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++Completed++ 1/48 Grand Phoenix FJ-4B Fury


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Gee this GB came around a bit quicker than I had hoped/planned for!

I had a hard time planning what I wanted to build, originally planned a Luftwaffe Sabre or Sabre Dog, Hartmann’s F-86 of JG 71 “Richthofen” does look fantastic!! Hmmmm a later project I think!!! :hmmm:

But then I can across the Grand Phoenix FJ-4B Fury, looks cool and plenty of resin, I just had to build it.

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(I bet no one noticed I had the wrong box photo here!!!)

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Not sure which scheme yet, the grey one certainly looks interesting....but I have 5 lovely resin Bullpups! :D

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I have just about finally finished the Heinkel so will start this one then.......hopefully! :whistle:

Oh I even managed to get a second one for next to nothing due to it missing decals.

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Hmmm I'd love to do one with the Bullpups, but the grey USN one has quite grabbed my interest.

No I think I'll stick to just one.......just have too many other project on the go or planned!!!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Ok I have been a bit slack with updating this and some of the other builds due to work......am away in the middle of nowhere again!!!

I took and uploaded some photos before I headed off.

Ok first things first....THIS ISN'T GOING TO BE AN EASY BUILD!!!!!

The resin and white metal parts are fine....but the plastic bit leave a lot to be desired! There are now locating pins on any to the parts which wouldn’t help anyway as there is some severe warping of the main fuselage! Plus to fit the new resin wheel well details lots of plastic had to be removed to get them to fit, especially with the wings.

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The nose wheel bay is just as bad and as you can see there is now a hole in the intake unfortunately, but there is quite a bit of work to do in that area yet so I’m not too worried about it.

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As you can see I've had to make taps to help align the fuselage, but I may have to do some more drastic measures to get it all to fit correctly!!!

The cockpit is amazing with lovely fine detail. I’ve started painting it as it well need to be fitted early on unfortunately.....and that will be fun! The wheel wells need to be painted white but to start with I’ve painted them Lt Grey, this I hope will help with shading and detailing that will need to be done later in the process.

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In the right photo the first step in the shodowing has been started.

I have a feeling this is going to be a difficult beast to build, but not impossible, once I can get the fuselage together I’ll be much happier.

Oh and I still not sure which colour scheme I’m going to build!

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  • 2 weeks later...

As mentioned elsewhere I have been a bit all over the place with work literally!! So modelling has had to take a back seat for a while!!

Ok I haven’t spent too much time on this as I needed to get a move on with the Turbo Mustang, but have managed a wee bit.

I have spent most of the time painting the cockpit and wheel wells, trying to bring them to life a bit. There's still quite a bit to go but they are starting to look quite nice.

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These need to be finished before I can tackle the huge job.....which it will be, of trying to get the fuselage together and sort-of straight! As mentioned earlier it is quite warped in places and the resin internals require some serious surgery to fit. Anyway something to worry about when I get back.

Off into the desert for two weeks of fun........... :doh:

:tumble:

oh and I decided to go with the Grey Navy scheme as well!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Looks very nice, if a little challenging! Makes me glad that I am using the Hobby Boss kit for mine! Good luck.

FF

You don't know the half of it.......if I had known I wouldn't bought this model.....now I know why they're so cheap! :fuyou_2:

Anyway, if it wasn't challenging it wouldn't be fun........ :wall:

Decided to progress some more on this beast, having a wee break from the Mustangs and after being away with work.

The cockpit tub was more or less finished along with the seat, which I’ll leave out for obvious reasons! The final detailing can what to almost the end.

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I was reading a review of this model (yes they had the same problems with it as I’m having and they were considering chucking it in the bin as well), and with luck it seems more often than not these aircraft were parked with the main gear doors closed. This will save a lot of grief as the fit of the main gear resin block is really bad...so doors up for me. I’ll still fit the plug as it will give some support and help with straightening the fuselage.

I didn’t take photos of the different stages of trying to join the fuselages together as if I had had a break I would have tufted it in the bin!! To say nothing fits was an understatement, plus of cause there are no locating pins or points for any of the assemblies!

After numerous test fits and massive amounts of work with the Dremel, I was ready to attempt to join the fuselage together. The undercarriage wells and the cockpit tub are all resin so they need to be super-glued in first, of cause their position were sort of guess work and fit was horrible. But with them in I could then work on getting the fuselage together. Lots of glue, muttering and tape later it was done.......you could drive a bus through some of the gaps around the cockpit!

