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I've been sitting on this little lady for about 20 years, I dont even remember if I got it at a club meeting or at a yard sale.

The kits complete except for the decals, which if I remember correctly werent all that great to start with, and I think were some scale issues as well, but like I said its been so long ago I dont remember.

So heres the plan, I'm gonna shoe horn the ejection seats from the Monogram F-8 Crusader into the cockpit (i bought true details correct replacements for the Crusaders) and try to dress up its appearence some as I get to it. Markings are going to be USMC of course, lol, I think I'll have to piecemeal them though, I'll use the Monogram "E" version as an example to better illustrate the more visible areas and bomb load will be taken from various other Vietnam Era kits (center line tank, and a mix of 750 and 500 pounders).

I'm not trying to make a dead ringer for the Intruder, I know the kit has its issues, and due to its a age, probably MAJOR issues. But I want to build her up and see how it turns out.

I got started already by trimming the cockpit floor to better fit the Monogram ejection seats, and have started the basic steps for the seats assembly.

Hope I dont cause any undue spikes in anybodys blood pressure by dusting off this dinosaur.

Pictures to follow.

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Conversely, the Fujimi 1/72 A-6s are absolute gems. 25 years difference in sophistication.

always heard that the 1/72 kit was a fine kit, but let me just say that's putting it mildly! At the show in Indy last spring, I picked up a KA6 and the A6a, and was stunned! Some folks say the one from Italeri is better, but you couldn't prove that by me. Had Fujimi scaled that same kit upto 1/48th, I'd own a half dozen of them

gary

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Yep I've had the 1/72 ones and they are lovely, just wish there was a good source of an updated 1/48 A model. I'm not knocking the dated one even for all its issues, but I think doing what I plan to with mine it'll be a good exercise skills and patience. Who knows it might even turn out pretty good. :jaw-dropping:

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heres a question, would the Monogram E be easier to convert to an A?

The Monogram kit should be pretty easy to backdate as one of the options is an A-6A converted to an E. It has a seperate TRAM turret and dorsal scoop as well as a non-TRAM IP for an earlier E and the perferated speedbrakes. I'm not sure if the non-TRAM IP is correct for an A and there might be a few minor details that need to be adjusted, but it does cover the basics

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This is going to be very interesting. :thumbsup:

Sooooooo... where are the pics?

Jorge.

The Monogram kit should be pretty easy to backdate as one of the options is an A-6A converted to an E. It has a seperate TRAM turret and dorsal scoop as well as a non-TRAM IP for an earlier E and the perferated speedbrakes. I'm not sure if the non-TRAM IP is correct for an A and there might be a few minor details that need to be adjusted, but it does cover the basics

@ Jorge- I've cut two little pieces of plastic off of the kits cockpit floor and got the F8 seats clipped and trimmed, lol, pictures will follow eventually.

@muswp1- Thats the best information I've gotten so far, I might just pick up another "E" and build it as an "A". Thanks for the info

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I snagged a partially built Monogram E and I'm gonna covert it to an A

I think that would be a much better effort and probably easier on your sanity :)

I also had that Fujimi kit when it first came out but quickly got rid of it when Revell issued their Intruder kits. Yes they were not 'A' models but I figured I could do better at converting the Revell kit than try to build the Fujimi. I made a list of changes I would like to do on the Fujimi kit and I ran out of paper. I jest of course but the list was LONG.

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.. Had Fujimi scaled that same kit upto 1/48th, I'd own a half dozen of them

gary

I never understood Japanese marketing strategy. They had a gold mine in their 1/72 Intruder & could have easily sold hundreds of them had they upscaled them into 1/48 (after getting rid of their 1/50 one of course). Long before the Kinetic kits came along, Fujimi could have dominated the 1/48 Intruder market.

The same goes for their 1/72 Skyhawks. They are little gems. Fujimi could have made millions by releasing the various variants more frequently. Before Airfix's recent release, the Fujimi A-4B was in high demand & often fetched high prices. Their A-4Cs too. Had Fujimi shown as much interest in the 1/72 & 1/48 aircraft kits as much as they do their model cars, they would have dominated the market more...particularly if they had priced them at more reasonable prices.

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...particularly if they had priced them at more reasonable prices.

Blame the importers on that! I remember when their kits were more reasonably priced and then when they shot through the stratosphere and never came back down. Overnight (in the early 1990's no less!) I can remember watching their A-7's go from low-teens to around $40.00 when only the decal option was changed. We had one at our shop that sat for years because nobody wanted to pay the ridiculous price of it and I can't say as I blame them. We never ordered anymore Fujimi kits after that. But then again, right at about that same time...

Fujimi was doing great at pushing Hasegawa as far as competition went and then for some odd reason decided to totally back away from aircraft and that was about the end of seeing Hasegawa doing well detailed families of aircraft and when they started cutting back on the detail, the importers still charged stupid sums for them too!

