Puddingwrestler's FJ-4STE FURY

[puddingwrestler]

And now: A large chunk of alternate history to explain what I'm building... followed by a discussion of what I'm building!

THE SAUCER WARS (1948-60)

   The Saucer Wars began on November 12, 1954, as Saucers landed in Cleveland, Ohio. A state of emergency was declared, followed by a declaration of war on November 14, 1954.
   Many people felt the saucer wars to be a bad thing, citing the atom bombing of Cleveland to destroy the alien base, the wide-spread destruction, the 'assistance' from the peace-loving peoples of the USSR and the interruption of the World Series. It is undeniable, however that the technological advances made during the war as a result of contact with the saucer technology were enormous. Conservative estimates indicate that it would have taken the US at least 50 years to reach the level of technology attained by the end of the wars in 1960 unaided. It is also undeniable that due to this technological head-start, the US was able to bring democracy to the USSR and establish itself as the world's ruling power by 1972. To fully appreciate the technological breakthroughs involved, it is unnecessary to return to 1947.
   In 1947 an alien craft crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico. This was denied by the authorities at the time, but when the Saucer Wars started in earnest in late 1954, the Government released details (although much of the research into the craft remained secret).
   Intensive research into the crashed ship was carried out and it was discovered that some of the technologies could be replicated and copied. The majority of the ship's hull was composed of an unknown alloy, eventually named 'Thorskinite' after Dr. Alexander Thorskin, the head metallurgist on the research team. Although expensive and complex to produce, this alloy could be replicated and a production and evaluation program was initiated in 1950, the aim being to use the alloy in military applications within the next decade. The Thorskinite program went faster than anyone anticipated and resulted in sufficient production capacity for military applications as early as 1954, just as the Saucer War began in earnest with the second wave invasion.
   Other technologies which proved to be replicable (if only on a limited level) were the alien 'Heat Ray' and 'Black Dome'. By 1953, working heat rays had been developed which packed roughly as much power as the Alien hand-held units, but which, however were not man portable. These units were fitted to various Military vehicles, including various tanks and fighter aircraft. Their size prevented them being fitted internally on existing airframes, so until specific craft could be designed around them, they were fitted to wing mounted hard points instead of the usual missiles.
   The 'Black Dome' anti-gravity device was found to be plausible, but required very large power sources. Due partially to it's advanced construction, and also to damage sustained in the crash, the Roswell Saucer's power source could not be replicated. It was found, however that sufficient power could be generated by a nuclear reactor of sufficient size. Experiments were carried out by retrofitting one of the Navies Midway class Aircraft carriers with a nuclear reactor and Black Domes and it was found that the ship, although lacking sufficient power to break earth orbit, could be used effectively as a heavy aerial support unit for defence against Saucer attacks.
   The ship, renamed the USAS(United States Airial Ship) Victory  was equipped with the new FJ-4STE 'Fury' Saucer Technology Enhanced Fighter, equipped with a Thorskinite fuselage and twin hard-point mounted heat rays. The new fighter was based on the newly re-designed FJ-4 Fury, with Saucer Technologies hastily retrofitted to combat the new menace. Due to the reduced weight of the Thorskinite fuselage, the FJ-4STE had a greatly improved top speed and reduced fuel consumption. It was also the first US fighter to feature the now familiar anti-radar paint, another feature reverse engineered from the Roswell saucer.
   The USAS Victory and it's fighter wing formed the core of the newly formed Saucer Defence Patrol, flying constant patrol and defence over the US mainland. When originally formed in 1955, the SDP consisted of the Victory, her fighter wing, and various strategic bombers which refuled from the Victories six onboard airborne re-fueling booms although they could not land on the carrier.Victory was joined by two further carriers and a number of aerial cruisers by the end of the decade.

The model

Okay, so as you may have deduced by the title and the above text, I'm builkding an FJ-4STE Saucer Technology Enhanced Fury. I'm suing the Hobbyboss FJ-4 Fury in 1/48 scale pretty much box stock, except of course there's the whole heat-rays thing and the anti-radar paint bit. The kit is going together nicely so far (okay, I admit I've built the cockpit and that's about it) and looks pretty good. I'm planing on using some spare ordenance from an F-101 for the heat-ray pods, and I'm still sort of tossing up between traditional black anti-radar paint or a more... alien look.
No pics yet because I haven't really done anything 

Oh... and I do plan to build the USAS Victory at some stage (obviously not in 1/48 of course...)

