Representing the Naval Side - FJ-4B Fury

Started by Carl Smoot · 163 · 5 months ago
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    Carl Smoot said 7 months ago:

    There are a bunch of Sabres in this group, but the Navy side needs a bit of lovin'. Since I am an ex squid and an ex aviation mechanic squid to boot, I am taking up the mantle. I had already started this thread in the aircraft in progress group before I knew about this group. So I will refer you to that to start and catch up. From this point going forward, I will post here.

    https://imodeler.com/groups/work-in-progress-aircraft/forum/topic/hobbyboss-fj-4b-fury/

    Here is a simple description of the project. This is the 1/48 Hobby Boss FJ-4B Fury which I will be doing with wings folded on a carrier deck diorama. I am endeavoring to make corrections and improvements to the HB kit, but there will be things I've missed or have taken a few liberties with. I'll post some proper updates as soon as I have something new to post, but until then, here is the current state of the model.

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    George R Blair Jr said 7 months ago:

    Glad you have you join the group, Carl (@clipper). Former "squids" are always welcome. Your Fury looks great.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 7 months ago:

    Great that you moved your in progress Fury to this group, Carl @clipper
    Some great progress.

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    Carl Smoot said 7 months ago:

    Thanks George (@gblair) and John (@johnb). George, I'll endeavor to not make too many jokes about the differences between Zoomie pilots and Naval Aviators! πŸ™‚

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    Carl Smoot said 7 months ago:

    Well this will be fun. Since I am doing the wings folded up and because Hobby Boss only gives you wishful thinking for wingfold detail, I am going to have to "wing it" πŸ™‚ and create my own interpretation. I have some references, here's one as an example.

    Here's what I have to work with on the HB wing after cutting the outer wing off.

    There are a few things to notice here. First, the aileron on the Fury is exposed on the outboard end when the wings are up. And because I wanted to reposition them slightly, I had to cut them out of the wing. Hence the part at the trailing edge which looks sort of tulip shaped. This is where the aileron will go when I mount it. What is not apparent in this or the other photos is that the wing line is not straight from front to back, but rather more like a crooked dog's leg.

    Also if you look at the real thing, it appears that the wing is hinged in the middle along the top edge and uses the three "tongues" to lock the wing when down. The other detail, I am unsure of at the moment. The arrow in the real photo is from the photo and is pointing out the color of that pipe.

    Finally, notice how the real wing is thin at the edges (the sheetmetal making up the skin) while the kit looks like something made for the Flintstones.

    So my first task is to try and thin down these edges while leaving an area for the hinge point. It would have been easier to do this before gluing the wings together, but alas, my gluing hand was faster than my thinking brain that evening. So I am having to do this after the fact. It still looks pretty rough in this photo, but hopefully with some detailing and a bit more clean up, it will look the part. Then I have to repeat this for the other wing. And then repeat it again for the outer wing halves. I don't have any good photos of the outer wings detail so I will have to use what I do have to interpret it as best as I can.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 7 months ago:

    Great that you continue your thread from this GB, my friend @clipper!
    Awesome job already! I am sure reference pics like this will assist yo a lot in replicating the exposed hinged area.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 7 months ago:

    That will require quite some skills, Carl @clipper
    Will look great with the wings up.

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    George R Blair Jr said 7 months ago:

    Nice catch, Carl (@clipper). I always seem to figure out a better way to do something after I have already done it the other way.

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    Alfred van Paaschen said 7 months ago:

    Great work. Doesn’t look like an easy job though!

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    Carl Smoot said 7 months ago:

    Thanks guys. It's not too bad, I just need to be careful not to slip and cut myself or damage the part. So I take small slices each time.

    I'm working several different projects at the same time, one of which is this Fury model and the others are improvements to my house and garage. This is okay because each time I work on the Fury, I have to add a single small part to the wing fold area and let the glue dry before coming back to it later and doing the next step.

    This is such a small area, that all I am going to try to do is give a general representation of what I can make out in the photos. This is what I have so far. This is just the port wing. I have not done anything on the starboard side yet, nor have I started on the outer wing parts. So it will be somewhat slow going for a few days.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 7 months ago:

    Solid progress, my friend @clipper!

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    Cricket said 7 months ago:

    @clipper Nice work there Carl! One of my fav A/C of all times … next the SR-71 πŸ™‚

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    George R Blair Jr said 7 months ago:

    Slow and steady wins the race, Carl (@clipper). Sometimes I don't have a lot of patience, so I have my train layout to fill my time instead of sitting at the workbench waiting for glue or paint to dry. I also have projects out in the garage and in the yard. Even after I retired, I see that sometimes my time is not my own.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 7 months ago:

    You're progressing nicely, Carl @clipper

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    Carl Smoot said 7 months ago:

    Thanks Cricket (@bikequeen), Spiros (@fiveten), George (@gblair), and John (@johnb). It is definitely slow progress right now. That's fine. One of the distractions was a long overdue re-roofing of our house which happened yesterday. What, I've been doing to hopefully speed things up a bit is make two of each new detail part so I will have them ready when I move to the starboard wing. These are little pieces and not much in the way of work, but as each is made up of several smaller bits, they take time to dry after assembly and having them ready for the next side, will reduce that waiting time.

    George, everytime I work on these interior detailing jobs, I think about that capability you have for 3D printing. This seems like it would be a good choice for an aftermarket item, especially if we don't see any new Fury kits in the near future. One of the challenges I still need to tackle is how to strengthen the bond between the outer and inner wings when I glue them together in the folded position. Ultimately, I think it is going to be one of those types of models that you don't look at cross-eyed too often in case it decides to fall apart because you did.! πŸ™‚