1:72 Monogram Grumman F7F-3 Tigercat

[DannyB]

I've just been through and caught up with this one. Bill, seriously, if you ever take up 1/48 modelling the rest of us are in trouble, this is looking incredibly!

 

And, well done for getting it to sit on all 3, knew you'd get it sorted!

[hacker]

this is coming along nicely Bill. like the marking choice too. Personally l like the one with the green nacelles

 

 

[Brandy]

That looks great!

As for the different diameter of the exhausts, as my old man would say, "a man on a flying horse wouldn't notice"!

Good idea re the plastic weld too, I'll have to remember that one.

 

Ian

[Navy Bird]

On 12/8/2016 at 05:27, DannyB said:

I've just been through and caught up with this one. Bill, seriously, if you ever take up 1/48 modelling the rest of us are in trouble, this is looking incredibly!

And, well done for getting it to sit on all 3, knew you'd get it sorted!

 

Thanks - I used to build 1:48 all the time (with an occasional 1:32 thrown in for good measure), it was my preferred scale. But I ran out of room to display the models, and found that there was a much larger selection of oddball subjects in 1:72 scale. I like having everything all in the same scale, OCD probably. However, I have two 1:32 Spitfires in the stash - the Tamiya Mk.IX and the Revell/Matchbox Mk.22/24 - along with a ton of aftermarket. I think the resin alone for the Mk.22/24 replaces half the aircraft in order to fix the errors. I really should build one of them. 

 

On 12/8/2016 at 09:00, hacker said:

this is coming along nicely Bill. like the marking choice too. Personally l like the one with the green nacelles

 

I have those markings on the Starfighter sheet, but I decided not to use them because the green on the nacelles won't be seen on the finished model due to the engines being exposed. I kind of wanted a Korean War bird anyway, and I like the two letter modex on the tail. I don't know if this particular aircraft served in Korea, but the squadron certainly did. According to the Ginter volume, the ships with the green nacelles and green stripes on the wings were instrument training aircraft from VMF-312 (A-99 modex) and VMP-254 (N1 modex). 

 

 

 

So, does anyone have the 1:72 Pavla/Octopus F7F-3N night fighter kit that they don't want anymore? 

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Navy Bird]

The cowling framework and the cowling ring have been added. The framework is a photoetch piece that you get to fold up, but it worked better than I thought it would at first. The cowling ring is resin, and was mounted to the front of the framework which in turn attaches to the engine mount. I'm not going to get carried away and scratch build the individual cowling panels because, as I think I said earlier, I'm actually lazier than @Procopius as hard as that may be to believe. Here is the current state of the attraction:

 

 

 

And a shot from behind so you can see how I opened up the oil cooler exit ducts.

 

 

It's hard to see in the photos, but I drilled a small hole in the center of the engine housing to accept the props later on. I cut off that nice shaft with the spline on it, but saved the pieces in my Magic Drawer of Fiddly Resin Bits. Someday I might find a use for them. I also cut the shaft off of the props, since what was there was too large in my opinion. I would have had to drill a huge hole in the front of the engines and I didn't want to do that. I'll put a short piece of a small diameter metal rod in the prop hubs, and I'll use that to better secure the props to the engines. I still need to paint the prop hubs (aluminum) and domes (Dark Sea Blue). The black blades and yellow tips were finished today.

 

Started looking at those vacuform canopies today, but that's as far as I got. Looking. I really don't like vacuformed anythings.

 

I also have some work to do in the cockpit, adding the control column and Mk.8 gunsight as well as painting the coaming black. And then there are a bunch of antennae - the main radio wire going from the tail to the mast (which also needs to be put back on) along with its lead-in wire, and then there are at least two whip aerials on the port top of the spine. According to the Ginter book, the whip aerials are "communicating antennae" - in another drawing in the book they are labelled as used by AT 5/ARR-1, AN365-632, AN526-6-10 (front aerial) and AN-32/APX-1, AN365-632, AN526-6-10 (aft aerial). I have no clue what that means (I assume they are designations for radio equipment since these labels also appear on boxes in the radio compartment) but it goes to show the extent of detail that is contained in Ginter's Naval Fighters Series. Amazing. 

 

Looks like we'll get her done by the end of the year and make sure she makes this year's edition of Uncle Navy Bird's Complete Waste of Time.    

 

Cheers,

Bill

[John Laidlaw]

52 minutes ago, Navy Bird said:

...I'm actually lazier than @Procopius...

 

I should be so lazy, lazy lazy lazy.

 

Beautiful stuff, Bill, just beautiful.

[Procopius]

4 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

 I'm actually lazier than @Procopius as hard as that may be to believe.

 

Impossible, really.

[Brandy]

Beautiful!

I'm looking forward to the "waste of time" edition...I may actually be able to do one of those myself this year on account of me being out of work for a long while, and therefore unusually productive!

 

Ian

[Cookenbacher]

Just catching up with this one Bill - just gorgeous.

[giemme]

Impressive, I love those exposed engines

 

Ciao

[Navy Bird]

Thanks guys!  

 

Today I summoned the courage to mount an attack on the vacuform canopy. I have two of them, so I can make at least one mistake. I made a nice guide for my razor saw with two parallel strips of that crummy Dymo label tape, and successfully separated the windscreen from the sliding portion on canopy number one. I then set about to cleaning up the edges and before I did too much I did a trial fit. Oops! Something is terribly wrong. The windscreen has a rather unique shape along the front bottom, so there's only one place you can align it to the fuselage. When I did that, the opening between the rear of the windscreen and the headrest looked too small - and I mean obviously too small. I've been staring at so many Tigercat pictures that it just jumped out at me and said "Yikes! Stop!" 

