Sword FJ-3D2 Fury with Caracal decals; multicoloured madness!

[Sabrejet]

This will be my second 1/72 Sword Fury kit, after the FJ-2 I did many moons ago. That one had open speed brakes, lowered hook and ammunition door/step as well as folded wings but this one will be a bit more OOB, but not entirely. The build will be based on the 'FJ-3M' kit issue but mildly converted into an FJ-3D2 drone controller.

 

These are the main kit parts (photos courtesy Hobby Search): I'm sure I also got a photoetch sheet in the FJ-2 kit but this FJ-3M issue doesn't have one  I'd have liked the prominent wing fence in PE and the seat belts would have been nice too. But I shall overcome those omissions.

 

 

 

I'll be using Caracal's decal sheet CD72076 "FJ-3 Fury Part 1":

 

 

 

And my subject will be BuAer number 135867, an aircraft which served with VU-3 from July 1959 at Brown Field, San Diego and North Island until May 1962. It therefore just missed the late '62 redesignation of FJ-3D2s to become DF-1Ds.

 

There is a note in the instructions regarding colour interpretation too:

 

 

And here I shall be deviating from the Caracal scheme. It's possible that this aircraft did wear the scheme shown by Caracal, but the variant of the aircraft I want to model is of it with dayglo fin and wing bands (more on drone controller colours later). So it will look more like this:

 

 

The dayglo areas are not particularly evident on this photo, but the unmistakeable degradation of this type of paint can be seen particularly on the vertical tail. 

 

 

Also less visible is that the inner halves of the drop tanks were usually painted the fuselage colour on their forward halves (an alternate scheme saw the front top surface painted in this way to reduce glare). Paint will be Mr Color 339 for the fuselage and wing walkways (Engine Gray FS 16081); Mr Color 329 for the wings and aft fuselage (Yellow FS 13538) and Tamiya dayglo for the fin and wing bands. Cockpit colour is a moot point. FJ-3s left the factory with Interior Bronze-Green interiors and it's possible that 'my' aircraft was repainted mid-grey during Overhaul & Repair for drone control conversion (prior to conversion it had served with VF-33 (March 1955 to September 1956) and VMF-333 (February 1957 to December 1958)). I'm undecided as yet; I have some MRP Interior Bronze-Green (MRP-132) on hand and will do some thinking on it.

 

More in a bit!

[Courageous]

Liking your proposed scheme, nice and colourful.

 

Stuart

[Sabrejet]

A note on drone controller colours. MIL-C-18263(Aer) of 23 February 1955 laid out the scheme with the fuselage in Engine Gray with wings, horizontal tail and vertical fin Orange Yellow. The fin area Orange Yellow was to extend onto the aft fuselage by projecting a line down from the fin leading edge. Wing walkways were Engine Gray. 36-inch wing bands were to be Insignia Red as was the rudder, the wing bands to be placed of the distance outboard from fuselage to wing tip.

 

NAS Alameda detailed the FJ-3 drone director colour scheme on Drawing 612491 (approved 15 February 1960) and retained the yellow wings and horizontal tail (FS 13538 Orange Yellow lacquer) but replaced the wing band colour with ANA 633 Fluorescent Red Orange and also revised the aft fuselage treatment. On the 'Alameda' scheme the whole fuselage was Engine Gray and now the entire vertical tail including the dorsal fin extension and rudder was ANA 633. The demarcation between Engine Gray and Fluorescent Red Orange was placed above the tail light fairing and extending horizontally forward to encompass the dorsal fin extension. The scheme had in fact been incorporated into MIL-C-18263C (WEPS) by a 26 August 1959 amendment.

 

The first FJ-3D2s went into service with VU-4 at NAS Chincoteague in April 1958 but conversions were still being done as late as December 1959 and so my chosen scheme appears to have been an in-service application of the 'Alameda' scheme onto aircraft that had already been painted in the earlier version.

 

And I have decided that the mid-grey cockpit is the way to go: 135867 had gone through three O&R periods (including part of the drone controller conversion) by the time of my photo and so it seems highly that the cockpit colour would have been changed during one of those episodes.

 

So onwards and upwards. I hope the above might help others who are doing FJ-3D and FJ-3D2 builds. I suspect that my KH 1/48 FJ-3 will end up as one of these aircraft too because my word I love that colour scheme

 

Comments most welcome!

