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1/48 F11F Tiger Options


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I'm hoping I'm missing something here.  I am trying to build all the Blue Angels aircraft in 1/48, which for the most part will be pretty easy.  But that means I need a F11F.  I know Fonderie Miniatures made one that was really not bad for a multi media kit.  It seems impossible to find now.  Lindberg makes one that is all over the place, but the shape of the nose looks completely off.  And I think there was a vacuform kit, but I can't even find out from who or if I can even buy it anywhere now. 

 

So, am I missing any options?  At one point KittyHawk was teasing a 1/32 F11F, but that project seems to have been abandoned.  Technically not even the right scale, but maybe I could either make an exception or maybe they'd down scale it as well.  Just seems like not many options here. 

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Yeah. Right now you're in the middle of a desert. I built the Fonderie kit years ago. It's out of my scale, but I just like the Tiger so I built it for FSM review. It was not a pleasant experience, but you can make a pretty decent model from it. But good luck finding one. I can't imagine it will be long before some manufacturer will come along with a 1/48 Tiger, but you guys waited a long time for a decent Fury. 

 

I've built the entire Blue Angel display birds in 1/72 - even using the truly TERRIBLE old Aurora F7U-1. Did that back in the '90s and have been rebuilding/repainting some of them. Also have to add the Super Bug which is now entering BA service.

 

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Yes, the FM kit is an incredibly hard build. But it is accurate and it comes with BA decals. Now they are getting pricey because they are getting rare and harder to find. Ebay is probably your best bet for finding one if you want to buy. I sold my copies thinking KH was close to doing one.

 

Kitty Hawk teased the possibility of doing a 1/32 Tiger. They have since decided if they do it, it will be 1/48 to go along with the Cougars, Banshee and Fury's they have already produced. A year or so ago they released a CAD drawing of the Tiger and it was well done with lots of detail. That's a lot of work to just show an image on the net. I think they will eventually do it, it's just a matter of when. They still have the late Banshee and the Cutlass, both have been announced as works in progress so it just makes sense they will do the Tiger as well. 

 

I think Kitty Hawk ought to try and do a F3H Demon as well. Aside from the F-8 and F-4 they will then have covered almost all of the USN's 50's fighters. 

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The Lindbergh 1/48 scale model is the prototype Tiger (when it was still designated F9F-9). There are MANY shape and dimensional differences between the prototypes and production aircraft. As far as general shapes and outline, Lindberg actually did a good job. Some sources say that it's underscale- it is not. They simply didn't take into account the differences of the prototype aircraft. That said, it would take a lot of scratchbuilding and conversion work to make it into any production aircraft but it has been done.

 

Collect Aire did a resin and white metal kit. It represents a long nose production aircraft but it is not a very good kit. There are some shape and dimensional issues and the panel lines are wide, deep, and not very straight (think of the guy doing the Matchbox panel lines after a few drinks). If you don't like resin kits and don't want a lot of headaches, I wouldn't recommend tracking one of these down.

 

FM's model is typical of a limited run kit. The quality, unfortunately, seems to be hit or miss depending on the production run. It's not easy to build but patience and test fitting will yield a nice model. I think most experienced modelers should be able to handle it. I would rate this as the best option of the few that are available.

 

If you want detail photos of the Tiger, send me a PM. I have a lot of them, including ones that I took of the actual Blue Angels jet at the Combat Air Museum in Topeka. I have everything: cockpit, wheel wells, you name it!

 

I hope this helps a little...

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13 minutes ago, Chriss7607 said:

The Lindbergh 1/48 scale model is the prototype Tiger (when it was still designated F9F-9). There are MANY shape and dimensional differences between the prototypes and production aircraft. As far as general shapes and outline, Lindberg actually did a good job. Some sources say that it's underscale- it is not. They simply didn't take into account the differences of the prototype aircraft. That said, it would take a lot of scratchbuilding and conversion work to make it into any production aircraft but it has been done.

 

Collect Aire did a resin and white metal kit. It represents a long nose production aircraft but it is not a very good kit. There are some shape and dimensional issues and the panel lines are wide, deep, and not very straight (think of the guy doing the Matchbox panel lines after a few drinks). If you don't like resin kits and don't want a lot of headaches, I wouldn't recommend tracking one of these down.

