Part 2: The Build

I have to say at the outset of this build that I never realized just what a small aircraft the Bearcat truly was. Considering it uses the same power plant as the monstrous P-47, and weighing in at about half, it's no surprise the F-8F holds the piston engine worlds record for fastest time from brake release to 10,000 ft, a most impressive performance envelope. In any case, on to the build. Trumpeter can be counted for offering you very detailed engines where 50 parts are required. While this looks nice, 5 parts would have done just as well; unless you elect to leave the supplied clear cowling unpainted, very little is visible except the very front of the engine itself. The engine is a kit in and of itself, and took the most amount of time to assemble. Once completed, the engine was cemented to the firewall, and the cowling was test fitted. When the prop was added to the test, the trailing edge of the blades were rubbing on the cowl ring, so disassembly followed, in order to add a 3/32nd inch spacer between the banks of cylinders. This corrected the props clearance issue, but created another problem with the exhaust stacks on the rear of the engine. Long story short, I wound up cutting most of them off short (you can't see them anyway) and adding hollow tubing for the stacks themselves (see photos). Note that the kit has 5 exhaust stacks, but the late dash ones and all dash twos had only 3 larger stacks. The other late dash one mod was the addition of a rollover device on the aft turtledeck. This piece is included in the kit, but no mention of it in the plans. There is also included a complete radio compartment with racks, boxes and the like that when installed, disappears totally!

In the cockpit area, the instrument panel is quite nice in the P.E. photo film sandwich fashion that is excellent when completed. The side consoles are a multiple piece affair (the parts count) that looks fine when assembled and painted. The cockpit opening is quite small, but the detail that can be seen is good. The kit offers photoetch belts and buckles, but I had a spare set of Eduard pre-painted belts that I felt added a little more to the front office.

I elected to leave the supercharger bays open and one set of gunbays, if for no other reason than to add interest in a rather monotonous all dark sea blue aircraft … also the reason I chose to use the N.A.S. Akron reserve decals, adding a little more color to the program with the orange Reserve band.

After the fuselage halves were joined, the seams of course required sanding and let me pass this along as a very handy suggestion. Before sanding, chuck a needle in a pin vise and deepen the existing rivet holes that will be removed during the "seaming" process. This will leave a guide to replacing the rivet detail as they were … wish I'd known this before I sanded them off! The scribing was replaced in a standard manner. Just another suggestion here … I had acquired a set of Master Caster sanding and polishing sticks, that are without a doubt the finest I've ever had the pleasure of working with. The polishing sticks came in exceptionally handy in removing one really annoying seam down the aft section of the clear canopy. (These are available from Jay Laverty himself or through Hannants or Victory Models).

With the fuselage finished and sanded, the wings and tail feathers were added. I chose to fold the wings (no surprise there) and when assembling them, glued the parts that "wiggle" in an articulated stance, which required shaving and reshaping the installation tabs so they could be positioned correctly. (I looked a long time to find a photo of a Bearcat with the wings folded and flaps lowered, but I finally found two of them … safe!)

The simulated rib stitching needs to be made more subtle, so a light sanding with 400 wet did the trick. There is also evidence of sink marks along the trailing edge of the wings, that filling and sanding would remove a lot of surface detail. Decide how you'll deal with this issue when you build yours. These appear to have been caused by pulling them from the dies before they had a chance to cool completely. When the inboard wing halves were mated to the fuselage, a gap appeared on the bottom of the wing where the supercharger ducts were joined and were dealt with using thin strip stock, as images show. Also, the baffling in the wing air intakes was another "de seaming" issue I chose not to deal with, so scratch built intake covers were fashioned and installed.

It seems appropriate to mention that aside the gaps in the lower surface of the wheel wells, no airframe fit issues were experienced during assembly, always a major plus. When it came time to address the undercarriage, there were some very apparent problems in evidence. First, the tail wheel assembly was frail in the extreme. So much so that if liquid cement were used in assembly, the risk of completely melting the parts becomes very real. Also, when the wheel hubs were fitted with the vinyl tires, there was zero clearance between the tire and the top of the wishbone (see photos). I contacted Ross McMillan of Scale Aircraft Conversions to see if he had anything in the works to deal with the problem. Once again, it was "Ross to the rescue!". He sent me a set of pre-production masters that were outstanding! (See images). The only thing added were brake lines and some placards from Mike Grant Decals. I can assure you that if you build this kit, you'll want a set of these. Check out Ross' website at www.scaleaircraftconversions.com .

OK then … ready to paint. Model Master Glossy Sea Blue was used for a finish coat, with the Naval reserve band in "Chevrolet Engine Block Red". The kit decals are an incorrect shade, but check the photo of "Aircraft in Profile" for the Bearcat … not much doubt where the error came from. All decals were from the kit and although there is no identification on them, they appear to be done by Cartograf or someone similar. They are opaque, thin and snuggle down well using the micro system. The only problem is that they left out the I.D.#s on the gear door covers, which came from the spares box.

Murphy's/Kinney's Law … We are all familiar with the law put upon us by the infamous Mr. Murphy … Kinney's law is basically "Murphy was a friggen optimist!" To better illustrate this, two things occurred during assembly of this aircraft that truly drive this point home. First, while assembling the engine, and holding the wiring loom in a pair of tweezers, we experienced a power failure that plunged my workshop into such total darkness that not even a state of the art set of night vision goggles would have helped. Of course, being startled, the tweezers launched that puppy into the great unknown and I have not been able to find it to this day! I had to select a piece of solder, bend it around the nose case and drill out for the wiring which was added. What is so hard to believe is that piece is approximately the size of a U.S. half dollar! Please explain to me how something that size can disappear. The foregoing not being enough for Mr. Murphy, while painting the aircraft, holding it by the engine, as I made the last pass with the airbrush, the engine unceremoniously separated from the aircraft, depositing the freshly painted subject upside down onto the carpet … ever seen a dark blue chiapet? Damn! Thanks Murphy! As they say all's well that ends well. Even with the few annoyances, warts and various and sundry minor disappointments, there remains not much doubt this is one of Trumpeters finest releases to date and earns the "Most Highly Recommended" status, at least by me. Many thanks to Mike Bass and Laura Carney from Stevens International for the review sample! Visit their website at www.stevenshobby.com for a complete listing of Trumpeters kits available.

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