Corey in Colorado

Yeah, It’s a shame that the -3 kit is delayed, that’s the one I was really excited about. I am enjoying the -2 despite the Kitty Hawkisms (improved over the Banshee.).

I only wish I had thought to tackle this problem earlier! I guess my mind was focused on other things? Lol

I have a spare Kitty Hawk Fury wing and I have started trying the strip and filler method. Preserving detail is definitely a problem, but I’m taking it slow and using Tamiya tape to try to mask as much as possible. I’ll see how the test looks before I proceed on my model. I think if I had thought of this earlier in my build, I would have cut the leading edges off and repositioned them. This would have been one more complication though, in trying to build the wings extended. corey

I’m curious to hear folks’ opinions on the leading edges of Kitty Hawk’s FJ-2. There aren’t a whole lot of reference photos of the leading edges with the slats extended. From the few I’ve looked at however, the step down from upper surface of the wing to leading edge underneath the slat seems exaggerated on the kit. On the real aircraft, I believe the slat just sits on top of the upper wing skin, with no “slat well” (same as the F-86 and the A-4.) Do you folks agree with my assessment? Unfortunately I didn’t think to correct this until late in my build, but I’m exploring some ways to fill the step. thanks! Corey

I agree with your point that there probably is not going to be aftermarket for the HpH B-52. However, G-factor released some excellent brass landing gear for the HpH F7F and SB2C, so technically, I have seen aftermarket for an HpH kit. :) corey

Looks like Eduard is to release masks and some photo etch for the Fury. Will be interesting to see what’s included in the photo etch.

Great drawings, thanks for posting those

Kursad from Caracal is working on a Fury decal project right now. Whether it will be dedicated FJ-2 and FJ-3 sheets, or a combination -2/-3 sheet remains to be seen. Here is the thread over at ARC: http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/310660-cd48171-148-fj-2-fury/ @Tailspin Turtle and @Sabrejet, thank you for the replies regarding the tailhook doors. @Jon Kunac-Tabinor I’ve placed an order for several of the Hypersonic Fury tail feather sets. I’m pretty excited to use them on my model. I’m disappointed how the nose gear is going together on my Fury. It’s very fiddly and doesn’t appear to be very strong. The attachment to the nose gear well doesn’t fit very well either and also requires the nose gear to be installed when the fuselage halves are joined. I’m wondering if anyone else who is building this kit has found an alternative installation for the nose gear. It also appears that the nose gear oleo is fully compressed, so I wonder if that’s going to affect the stance. I’m currently thinking of either rebuilding the nose gear or using an alternative nose gear from another kit. For the weird cockpit color in the Fury, I’ve tried using AK Russian Cockpit Turquoise RC 206 and then lightening it. I’ll post some pictures when I’m done with the cockpit. corey

I’ve been making slow but steady progress on my Kitty Hawk FJ-2. I have a question regarding the tailhook doors that perhaps @Sabrejet and/or @Tailspin Turtle might be able to answer. Were these doors removed from some Furys? I’ve found a number of photos in the Ginter FJ-3 book that seem to show at least some of the doors removed. Especially on aircraft deployed on carriers. Was this only applicable to FJ-3’s? In classic Kitty Hawk style, the tailhook doors are designed to be modeled open. The doors are smaller than the hook well and just “float” in space if one wants to model them closed. Leaving them off would be an easy alternative to either closing the doors or dropping the tailhook. When parked, how often was the tailhook dropped? It seems like sometimes the hook was dropped, but most of the time the hook was up when parked. Any idea behind the procedures on hook position when parked? thanks for any insight, Corey

I just compared my KH -2 fuselage to the CA -3 and they match fairly close. Not sure the KH kit is based on the CA kit, but the size and shape of the fuselage at least are close. i just took a look at Hannants and Sprue Bro’s, they both carry an Aires cockpit for the Hobby Boss -4B. I bet the seat is similar to the one in the GP kit.

I forgot that I had the Collect Aire kit (thanks for reminding me!) so I waded (almost literally) into the stash to find it. I lined up all my potential Fury ejection seats: KH, GP, CA and a seat from Pavla (which is labeled for Banshee and FJ-4 but I think is mostly suitable for the Banshee.). The Kitty Hawk seat is quite a bit larger than all the other seats. The rest of the other seats are similar in size. I think the GP seat is the best choice in my collection.

I think the Kitty Hawk seat is over-scale and the cockpit tub was designed around it. That’s why the other seats are too narrow. I plan on using the GP seats, and maybe jacking them up slightly with sheet styrene. Interestingly, I found the cockpit on the Kitty Hawk Banshee to be under-scale and ended up rebuilding it to a more realistic size. corey

Could still be coming. Or not. We’ll know for sure when it arrives. All their other stuff seems to arrive that way.

I wouldn’t worry too much about not hearing about progress on this kit. Previous Xuntong/Bobcat kits have been announced then pop up much later. I get the feeling they operate under radio silence. Their recent Firebar/Brewer and Beagle kits popped up after long periods without an update. As to other things they might be working on, they at one point announced a Tupolev SB-2, which would be cool. The Counter Invader would probably sell better though.

I wish they hadn’t designed the wings in two parts. When they did that on the Banshee, they left little means to build the wings extended. It wasn’t fun getting the wings built correctly. corey