 

FM's model is typical of a limited run kit. The quality, unfortunately, seems to be hit or miss depending on the production run. It's not easy to build but patience and test fitting will yield a nice model. I think most experienced modelers should be able to handle it. I would rate this as the best option of the few that are available.

 

If you want detail photos of the Tiger, send me a PM. I have a lot of them, including ones that I took of the actual Blue Angels jet at the Combat Air Museum in Topeka. I have everything: cockpit, wheel wells, you name it!

 

I hope this helps a little...

 

Thank you for the comments on the Lindbergh kit!  It seems my best bet is to either wait/wish for the Kittyhawk kit, or find an FM kit.  I very well may take you up on those pictures sometimes.  I feel like my best bet is to try to build all the other birds first, and then see where I'm at.  So far, A-4F done, to do....everything else, including 2 Fat Alberts. 

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You're welcome! And now you have to add the Super Hornet to your list! 😄

 

I had the privilege of meeting Captain Bob Rasmussen who flew Tigers with the Blue Angels for a couple of seasons. He was a really interesting person to talk to. I asked why the short nose Tigers in 1958 had the angular, block lettering, for only that year. He said that it was a trial thing and that no one liked it so they went back to the script style lettering on the long nose Tigers in 1959. Incidentally, I thought the '58 paint scheme looked cool!

 

Now that I think of it, I actually have the painting blueprints from Grumman. I had them scanned when I was at Pensacola a couple of years back. It actually gives the mixing information for the blue and the color call-out for the yellow. If you need them, I can pass those along as well.

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6 minutes ago, Chriss7607 said:

You're welcome! And now you have to add the Super Hornet to your list! 😄

 

I had the privilege of meeting Captain Bob Rasmussen who flew Tigers with the Blue Angels for a couple of seasons. He was a really interesting person to talk to. I asked why the short nose Tigers in 1958 had the angular, block lettering, for only that year. He said that it was a trial thing and that no one liked it so they went back to the script style lettering on the long nose Tigers in 1959. Incidentally, I thought the '58 paint scheme looked cool!

 

Now that I think of it, I actually have the painting blueprints from Grumman. I had them scanned when I was at Pensacola a couple of years back. It actually gives the mixing information for the blue and the color call-out for the yellow. If you need them, I can pass those along as well.

I already have a -E ordered once Spruebrothers stocks the Gemini Jets "Illinois One" later this week!  I have a Cameo 4 Silhuotte cutter, so I'm hoping to be able to cut masks myself for a lot of these birds.  Decals for the F6F and F8F in particular are sparse.  The only ones I see are from Draw Decals and I'm not sure the "gold leaf" lettering is consistent with what I see in photos. 

 

Bottom line is there's no tradition like the Blues...OABAAB.  I'll be making all the show birds, Beatle Bombs, training birds (T-33/TO-2/TV-2), Casper, transport birds, and so on...of course, it'll take me decades probably to finish them all. 

Edited by ESzczesniak
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I spend a lot of time in Pensacola, although sadly not recently, and have a lot of great friends down there at the museum. The Blue Angels have a great heritage and it's always a lot of fun to watch them fly. I don't think I could ever get tired of watching them put on a show! I think that the Tigers were some of the best looking airplanes ever to wear the Blue Angels colors. I just think that the F-11 screamed "1950s!". I really hope to be able to see the new Super Hornets and Fat Albert fly.

 

I did most of the work on the newest version of the F6F Hellcat Detail & Scale. I added in the Blue Angels section after sitting outside after work watching the Blues practice for the Tinker AFB airshow last June. Photos and references on their Hellcats are very thin. That's mostly because, as Butch Voris put it, they had no idea that the whole flight exhibition thing would last that long, let alone 70+ years! They didn't document a whole lot. I was able to find out the BuNos of the Hellcats that they used and what eventually happened to all of them. I didn't want to put the same material out there, but like I said there isn't a whole lot to begin with. Tommy Thomason helped with some of the photos and the references for the color drawings. There was a book that I saw once that had a photo of the Blue Angels flying their last show in the Hellcat at Grumman's Bethpage factory. I really wanted to find that one and include it, but I couldn't find it for the life of me! 

