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Just posted by Sword on their Facebook feed. The new Photo-Recon Crusaders in1/72! Released in October. SW72149 F8U-1P/RF-8A over Cuba SW72150 RF-8G over Vietnam https://www.facebook.com/swordmodels/posts/771237008133895

I recently picked up a 1/72 Testors/Fujimi A-7E Corsair II. I'm planning on building it using the markings for VA-93 Blue Blazers NF303/160544 | USS Midway circa 1979(?). See cover photo below: Eventually, I'd like to build a 1/72 F-8 Crusader from the same carrier and time period and display them together. I'm wondering if anyone makes a F-8 kit with those markings, or if there are any aftermarket decal sets that match? If not, does anyone make decals for the two planes from the same carrier and time period (I'm not stuck on the Midway or the Blue Blazers, I'd just like a matched pair in the old grey over white paint scheme). As a follow up question, which would be the correct version of the F-8 to match the time period of the A-7E? Any recommendations on a particular F-8 kit? Thanks!

Hi, I am looking forward here. I want to do a Mig killer from VF111, however this is an F-8C and I have the E variant with the Bullpup equipment in the dorsal hump. I am aware that this is a key difference, along with the profile of the nose. I am aware that Cobra and Cutting Edge did do a resin conversion kit, but are both out of production. Is it feasible to assume that the current conversion kits for RF variants would cure the hump and nose issue? Lastly, are there any other major exterior differences that I need to know? Your help will be appreciated.

I have always been a fan of the F-8 Crusader and A-7 Corsair. Something about that nose & intake. Always looked purposeful. I am sure A-7s used to sometimes appear at Mildenhall air shows on static display in low viz grey schemes. One day I will have a go at one of those. Until then I have a cheap eBay buy of an old Lindberg F-8J that looks to be an imposing beast, if not the most detailed kit going. You don’t get the amount of parts in a kit like this that you do in a newer kit. And I am sure some filler may be neede at some point. Its got some gimmicks i wuld have loved as a teenager but feel wary of now. Like push in retractable undercarriage and open / closing wheel well doors. And moving flaps and tail elevators and rudder. Now spending on resin & etch isn’t in budget (unless you know of very cheap options) but I don’t rule out some scratch bits. The kit comes with one decal option Nothing against this scheme, although I do have a hankering for low viz, French navy, NASA or something else. Cheap option would be kit decals & try out some toned down weathering & salt effect Whatever she is a sizeable beast - 2 part body to fit in the box for a start. Here next to a Jag for comparison So any advice / hints / tips gratefully received. Only thing for sure is she will get built not binned!

F-8E Crusader Update sets - For Eduard/Hasegawa 1:48 Eduard Update Set (48925) This is one brass fret which includes parts for the engine burner can, missile & Zuni rails, front canopy, landing gear legs, front undercarriage bay, landing gear doors, skin strengthening plates and the bay under the main wing. Air Intakes (648301) This set from the brassin range provides two new resin intake scoops for the afterburner cooling on the rear of the Crusader. PE Mounting plates are provided for these. Exhaust Set (648302) If you dont want to go the photo etch route of the update set, or you want some more detail then this set provides a new resin exhaust, burner ring, and fan. Conclusion These sets will enhance an already impressive model. Recommended. Review samples courtesy of

Paul Fisher, from Fisher Model & Pattern (http://www.fishermodels.com/), is actively looking into a 1/32nd RF-8 Crusader resin conversion set. To be followed. Source: http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=48212 V.P.

Hello folks, This is an Aéronavale Crusader maintained in service from 1964 to 1999. As I couldn't find any 1/48 Hasegawa F-8E(FN) or F-8J I started from a F-8E. The main modification was engraving the slats and enlarging the horizontal stabilizer. The cockpit is from Aires and the decals from Berna. The white color on the horizontal stabilizers were Teflon adhesive bands used during the last years. I must admit it is not the most colorful paint scheme for a Crusader but I like it. Cheers

Another project, the XF8U-1 Cruasder prototype, Bu no. 138899. This is the 1/72 Academy kit. I plan building a few of these, so I may end up boring everyone about F-8s. The guns are filled in, the first bunch were. I found some CMK wheel well replacement parts. The kit parts are still quite useable, but these have the plumbing added. I actually like the Aires parts more, but they are out of production now. If nothing else, use the aftermarket parts for referance, be a lot cheaper. It has an Aires cockpit with a backdated instrument panel and a soon to be modified A-4 seat to represent the Vought seat. Luckily the actual aircraft was just restored and I found a few pictures online. The nose and wing top are from David Newman of Muroc models and fit quite good, just need some tweaking since it was meant to be used with the kit cockpit. I also have the second prototype being built alongside, just no pictures yet. The dolly is the 1/48 one from the B-29 kit, Good use for it. I fixed two of them up and they make great dollies for holding aircraft and look good to.

