Grumman F7F-3 Tigercat

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Pete, she's looking good. I've always liked the Tigercat but never built one - maybe one day. I understand about the dark blue making it difficult to see things - I had the same problem when I built a P-61 Black Widow, all in black. Thanks for the info on the exhausts, I never knew that. And I knew where the 20mm cannon were, but not the .50cals. Regards, Jeff.

[Alan P]

Looking really good, and fast work! Good choice re the legs, they were Glossy Sea Blue like the rest of the airframe.

[Cookenbacher]

Yes, that's a stunner already Pete.

[Tailspin Turtle]

On 3/26/2020 at 3:24 PM, PeterB said:

Hi Guys,

 

Yes 20g is nowhere near enough it seems, but the nose leg is rather fragile - the rear strut has already broken but I have reinforced it with piano wire.  I can get quite a bit of lead in the nacelles and cowlings so we will see if that works - if not I will fall back on the clear plastic strut Monogram provide as a "prop"! Bit of a pain - guess the "N" with the longer nose would be more "modeller friendly".

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Strictly speaking, if you put in just enough weight to keep it from tipping back unless you touch the tail, there’s very little weight on the nose landing gear. However, if you “land” it nose wheel first on the shelf (a bad thing to do when flying, also) the added weight increases the model’s inertia and makes it more likely that the nose landing gear will break on touchdown.

 

Another solution to tail-sitting without adding weight is to drill a small hole (the size of the smallest diameter, fairly stiff wire you have) in the lower rear of one or both of the main landing gear wheels at an upward angle and insert a piece of the wire extending aft past the model’s center of gravity, which likely won’t be too far aft. It’s not very obvious if the wire is small enough.

[PeterB]

I think that the decs should have "bleached" enough by the weekend though lord knows if they will work given their age. The "star and bar" under the wing is likely to be a pain as it has to fit in between the rocket launcher stubs, speaking of which I might still have the 12 rockets I did not use on the Airfix Skyraider many years ago ( I used 500lb bombs instead). I presume the F7F-3 version did use them as I have pictures of the launchers, but none with rockets fitted - anybody know?

 

Pete

Edited April 2, 2020 by PeterB

[PeterB]

Made a start on the decs. Whoever designed the sheet clearly was not a modeller - all white decs on a white background is bad enought but they were packed so close together it was a real pain cutting them out without damaging them.

Anyway, so far so good. 3 weeks in the sun has reduced the yellowing so it is invisible on the dark blue background, and like the Airfix transfers of the same period they are pretty robust. One did crack but went back together with help from some thinned varnish. I am not looking forward to putting the one on under the wing as it will no doubt need surgery to fit round the rocket stubs, but I could always use one of my spares - incidentally I could not find the rockets though they may be in yet another spares box. Because the decs are thick there may be some silvering but I should be able to touch paint that out. The placement of the stencilling is not at all clear on the small painting guide pic!

 

Unfortunately I seem to have jumped the gun😄 putting the 50 cal barrels on as I broke one - if it does not go back on I may take the lot off and replace them with ones with a flash hider on. The only question is the alignment - normally the tapered end is longer at the top than the bottom to hide the flash from the gunner who is above the barrel - in this case perhaps I should turn them sideways as the pilot sits between the barrels if you see what I mean.

 

I have nearly finished the heavy duty antibiotics for the abscess in my mouth so I should be feeling a bit more like modelling before too long I hope! Should get this finished fairly quickly now.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[PeterB]

Finished at last, though I might give it a coat of satin varnish to protect the decs.

Given its age it has not come out too badly. I have now managed to brush paint one F7F Tigercat, F8F Bearcat, F9F Panther and F2H Banshee with one 16ml bottle of Xtracrylic Sea Blue and still have some left - pretty good! I will post to the gallery in a day or so.

 

Thanks for watching and stay safe.

 

Pete

Edited April 11, 2020 by PeterB

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Now that is a good looking Tigercat. 

[Alan P]

Great finish, lovely looking aeroplane. 

[AdrianMF]

Looking good there...

 

Regards,

Adrian

[PeterB]

Been a bit busy the last couple of weeks but I have finally got the finishing coat on and will post to the Gallery.

This is an old and somewhat crude kit and I have no idea how accurate it is but it went together fairly well and looks quite acceptable to me.

 

Thanks for watching.

 

Pete

[zebra]

Looks lovely Pete

[dnl42]

The F7F is quite a lovely aircraft, and you've done her proud She's a beaut! 

 

It's a common misconception to worry about the nose gear when adding weight. As you observed, it is just balanced right now. So close that if you were to lift the nose ever so slightly, it will probably rock back onto its tail. That slight bit of force you need to push up is the force (weight) on the nose gear. Bottom line, all that weight ends up on the main landing gear. 

[PeterB]

Hi,

 

You are quite right in this and most cases, though with the odd one or two kits with a long nose, such as the Vigilante or Concorde perhaps, putting a lot of weight in the extreme nose will press down fairly hard on the nosegear as it is a good few inches back, or so I seem to remember from the lectures on "levers/arms/moments" I had during my engineering degree course 50 or so years back. The main wheels obviously act as the pivot/fulcrum and will take most of the load in the majority of kits. It all depends on the amount of space available but the trick is clearly to put just enough weight in, and with the Tigercat it was indeed only just enough. As TT and others said, the real thing was easily pushed back onto its tail and the kit is entirely realistic in that respect. Now with my Fury, the kit nose leg is so fragile any weight would be too much but fortunately I was able to replace it with brass tube.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited May 2, 2020 by PeterB

[rob85]

That’s a brilliant finish Pete, well done.

 

Rob