F-8 Crusader

What, you didn't like all the thin warpy plastic?  It does look pretty good in your photos.  ESCI did seem to get the shape fairly well.

Looks good from here. 

Regards,  Rick

Way to fight through it! I know exactly what you mean...I don't always have to be pampered with Tamigawa fit, but somethimes there are kits that are just so bad it takes away from the fun of the build. But in the end, you came out with a winner!

Despite the problems with the kit, you ended up with a great build.

I'm about to put down a coat of paint on the Hasegawa version (which has its own share of issues). :-)

PB
Who needs to be pampered

she looks good.

Ahhh!!!  I remember building that beast several years ago and as you said it was a POS. The decals were terrible and wound up using a Micro Scale set. The fit was terrible, specially the underside of the fuselage and were the top of the wing meets the fuselage. I used a lot of putty as I recall. 

 On a positive note, looks like you did a fantastic job and looks very sharp. Did you use any PE in the cockpit?

Thanks for all of the great comments.  She is strictly out of the box.  I haven't built up enough nerve to try PE yet.

Porkbits wrote:

Despite the problems with the kit, you ended up with a great build. I'm about to put down a coat of paint on the Hasegawa version (which has its own share of issues). :-) PB Who needs to be pampered

 

What kind of issues? I was about to buy a Hagesawa F-8.. I havent decided between the E or the J yet.

Despite the problems you encountered, it looks like you were able to overcome most of them to deliver a sweet looking bird.

Shame about the decals though - they couldn't even spell the name of the ship right...

It looks good from here. I like seeing them modelled with the wing in the low incidence config. High just makes em seem like the wings about to fall off. Great job, now pick up a Tamigawa anything and relax LOL.

...Guy

paintsniffer wrote:

Porkbits wrote: Despite the problems with the kit, you ended up with a great build. I'm about to put down a coat of paint on the Hasegawa version (which has its own share of issues). :-) PB Who needs to be pampered   What kind of issues? I was about to buy a Hagesawa F-8.. I havent decided between the E or the J yet.

Sniffer:

Not show-stoppers, but include:

--Burner can is too long (this kit mistake baffles me). It protrudes past the end of the plane. Has to be sanded down. Quickboost sells a resin replacement that has more detail and is the right length.

--You can't model the kit with the canopy open without some modifications.

--Ejection seat is too high. Has to be sanded down so the canopy can close.

--There are apparent issues with flaps-down position. Also a lot of sink marks on the control surfaces. I avoided these problems completely by buying the Blap! Models resin wings. :-)

--Have to keep an eye out for sink marks in general. I missed a bunch in the nose gear well. Oops. At least they can't be seen easily.

--The detail on the ventral surfaces is kind of soft.

--Scoops on the back aren't hollowed out. Quickboost also sells a more-detailed replacement.

--The profile of the rockets are apparently all wrong. Eduard provides instructions for correcting in its PE set, but I probably won't bother.

BUT ASIDE from all that, the fit is good as per Hasegawa and I think it'll build up to a nice kit if I don't screw up anything.

PB

Maybe bad for you. But better than I'll ever do.

Despite the fight she gave you, she turned into a real head-turner.  Well done on a difficult build!

Scorp, I built that exact kit two yrs ago and it came out really well for me. I put a cockpit PE set, rescribed the entire model and did a little scratch building. I had the same fit problem but solved this by dipping the warped parts in hot water to straighten them out. It came out very good and even had it published at ARC's web site.

Here is the link:

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal7/6201-6300/gal6273-F-8-Johnson/00.shtm

 

Porkbits wrote:

Sniffer: Not show-stoppers, but include: --Burner can is too long (this kit mistake baffles me). It protrudes past the end of the plane. Has to be sanded down. Quickboost sells a resin replacement that has more detail and is the right length. --You can't model the kit with the canopy open without some modifications. --Ejection seat is too high. Has to be sanded down so the canopy can close. --There are apparent issues with flaps-down position. Also a lot of sink marks on the control surfaces. I avoided these problems completely by buying the Blap! Models resin wings. :-) --Have to keep an eye out for sink marks in general. I missed a bunch in the nose gear well. Oops. At least they can't be seen easily. --The detail on the ventral surfaces is kind of soft. --Scoops on the back aren't hollowed out. Quickboost also sells a more-detailed replacement. --The profile of the rockets are apparently all wrong. Eduard provides instructions for correcting in its PE set, but I probably won't bother. BUT ASIDE from all that, the fit is good as per Hasegawa and I think it'll build up to a nice kit if I don't screw up anything. PB

 

Thanks for the heads up.. Sounds like a good challenge for my developing skills. 

scorpr2 wrote:

This is the 1/48 Ertl F-8 Crusader kit.  What a p.o.s.!  At least it was for me.  It fought me all the way.  I did drill out the gun ports and I made a tail hook out of the insulation off of electrical wire.  The squadron is VF-162, the first Navy squadron to down a Mig-21!  I know it's not accurate, but I'm glad it's done.  Thanks for lookin.

 

"You are a better man than I am, Gunga Din"

Good job

I tried building that POS in 1985 and it got the best of me. The only thing I kept were the decals (which turned out to be pretty good...probably because it was an earlier release) landing gear struts the wheels IIRC

As a matter of fact, I would rate the ESCI F-8 as even below the old Lindberg F-8!

Nice build indeed!

I tried to do a 1/72nd Sader just grabbing the wire as it touched down. Was quite tricky but turned out ok. See it here:

http://www.scalemodelersworld.com/academy-172-f-8e-crusader.html

I especially liked how Ertl misspelled the name of the ship on those decals.....classic...

 

but yeah man, thats a great looking build!

Thanks for all of the great feedback fellas!  I hate to admit it, but I didn't even notice the O-boats name was mispelled!!  I'll have to try to fix that somehow.  Again, thanks everybody.