Frankly, I think most major kits issued today (and within the last 15-20 years) are about 1/3rd higher in price than they really should be. Maybe if these manufacturers were really pulling out the stops to make the dang things as accurate as possible right out of the box by doing better research, instead of half-@$ing it as they've been doing. If definitely is not justifiable when you add the cost of after-market "fix-it" sets that add that much more to the cost of an already too-expensive of a kit.

Used to be that I might buy something with the thought that we'd probably never see another better one... but now it's almost worth it to keep waiting to see what else might come around a few years down the road... unfortunately the competition a few years down the road might not be any better either. I find myself doing more and more kit-bashing of multiple kits to get something half-way decent in shape... which just makes the MSRP of new kits inexcusable.

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Blame the importers on that! I remember when their kits were more reasonably priced and then when they shot through the stratosphere and never came back down. Overnight (in the early 1990's no less!) I can remember watching their A-7's go from low-teens to around $40.00 when only the decal option was changed. We had one at our shop that sat for years because nobody wanted to pay the ridiculous price of it and I can't say as I blame them. We never ordered anymore Fujimi kits after that. But then again, right at about that same time...

Fujimi was doing great at pushing Hasegawa as far as competition went and then for some odd reason decided to totally back away from aircraft and that was about the end of seeing Hasegawa doing well detailed families of aircraft and when they started cutting back on the detail, the importers still charged stupid sums for them too!

Frankly, I think most major kits issued today (and within the last 15-20 years) are about 1/3rd higher in price than they really should be. Maybe if these manufacturers were really pulling out the stops to make the dang things as accurate as possible right out of the box by doing better research, instead of half-@$ing it as they've been doing. If definitely is not justifiable when you add the cost of after-market "fix-it" sets that add that much more to the cost of an already too-expensive of a kit.

Used to be that I might buy something with the thought that we'd probably never see another better one... but now it's almost worth it to keep waiting to see what else might come around a few years down the road... unfortunately the competition a few years down the road might not be any better either. I find myself doing more and more kit-bashing of multiple kits to get something half-way decent in shape... which just makes the MSRP of new kits inexcusable.

great post! I'm from the letter "T" simply means an excuse to over charge anything (we know who). Now I'm a big Fujimi fan, and my first kit was one of their 1/48th BF109's. I think I now a half dozen. Yet I never knew just how good their 1/72 stuff was! Boy was that a mistake on my part. Now we watch Zvezda become the next Fujimi with what looks like Meng right on their tails. Plus another pair of companies that their names escape me (probably can't pronounce them anyway)

Had Fujimi simply scaled up their Phantom, Scooter, Corsair II, Intruder family, and Crusader; they would have became the benchmark for all the others to chase. Now the O.P. asked about the 1/50th Intruder boxing. I have the same boxing, and have compaired it with the Monogram and the Revell boxings. It started with a compairson to see how bad the molds had gone south over the years at Monogram, and tossed in the Fujimi for the fun of it. Accuracey wise the Monogram maybe a little better, but molding wise I like the Fujimi better for it quality & finess in quality. I don't see a lot that can't be fixed on the outside (neither kit is perfect). The only serious problem with the Fujimi will be in the cockpit, and with the canopy closed most will never know.

I prefer the 1/72 scale for modern jets (well I call an Intruder modern). My first Intruder was a Hasegawa. What a waste energy! Later I picked up an EA6b from Hasegawa, and kinda figure they took the designer from the first kit out back and shot him! I do like the Scooters from Hasegawa (1/48th), and Airfix the A4b (1/72). Can't lay my hands on a Fujimi for the life of me.

gary

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Gary, since it is now a case of searching out kits from them and paying pretty high prices,,,,,,,,a warning for you and your wallet

Don't seek out and pay a lot for the Fujimi Crusader,,,,,,it is not the same quality of kit as the Scooter, Intruders, etc, that you list,,,,,,,it is molded about 1/70 scale, and is just behind the old Revell 1/67 scale Crusader in quality

the budget choices for Crusader are Hasegawa, Revell, and Italeri, with the old Heller/Testors in the Medium spot, with the high quality kits being the Academy

I do agree with you, though,,,,Fujimi would have made a lot of you larger scale folks happy with upscaling some of their excellent 1/72 moldings

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Gary, since it is now a case of searching out kits from them and paying pretty high prices,,,,,,,,a warning for you and your wallet

Don't seek out and pay a lot for the Fujimi Crusader,,,,,,it is not the same quality of kit as the Scooter, Intruders, etc, that you list,,,,,,,it is molded about 1/70 scale, and is just behind the old Revell 1/67 scale Crusader in quality

the budget choices for Crusader are Hasegawa, Revell, and Italeri, with the old Heller/Testors in the Medium spot, with the high quality kits being the Academy

