Fury Two - Kitty Hawk FJ-2

[RidgeRunner]

Nice work, SJ. Sorry I missed this until now

 

Martin

 

[Corey in Colorado]

15 hours ago, Sabrejet said:

 

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.

Thank you so much for the technique, I will try that on my next Fury!

[Sabrejet]

OK. The colour scheme I've chosen is for an FJ-2 of VMF-312, a Marine Corps squadron, as were all of the FJ-2 active duty units. VMF-312 Checkerboards (tail code WR) was assigned to Marine Air Group 32 at MCAS Cherry Point, converting from F9F-4 Panthers to the FJ-2 Fury in the fall of 1954; it received its first eight Fury aircraft on 26 August. In February 1955, the squadron deployed to Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico for two months of gunnery and again the following year but never deployed aboard a carrier. VMF-312 converted to the FJ-3 from October 1956 and its last FJ-2 was transferred out on 21 December that year.

 

This is how they generally looked, and this is the aircraft portrayed as one of the decal options in the KH kit, BuAer No.132057.

 

 

Unfortunately the kit decals have the s/n as "130257", but worse still, the decal placement guide has been mixed-up, showing the front half of a VMF-451 machine (12/AM), complete with blue intake and white stars.

 

 

And then the VMF-312 front end has been grafted onto the view of the VMF-451 FJ-2:

 

 

Since these come across a page break, I assume it's a printing error, but I do wonder how many will realise that? KH also omits a few key decals, including the number '5', which should go beneath the 'VMF-312' script aft of the speed brake. That '5' on the forward fuselage is too small also. Luckily Caracal came to the rescue with most of the decals I need (I will be modelling a different s/n anyway).

 

I think they also guessed the lower surface scheme, which is incorrect: the '5' should be on the fwd nose gear door and the 'WR' goes beneath the left wing, not the right, is larger and angled!

 

 

This is how it should look:

 

 

Then a couple of items which aren't on all VMF-312 aircraft, but were noted on a few at least, namely chequers on the horizontal tail, and chequers on the drop tank end plates. I'm going to add both.

 

 

 

And finally some paint on. 

 

 

Unfortunately, most of the colour schemes depicted on the Kitty Hawk decal sheet have errors large and/or small, either in the decals themselves (colour/size/shape) or in their placement. I'd suggest getting the Caracal sheets and using photo references to be 100% sure, if complete accuracy is your bag.

[JeffreyK]

So to sum it up: you're saying the decals are pretty much spot on? 

J

[Sabrejet]

First lot of stickers on. And yes that is snow.

 

 

 

[CJP]

Nice neat modelling on what is shaping up to be very interesting Fury - love to see navy aircraft modelled with folded wings

CJP

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Hmmm Just found this thread, will have to go back and read through it. 

[CaracalModels]

Great work so far - but I have to ask: since you just used my decal sheet and deeply care about accuracy, may I ask why you went with the modex "12" on the kit decal sheet instead of the "3" I chose? The kit marking is too small, and typographically not accurate either.

 

It looks like some units chose to paint 16" high digits to fit the rectangular access panel neatly, while some used 24" digits : all photos of VMF-312that I have seen suggest that the unit used 24" high digits. They were pretty consistent in aligning the end of the digits to the bottom edge of the access panel; while some units liked to place the digits to fully align with the panel (VMF-451, VMF-235, etc.)

Edited January 27, 2021 by CaracalModels

[CaracalModels]

[Sabrejet]

Spotted this one: you're right the digits are too small. I've replaced them with larger versions but the font is still not 100%. 

[Sabrejet]

Finished. WIP here: