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Marine Crusader


Giorgio N

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Here's my subject for the Vietnam GB. GB that is the very first I take part in after years on various forums.

I'll be building F-8e Serial Number 149204, serving with VMF(AW)-235 Death Angels in Da Nang in 1967.

The Crusader is one of the icons of the Vietnam War, where it gained fame for its dogfighting abilities. Funnily, while many say that it was the best dogfighter because of its 4 gun armament, only 1 victory was achieved using guns, all the others being achieved with sidewinder missiles...

USMC Crusaders were used mainly for ground attack duties and as such used their guns a lot for strafing purposes. They also carried a lot of air-to-ground hardware under their wings.

A picture of "my" Crusader:

149204.jpg

These planes really were dirty after a few weeks in Da Nang ! Pictures of planes of the same unit show a lot of weathering. I've found a lot of nice pictures here:

http://mofak.com/usmc_photos_page_7.htm

The whole website is worth browsing, plenty of nice pics of other planes in Nam !

I'll be starting from the Academy 1/72 offering. This is a really nice kit ! I'll be using a superscale decal sheet for 149204. No other aftermarket is planned, although I might use some Italeri rocket pods under the wings instead of the Snakeyes provided in the box.

lot.jpg

The Osprey book is very good, however I'll also use the Squadron Walk Around, the Detail & Scale book and the Naval Fighters book dedicated to the Marine Crusaders. I should not lack references for this build....

Here are the sprues:

sprue1.jpg

sprue2.jpg

sprue3.jpg

I've built this kit before, so I know what it's like. And that is very good. There are only a couple of small issues: the wing can be posed raised, however in this case the flaps will scratch the fuselage, so they need some filing. More so as if the wing is raised the flaps and slats are down ! More filing will be required in this case.

Second issue is the seat: the one in the box represents a later version as used on French Navy's F-8E(FN). I'll see what I can do with the kit seat, maybe I can modify it or use some seat I have in the spares box.

Now that I mentioned the wing, parked crusaders usually have the wing down. However it would be a pity not to show what is a unique feature of the F-8, so I'll raise the wing on this one. I also found a picture in the Naval Fighter book showing a parked crusader with the wing up.... so it was unusual, but it did happen !

And here's the start... very little unfortunately ! Yesterday flu hit and I only put together a few bits here and there.... here are the main landing gear well and the area below the wing:

GB1.jpg

These parts and others I've detached from the sprue are now ready for a coat of white paint, in my case this always means tamiya flat white.

Edited by Giorgio N
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Ok, here's a small update at last... not much done over the weekend, as saturday I bought a new type of silicon rubber and spent time experimenting with it...

Air intake and other parts have been airbrushed white.

GB2.jpg

For these I used my trusted tamiya flat white. I have yet to find a white paint that covers so well !

The cockpit tub and the instrument panel have been painted. The base is the typical FS 36231. The consoles and the panel were then painted dark grey... or better, Vallejo dark sea green ! It's not really a green, but more a very dark grey. IMHO it's a good scale representation of the grey/black colour of the real parts. It also allows me to use proper black for the instruments. These were then covered with a drop of klear and finally some red and yellow dots were added here and there. For the danger lights I used a reddish brown to simulate a red light that is off...

The tub was also given a payne's grey wash to highlight certain details.

GB3.jpg

I'm not too happy with the panel. Next time I'll use an eduard zoom set.

In the meantime I did some work on the fuselage, mainly I drilled all the holes for the side pylons and the afterburner air intakes.

On the tail I cut the ECM sensor. The kit has the sensor already moulded as part of the tail. One of the kit options has the sensor, the other doesn't. The instructions just tell to cut the part, that also involves some work with wet-n-dry to restore the area. "My" plane unfortunately doesn't have the sensor.

Pictures of the fuselage will follow....

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Thanks for your comments !

The obscureco wing looks interesting ! I'll be dropping flaps and slats on mine, I'll never make such a good job as obscureco did unfortunately. It's a good tip for the next one.

Another set that is tempting me is the wolfpack design folded wings set:

http://www.wolfpack-d.com/catalog/htm/72002.html

Probably the most spectacular effect would be with a crusader with wing raised and folded ! A very rare sight, but not an impossible configuration.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just a quick update with no pictures yet: cockpit completed and inserted in the fuselage, I started to drop flaps and slats... and it's more difficult than I remember. On my first academy crusader it was a quick job, on this one I'm having troubles... I know I can make it anyway !

