Aur0ra145's Italeri F7F-3 Tigercat

[aur0ra145]

Howdy folks!

Time for someone to look down on ya'll from an airplane, at all the tanks ya'll are building.

This is an Italeri F7F-3 Tigercat kit. I'll be building it in late war Navy paint as per the original contract.

Overall, after unboxing, I'm a bit perturbed on the quality. Tons of subtle flash and weird mold issues. But, I'll work through them.

Time for a bit of history from the US Naval Aviation Museum:

The F7F Tigercat, which was derived from Grumman's first twin-engine fighter, the XF5F-1 Skyrocket, appeared as the result of a Navy request in June 1941 for development of a larger, twin-engine fighter for use on board the planned large aircraft carriers (Midway-class). The airplane was the first twin-engine fighter ordered in large quantities and the first carrier aircraft to incorporate tricycle landing gear. Built in single and two seat variants, the heavily armed fighter served in ground support, night fighter and photo reconnaissance roles after World War II and in Korea.

Ordered by the Navy in June 1941, the XF7F-1 was Grumman's second attempt at a twin-engine fighter, the first having been the unsuccessful XF5F-1 Skyrocket. The new fighter, intended for use aboard the large Midway-class carriers, would be the first carrier aircraft to employ tricycle landing gear.

The new airplane, while designated a fighter, was heavily armed to perform as a ground support aircraft, equipped with four 20mm cannon and four .50-caliber machine guns. It also was capable of carrying two 1,000 lb. bombs on underwing stations or one torpedo under the fuselage. First flown in December 1943, the XF7F-1 was hurried into production to meet Marine Corps demands for 500 of the aircraft to support Pacific operations. Deliveries began in April 1944, but changes in operational requirements led to production delays. With 34 single-seat models delivered, production switched to a two-seat night fighter, designated the F7F-2N, a total of 65 of which were built. Grumman then built 189 F7F-3s, which were similar to the F7F-1, but modified with higher rated Pratt & Whitney R-2800-34W engines.

Further production under the original contract was cancelled as war's end drew near, but a separate contract produced 60 more F7F-3Ns and 13 F7F-4Ns, production ending in late 1946. Both models were configured as night fighters, equipped with radar in an elongated nose, and a larger fin. The F7F-4N was equipped with an arresting hook for carrier operation, the only model in the series so configured. Later modifications produced specially equipped F7F-3Es and F7F-3Ps for electronic reconnaissance and photo reconnaissance respectively.

Too late for service in World War II, the Tigercat served in several Marine Corps squadrons after the war and later performed close air support, night fighter, reconnaissance and utility missions during the Korean War. Well designed, the F7F was one of the fastest fighters of the World War II era. Unfortunately, its operational life coincided with the advent of more powerful, faster jet aircraft, rendering it obsolete after only a few short years.

I had an oppurtunity to see one IRL at the US Naval Aviation Museum. It's a beauty and huge.

Picture credit goes to me. I took this a couple years ago when I was there.



From what I remember, in the museum the wheel wells and just about everything was painted the dark blue color. I don't know if that's historically accurate or expedient for museum restoration. I might follow that paint scheme based on how hard I have to work the seams and what not.

First look:
It looks impressive and there are a lot of decal options. Most are 1946 based USMC; but, I want a 1944 Navy version that would have been used in trials for carrier acceptance. So I'll do a dark blue with Navy markings.

It seems there are not very many Tigercat kits on the market, nor much interest in the subject. Alas, this is what I have. In all honesty my dad bought this kit for me several years ago when I first got into modelling and I haven't had a good reason to build it until this GB.

The part count is a bit lower than I would like. The ailerons and flaps are hard molded in (they don't align that well overall.) I feel I'll have a lot of panel line scribing in my future around leading edges and what not.

Overall the seams on the leading edges and what not left a lot of gaps. So, I used a giant amount CA glue to fill the gaps. I'm still filling and waiting as I write this post.










As you can see here, the prop has some weird flash from where the molds mated.




Here the flash is visible on the rudder.


Then on the fuselage, there is a raised feature from a faulty mold it seems.



In all it will be a challenge. Though, I'm up for it, and I haven't done a twin engine plane in many years.

Not pictured. I put together the wings and horizontal stabs and ended up with a bunch of gaps. They're being remedied; however, I believe the engine nacelles and the over body to have significant issues as well. This kit will test my scribing ability and patience.

