The Navy FJ-4 was, to many people, the culmination of the basic North American Sabre Jet. This final naval variant featured a more powerful engine which required a larger intake, a shorter, deeper fuselage, a larger tail, larger wing area and a longer nose gear. Its front line service was short, however. By the late ‘50’s, the Fury was being phased out by newer, less expensive fighter and attack aircraft but the FJ-4B was loved by its pilots. They referred to it as the “Cadillac” while its counterpart and eventual replacement, the A4D was referred to as the “Tinkertoy”.

Emhar issued the FJ-4B in 1/72nd scale in 1990 and is a great kit. There are really only two shortfalls of the kit; the first being a rather basic cockpit and the second being a crude, short exhaust/jet pipe. Pavla has recently released resin detail parts for the cockpit and the jet pipe.

Pavla Models has been putting out a lot of very nice cockpit sets for older kits that really don’t have more than an oversized seat and a shape for a control panel. One example is the older Matchbox kits that came out in the 70s and 80s. This set was designed to fit into the Matchbox kit and talk about an upgrade; it gives you the control panels for 2 configurations. I’m one of those people that are hooked on the model kits of my childhood because of the fond memories that they bring back. My dad was a postman and he would always seem to bring me some model kit from the Saturday garage sales on his route.

I like these old kits but it is a blessing to be able to add some detail to them.

Background

Originally designated as the F-95, the North American F-86D “Sabre Dog” was the initial all-weather and night capable extension of the superb F-86 day fighter. Only 25% common to the day-version F-86’s the “Dog” sported a larger fuselage, engine, and tail surfaces, with a distinctive radome to house an advanced air intercept radar. The D-model also traded its guns for 2.75-inch folding fin aerial rockets, which were mounted in a retractable launcher in the nose of the aircraft. First prototyped in 1949, over 2500 F-86D’s were produced, serving in the air arms of no fewer than 17 nations.