Vought F-8E Crusader - VF-53 "Iron Angels," BuNo. 150349

Villiers de Vos
Coming along nicely.

Maciej Bellos
Watching!

Jos Jansen
Oh yeah...I am in, definitely!

Ludvík Kružík
I've always liked the Crusader for its sleek shape.

Your work on the model looks very good. 👍 I'll definitely be following and looking forward to the next progress. 🙂

Neil
Following too! 👍

Desert Marlin
Very nice work!!!

Ludvík Kružík
Macro photography is tricky, it shows every slightest imperfection and ordinary dust that is not visible to the naked eye. Don't let it stress you out. Even very nicely done details can look bad at high magnification. What matters is how they look in reality. 😉

Rando
Thank you gents means so much to hear all this! This is the first kit I'm building that isn't for "practice," my wife got it for me to get me back into the hobby after a long hiatus. Humbled to have such an audience for this build.

Maciej Bellos
The hiatus hasn't affected your modeling skills. Looking very good!

John
It's looking good. I say it all the time, but these old Monogram kits are a lot of work but they build up into nice models if you put in the effort.

Rando
Thank you! It's a labor of love indeed! I built tons of Monogram/Revell kits when I was a kid. I didn't know whether they were good or not, I just built them, and I find I'm still very fond of them.

John
Oh yes, I cut my teeth on those as well. If yours were like mine then no they weren't that good but fun was had building them. I'm just glad Revell has the molds and occasionally releases an old favorite, even if they are at eye-popping prices compared to back in the day. Hurry up with a B-58 reissue LOL.

Rando
I have lots of their F-101s. Want to build their F-106 again someday too

Ludvík Kružík
Old sets have their charm. You can build them as a retro build straight out of the box or modify them in different ways.
The second way is more challenging. But by having to figure out how to modify the model and what to make the various missing parts out of, it gives room for your skills and imagination to develop. And it also brings more joy when you manage to complete the model. 😎

Rando
I'm back and am going fully down the rabbit hole by building the underwing bay, which is completely absent from the Monogram kit. Scratchbuilding this with guidance from a 1992 issue of FSM.

John
That's cool. Looks like a lot of work but will really make it stand out with the wing in landing position.

Rando
Made a little progress. The Monogram Crusader doesn't have an afterburner nozzle, so I procured a Monogram F-18 burner can and shaved it off so it would have one. Not particularly accurate but it looks better at least now it has one.

Rando
Got brave enough and took the big step of gluing together the fuselage halves. Lots of work ahead to clean up the seams. The white metal main gear are not fastened in place yet, but I left them in between the two halves because dry fitting showed it was impossible to insert them after being joined. This was a slow and steady process that was not nearly as stressful as I imagined, since I accepted that things would not line up perfectly and I joined the halves one section at a time, starting with the upper nose and cockpit. The cockpit tub had a very poor join between at the rear bulkhead, so I made sure that was glued together properly first. Cheers to you all following, feels like a big benchmark.

John
Looking good! 👍 Are you planning on rescribing or restoring lines you'll have to sand over? I just ask because it's a question I wrestle with when doing the old revellogram kits.

Rando
Thank you John! Just to me rescribing feels like a bigger pain to deal with, so I'm going to try my hand at very carefully sanding and restoring them where I need to with an exacto blade. But this is my first time dealing with a raised panel line kit, so we'll see.

Rando
Was dissatisfied with my initial build of the underwing bay, so I ripped it out and made it look more like my reference photos. Looks way better now and can move on to adding details there.

Vincent
The detail work you are doing looks great. Looking forward to see where it's going.

Rando
Thank you Vincent! Added these ribs to the intake duct area and tomorrow will add more details like wires and pipes.

Villiers de Vos
Adding these details will pay off handsomely.

Ludvík Kružík
Rando, I've been following the construction of this model from the beginning. With every detail you build, your model looks better and better. 👍
I wish you a lot of patience and fun for the next construction of your model.

Rando
Thank you so much gents, it's been very fun. Hope you enjoy my progress from tonight. Might be going a bit overboard with the detail here as it's going to be mostly covered up by the wing, but I just can't help but enjoy scratchbuilding. Going to install some wiring and other features here next.

Rando
Installed more hydraulic lines and opened the afterburner cooling scoops

Rando
Finally glued in the Crusader's main gear. The SAC metal gear corrects the flattened kit gear but also might be the worst of many ill-fitting parts on model. Been anxious about getting it to sit right without looking crooked, hopefully when it has wheels it looks halfway decent. Also got some filling and sanding done to make the raised wing look nice—Mr. Surfacer is so great.