 

The blue used on the Hellcats is also not well documented. All that there is really to go off of is Butch Voris's description. I have the 1/48 Hasegawa F6F-5  that I plan on doing in Blue Angels markings. My guess is Tamiya's spray can AS8 Navy Blue. It's dark blue but not Gloss Sea Blue. Just an idea. And the Hellcat is a different subject for a different forum! 😄

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1 hour ago, MarcB said:

That is another bad resin copy of the Lindberg kit however it is a more extensive modification. Really if you want an accurate Tiger right now the FM kit is truly the only option until KH or Trumpy/HB do one. Bew prepared for a lot of work.

 

The Tiger is one of my favorite USN aircraft. I saw the BA's fly them at airshows when I was kid. My dad was in the Navy at the time. Hopefully KH will actually do one. If they do as good a job on it as they did on their Fury it should be an excellent model kit. 

 

Chriss7607: If you don't mind I would like a copy of your BA reference material as well if possible. Thanks. 

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I looked at the photos and I can say that that the masters started as a Lindberg Tiger. The center section is mostly what gives it away. The slots for the wing attachments are the same along with the too small and too shallow main wheel wells. Granted, the smaller aft sections have been added but it's still easy to tell which kit it started as. Even the stabilator attachment points are the same. Don't get me wrong, it's still an impressive effort especially with what he had to start with.

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On 8/24/2020 at 8:25 PM, Chriss7607 said:

I looked at the photos and I can say that that the masters started as a Lindberg Tiger. The center section is mostly what gives it away. The slots for the wing attachments are the same along with the too small and too shallow main wheel wells. Granted, the smaller aft sections have been added but it's still easy to tell which kit it started as. Even the stabilator attachment points are the same. Don't get me wrong, it's still an impressive effort especially with what he had to start with.

I don't know what the Scratchaeronautics kit sells for but the FM kit can be had for ~$100.00 give or take. Still a far more accurate model.

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13 minutes ago, jpk said:

I don't know what the Scratchaeronautics kit sells for but the FM kit can be had for ~$100.00 give or take. Still a far more accurate model.

If I see one pop up on EBay, I’ll jump on it. But I haven’t been seeing one as of recent. 

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  • 1 year later...

I received one of the Lindberg kits from someone close, so I will get it built. Yes. It does appear to be a reasonable F9F-9, but you'll want to remove the rivets, seal the non-scale hatch, leave off the imaginary unguided rockets under the wings and the not-for-this-version boundary layer splitter. The pilot's seat is better than you might expect but nothing related to an F9F-9, or an F11F-1. The cockpit is bare, the landing gear wells are skinned over just inside the doors. Gear legs and wheels and tires are generic. An Eastern European source sells separate wheels and tire in resin, I've bought a set but not opened or measured them yet. Lindberg's generic afterburning turbojet is included- same as the F8U-1 I'm pretty sure. The jet exhaust is completely unrealistic. a straight tube made or found can be the non-afterburning exhaust duct.

 

Get a copy of Ginter's Naval Fighters #1 and #40, both featuring the F11F-1. #1 shows all 4 versions of the Grumman model 98 that were built and flown. The F9F-9 was developed into the first F11F-1, with a slightly longer nose, distinctly different windscreen and canopy, and slightly different engine air intakes.  [Corrected: The air-intakes and boundary layer splitter develop to their final form] The intakes need boundary layer splitters but the kit's parts for intakes and splitters will need revision. [Added: The beveled edges on Lindberg's parts were unsuccessful, flat plates worked well. But the station drawing in both NF #40 and Detail and Scale #17 shows the bevel.]

 

For all versions, missing stuff you get to decide how much you want to create includes the cockpit, ejection seat, landing gear wells, legs, wheels and tires, engine intake ducts and engine exhaust. A 50% enlargement of the Hasegawa kit and any cockpit detail set will challenge most of us. Note that radio antennas are installed under the back of the sliding canopy.

 

But Hasegawa's ejection seat isn't right, and you'll need to satisfy yourself on what seat is right for the version you've chosen. The Navy chose to retrofit Martin-Baker Mk 5 seats across the board during the service life of the F11F-1s, and bought replacements for the F11F-1s, but never installed them. When two F-11As were returned to active service to test the Rohr vectored thrust system, the Martin Baker seats were retrofitted to them. 