[Sabrejet]

And the first bit of chopping has been done: I want the ammunition door/step to be extended and so this area has been removed. The interior is a bit different from standard FJ-3/3M (the aft ammo bin and its associated cannons were removed and drone control equipment placed in the vacant spot) and I'll go into that later. The plastic is quite thick so it took a sharp scalpel blade and a lot of passes to get through. I think this should be the only major bit of plastic cutting since I want to do the rest of the aircraft 'clean'.

 

 

[heloman1]

Ooooh, a Drone! I'm liking your choice here, although as yet I still have to build one!

I'm quite liking the Sword kit, I recently purchased their Seastar and Avenger.

I'll pull up a seat...

 

Colin.

[Sabrejet]

Since I want to model the step/ammo door in the open position I noticed that the kit cockpit bulkhead would clash with what should be an open area. So I've trimmed the bulkhead to suit (arrowed):

 

 

And these are the cockpit parts ready for paint, with the resin seat and headrest removed from their casting blocks. Sword kits are definitely limited-run but they do a good job.

 

 

There are several 'limited run' features in Sword kits, notably the lack of locating pins (no great issue) and a few places where ejection pin marks prevent fitting assemblies or attaching main parts. One of the latter on the FJ-3/3M kits is a prominent ejection pin mark on the inner face of the vertical fin parts. If you don't remove them you won't be able to fit the fuselage halves flush! 

 

 

And then another legacy of the low-pressure moulding used in the kit is that some areas are a bit 'soft', especially edges of landing gear bays etc. So I taped the fuselage halves together and filed the edges straight with a combination of rat-tail files and sanding sticks. It's easier to do this way than when there isn't access to both sides as there would be with the bays installed.

 

 

Edited June 4 by Sabrejet

[Robert]

See the book/e-book `Jet Fighters of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps' by Detail and Scale on page 94 for a colour photo of the VU-3 aircraft shown above in black and white.

 

Robert

[Sabrejet]

On 05/06/2025 at 17:04, Robert said:

See the book/e-book `Jet Fighters of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps' by Detail and Scale on page 94 for a colour photo of the VU-3 aircraft shown above in black and white.

 

Robert

 

I'll take a look but I have colour images of this aircraft 

Edited June 6 by Sabrejet

[Sabrejet]

Bit more done. Instrument panel and cockpit stuff painted..

 

 

And the mid-fuselage vents needed a bit of refinement: they are moulded solid while I wanted open ends, so out with the files:

 

 

 

And a quick dry fit shows that they look a lot better than the as-supplied version:

 

 

Then another thing I did while the fuselage halves were taped together: I attached the aft cockpit decking to the right-hand fuselage half. I find that these aft decks are often difficult to attach and align while the fuselage halves are glued together so doing it prior to that allows for any alignment to be done before committing too much!

 

 

Then final bit for now: opening out the gun muzzle, which on the kit (left) is quite shallow and 'soft'. 

 

 

On the FJ-3D2, both aft cannons were removed and their muzzles blanked off, so I won't bother opening out the muzzles for those. At some point I'll fill them with the superglue/talc method. This is actually an FJ-3D (below); this version only had the LH aft cannon removed though the view from this side is the same as for an FJ-3D2.

 

 

[RidgeRunner]

Hi Duncan! I’m glad you’ve taken the plunge! “multicoloured madness!”? I’d suggest “multicoloured gorgeousness” ;). I’m heading that direction too, as you know. Mine, eventually, will be a China Lake machine, though. Watching with avid interest!

Note the dayglo wing stripes

 

Martin

 

 

[David H]

I am liking the progress so far. I'm seeing similar molding characteristics in the Sword AD-3, but it all cleans up okay and then looks just fine.

 

-d-

[RidgeRunner]

Oh dear, I’m getting restless to return to my Furious build after seeing Duncan’s excellent start and write up! Like him, I love these utility machines and want to get a colourful FJ-3D on my shelf! In the absence of that - as I have more than enough “in build” - I will watch and absorb Duncan’s skill and knowledge!

 

Martin

[cpoud117]

Nice start.

Following with interest.

