Latest off my bench is the F8F-2 Bearcat by Hobby Boss, 1/48.  This was a thoroughly enjoyable and hassle-free build.

As a kid, I built the old Monogram 1/72 kit a few times.  As with many of those 72nd scale releases, I always wondered why they never produced one in 48th scale.  In fact, I never knew any 48th scale kits existed of this one as the stores that I could frequent never carried brands like Hawk (which did have a 48th scale Bearcat).  So as an adult, when I saw the Academy Bearcat in 48th scale, I snapped it up.  I did a decent enough job on it, but as I was perusing Scalemates one evening (which I do from time to time to look at kit instructions, reviews, and aftermarket parts), I happened across this Hobby Boss kit.  After looking at the instructions, I thought, I can do a better job on this kit than I did on the Academy.  So I added it to the stash.  This was a rare kit for me in that it did not languish for long in my stash, maybe a year.

Construction on this was trouble-free.  I added lead wire as ignition wiring on the engine, whip antennas out of .008 guitar wire, and an Eduard USN cloth seat belt set.  I used a different strategy to paint this bird, given that the Bearcat typically fielded a Dark Sea Blue overall paint scheme that on a model can be rather monotonous.  After priming, I sprayed splotches of white over the entire airframe, then followed that with splotches of black.  Then I sprayed the Dark Sea Blue (Vallejo) in light coats at very low pressure until the splotching was barely visible.  The effect worked exactly how I hoped it would, as this was the first time I've used this technique.  Photos do show this effect, but it looks better in person.

Of all the period photos I found of Bearcats, I didn't notice a lot of weathering on any of them.  I feel like the splotchy paint job was the most I needed for weathering, but did add a little gray + rust Tamiya weathering compound for exhaust streaks.

Decals performed perfectly.  Based on previous experience building Dark Sea Blue aircraft, I knew that I needed to trim as much carrier film as possible from each decal. That was a laborious process given the stencil font of the 103 and C markings, but in the end the effort was worth it.

Oh, and I started this build Friday (10/21/22) afternoon when I got home from work.  I don't think I've ever built a model that quickly.

Next up is a pair of Bf109E (-3 and -4) from Tamiya in 1/48.