Is cool that you even thought of this design and cooler that its coming together.
Can mental picture 1950ish in blue flying from Midway class.
I spent a lot of time thinking about what scheme to do it in, the story will go that the USN needed a jet night-fighter as quickly as possible and North American's response was a jet version of their F-82. However, the Navy rejected it as being a bit too big for their carriers although the possibility of the Marines using it land based was kept in mind. But also attending the prototype's flying demonstration were officers from the USAAF (soon to be renamed USAF) who were a bit alarmed that the aircraft had just made their premium night-fighter totally obsolete. A month or so after the event the now USAF, ordered the type in large numbers without all the Navy equipment.
Which put North American in a bit of a spot, as they were max'ed out at their existing production plants. Coincidently, some RCAF officers were also in attendance at the flying demonstration and they had reported back to their superiors about the performance of the new aircraft, the upshot being, the Canadian Government of the time contacting North American about the possible purchase of a similar aircraft to what the USAF wanted.
An agreement was made that with Government help, a production line would be set up in Canada, and Canadair (which had ex-Canadian Vickers management people) was chosen to be the production center. But just as the line was set up and had built it's first aircraft, the USAF cancelled their order because more advanced aircraft were being built (and flown). The Canadian Government were a bit miffed about the outcome and to save face over the expenditure of much need funds wasted, decided to buy the aircraft parts that had been produced so far and finish them for the RCAF.
As a result, the aircraft went into service not long after and after an extensive test program, were issued to squadron service where they were used to patrol the far northern border. They were constantly upgraded, until the final version became as is shown below.
So my project will end up looking like this;
http://www.canmilair.com/products.asp?cat=63&pg=29and I have my decals for it already which have different serial numbers to these.