 

[Added: The airframe with the reverser wound up at the Pima Air Museum in Tucson. The reverser was removed and the plane returned to the Blue Angels markings it had once worn. Before Pima painted all their canopies and windscreens silver, on the inside, to protect the interiors from the desert sun, I shot a couple of frames of film through the canopy and captured the MB seat's skeleton. So I "improved" the Hasegawa seat to resemble a Martin Baker Mk 5. That was never installed in a Blue Angel Tiger. As they say, don't believe everything you think....]

 

The production F11F-1s had a Grumman-supplied seat that strongly resembles the seats North American supplied with the FJ-2,3 and 4. Naval Fighters #40 has photos of the seats, as do various walk-arounds from Pensacola, the procedures trainer at the USS Hornet CVS-12, etc. But I think there's a case for the F9F-9 getting the slightly earlier Grumman-supplied seat from the F9F Cougar and Panther.

 

The production short-nose with a refueling probe at the tip is still longer than the original F-11F-1, and has an enlarged fin, based on North American's bad experience with the F-100Cs's fin. The fin was enlarged by extending the [Corrected: trailing edge backward] Comparing Grumman drawings printed in Naval Fighters #40, the fin's root chord grew from 105 to 112 inches. But that measurement applies inside the fuselage, where the root of the fin is.  Check your references.. When working afterburners were available, the aft fuselage behind the rudder and horizontal stabilizer was extended to approximately the aft edges of the horizontal stabilizer. If you're improving the Lindberg kit to a production version, you'll need to do this too.

 

The long nose F-11F-1s have extended wing root leading edges along with the enlarged fairing for the radar, which was never actually installed.  So check your cockpit instrument panel references carefully.

 

All of those considerations apply with Hasegawa's 1/72 kit as well. Both F9F and FJ2,3,4 resin seats are available. Make your choices carefully.

Edited by Bill Abbott
Corrected memory lapses. Re-read references cited.
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I've had several of the Lindberg Tigers over the years. Initially as a kid in the late 50's along with the Revell BA Tiger and the Monogram BA diamond kit. I later attempted to use the kit as a base to create a later production version. Needless to say I abandoned that idea rather quickly. Way too much to correct. When the FM kit was released I was overjoyed as it really was the first truly accurate 1/48 Tiger to be released. The kit however is not for the feint of heart. I sold my copies anticipating KH to release one after the Fury and seeing their rather nice CADs online. With KH no more there goes the best hope of getting one in the near future. I'm not a Newbie. I had to change my ID and start a new account. My previous ID was jpk.

Edited by Jon Krol
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Jon Krol (jpk), if you wouldn't mind, I too, would like a copy of your Blue Angel reference material. I too would like to "try" and modify the old Lindberg F11F Tiger to a more 'accurate' short nose, and possibly another to the long nose version...if I can find a Lindberg kit at a reasonable price somewhere.

I have the Hasagawa "special" edition 1/72 scale Blue Angels F11F-1 kit (with the resin short nose conversion)that I've been thinking about using as a master to produce a resin kit of both versions. 

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10 hours ago, plasticutter said:

Jon Krol (jpk), if you wouldn't mind, I too, would like a copy of your Blue Angel reference material. I too would like to "try" and modify the old Lindberg F11F Tiger to a more 'accurate' short nose, and possibly another to the long nose version...if I can find a Lindberg kit at a reasonable price somewhere.

I have the Hasagawa "special" edition 1/72 scale Blue Angels F11F-1 kit (with the resin short nose conversion)that I've been thinking about using as a master to produce a resin kit of both versions. 

The only BA references I have are in the Steve Ginter book on the Tiger and the older Detail & Scale Tiger book. Tommy Thomason's references at his blog are also helpful. Lots of stuff on the net, just search for it. I suggest you try to locate a FM Tiger v modding the Lindberg kit. You will only descend into a a mental depression questioning why you even tried to attempt it. 

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Nobody asked me, but I'm posting what I've discovered about making a 1/48 F11F-1, starting with the Lindberg kit. I've put money and time into figuring it out, and I've found some promising possibilities. And some dead-ends other people can avoid. Or others can work out what I got wrong.