Other news:
I plan on building a ME-262 from Tamiya and the P-38 for this GB. Also, I have some awesome reference books coming for my King Tiger. I'll join you ground pounders when those books show up.

[Quax]

4 kits in one GB?? I cant afford the popcorn!
Good luck with the Tigercat, sometimes Flash just isn't the saviour of the universe.....

Paul

[Gary30]

Never seen one of these before, cool project, good luck with it man!

[Tomcat64]

Ooh great - we've got some air cover

Lovely looking plane too - looking forward to seeing this come together

[RangerNeil]

That's an interesting choice - I'd heard of the Tiger Cat before but I never knew there was a kit available. This should be an interesting build to watch

[BigWall]

Very neat kit and it sounds like you've got quite a bit of work ahead of you in the coming months.

[aur0ra145]

So some stuff from tonight. The CA glue held well and I hope it looks good in the matte black primer. There was a ton of flash from the edges of the molds. Sort of weird. Most could be dealt with a good pair of nippers but some was eh...







Engine nacelles. They had a lot of flash. I dealt with most before I took a picture

[robwuk]

ohhhh a plane... terrible idea look forward to the build

[aur0ra145]

Well progress might slow down a bit and I may need to scale back the entries in this GB. My dog had emergency surgery today. It's alive and well after having an obstruction removed; but, it was expensive. We're not in the poor house by any means, however, I need to tighten down on my impulse buying of kits for a little while.

Guess I'll actually have to build the kits I own using the paint I already have. A very strange lifestyle change indeed.

Other things on the agenda for today is to rearrange the man cave a bit to fit a new storage locker I bought.

[RangerNeil]

Sorry to hear about the family dog - the furry ones become part and parcel of the family. Our Toby, who passed over the bridge in 2017 managed to tear both cruciate ligaments, 1 in one year, 1 the next- £4,500 a side. Thank god for pet insurance!! He became a bionic dog - so much titanium in his rear legs. Maggie who adopted us next is a disaster on 4 legs - ex-racing Greyhound who has two speeds, on and off. Front room is carpet, kitchen is tiled so when she races out the back invariably she loses traction on the tiled area, bounces off the washing machine then the fridge then the side of the counter top before getting out the door. We are just waiting for the hammer to fall - either repairs to dog or replacing appliances.....
Stash reduction could be a good thing - When financial normality returns you then have a good excuse for going spending to replenish the stash!! Accompanied by the dog

[BigWall]

I hope your dog continues to recover well.

[aur0ra145]

I hope your dog continues to recover well.

Sorry to hear about the family dog - the furry ones become part and parcel of the family. Our Toby, who passed over the bridge in 2017 managed to tear both cruciate ligaments, 1 in one year, 1 the next- £4,500 a side. Thank god for pet insurance!! He became a bionic dog - so much titanium in his rear legs. Maggie who adopted us next is a disaster on 4 legs - ex-racing Greyhound who has two speeds, on and off. Front room is carpet, kitchen is tiled so when she races out the back invariably she loses traction on the tiled area, bounces off the washing machine then the fridge then the side of the counter top before getting out the door. We are just waiting for the hammer to fall - either repairs to dog or replacing appliances.....
Stash reduction could be a good thing - When financial normality returns you then have a good excuse for going spending to replenish the stash!! Accompanied by the dog

Thank you everyone. Goose is doing well. They found the obstruction and removed it with minimal side effects. She's a 1.5 year old Golden Retriever and might have eaten something she shouldn't have. We named her "Goose" based a lot on my line of work and my last name.

Buy doggy insurance if you have breed like this. Getting told you need to cough up a lot of money so your dog doesn't die is a hard convo to have.

[aur0ra145]

It's Goose, she loves models.

[Rugash]

Good to see Goose is doing better!

As for the Tigercat, one of my favourite twin engine aircraft. Will be nice to see this one come together.

[aur0ra145]

Well, the dog is good. Thank the maker. Got a lot of the parts prepped for primer. I'm using primer to see any issues with the seams. Also, I need to put weights in the nose, so I wrote a reminder.

[aur0ra145]

Update. Goose is alive and well. Ended up that the vet gave us back $3,000. The convo of, "over this amount, it was good dog." was a tough convo to have with the wife.

I Love Goose; but, financial burden over a dog is meh. I didn't want to be the one to say no.

So some issues with the kit...





Some issues with the molds. Just not good.

