F8F BearCat in the Portuguese Navy

[Captain Canada]

All the work happens once Elvis has left the building. Or is that Elvis has left you building ?



Looks good !

[DogfighterZen]

Thanks, Captain!
Decals were done on the support table, The King's sleep cannot be disturbed... he even started meowing when i was watching a vid on youtube with the volume a bit too loud for him...

[Old Wombat]

Looking very, very good with markings!

[Dizzyfugu]

So simple, so pretty. I like the concept a lot! 

[DogfighterZen]

Thanks, guys! It is looking very much how i imagined it would, i'm just giving it the finishing touches before a few pics and a quick research to clear some doubts for the backstory. 

[DogfighterZen]

Here's the last entry...



"At the end of WWII, the US Navy had 9 Essex-class carriers being built, but of these, only six were to be completed, one was to be used as a template for future modernization programs on all Essex-class carriers, and the other 2 were to be cancelled.
Meanwhile, the Portuguese Admirals were very alert to the importance of the big aircraft carrier's role in winning the war in the Pacific, and with the Portuguese colonial territories in mind, presented a proposal to Salazar's dictator government. Salazar was obviously interested in the idea but, the Portuguese industrial capacity at the time didn't have the infrastructures to build such ships, so the Portuguese Navy had to go shopping...
After several months of meetings, an agreement was reached and the 2 carriers that were cancelled the US Navy, were to become PoN vessels.
Both ships were finished and delivered in 1947, the first to be christened NRP "Glorioso" and the second, NRP "Camões".
These aircraft carriers would operate flight groups of 90 to 110 aircraft, including one of the best piston engine powered fighters of all time, the F8F Bearcat.







The Portuguese pilots loved the Bearcat, but only had one little problem with the looks, they wanted to have a spinner on the prop so it would look a bit sleeker. The engineers at the State's Aeronautical Maintenance Workshops, or OGMAs as they're called in Portuguese, said that it would be an easy task and simply copied the shape of the PoAF's Spitfire Vb  and made it with 4 holes instead of 3. They also included a new canopy, with the same basic shape, but without the rear framing.






The Bearcat served with the PoN long after the first jets started being put into service, they were decommissioned from carrier fleet use in 1964, and continued serving as training aircraft at Naval Air Stations around the country. Some were later transferred to the New Guinea and Angolan colonies, for policing duties.

Well, after removing the canopy mask, i found one of the most stupid errors i've made in modelling till now... i left a bit of masking tape on the instrument panel cover... and the canopy is VERY well glued to the fuselage as it's in one piece with the windshield, which itself is glued and puttied over!
I can't see how i forgot to remove that before putting the canopy on... but i did, and all attempts to take off the canopy without ruining the paint job or breaking off something else were in vain, so i decided to leave as it is as i'm not happy with it... that just made me loose most of the enjoyment i was getting from the finished model...
But anyway, i'm calling it done as i won't try to fix that, i'll just leave it as is and say the pilot had the flight map from late-hour pre-flight checks, and put it there while taxiing out to the catapult...

[DogfighterZen]

Hey!! in my computer it was still 23:59!!!

[Captain Canada]

Nice one ! Too bad about the tape bits, funny how that can happen eh ?

[Old Wombat]

Woh! Even better than I thought! Way cool!

[zenrat]

Love the shark mouth.  It makes the build for me.
Don't worry about the tape.  We all do silly things sometimes in a burst of enthusiasm to get on with the build.  I'm always forgetting to wash off decal softener before clearing.  You think I intended the hovercar to look slightly grubby & weathered?  No, that's Microset residue and dirt from my fingers.

[Librarian]

Always reminds me of a pugnacious boxer...Grumman F8F Boxer...Grumman and its kitty-litter obsession

Lovely model, just love Sea Blue colours and an interesting choice of markings/nationality

[DogfighterZen]

Glad you like it, guys! 
Well, i can't remove the canopy so i have to live with it, no big deal anyway, it won't be entered in any shows or contests... 
The shark mouth is from a PoAF T-6G Texan, i stole from an old Colorado decal sheet, it does give the whole model a lift in looks. And the prop's spinner, IMHO, it's a small thing that just makes it look way better.
I would like to build a better more recent kit of the Bearcat, but the available modern kits can be quite expensive... maybe a 1/48 will make for a better deal.
Boxer... that would suit it very well but i also like the little kittens...   

[NARSES2]

Really works for me, looks good 

[DogfighterZen]

Really works for me, looks good 

Thank you, Chris, Glad you like it!

[DogfighterZen]

Pics were gone cause i used Photobucket to host the images so i re-uploaded them from my Imgur account for anyone interested.