Vought F-8E Crusader VF-162 "The Hunters" 1:72 Academy Vought designed the F-8 (Then the F8U) in the early 1950s in response to a US Navy requirement for a supersonic fighter to be armed with 20mm canon as Korea had shown the short comings of aircraft armed with the traditional 0.50 calibre ammunition. The F-8 would be the last USN aircraft designed with guns as its primary weapon, indeed the F-4 which followed never has a gun in USN service. This lead to the F-8 being called "The Last of the Gunfighters". A novel feature of the F-8 was the fitment of a variable incidence wing. This afforded extra lift without compromising forward visibility as the main fuselage stays level. The F-8E was a major development of the Crusader. A new AN/APQ-94 Radar unit was fitted giving the nose a new profile with its larger nose cone. Another noticeable addition was the dorsal hump. This contained the electronics needed to fire the new AGM-12 Bullpup missile. Weapons pylons appeared on the wings able to carry a combined 5000lbs of ordnance. A new J57-P-20A engine was also fitted. A total of 286 E models would be built. The Kit Academy's Crusader was first released in 2004 and welcomed by 1.72 scale modellers. It is as good now as it was then, the mould still producing crisp parts, with fine recessed detail. The kit arrives on three main sprues, with a smaller sprue for weapons; and a clear sprue. Construction starts with the cockpit. The four part ejection seat is assembled and then installed onto the cockpit tub. The instrument panel is added complete with its gunsight, a control column is added as is a rear cockpit bulkhead. Following this the engine intake, and main gear well sub assemblies are made up. Once these three sub assemblies are complete they can be added to the main fuselage. Also to be added to the main fuselage before closing it up are the main ventral airbrake, arrestor hook bay; and the bay under the main wing. The main wing can then be assembled. It is worth noting that the kit allows the modeller to make the variable incidence main wing and allow it to be shown in the raised position. For this separate leading edge slats are provided as they drop when the wing is raised. However at the same time the slats drop the flaps also drop. Academy do not provide this as an option in the kit so the modeller will have to cut these out if they wish to raise the wing. To help there are a number of aftermarket kits to replace the flaps. It is slightly annoying Academy have not fixed this error. To make the main wing the electronics hump for the to is added along with the leading edge slats. The next area to receive the attention of the modeller is the underside of the Crusader. The nose wheel is built up and installed along with the nose wheel bay doors. The nose wheel is a three part leg with a one part wheel. The ventral airbrake is installed in either the open or closed position. It is worth noting that on parked Crusaders there is some droop of this as pressure bleeds of the hydraulic system. The main gear is then built up next. There is a two part leg with a one part wheel. The main gear bay doors are then installed. The tail planes and ventral strakes are then added. Again if the crusader is parked the tailplanes tip backwards slightly as the hydraulic pressure bleeds off. The modeller is now on the home straight. The canopy is added on the front, and the exhaust nozzle to the rear. Also at the rear the afterburner cooling scoops are added. If the modeller is going to arm their crusader up single and double "Y" racks are provided for the nose to hold either Sidewinder Missiles, or 5" Zuni Rocket Pods. For the wing pylons Multiple Ejection racks and 500Lb Snake eye bombs are provided. The bombs sit on the pylons in slant configuration where by only the bottom and outer parts of the rack are used. The last items to be added are the pitot tube and finally the main wing. Decals Decals are by Cartograf and should pose no issues, markings are provided for two options; VF-162 "Hunters" - USS Oriskany 1966 VF-103 "Sluggers" - USS Forrestal 1964 Conclusion It is good to see this kit re-released with new decals, in particular a non Vietnam Squadron. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of UK Distributors for

So, it looks a bit like the F-8 are a bit en vogue these days. Well, I just finished mine, and would like to show it. The build was very straightforward, except of the flaps, which needed some sanding to fit beside the fuselage. Apparently, it's a common problem with this kit. And on the approach for landing, with the backgound my daughter painted... Thanks for watching, if there are any questions, I'm happy to answer! Alex

