Hasegawa 1/72 Vought F-8E Crusader

HASEGAWA 1:72 VOUGHT F-8E CRUSADER

Reviewer: Mark B (SMAKR Webmaster) (smakr1@optusnet.com.au)
Kit Built/Review Submitted: December 2003/18 January 2004

Kit Details:

Hasegawa Kit C9:900 F-8E Crusader

Aircraft History:

When the US Navy was looking for a supersonic fighter for its aircraft carriers, Vought went to work on a rather innovative design, which was a trademark of the company since its inverted gull wing design on the F4U Corsair and it's previous radical F7U Cutlass design. It could be said that only the F6U Pirate was a page out of the norm for Vought, choosing to stick to a more conventional design, and that aircraft was barely a success. So when it went back to the drawing board to meet the US Navy's requirement, it produced a design that was quite different and unique in many ways.

The large chin intake was pretty much a first as far as production Navy fighters were concerned (yes the F-86D and MiGs pioneered the design) and the variable incidence wing was unique to the Crusader. This allowed the wing to be raised seven degrees during take-off and landing which meant that the fuselage stayed straight and level, enabling improved forward vision for the pilot (a lesson learned from the poor visibility during these regimes for the F7U Cutlass). Another trade-off was a slower landing speed enabling it to meet the 100 knot speed specified in the US Navy requirements.

In fact all of the US Navy requirements were effectively exceeded by the Crusader which was the first supersonic carrier-borne aircraft in the world. It was also the first aircraft to be designed from the ground up using the "area-rule" principle that reduced drag, something which nearly all fighters of today employ. It was also the fastest aircraft in the US inventory and the first to break 1,000 mph, winning the Thompson Trophy for setting a speed higher than that of the USAF's F-100C Super Sabre a year earlier. Unfortunately, the British Fairey Delta 2 had broken the 1,000 mph mark in the meantime and held a speed record the F-8 was unable to break.

In an era where aircraft were being built without guns, as it was believed missiles had superseded the need for guns on fighter aircraft, Vought retained machine guns on their new design which emerged as the F-8 Crusader, spawning the nickname of "The Last Gunfighter" to be bestowed on it. Later lessons of Vietnam proved that Vought were correct in retaining guns and many aircraft, including the one which replaced the Crusader, the F-4 Phantom, had guns retrofitted. Another nickname thus emerged for the Crusader being "The MiG Master" because of its ability to shoot down MiGs with guns.

The Crusader had an exceptional speed for its design which enabled it to participate in many record attempts, and variants were designed accordingly, one of which was for supersonic refuelling and another was Project Bullet, where the entire US would be photographed at supersonic speed. Only one trainer prototype was ever built, a converted F-8A to F8U-1T (later TF-8A) which performed extremely well but rejected by the US Navy, and later lost on a training mission anyway.

The XF8U-3 Crusader III variant was designed as the Crusader's replacement when the US Navy upped the ante for a better aircraft to be produced. Its main external distinctive differences were a sharper nose with probe, an inward slanting chin intake, larger size and yet another innovation in the addition of a pair of ventral dorsal fins. This aircraft was superior to the Crusader in every way, had a top speed of Mach 2.39 (although few doubted that it could in fact breach Mach 3), and was really unrivalled by any other aircraft at the time. However, a decision was made to award the contract to another manufacturer and to this day the full reasons of not going with the Crusader III are still unclear as it appeared to be a clear winner. The winning plane to emerge was the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II which went on to make its own mark on history, underscoring perhaps just how good the Crusader III might have been.

The ultimate Crusader variant is said to be the F8U-2NE (F-8E) which boasted a larger radar and full air to ground capability that included fuselage mounted pylons that could each carry a pair of Sidewinders missiles or four Zuni folding-fin rockets plus an underwing pylon capable of carrying a variety of bombs including the Mk.84 2,000-lb bomb. The Zuni rockets were the most widely used air weapon in the Vietnam war, whilst the Crusader is noted as the only aircraft that was capable of carrying the 2,000-lb bomb during the conflict.

