Hasegawa 1/48 Vought F-8E Crusader |  | Background The Vought engineering team was brought together to address a new aircraft design in response to the Navy’s request for proposals. In September 1952, the Navy sought a fighter capable of Mach 1.2 at 30,000 feet, Mach 0.9 on the deck, a 25,000 foot-per-minute rate of climb and a landing speed of 100 knots. This new fighter would be armed with guns and missiles and must be highly maneuverable. Vought was competing against numerous other aircraft companies and their previous carrier fighter, the F7U Cutlass that was problematic at best. What emerged from the competition was the F8U-1 Crusader, and in fact the Navy selected a parallel Vought design to become their new photo-reconnaissance platform, the F8U-1P.  The first F8U flew in March 1955 and demonstrated its potential from the beginning, becoming the Navy’s first fighter to exceed Mach 1 in level flight. The aircraft was powered by the J57 engine (which also powered the F-100 Super Sabre, the Air Force’s first supersonic fighter). The F8U was developed around some interesting concepts. It was one of the first high-wing fighters and this wing was mounted atop a long fuselage that housed fuel and avionics. The combination of fuselage and wing fuel cells accommodated 1,300 gallons of fuel, giving the Crusader an un-refueled endurance of up to three hours. With this range capability together with its air-refueling probe, it was rare to see a Crusader with external fuel tanks. The landing gear was kept short to save weight, giving the Crusader a low stance on the tarmac, so low that the Crusader was not equipped with a centerline pylon.
In order to give the pilot visibility over the nose and to facilitate the 100 knot landing speed without dragging the tail on the deck (or runway), Vought used an innovative feature – a variable incidence wing. The wing could be raised seven degrees, allowing the wing to create more lift and drag for landing while allowing the pilot to have visibility of the approaching carrier deck. Without the raised wing, the Crusader’s landing speed was increased to 130 knots to avoid dragging the tail on touchdown. Re-designated as the F-8 in 1962, the F8U was an extremely capable dogfighter and in the skies of Vietnam, it lead the pack on MiG kills until its replacement, the F-4 Phantom II entered the theater. In the hands of the Marines, the Crusader also served as a viable close air support platform as well. It was probably the lessons learned in Crusader close air support that led to yet another famous Navy aircraft, the A-7 Corsair II. Like the A-4 Skyhawk, the F-8 Crusader served during the Navy’s colorful period and was adorned with some of the most beautiful squadron colors. The Kit Hasegawa has finally released their much-anticipated Vought F-8E Crusader kit in 1/48 scale. There was some initial confusion about this release as many folks knew that Hasegawa had also been distributing the Revell-Monogram (R-M) 1/48 Crusader in their box as well. Let the record show that this new kit, PT25, is a new-tool F-8 Crusader! The first thing you’ll notice is the large box – this is their usual box size for 1/32 scale aircraft! So what’s in the box? Five trees of crisply molded light gray styrene that feature a wealth of detail, plus an additional tree molded in clear that bear the windscreen, canopy, IR sensor, gun sight, as well as navigation and landing lights.  Okay, but what’s different between the Hasegawa and the original R-M kit? Well, I have good news and better news! The good news is that the R-M and Hasegawa fuselages match up almost perfectly. As you can see (the R-M fuselage half is the darker gray), fuselage and vertical fin align nicely, only the opening for the nose gear and the panel lines are significantly different. Oh yes, of course the Hasegawa panel lines are nicely scribed.
 What is significant about the fuselage alignments? That’s the better news – virtually all of the aftermarket products that have been produced for the R-M kit should work nicely with this new Hasegawa kit. This includes the C&H Aero RF-8 conversion as well as the F-8A/D conversion from Cobra Company. Since the vertical fin is also identical in shape, all of the decals that have been produced for the R-M kit will also work here.
 The only problem that I can find with this kit is with the installation of the canopy. The way that the fuselage is molded, the canopy drops beautifully into place, but it is not positionable. It is designed to be posed in the closed position only. This is a minor thing as I’m sure we’ll figure out how to overcome this ‘feature’ – after all, we’re modelers aren’t we? What fun would it be if someone actually produced a perfect kit?
If you’re like me, you probably have one or more of the R-M Crusader kits lying around with one or more aftermarket detail sets. What will you need for the Hasegawa kit? -
In typical Hasegawa fashion, the cockpit is usable out of the box, but would benefit from the resin cockpit detail set from Black Box or the soon-to-be-released set from Meteor Productions. -
One of the more interesting Crusader products released in the past was the engine bay detail set from High Flight to enable the wing to be raised. This set won’t be required as Hasegawa did a great job here. The wing can be posed up (take-off and landing) or down (normal flight or parked). -
The kit comes with a nice set of Zuni rocket launchers, but no Sidewinders (a common practice with Hasegawa – you need to buy their Missile Set). -
The wings feature separate leading edge slats, ailerons/flaps. No need for resin ones here. If you’re wanting to pose the aircraft parked however, you’ll need the KMC Crusader Detail Set so that you can fold the wings as the kit’s outboard wing panels are molded down and locked. -
If you want an F8U-1P (or RF-8) Photo Crusader, the C&H Aero conversion is a must! No-doubt that several companies will release a variety of products to enhance this new Hasegawa release. One that would be nice is a set to reflect the updates from the F-8E to the remanufactured F-8J, including the double-droop slats. Decals As I mentioned earlier, the numerous decal sets that have been released for the R-M kit will work fine with this kit. Nevertheless, companies like Eagle Strike are already turning out a variety of options for this kit. But what comes with the kit? Hasegawa has provided a huge sheet with markings for four aircraft: -
F-8E, BuNo 150326, VF-191, NM/00, USS Ticonderoga, as flown by CVW-17 CAG -
F-8E, BuNo 150926, VF-191, NM/101, USS Ticonderoga, as flown by VF-191’s skipper -
F-8E, BuNo 150909, VF-194, NM/400, USS Ticonderoga, as flown by CVW-17 CAG -
F-8E, BuNo 150927, VF-194, NM/401, USS Ticonderoga, as flown by VF-194’s skipper Conclusion This is a great release from Hasegawa and you can bet your bottom dollar that we’ll be seeing much more of this kit in the future with different decals and perhaps in different variants as well. Kudos to Hasegawa for a job well done! I purchased my kit from HobbyLink Japan as there seems to be a snag in US distribution at the moment. The US distributor, Marco Polo Imports, is undergoing a business reorganization and the only product line they currently acknowledge on their website is Dragon/DML. As of this writing, there are no US release dates yet for this kit. If you’re content to wait for the Crusader to coast onto store shelves, you’re much more patient than I.
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