 

Here's one conversion a brave soul posted here in 2017:

https://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal15/14201-14300/gal14213-F11F-1-DiGennaro/00.shtm

Mr DiGennaro carved a piece of pine to replace and extend the Lindberg nose to a long-nose F11F-1.

 

On page 8 of Naval Fighters  #1 are profiles that lay out three of the four different airplanes that were all named "Grumman Model 98 Tiger". The fourth version is on page 7. The Lindberg kit is a mix of the first three. It is primarily an F9F-8,  later F9F-9,  at the top of the page. 138603 is generally the real plane the kit follows.  

 

But the kit also includes features from the #4 development prototype, 138606, second on the page:

1) cannon muzzle fairings below the engine air intakes; 

2) holes under the cannon recievers for case and link ejection;

3) a fairing under the engine exhaust that covers the tail-hook and the tail-bumper;

 

And finally, the kit includes features from the first, production, Tiger, the short nose F11F-1, 138620, third on the page:

1) the final shapes of engine air intakes;

2) splitter plates separating the intake airflow from laminar flow along the fuselage surface;   

 

If you want an F9F-9, you have to remove the cannon features, under-tail fairing, and back-date the engine air intake and splitter. Improvements like cockpit detail, better landing gear, engine intake trunking and accurate non-afterburbing engine exhaust can be added, but the kit parts, with  minor removals gets the basic shape. Paint natural metal for the first two flights of 138603, overall glossy white for subsiquent flights. 

 

I spent a lot of time trying to fit the F9F-9 fuselage to the profile of the F11F-1. It can't be done, and the NF #1 profiles and NF #40  F9F-9 station diagrams and F11F-1 station diagrams show why. The wings, horizontal stabilizers and fin leading edge on the kit parts are in the right places for an F11F-1. On the F9F-9 station diagram, the joint between the instrument boom and the metal nose is station 0. All features on the fuselage are located by distance from '0', going aft.

Crucially, the imaginary intersections of the wing leading edges, horizontal leading edges, the projected leading edge of the fin and main gear wheel locations are the same on F9F-9 and F11F-1. All of those relationships are correct on the parts as they come from the box.

 

From back to front:

 

The back edge of the fin and rudder have to move 8 scale inches, further back from station 504 to 512. *At the imaginary "root" of the fin, inside the fuselage*  Saw along one of the panel lines on the fin or at the leading edge of the rudder. Insert extension to move the back edge 8 scale inches (8/48 of an inch or 1/6 inch or (25.4/6) mm. Will a strip that width work correctly? I think so. Remember to add width to the insert to make up for the saw kerf.

 

Then you have to extend the aft fuselage edge to meed the new back end of the rudder, and line up with far trailing edge corners of the horizontal stabilizer. A flat piece on the bottom, two or three thin laminations to match the curve of the upper fuselage.  You can get the station for the aft edge of the new jet exhaust but I don't see the shorter on- might be time to sacle the drawing.

 

Whatever you do about the wheel wells, main gear legs or tires, engine intake ducts and cockit interior is the same for all versions. But for anything other than an F9F-9, you need to cut down the sloping path of the sliding canopy to be closer to the top of the duct. Compare F9F and F11F station diagrams or profiles. Where the F9F-9 windscreen kicked up its lower edge as it ran foward, the F11F has one slope for the moving part and a different slope for the clear part of the windscreen.

 

Grumman built a lot of jets with curved outlines for the bullet-proof glass in the windscreen, basically because they were flat slices into a cone shaped or more complex, tapered, 3d object. You could shop for aftermarket vac-form canopies, or make one of your own by plunge-forming over the original kit part, after giving it the right shape. It would be really great to identify an aftermarket canopy- F9F, F-15, F-14, F/A-18, P-51, F-86, T-33 for your 1/48 F11F-1. Or make one and sell them to your friends.

 

Do note that the short nose and long nose F-11 have slightly different windscreens because the long nose has a gun camera located below and in front of the windscreen.  So the short nose windscreen may be slightly longer than the long nose part.

 

At the leading edge of the engine air intakes you've got to get the shape right, and you'll want a splitter going from in front of of the intake into the intake and becoming part of the intake duct. You could saw off the front of the duct, build up the curved bit between fuselage and splitter, add the splitter over that and put the duct on over the splitter. The leading edge of the duct can be built up with strip styrene or 'plastic card".

