Cutting Edge 1/48
F-8 Crusader Seamless Intake

That Intake

Cutting Edge has been really stepped up their line of seamless intakes and this release is one of their latest masterpieces. Designed for the Hasegawa's 1/48 F-8 Crusader kit, this set provides a new intake and duct, new J57 engine compressor face and new nosegear well. While the nosegear well walls and engine face are molded in gray resin, the duct is molded in white to save you a step or two as you'd otherwise have to paint the duct yourself.

In order to make the entire inlet seamless, and because the nose of the Crusader is quite busy in the Hasegawa kit, Cutting Edge replaced the inlet by replacing the entire intake and chin area.

Those of you who've poked around the kit know that the bottom of one section of the intake trunk also serves as the top of the nosegear well. Because the kit intake trunk was completely replaced, Cutting Edge has also replicated the top of the nosegear well on their intake trunk as well. The gray resin nosegear well walls replace the kit's parts.

I was surprised to see how many aftermarket detail sets for the Monogram 1/48 F-8 Crusader kit(s) were drop-in fits for the Hasegawa kit as well. While Cutting Edge doesn't recommend this, I wouldn't be surprised if this set would also work with the Monogram kit as well with a little care.

As I mentioned earlier, installation requires you to make two cuts along panel/contour lines on each fuselage half. From there, the intake set is a drop-in conversion. You can see in the image to the right how well that clean intake looks down the throat and into the face of the J57 compressor.

Conclusions

This is a nice enhancement to any of the Hasegawa 1/48 F-8 Crusader kits and will ease your workload if you've been dreading the prospect of filling and painting inside that long intake trunk.

Definitely recommended!

My sincere thanks to Meteor Productions for this review sample!