Bearcat

[Madoc]

Folks,

Number 2 out the door!  




I just wrapped up my Monogram 1/72nd Bearcat kit.  This was the second oob kit I've made since I got back into things.  It was also the first kit I painted using my new Aztec airbrush - and I now know I need more practice there!

I "enlivened" the model by repositioning its flight control surfaces - and I made sure to glue the cockpit's control stick into the proper position to match!  This was a simple model built pretty directly.  I'll be working on my plastic card boxing in skills in the future.  I gave that a try here to knock down the see through effect of the kit's naked wheel well, cockpit, and around its engine.  I opted for puttying the sides of the wheel wells and that took a long, long time.  I also used strips of plastic strip to depict the engine cowl flaps in their open position.

The cockpit came out better and I used the "use white plastic card for the panels so you can paint it black and then scratch off bits to make it look like instrument panel faces" trick to busy-up the cockpit.  A bit of black Sharpied paper served to blank out the engine.

The part which really pains me though was the decals.  The things were real difficult to get laid down as they curled up rope tight once off their backing.  After copious amounts of Micro Sol and Micro Set I did get them to lay down but then I got some silvering even with a Future base coat and top coat.

Oh well, at least she sure looks purty in her gloss sea blue!

I've got a page about my build of this Bearcat up on my site.  Here's the URL:

My F8F Bearcat kit

Madoc

[noxioux]

That's pretty cool madoc.  It's always nice to throw a couple of extra details.  When you're in the middle of it, scraping/sanding putty you think, "What the hell am I doing this for?",  until you're done and you have something that's a step or two above straight OOB.

I've had some problems with those monogram decals myself.  I usually try to smooth/gloss my surface up and then put a couple of coats of future down.  I found that if I brushed the future on with a soft brush, it worked better for me than spraying it.  I use a mix of future/water to set the decals (like 70% water 30% future), and then brush another coat of future on top.  On my F-16 FSW, I had several of the decals wrinkle up and die on me.  But on my other kits, this process worked perfectly.

I've found that if I take special care to make sure that the surface I'm putting the decal on is as smooth as possible, it really helps.  On that harrier I just did, I even went as far as polishing the thing with a quick pass of 2000 grit sandpaper, then a nice rubdown with a cotton t-shirt.  It helped out quite a bit, but I had to put a couple of extra coats of paint down to compensate for the extra sanding.  But no matter what, with any monogram kit I've done the stock decals on, I had to fight with it a little to get things to turn out right.

[The Rat]

[jmn] The tread on that tailwheel is naff. [/jmn]

Just kiddin' bud, she's luverly!  And I can appreciate a man who uses a Sharpie for detailing, mine is getting a workout too.

[John Howling Mouse]

What a great job, Madoc!  The angled flaps, etc. really make it come to life.
Your 1:72 seems better than my 1:48 Italeri version!

Keep it up!

 

[Captain Canada]

Looking good !

Beauty job for such a wee kit !

Would have looked even better in greys w/ RCN decals !

 

[Leigh]

Would have looked even better in greys w/ RCN decals !

Pay no attention to that Madman, she looks fantastic. Big donkey radials should only come in ONE colour Glossy sea Blue  

[NARSES2]

You've done one of my all time favourite airplanes justice - great job

Chris

[Tophe]

Thanks for celebrating this plane, not much described in books. My uncle flew it in Indochine (later Viet-Nam) in the 1950s, and I did not understand at first what plane he was talking about, my first aviation books (at that time) mentioning only the Grumman Wildcat/Hellcat/Tomcat.  

[NARSES2]

I've got a French one to build Tophe - Academy kit

[Patrick H]

Wonderfull Bearcat.
A thing I once tried is to use some carpolish to smooth the paintjob before decalling. Worked realy well on my White Falcon. Worked very well but I suspect this can only be done with glossy paintjobs.

[Tophe]

I've got a French one to build Tophe - Academy kit

Yes, great! I may try someday to buid (or draw) a twin-Bearcat, as a tribute to my late Uncle, with a what-if touch of mine...

[Madoc]

Folks,

Thanks for the compliments!

As part of my searching around for references I discovered the 1/72nd Sword kit of the Bearcat.  Scott Aken has a good write up of it over on Modeling Madness at this URL:

Sword F8F Bearcat

The Sword kit deals with the landing gear bay detailing problem by the simple expedient of featuring a single resin piece that fills the entire area.  It has all the ducting, wiring, and mechanicals on a well cast bit of resin.  They deal with the cockpit in much the same fashion.

This befits a more modern kit and even with the trimming and sanding of all that resin I think it'd be easier build than this little Monogram bird was.  Still though, I'm glad I went through the exercise.  Perhaps I'll acquire that Sword kit, finish it, and park the two of them side by side.

Anyway, thanks again for all the compliments and pointers.  I appreciate that folks.

Madoc

[Leigh]

You should see the price those Sword kits go for, I'm guessing they must be GREAT!

[NARSES2]

The Sword kit is a good one Madoc, but Monogram were always special in my opinion, In my early day's of modeling they were the creme de la creme. Then RIKO started importing the Japanese kits and we all know the rest.

Does anyone (Radish) remember BMW's in Wimbledon who had all those early Japanese kits and were the only place I knew where you could get transfer sheets ? Still have some of those old sheets, must be over 30 years old and still usable !

Chris

[Tophe]

I remember the way my uncle (and the whole French army?) pronounced BEArCAt: with the EA of weak, the CA of cast, and the French/Scottish r. I smiled knowing how (my English teachers said) US people pronounce Bear and Cat, but for BearCat, what-if my uncle was half right? Can a US friend confirm or deny?