 

Finally, 

1) the nose, which starts at negatively numbered stations and eventually joins the fuselage where the positive stations reach the bottom of the fuselage. I've inspected the noses of Monogram's 1/72 F7F-3 Tigercat, AMT/Italeri's 1/48 F7F, Hasegawa's 1/72 A-4 Skyhawk  and Fujimi's 1/48 A-4. They all look plausible, but in detail, none of them can be cut off to make a replacement nose for a 1/48 F11F-1. The 1/72 kits noses are too small, and the 1/48 versions aren't really the right shapes. 

 

Good luck and post pictures of your work! Here's a profile I made of the Ejection Seat  pieces:

 

F11F-1 Seat Parts detailed breakdown

And here's my Flickr set of F11F photos. There are a lot of other web resources too.

https://flic.kr/s/aHsjGKsQSp

 

 

Throughout NF #40 are 3 view drawings and scrap views of the original prototype and the non-flying static-test airframe, Do some Inter-tubes searches and you'll find even more of the back story before they started cutting metal. Read Corky Meyer's text in Naval Fighters #40 and you'll get a savage journey to the heart of the 1950s militarty-industrial complex. Hasegawa's 1/72 kit is attractive but not perfect. It is also a fair reference for the missing cockpit, landing gear and gear wells,, etc. that Lindberg doesn't have.


 

Edited by Bill Abbott
Fix typo, add reference to another posting in ARCForums
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11 hours ago, plasticutter said:

Jon Krol (jpk), if you wouldn't mind, I too, would like a copy of your Blue Angel reference material. I too would like to "try" and modify the old Lindberg F11F Tiger to a more 'accurate' short nose, and possibly another to the long nose version...if I can find a Lindberg kit at a reasonable price somewhere.

I have the Hasagawa "special" edition 1/72 scale Blue Angels F11F-1 kit (with the resin short nose conversion)that I've been thinking about using as a master to produce a resin kit of both versions. 

The Hasegawa short nose conversion begins a little too far forward: see https://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2010/11/f11f-tiger.html

 

Also, in case you ignored the link in that post: http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2014/10/f11f-tiger.html

Edited by Tailspin Turtle
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23 hours ago, Bill Abbott said:

Nobody asked me, but I'm posting what I've discovered about making a 1/48 F11F-1, starting with the Lindberg kit. I've put money and time into figuring it out, and I've found some promising possibilities. And some dead-ends other people can avoid. Or others can work out what I got wrong.

 

Here's one conversion a brave soul posted here in 2017:

https://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal15/14201-14300/gal14213-F11F-1-DiGennaro/00.shtm

Mr DiGennaro carved a piece of pine to replace and extend the Lindberg nose to a long-nose F11F-1.

 

On page 8 of Naval Fighters  #1 are profiles that lay out three of the four different airplanes that were all named "Grumman Model 98 Tiger". The fourth version is on page 7. The Lindberg kit is a mix of the first three. It is primarily an F9F-8,  later F9F-9,  at the top of the page. 138603 is generally the real plane the kit follows.  

 

But the kit also includes features from the #4 development prototype, 138606, second on the page:

1) cannon muzzle fairings below the engine air intakes; 

2) holes under the cannon recievers for case and link ejection;

3) a fairing under the engine exhaust that covers the tail-hook and the tail-bumper;

 

And finally, the kit includes features from the first, production, Tiger, the short nose F11F-1, 138620, third on the page:

1) the final shapes of engine air intakes;

2) splitter plates separating the intake airflow from laminar flow along the fuselage surface;   

 

If you want an F9F-9, you have to remove the cannon features, under-tail fairing, and back-date the engine air intake and splitter. Improvements like cockpit detail, better landing gear, engine intake trunking and accurate non-afterburbing engine exhaust can be added, but the kit parts, with  minor removals gets the basic shape. Paint natural metal for the first two flights of 138603, overall glossy white for subsiquent flights. 

 

I spent a lot of time trying to fit the F9F-9 fuselage to the profile of the F11F-1. It can't be done, and the NF #1 profiles and NF #40  F9F-9 station diagrams and F11F-1 station diagrams show why. The wings, horizontal stabilizers and fin leading edge on the kit parts are in the right places for an F11F-1. On the F9F-9 station diagram, the joint between the instrument boom and the metal nose is station 0. All features on the fuselage are located by distance from '0', going aft.