My second F-8 project, the XF8U-1 Cruasder 2nd prototype, Bu no. 138900. I didn'want to confuse this build with my other one #899. Here's the link http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234985180-172-xf8u-1-crusader-prototype/ I thought it might be easier to copy some of the text since it's largely the same and I didn't feel like typing to much. This is the 1/72 Academy kit. I plan building a few of these, so I may end up boring everyone about F-8s. The guns are filled in, the first bunch were. I found some CMK wheel well replacement parts. The kit parts are still quite useable, but these have the plumbing added. I actually like the Aires parts more, but they are out of production now. If nothing else, use the aftermarket parts for referance, be a lot cheaper. It has an Aires cockpit with a backdated instrument panel and a soon to be modified A-4 seat to represent the Vought seat. Luckily the actual aircraft was just restored and I found a few pictures online. The nose and wing top are from David Newman of Muroc models and fit quite good, just need some tweaking since it was meant to be used with the kit cockpit. A few small differences on this one. The wing will be up with the flaps down and the canopy will open. There were four-five paint schemes used on 900 in it's short life, it was scrapped at the end of testing. I modified the original instrument panel instead of using the photo reduced one I have in 899. This one needed a lot more finishing around the cockpit opening. I added most of the plumbing under the wing and in the top fuselage area. The rivets under the wing are the 3D printed HO ones from Micro Mark. I remade the HUD mounting, didn't like the one shown here.

Hi mates, My latest project is the superb Academy kit of the Vought F-8J Crusader in God's Own Scale. The Crusader has always fascinated me, since it's such a dichotomy. Winner of many aerospace awards for technical achievement, yet a very dangerous aircraft to fly based on its accident record. Known affectionately as the "Last of the Gunfighters" yet it achieved the overwhelming majority of its combat kills with missiles. Nonetheless, it looks the part - it's menacing yet graceful, both important attributes of a fighter jet. In its day, many pilots preferred the Crusader to the Phantom II, and that says a lot. The build process is detailed in the WIP thread here. The model won Gold (1st place here in the US) at the recent Buffcon competition in beautiful downtown Cheektowaga, just outside of Buffalo, NY. Project: Vought F-8 Crusader Kit: Academy Kit No. 12412 Scale: You have to ask? This is me you're talking to! Decals: Xtradecal X72160 markings for VF-302 Stallions; stencils and other decals from kit Resin: Aires cockpit detail set 7110; Wolfpack F-8J Crusader “Flap Down” set WP72026; Quickboost Martin Baker Mk.7 ejection seat set 72406; Quickboost F-8 Crusader Flaps set 72269, Air Scoops set 72107; Eduard AIM-9D Sidewinder set 672043; CMK 72062 Crusader wheels Photoetch: Frets included with Aires cockpit set, Quickboost ejection seat, and Eduard Sidewinder set; Eduard Remove Before Flight set 73008 Turned Brass: Master Model F-8J Crusader Pitot Tube Canopy Masks: None - Ha! It can be done! Paint: Gunze H3 Red, H4 Yellow, H26 Bright Green, H77 Tire Black, H70 RLM 02, H90 Clear Red, H94 Clear Green, H305 FS36118 Gunship Gray, H317 FS36231 Dark Gull Gray, H319 Light Green, H315 FS16440 Light Gull Gray; Testors 1180 Flat Steel, 1181 Flat Aluminum, 2143 Semi-Gloss White RLM 21; Floquil 110004 Crystal Cote, 110015 Flat Finish; Tamiya XF-69 NATO Black; Alclad ALC101 Aluminum, ALC103 Dark Aluminum, ALC115 Stainless Steel, ALC314 Klear Kote Flat Weathering: Just a panel line wash - I kept the model pretty clean, after all there must have been a time when the actual aircraft had just rolled out of the paint booth. Improvements/Corrections Replaced kit cockpit with Aires resin cockpit set and ejection seat Replaced kit missiles with Eduard resin AIM-9D Sidewinders Seemingly random position and alignment of missiles on their pylons is intentional, and is required so the missile can clear the refueling probe, the RAM air turbine, leading edge flaps, and each other (during firing) Added Eduard “Remove Before Flight” flags Aftermarket decal sheet for U.S. Navy Reserve Squadron VF-302 Stallions Replaced kit pitot tube with turned brass part from Master Models Added canopy restraint strap made from photoetch metal Replaced kit parts with Quickboost afterburner air cooling scoops Replaced kit wheels/tyres with CMK resin wheels/tyres Added Wolfpack “double drooped” resin leading edge flaps Cut out kit flaps and ailerons, replaced with Quickboost resin and posed in typical parking position Detailed top of engine tunnel (underneath raised wing) with tubes, conduits and other fiddly things Elapsed Time: Only a month! I know, you want the pictures. OK, here they be. The oddball alignment of the Sidewinders in this head-on photo is accurate. The missiles were mounted in such a way to make sure they cleared everything when fired, including other missiles, leading edge flaps, ram air turbine, etc. Kudos to Academy for paying attention and getting this right. Adding the photos to the post has made me realize that I didn't take any photos of the underside. Let me do that and I'll add them soon. Thanks! Cheers, Bill

