The F8F Bearcat has to be one of my favorite piston-engine airplanes, and I really want to find a good model kit to build one from. I’m looking for one in 1:48 scale, but Tamiya doesn’t seem to have one, and I’m not really familiar with any other manufacturers. Monogram and Revell are sort of “meh” makers in my opinion, so if anyone has heard of some other options, let me know!
Thanks.
Edit: Well, I searched on the squadron online store, and there seem to be kits from “Academy”, “Hobbycraft” and Testors. The only maker I’ve built from before is Testors, and I remember them as being pretty decent. The Testors kit also has an aftermarket details kit available for it…how good, I’m not sure. Man, that airplane rocks though. [:)]
There are several Bearcats available in 1/48 listed on Hannants website. One from Testors, one from Italeri, and two versions from Hobbycraft. Never having built a Bearcat I can’t vouch for any of the kits, but I think my own inclination would be towards Hobbycraft. Their versions are the F8F - 1 and -1B. The other two are F8F - 2’s.
Look at Great Models Webstore http://www.greatmodels.com/ search for f8f Bearcat and see what they have to offer. Some kits and a lot of aftermarket. I agree with Chris’ choice on manufacturer.
The Hobbycraft kits are probably the best 1/48 kits available. The Academy kits are re-boxed Hobbycraft with different decals. The Italeri kit is a re-box of the old Testors kit. The old Testors kit actually isn’t bad, may even be more accurate in outline than the Hobbycraft, but is sorely lacking in detail. Any AM Bearcat decal sheet will work on either kit.
I have the Testor kit in progress. It has been that way for a long time. It is a very basic kit, but there is a good after market PE set for it, cockpit, wheel wells and a little more. I also have a Super Scale decal set for it. I don’t know the availability of the decals.
I built this Testors 1/48 kit OOB many years ago for my Dad as he worked on them after the war at the Alameda Naval Air Station.
He always talked about how fast it climbed and it even outclimbed the P-38.
The Testors kit is a reboxing of the old Hawk offering. It’s a decent little kit with no real interior detail. The Hobbycraft kits are OK. Don’t know much about the Italeri offering. The aftermarket stuff for the Testor kit is good and adds a great deal to the build.
I have an old Hawk (Testors) F8F I was working one for a while. Scratch built the wheel wells and area behind the engine as well as detailed the main gear struts with the correct retraction actuators, knuckle locks and drag brace. I got frustrated with the wing root area and it’s just been sitting. Also wired the engine and added the cowling interior braces. One of these days! I picked up the Hobbycraft kit but I don’t like the look of the cowling. The old Hawk kits looks more correct. Too bad Tamiya or Hasegawa won’t release a new kit of it. I remember “Wild Bill” Fornoff and the aerobatic routine he did in the Bearcat before his untimely death in June of 1971.
I have to agree with this gentleman. I’ve been working on a kit for my squadron’s display case - it’s the only type aircraft that my unit has flown that is not represented. The Meteor Productions updates are GREAT! Plus the fact that I picked up one kit in Korea for about US $4.00 doesn’t hurt either!
Happy Modeling!
Didnt ESCI also have a 48th Bearcat as well (France/vietnam A/F)
Does anyone do the Tigercat?
I saw a mock dogfight between the 2 (bear and tigercat) at Duxford last month and boy, did thet tigercat look good!
There are both 1/72 and 1/48 Tigercats. The 1/72 is pretty basic, been around since the 70’s. The 1/48 is recent, but I’m not sure if it is in production.
For me the testors kit wasn’t bad, except for lack of interior detail, the kit fit together well and overall is a nice looking model if you don’t go looking for the detail… I did it before I really got back into the hobby full swing and I think I might do another one and order the detail kit… should be a real looker then…
There’s a review of the re-release Academy boxing over at ScaleWarbirds.com.http://www.scalewarbirds.com/ The newest version has new-mold sprues for 2 different variants, plus extra ordinance,!
In 1/72 scale, the old Monogram F7F and F8F kits aren’t too bad. In 1/48 scale I believe AMT produced an F7F and I also believe there was a resin AM kit which let you turn it into the night fighter version.
I just got my squadron.com supplement to the catalog yesterday… it has the Academy release in it… it comes with markings for the French Air Force as well as the Blue Angels… so if you were going to build it as a combat US plane you’d want some AM decals… it said it has a detailed exterior, wheel wells and engine compartment… So suspiciously I think an AM cockpit would be needed for this too… might want to check it out first online (reviews etc…) the kit was around 20.00 on squadron with the special reduction, the Revell kit is about 10 dollars or so… and unless I am totally mistaken both would need an AM cockpit to get the interior going… if you are gonna hang it or are not hung up on interiors… then I wouldnt even worry about it…
::hands shaking:: I gotta have my PE personally… [V]
I just looked at the review and although both kits are very similar, and the Academy kit offers a lot… But I think for me personally I would do the Revell kit over again with the AM cockpit… just my opinion… the exterior detail I saw int he review doesn’t quite mesh up to the Revell… of course maybe the Revell is overdone, but it’s what looks good to me that counts…
