Grumman F8F-1b by Academy in 1/48.
Supplied from U.S.Navy stocks, these Bearcats saw combat service with the Armee de l'Air in what used to be French Indo-China from 1951. This model is the Academy kit, which came out around 2004, which is when I built it. This is essentially out of the box in most respects, except for one major after market part - the engine cowling, which I feel is poorly represented in the kit, so I used a resin substitute. Even though it is so long in the tooth it is still one of my favourites (how can you not like Grumman fighters?) so I dusted it off & re-worked some of the weathering for the camera. Hope you like it.
Nice looking Bearcat Tony…….I really like the finish and weathering you achieved.
Can't beat a Bearcat for clean, functional lines. Did you use pastels on the weathering. Looks very good.
Thanks Al.
Mostly I used pastels. The chipping was silver pencil. I also used a thinned out matt clear with a touch of "dust colour" as a final finish.
Very nice in this scale, Tony.
Very nice Tony. Stunning weathering. Well done!
Good looking Bearcat Tony. Excellent weathering
lovely patina
I concur with the masses, Tony...good-lookin' build.
Good looking Bearcat with a great finish. Like the alternative markings too!
Looks very realistic from photos of those planes when they were used by the French. The kit is actually the Hobbycraft Bearcat - as with most everything else, Academy took that one and released it. (Many differing accounts of how this happened, but most seem to agree Hobbycraft ran out of money and the Koreans who did the molding, who run Academy, took them over for non-payment).
Beautiful model of one of my favourite aircraft.
Nice Bearcat Tony, I like the weathering , spot on.
Well done sir.
Ten years old and still looking good!
Tom, I wondered what happened to Hobbycraft. They just seemed to vanish, or something. Nice basic kits, though their decals early on were butkus.
Easier to add details, than to remove wrong ones.
A very nice Bearcat, Tony, weathering looks spot on !
From time to time the veterans need some TLC, that goes for mine too.
This aircraft looks a bit "odd" on its thin legs but from every angle powerful.
Well done !
Very nice Tony! One of my favorite prop-driven fighters of all time. It's too bad that "time" caught up with it though...