[Sabrejet]

Cockpit together. The seat isn't attached yet, and needs belts. Since I do all of my F-86/Fury builds with the canopy open, I think I may do this one closed-up. I usually leave out the seat and control column for masking but if the canopy is going to be closed I will be attaching those parts soon.

 

 

And the fuselage halves finally together. The benefit of aligning that aft decking prior to attaching is apparent now. The FJ-3D2 retained the sight head atop the instrument coaming but the cannons did not have radar ranging as the AN/APG-30 set was removed to allow installation of the drone control gear.

 

 

Then the next issue I noted was that the lower wing part left a prominent step between it and the fuselage halves at the forward end. I can't recall this being an issue with the FJ-2 but it certainly was here. So I shaved off excess material on the fuselage area (arrowed) and this allowed the wing section to sit a lot better. It will still need a bit of filler and tidying up but that's standard.

 

 

And the wing half in place and looking good. Since the outer face of the engine ducting is the inner face of the ammunition compartment I've added some ribs to the visible area to add a bit of interest there. Next step will be to box in that area and then the wings can be attached. The fit of the fuselage halves also left a definite disparity between left and right (one nose section being about 1mm ahead of the other), even though the panel lines met up fine. So this will need some remodelling but the intake lip seems a bit 'off' in shape anyway so I'm not particularly worried about that.

 

 

[corsaircorp]

Super Job SJ !!

May I take a seat ?

Even if I'm late to the party ?

I'm struggling with 1/48 Furies....

Sincerely.

CC

[David H]

You know there's always some pearl-clutching with a Sword kit, until all the body parts are together and the sanding gets underway. Then it starts to look like a normal kit.

The cockpit looks great- especially in 1/72 scale.

 

This may sound like a repeat of the saying "When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail", but would thin brass shim stock be a good idea for those barrier strap catchers on the wing leading edge?? The photo etched CMK/JML razor saws make a pretty thin cut...

 

-d-

[Ad-4N]

1 hour ago, David H said:

You know there's always some pearl-clutching with a Sword kit, until all the body parts are together and the sanding gets underway. Then it starts to look like a normal kit.

 

Absolutely spot on.  This is my first completed Sword kit.  It’s not a Fury and it’s not 1/72, but I had an absolute blast.  What other model company is going to do a 1/48 injection molded Gannet AEW?

 

Love their subjects.
 

[Sabrejet]

4 hours ago, corsaircorp said:

Super Job SJ !!

May I take a seat ?

Even if I'm late to the party ?

I'm struggling with 1/48 Furies....

Sincerely.

CC

 

Struggling with 1/48 Furies? I hope you're doing Kitty Hawk not ESCI/Italeri: the KH kits are lovely while the ESCI thing is an abomination.

 

4 hours ago, David H said:

This may sound like a repeat of the saying "When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail", but would thin brass shim stock be a good idea for those barrier strap catchers on the wing leading edge?? The photo etched CMK/JML razor saws make a pretty thin cut...

 

I'll take a look at these a bit further along but I suspect I'll use 15 thou plastic card if they need re-doing. That way they'd be easier to attach in the rough and shape to final profile on the wing. The fence itself I'll probably just sand the kit part thin enough for it to look more scale. I may leave the fence off until the kit is painted because the Corogard leading edge masking will be easier that way.

[David H]

4 hours ago, Sabrejet said:

 

Struggling with 1/48 Furies? I hope you're doing Kitty Hawk not ESCI/Italeri: the KH kits are lovely while the ESCI thing is an abomination.

 

 

I'll take a look at these a bit further along but I suspect I'll use 15 thou plastic card if they need re-doing. That way they'd be easier to attach in the rough and shape to final profile on the wing. The fence itself I'll probably just sand the kit part thin enough for it to look more scale. I may leave the fence off until the kit is painted because the Corogard leading edge masking will be easier that way.

i know of what you speak...

-d-

[corsaircorp]

4 hours ago, Sabrejet said:

 

Struggling with 1/48 Furies? I hope you're doing Kitty Hawk not ESCI/Italeri: the KH kits are lovely while the ESCI thing is an abomination.

 

 

I'll take a look at these a bit further along but I suspect I'll use 15 thou plastic card if they need re-doing. That way they'd be easier to attach in the rough and shape to final profile on the wing. The fence itself I'll probably just sand the kit part thin enough for it to look more scale. I may leave the fence off until the kit is painted because the Corogard leading edge masking will be easier that way.