Desert Marlin
So far, so good! Keep it up. This is clearly a tedious part of your build! Cheers!

Rando
Thank you Desert! Means everything to hear praise from all you pros. Indeed I did some sanding of the droops and flaps which I separated from the wings. Was not exactly looking forward to that, but will definitely be worth the effort when it's done.

Ludvík Kružík
Every added (even small) detail improves the final look of the model and makes it a unique original. No one else will have the same model. The extra work is definitely worth it. 😉

Rando
Many of these hose and wire details in the gearbay abruptly end before the surface of the gear bulkhead, so I extended them to appear to run through it.

John
Looking good. Very tedious but it's worth it when things get a coat of paint and the detail starts to stand out a little more instead of being just various shades of glue, sanding marks and plastic.

Rando
Tedious indeed, this is definitely a challenging stage of the build. Getting the main gear bay together is a laborious process of dry fitting. Also a till a lot of fuselage work that I'm chipping away at. Excited to get that first coat of primer on

Rando
Gearbay doors are on! Was a lot of work but finally got it together. Had a happy accident too when I broke off one of the connecting flanges. When I glued in, I got a good fit with it, but the flange on the other side was fitting poorly so I ended up cutting it off and fitting it like the one I had broken off. Looks way better now.

Ludvík Kružík
I have the same experience. It's true that sometimes serendipity contributes to a better appearance.
The added details look very nice. I look forward to the next installment.

Rando
Mostly been chipping away at filling and sanding the seams. Also, I chose not to install the instrument panel when joining the fuselage halves, so am now battling with trying to fit it in so the gunsight and radar scope looks right. One other detail I wanted to add to the cockpit was rudder pedals, so fashioned them from cutting apart the unused incorrect kit seat.

Rando
Cut the gunsight mount off the instrument panel and made more accurate-looking mounts for the glass gunsight pane using parts from the Trumpeter Lightning's landing gear I didn't use. Panel is now installed and painted the area under the canopy after some filling and sanding.

Rando
Didn't like the kit gunsight glass, it was a thick slab that sat on the frame, so I cut a tiny square off the excess of a vacuform canopy. Was extremely difficult to get straight cuts and maintain control with forceps, took a lot of attempts. Happy with how it looks now

Desert Marlin
Came out right!

Rando
Thanks Marlin! Glued on the forward canopy and etched the VIW front bulkhead. Could have bought photoetch for that but wanted to see if I could do it myself. I glued and trimmed a piece of soft plastic card to the front and then traced the pattern from the Hasegawa kit. Then burnished them in. Gonna soften their appearance a bit with some Mr Surfacer.

Vincent
This build is getting impressive. Very nice work already!!

Rando
Thank you Vincent! Hope you continue to enjoy the progress

Jos Jansen
You have a great sense of detail, I love your work already! Where did you get that info on how to make the inside of the movable wing? My next project will also be an F-8.

Rando
Very kind of you to say Jos. So, I did a lot of research on the 1/48 scale F-8s, and this particular review on the Monogram F-8 by Wayne Hui showed how it could be done: modelingmadness.com/review/viet/huif8.htm
In that review he mentions a Fine Scale Modeler article from 1992 which is where he got information on how to raise the wing and modifications. I found a copy and it was helpful enough for getting a sense of the dimensions for the underwing bay, etc. I can scan the pages to you if you want.

Might be a little silly that I put myself through this extra work since the Hasegawa F-8 comes with a wing that can be raised OOB, but I got this Monogram kit as a gift from my wife before I did any research, and I decided doing this extra work would make me a better modeler for other ambitious project down the line.

Ludvík Kružík
Rando, you're doing very well. The scratched details helped a lot to make the model look better. Keep it up. 👍

Rando
Thank you Ludvik! More scratched details indeed, etched these indentations in the wing root. Getting very happy with how the construction is coming together, might join the wing parts soon. Also have had some great success restoring the raised panel lines with a fresh #11 blade, it's amazing how nice it looks.

Jos Jansen
Yes, the Hasegawa kit has a detailed inside of the movable wing, nevertheless I will upgrade it and your craftsmanship will help with that as a reference...! Don't bother scanning the example, I'll come a long way with your build. Thank you in advance for your efforts.

Rando
So cool I have been of help! Yeah when I build the Hase kit I will definitely have to add extra details to the wing bay like I did here.

