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1/48 ID vacuform FJ-1 Fury


ghodges

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I can still vividly remember 40yrs+ ago when my very first vac kit showed up in the mail...the Dragon Model Works 1/48 FJ-1 Fury, ordered from Brookhurst Hobbies as I recall. Amazingly, I was able to get it built despite my lack of experience and having to scratchbuild and scavenge things from the spares box, including all of the markings. Unfortunately, it "died" in one of my many moves over the decades, and I eventually replaced it with the 1/48 Czech Models limited run injection kit, which is still on my shelf today. This is the original vac FJ-1....

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Last year I managed to pick up the 1/48 ID vacuform kit of the FJ-1 Fury, and decided to celebrate 40yrs of vacuform fun by building it again. Fun, you say? Well sure! By building that one vac, it opened up an entire world of vacuform and resin kits, enabling me to build subjects that were otherwise unobtainable for the next 20-30yrs. And THAT, has been worth all of the extra cutting, sanding, and scratchbuilding needed on those kits. As a plus, those "skills" could easily be applied to any other kit!

I finished the new 1/48 Id Models vacuform FJ-1 Fury this afternoon....I put it in USN reserve markings to set it apart from the Czech kit on the shelf in fleet markings. I used Czech model resin interior parts, tip tanks, gear doors, and tail planes to save myself building time. I also opened the canopy and added the clear glass tips to the tanks and the tip tank lights (missing from the Czech kit altogether). The landing gear is "Frankensteined" from the spares box with the Czech kit resin tires.
The starting place...

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Ready to begin...

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Interior work....note that the intake tube has a carved slot to add an engine compressor face. You can also see the epoxy putty added to strengthen the wing and tail roots (as well as add backing against over-sanding) and the where the nose weights were added.

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The assembled and primed model...note that more epoxy putty has been used to create the instrument coaming, the decking under the canopy has been built, and the vac canopy cut apart...

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The gear bay, boxed in and detailed. Noe the sockets added for the gear. The main gear is a spare brass set (P-51), and the nose gear built up from "parts"...

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And the finished pics....

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Not a "contest" result, but a great walk down memory lane for me to celebrate and replace my very first vacuform with another like it.

Questions, comments, and critiques welcome, as always! Cheers!
 

Gil  :smiley16:

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Beautiful work! I remember the days when Brookhurst Hobbies kept a good stock of vacuform kits in the shop.

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