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Weights were fitted (357’s lead slugs if I’m correct, not sure where I got them from... :whistle: ) and the nose intake and shroud was fitted as well as this also needs quite a bit of work to fit right, then lots of sanding.

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I managed to fine some excellent detailed photos which someone had kindly marked up with all the details of the FJ-4B, which are invaluable for this build. One of which showed these side scoops which are completely wrong on this model and the Hobby Boss one.

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It’s now starting to look like a Fury, though there is a bit of filler required, surprisingly less than I first imagined.

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The wings will be next and they don’t fit either plus one is a bit warped, though they will be a lot easier than the fuselage! With that main bit of work over it should be a nice a quick build from there. :pray:

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thanks guys, she certainly isn't making life/building easy at all. This is not a model for the faint hearted!!

Pressing on.....

The fuselage needed additional filling and tiding up, sort of everywhere. Again I was in luck as the main nose gear door like the main gear door is more often than not closed while on the ground, which is lucky as the cover didn’t fit as well! The second fuselage air scoop was corrected as well.

With all the sanding and the bit of filling I needed to re-scribe lost panel lines, a job I just hate. But I needed to get some of these out of the way before the wings went on. The panel lines are very fine grooves in most cases, but where the moulding is poor they actually become raised!!!

Now the wings.........

If anyone is silly enough to build one of these (wait that’s me and I have a second one in the stash as well!!) then may I suggest the following way to do this and not the usual or normal way. It will save you a lot of grief!!

Pin the two wings together first with a couple of plastic/sprue spars set at the correct width, but remember the wings have a very slight dihedral (3°). Next remove the lower section of the fuselage where the wings fit. Then fit the joined wing section to the main fuselage, it’s now very easy to get everything nice a square plus a good secure join. Now finally re-fit the lower fuselage section that was removed and adjust to fit. This way everything will fit nice and easily and you won’t want to chuck the whole thing in the bin!

Or you can do it as per instructions and test you cursing skills.....like I did! Again nothing fitted correctly so using a jig, two types of plastic glue and super glue the wings were finally on....never again!

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From the top things didn’t look bad, underneath isn’t flash.

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Again for the actual joins there isn’t an awful lot of filler required.

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There is however two rather large areas under the wing, as can be seen that did. The wing in both these areas is a bit concave, it was quite a bit larger at first but the resin wheel well plugs helped fix that.

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Its a bit thick and uneven but will clean up ok, then just a final touch-up and it will be sorted.

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Oh and I have to clean up this mess as well, because nothing fitted again (is that an echo I here...) I had to make the intake a lot shorter, plus grind away most of the lower section, so a bit of filler is required!

Once I get these messes cleaned up there’s not an awful lot left to do, all the hard work is done and with luck should go smoothly and quickly. Even though the model is complete rubbish, I do love the look of the aircraft.

The two ultimate versions of each type side by side!

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Opps nearly forgot....the landing gear is mostly rubbish...well the plastic bit are, so am going to replace with a metal set from SAC.

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Nice work Rich. :)

I can see Tamiya and Hasegawa shaking with fear watching when they see this kit!

Sean

Laughing there heads off more like that someone was silly enough to attempt to build one!

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Ok this build is starting to fly now, should have most of the main painting done before I go off to work again.

Well lots more sanding has taken place plus some panel re-scribing – yuck!

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Fitted the tail pipe and housing plus sorted out the elevators, these won’t be fitted until the painting is completed. This should make life a bit easier with the colour scheme chosen.

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Unusual for me there will be no weapons fitted...... Just a single drop tank and a pylon for the pod for the target rig. I have a photo of the actual aircraft I’m building in this configuration so will leave it as so. I probably won’t even fit the in-flight refuelling probe as I have no pictures of a VU-7 aircraft fitted with one. Though they were a simple thing to fit and remove.

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All the photos I have plus additional info show the drop tanks had a pretty hard life, especially with the utility squadrons, so mines going to be pretty beaten up as well. I have “pre-dented” and work on it a bit more once it’s painted. There are additional set of holes in the tank as I got the position wrong for the pins the first time.....but looking at photos it has to sit even further forward! I may have to use the spare tank now. The real problem I have is that the drawings of the aircraft and tank positions don’t match up with the photos....so I guess the photos win......out with the drill!

