North American FJ-4B Fury***FINISHED***

[PeterB]

Being stuck in the house, it looks like I might now have time for another build and as Steve is building the FJ-2 Fury and Enzo the FJ-3, here is my somewhat different FJ-4B.

The USN took delivery of its first “proper” jet (ie not one of a number of hybrid prop and jet planes), the McDonnell FD later FH-1 Phantom in July 1947 followed a couple of years later by the Vought F6U Pirate and the North American FJ-1 Fury. None of these early straight winged jets were particularly successful and were only produced in small numbers – 60 Phantoms 1's, 30 Pirates, and 30 Fury's. However, by merging a modified FJ-1 fuselage with swept wings North American produced the highly successful F-86 Sabre (and yes that is a bit of a simplification).

 

Needless to say the USN liked the Sabre and wanted a shipboard version so NA produced a folding wing carrier version as the FJ-2, followed by the improved and more powerful FJ-3. The final version was the FJ-4 which was modified to increase the range. A 50% increase in fuel capacity resulted in a shorter and deeper fuselage, a new longer and and thinner wing with mid span ailerons and inboard high lift flaps, a wider track undercarriage and thinner tail surfaces. It also had 6 underwing pylons instead of the previous 4.

 

First arriving in 1955, 152 FJ-4 were followed by 222 FJ-4B ground attack versions. The FJ-4 was mainly used by the Marines, but the FJ-4B I will be modelling was used by 9 Navy and 3 Marine attack Squadrons. The inbuilt armament of 4 x 20mm cannon was supplemented by Sidewinders, bombs, drop tanks, buddy refuelling tanks or up to 5 ASM-N-7 Bullpup ground attack missiles (the sixth pylon had the control pod). It was also fitted with the LABS system for toss-bombing a nuke!

 

 

Source - Putnams US Navy Aircraft since 1911 by Swanborough and Bowers.

 

Emhar released their kit in 1989 and 3 or 4 years later I bought it and their slightly later (1992?) F3H Demon. It is rather basic and although the shape is pretty good a few detail modifications may need to be made based on the review by Tommy Thomason aka @Tailspin Turtle in the Naval Fighters volume 25. Guess TT will be able to help me if he remembers that far back (1993 I think)!

 

More as the build progresses. I will be using both the Naval Fighters volume and perhaps the sister "In Detail and Scale " volumes for reference., together perhaps with "American Fighters" by Angelucci.  I think I also have a Profile Publications on this as well.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[Tailspin Turtle]

Some more recent observations:

https://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2016/10/north-american-fj-44b-fury-notes.html

 

It also includes links to others...

[PeterB]

Thanks Tommy,

 

That will be most useful. I know I got a white metal u/c set for the Emhar Demon, but I don't think I got one for the Fury, which is a pity. I have ordered a bang seat, canopy and replacement tailpipe, but I will have to knock up a new intake I expect - as you said in your review many years ago it is terrible! The rescribing etc on the wings and brakes should be just about within my capabilities but the rudder could be a pain. Pity about the kit armament, 2 tanks and 4 Sidewinders for an attack plane is poor. I might add the odd Bullpup from the Hasegawa set, but I will have to scratch a control pod if I do. I was thinking of bombs and rocket pods, but nothing I have is suitable for this period I think as the "slicks" were not in use that early I imagine? I have a while until the bits arrive (if they do with the current situation) so I will have a dig in my various spares boxes.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited March 26, 2020 by PeterB

[PeterB]

Here is the plastic. At some point I sprayed both white and Light Gull Gray though it has faded a bit so I will have to do it again. Hopefully it is still under the 25% rule?

In his review Tommy @Tailspin Turtle mentioned various areas needing work. Firstly both the intake and exhaust provided in the kit have no depth so I ordered a replacement exhaust and have opened up the intake and extended it with thin plastic sheet - I will close it once I have painted it - might need to adjust the length to get some weight in the nose.

The other major faults include the extra airbrakes added to this attack version, which need rescribing and an extra strake adding, the rudder which had external framing on both sides but the kit only has it on the Port side, and the stabilisers which seemed to have been copied from North American drawings of a pre-production version which have not been altered to show the slightly shorter production version. I will make some stretched sprue and have a shot ot the brakes and rudder - the stabilisers simply need shortening and re-shaping I guess.

 

I will also have to do some rescribing on the wings it seems and of course the cockpit needs some work, but more of that later. Whilst digging about in my various spares boxes accumulated over 60+ years of modelling I came across some white drop tanks with red noses and the same type of fins on the rear as used on the Fury. I know I made vacform Scorpion, Cutlass and Banshee kits in the 1980's, and I have a vague recollection of a Fury - either Airmodel of Rareplanes though I cannot be absolutely certain - in any case I don't have it now, but I can't remember building anything else that would have that type of tank painted white!

 

More as and when.

 

Pete

Edited April 1, 2020 by PeterB

[PeterB]

As I sit in my study this sunny morning, I can see through the window the plants and shrubs beginning to bloom adding a nice splash of colour. The cats are chasing each other round the garden and up and down trees, and there are Blue Tits nesting in the bird box a couple of weeks earlier than last year I believe. It is almost possible to think it is just a normal Spring day, but sadly that is not the case - I hope you and your loved ones are all well!

 

As I mentioned earlier, the Fury had external ribs on both sides of the rudder, but the kit only has them on the Port side. In his review Tommy said the easiest way to fix this would be to cut out the rudder and replace it, but I have taken the lazy option and just scraped the surface down a bit with a knife, then stuck on some stretched sprue.

There are actually four though it is not clear in the above pic - I think the real thing may only have had three. It is a bit crude, but then so is the rest of the kit and I am not aiming for total accuracy. Next up I will sort out the strakes on the rear airbrakes and shorten the stabilisers, and then it is on to the cockpit. I have bought the old Airwaves etched set which I will use some of, and I have a Pavla ejection seat, which is quite nice if it can be made to fit. If not I will revert to the Airwaves detailing parts on the kit seat.

 

The heavy duty antibiotics I am taking for an ulcer in my gum are working though they also leave me a bit "woozy" at times, so progress this week on my various builds has been a bit slow - hopefully that will improve now as the Spitfire/Seafire GB is starting in just over a week!

 

Be safe.

 

Pete

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

4 hours ago, PeterB said:

 

There are actually four though it is not clear in the above pic - I think the real thing may only have had three

Yes three large and two small. I can send you a photo if needed. The -4 is one of my favorite aircraft. From top to bottom it goes large, large, small, small, and large. 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Here are two close ups. 
 

 

Dennis

[PeterB]

Thanks Dennis,

 

Pete

[CliffB]

18 hours ago, PeterB said:

As I sit in my study this sunny morning, I can see through the window the plants and shrubs beginning to bloom adding a nice splash of colour. The cats are chasing each other round the garden and up and down trees, and there are Blue Tits nesting in the bird box a couple of weeks earlier than last year I believe. It is almost possible to think it is just a normal Spring day, 

Yes, and I had the first wasp in my man cave too! 

 

Cheers

[rob85]

Good to see this under way Pete, looking forward to what you do.

 

Rob

[PeterB]

On 4/4/2020 at 7:23 AM, CliffB said:

Yes, and I had the first wasp in my man cave too! 

 

Cheers

Hi Cliff,

 

A few years back I opened up my shed after several months, and found a Wasp's nest inside - they make them out of a sort of paper by chewing little bits of wood I gather and it was rather impressive - bit like a mis-shaped Chinese lantern.

 

Pete

[PeterB]

Managed to find time to do a bit more work on the Fury, The kit cockpit consisted of a small floor, a plain plastic IP and a very crude seat. I have "improved" it slightly. Still a bit of touching up to do.

As with most if not all macro pics, it looks a bit better in real life. The seat is also painted and I will see how everything fits. In his review Tommy warned that the nose leg was fragile so I added a length of piano wire to give it a bit more strength, Unfortunately, the fork still fell off so I will have to work out a way to fix or replace it.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

 

Later-

 

I drilled the top of the fork and glued in a length of Gauge 6 piano wire (quite thick), and then glued a length of brass tube over the wire to butt against the fork. I will add a thicker length of plastic tube at the top and cut the scissors off the kit leg and glue them on later. The small nose door will also add support to the leg, as will the door retraction strut. The wheel itself should support the fork. Tommy said that an Aeroclub white metal ejector seat provided adequate nose ballast so it should not need more than 2 or 3 grams. In any case I will leave the intake off initially so I can always get more in. I should also be able to use the main wheel outer doors to support those legs so hopefully it will be OK.

Edited April 20, 2020 by PeterB

[PeterB]

I had intended to show you the fuselage interior once it was in place but got a little carried away with the liquid poly and ended up with the fuselage closed up.

For the record, I glued in the tub and IP, and once that was dry I tried the seat. I needed to take just a little off the bottom so that it did not stop the kit canopy locating - it is clear but rather thick so I may end up using the vacform one I have instead. After gluing the seat in I put a piece of very thin plastic card in behind it to close up the gap and I may add a little detail to that if I can find a suitable pic. I have added 3g of lead to the nose and have room for more if needed. I have put an "end plate" on the intake trunking but will not glue that into place until I have established if any extra ballast is needed.

 

There were a couple of intakes to glue on the fuselage but they were the wrong shape so I filed them down - probably still a bit big but much better than they were. Once I have finished sanding down the seams I will scribe the missing bottom edge of the lower speed brakes and add a second strake to them, and I will drill a hole for the fuel dump pipe in the tail fairing above the rudder. I have shortened the stabilisers and reshaped and rescribed them.

 

Lastly we come to the wings. The ends were separate to allow for folding - Emhar moulded an "L" shaped tab so they could be slotted into the rest of the wing in the raised position, so I had to cut the vertical bit off as I wanted them extended. The fit is not great so I have filled it, together with the engraved lines for the leading edge slats which this version did not have. I have also removed the pitot tube which was far too short and will replace it later. At the moment the wings are not too bad a fit though I probably need to do a little more work to reduce the gap underneath.

 

Not that much to do before I can put the wings and stabs on - this could be quite a quick build barring accidents. I suppose I better decide what I am going to put under the wings - certainly drop tanks on two of the pylons - 2 and 5 I believe, but do I really want 4 Sidewinders? I don't think I have any bombs or rocket pods from the right period, but I do have Hasegawa Bullpups. However if I go with them I will need the guidance pod on pylon 4 I guess, and have yet to find a picture of one - and with that taking up a pylon it would  mean either one Bullpup and two Sidewinders, or no Sidewinders and three Bullpups. Decisions - decisions!

 

Any suggestions as to suitable weapons available AM will be gratefully received, as will any pics of the  Bullpup guidance pod and the space under the canopy behind the bang seat.

 

Cheers

 

Pete.

 

 

Edited April 21, 2020 by PeterB

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

I have a few photos of the bullpup datalink pod. They're not the best but can send them if you want. I wound up making mine out of a rocket pod with the covers on both ends and sanded smooth. 

Edited April 21, 2020 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[PeterB]

Yes,

 

Please send them as to date I have only found one. I think I might have something in one of my spares boxes that might do but it could be small - no doubt I have other things I could modify. It currently looks like one Bullpup, one pod, two tanks and two Sidewinders but the jury is still out!

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

4 minutes ago, PeterB said:

It currently looks like one Bullpup, one pod, two tanks and two Sidewinders but the jury is still out!

Thats the load-out i used on my Grand-phoenix kit.  P/m will come shortly. 

[PeterB]

Thanks Dennis.

 

By the time the FJ-4B entered service the USN had switched to the grey/white colour scheme and the Fury had the dural/coroguard leading edges, so I will paint the wings and stabs before gluing them on - it should make masking and painting the leading edges easier.

 

Pete

[PeterB]

Painting the undersurfaces of this and my EA-6A in white is driving me mad .  It reminds me of my father painting the doors in our house 50 or so years ago. Initially the doors were all panelled and he painted them in  a faux wood grain effect known as scumble - bit like painting wood props on the Windsock kits. Then he decided he wanted a "modern look" so he skinned them with plywood and painted them white. Being of the old school he rubbed them down, primed, rubbed down, primed, and then put on 2 top coats of white gloss including the then new "brilliant white". Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, changing angle of light, reflections, etc meant it always looked like he had missed a bit. These ruddy kits are the same - 2 thin coats of matt white as a primer and 3 thinned top coats so far and still ruddy streaky! I will get there eventually! With help from Dennis I have sorted out the armament I think - only one Bullpup plus the associated pod, two fat drop tanks (200gal?) and two AIM 9B, plus of course the built in 4 x 20mm cannon.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[PeterB]

Getting there slowly.

Neither the wings nor the horizontal stabs are a very positive fit  but they went on failry well - just a little filler needed on the undersides of the wings, which are supposed to have 3 degrees of dihedral according to D&S - the Sabre lineage shows alhough it got somewhat less after the FJ-2 which was essentially an F-86 with a tail hook and lengthened nose leg., The fuselage of the FJ-3 and FJ-4 became progressively deeper to hold more fuel.

Don't know why but I always seem to ovedo the black stripes on tailhooks! I have added a couple more grams of lead as it seemed that the underwing stores might make it a tail sitter. I am in the process of finishing off the wing tanks and have modified pylons 3 and 4 for the Bullpup and its guidance pod.  Once the tanks are finished I will add them and the other pylons together with the main gear and see how it sits. If I use the kit canopy it will be quite heavy, but the vacform alternative will be much less so, but if I leave the intake off I can always add more ballast.