Rando
Ventral strakes were installed tonight. They sit at a 45 degree angle and I used bluetak to hold them in place (gonna need to clean up some glue mess from that 🙄). After a lot of consideration I decided to cut the locator pins off the Hasegawa F-8 kit strakes and use them instead, since the VF-53 Furball decal did not look like it would fit well on the Monogram's strakes. Not worried about this since I have several Hase kits in the stash and could make an RF-8A someday that doesn't have strakes.

Jos Jansen
oh...do you have experience with raising panel lines? I'm curious how you're going to do the weathering...

Desert Marlin
The ESCI A-1H project shows one way to do weathering with raised lines. It's really good!

Rando
This is my first time ever restoring raised panel lines, or working with them for that matter. Not sure how exactly I'll weather the jet with the raised lines but have vague ideas of pin washes (which I have yet to actually try). I have Tamiya panel accent color and have practiced dry brushing before. Marlin, can you show us this build—maybe a link?

Rando
Mr. Surfacer on the upper fuselage tonight. Definitely some finishing to do in places, like where I was too heavy handed on restoring panel lines, so I'll have to figure that out. Nice to see all the details pop and the seam work looks good.

John
Have you tried the stretched sprue method of making new raised panel lines? It's tedious but it works.

Rando
I haven't, I tried making stretched sprue at one point but couldn't quite get it right.

Rando
So far I've been pretty happy with how using a #11 blade on the missing panel lines has worked out, although this is something new and I've learned to score much more lightly into the plastic. Mr. Surfacer revealed a couple lines on the upper fuselage that were noticeably deep and not straight, so I'll have to run a little super glue in places to fix that. Happy to hear of stretched sprue methods though-- both making it and applying it to the model.

John
I'm having no luck with finding the reference I used but basically you take stretched sprue to the thinness of the panel line you want, lay it on the model lined up with the existing line and touch extra thin or whatever to it and capillary action will flow down the space and glue it to the model. The trick is in blending it with the non-obliterated portion of the panel line you're fixing. I found it easier to just remove the whole panel line up to the end where it meets another perpendicular panel line. Best to glue one end where it meets the other panel to get a nice square connection to the other panel line and "anchor" it, then lay it down and glue the rest. It does work and looks good but it can be tedious for sure. The nice thing is, if you mess up you can just sand it off and start again, but that's where the tedium can build. You can practice on the inside of wings, etc. where it won't be seen.

As for making the stretched sprue, no special tricks. Heating it evenly is pretty important. I take a longer piece and rotate it back and forth over a flame until it turns shiny and starts to sag. Keep rotating it a few more seconds over the flame then pull it smoothly without stopping until it's the diameter you want. The hotter it is, the thinner you can make it just don't set it on fire! It doesn't have to be all that close to the flame if you find the heat column from the flame. Keep the wind to a minimum or it's hard to heat evenly with the flame wandering around. If there's a large mold seam on the sprue, I'll typically scrape it off but it doesn't have to be perfectly smooth. Sometimes the kit plastic can be bad and not very easy to stretch. Any good maker will have good plastic but I keep scrap Tamiya and Hasegawa sprues around for this. Just practice some and you'll have piles of hair-thin plastic strings all over your bench!

Rando
Thank you John! I'm definitely going to give another shot at making it, good to know about different brands of plastic. I tried it on Trumpeter plastic I believe, I didn't have a consistent heat source though which is probably why it didn't work well. I'll keep this in mind just in case I want to apply stretched sprue to the F-8 and other things stretched sprue is good for.

Desert Marlin
Blending is best achieved by a slow application of the stretched sprue. As the cement softens the stretched sprue, it becomes a little easier to shape the end of the sprue to match the panel and existing raised detail. The knife becomes more of a "putty knife" than a cutting tool...

Desert Marlin
Tamiya and Hasegawa plastic has always worked best for me.

Rando
Thanks Marlin! Hey by the way, where can I find that ESCI A-1H project for weathering raised lines? Would love to see that

Ludvík Kružík
I use (regularly and for a very long time) plastic threads and sticks pulled from plastic trees to make various details of my models, such as internal structures, antenna masts, various struts...
I used to use pulled plastic threads also to make rigging, but this method is quite laborious and rigging made of pulled plastic threads is fragile and easily damaged.

