Fury Two - Kitty Hawk FJ-2

[Sabrejet]

6 hours ago, JeffreyK said:

Just seen this, very nice work Duncan!  Great job about the barrier guard as well.

Just wondering - I always thought everything aft of the ejection seat rails was painted black in the cockpit (i.e. turtle deck etc.)? But you certainly have more info than me on the subject...

J

 

 

Mmm. That got me thinking. On the basis that no-one is immune from the odd gaffe, I will check and report back!

[Sabrejet]

@JeffreyK: my apologies for calling your excellent products "Hyperscale" - I even showed the boxes with the logo on, so should have picked that up: HYPERSONIC!!!!

 

(they are very good).

[Sabrejet]

Sussed it (I hope): turtledeck area aft of the seat is interior bronze green and the decking on the aft portion of the canopy is black. Photo below juuuuuuuuust shows interior green aft of the seat:

 

 

So luckily not much to do. Every day is a school day!

[Tailspin Turtle]

Trivia with respect to the barrier pickup (strictly speaking, not a guard) on the belly: https://thanlont.blogspot.com/2009/09/when-rube-goldberg-isnt-enough.html

 

The introduction of angle deck carriers, which no longer required barriers, resulted in its removal from FJ-3s (I don’t know about FJ-2s for sure but Sabrejet might). Although there were exceptions early on, the guard was removed on gray/white FJ-3s.

 

Note that if the pickup was down, the tailhook would be down as well and the small “guard” (it really snagged the Davis barrier actuation strap in the event of a nose or complete landing gear collapse) in front of the windscreen was extended.

Edited January 13, 2021 by Tailspin Turtle

[JeffreyK]

14 hours ago, Sabrejet said:

Sussed it (I hope): turtledeck area aft of the seat is interior bronze green and the decking on the aft portion of the canopy is black. Photo below juuuuuuuuust shows interior green aft of the seat:

 

 

So luckily not much to do. Every day is a school day!

 

Thanks for the clear-up! I went with the cockpit walk-around I had from the FJ-2 in the Hornet museum, it looked so dusty and in some areas incomplete that I took it for unrestored. Is there a possibility the area was painted black at a later stage?

Anyway, let's go with the above as the standard.

Cheers,

J

[Sabrejet]

6 hours ago, JeffreyK said:

 

Thanks for the clear-up! I went with the cockpit walk-around I had from the FJ-2 in the Hornet museum, it looked so dusty and in some areas incomplete that I took it for unrestored. Is there a possibility the area was painted black at a later stage?

Anyway, let's go with the above as the standard.

Cheers,

J

 

Jeffrey, I think it more likely that it would have been later painted mid grey, but I shall try to clear that up. The Hornet FJ-2 was in a pretty poor, weathered state when they got her, so it's quite possible that earlier museum restorations would look 'period'. 

[Biggles87]

The more I see of this the more I want one, but the price is way beyond my self imposed limit for 1/48 single engined aircraft.

 

John

[Sabrejet]

4 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

The more I see of this the more I want one, but the price is way beyond my self imposed limit for 1/48 single engined aircraft.

 

John

 

Well treat it as two smaller kits and take longer on it maybe? The FJ-3/3M will be out soon...

[Sabrejet]

4 hours ago, Sabrejet said:

 

Well treat it as two smaller kits and take longer on it maybe? The FJ-3/3M will be out soon...

 

 

Out today in fact!

[Sabrejet]

The KH kit is good dimensionally and hopefully the FJ-3 kit (mine has been dispatched!) will address a few of the issues. However for the FJ-2 I needed to give a few parts a nudge. First are the horizontal stabilizers and rudder, which are the externally-ribbed type in the kit. This type is OK for late-service VMF FJ-2s (gull grey over white scheme) and Reserve units, but not for NMF VMF aircraft. Hypersonic do lovely drop-in replacements but I just filled the ribs (apologies for atrocious photos - it's DARK here, even at 9am)

 

 

 

Then the next area to correct is the nose leg, which is modelled in the 'collapsed' (i.e. no gas) configuration, which is incorrect. Here is an a/c versus kit comparison: the exposed fescallised portion of the leg (the shiny bit) is not apparent at all on the kit part, and makes the finished model look too nose-down. 

 

 

Again, Hypersonic make a drop-in replacement but I just chopped the kit part C62 (see red arrow which indicates the cut line) and inserted some aluminium tube. I intend to put a beefier tube in but for now it shows how it will look:

 

 

 

And then the final part before going on to painting, is the windscreen. KH have modelled it with too little rake: on the kit it comes out about 34 degrees, which is 4 to 5 degrees too steep. This gives the finished model a bit of a comical look in that area.

 

 

Note also the stubby intake lip in the above left photo of a completed model. This is the kit part:

 

 

I trimmed a 'wedge' out of the bottom edge; approximately 2mm at the rear, tapering to zero at the front lower edge:

 

 

And this is how it looks on the kit: hopefully a bit more Fury-like.

 

 

It'll need a bit of fettling but I think those are the main mods done. The rest should follow the kit instructions fairly closely. Oh and I have settled on a colour scheme: more of that next time.

[Courageous]

Nice correctional work there although this would make you canopy too high now, so canopy correction (if any) will be interesting.

 

Stuart

[Gene K]

Sabrejet

 

You are a treasure! Thanks.

 

I'm anxious to see your and Hypersonic Jeff's evaluation of the FJ-3.

 

Gene K

[Sabrejet]

1 hour ago, Courageous said:

Nice correctional work there although this would make you canopy too high now, so canopy correction (if any) will be interesting.

