Vintage 70's ESCI 1/48 F-8E Crusader ***WIP***

AirMaster-

Lookin good so far!  I saw a "Dogfight" show on the History Channel Friday night about the F-8, and thought that I should get one for my collection.  I'll be keeping an eye on this build!

Daywalker, Stik, Thanks for the kind words.

Stik, The front panel in this kit is a two piece deal. you will need to add some scrap plastic to left and right side of the front panel and trace/outline the PE front panel on to it, then reshape it to conform to the PE panel before you apply the PE front panel to it. Make sure you apply the PE front panel smooth surface. Paint a white undercoat and brush on a thin coat of Future. The Eduard set comes with a clear vinyl plastic piece with the instrument details printed onto it, this must be applied before you add the PE front panel. You may either use white glue or future to apply this. I used Future for it's bond, protection and leveling qualities. True Details makes resin ejection seats for the F-8 ( Martin-Baker Mk-7 PN# 48405) but I did not have a set at the time and used what I had at hand. The best tools for the job is patience and taking your time.

Air Master

wayne baker wrote:

I started this kit years ago, and never finished it.  The wings were warped, and my attempt to remove the warp didn't work.  Do you have a warp problem?  And not with the Enterprise!

Wayne, I did not have any wing warp but, I did have warping on the fusalage which was causing the wings to sit to low and not align properly. I fixed this by adding tabs of scrap plastic inside to align the fusalage. On the wings I added more small scraps of plastic under wing where it mates to the fusalage. I kept test fitting and filing down the scraps till it seated right and sat flush to the rest of the fusalage and glued wings in place then applied a mother lode of putty to fill in the huge gaps. I still have a major sanding job to do on the top and underside of wings also sanding the spine to make it look properly aligned with the rest of it. Seems like alot of work for an old kit but believe me, I have built Revell kits with far worse problems. This old kit has gone together better than some Revell-Monogram kits I have done.

Air Master     

wayne baker wrote:

I started this kit years ago, and never finished it.  The wings were warped, and my attempt to remove the warp didn't work.  Do you have a warp problem?  And not with the Enterprise!

  The warp was so bad in mine they looked like fish hooks.  In my attempt to get them straight I broke the wings.  The whole kit wound up in the trash. 

You are doing a good job on the kit.  Keep us posted on the final outcome.

Berny, Tango, Thanks for the encouraging words.

I had some major fit problems with the wings but managed to overcome that by adding scraps of plastic to wings where it mates to fusalage, test fitting and sanding scraps until I got the fit. The warp I encountered on the fusalage made one side of wings sit lower than the other and spine would not align. It took a large amount of putty and great deal of sanding but it went well. Managed to get wings on straight and flush with upper fusalage and the spine aligned.

Here are some more pics of last nights progress. All comments and critiques welcome.

Air Master

That is one good looking jet so far! Looking forward to see this one move forward. Do the wheel wells have any detail or are going to add some?

      Eddie  

Eddie,

Thanks for the compliment! There is raised detail on the side walls of the main gear and cieling of nose gear well. I'm going to try to highlight the detail after it's painted. Panel lines will be accented and will take a shot at weathering it. This Crusader will represent VF-162 "Hunters" from the USS Oriskany flown by Cmdr. Bellinger, the first U.S. Navy Mig Killer of Vietnam. Decals will be OOB and I'm going to add bare metal scuff plates for the horizontal stabs from scratch. I'll post more pics as I progress toward finishing it.

Next project is a second Crusader, 1/48 Monogram F-8E for VMF-122. Yup, a Marines Bird.

Air Master

Todays progress,

Landing gear, doors, missiles and pylons painted. Nose and canopy/windshield went on. I've started masking and it's getting about that time to give it a primer paint coat. Going to go with AIM-9's on the double racks on each side. I'm hoping to have primer coat on tonight. So far it's turning out to be a darn fine model for an old kit. Pictures to follow soon.

Air Master

Positioning the wings in landing position was not an option with this kit, the area between the actual wings are hollow. It was best to fit wings in static position with gear down or flight position without langing gear. I'll be displaying it as static with gear down.

Air Master

Mikeym_us wrote:

well I have the Revell F-8 as well and the Lindberg F-8 kit both in 1/48 scale. And I have a Esci F-4 Phantom F-5  F-18 and Mirage in 1/48 scale. you probably could have had the wing in landing configuration as well since the wing was hinged in the rear and was raised in the front to act as a speed brake while landing.

Just as a matter of interest, the wing wasn't hinged to act as a speed brake but to increase the aerodynamic angle of attack of the wing and provide more lift at relatively slow carrier approach speeds.  Without the hinged wing the pilot would have had to have flown with such a nose up attitude that he'd have trouble seeing the flight deck over the nose.  It's one of those design features that make carrier aircraft so interesting.  It was similar in purpose to the extendable nose strut on the F4 that was used to provide a greater angle of attack for the wing during cat shots. 

BTW, the hinge mechanism on the F8 wing was interconnected with the slats and flaps.  If the wing is in the raised position, the slats and flaps should be down.  Again, it's to shape the wing in a high-lift configuration for landing.

Mark

RedCorvette wrote:

Mikeym_us wrote: well I have the Revell F-8 as well and the Lindberg F-8 kit both in 1/48 scale. And I have a Esci F-4 Phantom F-5  F-18 and Mirage in 1/48 scale. you probably could have had the wing in landing configuration as well since the wing was hinged in the rear and was raised in the front to act as a speed brake while landing. Just as a matter of interest, the wing wasn't hinged to act as a speed brake but to increase the aerodynamic angle of attack of the wing and provide more lift at relatively slow carrier approach speeds.  Without the hinged wing the pilot would have had to have flown with such a nose up attitude that he'd have trouble seeing the flight deck over the nose.  It's one of those design features that make carrier aircraft so interesting.  It was similar in purpose to the extendable nose strut on the F4 that was used to provide a greater angle of attack for the wing during cat shots.  BTW, the hinge mechanism on the F8 wing was interconnected with the slats and flaps.  If the wing is in the raised position, the slats and flaps should be down.  Again, it's to shape the wing in a high-lift configuration for landing. Mark

Red, You are correct and just to add mention, the speed break was located under the aircraft just ahead of the main landing gear. The wing lift was only used for landings and take off's.

Air Master 

The speed brake on the F-8 could be operated in flight from fully closed, fully extended and anywhere in between.  Once the landing gear was extended, the speed brake was limited in travel and could not be fully extended no matter how long the speed brake switch was held in the extend position.  If the speed brake was fully extended, and the landing gear handle was lowered, the speed brake would retract to the landing configuration, before the gear would extend. 

That is your lesson for today. 

RF-8's flew low level recon flights for strike planning during the  later stages of the Cuban Missile crisis. The missiles in Cuba were MRBM and IRBM, not ICBM, models. ICBMs did not need to be that close to US soil. This presence of the missiles was discovered by high altitude U-2 surveillence flights. But yes, the RF-8 was a proto recon variant of this aircraft.

The ETO boards have been out of commission for awhile now. I'm even a member there and cant get to them.

Progress update....

I have the Crusader all painted and now fine tuning the exterior detail. Just a few more things to get done and she will be ready for a Future coat and decals. Keep watch here, I will post new pics as soon as I can.

So far this F-8 looks FANTASTIC!

Air Master

Here is a sneek peek of the Crusader, not much left to do and will be finished in a few more days.

This should hold you progress hounds over till it's finished.

Comments and critiques welcome.

Air Master