The vast majority of kits are made of plastic, which expands easily when heated. It is much more important to heat the plastic sprue evenly before stretching it. I use a regular candle to heat the plastic. Its flame temperature is quite sufficient. Do not heat the plastic in its flame, but in a stream of hot air just above the flame. As you heat the plastic, continuously rotate it so that it heats evenly. The plastic must not start to boil (bubbles will form) and must not burn during heating.
With a little practice, a combination of heating temperature and the time required to pull the "thread" can produce sticks of different diameters. The more the plastic is heated and the longer you stretch it, the thinner the thread will be. For pulling thicker sticks, I have found it works well to let the heated plastic cool briefly (on the order of 3-5 seconds) and then slowly pull it out. If you are pulling out thicker sticks, hold the plastic taut in your hands for a small amount of time after pulling it out to give it time to cool down so the stick doesn't bend.
Due to some inaccuracy in production, I always prepare several sticks and then choose the best ones.

It takes some experimenting and trying before you figure it out. Once you do, you realize that it's actually very simple.

Desert Marlin
Rando, take a look at this one:

ESCI | No. 4045 | 1:48 | Douglas A-1H Skyraider (WIP) | Album by djferrisbueller (1:48)

Desert Marlin
Nothing like the challenge of an old ESCI kit!

Rando
Thank you Desert and Ludvik, all great information and that project is definitely worth taking lots of notes from. Happy to see a great looking kit can be made with raised lines. The Crusader has been a bit of a slog with a lot of newly discovered sanding areas and fixing mistakes (thanks to primer), but I hope to start gluing together the wing and control surfaces tonight.

Desert Marlin
Bon Chance!!!

Rando
Must have dry fit and sanded these what felt like over a hundred times but they're together and at a good drop angle. There's sizable gaps that will get a lot of putty and superglue.

Villiers de Vos
All these hard work will pay off in the end. A very nice result so far.

Rando
Thank you Villiers! I primed the underside and found I did a pretty good job with the seams. Still lots to do around the nose and dreaded intake. It's also really nice to look at the scratchbuilt areas with primer, looks way more like it's part of the plane.

Neil
I agree with Villiers! Looking forward to seeing the end result 🙂👍

Rando
Glad to have you Neil! Lot of steady progress getting the nose and seams finished. The nose is finally looking nice. There's a seam behind the nose gear bay that will not go away. Also I started scratchbuilding some detail on the wing folding joints

Ludvík Kružík
Rando, you did a great job on your model.

In figures 77, 78 and 79 you can see that the lines you corrected are negative but they follow the positive lines. Unless you are considering redoing the lines on the entire model to negative, I would consider correcting the lines on the nose to positive.I assume you will be working on modifying the forward fuselage and my comment may be unnecessary.
In no way do I mean to disparage the work you are doing in modifying the model. It's just my suggestion to make your model look even better. 🙂

Rando
Ludvik your advice is of course appreciated. So I found this relatively simple method to restore the panel lines, based on the idea that lightly cutting in with a fresh blade will "raise" an edge of plastic so it will look like it's part of the raised lines. Maybe it's the close up nature of the photo but looking at most of the restored lines on the model so far are pretty convincing, might reevaluate them now, however. If you're referring to the line that encircles the nose, that one I had to scribe myself since I had to fill and sand that area so much and there wasn't an existing line to place. I have yet to experience for myself what this finished product will look like with raised lines restored this way, are you thinking they will clash in appearance?
Side note, I don't love the look of over-emphasized panel lines on models so I'm hoping to give these a subtle appearance overall. I haven't ruled out testing stretched sprues.
Edit to add: that panel line around the nose has been hit by sanding quite a few times so that image isn't the final product of that area of the aircraft

Desert Marlin
That's a good method Rando!

Ludvík Kružík
Rando, you're right. The high magnification on the photo mercilessly reveals even minor flaws that are not very visible on the model with the naked eye. I believe the corrected lines look good in reality.
I understand that you are trying to save yourself the work and looking for simple solutions. Surfacer will show you very well how the surface of the finished machine will look like. After spraying it on the model, all (even minor) errors will show up. If the lines don't look good after spraying surfacer, don't rely on the final paint to hide the mistakes. This is not true.

Since I've been modifying old kits, I know how challenging it is. If the kit has positive panel lines (like the MI-24 Monogram I recently finished) I prefer to sand them down and engrave new negative lines. I know it's laborious and requires precision. It also takes practice and a lot of time. That's why I understand that you kept the original positive lines on your model and are trying to fill them in where they were damaged.

I think the idea of cutting the lines lightly is not a bad one. As you can see in your photos, the plastic on the cut edges will lift, but at the same time the negative cut lines are visible.
I would have taken a slightly different approach. I would start like you and indicate the missing lines with a light incision. But I would still continue. I'd sand the cut lines with fine sandpaper. After cleaning the lines of dust, I would glue a thin plastic thread pulled from the tree into the negative lines. This will make the lines blend in better with the positive lines on the model.