 

Here's a photo to explain what the problem is. I've lined up the rear of the kit windscreen frame with the rear of the vacuform  piece. Notice the BIG difference in length, shown at the front:

 

 

The difference is 3 mm. The opening for the sliding portion is 9 mm, so if I used the vacuform piece I would reduce the opening by 33%. If I were to take 3 mm off of the rear of the vacuform piece, I would lose the frame around the rear edge and more importantly the small piece that connects the rear and front framework, right at the top of the windscreen. Sorry, can't do it - I'll be using the kit windscreen.

 

I think this is due to forming the vacuform over the top of the kit part. Remember the photo I showed of that previously? Also note how much wider the vacuform piece is. I could probably get away with that, but not the length.

 

I will, however, use the vacuform sliding portion. Since it is also too wide, it fits over the spine perfectly! It and the kit windscreen (which I separated from the kit sliding portion) have been cleaned up, dipped in Future, and are now curing in the Kenner EZ-Bake Oven. 

 

I finished up the basic propellers today, including decals for the Hamilton Standard logo. These logos were not always present on the real aircraft, but I added them for effect. I used the stickers from the Starfighter F7F Tigercat sheet, but to be honest they look too big to me. They certainly look bigger than what is in the photos. Oh well, too late now!

 

 

It's hard to see, but the prop hub and dome are Dark Sea Blue. This was another one of those not so well defined areas - on some planes they were Dark Sea Blue, on others bare metal, and on others they were black. Looking at the black & white photos of HEDRON One's Tigercats, the grey tones look the same between the prop hub/dome and the fuselage. Which means...drum roll...nothing! I have a colour photo purporting to be an F7F-2N from 1944-45 where the hub and dome look blue to me:

 

 

What the heck, everything else is blue!  

 

I painted all the rockets a nice light grey, FS36375 I think, and then did the tips with Olive Drab ANA 613. I used Model Master paints here since they dry dead flat. This reminds me, I have to make some cannon barrels for the wing armament. All these little things - and I thought I was almost done.  

 

Cheers,

Bill

[StephenCJ]

She is coming together very nicely, Bill.

[rob85]

Very smooth work Bill, she looks excellent!

 

Rob

[TheBaron]

As usual when I look at one your builds I spend a lot of time smiling appreciatively. The same for this one Bill. The textures and shapes of the engines make a nice visual counterpoint overall smoothness of the fuselage.

Tony

[ejboyd5]

Looks like you found some "propeller" lettering to adorn the red stripe.

[ruudster]

Great stuff Bill, looks awesome!

[Derek A]

Coo, init good!

[Navy Bird]

On 12/12/2016 at 15:53, ejboyd5 said:

Looks like you found some "propeller" lettering to adorn the red stripe.

 

Yup - you know how hard it is to do that one letter at a time? Too freaking hard! That's why I relented and stole the decal from my E-2 kit. Now I need to buy that E-2 stencil decal sheet that somebody makes to replace them.    

 

On 12/12/2016 at 18:34, Derek A said:

Coo, init good!

 

I'm not sure I know what that means, but I think I like it!  

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Derek A]

I think it is a very impressive demonstration of the modellers art or, to sumarise, coo init good!

[Navy Bird]

I forgot to mention that I received this BIG box today. At first I thought the solar panels had finally arrived for my roof, but on inspection it was the new Handley Page Victor kit from Airfix! Woo Hoo! 

 

I had a quick fondle and I've got to say just one thing - it looks to be worth every last stinking penny. And then some!    

 

Cheers,

Bill

[StephenCJ]

I have 5kw on my roof and it is not overly exciting.  The excitement of checking how many kw we have generated has worn off.   The Victor will be more exciting far longer than the solar panels.  But on the up side the money saved by having solar could be spent on more kits.  SWMBO might not agree.

[Navy Bird]

Our house is all-electric (no natural gas or oil) so the installation will be 13kw. It will literally cover my entire roof. And, I need to have the installation finished by the end of the year so I can get the tax credits this year. I'm not counting on the next administration continuing any solar energy incentives. 

 

I painted up the rockets and added them to the stub pylons on the wings. I also added the four wing guns - at first I was just going to use my typical hypodermic needles but then I had a good look at the armament section of the Ginter book, and the Dash 3 Tigercat guns had this interesting flash suppressor with holes all around it. The closest I had were some resin gun barrels with cooling jackets, so I used them. Not entirely accurate but I think they look OK. 

 

 

I forgot that Monogram also moulded in the inner wing pylons. I think I'll leave those empty, although I could add a gravity bomb or two. I masked and painted the windscreen and canopy which should be ready for attachment to the model tomorrow. After that it's just the props and antennae.

 

The balance is still too precarious, so I think I'll be trying the trick with the wheel chocks. We'll see once the windscreen and props are on, they're the last components of any measurable weight (which ain't much!).

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. Oh, it looks like a pitot needs to be added to the lower wing, and I'll have to do something about that landing light. Hmmm...

[StephenCJ]

Because we have 3 phase power we can have 10 kw of solar panels which would be overkill as we only get 5.1cents for every kw we put back into the grid.  We have just spent $20,600 on airconditioning our house and might need more solar panels to cover its use, mmmmm..

 

Your Tigercat is absolutely the best.  I hope my Seahawk turns out nearly as good. 

 

I have to sort out the dogs before I can really get stuck into it.  I get a tad upset when animals are treated badly.

Edited December 13, 2016 by StephenCJ

[Hamden]

 

Getting better and better, just superb

 

   Roger

[Martian]

Bill, its those so called little bits t the end that add so much time to most builds. She is looking marvellous though. As to the Victor, you are lucky, I am being made to wait until Christmas day for mine.

 

Martian, I'm dreaming of a red Christmas