F8F Bearcat

by Rick Cotton

I’ve always liked the looks of the Bearcat.

Its wide-track gear, huge engine and prop, its clean lines. It is a real testosterone-pumping “hot rod”. When I came across a 1/32 scale Combat Models vac kit at a show awhile back, well, I couldn’t resist! Here’s the result:

The panel lines on the Combat kit were soft and indistinct, so I filled and rescribed them. The engine is from a Revell P-47D, with a Teknics late-model crankcase and scratchbuilt wiring harness.The prop is a reshaped number from the same P-47D kit. The drop tank is also from the P-47, but with much sanding and reshaping.

The gear struts are from Roberts Model,and the wheels and diamond-tread tires are from a Hasegawa F6F. The tailwheel assembly was reworked from a Monogram P-51D. The cockpit was mostly scratchbuilt, but with True Details photoetched buckles added. The windshield was made from the F6F unit, but reshaped to fit, and the decals were all drawn in AutoCad and printed on an Alps printer.

The color scheme is overall Testors Modelmaster Dark Sea Blue, with 3 coats of Future on top of it all.

The antenna wire is 1 lb. test Fly fishing line.

Click on the thumbnails to enlarge.
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Model, Text and Images Copyright © 2002 by Rick Cotton
Page Created 18 January, 2002
Last Updated 18 January, 2002

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