 

I will use AM stock "stars and bars" as the kit ones are clearly designed for the folded wing option. At first sight they seem to be divided to allow for both the wing fold, and also the upper wing fence, but on closer inspection they are all one dec with clear film over the gaps, so would need cutting. In any case the central red bar is misaligned slightly so they have gone in the bin.

 

It is a rather crude kit but it should look something like an FJ-4B by the time it is finished.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[PeterB]

Starting to come together now.

As the reviews warned, the main undercarriage is a lousy fit. There are 2 holes in the wing that pins on the legs should go into, but the clot who designed the sprue layout (if it was actually designed that is) put the sprue gates where the pins are, and although I removed the gates very carefully the pins did not really go in the holes. Anyway, the joint has been reinforced with CA glue and they are also glued against the outer wing doors, but I will have to very careful with them.

 

As you can see the tanks are on  - unlike the FJ-3 the fins at the rear are angled down. Pictures show either a sway brace or perhaps a fuel pipe on the inside of each tank which I still have to fit. The outer pylons for the Sidewinders are on. and the modified inner pylons are ready to take the Bullpup and my attempt at the control pod. Some pics show it bigger and some may even have had fins, but this is my best guess.. I found that it was still inclined to tail sit so added a further 1g of lead before sticking the nose on. With the brass nose leg and the canopy on it should be fine.

 

So a question for the Fury experts out there. I have seen a pic that shows 3 thin red lines round the Bullpup, 1 just behind the front fins and the other two in front of and behind the rear fins - does that sound right? As to the AIM-9B Sidewinders the box illustration shows a red band some distance behind the front fins and black tabs on the rear fins, but the only pic I have found of them on an FJ-4B seems to show 3 coloured bands behind the front fins like on later Sidewinder versions. Unfortunately I have lost the instructions from my Hasegawa air to air missile set so can anybody confirm the markings?

 

Should be ready for decals in a couple of days. I need to make a pitot out of brass tube and piano wire, fit the nose gear, and finish off the cockpit, but not much more to do. The slot under the starboard wing is for the very long refueling probe..

 

Thanks for watching.

 

Pete

 

 

[PeterB]

Getting there slowly.

The decs are that type where the glue comes off as a milky white scum, but otherwise they work. In the intro I said I thought I had built a vac form Fury, probably Rareplanes, and whilst digging about I came across the tanks in the foreground. They are injection moulded and look like the smaller 150 gal type as used on the F-86 and also on the FJ-3. They could be used on the FJ-4B but the kit provides the larger 200 gall type. I suspect I got these from an Airfix F-86D Sabre Dog kit but the paint scheme is  clearly USN.

 

Should get the rest of the decs on in a couple of days and then I can finish off the build. It will sit on the nose wheel - honest!

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited May 1, 2020 by PeterB

[rob85]

Looking good with those decals on Pete!

 

Rob

[PeterB]

With the exception of a black stripe on the wings and some stripes on the Bullpup and Sidewinders the decs are all on.

Now I will fit the nose undercarriage. Like a lot of naval planes, the leg could be extended a considerable amount to improve the angle of attack at take-off, I will no doubt have to adjust my homemade one to get it sit correctly. Once that is on together with the front door and retraction link, I just need to add the rest of the armament and the pitot tube which I have made out of brass tube and piano wire. It can then join the Intruder in the queue for a final coat of varnish. The Xtradecal national insignia I have used are designed to cover both WWII and later so the red bars are separate. Saves buying two sheets but boy are they a fiddle!

 

Bye for now.

 

Pete

Edited May 7, 2020 by PeterB

[Andwil]

Looking really good Peter 👍

 

AW

[PeterB]

All the pics I have show the nose up, though the angle varies considerably. This might be a bit too much, but there we are - all the bits are on.

I have shown it next to what I think is my old Heller Sabre in the "Mig Mad Marine" markings of John Glenn - the much deeper fuselage is apparent. The plane markings are for VA-116 which was formed up in November 1955 on the Cutlass, but switched to the FJ-4B starting in September 1957 - the NB tail markings are for the early period when it was working up as part of ATG2 before going to sea, so are late 1957 to mid 1958. Initially the FJ-3 and FJ-4 had the AIM-9A Sidewinder, but the modified AIM-9B was in service from 1956 in parallel so I guess this plane could have either version - I have used Hasegawa AIM-9B Sidewinders as they are the earliest I have. 

 

Cheers

 

Pete

 

So this can join the EA-6A in the queue for a coat of satin varnish before going in the gallery.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited May 8, 2020 by PeterB