1/72 Academy Vought F-8J "Crusader"

by Arne Goethe

--------------------

 

The 1:72 community has always been envious of the 1:48 community’s Hasegawa Crusader. So far, Heller, Fujimi, Revell, and ESCI/Italeri have created poor representations of this aircraft in 1:72. All kits have the same weaknesses: Too simply engineered air intake, not representable slats (which is important with the F-8), bad cockpits as well as errors with the general shape. Halfway accurate models could only be built with a lot of scratch building. Therefore, it was no surprise that Academy’s release of a new mold of the F-8 stirred a lot of excitement. Waiting was worthwhile - Academy did not fail the expectations of the modelers and presented us with a highly detailed kit of the Crusader. All parts are very cleanly and finely detailed and engraved. No flaws are present besides two little details so inconspicuous they can only be noticed if one paid enough attention to the authenticity of his model. In the following buildup report, I will be thoroughly explaining the ups and downs of this kit.
The beautiful surface engravings of the fuselage halves shows that putty work will hardly be necessary. But first the detail rich aircraft interior must be assembled. The two halves of the air inlet were first painted white and then glued together. Whoever does a clean job here has no putty work to fear. The cockpit was primed in gray and the details in the instruments were brought out by dry brushing. A small bay for the arrestor hook was now installed into the rear fuselage. I painted the afterburner with a very dark metallic paint (exhaust metal from Model Master). The special characteristic of the F-8 is that its wings could be completely raised for takeoff and landing purposes. Now the point comes where one must decide: Do I build my model with raised wings or not? Depending on the desired accuracy level, one should make this decision accordingly.

Click on images below to see larger images

Who wishes to present this model with raised wings must now install the three parts on the area under the wing. Here a question about the painting guide arises: Academy indicates a yellowish green. I could not find any photos vouching for that fact. In my mind, this area must also be painted white, just like the other bays. But since I do not have any photographic proofs, I decided to use Academy’s color suggestion. First, I primed the area with interior green from Model Master. Subsequently, I painted it using Revell’s pale yellow. At this point, I put some ballast into the front part of the aircraft to prevent it from sitting on its belly later. Now the fuselage halves could be glued together. The fit was so good that only a few places required sanding and polishing. Special attention was required when joining the fuselage with the fine rivet detailed afterburner – putty work is not recommended here. Attaching the front windshield and the infrared sensor to the fuselage was free of problems – but just a little sanding was required. The drillings for the two cooling air intakes at the afterburner should be done carefully.
My goal was to make an F-8J from the OOB F-8E. For this reason a sensor pod must be attached at the tail. I filed one from the left over casts of the parts tree and glued it in place. The gap behind the tail’s rear edge was filled with plasticard and then sanded down. The wing area consisted of an upper and a lower part, a separate "embossment", as well as four parts of the slats. Now came the soft spot of the kit - although Academy went to great lengths trying to make this kit as accurate as possible, we still come to two flaws. These flaws are only evident when the aircraft is modeled with folded wings. Now – the slats are separate in the kit – yet not in a way in which one could build them in the extended position. Who doesn’t wish to build the slats of his aircraft in the extended position can simply skip the following lines and go straight to the buildup steps.

The rear edges of the slats and the front edges of the wings can only be represented in the open position. Thus the slats at the rear edge have to be lowered in order to be represented in the open position – there must be no gaps between slats and wings. Technically, the front leading edges of the wings should also be in the open position when the plane is on the ground, I, however, did not want to go overboard with the details and imagined that this detail would be really inconspicuous in the 1:72 scale. Now, the second flaw would be the one-piece wings and flaps - I sawed and divided these parts into their respective parts. After these changes the model turned into a fairly accurate F-8E. I however wanted a J... so there is another detail to pay attention to. This detail is also important for those who wish to build a French E version: The slats of the Js and also the French Es are bent in their cross section. I solved this problem rather simply: I marked the spot on the underside of the wings with a pencil, then I engraved this line very strongly (or rather “sawed”), and now I could bend the slats into the exact position. This process evoked an interesting question: The Matra missiles that came with the kit indicate an upcoming French version, but has Academy thought of the detail considering the slats?
The landing gear parts are very detailed and fit with no problems. After painting, they received the decals provided with the kit and the typical hydraulic wires. The wheels were flattened, painted and weathered with watercolor. All flaps - also the two lower landing gear bay doors - were painted separately, just like the air brake. The attachment of the air brake in the open position is not necessary and only depended on the modeler. The two parts of the afterburner were painted separately and glued together. The modeler has several choices when it comes to the fuselage pylons: The E as well as all versions starting from C could be equipped both with the simple and with the Y-shaped missile pylons. I thinned the fins of the four Sidewinder missiles down and drilled open the exhaust section. The seeker heads of the missiles were cut off. After the paint job, these places were painted green and new seeker heads, made from drops of Humbrol Clearcot/Clearfixm were added. This gave a beautiful effect – only I will try using a darker green the next time.

Click on images below to see larger images

Before the actual lacquer finish I preshaded the engraved panel lines. The paint scheme consists of gullgray FS16440 for the upper fuselage and white for the belly of the aircraft, which is typical of U.S. Navy airplanes of the 60's and 70's. The already painted engine exhaust section was masked. Also, the demarcation line was created using tape cut to shape. After letting the paint dry, I masked and painted the glare shield as well as the radome black. I pretty much only used the national insignia and stencils from the decal sheet because I had a colorful Eagle Strike sheet featuring an F-8J from VF-24 (72005 Crusaders part I). The aircraft was flown by Jack Datzler in the year 1972 and had markings of a large shield and sword on the tail - which fit the name "Crusader" very well! Be careful to not be misled by the name "Jack Dateler" on the instruction sheet of the decals. On the nose of the aircraft, as well as on Revi Nr. 27, the correct name is given as "Jack Datzler". Similarly, one should paint the glare shield according to the instructions on the Revi – Eagle Strike gives wrong information in this case. The Academy decals are very thick and do nor conform well, thus, one should dip them in Micro SOL before applying them to the model. Fortunately, the yellow stripes for the canopy pieces were correctly printed, but only for the rear part of the canopy. I had to hand paint the stripes for the front windshield.
I sealed the whole thing with a coat of semi gloss lacquer. Then I weathered the aircraft with pastels and watercolor. The leading edge of the wing as well as the tail should be painted in aluminum, which I simply painted with a brush. The assembly of the landing gear went very smooth. The ejection seat was detailed with belts made out of tape and wires and put in place. Lastly, the movable canopy piece was installed. The canopy hinge must be sanded down a little bit, after which the canopy can be put on even without the use of cement.
With this kit Academy
did a fine job: Finely engraved panel lines and rows of rivets, beautiful details from the nose to the tail as well as outstanding accuracy and a very good fit leave little wishes unfulfilled. The only criticisms go to areas around the flaps and slats. I have already gotten used to the quality of the Academy decals. We would surely see the answer as to why Academy only included markings for the Marines in future reboxes of this great kit.

Arne

Visit Arme's website at Arne's Modellbauseite

Click on images below to see larger images

Thanks to "Iron eagle" for Translation

Photos and text © by Arne Goethe