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1/48 AMT F7F-2N Tigercat


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I'm in with an AMT Tigercat. I have my own theme going for the group builds, I just finished a Bearcat for the Vietnam group build and plan on an F6F-5K for the Test Birds group build.

I forgot to take pictures before I started painting.

The first step in this kit was to take out the vinyl tires since they are known to melt plastic like they did on my last Tigercat build a decade or so ago. I have a set of True Details wheels to replace them.

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The kit has some serious flash to clean up, but overall it is a nice kit. The cockpit detail is alright, I am adding Eduard seatbelts though. The engines look pretty good out of the box.

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The plastic in this one was bagged, and the tires were loose in the box. I seem to remember my last one had them together.

Painted the cockpit today, just used a wash and a little drybrushing. With the shape of the aircraft it hard to see much in the cockpit.

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A little progress today. Got the fuselage halves together, the fit was really good. I was skeptical about the instructions calling for interior green in the wheel wells but from what I could find it seems right. Started work on the engines and the wings.

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I assembled the wings today. The wing to fuselage fit was good, no gaps to fill. The fit of the wings wasn't as good so there is some work needed on the leading edge. The engines are nice representations, with a wash and some detail painting they look pretty good. They would benefit from a wiring harness, but I am happy with them out of the box.

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Got a little done today, put on a coat of Vallejo Model Air Steel Blue, which was what I got ordering Dark Sea Blue. I am not impressed, it appears light and worse in some lighting it has a distinct purple shade to it. I have some Color of Eagles GSB that I will try over it.

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Ended up going with Aeromaster enamel Glossy Sea Blue. I wasn't going to use it since it will take about a week to fully dry but I doubt I will have much chance to work on it again until next weekend and if I do I can work on the landing gear and props.

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After a week the Aeromaster GSB is still a little tacky but not too bad, I sanded it down in spots since I ended up with a grainy finish and gave it a second coat. I painted everything else that is GSB since the paint takes forever to dry. Since I can't do too much else while waiting for the paint to cure I also got some work done on a couple shelf of doom projects, a 1/144 Roden C-124 and an Otaki Spitfire Mk VIII my son started but never finished.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some progress on the Tigercat, the main painting is complete. It's an old bottle of Aeromaster Glossy Sea Blue and it looks good, but takes a couple weeks to cure here in North Carolina humidity. So it has been slow progress, but it is still coming along.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Finished the Tigercat today. I'll have pictures in a couple days. My computer is down at the moment because I left the power supply in a hotel room so I am waiting for a replacement.

The kit is really good. The strong points are the landing gear which are very nice. The kit includes a drop tank,rockets,and two bombs. The True details wheels went on without issue. The decals looked they were going to silver but settled down well with Solvaset.

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The Tigercat is complete. It's a really good kit. The biggest struggle was painting, I used three different types of blue, Vallejo Steel Blue which didn't look good at all. Aeromaster enamel Glossy Sea Blue which looked good but took weeks to dry, and finally Color of Eagles Sea Blue which ended up being the main color since I had major touchups and didn't want to wait three more weeks for the Aeromaster to cure. That actually worked out well since the Aeromaster is darker so using some light coats of the Color of Eagles I was able to get some shade variation that adds some depth to an overall blue scheme.

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