hsr Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 This is my build of the Octopus/Pavla 1/72 Grumman F7F-3N Tigercat. I acquired this kit from @Creepy Pete(thanks again) 2 years ago and promised to build it last year. And a year late, here it is. This is my first Octopus build and I have to say I was not impressed and would rank them in the lower tier of injection moulded plastic kits. One step above Mach 2 which is in a class by itself. I have 2 other of their kits in my pile and I shudder to think about building them. The kit is mostly plastic with a few resin parts, vac canopies, a Pavla interior, and decals. The vac canopies were actually pretty good with good demarcation of where to cut and window framing. The Pavla interior, like all the other Pavla interiors I have used, almost, but not quite fit the fuselage halve and the same can be said for the rest of the kit. It also had and eclectic set of parts not included with instructions to scratch build them. This kit required filling the entire large nose with #10 shot to get it to stand on the nose. I was able to find one review of this kit on the net (https://model-scale.com/grumman-f7f-tigercat) and I agree with everything he says including "The Octopus decals were far too thin; brittle; unable to be moved over the surface of the model to their correct position, and simply did not react at all to setting solutions!" I tried giving them a coat of Microscale Micro Superfilm and this appeared to solve most of the problem. That is until they dried when there was massive silvering on an unprecedented scale and after using copious amounts of Micro Sol I was forced to remove them and cobble together most of the markings from my spares. Missing are the "VMF(N)-542" and the data block that goes under the tail. Starfighter made an F7F-3N decal sheet (72-120) but it is discontinued and impossible to find. It will have the pieces I am missing and if it is ever reissued I will grab one up and add them. Well thanks to the generosity of @philp I was able to get the Starfighter sheet and I have updated the model: So if I haven't tired you out complaining here are the pictures: Next up will be the Sword AD-4W which should be a much more pleasant build. Enjoy 30 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Creepy Pete Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 Cool! Nice to see it completed. You were braver than me. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsr Posted June 29, 2020 Author Share Posted June 29, 2020 24 minutes ago, Creepy Pete said: You were braver than me. Braver or dumber? Thanks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
binbrook87 Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 Wow. Despite your trials it's come out beautifully. Superb job 👌 I love the Tigercat but there's not many kits about in 72nd scale. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsr Posted June 29, 2020 Author Share Posted June 29, 2020 6 minutes ago, binbrook87 said: there's not many kits about in 72nd scale. Just the Monogram as far as I know. It looks like Lone Star Models has an F7F-3N conversion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajmm Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 Beautiful build of a beautiful aircraft. Love it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 That's very cool, I've always been a big fan of the Tigercat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyOD Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 For all the aggro, the end result looks fantastic. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wulfman Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 A remarkable job considering, great stuff ! Wulfman 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsr Posted July 1, 2020 Author Share Posted July 1, 2020 Thanks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philp Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 Looking forward to seeing you use the decals I sent. I have the Monogram kit and the conversion set plus engines and wheel wells so if I ever get the time to play with it it should be a drawn out build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 Very nice work sir 👏 👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shalako Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 You know, this is one of those kits/aircraft scale models that you MUST have in your collection! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
112 Squadron Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 This is an outstanding model and an impressive result given the fact that you had overcome so many obstacles to finish this kit. Indeed, this is truly a testimonial to your skills and experience as a modeller. 👏 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsr Posted December 10, 2020 Author Share Posted December 10, 2020 As stated when I first posted this build the kit decals were useless and I had to make due with generic decals from my leftovers, and could not do the aircraft specific ones. I knew there was a discontinued Starfighter decal sheet so I tried to match it as close as I could hoping that someday I would be able to locate it and fill in the details. Well thanks to the generosity of @philp that day has come and I have updated the model: So it is now complete. Enjoy 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
112 Squadron Posted December 10, 2020 Share Posted December 10, 2020 It´s nice to see your Tigercat with its full markings now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philp Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 Looks great. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 Too bad you had troubles! The build looks fantastic! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsr Posted December 18, 2020 Author Share Posted December 18, 2020 7 hours ago, opus999 said: Too bad you had troubles! The build looks fantastic! All's well that ends well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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