AMT 1/48 F7F-3 Tigercat

[oortiz10]

Hey all, I'm back with my second completed submission to BM. 

 

This is AMT's plastic with TD wheels, Wolfpack Resin's wingfold, Obscureco props, and SAC's metal gear (sort of). I used the kit's NLG and MLG but SACs retraction struts on the main gear. The national insignia and squadron codes on the wings are painted on. The codes on the nacelles and the branch markings are the kit's decals. The kit is painted with MM and Testors' "little square bottle" enamels. Weathered with pastels and Flory washes. 

 

Anyway, here she is...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments, questions, and criticisms are welcome. Thanks for looking!

Cheers,

-O

[billn53]

There’s something you don’t often see. And, so well done! Thanks for sharing this beauty with us.

[Harold55]

Very nice and I love the wingfolds.

[dnl42]

That's most excellent! 

 

I love the color variations. And well, it is a gorgeous aircraft! 

[Maginot]

Very nice work. Like the folded wing pose. Did any actually serve aboard carriers? I have but one remaining Testors enamel in the little square bottle.

[franky boy]

Great work! We don’t see enough Tigercats on here. 

 

The wingfold set looks a good one. 
 

James 

[BleedingBlue]

I built this kit about a year ago.  Yours turned out much better than mine.

[oortiz10]

Hey everyone, I want to say thanks for the compliments and the Likes. The kit itself goes together well, although, the landing gear is very fiddly. The wingfold is nicely molded and is practically a drop-in fit. I needed very little filler to blend things in. The wingtips don't have a very positive attachment mechanism, but some two-part epoxy did the job. 

 

To answer Maginot's question, no, they never served on carriers. They were too big for the smaller Essex class ships and failed carrier qualifications. While trying to qualify for the larger deck carriers, a Tigercat landed hard and had one of its wings ripped off in the mishap. As a result, the Tigercat was never approved for carrier operations.

 

I agree that the Tigercat is a good looking airframe. I've had the chance to watch one fly at a local airshow, and I admit that it looks sleek slicing through the sky. I'm even thinking about getting another one but building it with the wings extended. It's a fun kit. I recommend getting your hands on one and adding it to your shelf, if you can.

 

Thanks again!

-O

[Bertie McBoatface]

With the big engins and tiny fuselage (from in front) this reminds me of those racers from Star Wars!

 

Lovely build 

 

[Ngantek]

Beautiful build. the colours are really striking, and the light weathering really brings it together. Did you preshade to get that colour variation?

I have the same kit and wingfold conversion sitting the the stash, so it's nice to see that it can build into something great.

[oortiz10]

Again, thanks to everyone for the Likes and the compliments. They're all very much appreciated!

 

To answer Ngantek, my technique was more of a "preshading" and "marbling" combo. After priming with gray, I sprayed just about every blue in my inventory in random patches and patterns. I did highlight a few lines here and there, but mostly it was spraying random patterns in different blues.

 

 

After I had a bunch of panels painted, I used Testors' Flat Sea Blue in the little square bottle as my final color. I misted it on until I was happy with the "depth" of its coverage. I would have liked to have ended up with a little more mottling, but the subsequent gloss and flat coats darkened the final color and increased its coverage. Oh well. I still think it looks OK.

 

Hope that answers your question and thanks all again for looking!

 

-O

[Wulfman]

A beautiful looking Tigercat, great build !

 

Wulfman

[Peter W]

Very nice build and finish.

 

Pete