Magua87

As I'm keen to put cement to styrene I've made an executive decision and will model this as a 1B .

Here are two more poor quality images of my progress to date. I've given the aircraft a panel line wash with Tamiya brown (can't see it in these shots). I've applied a Microscale flat coat and have done some exhaust weathering. The canopy came out well, with no glue marks. Those are the propellers sticking out of the blue tac. I munted the spinner when I removed it from the casting block. I was overzealous in my sanding, so now I'm building up the base with some squadron putty.

Thanks all for the info. I think I'm looking at building a F8F-1B. This appears to be the same aircraft I'm looking to model. http://www.master194.com/maquettes/badger150/bearcat/index4.htm Any French speakers who could translate the below? http://www.master194.com/maquettes/badger150/bearcat/images/deco1.jpg

Progress. Excuse the poor lighting and cellphone quality image. I'll snap some better photos when it's ready for the gallery. I realised that my Xtradecal sheet of white lettering was lettering only and didn't have any numbers; so the 1 in OK-1 is an I. I might rectify that with a touch of white paint before I wrap up the build.

Does anyone (Troy?) know if the non slip walkways along the wing root were standard for certain marks of hurricane? I've seen aircraft with and without. My hasegawa mk1 doesn't come with any on the decal sheet.

Beautiful work.

No luck yet, Stew. I have a squadron commander's pennant that I might look to modify. It won't be right, but it will be close enough.

Touch ups completed and standing on her own legs with a gloss coat, waiting for decals. I peeled back a piece of the canopy mask to see if the canopy was clear following spraying. I noticed I had forgotten to paint the gun sight! Whipped off the canopy (thank god for PVA glue), hit the sight with some matt black and back on it went. A bit more PVA to fill in the gaps, a touch of paint, and it's looking good. Should blend right in again when I give it a final satin or flat finish.

Welcome, Hans. Good choice of aircraft. Looking forward to seeing this take shape.

I'm building a Monogram 1/72 Bearcat for the Vietnam II group build. I've decided on the aircraft below, flown by the second in command of GC 1/9 "Limousin". Do we have any French Bearcat experts in the room? I'm trying to determine the model of this aircraft before I close the wings together. The decal sheet is the Berna sheet for the F8F-1 Bearcat in Indochina. A bit of research shows that Limousin group flew F8F-1Bs, though I'm not sure if that was exclusive. http://avions-de-la-guerre-d-algerie.over-blog.com/article-grumman-f8f-bearcat-francais-121043614.html

Before I close the wings I need to determine if my chosen aircraft is a F8F-1 or F8F-1B, the B variant being canon armed with barrels extending beyond the wings. I'm running with the aircraft of the second in command of GC 1/9 Limousin as pictured above. Through the link below it looks like "Limousin" flew the 1B, but without identifying my aircraft I can't be sure. Do we have any French Bearcat experts in the room? http://avions-de-la-guerre-d-algerie.over-blog.com/article-grumman-f8f-bearcat-francais-121043614.html

Looking good, Patrice. I especially like the shading of the camouflage.

Sounds like just the book I'm looking for. Slow start, but we're gathering pace. Lots of dry fitting to see where I'm going to have any issues with fit. I'll need to box in the undercarriage bays; I'll try and tackle that this weekend. The PE for the cockpit is coming along, but it's not an easy exercise as to dry fit anything as I need to close both sides of the fuselage around the wings without all the little bits falling out of place. Think I'll bang it all together and attack it with sandpaper if it doesn't fit. I've experimented with re-scribing two panel lines on the underside of the wing. It looks the part, but I think I'm going to try and preserve the raised detail. If any is lost in the build I may have to reassess. Photos to follow when I've actually put glue to styrene.

Green paint applied for Hurricane camouflage pattern B. I've got some minor touch ups to make with a brush, but it's come out well. Thanks to Troy for his help in identifying the scheme. We've just ticked over into daylight savings in NZ, so I'll be able to use the airbrush during the week after work, which should speed things up.

I've been making slow progress on this build. I painted the underside of the aircraft at the beginning of the month, but lost my mojo trying to frame the canopy with a home made mask (Tamiya tape and a sharp knife). I kicked it into gear yesterday and finished the mask (good Friday night!). I sprayed the Dark Earth today (Gunze H72) and a few hours later masked off all the brown areas so I can get back to spraying tomorrow. I'll be spraying Gunze H330; I'm running with the colours specified in the kit instructions (except for the underside, which was sprayed with Tamiya XF-21). I've been reading a fair bit on scale fade, but decided against giving it a go on this kit as I had already sprayed the underside of the aircraft. Thinking I might grab an Airfix Spitfire or Hurricane for a quick build to experiment with at a later date. My quickboost de Havilland Propellor has arrived and so has my BoB markings from Xtradecal. Onwards and upwards with this build!

