--Originally Posted 9/21/13--

This is a post I've been wanting to make for a long time - and finally (while sorting out some abundantly confused references on this plane), I went to my stash and pulled from it every classic carrier boxing depicting the North American FJ Fury:


This first, and most dramatic example being of course Revell's (fairly early) Midway-class boxing, showing an FJ-3 (or, I suppose, possibly the FJ-2, which looked essentially identical but was produced/deployed in far lesser numbers) roaring skyward. Note the pre-1958, Midnight Blue color scheme, with very cool gold flashes and silver trim. Such a scene probably never actually occurred, as (IIRC - though I could be wrong) the Midways went in for their enclosed hurricane bows/angled-decks (SCB-110 conversions) before even the FJ-2 could have appeared on-deck. And in any case, the former, already long-fitted with their partial, "Baby-Bow" hurricane-bow enclosures - since before (operationally) embarking any jets - could not have appeared as depicted in this box-art.

Historical inaccuracies notwithstanding, the above was quite an inspiration to a young modeller back in the '60s - becoming quite vexing, after spending one's hard-won allowance money on this grandiose purchase, maybe 6 or 8 bucks(!), to discover this to be yet another among many a case of false advertising: as this Revell model has never - in any of its releases/repops - included a single Fury!

The Revell mold which did actually include Furies - again, FJ-3s or perhaps -2s, and these were by far the better (of just two such) depictions ever released in this (500-600) scale - was their early Forrestal-class:


Click on Image to EnlargeThough its box-art was hardly inspiring for its Furies (bottom), hastily yet recognizeably depicted - basically just rounding out the deck-park, in a background quartet (which I had for decades never even noticed) - instead focusing mainly on A3D SkyWarriors and F7U Cutlasses, it was still pretty decent. Also shown are an F2H-3/4 Banshee or two - inexplicably (and implausibly) the only ones depicted in Medium Blue, all the rest being depicted now in the post-'57, Gull Gray-over-White. All the above planes were represented in this mold - arguably the best depiction of a complete air group in any of the ancient, classic carriers (though these Furies' noses were really a bit too narrow, looking more like F-86 SabreJets).

At the opposite extreme - among the very worst air group moldings, including the worst-ever Furies - were several carrier kits, paradoxically boxed under the very best-ever artwork showing Furies:


Click on Image to EnlargeI refer of course to the Aurora Forrestals - IMHO including also some of the best overall carrier art to be seen on a model box, ever. And that goes likewise for their renditions of Furies: again, FJ-2/3s, shown predominating the deckload on Forrestal herself (left), and - yet more spectacularly - about to catch a wire on Independence (right). The latter, depicted apparently in natural-metal-finish (which was indeed, at least for a short time, the finish maintained on the Forrestals' air groups), remains the best artwork of a Fury on any carrier box-art, AFAIK.

Thus, again one can only imagine the profound disappointment of a pre-teen modeller - having gazed for weeks upon this box-art, on the shelves, while saving nickels and dimes to buy it - only to find, actually molded inside were some of the lousiest "Furies" - indeed, among the most bona-fide offensive carrier aircraft moldings ever - with noses so carelessly executed as to resemble nothing so much as chopped-off carrots. Carrots with swept-wings. (Eight-year-old to Revell: "Just because I'm young doesn't mean that I'm stupid and unobservant…!" ) And thus yet another instance of what can reasonably be considered False Advertising (extending also particularly to the squat, all-folded-slab-winged "Cutlasses" included copiously in this mold). Indeed, so bad was this entire sprue that Monogram's repop of it the mold (while retaining its "flat-bottom-boat" hull) did in fact completely replace the air group with a far better (but later, '60s-'70s era) set of planes.

However the above, in toto, still left an indelible fixation (for me personally, as I am sure also for many others) to outfit an Aurora/Monogram CVA with some really good Furies on deck - an obsession which, for myself, extends also to modelling the FJ-3 itself, which AFAIK, to this day still remains unavailable (in an affordable, injection-molded kit) in 1/48 scale:


Click on Image to EnlargeInstead, for decades there had been only the 1/48 MatchBox FJ-4b - seen here (Thank You, Donny!) in the first step of an FJ-3 conversion which should be pretty much self-explanatory. (Note a little study of the FJ-2 and -3 will quickly reveal these to be much more similar - particularly around nose and tail - to the FJ-4b than the F-86 Sabre, as might first appear.)

Acquisition of the much more recent - and far better - HobbyCraft 1:48 FJ-4b (which includes, among other major improvements, very nice fuselage panel lines that are completely absent from the ancient MatchBox), has enabled the easy pirating of the MatchBox for the above project. (For which the hardest anticipated task should be adding-back some decent panel-lines.)

And so that is (for me personally, anyway) the still-unfolding story, and current status, of The Furies - unleashed, some 50-plus years ago, by the confluence of gorgeous, yet tauntingly-misrepresentative carrier box art, exacerbated by an utter lack of FJ-2/3 kits in 1:48 scale - creating an obsession still to be remedied, lo these many decades later.

I hope you will enjoy this thread - and don't hesitate to Show us Your Fury (if you've built any)!


Cheers,

- Matty