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It now looks like a real Fury and despite the dramas with the fit and build quality I’m really starting to like this aircraft very much. It certainly looks the part, can’t wait to finish it!

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ok this is what I mean about the drop tank position on the pylon and in relationship to the wing.

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LH photos are per drawings and RH photos are per actual photos on the tank position, big difference!!

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Just spotted this one Rich, sorry I've missed it until now. I don't know how it didn't make its maiden flight into the bin! Still you are making splendid progress now. I applaud your colour choice as well, it looks so cool in Engine Grey and yellow.

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all right, a quick update, this will be the last for a couple of weeks as I'm off into the desert again.......what a fun life!!

Ok I had every intention to have started painting by now, but as usual I get distracted with the details.

A few things needed to be done.

There s a fuel dump pipe that always seems to get missed which needed to be added to the tail, so a small bit of aluminium tube fixed that.

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Then I found out that there was a small set of 3 landing lights mounted in the lower lip of the intake....I know its really small and at first I wasn’t going to add it. But it just bugged me so in it went....for all that trouble you can only sort of see two of the lights...well it won’t bug me anymore!

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Ok the space behind the seat in the cockpit was very empty, on the real aircraft this area is very busy. So after two attempts and many visits to all the photos I could find I came up with this.

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I had to make the screw as I had nothing in the spares box...it’s a wee bit big but looks the part. There’s also a tiny telephone like cable which runs from the seat to the bulkhead in the canopy. That had to be made as well.

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I had originally planned to have the canopy closed, but with all this extra work I may have to leave it open.......just hope I didn't cut the screw too short!!!!

Well will have a couple of weeks to think about what needs to be done, but with luck...and no additional mods it will be painting time next...can’t wait!

cheers

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thanks, I wish I’d seen those photos of the intakes before I had put them on as well, would have made life easier! I'm not sure what the ones on the HB model are like. For a while I really wished I had gotten the HB version of this aircraft.

The one I'm building is really hard work, but most of it’s behind me now and it's turning out not too bad.

It's another week before I get home and then it's only two week before I start back my on my 3/1 shift pattern so have to get this baby done ASAP.

Hopefully the SAC undercarriage shows up in time.....the supplied one in rubbish!

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  • 2 weeks later...

well am back home after what seems forever and time is fast running out so I’d better get stuck in, not much time left! :frantic:

I have finished up the cockpit to a stage where I can close it up for painting, the front section didn’t fit....am not surprised! Once glued in it took a bit of filler to get it to bleed in correctly, the main section isn’t the best fit either but that will come off after painting so that the final bits of the cockpit can be done. Still not sure if the canopy will be open or closed....will wait and see how it all looks.

Just a wee bit of tiding up on the rest of the model them masking time, first up the undercoat. I’ll be painting this in acrylics and there will be lots of masking, so to stop the top coats lifting plus I needed a light colour for the yellow to go on top. So everything (well almost, I forgot a couple of bits :doh: !!!) was given a coat of Lt Grey enamel. Then the leading edges of the wings and rudder were masked and painted aluminium, them a coat of sealant.

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Next up was the Chrome Yellow, the fuselage and leading edges were masked up ready for painting. Because I wanted the fuselage grey to be even everything was masked to help prevent overspray. For the main colour I’m using for the first time Model Masters (Testors) Acrylics and I have to say they are amazing!!! They thin out easily and go on very smoothly and seem to be quite a bit tougher than Tamiya on Gunze acrylics, was very impressed!

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Next was the International Orange, this required a lot of careful masking and took ages to get right so It would look even.

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The all the masking was removed and the newly painted areas masked ready for the Gunship Grey.

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Then the masks came off...

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.....and the batteries went flat in the camera. :P

But it looks amazing, just some really minor tough ups to do (may get away with just polishing them out, yap over spray :doh:) and the clear can go on, probably tomorrow.

The only problem I have is the new SAC undercarriage I ordered to replace the crap supplied one has gone walkabout. USPS for some reason has sent it to Luxembourg, it's even cleared customs there!!! I know some Americans are known to be a bit geographically challenged bit this is ridiculous, the tracking address even shows Australia!!! :wall: So to finish in time I’ll have to use the crap set and fit the SAC one once it finally arrives!

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