¹⁄48

North American FJ-4 Fury

The North American FJ-4 Fury was a single seat, single engine, swept-wing carrier-capable fighter-bomber for the US Navy and Marine Corps. The FJ-4 was designed as an all-weather interceptor, a role requiring considerable range on internal fuel. The first FJ-4 flew on 28 October 1954 and delivery began in February 1955. Of the original order for 221, the last 71 were modified in the FJ-4B fighter-bomber version. This version had a stronger wing with six instead of four underwing stations and a stronger landing gear. The underwing pylons could carry conventional or tactical nuclear weapons and Bullpup air-to-ground missiles. The most important characteristic of the FJ-4B was that it was capable of carrying a nuclear weapon on the inboard port station. It was equipped with the Low-Altitude Bombing System for the delivery of nuclear weapons. The Navy equipped 10 squadrons with the FJ-4B. It was also flown by three Marine squadrons. All told, North American produced 374 FJ-4/4B aircraft (redesignated F-1E in 1962).

The Kit

The 1/48 scale Hobby Boss FJ-4 Fury is made up of 3 sprues of light gray plastic and 1 sprue for clear parts. the kit also has 1 decal sheet with decals for 2 aircraft.

Construction

Building the Hobby Boss FJ-4 Fury was an out of the box build, except for the PE seat belts I added to the ejection seat. Overall, construction for the kit is straight forward just following the illustrated instructions. The parts fit for the kit were good, not much seam filling and sanding except when attaching the wing assembly to the fuselage. There were some large gaps at the wing roots that required attention. I made my Fury an FJ-4B which as 6 underwing pylons, and armed it with four AGM-12 Bullpup air-to-ground missiles and two AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. Note that this Fury kit is a big time tail sitter. I filled the nose gear wheel base with lead weight to get the model to stand on all three landing gears.

Painting

All paints used for this model were Model Masters and Floquil enamel paints. Navy and Marine aircraft of the late 50s and 60s had a paint scheme of all white on the underside of the aircraft and flat gull gray on the topside. For my FJ-4B Fury I airbrushed the leading edges of the wings, horizontal stabilizers, and the vertical stabilizer with Floquil Bright Silver. The underside of the model and the tops of the ailerons, flaps, and horizontal stabilizers were airbrushed with MM Flat White. The rest of the model was airbrushed with MM Flat Gull Gray. Decals The FJ-4 Fury kit provides a decal sheet that has decals for two Marine FJ-4s. I chose to use the decals for aircraft number 139510 of the VMF-232 Squadron, 1957. The decals performed well, they were easily placed and adhered nicely to the model. Notice that the decals for the nose are incorrectly placed. When applying the decals for the nose I made a mistake. I placed decal 57 (the black decal) first, then placed the two red decals (36 and 37). As a result, the nose decal placement is incorrect. A little red paint made the nose look somewhat realistic. Note that the decal sheet did not provide any decals for the missiles. So I reached into the spare decal box and retrieved the appropriate decals. Once decaling was complete, I cleaned up the model with a damp cloth, then applied a light coat of Future over the model. To finish off the model, I airbrushed it with a coat of MM Semi-Gloss Lacquer Finish.

Comments

To sum up, this kit was a very enjoyable build. Hobby Boss has done a nice job with this kit. The external detail is good, the parts fit is good, and the decals were excellent. I recommend this kit to any modeler.