I’ve had very little time that past week to work on this project, but I did accomplish a major step … I completed and attached the wings.

Before going any further, my many thanks to all who have posted positive and encouraging comments so far. My bad for not responding earlier.

First thing in attaching the wings was to line up my brass rod support with the forward spar line of the under-wing half. I tacked these down with clay, then super glued the rod and the forward edge of the lower wing to the fuselage. Once this was secure, I attached the top half of the wings. The tips came next. I saw that the wing span was coming up a little short so I added small sheet plastic spacers to the wing tips.

I had realized that the wing to fuselage joint was going to have large gaps. I initially use thick super glue to fill in these gaps. This work better than I expected. I then added some Milliput to the roots which completed the processed.

After a thorough sanding, especially at the tips and root, I sprayed the entire model with Mr. Surface 1000 primer. I’ll be working on the canopy and masking next.

To digress, slightly, my interest in the FJ-1 goes back to my time as Operations Manager of the New England Air Museum in Connecticut (formerly Bradley Air Museum). In the early 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 by VF-5a.

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 pulled from display 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.

3 additional images. Click to enlarge.

Thanks, Carl. I'm really happy with the results so far. The wings came out better than I expected.

Fantastic job so far, my friend @charleshorner! Great info on the actual plane, too! You did a good job!

Thanks, Spiros.

I've been side-tracked on other projects for the past few weeks but I'm back continuing with the FJ build, working on different components.

I next tackled the canopies. I had purchased a replacement to the original, which had “yellowed” badly. When I went to cut them out, I saw that the details on the replacements were very soft and hard to see. I found that when I overlayed them on the original, which had sharper details, I could see where to cut and later where to mask. I cut out both replacements to see which was the best fit. As it turned out both were good and worked equally well. I selected one, masked and painted it.

Not only had I lost the landing gear, which I made replacements for, but I had lost the wheels as well. After searching though my spares box, I decided to take the F-86 wheels from an old Monogram Canadian Sabre kit. They looked ok and fit the gear so I painted then and put them aside.

I planned on using the tip tanks and assembled them. My Ginter book reference showed clear position lights in the front tip of each tank. I sanded the tips back flat and glued a piece of clear sprue with super glue filler. I then sanded them into the correct profile and painted one with clear red and the other clear green. The tanks have two fins, top and bottom, which did not come with the kit. The directions have a template and the fins were just flat so I quickly cut them from sheet plastic and glued the on.

Everything then sat for about a week while I worked on other projects.

This past week I got back to the build and attached the tip tanks and glued on the canopy. I sealed and filled the edges of the canopy with several application of white glue. Likewise, with all the modifications to the wings, I had to enlarge the mounting opening so they would slip over the wing tips. I sealed these up with super glue filler.

Next it on to the “paint shop” and overall Sea Blue paint.

Coming along nicely, my friend @charleshorner! Great job on the canopy. Good save on the landing gear.

Thanks, George. I do my share of OOB but when I find challenge like the FJ-1, I really enjoy the process.