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BEARCAT FRANCHISE (Trumpeter F8F1+ Berna Decals)


Guest Martinnfb

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THanks for the pictures and for the correction tips. You've already done a great job !

 

I've started one a few years, also as a french Indo aircraft, but it has stalled when i've screwed the wings gun panels (have to put a lot of CA glue, sand it clean and rescribe) and when i noticed that with my Aires armor plate there is not enough room for the canopy in height (trumpy canopy is damn thick !). So i need to find a solution...

 

I dont have any evidence of that, but i've been told many times that the french bearcat cockpit were black and not interior green (i've painted mine interior green, and it was too late when i got the information).

Edited by Zero77
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Just came back from a camping trip, dirty and stinky trying to re civilize myself.

It  really is going to be a great build Martin. Cant wait to see some French DSB on her!

 

I really do love the Bearcat, as well as my favorite airframe of all time, its kissin cousin the F7F.  The Gulfhawks (in this case Gulfhawk 4 for the Bearcat version) were the brain child of retired naval aviator and air show pilot Al Williams. As head of the Gulf Oil Company's aviation department, Williams flew in military and civilian air shows around the country, performing precision aerobatics and dive-bombing maneuvers to promote military aviation during the interwar years in his Curtiss Gulfhawk (Gulfhawk 1) , later to be replaced by Gulfhawk 2 (an F3F) and later still, taking this to new heights replacing the F3F Gulfhawk 2 with a G-32A as Gulfhawk 3, and finally to its final iteration, an F8F-1 for Gulfhawk 4.

 

Quite a historical and renowned set of air-frames.

Thank you Brian I will try my best to not to disappoint you. Yeah Bearcats are very important connection link between the two ages of aviation.  but somewhat overshadowed by major names , like Spitfire, Mustang of 109. plus the following connected with their  civilian use quite impressive,

I would love to see them in action in Reno. As a European kid I have a weak spot for muscle cars, big engines and US approach to the aviation development that is not so crude ,like Russian, not so stolid , like German, not so conservative as like British, but SEXY as hell! :)

Bearcat is a prime example, raw power and ever-present streamlined Grumman styling.

Martin,

Very very nice build, and your attention to detail is inspiring. I really like your riveting work. A fix for the intake vents that worked well for me was to replicate them with sheet styrene using the kit halves as a pattern to create the whole piece, then cut out the kit parts and attach the replacements to the lower wing.

Cheers, Tom

Thank You Tom,

the rivets took a little while to fill, I only hope for more realistic look. Thanks for the trick about the intakes.I was contemplating use of resin putty in order to form the intakes. well I will keep you posted/BTW, nice build!

Cheers

M.

 

Martin,

 

You are doing GREAT!

 

The riveting is terrific and not easy I know.  :thumbsup:

 

You are really working it all out. Can't wait to see more! 

 

 

Teresa  :popcorn:

 

Hello Teresa, thank you for stopping by and thanks for the kind words. Yet there is so much to desire, especially more time for building. I have to admit that I am such a slacker. In order to save precious time i am cutting corners wherever I can. Consequently i have to backtrack and fix some errors.

Cheers

M. 

THanks for the pictures and for the correction tips. You've already done a great job !

 

I've started one a few years, also as a french Indo aircraft, but it has stalled when i've screwed the wings gun panels (have to put a lot of CA glue, sand it clean and rescribe) and when i noticed that with my Aires armor plate there is not enough room for the canopy in height (trumpy canopy is damn thick !). So i need to find a solution...

 

I dont have any evidence of that, but i've been told many times that the french bearcat cockpit were black and not interior green (i've painted mine interior green, and it was too late when i got the information).

Hello Zero,

Thank You for the input. You are completely right , whatever you could see from the outside was black. Very little was actually left in zinc chromate (stick, floorboards, etc..)

Also the gear bay and color of the rims are interesting items for discussion.

The wing are still giving me a hard time, even without rivets, the plastic is somewhat too brittle and fun to rescibe, also there are places with missing panels.

The Aries sets are nice, but little too expensive for me right now, so i will try to refurbish my scratch-building skills, let us hope for the best :).

 

Thanks to all of you my friends, I wil get back to work as soon as I can reorganize my stuff after few days of camping.

 

Me :)

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No problem for you to not have the aires cockpit, i think your scratch build is even more detailed !

Indeed, this aires cockpit was a bit disapointing for me compared to their other productions, it does not bring a lot extra details, yours is much better detailed in my opinion. And so you wont encounter my canopy issue !

 

Good luck and keep it coming !

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Thanks Zero,

there is a more progress from yesterday. And yes, I am home again with busted shoulder. :( That was the reason why I could spare some time over plastic silliness .

I pull out a brush and here is the result. The drybrush is bit of a overkill, but it's gonna be all enclosed in the darkness, so  NO DRAMA :) Wait, there was some additional work done to it, like piping around the slinkies and microphone cable, new vacuum hose on the right panel, crank with canopy opening mechanism and stuff :).

Also I learn how to say the word "seal" in French, when I coated the wings with a silver paint and realized the carnage of imperfection.

 

bear007_zpsdff93b77.jpgbear006_zpsc9c78532.jpgbear003_zps1569ac03.jpgcats_zps3f945bf8.jpg

Edited by Martinnfb
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Ab so Woot wei bwew ti ful Work Martin!  It's un bra reavable!    I think the dry brushing is going to look just about right once its all closed up. Very nice work on all of the cockpit details.   :)  Keep it up! This is the kind of model  where you can tell the builder is actually having a blast doing it, unless you have us all fooled, and I don't think that's the case.

  Paul

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You are so right Paul, I do like the subject and I do not have to face cruelty of crazy fabrications as it is the case of the Mig -17 case...what?

Anyways, I had a few picoseconds to spare.So I finished the cowl ring, by addition of 1mm half-round strip in order to restore the proper diameter of the opening and the fine round lip.

Also I started filling gaps and imperfections on the surface after  the fuse. was fused :),hm, miso linguistically gifted :)

picture time (lousy ones as usually)

 

bear008_zps7f72efda.jpgbear009_zps39fd727a.jpg

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Also guys I need a bit of help here. The belly area just above the center drop tank is basically non existing on the kit. I do not have any proper drawings of the B-1 version, and to my knowledge there are only 2 relatively unmolested B-1 examples (Thai and US based). If anybody has any pictures of this area , please help.  The idea is get as close to the real look of this plane as possible, so minimalistic rivet detail, bit f a distress skin and correct inspections covers and paneling.

And then beat the hell out of it as is apparent on the photographs from Indochina.

 

Merci beau coup cop in advance :)

 

aca3a78b426f43cef435a6019371ea09de41a637

Edited by Martinnfb
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Martin, here is what i was able to find that may or  may not be helpful.. lots of great detail shots though!  hopefully some of it will be useful to you.

Paul

 

http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2010/12/f8f-bearcat-1-vs-2.html

 

http://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft/f8f/f8f_walk.shtml

 

http://2g.pantip.com/cafe/gallery/topic/G6318751/G6318751.html

 

http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/mark_hayward/f8f-2p_bearcat/  This is a 2P but still you can see the panels I think you need to.

 

http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/luc_colin/f8f-2p_walk.htm            Also a 2P

 

http://www.echo-models.net/PhotoWalkBearcat.htm

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thank You so much Paul,

 I had all of those bookmarked already, the most helpful was the first one, that deals with the deference between 1 and 2.

F8F-1+oil+cooler+vents.jpg

 

This is the closest I've got with it. :(

M.

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