I also don't like the panel lines being too emphasized. To me, over-emphasized lines give the model the look of a paper cutout. But that is a matter of taste for each modeler.

Rando
Got some photo worthy progress on the wings. After a million dry fits, sanding, and adding shims to even up the gaps, I started getting the flaps and ailerons on. Also scratchbuilt some details on the wing folding joints. The wing is kind of its own separate model, putting it together with the finished fuselage is probably one of the last things I will do on this kit.

Desert Marlin
That looks fabulous! I'm just finishing up the conversion to the S-199 from a Bf-109G-6 and the work to make things fit seems never ending. Which is a good thing!

Rando
Thank you Desert! Yeah I find that at some point you just gotta start gluing it and get it the best fit you can, then fill/sand/etch as you have to. I fussed so much with getting the deflections and seating I wanted for these.

Rando
Spent all night sanding the assembled wing so it would fit in the raised position, it's about 90-95% there.

Sergej I
Awesome scratchbuilding there 👍, looking forward to painting!

John
The hard work is paying off. Control surfaces and wing incidence look really good and add visual interest over everything being in the neutral position.

Rando
Thank you Sergej and John, really enjoying how this is coming together and glad I'm making something other modelers can appreciate. Started experimenting with some preshade using dark gull grey and an Iwata Hi-Line I got from their close out sale. Didn't like how flat black was looking when testing this on a mule. Really like the Hi-Line, lots of air and paint control 👍

John
Congrats on the new Iwata. Using a good airbrush is a pleasure. Using a poor one is...not. Nice idea on the preshading vs. black. With the light grey/white I think you're right, the black would be too stark. But, take it from me, when you do the blend coat stop before you think it looks just right. In my experience, the paint dries just a touch more opaque and what looks good when it's laid down can dry to completely obscure all your preshading work. Can always add another coat of paint, hard to take it away.

Rando
Thank you John, great advice--I'll do one layer at a time! Yeah I love Iwata, I started with an HP-CS and glad I did even though it was a steeper learning curve. Definitely didn't "need" another airbrush but the closeout sale price on the Hi-Line was too good to pass up.

John
My wife gifted me an iwata HP-TR2 one year (she's great 😉 ) and with a .4mm nozzle, I didn't think it would be of much use but it's fantastic for primer and blend coats, very even. I myself started out with an ancient HP-C that I still use but if you ever "need" another airbrush I can recommend the PS-771. With a .18mm nozzle, it's wonderful for fine detail work, if you get the paint mix and pressure settings right. It has the air controls and adjustable needle stop. For the price, it's a great little brush. Little finicky to clean, but what airbrush isn't? It must be spotless to get the best performance like if you're going to be doing freehand camo edges or Luftwaffe-type mottling.

Rando
Cool to know! I'll keep my eyes out for those two airbrushes if I ever see a screaming deal. Our wives are the best aren't they, she's the one who got me this kit which got me back into modeling in the first place.

Ludvík Kružík
Great progress on your model. You can start to see how a lot of work on adding various details has paid off. 👍

Desert Marlin
Time for the payoff!!! Looks so good!

Rando
Thanks gents getting super excited to get the first coats of paint on! I lost the taxi light parts so I scratchbuilt one from the tip of a Monogram B-26 propeller, plastic strips, wire, and foil from a beer bottle. Here's hoping it looks convincing enough.

Ludvík Kružík
The new light looks great. 👍

An alternative to making a new light is to use a clear tree (from clear kit parts) of the appropriate diameter. After trimming the clear trunk to the shape of the reflector, polish the front of the trunk. You can use a small drill bit to drill a hole in the back (approximately half the depth of the reflector). When viewed from the front, it will look like a reflector bulb.
Then paint the reflector body silver. Leave the reflector glass unpainted, of course. After the silver paint has dried, paint the reflector body with the corresponding colour. This will ensure that the inner surface of the reflector is silver and the outer surface is the correct colour.
Reflectors made this way look very realistic on the model.

Rando
Thanks Ludvik! Yeah I was going to find a way to add a bulb and put klear over it or something for the glass. Great advice!

Ludvík Kružík
Rando, if you don't want to re-manufacture the reflector, I'd just make a new bulb out of a thicker filament stretched from a piece of clear tree. The procedure for making the filament is the same as for stretching plastic thread. However, when stretching the transparent filament, stretch a small piece (approximately 2-5 cm, depending on the diameter of the rod from the tree). This will increase the diameter of the thread.

