1/72 Academy F-8P Crusader

Gallery Article by PS on June 3 2011

 

This is my Academy F-8P (P for Prolongé which means prolonged) I built some years ago (December 2007) in the colors of one of the last flying Crusaders. This aircraft belonged to Flottille 12F from the French Navy based at Landivisiau.

During operation Trident 2 in the Adriatic sea, the night of february 25th, 1999 before her last launch from the Foch aircraft carrier, the crewmen decided to paint this special markings to celebrate the end of the long life of the Cruze in French service. She received a shark mouth in souvenir of the Vietnam years, Foch's insignia and 12F duck insignia but wearing a trident instead of a rifle.

I represented it as she appeared during the cloture celebrations of Flottille 12F in December 1999, retired after 35 years of active duty, with her red maintenance front landing gear and Magic II missile mock-ups (Unfortunately, I made 2 of them. I discovered later that it wore a training blue Magic missile on the port side. My mistake, I did not fix it yet...).

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I enhanced the kit using the Aires Martin Baker Mk F7 ejection seat, CMK cockpit and wheel wells. I think this last ones doesn't bring much to the kit. I added antennas such as GPS, low IFF and ILS that are missing from the Academy kit.

I used Gunze H42 for this all blue scheme.

I hope you liked it !

If you read french, the building process can be seen here : http://www.master194.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=26791

PS

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Photos and text © by PS