Hasegawa Corp. 00339 1/72 F-8E Crusader

This was my first model back after a few years of being too busy to build one. I really enjoyed this one! Good detail but not too much. Parts fit very well. Cheers

I’ve been a fan of Crusaders ever since one of them scared the bejeepers out of me one morning on the Naval Airstation in Norfolk many years ago. I was minding my own business working in the torpedo shop next to the runway while an F-8 was getting ready for take-off. The pilot revved his engine up and we could all hear the thing whining as he eased the throttle forward, but me, being the new guy, right out of “A” school, didn’t know nuthin’ ‘bout no afterburner.As Charlie Brown would say, “Good Grief!!” When that pilot lit that afterburner, I thought somebody had dropped a warhead off one of the torpedoes and it had gone off. Man, the windows shook and the rails on the overhead crane rattled. I never heard anything like that before in my life except at fireworks displays and I knew it wasn’t the Fourth of July. Of course, everybody else in the shop thought it was the funniest thing in the world how I managed to jump a whole foot straight up in the air, but I failed to see the humor in it, at the time. Months later, when the next new guy beat my record, then I thought it was pretty funny.As for the model itself, it's molded in a light gray plastic and looks pretty good, but it does have flash on some of the smaller parts that will need to be trimmed away. Some of it is on the inside of the parts, so will take some finesse to remove. The decals are for three aircraft, one US Navy, one US Marine Corps and one French Navy. I'm looking forward to getting started on this aircraft as soon as I finish the one I'm working on now.Now that time has passed and we're into a new year, I thought I'd add these photos of the finished Crusader. I opted for the French livery because I found a reference photo of a Crusader bearing the same numbers doing a bolter off the Eisenhower during the same time period I was aboard her in '83. The only thing extra I did to the model was modify the Sidewinder missiles by adding extra fins behind the front fins so they'd more closely resemble the Matra Magic missiles used by the French.

it seems to be a good size not to small and workable have not put it together yet but soon will

This model aircraft is a 1/72 " scale by Chinese company Haswaga. The kit came molded in grey parts. Many of these parts to this kit were micro small which made it a real challenge to put together because I have big fingers. However, I've been a master at the craft of building model aircraft for years. I invested by painting the parts first by hand using acrylic paint. Using Elmer's brand craft glue and super glue work well when used sparingly. The final results are best observed by my photos. The F8 is a must for me and haven't seen these produced in die-cast yet. A very fun and accurate kit but need to pay special attention to instructions. Well worth the wait to add to my collection!

Great fitting model. No major issues,went together well.

Box was a tiny bit damaged but nothing was broken. It did come all the way from Japan so I’m not unhappy. Price was good

Looks like an excellent model

Decent kit of the F-8E fighter jet. I deducted one star due to problems with mounting the missile launchers. I'm an experienced model builder but the missile mount stumped me.