1/72 XF8U-1 Crusader second prototype 138900

[busnproplinerfan]

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.