Crucially, the imaginary intersections of the wing leading edges, horizontal leading edges, the projected leading edge of the fin and main gear wheel locations are the same on F9F-9 and F11F-1. All of those relationships are correct on the parts as they come from the box.

 

From back to front:

 

The back edge of the fin and rudder have to move 8 scale inches, further back from station 504 to 512. *At the imaginary "root" of the fin, inside the fuselage*  Saw along one of the panel lines on the fin or at the leading edge of the rudder. Insert extension to move the back edge 8 scale inches (8/48 of an inch or 1/6 inch or (25.4/6) mm. Will a strip that width work correctly? I think so. Remember to add width to the insert to make up for the saw kerf.

 

Then you have to extend the aft fuselage edge to meed the new back end of the rudder, and line up with far trailing edge corners of the horizontal stabilizer. A flat piece on the bottom, two or three thin laminations to match the curve of the upper fuselage.  You can get the station for the aft edge of the new jet exhaust but I don't see the shorter on- might be time to sacle the drawing.

 

Whatever you do about the wheel wells, main gear legs or tires, engine intake ducts and cockit interior is the same for all versions. But for anything other than an F9F-9, you need to cut down the sloping path of the sliding canopy to be closer to the top of the duct. Compare F9F and F11F station diagrams or profiles. Where the F9F-9 windscreen kicked up its lower edge as it ran foward, the F11F has one slope for the moving part and a different slope for the clear part of the windscreen.

 

Grumman built a lot of jets with curved outlines for the bullet-proof glass in the windscreen, basically because they were flat slices into a cone shaped or more complex, tapered, 3d object. You could shop for aftermarket vac-form canopies, or make one of your own by plunge-forming over the original kit part, after giving it the right shape. It would be really great to identify an aftermarket canopy- F9F, F-15, F-14, F/A-18, P-51, F-86, T-33 for your 1/48 F11F-1. Or make one and sell them to your friends.

 

Do note that the short nose and long nose F-11 have slightly different windscreens because the long nose has a gun camera located below and in front of the windscreen.  So the short nose windscreen may be slightly longer than the long nose part.

 

At the leading edge of the engine air intakes you've got to get the shape right, and you'll want a splitter going from in front of of the intake into the intake and becoming part of the intake duct. You could saw off the front of the duct, build up the curved bit between fuselage and splitter, add the splitter over that and put the duct on over the splitter. The leading edge of the duct can be built up with strip styrene or 'plastic card".

 

Finally, 

1) the nose, which starts at negatively numbered stations and eventually joins the fuselage where the positive stations reach the bottom of the fuselage. I've inspected the noses of Monogram's 1/72 F7F-3 Tigercat, AMT/Italeri's 1/48 F7F, Hasegawa's 1/72 A-4 Skyhawk  and Fujimi's 1/48 A-4. They all look plausible, but in detail, none of them can be cut off to make a replacement nose for a 1/48 F11F-1. The 1/72 kits noses are too small, and the 1/48 versions aren't really the right shapes. 

 

Good luck and post pictures of your work! Here's a profile I made of the Ejection Seat  pieces:

 

F11F-1 Seat Parts detailed breakdown

And here's my Flickr set of F11F photos. There are a lot of other web resources too.

https://flic.kr/s/aHsjGKsQSp

 

 

Throughout NF #40 are 3 view drawings and scrap views of the original prototype and the non-flying static-test airframe, Do some Inter-tubes searches and you'll find even more of the back story before they started cutting metal. Read Corky Meyer's text in Naval Fighters #40 and you'll get a savage journey to the heart of the 1950s militarty-industrial complex. Hasegawa's 1/72 kit is attractive but not perfect. It is also a fair reference for the missing cockpit, landing gear and gear wells,, etc. that Lindberg doesn't have.


 

The Pima F11F that you photographed has the Martin Baker H5 seat that was ordered installed in all navy fighters after 1958. The Tiger was being phased out of frontline service at the time so they weren't prioritized to receive

the seat until after reaching advanced training squadrons.

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