A nice surprise is this first of two sheets on the F8F Bearcat. In this scale, you have the Academy/Hobbycraft kit and the rather elderly Testors/Hawk version. Most will go for the first pairing and it is that kit for which these decals are scaled to fit. Nice thing about Bearcats is that they are generally easy to paint, with the vast majority of them being overall gloss sea blue. These are all -2 Bearcats with the extended fin.

First up is a VF-61 aircraft aboard the USS FDR in 1949. Yes, I know it says VF-83 on the sheet, but I've been told by a couple of readers that it really is VF-61. During this time frame, these folks were the keepers of the 'Jolly Roger' insignia.

From VF-82 aboard the USS Leyte in 1954 is this rather plain Jane aircraft. Considering that they operated until the mid 1950's, it is surprising that none seemed to have participated in the Korean War.

This Bearcat was from the training squadron, VMFAT-101 at MCAS Quantico in July of 1951.

Finally, the most colorful of the batch was this drone controller from VU-4 in 1955. It has the yellow wings, red rudder and wing bands typical of this type of aircraft.

Enough insignia for two of the aircraft shown. The sheet includes wing walk areas for one. If you want to do the others, Superscale has insignia sheets to help out.

April 2005

Review copy courtesy of . Thanks for your support.