It's been a while since I posted any updates on my F-8, but here goes! I finally have the landing gear and bomb racks sorted out. Thanks to Jason (SuppressionFire) I have the wing racks I needed! Tamiya has half of the racks molded as part of the bombs themselves, and half as a part glued to the wings. I had already glued the wing parts on when I discovered that the bombs were badly out of round. Luckily, by grinding off part of the kit racks, and attaching the lower rack pieces from Eduard, I can now have decent looking empty racks.
Speaking of bombs, check out the Tamiya kit parts next to the same thing from Eduard with PE fins and sway braces:
Quite a difference! With the landing gear, Tamiya has the main axles at too shallow of an angle, causing the wheels to cant too far towards the struts. Also, the axles are about 1.5mm in diameter, while the holes in the wheels are about 2mm. VERY loose fit! I cut off the axles, beveled the lower strut to about the right angle, then drilled holes to accept some 2mm brass tubing. MUCH better!
You can (sort of) see that the axles are now parallel to the ground as they should be.
Here, I have added a thin styrene disc to fit between the strut and wheel, to hold the brake line. Makes it much easier to get the wheels on at the end of the build without trying to line up a hole in the wheel and the line. I also added a larger piece of copper wire for the retracting linkage, and some wires for the down switch.
And finally, the tail surfaces are glued on. I usually attach them at the end of the build, but I decided to have a go at them this way this time.
Now, I just need to finish sorting out the cannon barrels and gun sight so I can get the thing masked up for paint!