After watching Mr.B beautiful 1/32 Crusader I also decided to add some tubes and cables in the main landing gear well... small bits that make quite a difference !

I'm also trying to find out what's best for the seat. There are a couple of options, however there's a big enough modelling show in 4 weeks here, and there will be a few vendors. I might wait and see if I can find and aftermarket MB Mk.5 there.

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Ok, finally some update ! My modelling is going slowly, I recentl decided to rearrange my hobby table. At least everything is much tidyer now !

After watching Mr.B's very nice Crusader I decided to add a bit more detail in the wheel wells. In the end a study of the pictures showed that in the rear main well there are two very big pipes. Adding these makes a big difference to the look of the wells as they are very visible, so I added them with some electric wire. Note that the left and right one are different. I also added a cable running in the front area of the well. The academy kit already includes some good detail, but I thought a couple more cables would have made the wells busier.

GB4.jpg

GB5.jpg

Fuselage is now ready to be closed: already glued in are the cockit, intake, gear wells, airbrake well and the part under the wing. I also addes some weight.. now Academy doesn't mention any weight and I believe this is not needed. Yet yesterday was one of those days when I have plenty of doubts about life general, and started having doubts about adding weight too, I added a steel nut, attached with some silicon and a piece of sprue glued to the fuselage. It will not hurt !

GB6.jpg

Now the fuselage is closed, ready for some filling that unfortunately is required. Closing the fuselage with all that stuff inside was not too easy, but it worked in the end.

Next step: completing the flaps and slats and attach them to the wing !

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Nice progress........I could have scanned the gear bays from the instructions if I knew you were scratch building details.......sorry its gone now.........as with the box too.......anyways looks good on what you have done........and doing pls keep it up....the parts layout is uncanny........and very silimar

Hope to see it done up soon............awaiting to see it with the wing extended as I got lazy on mine.........:)

Best Regards

Mr b

Edited by Mr B
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  • 1 month later...

Mr. B, not to worry about the details. I have a few books and magazine to help me here !

What I haven't found much is the time o keep working on the model... I spent a few saturdays car hunting, and now that I found a nice one I'm not sure if I wat to spend all that money...

Anyway, there's finally some news on my Crusader. Have to say that I've been struggling, especially on the flaps and slats part. What's strange is that I built this kit before and I like it, yet for some reason I hit some kind of mental obstacle...

After some deep breaths and some work (not to mention the swearing..), the wings are done and primed in white.

View of the upper surfaces:

GB9.jpg

A couple of views of the lower surfaces:

GB8.jpg

GB7.jpg

I added the wing pylons at this stage, as I preferred to paint the whole together. I've yet to decide what to hang under the wings: the kit comes with Mk-82 snakeye bombs, but I've seen a picture of a Crusader of the same unit with rocket launchers... an F-8 with rockets on the fuselage AND wing pylons would be cool !

The fuselage is now closed too, and I added the afterburner cooling scoops and the ventral fins. These required really plenty of work to fit with no undue gaps. Pictures of these to follow soon...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Have been promised this kit for Easter instead of an egg by the other half, and must say I cannot wait. Seeing yours here makes me want to have one more!

How does it build together? The parts look the job I just hope the decals in this aren't as bad as some of Academys others.

All the best,

Dan.

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  • 2 weeks later...
How does it build together? The parts look the job I just hope the decals in this aren't as bad as some of Academys others.

Dan, it's a great kit ! It builds nice with some care required to get everything fitting in the fuselage... for every thing I mean cockpit, wheel wells, airbrake wells and upper engine cover. There are only a couple of small issues, the main being that if you leave the wing up the flaps hit the fuselage.

The decals are very good, however the white is not very opaque. This shows badly in the big shamrock insignia, that leaves visible the colour decmarcation between the tail in grey and the rudder in white. When I built my first one I had to paint all this area in white before adding the decal. For this one I'll be using an aftermarket decal sheet.

Here are a couple of pictures of the one I did a few years ago

P1010381.jpg

P1010379.jpg

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This model is great, but for some reasons I keep struggling with it !

Anyway, the model went in the paint shop ! White first, followed by Lifecolors Light Gull Grey FS 36440 !

