1/32 Trumpeter Grumman F8F-1 Bearcat

Gallery Article by Olivier Barles on Apr 3 2012

 

 

Here are a few images of my Grumman F8F-1 Bearcat in "Indochina War" French markings.

The cool thing with such a topic is that you can definitely go "rather deep" into the "aging / weathering processes"...

I would not comment on the accuracy of the Trumpeter kit.  It's not bad, the kit does exist at this scale and beside the fact that you have to control the blossoming of rivets holes everywhere (for ex. I had to fill them up with light putty at the half posterior part of the fuselage - as they did not look apparent as witnessed by all the pictures I could see), some extra work is also necessary to improve the cockpit, the engine, the anti-crash pylon (fully rebuilt), the undercarriage wells and the canopy (that had a nice molding line right in its middle!).

Then started the painting time with a first coat of Tamiya Silver spray and added on it, I applied a coat of zinchromate green, then a dark Navy blue.

 

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This Bearcat wears the markings of a F8F-1 flying in a reco squadron named "EROM 80" (Escadrille de Reconnaissance d'Outre-Mer), created for the Indochina War in the 50's.  Those planes were extensively used in very hard conditions, from remote airstrips where maintenance represented an everyday challenge.  Nevertheless, due to both its relative "conceptual simplicity" (the smallest and ruggedness plane around the biggest engine!) and its "easy" maintenance, not only the rate of available machines was usually quite high but the "Bearcat" became the pilots' favorite.

Climbing fast, highly maneuverable, taking well, forgiving enough, its only limitations were its high pressure tires which were not so well designed to resist dusty and stony airstrips (!) and its short range.

Then, before being eventually fixed in a compartment created at the tail of the fuselage, cameras were firstly set in a ventral extra tank, a rustic handy work that appeared to be well adapted in this "rugged environment".

To finish with the deco, I applied National and squadron insignias that were handmade when code letters and numbers came from the "extra stuff box"...

I wanted to represent this plane after a few weeks of intensive operations, not to say that after a few months, they usually looked much more "aged"!

Hope you'll enjoy the look of this fantastic aircraft in those markings...!

Merci,

Olivier Barles

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Photos and text © by Olivier Barles