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F8 Crusader Academy vs Hasegawa ventral fins


Robin-42

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It has been noted that the Hasegawa ventral fins are undersized. Can somebody with both kits let me know how much I would need to enlarge the ventral fins? Eyeball is telling me about 2mm should do it.

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Robin,

 

Interesting query! I don't recall any kit reviews that mentioned the ventral fins, and I don't have access to my scale drawings at the moment, but I do have both kits and made some measurements. I don't have scanning capability, so hopefully my description of each measurement point will make sense! Your eyeball is almost spot-on, if these measurements are accurate. I never really noticed the difference in the ventral fins on the two kits before your post, but it is very noticeable. Maybe @Tailspin Turtle might be a better source regarding issues with either kit or the actual dimensions of the ventral fins.

Mike

 

overall length, as measured from the LE to the TE along the base of the fin

H= 51mm  A=51mm

 

overall length as measured from the LE to the TE along the lower edge of the fin

H= 42mm  A=42mm

 

height as measured from the lower LE to the base of the fin

H= 5mm  A= 8mm

 

height as measured from the lower TE to the base of the fin

H= 3.5mm  A= 3.5mm

 

height as measured from the lower edge to the base, at the kink where the fin begins to taper (hope this makes sense!)

H= 4mm  A=7mm

 

Please tell me you're doing a VMF-235 F-8E out of Da Nang!

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14 minutes ago, 72modeler said:

Thanks, Tommy! I'm sure Robin will appreciate the information in your post- I should have told him to look for your blogspot. 👍

Mike

I’m behind on moving Superheat’s F8U material to the website I established for it. However, in his discussion of the relative merits of the 1/72 kits, he doesn’t mention the ventral fins. See: https://superheatmemorial.blogspot.com/2018/12/172nd-f-8-kit-review.html

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7 minutes ago, Tailspin Turtle said:

I’m behind on moving Superheat’s F8U material to the website I established for it.

Thanks for the post, Tommy- I have learned a lot about F8's and the kit issues from your blogs. Let us know when you get the late Superheat's Crusader reference material posted on your website, as I'm sure many modelers will find it extremely useful. Thanks again for sharing!

Mike

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4 minutes ago, 72modeler said:

Thanks for the post, Tommy- I have learned a lot about F8's and the kit issues from your blogs. Let us know when you get the late Superheat's Crusader reference material posted on your website, as I'm sure many modelers will find it extremely useful. Thanks again for sharing!

Mike

It’s a separate website: https://superheatmemorial.blogspot.com/

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  • 2 weeks later...

Using 72modelers dimensions I came up with a sketch. Hasegawa is distinctly smaller. I think I will correct it as it will bug me if I don’t. I know this is all academic as the Academy kit is the most accurate of the kits, but the Hasegawa is hardly unbuildable. I am just building the kit markings of VF-162 btw.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Here is a photo of the upsized Hasegawa ventral fin next to the kit one. Quite a difference and the "step" becomes much more prominent, which makes sense because hasegawa took the dimensions from a side view. If you rotated the fin to the extreme of a knife edge the step would disappear altogether. The angles at the leading and trailing edge change slightly for the same reason.

 

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While I dont have the Academy kit the Hasegawa fins are smaller than the heller ones.

 

People really dont mention the Heller kit and if you want a J or EN then its a good kit. Even if you want an E it includes the smaller tails, but you have to fill the double leading edge. When I used to correspond with Tom aka Superheat he always like the kit and said Heller got the canopy shape spot on.

 

Julien

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I had a failed attempt years ago to build the Heller kit. I think it fell apart at the decal stage and got subsequently scrapped. I did not realize how good it was until I got the digital edition of the Detail and Scale book. In any case the fins get corrected on my build, the cockpit width will not. 

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