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AMT Grumman F7F-3N Tigercat


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The kit, decals and bits to update this long term project. Usually a project that requires modifications to the original kit will normally take me a couple of years. So let see if I can just dedicate my time into this and get it done in 6 months.

The kit:

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The decals: Aeromaster #48-311, Tigercat Night Prowlers Pt 1

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Detail bits/upgrades: TD wheel set 48091, Cutting Edge, Nose strut (the nose will be loaded)

CE, 3N cockpit set and CE, Black Magic mask set.

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Cutting Edge Wing Fold set:

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Do not have the props, so I will use the kits incorrect ones. Most of the detail stuff I rounded up years ago. So it's time to build.

First step, removing the outer panels of the wing. AMT's plastic is really soft, and thank God the rubber tires that are in the kit only slightly melted the plastic lower RH stabilizer. Easy repair, forgot about them nasty things.

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Let's get this party started. More to follow, only thing that can slow things down is extreme heat in the work shop.

Chuck

Fly Navy

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Today a little cockpit work, first using MM acrylic interior green. Being that the plastic AMT uses is quite soft, it was easy removing the interior details to prepare for the resin cockpit.

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The nose wheel bay will be painted in GSB before the fuselage is assembled, even though I already ran a wash when it dawned on me that it will not remain Interior Green.

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Cutting Edge's cockpit floor, a quick test fit so far shows this may be a drop in without any major trimming to fit. Crossing eyes and fingers.

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This will be it for now, more to follow. Tomorrow a day off to enjoy the fourth. God Bless The United States of America, happy 4th everyone.

Chuck

Fly Navy

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Glad there wasn't too much damage from those plastic-eating tires. I bought my -3 2nd-hand; fortunately somebody had already removed those nasty bits.

I see you're not too far from me, I'm near Los Alamitos.

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Glad there wasn't too much damage from those plastic-eating tires. I bought my -3 2nd-hand; fortunately somebody had already removed those nasty bits.

I see you're not too far from me, I'm near Los Alamitos.

Yes Los Al, use to race horses at Los Alamitos back in the 80's. Hit the pick six one night, and in a stuper (not drunk, don't drink)claimed a horse with the money we won. Trotter's and Pacers. It was a great 3 year run. Learned a lot and will forever fondly remember those days. Live in the IE since those days, Chino, Pomona, Rancho now currently in Rialto. Saving up and will move back to Rancho just love that town. Your about an hour in the OC away from me on a good day when the freeways are just that. Up late too, no work tomorrow. Enjoy your 4th Dave, got the dogs, steaks, burgers and links ready.

Chuck

Fly Navy

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Today a little time spent on the IP.

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And also on the pilot's seat.

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This is a first for me working with any Cutting Edge resin, and so far so good. Everything is fitting ok when testing.

Installed the LH side interior panels on LH fuselage for the cockpit and rear flight officers compartment. Looks rather plain on the latter. A little black and silver for the details. And a wash to highlight the details.

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The cockpit floor with some details added and highlighted.

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Thats it for now. More to follow this weekend. Thanks for viewing.

Chuck

Fly Navy

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Well tonight will address the RH side cockpit panel and the completed rear operators cockpit.

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Air brushed GSB in the nose bay area and installed the upper nose wheel bay.

The rear operators cockpit before the belts are installed. Little wash on the stringers, silver pencil to highlight wear high use areas.

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Then installed the front cockpit floor and seat. Also the instrument panel. Minor trimming other wise it was a drop fit. Test fitted the LH side fuselage, everything lined up nicely, no conflict with the nose gear bay roof and the resin cockpit parts and IP.

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The rear operators cockpit, belts installed, rather cramped so I wonder how short you had to be to sit comfortably in the back. Then again, when was a Marine comfortable unless he had a weapon in his hand. Uh rah!

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Thats it for tonite. More to follow. Thanks for viewing.

Chuck

Fly Navy

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The rear operators cockpit, belts installed, rather cramped so I wonder how short you had to be to sit comfortably in the back. Then again, when was a Marine comfortable unless he had a weapon in his hand. Uh rah!