Ready for paint! I left a note for the notes in the nose.



Got it all painted with issues.

I've never had issues with mold release agents; but, it's apparent here.









Goose is alive and well; but, chill. She really doesn't like the cone.

[robwuk]

cone of shame..... but at least Goose is on the road to recovery....

and ouch on the mold release agent... not good

[Tomcat64]

Hey mate - sorry to hear that Goose has been in the wars but great that she seems to be getting through it!


I had a quick look on scalemates and this kit has its origins as a 1995 AMT/ERTL release, which might explain some of the special challenges it's throwing up at you. It doesn't look like the moulds have stood the test of time too well

Keep at it and show it the error of its ways

[aur0ra145]

So turns out I have a ton of leave days saved up, so I took the rest of the week off to take care of Goose. This means, tons of model time!

As for the kit. I guess I'm going to try and wash them to get the mold release agent off. I've not dealt with this sort of thing before. Any pointers or someone with prior experience would be appreciated.

[BigWall]

Ouch. Sorry dude. Good news about Goose though!

[aur0ra145]

Well, it's not been the cheapest or easiest week.

Today I hand washed all my parts with a toothbrush and soap. Hopefully this fixes the mold release agent issue.



The margs help the process. Wife is skeptical; but, happy Goose is still around.



Goose did take a trip back to the surgeons today. Turns out she's doing alright, and hadn't tore any of her sutures. She has rapidly regained her personality. So that's really encouraging. It only cost roughly 50 Wingnut Wings kits.

[digger303]

Well, it's not been the cheapest or easiest week.

Today I hand washed all my parts with a toothbrush and soap. Hopefully this fixes the mold release agent issue.



The margs help the process. Wife is skeptical; but, happy Goose is still around.



Goose did take a trip back to the surgeons today. Turns out she's doing alright, and hadn't tore any of her sutures. She has rapidly regained her personality. So that's really encouraging. It only cost roughly 50 Wingnut Wings kits.

Good to here your mate is recovering

[Gary30]

Wingnut Wings aren't all that anyway

Rather have your buddy alongside you than 50 boxes of plastic sitting in the attic

[digger303]

Wingnut Wings aren't all that anyway

Rather have your buddy alongside you than 50 boxes of plastic sitting in the attic

Very true

[RangerNeil]

So turns out I have a ton of leave days saved up, so I took the rest of the week off to take care of Goose. This means, tons of model time!

As for the kit. I guess I'm going to try and wash them to get the mold release agent off. I've not dealt with this sort of thing before. Any pointers or someone with prior experience would be appreciated.

Enjoy the Goose time

For release agents (and Amodels absolutely love the stuff...) what I do is take a bowl of warm water with a dash of washing up liquid in and use it to scrub every sprue/loose part using an old toothbrush. Then swap the water for fresh and rinse them off before drying off on paper towel.

[aur0ra145]

After the session yesterday to wash away the release agent I attempted to respray the model. It worked. The soapy wash and water was a success. A step I'm not real thrilled that I had to do; but, alas, it's done.

HOWEVER, I did some basic dry fitting of the engine nacelles to the wings... it's not looking good. The aft section of the nacelle isn't matching very well with the aft part of the wing thing. The front part of the nacelle and leading edge will require some blending and filing as well.

Goose update: Doing much better, we chilled all day and watched The Mandalorian Season 2 trailer together.

[aur0ra145]

For ease of use, I'm going to go with Tamiya Sea Blue (XF-17) for the wheel wells and the exterior. With the amount of work I think that needs to happen on the nacelles, it will make it a lot easier if I don't need to worry about color matching and preserving a green/yellow zinc chromate finish.

I'm also on the verge of starting a second kit. Either the 262, or something else. I need a chill, well designed kit to help the mojo not run out.

Goose has slept most of the day but was the devil about taking her meds this morning.

[BigWall]

I'm glad your paint is sticking now.

Give Goose a pet for me.

[aur0ra145]

I'm glad your paint is sticking now.

Give Goose a pet for me.

Truth, it's nice when it works as advertised. However, I sort of used matte black when I really should have used gray as a primer.

