Esci FJ-3 Fury

[Enzo the Magnificent]

What's better than a Sabre?   A Sea Sabre of course!      Except that the Sea Sabre was known as the Fury.

 

Esci issued this kit in 1979.  It was one of their earliest 1/48 kits.  It was re-released by Italeri forty-two years later.

 

 

As you can see, it's a nice simple kit befitting its late-70s origins.

 

 

 

 

Lovely!     But there is a major problem with this kit.   It was adapted from the Esci F-86 kit and as such you cannot actually build an FJ-3 from this kit.  You cannot even build an FJ-2!  The tail fin is pure F-86.  On the FJ-2/3 it was moved forward.  The panel for the cannons is incorrect as the cannon ports need to be further forwards and angled downwards.

 

The intake is suitabe for an FJ-2, which had the same General Electric J47 engine as the F-86.  The FJ-3 had a Wright J65 engine which required a much deeper nose and intake, similar to that of the F-86H.  This is not included in the kit, so it will need some surgery. 

 

Wikipedia has a nice history of the type.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_FJ-2/-3_Fury

 

 

@Jon Kunac-Tabinor built this kit seven years ago which turned out to be a tour de force.  As imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I will be using his build as reference for mine.  As mine is the Italeri repop I'm hoping that I won't have the same problems with the plastic as Jon had.

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234981173-north-american-fj-3-fury-148th-esci-with-added-elbow-grease/

 

 

I will be building it in a different colour scheme: that of a drone chaser.

 

Oh...   and I might fold the wings...    

[modelling minion]

A great project Enzo, really looking forward to seeing what you can do with this kit.

Its quite a bit of work to get something that resembles an FJ-3 but from the sound of things an FJ-2 is a bit easier.

21 hours ago, Enzo the Magnificent said:

I will be building it in a different colour scheme: that of a drone chaser.

This is the icing on the cake for me, I really like the schemes worn by both the drones and their controllers.

 

🇺🇦

[JOCKNEY]

Great stuff Enzo, another Esci kit 

 

Best of luck

 

Cheers Pat

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Flattery will get you everywhere!
Good luck Enzo- I'll keep an eye out for this build. And, yes- hope fully the plastic will be far better.

Cheers
Jonners

[RidgeRunner]

What's not to like about a Fury, Enzo!!!!! A great choice

 

Martin

 

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

I also decided to use the Aires resin cockpit for the Hobby Boss FJ-4.

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

 

The first step was to deal with the nose.  I sawed off the lower parts of both fuselage halves and assembled them around the nose gear well.  I hacked the gun port panels around so that the ports were in the correct position.  All the gaps were filled with a mix of bicarbonate of soda and superglue.

 

I have also decided to use the Hypersonic resin intake intended for the Kinetic FJ-3.   It has the correct square appeareance but I believe it is still too shallow.   I will need to cut it in half and add plastic to deepen the intake.  I am currently intending to model intake trunking from Milliput but if that turns to worms, I will simply model the aircraft with an intake blank. 

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

The Aires cockpit painted up.  I have used a Yahu instrument panel.

 

 

Ready for fitment.

 

 

Like so.  Plenty of room for ballast behind the cockpit.   I have also started to build up the intake trunking from Milliput, smoothed down with a wet finger.

 

 

 

On to the wings.   The three parts suddenly become eleven!   

 

[RidgeRunner]

She is coming along nicely

[Enzo the Magnificent]

I built up the wingfold hinges from laminated plastic card.

 

 

...and fitted the wing to the fuselage.

 

 

I built up the base of the fin from plasticard and fitted it.  At this point I realised that the gunport panels were set too tapered, so I removed them.  The Hypersonic intake was split into upper and lower halves and fitted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

After what seems like weeks of an interminable round of fill-sand-prime-repeat, I think it's time to move on.

 

I modified the tailplanes with strips of plastic card.  It worked out rather well.

 

 

This is how the finished model should look.

 

 

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Finally got some paint on.  The yellow is from a rattle can: Fiat Broom Yellow to be precise.   The International Orange is Lifecolor UA-829 Railfreight Red.

 

[modelling minion]

She's really coming to life now Enzo, the colours look great.

[Enzo the Magnificent]

The wing and fin leading edges were sprayed with aluminium from a rattle can.  The grey was then sprayed with Lifecolor UA-030 FS36081.  The anti-glare panel is Tamiya XF-69.

 

[modelling minion]

Looks fantastic, I love this scheme.

[JOCKNEY]

Looks the business Guv'

There's a lot of work going into this one ! 

Cheers Pat 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

6 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said:

There's a lot of work going into this one !

 

Indeed.   At one point, while I was in the middle of the fill-sand-prime-repeat cycle, I asked myself "Why am I putting myself through this torture?!?!? "

 

But now I know.   

[modelling minion]

20 hours ago, Enzo the Magnificent said:

Why am I putting myself through this torture?!?!? "

Because its still probably easier than the Kitty Hawk kit!😁

[Enzo the Magnificent]

I have now started to apply the decals.

 

[modelling minion]

Looks really good, the decals are going down very nicely.

[Thom216]

Nice work on converting the model!

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Most of the greeblies painted up and ready for fitment.  The notable exceptions are the flaps which are still in the paint shop.

 

 

Up on its gear.

 

 

[modelling minion]

Very neat work indeed, she looks fantastic.

[AdrianMF]

Very sharp!
 

Post-war yellow wings - presumably a distinctive colour scheme so you could tell it apart from the drone.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Finished! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would say this is a representation of an FJ-3 rather than an accurate scale model.  All the changes were made by eye rather than referring to plans.  However, I'm quite happy with the result as I feel it captures the essence of the Fury.  I must admit that I did not enjoy all the filling, sanding and priming involved in the major surgery. At one point I was seiously considering chucking it.  I'm glad I persevered.  Let's say I enjoy having built it.  

 

Many   to @JOCKNEY for hosting this GB. 

 

So now I suppose I had better buckle to and get my F-104C completed.