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 The  Mc Donnell FH-1 Phantom was a very important jet fighter aircraft developed for service aboard US Navy carriers. The development of this very first carrier-borne jet fighter had begun already before the end of WW2.  The FH-1 had several first under its belt, the first jet to land on a US carrier, the first jet to serve with the Marines, albeit for a restricted period only and even so it did persuade the Admiralty of the benefits of having and using jets from carrier decks. The type was also McDonnell's first successful undertaking with several more to come in its wake, such as the F2H Banshee for example, which would later become one of the most important carrier based jet fighters of the Korea War.  With only several of the kits available now, you have now possibly the very last chance to get your SH72297 model if you have missed it earlier. This kit set features the 1/72 Phantom airframes that took part in the Marine Phantoms display team (as also shown in to...

Let us share with you now a couple of images of Martin Pfeifer's latest build, the FH-1 Phantom (model kit no.SH72297), which was finished wearing a livery of the Marine Phantom display and aerobatics team (aka the Flying Leathernecks) with intriguing yellow trim.

   Yesterday, the team of Special Hobby managers got back from this year's Nuremberg Toy Fair only to find out, to their big surprise of course, that the employees hadn't been idle while they were away. Yes, extremely unusual, I have to say. Among other jobs well done, for instance, the new galvano type (which means electro plated metal) moulding tool for our new 1/72 FH-1 Phantom kit had been put to test, producing a set of fuselage runners. They comprise also the tail plane parts and a halved underbelly fuel tank. And what a unusual sight it was, a Phantom with such a large bulge on its tummy.

We have produced a couple of test shots from the FH-1 Phantom wing moulding tool. Yes, the tool still needs some decent debugging, as the moulds usualy do, but nothing serious nor far too much time-consuming. We feel we are on the right track now.

The first boxing of the FH-1 Phantom, which was the very first jet fighter of both the US Navy and the Marines, will comprise four marking schemes. For now, you can inspect the side profiles below.

The following boxarts have been approved for printing recently, they will adorn model kits that you may expect to be available later this year or very early in 2018.