My contribution to this group build is a French Air Force Bearcat. I've acquired an original Monogram kit locally and some Airwaves PE and Berna Decals from Hannants. I visited Vietnam last year shortly after the 60th anniversary of the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu by the Viet Minh. I didn't know a lot about the wars in Vietnam and on many of the long bus and train trips around the country I read a lot about the French attempt to reassert themselves and America's support for the French (I read an excellent account on my phone on the development American policy in Vietnam and their support for the French, but can't seem to find it anywhere now!). So I've decided to build a French machine from the First Indochina War. I've seen some great builds of French Bearcats flown against the Viet Minh and thought I'd give it a go! This will be a baptism of fire in weathering for me. I'm not sure which aircraft I'm going to attempt from the sheet. I might start googling serials to see if I can find some aircraft specific resources. This has been a great starting point. https://wwiiafterwwii.wordpress.com/2015/07/22/f8f-bearcat-post-wwii-service/

The filler comes in everywhere! It was quite an enjoyable build regardless. If you like the NF meteors grab one. The Xtrakit boxing has newer decals. However, if you find a matchbox original and aren't keen on the decals you can grab a Modeldecal sheet from Hannants, which will include stencils and some interesting schemes.

The Xtrakit is a re-boxing of the Matchbox night-fighter meteor in a single colour with new decals. This kit eats filler and has taken me quite a while to build with plenty of sanding sessions! However, I'm very happy with the final result. Paints are Tamiya XF-83 Medium Sea Gray and Gunze H330 Dark Green. This is my British first jet since reading James Hamilton-Paterson's Empire of the Clouds, but certainly won't be the last. The stash is bursting with Cold War British jets. I've got an original Matchbox issue of the same kit in the stash which I hope to get started on in a few months with the upcoming Meteor group build. With a Modeldecal sheet and some Airwaves PE I should be able to build a nice NF14. With my winter project complete it's time to focus on my current group build entries!

Much appreciated again!

Another question for you, Troy. Can you tell from the photo above which camouflage pattern OK1 flew with? Any idea if it was standard? I've been comparing against the two camouflage schemes in the painting instructions for my Mk1 Hasegawa kit and haven't been able to square it with either.

Looking good. Is this the old tool Lancaster? Did you add anything to the cockpit or is it out of the box?

Looking good, Patrice. Did you tone down the fabric effect on the fuselage?

So close! Looks to have the squadron symbol I will need. Thanks for the offer, Learstang. I think if I grab the Berna decals I'll just need to find some lettering for the "13". Any ideas on a set to match the style?

I've been given an Airfix B.1/III by my girlfriend's father. It's an old tool kit with raised panel lines, but it looks the part. As I've got a Hasegawa kit in the stash I thought I might try an interesting scheme for the old tool Airfix kit. New Zealand has one Lancaster in an aviation museum at MOTAT in Auckland. NX655 a Mk VII was built too late to participate in the war and was put into storage. It was later refurbished and joined the Aeronavale to support the Western Union as WU-13. It is this aircraft that I would like to depict with my Airfix kit. This aircraft was donated to the people of New Zealand and is now depicted as "The Captain's Fancy" of 75 Squadron (NZ) of the RAF and is what I'll probably model with my Hasegawa kit. According to this link the French aircraft were "Somewhat modified" and carried out out air-sea rescue, surveillance flights, and other duties around the Pacific. I was wondering if anyone knew what "somewhat modified" looks like? For example, I know the aircraft had no upper turret, but I don't know much else. These are some of the reference photos I have of WU-13. I can see no armament, but I don't know if the guns were removed from the turrets for delivery or if the aircraft flew with the Aeronavale without any. http://nzcivair.blogspot.co.nz/2013/08/some-more-pics-of-wu13.html http://s189.photobucket.com/user/nzav8a/media/WU-13s.jpg.html And here she is at MOTAT with the turret armament in her Aeronavale colours. http://motataircraft.blogspot.co.nz/2007/12/lancaster.html If anyone has any references for Aeronavale Lancasters I would very much appreciate your input!

The sanded fuselage is looking pretty good. I think I'm going to have to break out the sandpaper for my build.