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vf-61 fj-3 fury


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hi all... i was just wondering if anybody happened to have any pictures of vf-61's furys. the only picture I have ever seen is the one on almansurs web page. any help would be greatly appreciated

Kale

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Those are rare. The trouble is mostly that they never deployed to sea with them, and so were not subject to ship's photographers who are very good at documenting the aircraft of any air wing that operates aboard.

The one on Almansur's site was sent to me as a photocopy only by one of the pilots in the picture, who wasn't sure where he'd placed the original. There is another image in which you can hardly see a thing (just shows the nose, posed with a pilot) in the archives at the National Museum of Naval Aviation, and another without the jolly rogers emblem in a large book on CAG aircraft which came out a few years back...I don't have that book but someone photocopied the page in question to show/ask me, and after some examination I decided it certainly must be VF-61's planes.

So I used those sketchy photos along with some additional help from a former VF-61 pilot to get my model right.

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Sweet, that's the one; thanks for posting it! Doesn't say VF-61 in the caption anywhere, but the white band on the nose is the giveaway, combined with the proper modex series. No Jolly Roger emblem applied yet to the fuselage behind the cockpit, though. One of the pilots who was there had no recollection of the CAG bird, but then again, they didn't fly them long. He said they were prone to flameouts very frequently, and the final straw was two flameouts during a special flypast they were doing...once everyone was back safe, the squadron commander announced he was going to try to get new jets...and since they'd just turned in their F9F-6's from the previous cruise, it was a simple matter for the non-nuggets to switch to the F9F-8, although in a rapid transition.

B)

Edited by Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy
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alright so my understanding is that the overall paint job is gloss seablue, with a white band across the nose. what color would the leading edges be. in the cag picture they seem to be natural metal...i just wanted to be sure

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The leading edges were corrogard, a clear epoxy paint/coating that had been "aluminized" for this purpose. It's a hard color to pin down. For one thing, strictly speaking it isn't a color and for another, the color it appears to be depends on the lighting, the angle it's viewed at, and how long its been since it has been applied. A matte silver is a one simple alternative.

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Wing leading edges are metal-ish in color (I mix silver with steel, aluminum and the faintest drop of gunmetal and overcoat with semi-gloss/satin clear), as are the tips of the tanks. No photographic evidence, but the VF-61 pilot I corresponded with said the tips of the horizontal tails are very possibly white. And a white rudder, unlike the illustration above.

Edited by Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy
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