+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some Background:
The Grumman F8F (G-58, Grumman Aircraft's design designation) Bearcat was a U.S. Navy/Marine Corps single-engine, fighter aircraft. It was introduced late in World War II as a carrier-based fighter. In replacing the obsolescent F4F Wildcat and F6F Hellcat, climb rate was an important design factor for the F8F, which was faster and lighter than the F6F carrier-based fighter. In late 1943, Grumman began development of the F8F Bearcat and deliveries from Grumman began on 21 May 1945.
In 1946, the F8F set a climb record of 6,383 fpm and held this record until it was broken by a jet fighter in 1956. Early F8Fs first flew in August 1944, followed by production aircraft starting in February 1945, the war ended before the F8F saw combat.
The F8F was Grumman’s last piston engine fighter Production ended in 1949, after Grumman had produced 1,265 F8F Bearcats in total. Directly after the war, the F8F was a key fighter for the U.S. Navy/Marine Corps. Since it was one of the best-handling piston fighters ever, its performance made it the top selection in 1946 for the U.S. Navy’s elite Blue Angels demonstration squadron. When the F8F became obsolete (The last ones in U.S. service were retired in 1952), it was replaced with jet fighter aircraft, the F9F Panther and the F2H Banshee.
From 1946 to 1954, the F8F saw its first combat during the French Indochina War, being used by French forces. Surviving Bearcats from that war were given to the Republic of Vietnam Air Force and to Cambodia, and some were mothballed. The Royal Thai Air Force also flew a number of Bearcats that were purchased from the U.S. Navy.
Gabon became another, rather late operator of the F8F. In the early 1960s, following the country's independence from the French Republic, aerial detachments remained inside the country. The first president of Gabon, elected in 1961, was Léon M'ba, with Omar Bongo Ondimba as his vice president. As a starting stock of flying equipment, Gabon took over twenty refurbished, former Armée de L’air F8F Bearcats from French surplus stock and used them both as advanced trainers and for operational military duties, which became more and more the Bearcats’ primary mission. After M'ba's accession to power, the press was suppressed, political demonstrations banned, freedom of expression curtailed, other political parties gradually excluded from power, and the Constitution changed along French lines to vest power in the Presidency, a post that M'ba assumed himself.
However, when M'ba dissolved the National Assembly in January 1964 to institute one-party rule, an army coup sought to oust him from power and restore parliamentary democracy. French paratroopers flew in within 24 hours to restore M'ba to power. At that time the small Gabonese F8F fleet was joined by a couple of former French Douglas AD-4 Skyraiders, which had been originally procured for use in the Algerian War. After the end of this conflict in 1964, the machines were used in Djibouti, Madagascar and Chad, among other places, and eight of them joined the Gabonese forces as part of the Presedential Guards, flown by French mercenaries because the Gabonese troops lacked flight and – moreover – combat experience. After a few days of fighting, the coup ended and the opposition was imprisoned, despite widespread protests and riots. French soldiers still remain in the Camp de Gaulle on the outskirts of Gabon's capital to this day.
After these riots, Gabon’s first official aerial installation was established in 1966: Mouila Training Center in the south-west of the country. When M'Ba died in 1967, Bongo replaced him as president. In March 1968, Bongo declared Gabon a one-party state by dissolving the BDG and establishing a new party—the Parti Democratique Gabonais (PDG). He invited all Gabonese, regardless of previous political affiliation, to participate. Bongo sought to forge a single national movement in support of the government's development policies, using the PDG as a tool to submerge the regional and tribal rivalries that had divided Gabonese politics in the past.
On January 25, 1972, by presidential decree signed by President Omar Bongo, the Gabonese Air Force became an official branch of the armed forces, separate from the army, and funds were allocated to replace the outdated and worn-out AD-4s and F8Fs with more adequate equipment. The implementation of this plan would take some more years, though, starting with the procurement of modern Mirage 5 fighter bombers from France in 1978, which replaced the old types until the end of the decade. In January 1980, at the initiative of President Bongo, the Air Force eventually developed and adopted a combat structure and created the dedicated Mvengue Air Base in the capital.
