Vertigo Studios F8F Bearcat

**Deano** · April 28th, 2010, 16:09

Hi all just a few render pics show casing our upcoming release of the F8F Bearcat 1

Enjoy

**spotlope** · April 28th, 2010, 16:11

Beary nice. :salute:

**boxcar** · April 28th, 2010, 16:11

.
This puts a much needed smile on my face after a long, hard day, Dean.

Looking forward to her as well as the P-36.

~lol~ Bill!

.

**papab** · April 28th, 2010, 16:22

Yes, I need this one as well.......

So many aircraft so little money!!

At least I have a shoe box of "Honey don't know" money tucked away.

Rick

**Helldiver** · April 28th, 2010, 18:49

Having worked on Bearcats at Jacksonville and on the Carrier, I would say so far so good. Now the prototype had a brace in the rear of the canopy. But the Blue Angels (The Naval Flight Exhibiion Team as it was called then), they got some of the first F8s and they didn't have a brace in the canopy. I would leave it off.
The other thing is they had a new car shine to them. Don't put no fogged up shine on it. Finally, the airplane was rather small and the pilots head filled the cockpit. Don't put some ten year old pilot at the stick.
I'm glad somebody who knows what they are doing is making this grand airplane. When the first one that landed at Jax he beat up the runway and you should have seen the Hellcat drivers standing in awe of it. The Bearcats put on a show in front of you, that the jets have yet to copy.

**Helldiver** · April 28th, 2010, 18:57

Oh, I just noticed something. The tailhook as shown would cut through the wire in a jiffy. It's got to be wider. As wide as a large mans hand cupped. They were forged steel and had a hard nickel plated inside of the cup area for a low abrasion resistance.

**Cirrus N210MS** · April 28th, 2010, 19:59

nice looking model :salute:

**skyhawka4m** · April 28th, 2010, 20:21

OUTSTANDING!!!!!

My only concern is the shape of the canopy......

**roger-wilco-66** · April 28th, 2010, 23:10

Great work, I look forward to that!

@ Helldiver: that's some awesome detailed information! Great that there are people here who've "beeen there and done that"!

Cheers,
Mark

**bearcat241** · April 28th, 2010, 23:37

YEAH baby!!!...a new BearRod for the virtual hangar!!!

Originally Posted by Helldiver

...
The other thing is they had a new car shine to them. Don't put no fogged up shine on it. Finally, the airplane was rather small and the pilots head filled the cockpit. Don't put some ten year old pilot at the stick.
...

...and please consider giving the jock WWII era headgear, not some Indy racing style helmet from the '50's. :salute:

**Lewis-A2A** · April 29th, 2010, 04:05

in this modern age of facebook,..

Lewis 'Likes' Deano's post :ernae:

**Pips** · April 29th, 2010, 04:29

Very, very impressive.

rsgunner · April 29th, 2010, 05:46

Very impressive.

I hope a model without the 20 MM gun barrels is done.
IIRC the 20 MM made it F8F-1B.

Need a slick for the airshow paints.

Russ

**CheckSix** · April 29th, 2010, 08:21

I agree with RSGunner we definitely need a "slick" for the airshow rounds, also preferably with a modern Bone Dome... Puhlease

***noddy*** · April 29th, 2010, 08:48

Looks pretty darn good.

**Odie** · April 29th, 2010, 09:28

Another bit of feline Grumman goodness.....looks outstanding!

raptor19 · April 29th, 2010, 09:34

Looking good Deano. Another definite on my list along with the P-36!

**NWarty** · April 29th, 2010, 10:12

I'm not a FS Warbird guy, but the Bearcat has been a favorite of mine since I was a kid. Looks wonderful fellas :salute:

**Barfly** · April 29th, 2010, 10:42

Beautiful a must have... been waiting for a nice one of these for awhile, almost as much as a tigercat. Didn't someone else start that? I hope it's a serious effort.

**X_eidos2** · April 29th, 2010, 10:53

For the Bearcat lovers in the crowd-

Here's a link to a video over at the AirShowBuzz website showing the Horsemen flying Bearcats with the Blue Angles at a recent airshow. The video includes an interview with a member of the original Blue Angels team that flew the Bearcat.

http://www.asb.tv/videos/view.php?v=b222a7cb&a=feature

Nice looking model of the Bearcat. The color of the model material reminds me of how they used to make prototype models of cars using clay and it would be sculpted by hand.

**Helldiver** · April 29th, 2010, 11:13

The F7-F Tigercat doesn't get of a mention in the US Naval history. It could only do one thing. That was to go in a straight line pretty fast. It was too heavy for the carriers of the day, it's tail hook design was marginal and it could not land on a Carrier worth a damn with one engine out. So they consigned them to the US Marines and let them figure it out. So little, was the F7-F was thought of by the Navy, that they only produced 297 of all variants.
However the Bearcat F8-F was so well thought of that they produced 1266 of them. It was called the zenith of piston engined fighters. It could do everything well as well as being compact, an important feature on a crowded Carrier deck. I liked the airplane a lot. I only wished it had come out a year earlier.

**fliger747** · April 29th, 2010, 19:07

F7F:

Working on that one right now with Milton Shupe and associates. Mostly a FS9 project. The Navy's chief test pilot was quited as saying the F7F was the best damn fighter he had ever flown, despite some aerodynamic shortcomings. Not going to get int a my cat's better than your cat discussion. An interesting couple of planes by Grumman, covering most of the piston fighter bases....

According to Corky Meyers the genisis of the F8F was when LeRoy Grumman ( a very competent pilot in his own right) flew a captured FW 190 in England. His comment... this is the plane we should have built!

Cheers: T

**p14u2nv** · April 29th, 2010, 20:57

You know Helldiver, I for one really appreciate your posts. Not many can speak right from the seat so to speak as you can as it's all based on experience and not just some info learned by reading and simply repeated. I served in the very early 70's and only managed to see a few older military props. I can only imagine what it was like to see many of these aircraft in their "hey days" and be able to see for real versus what I can only see, and experience, sort of, but only as a simulation hobby and an occassional airshow.

Anyway thank you kindly sir for sharing what many of us can only read about, if we're lucky!

**oakfloor** · April 29th, 2010, 21:36

The bearcat truly was one of the top piston fighters, along with the "H" model mustang and the last marks of the spitfire. Im so glad that someone is going to make a quailty model at last, and lets also hope for a AM6 Zero, that would be a fun flyer too. Now the wait begins..