New gameplan:
1. Paint everything Ultimate matte black to ID any flaws in the model, or spots that are not joined correctly.
2. Fix any issues. I plan on this stage to be the overall assembly minus the landing gear and landing gear doors. (I always put these on last.
2a. Rescribe panel lines if required.
3. Once issues are addressed and most all assembly is finished utilize lighter colors and gray primer to highlight panels. This is a technique I used on tanks a lot. So, it's kind of opposite of how I like to do planes.
4. Paint the Tigerkitty XF-17.
5. Clear coat with Alclad II Aquagloss.
6. Decals.
7. Clear coat with Alclad II Aquagloss.
8+. Weather, panel wash, satin top coat, etc.

[RangerNeil]

Glad to hear the washing worked OK for you! Avoid anything by AModel if you dont like doing it as this is a de rigeur procedure. You can literally feel the agent on your fingers after handling parts from the box.

Also glad to hear Goose is on the med. Dogs and medication are a thing I guess. Our old dog, Toby, was so smart/cute at not taking his meds that we ended up crushing the tablets, pouring it over a slice of ham and giving him the ham - which he loved. He had no choice then but to eat it. We tried hiding them in his food but we would find them an hour or so later neatly dropped in between the pad of his bed and the sidewalls. Maggie our current dog is nowhere near as smart - she just refuses to eat but with her we can poke the meds into a lump of cheese and it goes down that way!

[aur0ra145]

Glad to hear the washing worked OK for you! Avoid anything by AModel if you dont like doing it as this is a de rigeur procedure. You can literally feel the agent on your fingers after handling parts from the box.

Also glad to hear Goose is on the med. Dogs and medication are a thing I guess. Our old dog, Toby, was so smart/cute at not taking his meds that we ended up crushing the tablets, pouring it over a slice of ham and giving him the ham - which he loved. He had no choice then but to eat it. We tried hiding them in his food but we would find them an hour or so later neatly dropped in between the pad of his bed and the sidewalls. Maggie our current dog is nowhere near as smart - she just refuses to eat but with her we can poke the meds into a lump of cheese and it goes down that way!

I've avoided any AMT models in the past. The rebox fooled me! I will say, this kit is slightly better than the Revell 1/48 P-61. That kit was so bad, it's teetering on meeting the trash bin. Also, the Revell 1/48 P-40 is pretty bad too. I tried to have a "date" day with wife, we'd both build the same kit. She gave up almost immediately and did a P-40 eggplane I had instead.

The Tigerkitty is coming along. I painted the interior of the wheel wells last night and today I want to paint the cockpit interior and try fitting the nacelles to the wing. As you can see in the photo, it's super difficult to tell if you painted correctly over the black primer. I need to experiment with different base coats for the overall kit.

Also, a near fatal injury to myself. My beloved hobby office chair back fell off while I was occupying it. There was a "calamity" which ended with my wife laughing at me uncontrollably. I'm fine; but, the chair is no more. I'll have to get another one.

[BigWall]

Ha ha! It reminds my of the time right after I was married when I was startled awake in the middle of the night by my wife falling out of bed. Not a tiny little bed. A king sized bed. What makes it worse is that the bed she had before we got married was about 2-1/2 feet wide and so flimsy it must have been made out of cardboard. She never fell out of that one. Of course I laughed. I think she's still mad about it 25 years later.

[aur0ra145]

Did some experimenting today.

I tried the XF-17 Sea Blue on a white and gray primer. It looks basically black. Not too happy with that. The Mig-21, the starboard side is white primer. The port side is gray primer.

The nose of the Mig is the XF-17. I did an experiment with some MMP using it on white, gray and black primer. The MMP on black primer looks the best I think. You can see it on the aft end of the mig and the underside is the black primer.





With the MMP I mixed 20 drops paint, 4 drops thinner, 4 drops polyurethane; then sprayed at 20 PSI. It went on amazingly well. Much better than my past experiences with it.

[aur0ra145]

Howdy all! Mounted the nacelles. They will take some work to blend correctly but they seem to be glued in pretty solid. Also, got to paint the cockpit interior using Tamiya XF-71 Cockpit Green.

There are several big steps left in the project; but, it seems that the hardest/most annoying parts are about to be over.

Thanks for looking in!

[BigWall]

It's coming along nicely.

[Hawkmoon]

All looking good from here and nice work

[aur0ra145]

Howdy folks!

Did a bit more work tonight. The aft portion of the nacelles aren't all that bad. I was most worried about them tbh. However, the front section of the nacelles are not good. There is a significant gap. I'm faced with either leaving as is and just being cool with it, or attempting to use a lot of putty. I don't know if my Tamiya putty is any good for this. I'm open to any suggestions.

