Post by mumbles on Dec 4, 2012 22:50:10 GMT 12
This has already been posted to a couple of other forums, so sorry for the repetition if you've already seen it. My web connection is spottier than 101 Dalmatians at the moment which has put a big dent in my online activity, hence why I'm only putting this up here now.
This is the Academy F-8E Crusader I put together for my club BSK this year. It's mostly out of the box, since I didn't add much to it other than fuse wire and plastic rod.
While most F-8 kit manufacturers have provided the option of posing the variable incidence wing up, very few seem to have noticed that when the wing went up, the mechanically linked flaps and droops automatically went down. A clean raised wing on an F-8 is inaccurate on a 'live' machine.
So with that in mind, I decided to cut the flaps from the one-piece mainplane (the droops were already separate items, although needing modification to droop properly) and drop them. Then I thought, if I'm cutting off the flaps, why not cut the outer wings off too and fold those? It wasn't a common configuration but I liked the way it looked so went for it. The main wing moulding went from one to six pieces in the process ;D. I scratchbuilt the wingfold detail with fuse wire, plastic rod and a drill, and drilled out the rear of the rocket launchers and added more rod to make them look more representative. The only other things I added were seatbelts and fuse wire ejection handles. I've also corrected the slightly dodgy canopy sit since these pics were taken.
The scheme and decals are from the kit, for an F-8E based at Da Nang c.1967.
This is the Academy F-8E Crusader I put together for my club BSK this year. It's mostly out of the box, since I didn't add much to it other than fuse wire and plastic rod.
While most F-8 kit manufacturers have provided the option of posing the variable incidence wing up, very few seem to have noticed that when the wing went up, the mechanically linked flaps and droops automatically went down. A clean raised wing on an F-8 is inaccurate on a 'live' machine.
So with that in mind, I decided to cut the flaps from the one-piece mainplane (the droops were already separate items, although needing modification to droop properly) and drop them. Then I thought, if I'm cutting off the flaps, why not cut the outer wings off too and fold those? It wasn't a common configuration but I liked the way it looked so went for it. The main wing moulding went from one to six pieces in the process ;D. I scratchbuilt the wingfold detail with fuse wire, plastic rod and a drill, and drilled out the rear of the rocket launchers and added more rod to make them look more representative. The only other things I added were seatbelts and fuse wire ejection handles. I've also corrected the slightly dodgy canopy sit since these pics were taken.
The scheme and decals are from the kit, for an F-8E based at Da Nang c.1967.
Yes, it was surprisingly well armed for a fighter of it's vintage and intended role. As for the photos, I was trying to see if I could get away with not employing my usual cumbersome tripod setup.