AREA 88 : "Shin Kazama" (F-8E Crusader)

John Thomas
Greg, our F-8 looks out standing, I really like our ejection seat. I will have to build one for my Jolly Rogers Project in VF-84 Markings and will use the same Academy Kit

Greg Baker
The Academy Crusader is a real joy to put together. I used the Eduard pre-painted photo-etch parts for the seat. It requires a bit of modification (basically adding in polystyrene shims for the headrest and a small semi-circle for the thruster handle), but nothing a gentleman of your scratch-building skills isn't easily capable of. I had an aborted extra kit hanging around so I decided to try my hand at folding the wings. I think it worked pretty well.

John Thomas
Greg, I have two of the Academy's F-8's. I will need to build but I have to back date them to an F-8C around 1960. My references shows little needed to convert the Academy F-8E back to a F-8C. After seeing your wing fold I my do the same.

Rex
Yes, converting back to a C is fairly easy. The only part that needs "work" is the nose, the rest can be done by leaving parts off, or making small pieces, or with a file and some sanding.

This set scalemates.com/kits/275977-m..4-7207-f-8c-f8u-2-conversion makes it a simple cut off and cement on operation.

John Thomas
OK Rex, Thanks

Rex
I posted that because I once tried to sand an F-8E nose back, to get the narrower F-8A-D nose, and broke through the plastic before I had reached "F-8C width." That was before the Academy kit came out, and before Muroc Dave made it so easy.

John Thomas
Rex, thanks again for that info. Because that is what I was planning on doing was to sand the nose back. So now I will look for the Muroc set. I have some time before I need it as I am still working on VF-17 aircraft and still some time before i get to VF-84's F-8

Greg Baker
Is there a good resource, other than just good old fashioned hitting the (digital) books, on what needs to be done to certain kits to achieve certain model numbers? As a relative novice, I sometime find it extremely difficult to what needs to be added/subtracted to any particular kit. On the one hand, I don't really care that much since my builds are largely fictional. But, they're also fictional of actual planes... so the completist in me wants to be accurate to at least a respectable degree.

Greg Baker
I spent a long time in the store comparing the Academy 1/72 P-40E and P-40N kits trying to figure out what exactly is the difference. I usually look at the canopies, but beyond that I'm usually pretty lost.

Greg Baker
Of course, I just bought them both... 😉

Rex
I'm writing a digital guide to the parts needed for the F-4 versions, and the A-4, F-8, A-6 and A-7. They are works in progress, though. Invision boards are still down as of just now, so there isn't going to be any progress tonight.

Rex
The F-86/F-1/FJ, A-1, and P-38 are already available from Aero Research.

John Thomas
Greg, I have built both the Academy's P-40E and P-40N. The two main difference between the two are the canopies and the P-40N has a little longer fuselage. Some P-40N had only two wing guns and could have wing bombs racks. The P-40N was also the fastest of the P-40's. Both kits are nice. The amount of detail is really up to you. It's our build, do what you want. I like to add some detail to be as accurate as I can but do not go all in with all the PE or resin set you can get for kits now days. I find that my home made details are just fine with me.

Greg Baker
Normally I'd agree with you... but I just finished gluing a bunch of tiny little round bits on to some engines while trying to copy your lead... 😉 I just posted the pic in my F7F project. At first I just copied along on the Corsair engine, but then I realized the Hellcat engines I'm using for the Tigercat are just a tiny bit different. I was stumped for a bit, but just decided to keep doing what I was doing. I don't know if I was accurate, but it was fun... sorta. 😉

John Thomas
Greg, our engines details for the F7F looks fine. The styrene rods are the engine's push rods covers for the valves. They should be more half round but I like the round shape it looks better. There is a little difference between the Academy Hellcat and Corsair engines. I like the Corsair engine a little better. The F7F engines is the late R-2800 with a more flat crank case. I sanded my engine front down a little to get this look. The Academy Hellcat engine has those little nubs between the cylinders which the R-2800 does not have. I kept my for my F6F Hellcat's for my Jolly Rogers build.

Greg Baker
After taking a closer look, I decided to use a couple Academy Corsair engines for the F7F instead. Without the extra bits, the Hellcat ones look more like an R-1820 so I pulled them off and I'll use them in my XF5F Skyrocket build instead.

John Thomas
Greg that great. Have you started the Skyrocket yet and what kit are you building?

Greg Baker
No. I haven't started yet. This is the kit I've got in my stash that I'm planning on building - scalemates.com/kits/132569-m..022-grumman-xf5f-1-skyrocket - I'm not quite sure what I want to do... probably not realistic, but either Blackhawks red/blue... or maybe just 100% custom.

John Thomas
Ok Thanks I may need to look for one

Julian Herrero aka Yuri
Good work !!!