F-8E Crusader CRASH (Area 88)

The finished model:

In the manga:

As I said before, the F-8E Crusader is one of the most iconic planes featured in the Area 88 manga. It almost jumps off the page when it’s introduced in the first few pages of the first chapter, and appears in two more memorable chapters, the one where Boris and Shin fly in tandem with their wings folded [Chapter 002 (v01c02) “A Man Named Boris”], and the one where Shin gets shot down by a lucky shot from an Anti-Government Forces MiG-17 [Chapter 002 (v01c03) “The Endless Desert”], .

After he crash lands in the desert, Shin ends up walking back to the Area 88 base – thinking about how Kanzaki betrayed and tricked him into signing up as a mercenary to fight in the Asran Civil War. But what happened to the wreckage of Shin’s F-8E? After 40 years in the desert… that question can finally be answered!

The kit(s):

USN F-8E VF-162 “The Hunters” by Academy

The build:

Sometimes an old kit can get a new life through… death.

As I explained during my F-8E Crusader tandem build (SHIN + BORIS), I’ve been trying to build Shin’s Crusader for a long time. However it took me several tries to “get it right”. The first attempt was an utter disaster best left in the bin, and the second wasn’t much better, although it did make a valiant self-sacrifice as the proof-of-concept for this build. While the fourth attempt go re-purposed as Boris’ plane, and I finally achieved a reasonable amount of success with my fifth attempt… the third attempt was in limbo.

It was half-built… not bad… but not good enough to warrant a complete follow through. On the other hand, it was really too good just to chuck in the bin. However, while I was re-reading the manga chapters to make sure I hadn’t missed any important Crusader details, two things occurred to me. The first was that 2019 marked the 40th Anniversary of the debut of the Area 88 manga. Don’t worry if you missed that detail, there was basically no fanfare at all. But while I was thinking about that, it also occurred to me that, based on the rough timeline of the story, Shin was likely shot down in the Asranian desert in 1979 as well. Then I started to get the idea… “what if Shin’s F-8E Crusader was discovered after spending 40 years in the desert?”

Hmmm… Now there’s a plan… and I had just the willing victim as well.

The first thing I needed was a proof of concept, so I hacked up the already disassembled fuselage of attempt 2 and placed it in the rough shape of crash site. It looked do-able, so I got to work. First I sawed the already built F-8E fuselage into two main parts, separating them at the same point they are in the manga – at the beginning of the wing, just behind the cockpit. Then I used my soldering iron to poke some pretty massive bullet holes through some strategic spots – also doing my best to mirror the exchange depicted in the manga.

Since I already had a coat of aluminium paint on the main parts, I shined it up a bit with a micro-fibre cloth and then gave it a good coat of Future. After that I set about to do a series of hairspray chipping technique stages – one for the white, one for the grey and one for the blue. I’ve learned before not to give too many coats of paint over the hairspray or the chipping just doesn’t work. I also added a 2:! ratio of white paint (XF-2) to the blue (XF-5) to achieve a much more “faded under the desert sun” look to it. I then went back and tried to do a bit more chipping with the regular blue hue using the salt technique. The results were mixed, but I learned that the technique is harder than it looks – not too bad for a first time though.

After that I did a series of washes using black and sand coloured paint to add some texture to the beat up paint job. I also took some guilt pleasure in scratching the hell out of the inside of the clear canopy… MORE SCRATCHES!

Possibly the trickiest part though was the sand. I’ve used a paper-fibre clay called “Angel Clay” in the past, but I couldn’t find any available at my local store. So, instead, I used a similar product called “Candy Clay” but it was a bit trickier to work with. It seemed to try faster, so I had some trouble getting rid of finger prints and ridges during the application process. I used a bit of clear plastic with a “water” texture to try and press out the clay and give it a sand dune appearance. It worked out well enough but a) it was tough to do in the tight spots and b) due to some shrinkage during the application process, it cracked in a few places. I patched it up with a bit more clay, but it’ll have to do.

A final few decals – mainly to give it Shin’s distinctive “shark mouth”, and we’re all done.

For a kit that was mere centimetres away from the bin, I think it turned out, but feel free to lend me your comments below: