LanceB Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 Thanks for the information on the Aoshima kit. I *almost* bought one at a contest a couple of weeks ago, but the guy wanted too much money. I had a good look at what was in the box, and it looked pretty crude, but typical for that time period. I know the rudder was different, but I think the cowlings and spinners were too. There's are good comparisons in both the Squadron and Ginter Tigercat books. I was thinking about modelling one of the early Tigercats that were deployed to China right after the war, but I will put that on hold for another day! Cheers, Bill I do not have the Ginter book, only the Squadron one, and the FAOTW volume. The XF7F had spinners, which are in the Aoshima kit, but the prop blades are decidedly generic and don't look much like the 13'1" HS prop. And it was only the XF7F that had spinners, none of the production examples did. The actual cowlings I am pretty sure were the same across all variants. The China Tigercats were -2s and -2Ns, if you built a -2N you will need to make a canopy for the radar operator's position, however unlike the -3N the canopy was not bulged for head clearance so a "heat and smash" copy of the kit spine in that area would be sufficient, plus some gubbins in the hole under said canopy. Last Tigercat I built was a Korean War RN Tigercat II, replaced the cowls and props with parts from two Pioneer Sea Furies and used surplus Sea Hornet decals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 On 4/22/2015 at 19:28, LanceB said: Last Tigercat I built was a Korean War RN Tigercat II, replaced the cowls and props with parts from two Pioneer Sea Furies and used surplus Sea Hornet decals. A Royal Navy Tigercat II - afraid I missed that one. Photos! Cheers, Bill PS. The last time I paused this build it was to take part in a Group Build. Well, guess what? I went and did it again, and the Group Build I signed up for starts in a couple of days. For some reason I thought I had months...oh well. Maybe I can work on two models at the same time. I've never been very good at that though... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LanceB Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 A Royal Navy Tigercat II - afraid I missed that one. Photos! Cheers, Bill Sure - don't want to clutter up your build thread, so posted them here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234980588-f7f-tigercats/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hacker Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 Just out of curiosity Bill are you going to replace the wheels and with what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 On 4/23/2015 at 16:07, hacker said: Just out of curiosity Bill are you going to replace the wheels and with what? Yes, I'll be replacing the main wheels with a resin set made by Aires for the TBM Avenger. Closest I could find. I think someone earlier in the thread recommended that. David, maybe? The nose wheel, on the other hand, is a different story. I haven't found anything close to that yet. However, a lot of the nose wheels had a smooth cover over the spokes (which is how Monogram moulded it) so there is really no detail to be seen. It may be OK just like it is. Cheers, Bill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tailspin Turtle Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 I'm not sure that the "top of the wheel well is also the bottom of the wing." It's more likely the bottom of the TOP wing surface, or something like that. It clearly isn't the bottom of the wing, that's what both Monogram and Italeri did with their kits and, like you say, it's too shallow. Cheers, Bill I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure that bottom of the wing is present in the wheel well between the front spar (at 20% chord) and the rear spar, which is about the diameter of the main landing gear tire aft of that. The strength of the wing depends on that torque box. However, there is almost certainly no underside of the wing after the rear spar, providing the depth required for the retracted wheel. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 Thanks, Tommy. That sounds right when you explain it that way. I wish I had a nice exploded drawing of the nacelle/wheel well but I haven't found one yet. That, and a drawing that shows all the components of the main landing gear so I have a better idea of how it worked. That would help a lot when I try to add some more detail to what Monogram has provided. Cheers, Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tailspin Turtle Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 This is an annotated picture of the main landing gear wheel well. Note that the wheel well in some of the pictures has the water/alcohol tank and some, like this one, doesn't. On the Wylam F7F drawings, the oil tank is shown under the landing gear support structure, which is incorrect and may be the source of the error on the resin wheel well. I don't think you want to try to replicate the landing gear support structure. The Monogram landing gear does appear to be missing the drag link and retract actuator. The scissors should also be on the aft side of the landing gear strut. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hacker Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 Interesting. Any chance of getting a copy of those Wylam F7F drawings? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 On 4/24/2015 at 00:29, Tailspin Turtle said: This is an annotated picture of the main landing gear wheel well. Note that the wheel well in some of the pictures has the water/alcohol tank and some, like this one, doesn't. On the Wylam F7F drawings, the oil tank is shown under the landing gear support structure, which is incorrect and may be the source of the error on the resin wheel well. I don't think you want to try to replicate the landing gear support structure. The Monogram landing gear does appear to be missing the drag link and retract actuator. The scissors should also be on the aft side of the landing gear strut. Great stuff, Tommy! I really appreciate you taking the time to annotate that photo for the thread. Now I have to see if I make something that looks like this, but without cutting any big holes in the wings. I'm beginning to wonder if I can separate the oil tank from the resin piece so I could move it aft a bit. I have two sets of the Starfighter wheel wells, so I could sacrifice one of them. Cheers, Bill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted April 26, 2015 Author Share Posted April 26, 2015 Hi mates, I have some new photos to show the progress on the wheel wells and engine nacelles. Earlier, I described my scheme of gluing in the landing gear leg (but not the side strut) in order to set the angle. I did that, then cut off the side strut since it will be replaced by a photoetch piece. This left me with this: Next, I cut off part of the oil tanks, which was needed to provide clearance