This is my first Hobby Boss aircraft, and I was very impressed, fit is excellent, and the decals are the best I have ever had ( I have never bought after-market decals). A fairly simple kit with low parts count, but still not as simple as the inexpensive Tamiya kits.
One thing that surprised me was the opening between wheel bays and the fuselage in front of the cockpit, so that area needs to be painted.
This was my first try at mixing up a Navy Blue, and it did not come out very well. The color call-outs only list one manufacturer that makes a Navy Blue, which is Mr. Hobby color. They list nothing for Model Master, but I see now that they have an “5-N Navy Blue” acrylic. I have not had good luck with MM paints, but it would have been worth giving it a try.
I have always liked the blue paint scheme, and love the big radials. Tempted to buy this kit again and use the MM blue.
Fun kit, and an aircraft I fell in love with (one of many) many years ago at the Reno air races.
My favorite prop job. That stubby plane was pure brute power. MM enamels has your color FS15042 Gloss sea Blue. If you like the Bearcat then crank up the speakers and watch this:
Music to my ears, nothing on earth sounds like a radial!
As I recall, and this is from many years back at the races, the commentator stated that the Bearcat had one of the highest rates of climb of its era, and the pilot would almost always pull up hard in front of the stands.
I do not own a camera that will take a decent picture, but here are a couple of progress so far.
One without flash
This one with flash
At this point in a build I am always pondering whether to leave it clean, or weather it. Still have work to do, and I really need to take pictures of WIP as they point out things I just miss, like the fact that I did not get inside the fins of the bombs painted. Doh!
I do remember reading that the Bearcat was the smallest & lightest airframe ever built around the R-2800. The F7F had two of these engines. It could outclimb just about anything that wasn’t a jet.
Your Bearcat looks great! How long did it take you to finish it?
Not sure how long I have been working on it, probably 3 weeks or a bit more, but the final touches always take me some time. Still need to do some pin washing, and decide if, or how much, weathering I want to do before it is complete.
In the middle of Tamiya’s Fw 190 A-3, after that either AFV club F -5 , or Trumpeter’s Hawker Sea Fury (another big radial !). But determined to finish this Bearcat fist,
Couldn’t get a pin wash to work for my life on this kit. The recessed lines are very fine, so maybe that had an affect on it? None of the techniques I have used in the past worked. I finally had to go over it with a Flory wash to get any lines to come out, and typically the Flory washes come out a little too dirty for my tastes. Also tried some post-shading to try to fade the paint some, but not very satisfied.
Any tips for how to tone down the decals? Nothing seemed to stick to these, so even after some weathering attempts, the markings look pristine!
