Vatrian F-8F Bearcat 2023

[John Howling Mouse]

Can a 50-something ex-modeler with myopic vision pick-up the hobby again after a 12-year hiatus?  And, if so, can he pull off an original What If model worthy of sharing with the terrific folks on Beyond The Sprues?  Well, here goes.  This one's for you, Brian da Basher.

I'm John Howling Mouse and here is how this model started: with a box of parts from more years ago than I can recall.



The inspiration?  My own fictional nation of Vatria:



Here is the subcontinent nation of Vatria on Goggle Mapz:

[John Howling Mouse]

I sure made some goofy mistakes on the build: lots of my patented PSR. Then I had to re-learn how to mask off well-wheels, canopy and cowl.





The model's main assembly completed and primered with fantastic Krylon sandable primer from a spray can.

[John Howling Mouse]

First coat of airbrushing using 15-year-old Acryl II Camo Grey from Testors.  One thing I learned upon returning to this hobby was that my favorite brand of paint went out of production during my hiatus.  So, this didn't turn out as well as hoped.  Still, not a bad finish considering the paint type and age.

[John Howling Mouse]

So, now the hard part, especially for a guy who was admittedly more than a decade out of practice.  To make my fiction Vatrian Air Force markings, I could go one of two routes: home-printed decals...or hand-cut frisket-film masks.  Because the masks would be so much more difficult, I naturally went that route.

Frisket film of choice:



I print out my design on transparency film made for old-fashioned overhead projectors:



I tape that print-out under a sheet of thin, clear acrylic for cutting on:

[John Howling Mouse]

If you thought it was tough to cut out those designs as negative masks, it was nothing compared to lifting the cut-outs and positioning them properly on the primered model.
























The real trick was keeping in mind the strategic order in which to place negative versus positive masks in light of which colors were to be airbrushed next.

[John Howling Mouse]

Then I masked off the anti-glare panel and walkways.  I also used some cheap Elmers poster putty for masking worms. 









You can see here that the underside yellow masking film has cut-outs to expose the negative frisket film masks applied for the wing markings which will be airbrushed in the same off-black as the anti-glare and walkway panels topside:



Out came the tried and tested Aztek airbrush with some more of my very old Testors Acryl II paint, mixed to be less than 'black' so it would hopefully look more realistic and to scale:

[John Howling Mouse]

I painted the appropriate negative-masked markings in black:





Black sections exposed:





Then I nearly forgot to mask off the freshly painted off-black features to protect them from the next painting steps!  You can also see here the tailfin stripes masked off (these will remain in that light camo grey of the first airbrushed coat).

[John Howling Mouse]

First tan coat.  My goal was to create a SEA camo scheme but modified to better suit Vatria's particular topography.



Then the real fun began: using Elmer's poor-man's version of 'Blu-Tac' poster putty as masking worms combined with Tamiya yellow tape to mask off and protect those areas that I wanted to remain in that home-made mixture of 'tan' basecoat.  The entire time, I kept doing the "Mein hovercraft iz full of eels" thing from Monty Python.  My wife said it was funny, the first two or three times I called that out.  Then she went for a long walk...

[John Howling Mouse]

Then I masked off the tan so that the light green coats could go on next.  The paint was so old that it dried in a horrible pebbled finish no matter what amount of thinner, pressure, distance, etc. I used.  It was 15-year-old Acryl II paint, man!  But I was in too deep by this point to quit.







What do you do after light green?  Well, you mask that off in preparation of hitting the rest with the darker green, naturally. 





It all looked like painted sandpaper by the time I was done.

[John Howling Mouse]

Don't know about you but my favorite part of modeling by far is the removal of masking tape.  It's like unwrapping a Christmas present you've given to yourself but have no real idea what's underneath until it's been revealed.



I liked the randomness of that pile of masking tape scraps so much that I morphed my photos of it to create a home-printed "Garbage Camo" decal sheet like an alien lozenge style pattern:

[John Howling Mouse]

Oh, so you're probably wondering what the heck did the MODEL look like at this point (after removing all the masking)? No false modesty here.  From a DISTANCE, it looked pretty good and I started remembering how much I used to enjoy building models.  There were flaws to be corrected, that was for sure.  But there always are and, as my friend Mike often reminds me: part of true craftsmanship is in knowing how to correct conceal one's own mistakes.







