airframe with great potential in dire need of a half-decent engine.  The Demon was among the last of the Navy jets suffering this affliction, as the engines powering the Crusaders and Phantoms which replaced it were at last of sound design able to deliver proper performance.  Nevertheless, with some inspection it is not difficult for anyone to see in its shape and layout the classic features which were soon to be refined into those of the legendary F4H (later F-4) Phantom.

 Superscale sheet 72-658 provides clearly-printed, high-quality markings for two squadrons bearing long and distinctive histories in the US Navy.  The first is VF-14 Tophatters, the oldest fighter squadron in the US Navy.  Their famous tophat-in-a-white-circle emblem is beautifully printed on the stylized red chevron streamer which once adorned the fuselage of their Demons.  The aircraft is modex 108 BuNo 145288, which is shown in a color photo on page 78 of Steve Ginter's excellent book on the Demon.

 The other squadron is VF-61 Jolly Rogers, which enthusiasts will recognize as the original post-WWII Jolly Rogers before they took over VF-84 and later VF-103.  As with the rest of the sheet the decals are crisp and colorful, from high-quality printing, but there is one unforgivable heresy to any Jolly Rogers fan: the sheet has failed to offer any provision for the all-important waving-flag skull-and-crossbones emblem which must adorn the fuselage!  The decals are for modex 215, BuNo 143637 which is also shown in a color photo in the Ginter book on page 84, and the flag emblem is clearly present on this and all VF-61 Demons I have ever seen.  Fortunately the squadron emblem is available with the Emhar kit containing decals for VF-61 and VF-122, but even here the emblem is incorrect with oversized bones as it was curiously copied from an image of the squadron patch rather than the actual airframe markings.

 I originally questioned the decal for the markings on the aft part of the canopy frame, as it shows black stripes on a yellow field, while every photo I had seen of a Jolly Rogers Demon had shown it to be a yellow field with the entire edge trimmed in black chevrons.  Indeed this has been true of every single photo, until I took a closer look at the image on page 84 of the Ginter book, which is the actual aircraft this decal sheet is based on.  Indeed the photo does appear to confirm the decal sheet's accuracy, although why this bird had this area painted differently from every other one I have seen, in both published and unpublished photos, I have no idea.  So, perhaps this once, feel free to trust the decal sheet!

 Despite the lack of the Jolly Rogers emblem, this sheet is printed crisply with vibrant colors and the decals go on better than most I have seen from the Superscale line, and as good as many of the current high-quality decal companies.  On my sheet the white was printed out of register which is only a problem for the battle "E" and the "Primus Principus" banner applied under the tailcode of the VF-14 aircraft, but other sheets may not have this problem.

March 2006

 Highly recommended.

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