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F-8E Crusader, VF-162, Academy


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Dear Colleagues

Here is the Academy 1/72 F-8E Crusader.  This is a really a charming kit to build, neither too complex nor over simplified.  The only problem I had was somehow getting the undercarriage bay out of alignment with the fuselage.  I only discovered this once everything was buttoned up and I popped the wheels on, result one drunken Crusader!  Answer was to drill a new hole and re-connect one of the undercarriage legs, a working solution and no harm done.

Being myself, the aircraft is loaded with an Aires resin afterburner, resin air scoops (Quickboost), Master pitot tube, Eduard sidewinders (which went a bit wrong), Aires resin ejector seat, Eduard PE set and Aviprint decals. 

 

hope these pictures work?

 

aTqkcid.jpg

 

6ePlPyK.jpg

 

3LLMuPy.jpg

 

fZe5PEs.jpg

 

VF-162 was embarked on USS Oriskany and with her A-4 Skyhawks undertook some of the most dangerous missions of the Vietnam air war.  Regular missions to Haiphong and Hanoi took a steady toll of aircraft largely to AA and SAM missiles.  The Commander of VF 162, Dick Bellinger, used this aircraft to down a Mig-21 in October 1966.  In that year the carrier groups were running short of ordnance, so F-8 aircraft frequently launched with only two sidewinders rather than four.  In the evening, helicopters would ferry sidewinders to carriers in the most need for the next day’s mission!  The courage of the aviators on USS Oriskany can be read in the book ‘Bloody sixteen’ by Peter Fey

The figures are 3-D printed by Reedoak

 

Regards

 

Andrew

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Especially Photo #3, I had to look several time to convince myself that it's a miniature set-up. The clincher, I think, is that feller turning his head that adds direction and life.

 

Superb modelling and ditto photography.

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

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