for the landing gear leg. I made a clean, straight cut since I thought it would look nicer than a round cut to match the gear leg. Starfighter also provide resin sidewalls for the wheel well, but I do not understand why one side is taller than the other. This is odd since both wheel wells use the same parts, there is no mirror image or anything like that. In other words, the resin piece for the left side of the port wheel well is the same part as the left side of the starboard wheel well. I dry fit everything, and the shorter side wall will leave a slight gap, but I don't think it will be very noticeable. Satisfied with everything so far, I elected to paint everything with Gunze H58 Interior Green. Here is what the nacelle/wheel well assembly will look like: I'll do a quick gloss coat, even though the Gunze paint has some sheen to it, and then add a wash to provide some shadowing. It will be much easier to do this with all the parts disassembled then if everything were glued. I think I will do the flat finish as well, and then glue the nacelle halves together. Oh, and I need to add the glycol tank to each side, too. During the dry fitting I discovered that they won't fit as designed either, as they are a wee bit too tall. I'll have to take some off the bottom before I paint them and put them in place. The oil tank is painted yellow in the photo of the restored warbird (the one that Tommy was kind enough to annotate for us), but it appears to be green in the unrestored photo. Starfighter instructs you to paint the oil tank aluminum and the glycol tank yellow, which doesn't agree with either photo. I have three different resources all with different answers! I'll probably never know for sure what was done. Although I think the wheel wells will look an order of magnitude better than either the kit itself or the Aires photoetch set, I'm a little disappointed that the Starfighter set has so many problems. But that's the way it goes, I guess. That's why they call it modelling. Cheers, Bill 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamden Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 Those wheel bays look really good! Nice work Roger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamden Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 How's this progressing Bill? Roger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tailspin Turtle Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 "Starfighter also provide resin sidewalls for the wheel well, but I do not understand why one side is taller than the other. This is odd since both wheel wells use the same parts, there is no mirror image or anything like that. In other words, the resin piece for the left side of the port wheel well is the same part as the left side of the starboard wheel well." Since the bottom of the wing is the top of the wheel well, the wing has dihedral, and the opening of the wheel well is level, the outboard sidewall should be a little higher than the inboard. Maybe you got two of the same side rather than a left and a right set? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted May 30, 2015 Author Share Posted May 30, 2015 On 5/26/2015 at 16:30, Tailspin Turtle said: Since the bottom of the wing is the top of the wheel well, the wing has dihedral, and the opening of the wheel well is level, the outboard sidewall should be a little higher than the inboard. Maybe you got two of the same side rather than a left and a right set? That's a good thought. However, the instructions from Starfighter say that "the main gear wells are identical for both port and starboard sides except for the location of the glycol tank." Luckily, the difference in height is not too noticeable. I have made some additional progress on the Tigercat, mainly finishing the assembly and painting of the nacelles. I'll post some pictures soon. I'm also participating in two Group Builds - the first is the F-4 Phantom Single Type Build where I'm building the 1:72 Hasegawa F-4S in the special VMFA-321 Hell's Angels fancy retirement scheme. The second is the Non-Injection Moulded Build, where I think I'll build the CMR 1:72 Sea Venom. I haven't started that one yet. Both of these Group Builds will affect my progress on the Tigercat. At least all three are Navy Birds! Cheers, Bill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hacker Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 we returning to this soon? just wondering Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted November 10, 2015 Author Share Posted November 10, 2015 On 11/9/2015 at 19:41, hacker said: we returning to this soon? just wondering Maybe when I finish the Fireflies. This is my one true shelf of doom kit that I need a KUTA. I return to it every now and then and do a little work, lately I've been doing more rescribing. So we'll see. When I see what Airscale is doing with his scratchbuilt 1:24 Tigercat model, I keep thinking about how I could do that in 1:72 scale. Then I lose my mind and go work on some other kit. Cheers, Bill 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hacker Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 Maybe when I finish the Fireflies. This is my one true shelf of doom kit that I need a KUTA. I return to it every now and then and do a little work, lately I've been doing more rescribing. So we'll see. When I see what Airscale is doing with his scratchbuilt 1:24 Tigercat model, I keep thinking about how I could do that in 1:72 scale. Then I lose my mind and go work on some other kit. Cheers, Bill Gee you too!? I got at least 5 ready to go and just as many l am still working on. My biggest problem. ....time and money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radleigh Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 Good to see a Tigercat being built, and love what you've done Bill. I just picked up a 1/32nd Vacform Tigercat, all Peters fault with his stunning 1/24th monster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hacker Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted March 14, 2016 Author Share Posted March 14, 2016 On 3/14/2016 at 07:14, hacker said: I'll be coming back to this one after I've finished the Sea Venom. This Tigercat has been sitting on the Shelf of Doom for far too long! I started this back in January of 2013 - yikes! Cheers, Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 (edited) Post redacted. DH Edited March 14, 2016 by David H Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted November 13, 2016 Author Share Posted November 13, 2016 Hey mates, what do you think? Should I finish this Tigercat? The Buccaneer S.1 is in the RFI forum, so I've got some time on my hands! Cheers, Bill 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 It's a yes from me Bill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephenCJ Posted November 14, 2016 Share Posted November 14, 2016 It's a yes from me Bill Copy from CedB's post. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now