Royal Thai Air Force F8F-2 Bearcat

Snake Plissken
Wow, chrome plated!

Ben M
Taking it on vacation with me to get it started.

Nathan Dempsey
Bearcats unite! Following 👀

Guy Rump
Following. 👍

Snake Plissken
Is it similar to a commemorative edition or just meant to replicate natural metal finish?

Ben M
It's aluminum plated to represent the actual nmf finish. I built a t-33 where I had some issues that I hope to improve upon.

Ben M
Did a lot of sanding areas that will be glued, masking, fitting parts to each other, and basic assembly while I'm on vacation. I got new decals from Siam decals as the originals are from 1968 and not in good shape. I'm not sure how old the Siam decals are but they are newer than '68. One thing that is apparent is the stripey tail decal doesn't fit at all. This is going to be a good challenge to resolve.

Robert Podkoński
Taking a seat here.

Ben M
Decided to try to apply the 1960s decal for the cockpit, as I don't have an alternative. Had to soak it for about a minute in hot water to get it to release. As is typical for hawk kits the decal isn't the right size but you go to war with the decals you have. I got it to apply without shattering. Unsure if it will stick, very old decals like this often have to be glued in place.

Ben M
I think the Siam Scale decals I'm using instead of the originals are about 20 years old but they're going on ok. A little thick, so not settling down into panel lines but I'll try some decal fluid once they set in place, hopefully they will on the aluminum surface! The roundels are two part so I will have to do a second layer…

Mr D
Smart little model.... unusual in the factory chrome 👍👍
Nice classic kit.
Bit of heat of hairdryer works with thick decals.... nice n steady.
Like it 😁👍

Ben M
That's a good idea, I may give it a try. First I'm going to upgrade from micro sol to mark fit.

Mr D
I use Mark fit ....but recently found the Vallejo one works amazing... Just used it on my in progress IAR-80.
Definitely my go to now.
The moon ships is great 👍👍

Nathan Dempsey
Wow Ben this one is turning into a colorful bird.

Ben M
An interesting detail I note while decaling. The panel lines on the fuselage are engraved. The panel lines on the wings are raised. Wtf.

Desert Marlin
I've been using Mr. Mark Softener and Mr. Mark Setter. They worked well on some Kitty Hawk decals which are pretty stubborn...

gorby
Nice work so far.

Ben M
The tamiya mark fit and some work with a needle solved the problems! Thanks for all the great ideas everyone. Onwards!

Ben M
Did a bunch of cut the decals into pieces to fit a different model than they were made for. Came out fairly well. Subassemblies are getting larger as the project comes together.

Dave
Looks great. Nice work

Desert Marlin
You seem to have forced the decals to cooperate!

Robert Podkoński
Great job, Ben!

Mr D
It's looking really good 👍
It's great that the kits can still be built after all these years.
The people in the factory's would have never believed the model they are packing wouldn't be built until 2024 🤔🤣.
Nice build to follow 😃

Ben M
Almost complete. Popped the main fuselage seam a bit 🙁 I had gone to a lot of work to hide it. For some reason even after carefully scraping the mating surfaces I just don't get good adhesion. Maybe next time I will try only using CA for assembly on my next plated kit.

Ben M
The decal sheet says 23rd squadron Kohkratiem AFB, but there's not much on the internets. Possibly a misspelling? The Royal Thai Air Force had F8F's from 1951 to 1963.

Thanks to Siam Scale for the decals, without which this project would be hopeless. The sheet number is 48003 if that helps anyone.

Desert Marlin
Looks great so far! Don't worry about the seam. It can be filled and perhaps painted, even though it's plated.

Desert Marlin
Or foil added if you have access to that...

Ben M
Complete! @desert marlin - I decided the seam on the bottom wasn't important enough to do a bunch of rework. It's an old 60's "chrome" plated model after all 🙂 I think it came out looking pretty good overall.

Mr D
Fantastic, Really nice kit , Looks 👍 great.
Sometimes it's nice for a vintage kit to look close to how it would be built originally.... Nostalgic.
Nice find....

Guy Rump
Great job! 👍

Nathan Dempsey
That's some nice work on that old kit Ben. Looks great!

Ben M
I have one more plated kit in my stash. Kind of tempted to get it out and keep going…

Mark Sherwood
Nice rendition of the F8. 👍🥸🤘

Robert Podkoński
Good job, Ben!

Ben M
Thanks everyone!

Desert Marlin
Oh yeah!!! Excellent outcome!!!

Carlos Cisneros
Man I love seeing these old Hawk kits built up so nicely. Bravo!!!

Ben M
Thank you, Carlos. I have the Hawk F-104A yet to do. I got a nice set of caracal early starfighter decals for it. I built it when I was a kid, looking forward to doing it again.

Dave
Now that sounds like fun.

Neuling
Oldie but goodie!

gorby
Excellent result!

Sergej I
great looking metal finish! 👍

Ben M
That's because it's actually metal 😂

Rui S
Beautiful work 👍

Ben M
My regret on this one is I should have glossed the propeller before decals. If you're going to the trouble of putting 8 decals on a prop you should be more careful than I was. That being said in the case the silvering doesn't show like it did in the outdoor pics.