I do agree with you, though,,,,Fujimi would have made a lot of you larger scale folks happy with upscaling some of their excellent 1/72 moldings

I have a couple Academy Crusaders in 1/72 (just found a second one yesterday afternoon!). Are they accurate? I don't know for sure, but like the molding qualities. Honestly, I like the Airfix Scooter! Have a couple 1/48th Hasegawas, and they seem to be rather nice. Currently I'm eyeballing a 1/72nd scale F4b Phanton from Hasegawa. I have their F4e with IN. Nation Guard decales. One kit I'm working on right now that's really making me bug eyed is the Academy A37b!!! I finally moved it over to my fly tying bench for better magnifying. (why can't we get a 1/32 scale A37b???) Lastly I picked up an Italeri F100D awhile back. I like it much better than the Trumpeter f100's in 1/72 with the exception of the kit decales (I wanted to use them). They look like they've been preweathered with all their black streaks and crud all over them!

gary

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18 posts counting mine and no pics yet. I'm getting a little anxious so I have to ask:

Wheres-the-Beef1.jpg

Jorge. :woot.gif:

Theyre on the way I promise, I gotta splurge on few parts for the "E" from Revell, the previous owner didnt build the wings to my satisfaction, so I'm gonna re-do them

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Gary, one thing about the Academy Crusaders is that they made it a bit easier on us when converting them

they molded the top of the wing piece as a separate part, so we can swap the Muroc resin piece on there, or use the kit part to make an F-8H, before Academy and the two Muroc conversions, making an H was usually a huge compromise

if you make an H, then you have a part needed for the very earliest F-8E, once again, easy as pie, instead of having to sand away until you hit air on the wing hump and then filling back in

the way the Academy kit is molded, plus the Muroc sets, make everything from A to E, H, J, K, L and both F-8P possible, the 4 RF versions are more work, but, old Ventura parts with the Academy kit looks workable,,,,,,,I have only given that a quick glance, though, there may be pitfalls I didn't see in the RF work

I agree also with the Airfix Skyhawk comment,,,,as long as I have enough spare tanks, I am really happy with the rest of the kit, those few late lumps don't bother me,,,,,and they are handy to already have there if I need them

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Gary, one thing about the Academy Crusaders is that they made it a bit easier on us when converting them

they molded the top of the wing piece as a separate part, so we can swap the Muroc resin piece on there, or use the kit part to make an F-8H, before Academy and the two Muroc conversions, making an H was usually a huge compromise

if you make an H, then you have a part needed for the very earliest F-8E, once again, easy as pie, instead of having to sand away until you hit air on the wing hump and then filling back in

the way the Academy kit is molded, plus the Muroc sets, make everything from A to E, H, J, K, L and both F-8P possible, the 4 RF versions are more work, but, old Ventura parts with the Academy kit looks workable,,,,,,,I have only given that a quick glance, though, there may be pitfalls I didn't see in the RF work

I agree also with the Airfix Skyhawk comment,,,,as long as I have enough spare tanks, I am really happy with the rest of the kit, those few late lumps don't bother me,,,,,and they are handy to already have there if I need them

kinda hoping that Airfix adds an A4c to the mix! The Academy kits I have are the F8e and F8j. Like to find an RF8 kit in 1/72.

gary

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two options for RF-8

one, find one of the rather crudely cast Ventura conversions, long OOP

two, go to Falcon's website and order their vac conversion, still in production,,,,,,since Falcon's is a full fuselage deal, it may be better to use a Hasegawa or Revell kit for a donor kit

using the Ventura conversion in conjunction with a section of a Muroc A/B nose, on the Academy kit, you have enough small nose parts to build the RF-8A, one of the RF-8A with Ventral fins, the RF-8G and the RF-8G after SLEP (the only RF-8 with the AB scoops)

most 1/72 built-ups posted on the Web have the large nose and the AB scoops, even though they have Hi-Viz markings, so, they don't work too well as a reference to build by

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two options for RF-8

one, find one of the rather crudely cast Ventura conversions, long OOP

two, go to Falcon's website and order their vac conversion, still in production,,,,,,since Falcon's is a full fuselage deal, it may be better to use a Hasegawa or Revell kit for a donor kit

using the Ventura conversion in conjunction with a section of a Muroc A/B nose, on the Academy kit, you have enough small nose parts to build the RF-8A, one of the RF-8A with Ventral fins, the RF-8G and the RF-8G after SLEP (the only RF-8 with the AB scoops)

most 1/72 built-ups posted on the Web have the large nose and the AB scoops, even though they have Hi-Viz markings, so, they don't work too well as a reference to build by

Rex, RVHP also did a pretty nice resin conversion kit of a couple of different RF-8 variants. They can be had from time to time on eBay. I think I paid $16-17 for mine a few years back.
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