Here it is before the masking tape is removed:

GB10.jpg

GB11.jpg

I'm keeping wing and fuselage separate as I'll leave the wing up. In this way it's easier to paint.

Unfortunately disaster has struck when removing the masking tape ! A lot of small bits of white paints have lifted... I hate these things ! Now I'll have to respray part of the white areas on the fuselage undersides.

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Thanks for the nice words, my fault in a sense for the peeling paint: I always coat the paint with klear before masking, forgot to do it this time and I paid the price...

A second coat of white was spraied, but this came terribly ! So I had to sand the very rough paint and give another coat... very frustrating !

In the meantime the wing has been given a wash to higlight the panel lines.

GB12.jpg

Beside the wing is my usual choice for this job, Windsor & Newton water mixable oil colour. I use Payne's Grey for panel lines on white or grey aircrafts, is not too dark yet can be seen.

Next pictures will show the wing with the stencils added.. nice thing about the Crusader is that it's possible to work on wing and fuselage separately ! Why no picture yet ? Because the battery of my camera died.... aaaarrrrrgggghhhhhhh !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, I have a feeling I might not be able to complete this one in time for the end of the Group Build... not great for my first GB.. :(

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And here's the fuselage finally painted !

GB13.jpg

After sorting the problem with the white paint, I managed to spray the exhaust area, the fin cap and the antiglare panels. Citadel paints were used forthese areas, boltgun metal for the exhaust and chaos black for the rest.

Most Crusaders have walk areas above the fuselage and tailplanes, however studying pictures of "my" plane and others of the same unit showed that this is not the case. Much better, less masking and spraying !!!!!

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The Crusader is slowly progressing. The extra week available to finish the GB will sure help !

The plane is now on its landing gear ! Painting on the fuselage is done and a first wash was given to highlight the panel lines. Some decals were alsoadded in the main landing gear well

GB14.jpg

Now some might wonder why a wash before the decals are applied ? The reason is that I prefer to avoid the risk of having the wash highlight any thicker decal. Where big decals will be applied, a wash will be given with care on the decals only to have a more uniform effect.

I also gave a wash on the exhaust. This has very nice rivets detail... I know rivets are not too accurate in this scale, but I think this looks good. The wash did not flatten the metallic sheen of the paint.

GB15.jpg

Nest steps, start decalling the fuselage ! Judging from the pictures, this plane did not have all the stencilling provided in the Academy kit. This means I'll save some stencils here and there, that will go on my future build of the old Heller Crusader, to be converted in an earlier version.

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Thanks to a modelling tour de force during the week end, the Crusader is almost completed. All the decals are in place, except for those representing the canopy sealings. The markings of VMF(AW)-235 are some of the most spectacular ever seen on the F-8, and maybe on any plane ever !

Here are wing and fuselage attached temporarily with other parts nearby. There's plenty of stencils, and my plane didn't even have all those required on the F-8 !

GB16.jpg

Here are some closer iews of the landing gears. As said before, I only added a couple of pipes here and there, most of the details is included in the kit.

GB18.jpg

GB17.jpg

And a close up of the cockpit. The seat is still missing ! The plane wa to use an aftermarket seat as Academy provides the wrong seat. As the GB is almost over and I could not find a proper MB Mk.5 seat, I'll fit the one coming with the kit. I will replace it at a later date. And yes, some paint peeled from the area where the canopy will fit.

GB19.jpg

Close up of the rear grilles. To enhance the effect, I used black oil paint.

GB20.jpg

And now the bad part !!!! I used Superscale decals and these are printed very well. However even if they are supposed to fit the academy kit, they did not ! This was particularly a problem for the markings around the intakes. The decals creased and broke even if I used plenty of setting solutions. Fortunately the red in the markings is perfectly matched by Citadel blood red, that I used to touch-up the decals. Still the creases can be seen and have really ruined the overall effect.

GB21.jpg

Apart from the intake markings, the rest of the decals went down very well, with no silvering. Superscale/microscale decals are top quality from this point of view. However the accuracy is not really great. Some markings were different from what I could see in the picture. The ventral fin markings also did not fit pefectly, however this created no big problem, apart from requiring some paint to cover areas left uncovered by the markings. Note in case anyone wants to do this kit with those decals: better paint the intake markings red and cut the white stars from the superscale sheet !

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