I'd say it's about 1mm gap if not larger.

[Tomcat64]

Nice to see you're still making progress, if you've not tackled them yet then maybe put some shims of scrap styrene into those gaps before using CA or filler around them?

[aur0ra145]

Well. I'll have more modelling time. Turns out a guy I worked closely with yesterday started to run a fever today. I've been instructed to quarantine at home until his COVID test results come back. I'm currently asymptomatic, and have been doing house chores all day. We are considered essential personnel, so it was sort of inevitable someone would get sick eventually. But, we're both young dudes, in shape, etc. Not too worried about myself. Rather spreading anything to someone else.

In the meantime, I've barricaded myself in the man cave with October/Halloween themed movies and the work bench.

Highlights so far on the Tigercat:
-Got the weights put in the nose. I actually found some extra weights when I was reorganizing the cave this afternoon. So that's a bit of luck.
-Used Vallejo acrylic filler to fill the edges of engine cowl. It looks so-so right now; but with the dark blue paint, it will be hard to discern.
-Finished building the cockpit and joined the two halves of the fuselage. Of all the trouble this it has been, the halves went together really well. I'm actually impressed at the ease and how well the cockpit parts fit in it. Things are looking up!
-I attempted to mask the canopy and broke/chipped the corner. I think this is fixable with white glue. I will report back.

[RangerNeil]

Its looking really good despite all the issues you've had. I am looking forwards to the finished build.
Is the clear plastic THAT brittle that a corner broke whilst masking??

[aur0ra145]

Its looking really good despite all the issues you've had. I am looking forwards to the finished build.
Is the clear plastic THAT brittle that a corner broke whilst masking??

I was handling it like I do any canopy and the corner snapped off. The repair looks pretty good so far. Once its dry I'm going to fill the inside of it with something rigid to help its stability until the build is complete.

I'm also trying to decide what other model to start. I'm thinking armor.

[BigWall]

Sorry to hear that you may have been exposed. The plane is coming along nicely. Nice save with the canopy

[Tomcat64]

Nice progress and good save on the canopy too

Hope you remain uninfected too

[aur0ra145]

Canopy appears to be saved. Did first dry fitting of the whole kit. This is quite a large plane. I remember seeing one pretty often when I was in Pensacola; but, I don't remember it being this big.

Also did a ton of sanding to get the fuselage ready for primer.

[aur0ra145]

Got the starboard wing on. It actually lines up pretty well and isn't too bad. I'm going to give it ample time to set before I put on the other wing. You know, because nothing goes as planned on this kit.

[aur0ra145]

Port wing and horizontal stabs are attached! It looks like there shouldn't too much filling from the seams. Overall it's starting to look like a sleek fighter.

Also, did some rearranging in the man cave. I decided to group the Star Wars models per their affiliation and put up a flush shelf for a helmet. I have 3 more shelves to put up. In other news, I pulled the trigger and got a 3D printer. I have no idea what I'll be doing with it; but, Star Wars helmets are high on the list.

[BigWall]

Nice progress on the plane. It looks big enough that you're going to have to build it it's own hanger.

The man cave is looking great also. I mentioned getting a glass case like that for my younger son to display his models in. He got a proud of himself look on his face so I think that might be all it will take to get him to finish up at least one of the three builds he has going on right now. I think he enjoys building more that painting where I'm the opposite.

Very cool that you got a 3D printer. They made some very cool Knights of Ren helmets on Adam Savages YouTube channel. I don't remember if they posted links for the plans though.

[RangerNeil]

Glad to see the resistance from the kit is lessening

Is that a British Army Mk 10 "Turtle" on the floor between the cabinets??

[aur0ra145]

Glad to see the resistance from the kit is lessening

Is that a British Army Mk 10 "Turtle" on the floor between the cabinets??

Good eye! Yes, it's a British Turtle helmet. The seller said it was original from WW2 and based on the condition and wear, I tend to agree. I've not really found a cool way to display it yet.

[RangerNeil]

Glad to see the resistance from the kit is lessening

Is that a British Army Mk 10 "Turtle" on the floor between the cabinets??

Good eye! Yes, it's a British Turtle helmet. The seller said it was original from WW2 and based on the condition and wear, I tend to agree. I've not really found a cool way to display it yet.

If the rim is circular it might well be WW2. If its elongated towards the back then its from the 1950's onwards until the intro of the Combat Helmet in the 1980's.