CT Modeller Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 Vought F7U-1 Cutlass NAS Patuxent River & USS Midway, 1951 ‘Aurora’ is one of those names that have a mystical, nostalgic feel. It seems like the remaining Aurora kits are stocked in unknown dusty attics across the world. Imagine then my excitement when I came across one on sale for fiver on a stand at the Northolt Families day last year. What to do with it now? Shall I see what I can get on e-bay, put it in my own attic for a few more years....or maybe just built it !!! Yeah – just built it. This is what you get in the box: A few gigantic rivets and a pilot’s head in the cockpit was standard fare in the late 50s / early 60s. I was tempted to just put it together as-is, but the thought of getting decals to go down over those rivets made me decide to sand them all off. Control surface demarcations were raised, of course, so they had to be scribed back in. I had originally thought of leaving Jo Pilot in the cockpit, but the canopy shape was just so horribly wrong that I decided to mould a new one and along with that would be opening up the cockpit. I only put some very basic details and an approximate seat in there. There are all kinds of short cuts and dodgy shapes overall, but I thought I would leave it to keep something of the old Aurora character. That included the solid wheel wells and the original kit undercarriage, incredibly basic though it is (though eventually I did replace the torque links). Decals were the next issue. The kit ones were very, very yellowed. I liked the chosen scheme though, and found this photo of it: I found some replacement decals from Techmod, and they went on well. The small Bureau Number decal in front of the air intake was from the kit decal sheet to retain a link to the original! I wouldn’t want to do one of these again for a while, but it’s nice to have such a nostalgic model in the collection. 33 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polo1112 Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 Wonderful ! Such a nostalgia !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RODH2 Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 My first ever model, no, not the Cutlass, but an Aurora F-102 in, about,1958 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostbase Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 Has turned out very well indeed, the hard work paid off. Good to see an F7U-1 Cutlass too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Dyck Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 Love these nostalgic model kits! Very impressive! Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cngaero Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 That's really nice. You've done a magnificent job of de-riveting the beast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 Great build of a classic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
71chally Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 Really nice treatment of a classic, even better to see an early model F7U Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 You made a great improvment here indeed! I made it about '75 OOB - and it looks really different Congrats Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted September 7, 2016 Share Posted September 7, 2016 That's superb! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meatbox8 Posted September 8, 2016 Share Posted September 8, 2016 You've done an amazing job with this old kit. Looks great. The Cutlass may have been more dangerous to its pilots than any potential enemy but it sure looked good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bryanm Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 Lovely looking model. Interesting that that they re-released it in an updated box with a newer logo (not the old elliptical one), and that the instructions have addresses for Croydon and the Netherlands. Any idea what scale it is? Perhaps 1/50? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 For all this kit's faults, I really like what you have done with it. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Modeller Posted September 9, 2016 Author Share Posted September 9, 2016 Lovely looking model. Interesting that that they re-released it in an updated box with a newer logo (not the old elliptical one), and that the instructions have addresses for Croydon and the Netherlands. Any idea what scale it is? Perhaps 1/50? Good point about the scale, as I forgot to mention it! It's actually roughly 1/72, so much smaller than you were imagining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Womby Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 Well done. It's a treat to see how well that turned out. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thud4444 Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 I need a 1/72 Cutlass for a project I'm trying to start. I'd passed over this kit looking for the Fujimi one. I might have to reconsider that decision. Was it a really bad kit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 Nice job on the old beast! I haven't seen one of these kits in ages. You've really polished it up nicely. I think the original release of this kit was the late 1950s, so if this is a re-release (when? - I don't recognize that box at all) then it looks like the mould has held up well. When this was first released, Aurora put "F7U-3" on the box top, but changed it to "F7U" on subsequent releases. As you've said, this is really an F7U-1. There's nothing more satisfying than removing tons of rivets from an old kit - well, maybe a few things but you know what I mean. Cheers, Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bear Paw Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 (edited) You have made a good job of rehashing this old kit. I had a old Lindberg Helcat that consisted of very parts from the early 60's Very old and very wrong so I built straight out of the box, rivets and all. I did it with reacted undercarriage and put it on its stand. I like to build the really old ones straight out of the box just to see what they did look like. I think the scale of some of these old kits are very variable. Edited September 9, 2016 by Bear Paw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Modeller Posted September 9, 2016 Author Share Posted September 9, 2016 I need a 1/72 Cutlass for a project I'm trying to start. I'd passed over this kit looking for the Fujimi one. I might have to reconsider that decision. Was it a really bad kit? Firstly, there is no comparison between this old Aurora F7U-1, and the fairly modern Fujimi F7U-3 kit. As you can see from my photos, this Aurora kit is an example of the 1950s way of doing things. The Fujimi kit is a 'proper' modern kit with full detail, accurate and well moulded, but it is a -3 which is quite a lot different from a -1 so it depends what you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John R Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 For an F7U-1 Hannants stock the Anigrand version. Fujimi F7U-3s regularly turn up on Ebay https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ANIG7250 This is a lot better than many of their kits. There is one somewhere in the RFI section John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thud4444 Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 I'm gonna cut it up to make the unbuilt A2U-1 version. So I'd rather start with a cheap kit incase I mess it up. I never thought this old kit could turn out this great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John R Posted September 10, 2016 Share Posted September 10, 2016 The Fujimi kits on Ebay are usually cheap enough to risk chopping up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HL-10 Posted September 10, 2016 Share Posted September 10, 2016 Cracking job on the old kit! Excellent modelling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roberto Posted September 10, 2016 Share Posted September 10, 2016 Well done! Bulding this gem from the past was the right thing to do :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBaron Posted September 11, 2016 Share Posted September 11, 2016 You've upgraded the original in splendid fashion. 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