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.

The kit part for the jet pipe is very shallow and the detail is very soft. The Pavla replacement is a more accurate exterior appearance and has sufficient depth and interior detail to look very realistic. The part is easily removed from the pouring block and fits readily into the rear of the fuselage. This is just a simple substitution for the kit part.

This part is well recommended for modelers of any experience. A big thanks to Pavla for making this part available to improve the old Ehmar kit. It appears that this part can be ordered directly from Pavla at the link noted above. No prices are listed on their web site. I have seen the set also offered from Hannants as well as from some stores on e-bay.

My thanks to Pavla for providing this interesting item for review and to IPMS for giving me a chance to dig out my old Ehmar kit.