NORTH AMERICAN FJ-1 FURY in 1/48 scale
I had originally posted this in the F-86 Sabre and FJ Fury Group last year. For more details on the build, go to here: https://imodeler.com/groups/f-86-sabre-and-fj-fury/forum/topic/czech-model-fj-1-fury/
HISTORY
North American began designing its first jet fighter in 1944. N.A. actually created two straight-wing designs, one for the Navy and a slightly slimmer one for the Air Force. Both were accepted.
When the German, swept-wing research became available after the war, N.A. offered to redesign both projects with swept wings, but this would cause a delay. The Air Force accepted this and the F-86 was born. The Navy, not even sure jets could operate off carriers, much less swept wings, declined and the FJ-1 Fury proceeded as planned.
An order of thirty aircraft was placed with deliveries starting in 1947. A few went to NATC for testing while most went to VF-5A, based at NAS North Island, San Diego and skippered by CDR. Evan Aurand.
The squadron was very proud to be on the cutting-edge of Naval aviation. On 29 February 1948 VF-5A broke three west coast speed records: Seattle to San Francisco, Seattle to Los Angeles and Seattle to San Diego. CDR. Aurand set the Seattle to L.A. record in 1 hr., 58 min while flying FJ-1 120349, side number 102.
But things did not go well for the Fury. The plane's first carrier quals aboard the USS Princeton were a disaster. Nearly every plane was pranked, many becoming non-flyable. The ship's captain publicly told CDR. Aurand to get his planes off the ship before he killed someone.
Not all was bad news. In September, 1948, the squadron, now VF-51, entered seven FJ-1's in the Bendix Race for jets, a cross-county race between Long Beach, Calif. and Cleveland, Ohio. The best time of the Furys was 4:10:34 with an average speed of 489.5 m,p,h.
Ultimately, the FJ-1 never fully entered fleet service and no more were produced. VF-51 converted to the F9F Panther in May 1949 and turned their FJ-1s over to the Naval Reserves.
My interest in the FJ-1 goes back to my time as Operations Manager of the New England Air Museum in Connecticut. In the mid-1960's we found one of the two remaining FJ-1's abandoned in Philadelphia after the State Department stopped its sale to Cuba. This turned out to be Bu.No. 120349, side number 102, the speed record holder of the Seattle to L.A. run in 1948.
We gave it a quick paint job, applied the markings and put it in our (then new) outdoor display. After a few years it began to deteriorate and was put into outdoor storage for future restoration. The plane was later traded and now has been restored and is on display at the Yanks Museum in Chino, CA. A fitting place for it since its entire history was along the West Coast.
THE KIT
This Czech Model kit has been on my "shelf of Doom" for years after I screwed up one wing trying to correct a bad warp. I recently found an old, 1/48 scale, vac-u-form, ID Model of the FJ-1 from 1980. I decided to mate the ID Model wings to the Czech Model.
I had completed the resin cockpit during the first build attempt, but I now found I had lost some pieces. The armored head rest had broken off along with the control stick. I made a new head rest from sheet plastic and found a reasonable facsimile control stick in the spares box.
At this point, I realized I was missing the wheels and one main gear strut. I needed to build new gear or abandon the build all together. I took an aluminum tube that was about the same diameter as the remaining kit gear. I flattened the end with a pair of pliers and then bent it to match the kit part. I cut the upper strut apart and inserted a smaller brass rod for the oleo strut. The collars are Tamiya thin tape, wrapped around the shaft several time and coated with super glue to seal them. I decided that a matched pair would look better so I built a second one. Things were going so well, I moved on to the nose gear and modified it as well.
Finally, I was ready to tackle the wings. I inserted a brass rod through the fuselage for a wing spar and bent it up 3 degrees for the correct dihedral. At this point, I discovered that the vac-wing root cord was shorter than the CM wings. I combine both sets to get the right dimensions by matting the trailing edges of the CM wings with the vac wings at the rear spar line.
PAINTING
I gave the model a over-all coat of Tamiya Sea Blue, but when I looked at it the next day, it just looked like a black blob.
I decided I needed to lighten my FJ-1 paint, so I went back to the Tamiya Sea Blue and added some white. I did this by eye until I felt I had a slightly lighter shade. I applied a thin coat of the new paint to the FJ and was satisfied that the model now looked more Sea Blue then Black.
DECALING
I wanted to do the aircraft that New England Air Museum had (and Yanks Museum now has), side number 102 that set the speed record from Seattle to Los Angeles in 1948. Unfortunately, the kit comes with only markings for aircraft 101 and 115 of VF-5A. I decided that if I flipped the “5” upside down and applying it backwards, I'd have a reasonable “2”.
The decals were twenty years old and I wasn't sure if they were still good so I tried one that I wasn't going to use. It worked perfectly. Apparently, that was the ONLY one that was going to do that! As I was putting on the wing Navy Star & Bar, it came apart. I managed to salvage it, then coated the remaining decal sheet with Microscale decal film. This helped.
With the decaling done and dry, I sprayed another coat of future then a final coat of Tamiya simi-gloss clear.
I then attached my scratch-built gear, added the pitot tube to the upper vertical fin and the wire antenna from the top of the vertical to the fuselage side.
And the North American FJ-1 Fury was done!
I happy with the final results. But now that I was in the “Fury mode” I couldn't resist pulling out my old ESCI 1/48 FJ-2. But that's another story…
REFERENCE
Naval Fighters Number Seven: North American FJ-1 Fury by Steve Ginter and Ron Picciani, Copyright 1983.
My first-hand knowledge of the FJ-1 through the New England Air Museum.
Well done
thanks, George
Excellent job and an equally excellent result, Chuck!
As always, thanks, Spiros. I've enjoyed your recent articles in Model Madness as well.
An impressive Fury, Chuck @charleshorner
Well done.
Thanks, John
Good save !
Thanks, Brian
Great work put into this multi-media build Chuck. You saved it by using vacuform parts from another kit and scratch build the under carriage! This is a beauty of a build.
Thanks, Bob. The vac-form idea came to me late in the game. I had access top the vac Fury for some time but never thought to use it.
Very Nice, Chuck.
Thanks, Gary
Thanks for showing the way on the Czech Model FJ-1 Fury. Your landing gear hack is excellent, and the model came out great.
Congratulations!
Thanks, Marvin. I've built several Czech models in the past. They can be an interesting build but I didn't find them particularly hard.
Excellent save, Chuck!
Thanks, John. Always appreciate your comments.
That is a beautiful rendition of the Fury. The history section of the write-up is very interesting, especially that the Princeton’s captain had the latitude to order the squadron off the ship. I have a few USN birds in the projects line-up and will try to retain a mental note regarding Tamiya Sea Blue. Good work on fabricating the gear legs. Where did you source new wheels?
Thanks, Russell. Wheels are from a Monogram Canadian Sabre.
The Tamiya Sea Blue is pretty accurate to the FS number out of the bottle, but is just too dark on a small model. Many years ago, while with the New England Air Museum, I was building a F4U-4 at the same time that the museum was restoring their XF4U-4. They had purchase special-mix Sea Blue enamel paint for the project. I tried some on the model and it just looked black, but looked correct on the 1:1 aircraft.
Very impressive effort to end up with such a beautiful model!
Thanks, Greg.
Beautiful build and a most excellent save! This is one to be proud of..
Thanks, Andrew. It has a prominent place on my shelf, next the my FJ-2. I'll post that build next week.
Nicely done, Chuck (@charleshorner). I drug this kit around for 20 or more years and finally took it to the hobby shop and sold it on consignment. I was afraid the kit just had too many challenges to overcome. A big pat on the back for creating a real show-stopper out of the kit.
Thanks, George. Because of my personal involvement with the plane, I really wanted to complete it, so I kept the partial build in my stash for probably ten years before I thought to use wings from a different kit.
Wonderful rehab. Must feel good to add this one to the shelf.
Thanks Matt. Yes, it has a prominent place.
Very nice SoD recovery project Chuck (Leave no kit behind 🙂 - Cheers
Thanks. I have never not completed a kit. Some were not worth it, but they were completed.
Great job, Chuck @charleshorner! 👍 The finished bird looks very cool and it's a testament to your skills as a builder! 👏
Thanks, Gary