Navairfan

Here’s another of my collection of F-8 Crusaders, this one the 1/48 Hasegawa kit. It represents a MiG-killing F-8E flown by one of the great characters of Naval Aviation, Commander Richard Bellinger, the commanding officer of VF-162. He's been described by those who knew him as being an open cockpit, scarf-in-the-wind type pilot in a jet age, a throw-back to an earlier time. I first read about him in Zalin Grant's excellent book, "Over The Beach', which describes the activities of the men of VF-162 and the squadrons' many Vietnam deployments aboard USS Oriskany. After being shot down himself, Bellinger devised a plan to ambush MiG's attempting to sneak up on A-4 Skyhawks after an air strike. On 10 October, 1966, with the help of his wingman, Lt. Dick Wyman (who later became a MiG-killer himself), he was able to avenge his shoot-down by bagging the Navy's first Mig-21 kill of the Vietnam War. Bellinger was was a hell-raiser, and could drink more than most thought humanly possible, but he had the respect of everyone aboard Oryskany. The captain overlooked Bellinger's sometimes-outrageous behavior because he knew his pilots would go through a wall for him. After reading 'Over The Beach', I committed myself to one day building his jet. The Hasegawa F-8 is the best 1/48 Crusader yet produced, but it’s not without its’ flaws. It’s more accurate and better detailed than the Monogram kit, but costs three times as much. The canopy and cockpit are much more accurately shaped than the Monogram kit, but the tops of the wings have raised bulges over the fold joints. These were not present on the real aircraft, so they must be sanded off. I used a Cutting Edge resin cockpit, and Aires resin gear wells. The Aires resin replacement gear wells are simply beautiful – extraordinarily detailed, and a drop-in fit. But I used the kit nose gear well, since its' resin replacement didn’t offer that much more improvement over the kit part. I scratch-built the boarding steps and ladder, and added brake and hydraulic lines to the main gear struts. In the cockpit, I added a flap handle and emergency canopy release to the instrument panel, a grab handle and standby compass on the windscreen bow, and added a canopy restraint strap, and used tissue to replicate the canvas cover over the hole in front of the gunsight. For markings, I used an Eduard sheet of Mig-killing Crusaders to portray 'Superheat 210'. As per my research, the jet carries a dissimilar weapons load of an AIM-9B and an AIM-9D, since there was a shortage of the newer sidewinders at that point in the war. It’s no contest winner, but it’s finished, and on the shelf!

Hi, Gil - what looks like a lap belt was my attempt to replicate a canopy restraint strap. According to my references, the strap was used to prevent the canopy from opening too hard on its' hinges. The strap was stored in a pouch just above the right side console, and was attached just befroe the pilot opened the canopy after shutdown. Here's a pic of the strap in use on a line of French Crusaders:

Here’s my attempt at backdating the 1/48 Monogram F-8E Crusader into a DF-8A drone controller/utility aircraft from the Naval Missile Center at Point Mugu, California during the late ’60′s-early ’70′s. The Crusader is my favorite aircraft, and while I had already built three F-8E's, I just had to have the earlier A version in my collection, and I've always been a fan of the Navy's colorful drone controller scheme. I started this project ten years ago, but shelved it when I realized how involved it really was, and that I lacked the proper references. I finally resumed the project last year. The kit used was the venerable Monogram 1/48 F-8E, and a few parts from the Cobra Company F-8 backdate set. Monogram’s Crusader makes a decent F-8E out of the box, but there are many minor - and a few major - changes you must make to any F-8E kit to backdate it to the earlier A version. I’m sure I missed some things, but here’s what I did: I removed and filled in the dorsal avionics ‘hump’ on top of the wing, filled in the holes and slots for the afterburner cooling scoops and ventral fins, installed a fuel dump vent on the rear port side, removed the ECM fairing from the vertical fin, and filled in the vents just behind the nose cone ( though I should have left the three vents on the right side!). The cockpit was a resin replacement from Black Box (but the insturment panel has a radar, which isn’t right for the A version). I used the main gear from the Cobra Company backdate set, along with the earlier spoked nose wheel. I also used the Cobra replacement nose cone, but heavily modified it. The hardest – and most crucial – part of the project was getting the shape of the earlier nose correct. Seen head-on, it’s more of a flattened oval. In profile, it’s almost flat on top, and slightly curved on the bottom. While nowhere near perfect, the shape I wound up with is at least in the ball park. The afterburner section on Monogram’s kit is incorrect – the burner nozzle is missing. I used a cut-down section of an old Monogram F-18 exhaust cone to replicate the nozzle. The antennas and pitot probe were taken from leftover parts from a Hasegawa A-4 Skyhawk kit. I also scratchbuilt the ejection face curtain pull rings, refueling probe light, tail hook, a canopy restraint strap, steps and a boarding ladder. I also added lots of plastic rod, scraps and wire to the main wheel wells to busy them up some. The decals came from several different sheets from my scrap box, with the Naval Missile Center markings courtesy of Mike Grant. Finally, many thanks to Tom Weinel, a former F-8 pilot, who provided me with the necessary information, photos and encouragement needed to do this conversion.

Glad to be a part of the IPMS forums! As you might have guessed from my nickname, I build only 1/48 scale US Navy and Marine Corps aircraft. I look forward to meeting others and seeing their work. I'll be posting some builds myself!