1/48 Monogram Vought F-8E Crusader

Gallery Article by Steve Negley on July 27 2010

 

There was always something to me about the F-8 Crusader that looked tough.  Although it could carry missiles among other stores, it is said that it was also the last of the "all guns" Navy fighters.  I've always liked building these Viet-Nam era Navy jets. With all the available markings and decals you can get aftermarket the modeler can end up with an impressive subject.  I had one of these ready for decals at an earlier date but the model came to an un-suspected demise.  Thanks to an ARC member I was able to purchase another one.  I decided on the Monogram offering of this type for the simple reason I got it for a tenth of the price of the Hasegawa kit. I built this kit OOB. I found that most of the kit went together fairly easy.  The only real trouble area was where the wing attached to the fuselage and the wing fold areas on the wing.  Some of these areas left some pretty big gaps.  With enough dry fitting and filing I fixed them with some sheet styrene.  The cockpit was decent out of the box and so I just used it.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

I got the problem areas to go together decently and with a little sanding it was ready to begin the painting. I primed the entire model with some gray lacquer auto primer.  After the primer had dried it was roughed up with some 0000 steel wool.  I painted the model with Testors Modelmaster enamels FS36440 Flat Lt Gull Grey and FS37875 Flat White then a generous coat of Testors Clear Gloss was applied before decals.  The decals are Aeromaster sheet 48-710 Crusaders of the Viet Nam War.  This F-8E flew off the USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31), VF-53, circa 1967.  I decided to use the sidewinder missiles on this F-8E for its armament.  To me it just didn't look right with bombs hanging off the underwing pylons although I'm sure the aircraft was used in that role.  I made my own aircraft carrier base to display the model. 

Enjoy the photos.

Steve Negley

Click on images below to see larger images

  

Photos and text © by Steve Negley