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Yeah, that had to hurt...

That's a fine looking interior!

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A small update tonite. Had the itch to do the engines. First painting the cylinders all black and then MM Metalizer steel over the black, this actually enhances the cooling vanes on each head as the edges capture the metalizer. Found this to be easier to replicate the buildup of oil within the cyl head cooling fins. Also looks better than overall metalizer and then a wash into the cooling fins. Lt Grey for the cyl block. And aluminum for the harness and gloss black pushrod.

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Thats it for today. A quickie thanks for viewing, more to follow.

Chuck

Fly Navy

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Once the cockpit work is completed things move on quite rapidly. Assembled the fuselage, hopefully have plenty of weight in the nose, it is quite heavy now. Looks like the metal nose strut will come in handy. The nose gear bay as well as the mains were painted Aeromaster Acrylic GSB. The engine nacelle interior were airbrushed as well.

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Next assemble the LH engine nacelle and installed it. Some minor seam work will need to be done here. The extension aft of the wing has a little step as it attaches to the back end of the nacelle.

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The low profile ft view that really sets the Tigercat off from any other aircraft flying in that era. Tail planes intalled, the LH stab may be a tad bit lower than the RH side.

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Next to complete the RH nacelle and install it. Work on the sub assy's and test fit the wing fold inserts on the wings.

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With the basic airframe completed some minor seamwork started. Still need to check the center of balance and see if any more weight is still required. But for now getting to this point in less than a month for me is quite a feat.

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More to follow as we get this Tigercat closer to the paint shop.

Chuck

Fly Navy

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With the basic airframe assembled, the main wings installed. Tailplanes as well. Next was to assemble and install the engines and attach them to the nacelles. A little prepainting on the cowlings, and while I was at it the tail was painted as well. More like using the black as a primer, by no means this is the final finish on these components.

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Next is to prepare the wings to accept the wing fold inserts. So far the test fit will be a little tight. But first the seam work was completed, my worry was the trailing edge right above the engine nacelle but it cleaned up rather nicely with very little putty.

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Then went ahead and painted the wheels Aeromaster Glossy Sea Blue.

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As well as painting the nose, main gear struts and wheel bays as well. Then the bomb racks were installed under the wings.

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With that done for today. Will continue on next with the Cutting Edge wing fold inserts. So more to follow.

Chuck

Fly Navy

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  • 3 weeks later...

Update, time to install the CE wingfold inserts on each wing. After a quick test fit, a couple of issues. So finally a snag, the cockpit was a breeze pretty much a drop in fit. So now after cruising along, a bump on the road, this why this is a fun hobby. So the challenge is that the RH insert is a little misaligned and a little to wide for the wing opening. The LS side does align ok but is even a little wider which kind of hard to figure out why as they look the same when put side by side.

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Going to concentrate on the LH side, Rh side was able to settle ok once after some trimming and opening up the wing fold hinges on the wings and some wiggle got it fit without splitting the seams on the wings.

The LH side is where we are going to struggle with. The wing fold hinge opening aligned ok on the upper wing, but it split the seams on both the leading and trailing edges.

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So with some cyno and clamps I left to see if I can those edges to close and not pop open. Was able to accomplish that with the trailing edge.

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Not so with the leading edge. May have to insert some plasticart and fill. Don't if it will throw off the dynamics of the look of the wing when finished, will see how it goes once the cyno sets and will fill. With that we will call it a day. More to follow.

Chuck

Fly Navy

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Interesting. The right side fit reasonably well yet the left didn't? Wonder whether it's the resin, plastic, or perhaps both that are contributing to the differences? Anyway, I'm looking forward to see this with the wings folded--it will be very nice indeed!

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  • 4 months later...

After a long hiatus, an unexpected move. Kind of threw us for a loop. Also moving just takes the motivation away. Now that we are settled in. Back to work and hopefully get the Tigercat finished. We had left off with completing the airframe,inserting the wing fold bits. Now we will use Cutting Edges masks to mask off the canopy to prepare for painting.

