North American Fury prototype XFJ-1 (SIGA 1/72 plastic)

[John R]

North American's first jet. I think that the basic idea was for a Mustang with a jet engine.

It started as a contemporary of the Air Force's XP-86 but that was abandoned in favour of the swept wing version. The Navy, however, were afraid of using a swept wing a/c on a carrier so decided to stay with the straight wing. It was not a success and only served with one carrier squadron before being relegated to the reserves.

The model was made from a SIGA kit (circa 1997) that I picked up cheap some time ago thinking that it was the only kit available. I think that I would have done better starting with the Special Hobby version.

Modifications to return it to prototype configuration consisted of reshaping the tail end of the fuselage to remove a 'bullet', adding a fillet a the wing/fuselage joint and removing the leading edge extension at the wing root. The latter was complicated by being misled by a 'early' drawing of the project which showed it being present and not realising that it was not initially used on the actual a/c. I only realised this at the decalling stage so I leave you to imagine the fun I had removing it.

This was 99% complete a while ago but I could not find a satisfactory way of putting the lettering at the top of the fin. On a previous model I got around this by using white decal paper using white lettering surrounded by the colour of the a/c but this time I could not get a satisfactory match and so abandoned the idea before I had a nervous breakdown.

Not my greatest effort but it adds to my collection of early jets so it will have to do.

 

 

 

Seen here with its comtemporaries, The Vought Pirate and McDonnell Phantom

 

 

John

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Very nice Fury 

[RidgeRunner]

A nice build, John. Anything in 1/72, and especially if well made like this, deserves encouragement and praise. 

 

Martin