The F-8 Crusader is in my opinion, one of the most underrated aircraft of its era. Certainly the look of the aircraft is not aesthetically pleasing and probably also does not indicate its superb performance capabilities. This has probably lead to the fact that the aircraft is not covered in text, or rated among many as a great aircraft design, as much as many other popular and well documented designs, when in fact it should be. It was certainly a long time into my own aircraft enthusiasm when I learned just how good this aircraft, in its time, was.

Preamble:

Those observant amongst you would have noticed that I built this kit along with the A-7 Corsair at exactly the same time, with the reviews also being posted together on the site.

I decided to build this kit along with the Hasegawa Vought A-7A Corsair at the same time for a couple of reasons, one was for the US Navy fighting area and the obvious relations these two aircraft had with each other, and the other was to cheat a little and get two kits out the way at once by virtue of being very similar builds, identical paint schemes and all that sort of thing.

I often try and work on more than one kit at a time because I love the option to go onto another project if I bore of one, hit a particularly challenging spot I am not in the mood to overcome at that moment or where I get to a point on one project that I can't go further (eg: waiting for some glue to dry etc) but still want to keep modelling! It's useful to have a couple or even a few projects on the workbench and I find it suits my way of modelling really well (plus it reduces the unbuilt pile a little quicker!).

One of the ideas of doing these two kits together, the F-8 Crusader and A-7 Corsair, with so many similarities (kit manufacturer, subject, paint schemes, construction sequence, etc) was so I could effectively work on a couple of projects at once in an efficient way of finalising projects. Interestingly, at the end of this little experiment I would have to say that this did not achieve a more efficient building practice, it took far longer than envisaged and I won't be doing it this way again! I was at the same point of both kits all the time so didn't have different things to do all the time, and found if I got a bit far ahead in one I put it aside for the other to catch up (eg: I could not paint the constructed Corsair until the Crusader was at the same point) so unfortunately the idea doesn't work! I'll tackle different subjects from now on!

The Kit:

An Inbox review has already been written when I picked this kit to build, which has pretty much been cut and pasted here. The good old trusty Hasegawa cellophane bag holds everything within, including the three sprues of just under 60 light grey injection parts, two-piece canopy on a clear sprue and the large decal sheet. Control surfaces are all etched but the panel lines are all raised signifying a late 70's/early 80's mold of this aircraft. The kit has been around for a while but it was re-released in 1999 and this is the version I picked up.

Instructions:

Typical Hasegawa fold out sheet with brief history and specification on the front, sprue diagram, aircraft in action series little photos and a weapons configuration for underwing stores, symbols for translating parts of modelling (do not cement, open hole etc), eight (could it be any other number?) easy to follow assembly steps with painting individual component information taken from the Gunze/Mr Color ranges and of course the obligatory four-view diagrams for markings and decal placement.

Construction:

The cockpit comes with a tub which has side panels and rudder pedals molded onto it. A main instrument panel is supplied, whilst there is no console detail on the parts, decals are provided for instrumentation which is acceptable. A two piece reasonable representation of the ejection seat is supplied along with a control stick. Whilst this is quite good for a Hasegawa kit, some extra detail needs to be added in by the modeller including seat harnesses, fire extinguisher, boxes and the like, which I added. The interior is painted US compass grey, with the seat painted black with khaki cushions as directed by the instructions. This was installed into a fuselage half and everything fits nicely.

The next step is to assemble the five part exhaust area, which includes inner exhaust pipe, exhaust fan, outer exhaust cone and two cooling air ducts. The interior of the exhaust was painted black, but I couldn't resist painting the fan aluminium (a favourite little modelling licence of mine!), whilst the rest was painted in a steel-dark aluminium.

Before the fuselage halves can be affixed together, the rear fin tip fairing needs to be removed as shown in the instructions, and holes need to be opened for the fuselage mounted missiles. The intake trunking is effectively the whole aircraft, since there is no blanking off plate until you get to the exhaust. The bottom of the separate nosecone and the floor of the cockpit tub act as the roof of the trunk, so it is advisable to paint these white, but once I reached the nosewheel bay, I painted the rest of the aircraft interior black, just so you couldn't really tell you could see right into the interior from the intake mouth. Whilst the instructions do not mention it, I suspect nose weight will be needed to prevent a tail sitter, but finding somewhere to put it will be a challenge. It's a bit difficult to tell from the instructions whether you should add the nose cone and exhaust cone before or after the fuselage halves are affixed together, after doing some test fitting, it is obvious they are intended to be affixed afterward. I left both off until the end of construction and after the painting had been done.