Today, Gabon has a small, professional military of about 5,000 personnel, divided into army, navy, air force, gendarmerie, and national police. Gabonese forces are oriented to the defense of the country and have not been trained for an offensive role. A well-trained, well-equipped 1,800-member guard provides security for the president.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 28 ft 3 in (8.61 m)
Wingspan: 35 ft 10 in (10.92 m)
Height: 13 ft 10 in (4.22 m)
Wing area: 244 sq ft (22.7 m²)
Aspect ratio: 5.02
Airfoil: root: NACA 23018; tip: NACA 23009
Empty weight: 7,650 lb (3,470 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 13,460 lb (6,105 kg)
Powerplant:
1× Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney R-2800-34W Double Wasp 18-cylinder air-cooled radial piston
engine with 2,100 hp (1,600 kW), driving a 4-bladed constant-speed propeller
Performance:
Maximum speed: 455 mph (732 km/h, 395 kn)
Range: 1,105 mi (1,778 km, 960 nmi)
Service ceiling: 40,800 ft (12,400 m)
Rate of climb: 4,465 ft/min (22.68 m/s)
Wing loading: 42 lb/sq ft (210 kg/m²)
Power/mass: 0.22 hp/lb (0.36 kW/kg)
Armament:
4× 20 mm (.79 in) AN/M3 cannon in the outer wings
2,000 lb (907 kg) of ordnance on three prime hardpoints (incl. bombs, rocket pods, napalm tanks
or drop tanks), plus four underwing hardpoints for light loads like 5” (127 mm) HVAR unguided rockets
The kit and its assembly:
A rather quick/simple project that had been lingering in The Stash™ for a couple of years. The idea and inspiration: what if the French air force had left more than just a couple of Skyraiders in Northern African countries after their independence? The F8F was operated by the French Armée de l’air until 1954, even though primarily in Indochina. But some of these could have been transferred to countries like Chad, Central African Republic or Gabon, too, and from this thought this what-if model was born.
There are certainly better F8F kits (e. g. the Art Model kit with resin parts, including a finely detailed landing gear wells interior), but for a "budget build" or a conversion this one is a good starting point – and I had a Monogram F8F (Revell re-boxing) ready in stock. The model was basically built OOB, just with some cosmetic changes. The Monogram F8F in 1:72 holds only small surprises. It's a typical vintage Monogram kit (IIRC, the molds are from 1976) with raised (yet fine) details and vague fit - even though nothing fatal. PSR was basically necessary at any seam, esp. the unique wing/fuselage solution calls for some seam-filling. The cockpit interior is bare, but, except for the (quite nice) seat and the dashboard, nothing can be seen later. In order to pimp the interior, I added a dashboard – the kit comes with a rather symbolic one, consisting of two sections molded into the fuselage halves with an ugly seam. A styrene tube was added behind the engine block to take the propeller’s new metal axis, and a small pitot was added under the left wing, made from wire.
The clear parts (two pieces) are very transparent but came with lots of flash and massive attachment points to the sprue, what left visible marks on the parts. The landing gear is simple but O.K., very robust, but it appears quite stalky to me and the wells are totally bare. The oil cooler intakes in the wing roots are just holes, so I filled them with bits of foamed styrene. The underwing ordnance was changed into triple bazooka unguided missile launchers in the standard pylons' poristions (which had to be sanded away since they are molded into the wings' lower half), procured from an Academy P-51 kit, and on short notice I added four small bombs to the HVAR stations, from a Hobbycraft Skyraider. Not certain what they are supposed to be (maybe M47 incendiary bombs?), because of their small size and the vintage "box tail", but they could be light anti-personnel/shrapnel bombs?
Painting and markings:
I used the real-world Gabonese AD-4s as benchmarks – and even had a complete decal set for one of these machines (from a Hobbycraft kit) at hand. Consequently, I gave the F8F an overall NMF look, created with a base of Revell 99 (Aluminum), some single panels in Humbrol 56 (Aluminum Dope) and later a panel-shading with Humbrol 27001 (Matt Aluminum Metal Cote) and some good rubbing with a soft cotton cloth and a bit of graphite for some more depth in between the tones. Quite complex process, but it creates a nice, uneven and worn metallic look.
Parts of the cowling and the exhaust area became black, created with paint and decal material. The anti-glare panel was also painted in black, just with s slightly different tone (Revell 06, Tar Black).
I adopted a green cheatline as an individual aircraft marking, and the respective decals from the Hobbycraft Skyraider’s sheet were tailored accordingly to match the small F8F’s hull. A matching green tone was mixed for the wing, stabilizer and fin tips, and the propeller’s tip was painted green, too. The propeller blades’ tips received two yellow stripes on overall black – inspired by the design of the real Gabonese AD-4s’ markings.
All interior surfaces except for the cockpit were painted with bright green zinc primer (Revell 361, the cockpit ina darker Humbrol 226), the landing gear became silver-grey (Humbrol 56) – the former French F8Fs had kept the USN all-dark blue livery, and their landing gear would have been blue, too, but as a refurbished aircraft, stripped off of its former livery, would probably have a bare metal landing gear, too?
The kit received a black ink washing before aforementioned surface treatment was applied. After the addition of the decals the whole kit was sealed with a semi-gloss acrylic varnish to promote sine, except for the anti-glare panel, which became matt. Oil stains around the engine were created with Tamiya X-19 (Smoke) and soot stains around the guns and the exhaust ports were dry-painted with black acrylic paint and some graphite.
Well, this is, despite being more or less built OOB, a highly exotic what-if model, and I think that the NMF together with the green cheatlines suit the Bearcat well - adapting the paint scheme from a Douglas Skyraider onto the similar F8F was quite easy (and incidently the same path I had taken with another Monogram F8F in Cambodian markings some months ago).
