Hasegawa 1/72 Crusader

[Steve Collins]

Here's my first post of a finished model on Britmodeller, so be gentle. It's the old Hasegawa 1/72 kit, rescribed, modified cockpit with some Airwaves photoetch added, landing gear changed to A-7 gear, all equipment in engine bay under wing scratchbuilt, wing flaps and droops dropped, electronics bulge over wing removed, strakes modified. Added MERs and Mk82 bombs from Hasegawa weapons set, scratchbuilt Zuni launchers on missile rails. Marked as VMF-321.

All photos credit Don Crowe.

Steve

[Seamus]

That looks very nice to me chap, like the touch of drooping the slats and flaps

Gotta love the Crusader, awesome looking jet. Can't wait to get stuck into my Academy kit

[Steve Collins]

Thanks, Seamus. The Academy kit will be such a nice build compared to this one. The Hasegawa kit goes together pretty well, but it's really showing its age and the raised panel lines bugged me too much to let go.

Steve

[Rampage55]

Well Steve, I gotta be honest with you considering it's the "Critique Corner" and all.............

That's one awesome build. Exceptionally well done. I have that old Hasegawa kit and I'm amazed at how nice that came out.

Cheers,

Mark

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Nice result , I love the Marine schemes for the F-8

Ray

[Julien]

Excellent model, I have those decals and hop mine comes out as good. Many people overlook the hasegawa crusader in favor of the Academey one. However for 1/3 the price it makes a brilliant model as you have shown.

One point you have said F-8J, but is this not a K? as in an updated C.

If I wanted to be supercritical you should have thinned the nose down a bit as the C/K had the squashed cone nose as opposed to the full cone as on the E model (which the hasegawa kit is).

The J model had the avionics Hump, larger tailplanes and double leading edge slats.

The K was an updated C, main features were in the cockpit and underwing pylons. Most were used by the USMC.

Julien

Edited November 26, 2008 by Julien

[Steve Collins]

Julien,

You are right. Typo on my part. It is a K. Fat-fingered the keyboard again. And yes, the nose should have more of a straight line to it than it does. Tapered it down some, but not enough. I think the decals may have been intended for the Heller kit (which is slightly more dimensionally accurate than the Hasegawa, I understand), as they overlap just a bit on the backbone. I made the mistake of not trimming them there and you can tell under certain light conditions. Thanks for the comments.

Steve

[Julien]

Steve,

Glad to see we have the same make of keyboard

If they overlap it sure does not show! I say again it looks cool. I have those decals in 1.72 and 1/48 for the monogram bird with a cobra conversion if I ever get around to it!

If you want I have some great pics done by an ex crusader driver which show how to re-profile the nose. I did it on my F-8C build http://modelingmadness.com/reviews/viet/us/dixonf8c.htm

You are also right on the Heller kit. My sader driving friend tells me it has the best profile and the best made canopy. Incidently he says the academey kit, although it looks nice is not as dimensionally accurate as either the Heller or Hasegawa kit. If you get decals for the heller kit they dont fit hasegawa strakes as the two differ a lot, a lot of the old decal sheets have templates so you can make accurate ones out of plastic card.

Julien