Andreas Lux
I'm very impressed with how much work you put into details. Your scratch build looks great! I'm really looking forward to the paint job 😉

Sergej I
photo #89 - I see this model will make a perfect wireless phone charger on the desk 👍 😄

Rando
Thank you Teddy bear gentlemen, I'm humbled by your praise 😊 been putting on lots of gloss white layers and finally got some masks on to paint the upper side of the fuselage. Using tape and bluetak

Rando
First coats of light full grey are on, definitely exciting to see it coming together. Feel like the dark grey preshade was the right choice, still want to make it more subtle in places, but I like how it comes through on the forward fuselage.

Michael Kohl
Looking good.

Rando
Thank you Michael! Don't think it's been well-captured on my crappy phone camera but I feel like I achieved the subtle preshading I was going for. Also got a soft line that I was going for. Might start taking better photos with a good camera.

BTW I love your Bugati Racer build, and honestly everything else you've worked on, all very unique and impressively made.

Jos Jansen
Even though it is a dated kit with raised panel lines, you make something beautiful out of it Rando! In any case, you have already delivered a nice spray job. How and what are you going to do the weathering...?

Rando
Thank you Jos! I used Gunze Aqueous and am very pleased that they seem resilient and easy to mask, also don't seem to have any trouble with spraying them in a cold basement.

After decals I was thinking I would very lightly sand the raised lines with a 2000 or 3000 grit sanding sponge. After the gloss coat over the decals, I have some Windsor & Newton oil paints (lamp black and burnt umber) for washes and streaking in places. I have barely dabbled in weathering so far, but I absolutely have to weather this Crusader!

Sergej I
I weathered my Corsair with Tamiya pastel make-up sets using a thin brush... very controllable to apply evenly along the raised pl's.
Used oils only for stains.

Rando
Cool! Which ones did you use Sergej? I've heard pastels can be great for this kind of work too, definitely interested

Sergej I
I used the B set:
87080 Weathering Master B set - Snow, Soot, Rust, Tamiya , Pigments, 3 color
which has the soot that can imitate gentle shading. I found that using it with the sponge is too strong for thin 72nd lines, but do experiment! 👍
Looking forward to see the progress and thanks for sharing the story, I enjoy it 🙂

Rando
Thank you sir, I'll give it a try!!

Ludvík Kružík
Rando, Your Crusader is looking better and better. 👍
I'm very curious about your further progress. 😉

Desert Marlin
Beautiful work! This kit brings back a bunch of great modeling memories! I always liked the "Light Gull Grey" color from Gunze (H51 Gloss). I am not convinced that the FS16440 is the correct top color. Yours looks correct from the pictures though!

Rando
Gents as always your praise means so much and I'm very happy you all enjoy the progress. Mariln, sure enough the Gunze pot says it's 16440. It's one of those ubiquitous paints that nonetheless that seems subject to endless debate over how correct it looks. ADC grey is even more vague,, I still haven't decided what exactly what brand I'll paint my Voodoos with. Glad the Crusader's paint job looks right enough 😄

Rando
Have had a ton of fun masking off parts of the fuselage!

Rando
Paint job is basically done and it's ready for a clear coat, although I'm stumped on how to paint the thin yellow frames around the front canopy. I don't love how the vinyl masks went on and if I could do it again I would have just made them out of Tamiya tape. Also, my only yellow paint on hand is Mission Models yellow, and I don't really trust MM paints to go on easily.

Everything else is done though, I painted on minor details like the bare metal on the fuselage by the stabilizer, red on the wing bulkhead, and flat aluminum to represent Corogard on the leading edges of wings, stabs, and tail.

John
If you have any spare yellow decal from another kit you can cut it into strips of the proper width and apply. Time consuming but it works.

Rando
Thanks John I might give that or very thin strips of yellow tape a try, beats trying to hand paint it or rolling the dice with spray!

John
The tape might appear out of scale. Spraying works fine, just a lot of work with masking. I did that on a MiG-21 but at least had inner masks from Eduard even if they were so old they didn't stick well.

Donald Dickson II
Furball makes the canopy frame decals.

Desert Marlin
I have always painted the thin yellow line by hand with multiple coats of very thin paint. These lines represent the sealant that is used during the installation of the windows into the canopy frame and are almost never that smooth. Sometimes they are the result of phenolic or fiberglass support cushions on the inside of the glass and are smooth because they are behind the surface of the clear glass/plexi.

