Reviewed by Brett Green
 

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Cutting Edge's 1/48 scale F-8A/B/C/D/H/K/L Airframe Conversion for Hasegawa F-8E comprises just ten parts in the familiar grey resin.

This conversion addresses the smaller radar nose and different vents/details; plus the "humpless" spine on these versions.

The parts are beautifully cast with no imperfections on my review sample. However, as good as the parts looked, I wanted to see how well they fitted.

At first glance this looks like a major conversion. It does require the removal of the entire kit nose and the upper wing halves to be sliced off the centre section. This prospect will be a little frightening to many modellers, myself included!

However, I put my fears behind me, armed myself with a razor saw and started preparing the conversion parts for assembly.

The Nose Section

Preparation and assembly of the replacement nose is quite straightforward with a little time and care.

The join is along an engraved vertical line so cutting the kit nose is a simple matter of following the panel. The resin replacement parts must also be sawn off their casting block. Fortunately, the resin is thin at the point of release and the separation line is crisply engraved. Each of the four cuts took no more than 30 seconds.

Once the resin parts were free from their blocks, some excess resin was removed from the instrument coaming. I found it was easiest to slice this excess material off from inside the part using a sharp hobby knife.

I also removed the single locating pin on the inside of the nose cone, as it seemed to be more of an impediment than an alignment aid.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Do not join the resin nose halves yet!

It is absolutely essential for perfect alignment of the resin nose and the kit parts that each nose half is glued to each fuselage half before the fuselage is assembled.

I found that the subtle contours of the kit fuselage and the resin nose matched perfectly, but that some extra resin is cast on the bottom edge (ie, the bottom is moulded with extra width). This has presumably been done in favour of trimming rather than filling the bottom fuselage join. What it means, though, is that the resin nose must be lined up against the fuselage side, not the lower fuselage centreline.

Care is required when lining up the kit parts with the resin nose. There are no locating tabs (there is not much room left inside the fuselage once the intake and cockpit are installed), so the modeller will be entirely responsible for avoiding ridges and poor alignment.

I found that the parts fitted extremely well. The resin nose was secured with super glue, and the extra width was trimmed with a sanding stick while regularly testing the width.

I next fitted the intake ducting parts to the fuselage to confirm the width and check the fit of the fuselage halves. The ducting was almost a snap fit and, although the fit of the fuselage halves was tight, it looks very promising for a gap-free construction.

The Humpless Wing

Once again, the cuts take place along a panel line. This time the panel line is raised.

I scribed along the appropriate panel line, then sliced the front and back with a razor saw before snapping the wing halves off. The resin replacement centre section was easily removed from its casting block with a razor saw.

I decided to use the full-span lower wing as a assembly jig for the upper wing. I laid the port upper wing on the locating positions on the lower kit wing then added plastic clamps to hold the parts in place. The long locating tab on the resin centre section was slid under the clamped wing. Fit looked good. The starboard wing was then laid on top of the other locating tab, confirming that the fit was gap-free on the other side too.

This temporary assembly was then disassembled and super glue was applied to the tabs. Both wing halves were attached to the centre section while they rested on top of the lower wing, ensuring that the correct dihedral was set.

A small hump remains on top of the fuselage in front of the wing. This will need to be backfilled with putty or super glue, and cut off the top of the fuselage.

Considering the interesting and colourful options afforded by early Crusaders, Cutting Edge's 1/48 scale F-8A/B/C/D/H/K/L Airframe Conversion is very welcome indeed.

Although some cutting of the donor kit is required, the conversion parts are well engineered to help achieve perfect fit and an authentic replica of an early F-8 Crusader in a surprisingly short time.

This conversion will be ideal for modellers with some experience of working with resin parts.

Highly Recommended.

Thanks to Cutting Edge Modelworks for the preview information

Review Text and Images Copyright © 2003 by Brett Green
This Page Created on 03 March, 2003
Last updated 14 August, 2003

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