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SWORD releasing 1/73 FJ Furys


jpk

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Received my Sword FJ-2 today! From a quick look in the box I have a few bullet points:

 

1. Engraved panel lines don't look half as deep as they seem to be in shots I've seen.

2. Resin seat looks really nice.

3. Minor lumps and shape issues, but all easily put right (as previously discussed)

4. Wing walkway decals appear a bit too thin, but again nothing major.

5. It looks like a quality kit and great value!

6. Don't expect me to have mine finished anytime soon. I will be taking my time and enjoying this one.

 

:yes:

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1 hour ago, Sabrejet said:

Received my Sword FJ-2 today! From a quick look in the box I have a few bullet points:

 

1. Engraved panel lines don't look half as deep as they seem to be in shots I've seen.

2. Resin seat looks really nice.

3. Minor lumps and shape issues, but all easily put right (as previously discussed)

4. Wing walkway decals appear a bit too thin, but again nothing major.

5. It looks like a quality kit and great value!

6. Don't expect me to have mine finished anytime soon. I will be taking my time and enjoying this one.

 

:yes:

Oh, you dirty dog- I'm still waiting for mine to arrive  in the mail! Glad to hear it's a good one, as I have yet to do a bare metal model and I've just gotta do a Marine VMF-235 Fury!

Mike

 

https://it.pinterest.com/pin/328410997806159830/

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On 10/6/2017 at 7:38 AM, RidgeRunner said:

Finally, but where is the FJ-3???? ;)

When I ordered my FJ-2s, Peter at Modelimex said the other Furies will be out next month.

 

I really (!) enjoy building the Sword jets (as opposed to some "contrasting" opinions here), and am looking forward to adding several more Furies to my stash!

 

Gene K

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I don't know much about the FJ family but as a matter of interest, is the wing correct? The reason I ask is that photos 'seem' to indicate a wing root wedge as fitted to the 6-3 wings? Why did Sword miss this opportunity with the slats? I have few kits to rob the slats from, just wondering the best method to go about this? On the other hand I could be talking tripe?

 

Stuart 

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@Tailspin Turtle, an interesting link but little bells are ringing with this kit.

 

I, like @Sabrejet, got myself the new kit today and made straight for the wing. Now I haven't measured anything but as feared, this kit looks like it has the 6-3 wing, so looks like the wings will need to be sorted.

 

Stuart

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42 minutes ago, Courageous said:

@Tailspin Turtle, an interesting link but little bells are ringing with this kit.

 

I, like @Sabrejet, got myself the new kit today and made straight for the wing. Now I haven't measured anything but as feared, this kit looks like it has the 6-3 wing, so looks like the wings will need to be sorted.

 

Stuart

Here we go, again! Looks like we will have to perform the commonly accepted procedure to make a slatted non 6-3 wing- take the slats from an Academy/Hobbycraft Sabre, remove the 6-3 section from the Sword wing, and graft the slat well and slats onto it, rescribing the slats to match the wing fold. Or, if you have them, I guess you could remove the slat sections form an Airfix or Hasegawa F-86D- you would still need to make the slat wells, though, (Pretty expensive and wasteful!) or use the slats/wells from a Cutting Edge Sabre conversion set, but they are LONG OOP! You would still have to remove Sword  6-3 extension, however. I would gladly forgo cockpit detailing and/or resin bits for a proper slatted wing for any F-86 or FJ-2 kit. I do have two Airfix and two Hasegawa D's as well as two Cutting Edge slat sets that I have been hoarding all these years,as well as three Academy/HC Sabres, but it's a shame a company like Sword that certainly has the ability to mold a proper wing with positionable slats couldn't do this, especially on an aircraft that almost always had the slats deployed while on the ground. I mean, I'm sure we  can all

do the surgery, but with today's state-of-the-part mold-making capability, a modeler shouldn't have to! (That scraping sound you hear is me putting my soapbox away!)  I'm still waiting for my kit to arrive so I can see for myself what you all have discovered and commented upon.

 

(Like Roseanne Rosanna-Danna used to say on Saturday Night Live- "It's always sumthin'!"

Mike

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12 minutes ago, Courageous said:

You love your little soapbox. ;)

 

Ha! I would much rather be building than  blustering, Stuart! Gotta go check the mailbox to see if my FJ-2 has finally arrived, so I can see what all the furor is about! Regards!

Mike

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1 hour ago, Courageous said:

If I'm talking out of butt, I'm sure I'll be told ;). Also I got Brengun's A-36 1/72 to look into, another one of those 'hot potatoes'...:angrysoapbox.sml:

 

Stuart

Whoo boy- tell me about it! Is this a great hobby or what?

Mike

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I have not ordered my FJ-3 but the FJ-2 should be waiting for me when I get back home from out of town tomorrow.  I have always understood that because the FJ-3 used a more powerful engine than the -2 that the intake on the -3 should be bigger than the intake on the -2.  Having seen the sprue shots earlier, the intakes seem to be the same size.  When somebody has both versions at hand, could they please check the size of the intakes?  Maybe a picture of the front of the two different fuselages to show if there is any difference in the size of the intake.

Later,

Dave

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I now have all three kits in hand and they are lovely to behold.

 

The surfaces and panel lines are engraved and petite. All the detail parts such as the pitot look as close to scale as you can probably do in 1/72. I haven't checked the fit except for fuselage halves and the wings but so far, so good. The canopy is injection molded in two pieces and clear.

 

The FJ-2 fuselage and wing are not the same, correctly, as the FJ-3's. The FJ-3s have a slightly deeper inlet and forward lower fuselage and a different air scoop on the upper fuselage aft of the break. The FJ-3s have a cambered leading-edge wing that has a representation of the 6-3 planform change that differentiates it from the -2 and blue FJ-3s slatted wing, which were similar to the F-86E's and early F's. (Remarkably, the FJ-3 wings have three of the four barricade snaggers—these are teeny things in 1/72—on the leading edge of each wing, missing only the most outboard one.) They also have alternative rudders and horizontal stabilizers with the external ribbing on the trailing edge whereas the FJ-2 kit does not.

 

The fuselage is about 1/4" too long. Theoretically you could take 1/8" out of the aft fuselage (but you can't do it at the break as I had hoped) and about 1/8" off the inlet. I'm for certain going to forget sectioning the aft fuselage. However, in my opinion, the downward curve in the top of the fuselage forward of the windscreen is incorrect (it needs to curve down more) and the bottom of the intake curves a bit forward and shouldn't. There appears to be enough plastic in both places to get closer to what I think is correct.

 

The only difference besides decals between the -3 and the -3M kits is that the latter has two Sidewinders and the requisite pylons. Both have the inflight refueling probe.

 

Getting enough weight in the nose to keep it from tail sitting might be interesting. A little scraping of the upper fuselage at the forward end of the windscreen appears to be required for a good fit. My guess is that putting the nose gear together (seven pieces!) might need to be altered from the instructions with respect to the location of the nose-wheel yoke, which may be too deep otherwise by a teeny bit. I'm pretty sure that the top of the nose gear door should be inside the forward end of the wheel well when it was extended.

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