The Hunter and Killer- fast FAC with CAG's F-8 Danang AB, Vietnam- 1966 MAG 11, H&MS 13 Both are Hasegawa kits, the Cougar- I modified using a Falcon Triple Conversion set. Had to print my own decals for the Twogar. Significantly, the USMC Twogars were the only of the Cougar fighter family to serve in combat. Thanks for looking! Brian

Vought F-8 Crusader. Pic is an F-8K thanks to Bootneck Mike.

Hello, Here is my latest build. It was in fact a "common build" with a friend. I decided to depict the bort number 35 of French Navy. It was the last cruise "Crouze" (its nickmane)catapulted from Foch carrier in 1999 during Operation trident in Kosovo. I added Aires cockpit and the decal a mixed between SMDS, Hasegawa and MDC. Painted in Humbrol 157 and 144, sealed with Microscale gloss varnish. Weathering done with oils: "gris de payne", sepia and black. One more time sealed with Satin/matt Microscale varnish. Metal areas are airbrushed with Humbrol Metacote 27003 then polished with cotton. Complete build process here: http://fighters.forumactif.com/t59829-montage-en-commun-rom1-et-snow-white-f8-crusader-1-48 ..but in froggy language... sorry ;^) Hope you like it! Thanks for passing by! cheers! Rom

Here’s another of my collection of F-8 Crusaders, a 1/48 Hasegawa F-8E. I finished it in the markings of 'Superheat 210', a jet flown by VF-162 commanding officer CDR. Richard Bellinger from USS Oriskany, when he downed the Navy’s first MiG-21 of the Vietnam War in 1966. I used a mix of Eduard and kit decals, a Cutting Edge cockpit, and Aires resin gear wells and underwing bay. I scratch-built the boarding steps and ladder, and added brake and hydraulic lines to the gear. In the cockpit I added a flap handle and emergency canopy release to the insturment panel, a grab handle and standby compas on the windscreen bow, and added a canopy restraint strap and the canvas cover to the hole in front of the gunsight. As per my research, the jet carries a dissimilar weapons load of an AIM-9B and an AIM-9D, since there was a shortage of the newer sidewinders at that point in the war. While Hasegawa's F-8 is the best in 1:48 scale, I had numerous fit issues, most likely due to all the aftermarket parts I added and my own building errors. It’s no contest winner, but it’s finished, and on the shelf!

Here’s another Crusader that I built several years ago. It's the old reliable Monogram F-8E that I converted to a 'J' model, which I have ugraded over time. I added an aftermarket seat, and an out-of-production flap/droop/underwing bay set by High Flight. I scribed lines on the leading edge droops to at least depict the appearance of the extended droops of the 'J' version. The UHT’s (unit horizontal tail) are larger on the J version, but I didn’t correct that (yet!). I also extended the main and nose gear struts to correct the too-low stance of the kit gear, and later used parts from a Hasegawa Crusader kit for the ‘football’ ECM antenna on the tail. I added scrap plastic rod and wire to busy up the gear wells, and scratch-built steps and a boarding ladder. In addition, I added a canopy restraint strap, replaced the plastic pitot probe with wire, and added an afterburner nozzle from a section of an old F-18 exhaust cone. I used SuperScale decals to depict the VF-211 CAG jet from USS Hancock, circa 1972. The Remove Before Flight flags are from Eduard, and the Sidewinders are from Hasegawa’s weapons set (which I need to replace with a later variant!). Monogram’s Crusader is a great value for the money, with the biggest innaccuracy being the cockpit is a few scale inches too wide, giving the canopy and windscreen a flattened appearance when compared to the actual jet. But with a little extra work, it can be buit into a fine model.