Desert Marlin
Cutting decal from a sheet of the desired color works very well too!

Rando
Thanks for the ideas Marlin! I'll get those lines on one way or another.

Donald, I'd definitely be using those Furball decals but they're out of print and very scarce, plus I doubt they'd fit on the Monogram kit anyways. I did hear from Geoff that he hopes to reissue them in 2024, I'll definitely stock up on them when they come out

David H
This is coming along nicely, looking really nice and smooth 👍🏻

Ludvík Kružík
You can also make decals at home. You can buy blank decal sheets and make your own decals. Just spray the decal paper with the appropriate colour and repaint with a thin layer of varnish when dry. You can then easily cut out thin strips from the decal. I use this method for "painting" complex booths with a large number of frames.
If the inside surface of the frames was a different color than the outside, I spray the decal paper with the color of the inside surfaces of the frames first. Then I apply the colour of the outer surfaces and finally a thin layer of varnish. Since the cab overlay is transparent, after applying the decals, the inside of the cab overlay frames can be seen with the interior paint shade. And on the outside, the cab frames will be the exterior color.
For inspiration - I used the above described procedure for "painting" the frames of the transparent part of the FA-223 helicopter cabin - Focke Achgelis FA-223, WIP | Album by KLuK (1:48)

Rando
That's great Ludvik, I'll definitely give that a try. I remember that FA-223 build, really cool aircraft. Appreciate all the great tips on figuring out these frames!

Ludvík Kružík
Crusader with applied decals wakes up to the beauty. It's already looking very good. 👍

Thomas Bischoff
all the work pays off! this is a beautiful Crusader 👍

Maciej Bellos
Looking great! A whole body photo please!

Villiers de Vos
Very nice progress.

Maciej Bellos
Beautiful!

Rando
Thank you all wonderful folks! Added a couple more tail markings. Got some stencils to finish and then it's on to the other side and the wings

Rando
First wing decals are on. Had a mishap with dust specks in the white paint on the flaps and stabilizers so they haven't come along as soon as the fuselage. Also decals on the starboard side are almost done

Desert Marlin
I'm partial to the process of removing the white and do-over…

Rando
Yeah it was one of few times I lost my patience, I made the finish worse by trying to fix the dust spots, then smudges, so sanded down and repainted with primer and all. What's your go to for paint removal? Been using Gunze and Tamiya acrylics

Desert Marlin
I like the Mr. Color Leveling Thinner. Strange stuff. Doesn't harm the plastic.

Rando
I'll have to try that one, realized I've been using the regular thinner and will probably get a better finish on future builds.

On another note, I caused a little mess trying to clean up some smudged carrier film on this wingtip. Any suggestions to fix it? Was thinking I'd find a way in the weathering step

Desert Marlin
If you look at my Diana F-16 Falcon, the "360" stencil got munged with Tamiya thin glue. I was bummed. I had to repaint or touch up the numbers with very thin paint and many coats. It came out okay, but I had to accept that time would be involved to correct it...

Desert Marlin
See pictures 6 and 7. Make sure to use a different base for the paint. The black was Tamiya Lacquer Paint Semi-Gloss Black and I used Mr. Hobby Aqueous White thinned out with rubbing alcohol to touch up the white numbers...

Desert Marlin
What you have so far under the "NF" code I would sand with 1000+ grit sand paper and re-spray the gray using a post-note over the "NF" code to protect it...

Desert Marlin
Then spray a new protective coat over that. Enamel gray, Aqueous clear. Polish the clear and it should recover. Long dry-times in-between. (6 to 12 hours min.)

Desert Marlin
I hav been using the ALC-600 Aqua Gloss Clear from Alclad with pretty consistent results.

Rando
Thanks Marlin, sounds like an easy enough fix. I'll be back to work tomorrow so I'll be forced to be more like my usual patient self between coats.

TV_scalemodels
Very nice looking Crusader 🙂

Edouard Carr
Very nice additional details Rando. Looking forward to some Beauty shoots!

Rando
Thank you and welcome TV and Edouard! Decals are done and coated so it's on to weathering at last. Also building the small bits like the canopy, wheels, and missiles. And I fixed the decal smudge on the outboard wing, post it notes worked great Marlin

Ludvík Kružík
A beautiful swan is born from an ugly duckling. You can see that all the work on modifying the model paid off.

Rando
Thank you Ludvik, slowly but steadily getting to the finish line 😄Weathering time…I very lightly sanded some of the raised panel lines to bring then out a little. Then I did a wash with brown and black oil paints. Also working on all the little final details, more to come tomorrow.