But that pebbled finish from the 15-year-old Testors Acryl II acrylic paint was truly terrible.  Here are some humbling close-ups.  Ugh.  Could it be fixed without ruining everything?





It was time to test out some wet sanding with ridiculously high-grit sanding sponges in the 20K range.

[John Howling Mouse]

To my delighted surprise, I quickly found that the light sanding was ruining the paintjob but in a very positive, realistic way.  I had planned for this to be a highly weathered aircraft and the sanding of that pebbled finish was bringing out a very believable sort of fatigued look to the paint scheme.

So I started out light:





Gradually building up the various effects with a combination of paint, pencils, shavings dust from sanding down various colors of dry pastels, some silver Prismacolor pencil touches for chipped paint effects, and Tamiya panel accent fluids in grey, brown and dark brown.  My goal is usually to end up with a purposely over-committed weathering effect.  Now I realize all the pros will tell you to avoid overdoing weathering, especially on aircraft.  Which is quite true when it involves viewing finished models in person at well-lit modeling competitions.  But I find with my final diorama images, more is actually better as it registers on camera (for you folks!) better than limiting the weathering to remain subtle.  Besides, weathering is so much fun!  So I purposely overdo it a bit as you can see in the last photos below:

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Nice to see you back and making up for all that time away from BTS by showing off your talents on that old Hawk/Testors/Italeri Bearcat kit. 

The last time I built a Bearcat it was sporting a Hawker Typhoon prop/spinner, a light blue paint job and Richard Petty's NASCAR "43" on the wings and fuselage for a what-if Reno Air-Racer. 

As far as that "pebble finish" goes.  Just call it a non-skid coating and be done with it! 

[John Howling Mouse]

Here are some random close-ups of detail work.  This is the venerable Testors, former Hawk, former something before that 1:48 kit from 19-whatever.  It's a good old kit and where it lacks in modern-level detailing, it makes up for in terms of fit and overall quality for the price paid.

Not enough detail in the wheel-bays?  You can spend $50 on resin inserts or just do what I did: draw in some details using a sharp HB pencil:





A shot of the wheel-tires (tyres?) using my black-tan-grey tire paint mix (also about 15 years old):

[John Howling Mouse]

Was time to dress this hot rod up for business. Hand-painted the yellow rings on bombs without masks.  So what if I have to use a Magnavision/Optivisor head visor, right?  I think I scavenged those bombs from another kit because the Testors/Hawk/Italeri versions had solid fins that were too thick. Only now, looking at this photo, do I realize I should've dirtied up and stained the inside of the engine cowl more, given the extent of the exterior weathering.  Oh well.  Who's gonna know...other than you lot, of course!



You know what?  I think it's time to finally take this bird outside and create some diorama shots to see if all of this was worth the effort.  Stay tuned...

[John Howling Mouse]

First, the obligatory "Underside-Held-By-Gronk-Hand^TM" views:





Then our intrepid Vatrian pilot taxis out across the sweltering tarmac at VAB Os Mecos, the engine's heavy rumble and smell of exhaust fumes thankfully driving away massive flocks of native birds:

[John Howling Mouse]

Awaiting his turn in the que as a VAF transport lands nearby:





Then heading out to the runway at last:







Lining up on Runway Two-Niner of VAB Os Mecos:

[John Howling Mouse]

Other angles from VAB Os Mecos:

[raafif]

Welcome back John

Yours make my Bearcat look positively average - mine had badly warped wings.

Yours looks great in the vietnam cam!

[John Howling Mouse]

After landing later that day at VAB Vanta Cruz, near one of Vatria's vast jungles as yet another tropical storm rears up:

[John Howling Mouse]

Some close-ups taken on another day at VAB Vanta Cruz, near one of Vatria's vast jungles.

[John Howling Mouse]

And now for some random 'vintage' images which I've edited using Corel PhotoPaint.  I know some people love retouched images and others can't stand them.  So I put them last.  I personally appreciate them as they provide a nostalgic take on older subjects, harkening back to various photographic methods before our vaunted digital age and reminding me of the reference materials I had as a kid while building my first models.

[John Howling Mouse]

Here are more 'vintage' photographs from the era in which this airplane was operational:

[ChernayaAkula]

Damn, but the Bearcat looks great in those colours! 

Good to have you back, JHM! 

[John Howling Mouse]

Thanks so much, it's great to be back.  Now, it's time for me to peruse the work of you fine modelers on this site!