I have obtained the recently released Hasegawa 1/48 limited edition kit of the French Crusader in last flight markings from 1999. It was from Naval Squadron 10, I understand. This aircraft had the squadron insignia painted on the topside so large it covered at lest half the area of the upper plan view, including the wings. A duck in a sailor suit (no, not THAT duck) with a blunderbus over its shoulder. It’s gaudy, but quite attractive in a, well, very gaudy way.
My major problem is that Hasegawa’s paint callout says its overall color is No. 8 “Silver.” Well, I first imagined they probably meant a flat aluminum laquer if the box painting was in any way accurate. It also has long red stripes ending in arrowheads along the sides, and an unusually large area of black painted around and beneath the intake.
Finally, I located on a very obscure web page a tiny photo of this bird in a two-ship with a normally-painted squadron mate, but it was only a side view and from a distance, but in color. The “silver” looked a lot like light gray, but that could be sun. But this biuld, which I’d planned to do rather quckly and OOB, is sort of stuck on hold until I can find the overall fuselage color.
The gigantic insignia is offered in a typcially Hasegawa-thick, but nicely colored and registered decal that includes the stylized black background, and yet another without the background for those brave artists capable of freehanding the stylized background in large, black brush strokes. Not me, no sirree.
Anyway, I’d appreciate it if anyone could direct me to a clear color photo of this plane, or someone who knows something about how it was painted. I’ve learned never to trust any kit maker’s paint callouts. I have yet to find a company, no matter how good everything else about the model is, that gets the colors correct more than half the time. And no matter how much a kit costs, I’ve learned, it has nothing to do with whether you’ll get good., trustworthy painting suggestions.
Of course, if we didn’t have to reserch these things ourseles, half of the fun of modeling would be taken away, at least from me.
TOM
I won’t offer any received wisdom lest I start a wave of misinformation here, so you may judge for yourself as to what the color of the aircraft should be…
All images: unknown web
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