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Here is CE's masking set I will use.

Working front to back. 1st applying the masks on the windscreen. 3 sections. Easy to apply and they are sticking to canopy and staying put and conforming well to the curves.

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Next the canopy, 1 piece covering this section. Again applies quite easily,

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The rear operator canopy is a 2 piece affair that also takes in account for the hump in the glass. The first piece attaches along the frame rail then 2nd piece compensates for this and covers that section of the glass. Pretty thought out process.

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So with that we can go to the paint shop and airbrush the canopy frames interior green before laying the basic black coat. Using the masks was not tedious at all. Though not a tough frame to mask with just masking tape. Still this is the one thing I really do not like to do is mask. So until next time. More to follow.

Chuck

Fly Navy

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Taking advantage of spring like weather. Today airbrushed the canopy section of the airframe Aeromaster Interior Green.

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Let it sit a day and airbrush the black.

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Will try something new for that I am sure has been done before when painting a black airframe.

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That is it for now a quick update. More to follow.

Chuck

Fly Navy

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As this GB winds down, I am quite happy to be in the final stages of this project. Now at this point, I airbrushed Xtracylix acrylic Gloss Black on the overall airframe. Starting at the bottom and working my way to the top. This color sprays rather well out of the brush, not much issue in clogging that can be an issue with acrylics.

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After airbrushing the overall Glossy Black, I then used the new Testor Polly Scale Oily Black which is a flat base black with a not as a jet black per say, the shade is lighter and gives the overall airframe some contrast than just leaving it in just Black.

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Painting different panels, using it to post shade some of the panel lines enhances the look and also breaks up the overall black, hoping when the Flat Clear coat is applied it will still show this effect.

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Next to apply Future as a clear coat for the decaling phase and also to do some weathering as well.

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So this is it for now, so far so good. Next to apply the Future clear coat and then the decals, this scheme will be pretty basic, not much in stenciling or markings. So this shouldn't take more than 1/2 a day.

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Until next time, Merry Christmas to all.

Chuck

Fly Navy

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Got the decals applied. Easy process as there are no stencils on this subject to worry about. The hardest decal to put on was the prop warning stripe on the nose, very delicate and a perfect fit. Using the Microscale system which is what I use. The basic Black was Xtracrylix Night Black which is glossy, then a random airbrushing of Polly Scale Oily Black and then gloss coated with future. Then used for the first time for me was Life Color Flat clear coat.

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USMC Modex 24, after the decals were applied.

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The Oily Black panels showing under the clear coat breaking up the overall Black. So far what I wanted it to do, so hopefully the Flat Clear doesn't even it out.

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The outer folding wing panels decaled ready to flat coat and install.

When mixing the Life Color Flat clear, it is quite thick and really had to thin it down. Not like the Pactra Flat and Polly S Flat which you could almost shoot right out of the bottle. But I like the way it layed down for me. I was totally satisfied in how the final coat looked once it dried. The blotchiness and un even look was exactly what I really wanted to simulate for this finish. What you would see from the harsh environment of the Korean Peninsula.

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The sinister look of the paint job and what this aircraft mission was all about. Did have some silvering from the decals, but I could hide a lot of that with some paint chipping that I will do when it's time to a little bit more weathering and heavy use areas.

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Now to set it off and ready to add the final bits and darn, I just cannot find the props anywhere. So I ordered a set from Ultra cast, Thank God they had some in stock, but will they get here before the 1st? Cross my fingers.

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So now the final phase, install the landing gear, doors and ordnance. Almost done, just hope the Props show up in time. Anyway Happy New Year. More to follow.

Chuck

Fly Navy

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Lookin' good Chuck!

Thanks David, it is actually finished except for the props. Found one, but ordered a set from Ultracast but I don't think they will arrive here until after the 1st. Added the final bits today. Wanted to post the final images but it isn't really done without any propellers in the completed thread.

Chuck

Fly Navy

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