Rando
Tried a couple dot filters and I liked the effects. This is my first real attempt at weathering an aircraft. I might experiment with a couple more things before calling it done and putting in the final detail parts

Desert Marlin
Wonderful progress!!! Beginning to look extremely believable!!!

Rando
So close to being done, except the Gunze Aqueous Flat Clear isn't making it very flat. Been adding misted coats gradually to where I'm at a semi-gloss. Might get some testors dullcote tomorrow.

Guy Rump
Looking great! 👍

John
Rando, I have had really good luck with the Windsor & Newton Galeria matt varnish. Mix it about 1:1 with 90% IPA at around 15psi and it is dead flat. Just a medium coat, no need to lay it on thick or try and build up coats, one and done.

Thomas Bischoff
may I challenge your going "all flat" approach? To my understanding the gull grey/white scheme was basically a gloss coat scheme which would make your semi flat finish a perfect match.

Rando
Thanks John I'll be sure to give it a try. And yes Thomas I welcome that—my general impression has been the Navy schemes at the time were gloss but quickly became flat on carrier deployment. Although for trying to build a realistic model, maybe a semi-gloss might be better since I've seen it said that straight flat or gloss can look too toy-like.

TV_scalemodels
Sharp looking pitot tube. I agree semi-gloss is good as plane is weathered anyway

John
I agree with the comments saying don't go dead flat, just wanted you to know it's good stuff if you need that finish. I think armor looks best dead flat but "in service" and weathered planes on the flatter side of semi-gloss. Your Crusader is really popping!

Rando
Thank you all for the encouraging feedback! Might just be ready to put the whole thing together today.

David H
I also use Windsor and newton flat , I mix it with w&n gloss 50-50 , otherwise I find the galleria Matt just too flat … most of my phantoms are done like that to give a slightly "off" flat finish. The YF23 was " neat" flat

Jos Jansen
To get a good semi-matt look I always use a mix of 50:50 Hataka Matt Lacquer Clear Coat and Hataka Satin Lacquer Clear Coat. This ratio with Hataka gives the right mix for a beautiful and strong half-dull look.

Rando
Finished Lt Cdr Guy Cane's MiG-17 killing Crusader, Firefighter 203, today after starting last June. Hope you all enjoy the final pics in spite of my amateurish photography. Really pleased with how this turned out. Thanks to Drew Tarter and Tom Weinel (RIP) for being amazing Crusader resources, and thanks to all you Mates for cheering me on and giving advice. And a big thanks to my wife for buying me this kit.

John E
Love this build. Kudos on all that scratchbuilding! Impressive.

Desert Marlin
Excellent persistence and work Rando!!!

Maciej Bellos
Excellent work Rando. Well done!

Michael Kohl
Was fun to follow. Very decent result.

TV_scalemodels
Lovely looking Crusader, fine work!

Jennifer Franklin
I am super impressed, Rando, fantastic result.

Vincent
Great result. This was a fun build to follow!!!

Guy Rump
Great job, congrats! 👍

Thomas Bischoff
excellent looking Crusader - was worth all the extra work 👍 👍 👍

Rando
Thank you all for the likes and great comments! Was a very fun and rewarding build.

Ludvík Kružík
Rando, your Crusader looks very nice. Congratulations on a great result. 👍👍👍
I followed the whole process of building the model with great interest. It was a joy to watch.

What model will you go for now?

Rando
Thank you Ludvik it was a pleasure to have you. My next build is a Mosquito night intruder, I just posted the new album

Desert Marlin
Mossy is a great choice! 👍

Jos Jansen
You nailed this old rebox Monogram kit Rando, lots of kudos for your commitment and passion for modeling!

John
Your Crusader turned out amazing, rando. Can't believe it's the old Monogram molds.

Rando
Thanks guys, means a lot to hear this from great modelers such as yourselves!

Neil
Just caught up with this one too mate. Cracking result! Looks awesome 👍😎

Rando
Thanks Neil! I looked to your Skyraider build for contemporary era inspiration and dealing with raised panel lines

Tommy Agne
Great result 👏👏👏. You nailed it buddy 👍. Great looking Corsair, nice weathering job .

John Ballman
Hans just saw your Crusader on Modeling Madness, awesome build. You really did a superb job on that old Monogram kit, I think you can graduate to better kits now.
Respectfully,
John B.

Rando
Thanks John and Tommy! Your praise means a lot, and it was cool to see it featured by Scott. And yeah it'll be awhile before I build another one of these for sure 😄