PhantomLover Posted September 20, 2020 Share Posted September 20, 2020 (edited) Since a long time I have wanted to build an F-8E (FN) Crusader. In my search for Crusader kits on the inthernet I found a nice Hasegawa kit, but also the quite old (end of the 70's) ESCI kit. So I decided to build that one as a USN Crusader. This kit is quite easy and straightforward to build, but it has a lot of mistakes. The detail in the wheel wells is quite wrong, and also the shape of the forward fuselage and the canopy are very different from the Hasegawa and Monogram kits, which I guess are more correct. Still, I enjoyed this build very much. I like to think that somewhere around 1980 this kit was bought by a small boy, perhaps together with his dad, but somehow, it was never built. It was lying around for decades, until I bought it. I built it OOB, except for the decals, which are from SuperScale Decals (no48-775). the decals are nice, but gave me quite some headaches, as they were very thin and fragile. Especially the multicolored 'Sundowners' tail I had to touch up quite a bit with paint. But in the end, when I look at the kit I think, 'yes, it looks like a Crusader ' I used Vallejo and MiG Ammo acrylics on my Crusader. The surface detail on this kit is all raised, but I hate rescribing panel lines. Fortunately, the model is molded in quite dark silver-grey plastic. This makes it possible to use polishing sticks (nail buffers) to polish away the layer of FS36440 and show the panel lines nicely. Now it is on to my Hasegawa F-8E (FN).. Kind regards, Gerben Edited September 20, 2020 by PhantomLover 37 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IGKent Posted September 20, 2020 Share Posted September 20, 2020 Nice! Looking good! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAT69 Posted September 20, 2020 Share Posted September 20, 2020 Certainly looks very good to me. Got to love old kits. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HansReggelsen Posted September 20, 2020 Share Posted September 20, 2020 1 hour ago, PhantomLover said: .......But in the end, when I look at the kit I think, 'yes, it looks like a Crusader ' It sure does! I've never seen an ESCI 1/48 Crusader, only it's smaller 1/72 scale brethren, which are nice kits in their own right. Your F-8 surely looks the part and that is all that counts! Cheers Hans J 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmyg352 Posted September 20, 2020 Share Posted September 20, 2020 That's pretty bliddy good if you ask me! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted September 20, 2020 Share Posted September 20, 2020 That's brilliant, you'd never know the kit had errors. Awesome! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Brantley Posted September 20, 2020 Share Posted September 20, 2020 That's a great looking Crusader Gerben! I love the look of those USN birds from that era and you've captured that superbly sir. 🥂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMCS Posted September 21, 2020 Share Posted September 21, 2020 Fantastic 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted September 21, 2020 Share Posted September 21, 2020 That's a lovely looking F-8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Threadbear Posted September 21, 2020 Share Posted September 21, 2020 I remember this kit back in the day, it was quite a basic kit and I never built it. But it is fantastic to see one complete and congratulations on a successful build. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jean Posted September 21, 2020 Share Posted September 21, 2020 Goedenavond Gerben, your F-8 is fantastic! This brings me back many years int he past, when I was a fan of these Esci kits. Your model looks like a great looking Crusader. No kit is ever perfect. Yours looks terrific! JR 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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