Both 2 my friend...

That said, the KH kitty are a nightmare in the matter of adjustment...

Now butchering improving the Esci kit is still funny too...

Sincerely.

CC

[Sabrejet]

7 hours ago, corsaircorp said:

Both 2 my friend...

That said, the KH kitty are a nightmare in the matter of adjustment...

 

 

?? I really like the KH kits and never had any issues with the FJ Fury kits. I saw someone elsewhere saying we needed Tamiya (ugh!) to do one. I think KH did a really good job and I doubt we'll see anyone do better FJ-2 or FJ-3 kits in 1/48 anytime soon. What adjustments did you need? It's a bit off-topic but I'll post some photos of my FJ-2 sometime.

[corsaircorp]

1 hour ago, Sabrejet said:

 

?? I really like the KH kits and never had any issues with the FJ Fury kits. I saw someone elsewhere saying we needed Tamiya (ugh!) to do one. I think KH did a really good job and I doubt we'll see anyone do better FJ-2 or FJ-3 kits in 1/48 anytime soon. What adjustments did you need? It's a bit off-topic but I'll post some photos of my FJ-2 sometime.

Hello,

I was a bit anxious since my F-94C was not a milk run to build...

I was right to be anxious...

Everything look well detailled, a bit overenginered but then glueing all these bits together....

Here's the factory...

The Furies are around page 9 or so...

Sincerely.

CC

[Sabrejet]

1 hour ago, corsaircorp said:

Hello,

I was a bit anxious since my F-94C was not a milk run to build...

I was right to be anxious...

Everything look well detailled, a bit overenginered but then glueing all these bits together....

 

That is truly weird; it's like we're talking about entirely different kits. Maybe yours is a rogue batch? My FJ-2 was an absolute pleasure. I also took advantage of Hypersonic's cockpit, launch hook and intake sets, plus I opened up the barrier guard section and modified the nose leg to its maximum extension. The parts fit was near-on perfect and the only issue was the drop tank pylon location being too far inboard. No major issue there. I'd say it's one of my favourite plastic kits in fact. It's not resin but no-one's perfect!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sabrejet]

Anyway back to it for a bit. Boxed in the ammo bay.

 

 

 

Wings on next, then a spot of filling I think....

[Sabrejet]

A few odds & ends done. I used the rudder from this kit (the externally ribbed version) for the FJ-2 I made a while back that was modelled as a late-service aircraft. Since the FJ-2 kit didn't have the later rudder it seemed like a good idea. But now I need an externally-ribbed rudder for my FJ-3D2 and so I modified the 'smooth' (early) kit part to feature the external ribs.

 

 

Then the ammo door needed a lot of re-shaping and refining to get it looking a bit less clunky:

 

 

And there was a fair gap between the upper wing and the fuselage so that was filled with a sliver of 15 thou plastic. But that also showed that this wing is really thick, and with a pronounced upper surface curvature that shouldn't be there. It's not on the FJ-2 and would be difficult to rectify. Mmm.

 

 

Then finally I noted that the refuelling probe had a really prominent seam along its length, which would have been difficult to get rid of, so I replaced the tubular part with 0.9mm brass tube:

 

 

And here are a few images from the FJ-3D2 manual. Steve Ginter's excellent FJ-3 book in the Naval Fighters series covers the FJ-3D but not the D2 version so much, so hopefully these will be of use. Note especially the standby aerial (7) on this machine:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve also omits a few FJ-3D2 units in his book: these are the squadrons that operated the type:

 

VU-1, Barbers Point (tail code UA) – November 1959 to July 1962

VU-3, Brown Field/San Diego/North Island (UF) – June 1959 to October 1962

VU-4, Chincoteague (JF) – April 1958 to March 1959

VU-5, Naha/Atsugi (UE) – October 1959 to November 1963

VU-8, Roosevelt Roads (GF) – August 1960 to March 1964

VU-10, Guantanamo Bay (JH) – March 1959 to January 1960

GMGRU-2, Roosevelt Roads (DB) – March 1959 to September 1960.

 

From my records it would appear that just more than thirty FJ-3s were converted to FJ-3D2 status, the FJ-3D aircraft being completely different airframes.