Any of you guys ever built, or know where I could find a kit of an FJ-3 “Fury” Navy/Marine fighter?
I just picked up the latest edition of Combat Aircraft and inside was an article and some shthot photos of a newly restored Fury, which now of course I have a bug up my 6 to build. Your questions, comments and concerns area appreciated.
The only J-3 I know of was an Esci kit in 1/48. It was not a great kit, or very accurate, and the review I read on it said it was more accurate as a J-2. Haven’t seen Esci around for years. You would probably have to go on Ebay to find one.
Summary review on Esci kit:
http://f-86.tripod.com/esci2.html
Collect-Aire has expressed intent to produce a 1/48 FJ-3, selling for $120.
There is a Falcon conversion set that includes a 1/72 FJ-3 vacuform fuselage - no wings, stabilizer, landing gear, decals. I haven’t tried it yet.
There is a very complete 1/72 resin FJ-3 kit from RVHP (Czech Republic) if you can find one.
You can get to an XFJ-2 from an F-86 without too much work…
Grand Phoenix makes a very nice 1/48 kit of the FJ-4 Fury & Czech Model has a decent 1/48 kit of the FJ-1 Fury. Not aware of any FJ-3 kit in 1/48.
I built the old ESCI/ERTL FJ-3. It was merely their F-86E molded in navy blue plastic, inserts for 4 20mm cannons to replace the six .50s, and those deep, deep squared panel lines. But it had one great decal sheet, with the red lightning bolts on sea blue paint. I wound up kitbashing this thing’s wings and seat with a Monogram F-86 to get a decent Loream War F-86E just before all these state of the art Sabre kits began to appear. I’m no Fury expert, but isn’t a FJ-2 pretty much a navalized Sabre? And the -3 was a little more navalized, with clamshell canopy. The the -4 was an all new aircraft. There is a restored one on the warbird circuit. Quite a rare warebird, indeed, since they didn’t build many -4s.
The XFJ-2 prototypes were F-86s except for the landing gear, arresting hook, a small windshield mod, and some other odds and ends. The production FJ-2 was almost identical to the FJ-3 except the latter had a slightly larger inlet and a different wing leading edge eventually. Neither had a clamshell canopy, but it was notably different in the interface with the fuselage compared to the USAF Sabre.
You might be interested in the Collect-Aire kit review (and pictures) at this web page:
You’re right about -3 not having clamshell. Been talking about those Sabre Dogs too much lately.
thier is a web site on the net called www.hobbylinc.com it is a web site with discount name brand model kits they might have one.If you cant find it in search try the scale you are looking forr and look through the pages good luck!
Thanks for the help guys.