Step four deals with the undercarriage assembly and it pays to spend a moment or two studying the drawing as it is rather busy. All the wheel bays have crossbeam structural detail, and the main bays have a minor amount of hydraulic and plumbing detail. The gear doors fit fine, but with the main gear doors, do a test run first so you can ascertain exactly where the two main gear doors meet each other. The rear hatches of the main gear assembly also need a test run to see where to trim before fitting in place. Whilst on the underside I also fitted the rear ventral strakes and since the holes are slightly larger than the locating pins, you need to position precisely in place and leave to dry, lest one be at a very slightly different angle than the other.

The panel for the refuelling receptacle can be displayed open and the bay itself contains a small amount of plumbing detail, with a jack connected to the refuelling probe. I opted to have it closed and the door fits very well. The stores provided are a pair of Mk.84 2,000-lb bombs attached to underwing pylons and four sidewinders, a pair each attached to fuselage mounted pylons. Leave the sidewinders off til after decaling because they will get in the way of applying the large USAF fuselage roundel. The instructions would almost have you believe you affix the bombs on top of the underwing piece (??) but of course they go on the underside. Another option not included in the kit would be to have eight Zuni rockets on the fuselage pylons.

The main wing comes in two parts and consists of an upper wing with an inner underwing section and this fits together quite well. The wingfold hinge fairings are provided but the wings do not fold. A wing incidence hydraulic jack is provided and depicted correctly to the starboard, so that you can have wing deployed in its "airbrake" fashion, and you will obviously have to paint the interior section accordingly. The wing fits well onto the fuselage, but gaps need filling. The tailplanes have one locating pin allowing them I presume to be positioned at any angle desired, but I affixed in the normal position.

For the final part I added on the canopy which comes in two parts, allowing it to be displayed open, the arrestor hook in the open bay which I don't think is particularly accurate and commenced painting. The nose cone was added after painting and the fuselage mounted sidewinders were affixed after decaling as mentioned.

Colour Schemes:

The kit allows for one of three versions to be produced which are all finished in upper FS16440 Light Grey and lower FS17875 White. There are two US versions : US Navy VF-162 "Hunters" with black and yellow stars on the rudder as featured on the boxart; and a USMC VMF(AW)-312 "Checkerboards" with, you guessed it, black and white checkerboard pattern on rudder and where the tailfin root (not spine) meets the fuselage. The third version is a French Navy Flotille 12F (VF-12) example for something different to bland old US stuff. I chose Humbrol's 129 and 130 for the light grey and white respectively and chose to replicate the first version depicted.

Decals:

Obviously produced by Hasegawa and is of their standard quality - excellent colour register, but thick and glossy. The sheet is also large with a plethora of stencilling as well as decals for the instrument panels. They apply quite well and I did not use setting solution on this occasion as it was not needed. There are obviously a few awkwardly placed decals, most notably the USAF insignia around the fuselage mounted sidewinders, which need to be taken into account in advance, and some final construction/painting after applying these is needed. Also, it appears that there is one misprint on the instruction sheet, on one side of the fuselage decal #48 is placed, but on the opposite side it says #49. As both decals come in pairs, I assumed this was actually meant to be the other #48 decal (the #49's are placed elsewhere).

Accuracy:

The box says the kit measurements are 233 mm Length and 144 mm span but my techniques suggest the kit is closer to 228 mm and 149 mm respectively. Actual measurements should be 230.7 mm and 148.9 mm respectively, so it appears a couple of millimetres out in length by my reckoning. In all other respects the kit looks very convincing and I am more than happy with the way it replicates the Crusader with the exception of a couple of areas. The tailhook and its bay, although I cannot get any concrete reference material on this section, I don't feel is quite right; the cockpit is basic; and the frames on the front canopy windscreen part are not accurately drawn (too straight at the front), so paint with the aid of reference photos.

Overall Recommendation:

Not state of the art by any means but still a reasonable replication of an underrated aircraft of the 60's. The kit needs a bit of forward planning such as leaving the fuselage mounted missiles until after painting and decaling but overall not a bad build and one that I would have no hesitation in recommending.

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