[The Rat]

This is sounding WAY COOL!

...and the interruption of the World Series.

THAT hurts, we'll never get to see 'The Catch'.

... eventually named 'Thorskinite'...

Unfortunately the British liaison officer assigned to the program was a Cockney, and when he relayed the findings to RAF labs it was transmitted as 'Forskinite.' The resulting attempt to make the same material out of the wrong base product doomed the attempt, and the National Health Service was almost crippled with overtime.

Oh... and I do plan to build the USAS Victory at some stage (obviously not in 1/48 of course...)

CHICKEN! 

Hey, wait a sec, the World Series was in September and October, how could it be interrupted?

[BlackOps]

Great backstory (makes me think of the X-Com video game) sounds like it has potential for lots of other builds too! Looking forward to seeing pics of your Fury.

[puddingwrestler]

Hey, wait a sec, the World Series was in September and October, how could it be interrupted?

Well the war did last six years 

I've got the cockpit done and painted (except for the instrument panel) but nothing non-stock just yet. I'll post some pics when I get non-stock stuff happening.

[puddingwrestler]

Alright then! First pic of the build!

The picture in question


I've blu-tacked the weapons to the wing to check how things look. The FJ-4ATE is armed with a pair of bullpup missiles (those are bullpups, right? I'm not really well informed about missiles) on the outer pylons, what look like drop tanks, but are in fact heat-ray battery packs (i'll add some little lightning flash decals to make this more obvious) and a pair of heat-rays on the inboard pylons. The heatrays are in fact left over nuclear rockets (forgotten the name...) from an F-101 kit, glued on backwards. They will look more ray-gunish soon, I pormise!

Otherwise things are all stock.

And I've decided to go for a more alien look to the anti-radar paint.

[Howard of Effingham]

hmm, is it intentional?, but those genie's on the inboard pylons are wrong way around.

not seen you here before so welcome to the fun that is what-if!

trevor

[puddingwrestler]

Yes, the genies are meant to be on backwards. Those are the affore mentioned nuclear rockets of which I could not remember the name. They will look more like gun pods when I finish with them.

[puddingwrestler]

photos! Get yer steaming hot photos here!

Linky!
Linkie!

Okay, I'm going with the alien looking paint scheme here, purple sponged on paint. Then I'll sponge on some shades of green. Then it'll get a very glossy clear coat. Trust me, it will look like NOTHING the US has ever flown!

Well it is bizzare organic Alien paint, right? Details have not yet been released, but rumour has it that it involves some sort of micro-organism.

[Sisko]

Go for it!!!

I say purple is an under utilised colour in these days of overt modelling accuracy.

All power to you for brave decision to buck the trend and use this much maligned colour on your kit!!!!!!!!

Looking good by the way.

[puddingwrestler]

Well, to me purple says alien much more than any other colour - possibly because you don't see it that often!

Okay, it also says 'Undead' and 'Crazy body-builders in spandex pants' but that's only cause I've used liche purple to paint various undead models and my Goliath gang for necromunda...

[sotoolslinger]

First, badass build, second purple is my favorite color. You get you some PW.

[BlackOps]

PW, I'm liking this very much! I too am diggin' the purple  I liked the metal treatment underneath quite a bit too.

[Brian da Basher]

There's not enough purple planes out there. This really fits your backstory and gives the build an "other-worldly" look! Definitely a keeper, puddingwrestler!

Brian da Basher

[Jeffry Fontaine]

PW, I took the liberty of editing your link to display the image within the post so we don't have to load another IE screen to see it. 

Have you given any thought to modifying your AGM-12 Bullpup missiles to give them a self-guiding ability with a new EO seeker replacing the sharp pointy nose?  Rounding them down to a more blunt shape or clipping the point off and replacing it with a drop of white glue to create an IR or TV (EO) seeker is a quick way of updating the weapons.  In real life there were tests done with the Bullpup to create a laser guided, IR guided, and an EO type weapon but all were cancelled when it threatened the AGM-65 Maverick program which the Navy and Marine Corps adopted in lieu of the improved Bullpup missiles. 

[puddingwrestler]

The bullpups are really only there as a backup for when the heat rays run out of juice or attacking other human targets so the Navy didn't see much point updating them - especially since newer ATE missiles were on the bench at the time...

All of the various spongings have now been done and it's time for varnish...