trietmcam

Excellent looking Skyraider FD . I dont think my bank account can support 17 of those builds, let alone finding space to put them after. But I bet you could make one hellovan awesome A-1 fleet. Regards Triet

Thanks for the comments guys. Just for kick, I thought I put it next to the Classic Airframe that was finished a few years ago. Cheers Triet

Thank you for the kind comments above gentlemen. Actually the fuselage band decals was not that time consuming as I originally thought. Here's how I did it similarly. First I marked out the size of the pattern, then print it out on a piece of masking tape. I used this as a template to cut out the decals. I put a piece of black decal next to the template taping it down, then using a pair of drafting triangles, slide the triangle to where the cut is, and transfer the cut into the decals. Slide down to the next line and make another cut. I was able to get a perfect parallel line cut e

Absolutely awesome Paul. What a superb way to tie in your personal history. Was your picture in Bien Hoa? Regards Triet

Greeting All This is the 1/72 Italeri former Esci kit. Build pretty much out of box, except the steel tubes were used for gun barrels, and the camera windows were replicated with clear styrene sheets. The markings were from various sources. Tamiya acrylic paints were used, by mixing of course, since Tamiya do not do FS colors. The checker band was done by painting the yellow background first, then with black diamond decals cut individually and properly placed. As I understand, the original mold dated back from the 80's. It is still a very nice kit even in today's standard.

Yes, the decal is so thin. Even without Microsol, I can't even see the decal film edges. That's why you don't lift it up with a tweezer once it's wet. Otherwise, it will fold over and very hard to undo.

Thanks dekon.

Some close view of small pieces. Note the stencils on the rockets. Close view of the canopy. The vertical frames were actually decals I painted. This hides the uneven cut I made on the vac formed. The rest of the frames were just normal masking and spray on paint. Close view of the lens. Overall birds eyes view

Hope you like the build. Regards Triet

Stick a fork in and call it done. After languishing a few years, it's finally done. The tires just need to flatten yet. Can't say I would to do this kit again. Definitely not your beginners kit, as it requires a great deal of careful fitting. Cleaning each parts off the sprue trees tested my patience with the prop being the worst one. If you can master those, you will end up with a nice finished model. I didn't check for accuracy. I heard many manufacturers had difficulty with the overall shapes, whether in 1/72 or 1/48. Somehow I lost interest in the kit before and never bothered to check aga

Final stages. I probably stop adding weather effect here.

I just build up fading a little at a time, as I didn't want the weathering to be over done.

The rest of the model was done with Tamiya weather sets of various colors.

I studied some photos of how the weathered Bearcat looked during the Indochina time frame. Most of the aircraft were parked in the open dirt field, unsheltered. Most had badly dusted and grime built up along with lots of chipping. I used MM magnesium Metalizer to dry brush along the surfaces. I didn't want to use aluminum because it had too much contrast. Magnesium is darker, and looked about the right contrast to me.

The aerial antenna was added next. I drilled the holes with #80 drill. I use fishing line (0.005 inch). The dia. is a little large for this scale. The other option is to use stretch sprue where I could stretch it very thin, but it's a little flimsy. I broke so many in the past, so it wasn't worth it. I dipped the end of the line with CA glue. Once it's in, I used a piece of stretch sprue to plug in the hole real tight and hit it with Tamiya cement. The fuselage end attachment is real tricky. I had to use a tweezer to hold it taunt before the glue dried. Obv

The Print Scale decal is so thin the dark blue background passed through the white color, as you can see in the squadron logo. I opted to use dry transfer for the letter F to avoid the same problem. That's it for now. Looks like I'm in the 9th inning stretch. The rest of the way should be smooth sailing. I'm going to do some study some more on the weather effect of the Bearcats in Indochina. The dusty and humid condition in Vietnam, plus operaying on dirt runways probably took it tolls on these aircraft.

I had to order a new decal sheet because the old kit decal disintegrated in water. Should've coat it with a coat of liquid decal before went ahead, I wasn't thinking. Anyhow, the Print Scale F8F Bearcat saved the day. The decal was rather difficult to work with, mainly because it was so thin, it's easy to roll up on itself. I had to work real slowly for each decal, especially the long ones.

I ran into some snafu recently. Something didn't looked right with the headrest. It sat too low. So I ripped the whole thing off with the roll over bars and rebuilt it again. Here is the rebuild assembly again. The small square block next to the headrest base is there so the canopy base can rest on. I planned to pose with open canopy. This way, the canopy can be glued on so it won't tail sit

Just tried on a test piece, indeed they rolled up pretty easy, and it's hard to straighten them out. I followed the advice here by not letting it sits in water too long. Just brush wet it and place the decal near the place it goes. Wait a few secs and slide it it a brush to the location without lifting the decal up, and it worked. Thanks for the heads up guys.

Rebuilt canopy rear structures with stock styrene.

Front view with bombs fitted in with brass wires. The pylons holes were drilled out with a #80 bits. The pylons are thin, so careful when drilling and keep it parallel to the pylon. Otherwise, the drill can go through the side walls. Stretch sprue were used for the antenna

It looks like the model is ready for decals. I didn't use the kit's insignia as I found them to be grossly undersized. I was able to find some that seems right. These came from a very old Carpena sheet, maybe 17 years now. They still works, but they were kind of thick and very hard to conform over curve surfaces. After battling them with Solvaset, they finally stuck. Once the Sovaset sucked them down, the decal thickness doesn't seem noticeable.

Moving on to the windscreen masking. This is a tight area to mask, and no tape is flexible enough to go around the curvature at the top. What I did was using a punch & die with the same diameter as the curve and punch out the tape.

Hello, Has anyone used Print Scale decals before, and what's it like? I am interested in this sheet and look for some advice. Thanks in advance. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Print-Scale-Decals-1-72-GRUMMAN-F8F-BEARCAT-Fighter-/361354424446?hash=item542266f07e:g:YJ8AAOSwr7ZW3Nc2 Regards triet

Thanks for the link. I hadn't seen this before. Just for curiosity, I copied and paste the -1B picture with the Squadron windscreen side by side. The screen angle doesn't seems too bad, but at the base is way off. I had to sand the vacform down to conform with the kit's fit. In this case, the kit's molding in this area is straight rather than curve like the real thing.