Revell/Monogram Crusader (what does it need?)

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

I have a 1/48 Revell F8 crusader (yes, I wish it was the Hasegawa) that I plan to build. I am wondering if anyone has built this and can recommend what is really needed to build it into an extra nice model? I see a lot of aftermarket stuff for the hase and havent found any (yet) for the Revell. I do plan to sand off the raised panel lines and scribe the lines btw.

Chris

2

I built this one late last year.

This kit is pretty easy to build. although the instructions may leave you flabbergasted at least at one point. There is one part that is not referenced anywhere, and I very nearly overlooked it - until I got to the point of dry-fitting the fuselage together and realized that I should not be able to see the cockpit tub through the air intake. There is a piece that forms the upper half of the air intake tube that the instructions do not include.

The only after-market release I recall finding for this kit was metal landing gear. I opted to use the kit parts, but keep in mind that the struts are not quite right and this results in a model that sits way too low to the ground. I found all kinds of detail sets for the Hasegawa kit (yeah, I’d love to build that one some day). I really did want to depict my Crusader with the wing structure elevated but did not want to risk the detail sets intended for the Hasegawa not fitting my Monogram (Revell).

Having said that, it does build up pretty good.

I used the kit decals, which were good for the most part, and I did not sand off the raised panel lines.

Good luck on your Crusader.

3

It builds up nice enough OOB. Rescribing addresses the raised panel lines that some folks don’t like. You can dress up the wing fold and variable incidence areas, if you feel so inclined. And replace the kit AIM-9s with some proper D versions, if you’re planning a Vietnam Crusader.

The only AM items that I recall for this kit were some items by Cobra Company.

4

I finished this one back in 2010

5

I just finished this one for the the shelf of doom build, it was sitting around 98% done for like 15 years. I didn’t add any AM nor did I remove the raised panel lines, actually I worked on it so long ago I didn’t know any better about raised panel lines.

I did add a small plug in the landing gear strut to extend the gear downwards so I could raise the back end.

John

6

Thanks for the replies guys. The only aftermarket I can find for this plane is the metal landing gear, which I do not want anyway. I did find a nice looking resin pilot/ejection seat but it does not reference a particular model so I am a little scared to buy it and find it does not fit.

Aggieman, that is one super paint job btw

Chris

7

The kit seat is pretty nice, much better than many other kit seats. The plug in the rear gear to adjust the stance is one of the few actual gigs that the kit has.

8

This is one of my favorite kits of all time. Its inexspensive and looks good when done. I kid you not, the first one I built was in 1988 when the kit was first introduced, and I still have about a dozen in the stash to this day. There are a few things that can be done to it to make it look better.

  1. Thin down the ass end of the fuselage (from the inside) by the afterburner nozzle. It presents a better scale apperance.

  1. Same area, remove the aft-most mounting ridge for the afterburner nozzle (left fuselage half). That ridge causes the nozzle to stick out from the fuselage, which is incorrect for the F-8. Use the other mounting ridge to mount the nozzle once you removed, and it will be correctly flush with the fuselage (right fuselage half).

  1. Thin down the exterior around the opening of the nozzle itself for better scale apperance.

  1. Thin down the trailing edge of the tail on both fuselage halves. You can see where I sanded by the area that says “VF-24”

Aftermarket-wise, Eduard does a exterior PE set for it, KMC used to have a resin cockpit set, which I think is now marketed under the Squadron “True Details” line. I don’t recall who produced it, but there is a resin raised wing center section, and resin LE/TE flap set.

C&H Aero Miniatures used to produce a RF-8A/G resin conversion set about 15 years ago.




Aeromaster printed around 8 different F-8 sheets, and Furball Aero Design 48-007 is an F-8 MiG killer sheet sized for the Hasegawa kit, so some of the decals for the tail and ventral fins may not work on a Monogram kit.

Hope this helps. I know thre are a few things that are escaping my memory right now, will post when I remember.

9

You da man

10

Thanks for the great post Ish47guy! I havent looked for decals but I have for resin stuff and have not found any yet. Sure would like to have that resin kit to raise the variable incidence wing up!! Chris

11

I didn’t see anyone mention it, but the seat that comes in the kit is a GRU-7, which is good for a Tomcat and Intruder, but not so much for the Crusader. You need a Martin-Baker Mk. 5. If you can’t find one of those, you could use a Mk. 7 to at least get close.

12

My fellow New Yorker DRob brought up a good point. I stopped using the kit pit decades ago, and forgot about the seat issue.

Another area could use attention is the tailplane mounting point. Its overdone, its not that big on the real airplane as you can see in the pics below.

Rather than try to modify the mounting point on the fuselage, I just shimmed the stabs with sheet styrene.

If you look close, you can see the space between the stabs and the fuselage caused by the oversize mount.

13

I recently bought the Lone Star Models/Cobra Company set for the Monogram Crusader. It has parts to backdate it to an F-8A through F-8D, a raised wing with separate leading edges and flaps, and metal gear with a corrected stance. Don’t build many jets but looking forward to using it someday.

14

I went digging through my photos and came across this pic I took of the Eduard PE set for it.

15

Cannot find that anywhere. Eduard says that it is discontinued. Other than some metal landing gear and ‘maybe’ wheels, I am beginning to think there is no aftermarket left on the market for this kit. sigh [:(] I may gamble on one of those generic seats since learning on this post that the kit seat is wrong.

Chirs

16

Hey! That real stabilator has raised panel lines!!! And look at those rivets on the fuselage…

Everyone knows that that is not accurate… [;)]

17

Send Mike an email at LSM re: the Cobra set. I bought mine in December. He just rotates what’s listed on the website.

Check model shows and eBay for older aftermarket. It’s out there!

18

I had never thought of that. I will certainly do it. Thanks!

19

If anyone is interested, lone Star models has the upgrade kit back on their website for the revell f-8

20

Great job on that, Stik!

I remember reading an account of where a pilot forgot to lower the wingtips on his Crusader, taxied out and took off, flew around for awhile, and then landed without realizing that the tips were still up. Said the plane wasn’t handling as it should, but didn’t think too much about it. Wish I could remember where I read that. Might be somewhere on the Internet.