French Claws: Vikings Bearcat *FINISHED*

[Viking]

This was a bargin kit i picked up at a club meet years ago; all of £2

classic Academy kit in 48th; i hope to do it as a battered, weathered, chipped Bearcat from late in the French wars.



and the sprues; lovely light grey plastic, very delicate engraved lines, nice detail and looks accurate to me; this is a kit that ticks all my boxes.



and after about 1 hr playing with the parts; cockpit, engine and wheel wells together, quickly blasted with chrome yellow and cockpit green



this would be a highly recommended kit for a blitzbuild for somebody.

[Old_Tonto]

It does look very nice. How is the fit?

[jssel]

Good stuff here. I have built the Academy/Hobbycraft Bearcat and it is a very nice kit. A great "Blitzer" I think.

[Dirkpitt289]

That looks sharp. I look forward to seeing it get built.

[flakmonkey]

The Academy Bearcat is a nice kit. There are those who say the shape of the engine cowling is wrong and therefore the kit is unbuildable. Couldn't see it myself.

[Viking]

lots of nice weather going on up here today; so where better to spend time than buried in a dusty garage sticking bits of plastic together....



major bits all together with no dramas. a little issue with the wing to fuselage underneath but i think that was my fault not the kit. looks like that will be the only filler. Just 1 part that i'm not impressed with; the vertical tail / rudder joins half way up the tail so the join will need careful elinimation; just seems an unneccessary place to put a join. engine and undercarriage undercoated for alclad, canopy futured and drying.



engine is nicely detailed



forgot to take a picture of the cockpit before i closed it up, actually very nice. instrument panel comes up a treat just drybrushed silver over the black.

[Viking]

after a few days absence due to work ( a very nice trip to southern germany ), back to the bearcat. all parts together and primed. decided i wanted to try the "salt chipping" technique so some parts of the uppersurfaces overcoated with alclad duraluminum then some salt crystals added. first topcoat sprayed:





the bumps on the surface are, of course, the salt.

the upper surfaces were then lightly oversprayed with a lightened blue to attempt to give a colour fading graduation (the pictures do look a little light in the blue, the model is a bit darker in real life):





next is to try and chip off the salt to, hopefully, leave some nice silver chips underneath; well, thats the plan.

[Beowulf Shaeffer]

the salt technique can work great.............first time i did it i was really impressed.......i tend to use a really stiff brush to remove the salt, or run it under water to help it dissolve

[novokits]

Undercarriage legs glued to wheel wells? left and right need exchange...

[Dirkpitt289]

the salt technique can work great.............first time i did it i was really impressed.......i tend to use a really stiff brush to remove the salt, or run it under water to help it dissolve

Now thats a fantastic idea. I need to try this sometime.

Can't wait to see the revile

[Old_Tonto]

Looking good.

[IrishAir]

Great work Viking,

Cheers,
Paul

[Viking]

good bit more done to the bearpuss; salt chipping removed, it works quite well but i have one lesson for myself: use bigger salt flakes ! i used a salt grinder and, while the big chips worked OK, the small ones did not come off so have left some parts of the airframe a bit rough. And i should have added more salt; while i didnt want a full japanese WW2 chipping and flaking, i did want a little more than i ended up with. All decals added, they worked very well but i did slide them into a puddle of klear rather than just onto the fairly matt paintwork. everything then oversprayed with xtracolour satin varnish. exhaust streaks added from rust pigment and lots of ochre / buff pigments librally brushed over the entire airframe to try to give a dirty worn look. maybe a bit too much over the engine cowling, i'll have to have a think about that.

front windscreen fit is terrible ! only part of the entire kit that doesnt work, so i still havnt decided if it was me, or the kit.

now just the details to finish, the clear lights to add, propeller to complete and the weaponry to add.

[Dirkpitt289]

SWEET!!!!!

[Old_Tonto]

Oh me likey.

Great stuff.