Reviews : HobbyBoss F8F-1B Bearcat

Wanted to model a Bearcat and this kit drew my attention with the French markings. The cockpit has surprisingly few parts, yet affords a fairly detailed finished product once together. The interior of the Bearcat consists of six bulkheads with a variety of detailing needed, as you can see between the engine and the firewall with the landing gear in the down position. When the fuselage halves were test fitted, there was a significant gap along the lower fuselage halves. This took considerable time to correct, and eventually ended up with a shot of putty and time spent sanding. The wing and stabilizer fit to fuselage was superb. The cowling, a single piece, took some work to fit properly to the fuselage. The canopy, typically a high point in Hobby Boss kits, was nice, but had a seam running down the center of the rear portion. It's not that visible, and I didn't want to mess with it so left it go at that. The decals worked great! Something that doesn't always happen with Hobby Boss kits from past experience. Applied Testors Model Master Gloss Sea Blue all over and then Testors Gloss Clearcoat and with some Testors decal solvent, the decals snugged down nicely. Overall, a neat kit with really good levels of detail for the money. Not a beginner level kit in my view, but a fairly good product to tackle if you have a few in the rear view and time to take on the challenging points this kit offers.

Nice 1/48 Scale kit of the Grumman F8F-1B Bearcat of WWII era. I have its paint.