 

Stuart

 

Easy: the canopy will be open; there I fixed that one

[Tailspin Turtle]

5 hours ago, Sabrejet said:

The KH kit is good dimensionally and hopefully the FJ-3 kit (mine has been dispatched!) will address a few of the issues. However for the FJ-2 I needed to give a few parts a nudge.

 

Then the next area to correct is the nose leg, which is modelled in the 'collapsed' (i.e. no gas) configuration, which is incorrect. Here is an a/c versus kit comparison: the exposed fescallised portion of the leg (the shiny bit) is not apparent at all on the kit part, and makes the finished model look too nose-down. 

 

 

Again, Hypersonic make a drop-in replacement but I just chopped the kit part C62 (see red arrow which indicates the cut line) and inserted some aluminium tube. I intend to put a beefier tube in but for now it shows how it will look:

Also in comparing the two pictures, note that the forward facing nose gear door extends up into the nose wheel well when nose gear is extended because the door is rigidly attached to the upper section of the strut and the pivot point of the strut is aft of the door.

[Sabrejet]

1 hour ago, Tailspin Turtle said:

Also in comparing the two pictures, note that the forward facing nose gear door extends up into the nose wheel well when nose gear is extended because the door is rigidly attached to the upper section of the strut and the pivot point of the strut is aft of the door.

 

Don't steal my thunder 😉 - I haven't got to that bit yet!

[Tailspin Turtle]

45 minutes ago, Sabrejet said:

 

Don't steal my thunder 😉 - I haven't got to that bit yet!

Sorry - I couldn’t help myself when I saw your excellent comparison of the nose gear of the airplane and the model...

[Sabrejet]

Oh dear. I was just looking at drop tanks and noticed that the holes for the pylons were in the wrong place. See arrows (kit) and where they should be (dotted line):

 

 

This is how KH would have you mount it, inboard of the IFR probe (the probe is applicable to FJ-3/3M only):

 

 

Here's an FJ-2 for comparison:

 

 

And just in case you thought it won't be a problem, well it will if you want to do an FJ-3M with Sidewinders/rails fitted:

 

 

And no, the tanks were never mounted inboard. So just to clarify, this is where the drop tanks should be: in real terms it's BP.118, or roughly 62.4mm from the centre line. If you go by the kit mounting holes the tanks will be roughly 46.5mm from the centre line.

 

 

So not a major thing to correct, but still annoying. Hopefully the FJ-3/3M kit will have all mounting points incorporated and in the right place!

[Gene K]

Thanks as always for your great posts, Sabrejet!

 

Gary Wickham posted an excellent build log on his website. His "solution" to the missing  tank pylon mounting holes is about mid way down on his log:

 

 

Gene K

 

 

[Corey in Colorado]

Very nice work @Sabrejet, I’ll be following your build with interest.  
 

I’ve finished my own FJ-2 build last week and now I’m awaiting my FJ-3 kits from Hong Kong.  I’m excited to get started on those!

[Corey in Colorado]

On 1/8/2021 at 9:41 AM, David H said:

My friend Corey Ransom just finished one in Reserve Markings of White and Orange and it looks wonderful. So the kit definitely has merit.

 

-d-

thanks for the kind words Dave!  

[Jfgred1]

Really nice the way you are making this model and tackling the issues with it. 

 

And should say very brave the way you are modifying the windshield. Waiting to see how you are going to fair it with the rest of the canopy. 

 

Please, keep it coming.

[Sabrejet]

5 hours ago, Corey in Colorado said:

I’ve finished my own FJ-2 build last week and now I’m awaiting my FJ-3 kits from Hong Kong.  I’m excited to get started on those!

 

Me too: I hope Hypersonic will do an intake correction for that one if it needs it. I have half an Eduard set left, so will use that on the -3.

[Sabrejet]

Windshield faired in, smoothed out and ready for paint.

 

 

And finally some paint.

 

 

 

Lots of separate parts in this kit, so the paint will take a while. Before that, I've used the Eduard PE parts for the undersides and ends of the slat sections. The KH parts have lots of ejector pin marks and so the PE items are an easy fix.

 

 

And the drop tank fins were also replaced with thinner plastic card:

 

 

I'll go over the colour scheme next, but I need a deep breath first...

[Corey in Colorado]

Your slats turned out very nice with the Eduard photo etch.  I couldn’t get the photo etch to look good so I ended up removing the photo etch and using the slats without.  I attribute my issues to lack of experience bending photoetch.  I tried annealing the metal before curling it, but it turned out looking messy.  Can you briefly explain how you curled and applied the photo etch?  Thanks!

[Sabrejet]

3 hours ago, Corey in Colorado said:

Your slats turned out very nice with the Eduard photo etch.  I couldn’t get the photo etch to look good so I ended up removing the photo etch and using the slats without.  I attribute my issues to lack of experience bending photoetch.  I tried annealing the metal before curling it, but it turned out looking messy.  Can you briefly explain how you curled and applied the photo etch?  Thanks!

 

Corey - yes, I just glued the trailing edge of the PE and attached it to the trailing edge of the slat. Then I made sure the glue was fully cured (superglue). At this point the PE is flat (that is, not bent), and just resting on the front lower lip of the slat. Then, once I was happy that the glue would hold (I also ran a bead along the trailing edge joint, just to be sure), I got a 6-inch steel rule and placed it just aft of the fwd recess of the slat, pushed it down equally, and holding it down, ran a bead of glue along the fwd edge, which is now bent to shape and level with the slat edge. The rule scuffs the PE a bit as you do it, but it's not visible under primer. 

 

So my slat sections above are just glued at the leading and trailing edges. If you do it this way, it gives you a chance to do one bit at a time, and gives an even shape. There are probably better ways, but this worked for me, with minimal tools.