AMT 1/48 Grumman f7f-3 Tigercat

[yak face]

Hi all , heres the winner of the poll i had to see which kit got built next . Its the excellent AMT grumman f7f-3 Tigercat in 1/48 scale. A lovely kit , very well regarded at its release in 1995 and still stands up today . It features recessed panel lines , very nicely detailed interiors and engines ,and treaded rubber tyres . The Tigercat itself was a bit of a latecomer to the party ,first deliveries being in mid 1944 and not actually seeing any action in ww2 and very limited action in Korea . That said its a beast of an aircraft , its all about the engines and guns ! The designers just got the biggest engines they could find and wrapped the least amount of airframe around them ! Add four fifty cal. guns and four 20 mm cannons and youve got yourself a very fast , hard hitting fighter . The end of the war and the emergence of jet power meant that a very promising aircraft never really had a chance to shine , its only combat victories being two polikarpov po2 biplanes in Korea , talk about a sledgehammer to crack a nut ! Heres the kit and some sprue shots , I’ll be starting with the engines , which although supplied with the horseshoe shaped ignition harness ,dont depict any ignition leads, which is very noticeable in this scale . These will be added from copper wire , stripped from a bit of 13amp twin and earth cable .

 

[yak face]

Started on the engines yesterday . I drilled out the spark plug holes ( 2 per cylinder) ready for the ignition wires . The copper wires were heated with a lighter to give the dark weathered colour ( note to self - next time hold the wires in pliers , copper is a VERY good conductor of heat -ouch !)
After the wires were cut to size they were glued into the holes with ca , then one at a time glued to the stubs on the ignition harness . A very fiddly ,long job ( the double wasp is an 18 cylinder radial so 36 wires !) but it improves the look no end . Only trouble is ive now got to do it all again for the other engine . Ive also been painting up the nicely detailed wheel wells which will benefit from a light wash .

 

[Tim Marlow]

Nice start Tony. Engines looking good....

 

[Neil Merryweather]

Yummy!

 

[Mark1]

Nice work on the engine.want to try adding some detail to my gladiator at least that's only got nine cylinders!

 

[rtfoe]

Tony, I was wanting to start on my Tigercat and you're ahead of me. Will change to Bearcat perhaps and take some tips from you when I decide on the Tigercat next. BTW great start...I won't go crazy on the engines like you cos my builds are starting to get lazy and also I don't know much about radial engines.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[yak face]

Tony, I was wanting to start on my Tigercat and you're ahead of me. Will change to Bearcat perhaps and take some tips from you when I decide on the Tigercat next. BTW great start...I won't go crazy on the engines like you cos my builds are starting to get lazy and also I don't know much about radial engines.

Cheers,
Richard

I’ll be sure to flag up any potential issues for you richard , the only ones so far are a few ejector pin marks in visible places ( cockpit , wheel wells ) and the obvious need for a kilo or two of nose weight !

 

[rtfoe]

Yeah...she's a real potential for a tail sitter with the long tail and large fin. Thanks for the initial heads up.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[yak face]

Yeah...she's a real potential for a tail sitter with the long tail and large fin. Thanks for the initial heads up.

Cheers,
Richard

I read somewhere that even in real life it was common practice to prop the tail with oil drums as it was prone to occasionally sitting up and begging like a spaniel !!

 

[rtfoe]

I know the Tracker has a small wheel on its rear and wonder if the Tigercat should have had one.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[yak face]

I know the Tracker has a small wheel on its rear and wonder if the Tigercat should have had one.

Cheers,
Richard

There is a small tail bumper , I imagine for the same purpose

 

[yak face]

More progress on the tigercat and a few dilemmas thrown up ( Richard , , a heads up for you when you get to yours) .Ive been wiring the second engine , very fiddly but its now done ,just needing the gear housing attaching and a touch up and wash . As seen in the previous posts the wheel well interiors have been painted , theyve now had a wash and the nacelles have been glued together . The fit of these to the wing is not bad ,BUT they sit about a millimetre too far forward . The problem here is the rear section of the two part cowling ( the bit that has the exhausts on it ) wont go far enough back and leaves a gap of about 1 mm on the top . The mating faces of the nacelle fronts need shaving down and the stepped side parts need about 1 mm cut off the end. The raised circular part on the nacelle front also needs sanding down . After lots of fettling and dry fitting I managed to get the gap to close up ( see pics ).
Another headache is the fact that this model is going to need a lot of weight in the nose to avoid being a tail sitter . The kit even supplies an oil drum and packing case to use as a prop for the rear end. The dilemma is that if I decide to use weights to make it sit on its own the undercarriage is maybe not strong enough to cope . The undercarriage is commendably detailed and to scale but looks very fragile ( although a test fit of the main legs showed they were a lot more sturdy than they look)
So do I go for the weighted nose or a tail prop or similar ?
The next big problem lies with the supplied rubber tyres . These look great but when i took them out of the bag with the clear sprues ,disaster!
Something in the rubber has caused a weird reaction with the clear parts , melting them and turning them all rubbery .This has ruined the rear section of the canopy but thankfully the windscreen escaped unharmed. The rear section can be replaced by crash moulding another as its a simple shape ( plus I can make it a little bigger so it can be displayed open , something not possible with the kit one)
I didnt want the tyres to do the same to the plastic hub parts when assembled so a set of aftermarket resin wheels have been ordered.

 

[yak face]

Engines both done now and the resin wheels have arrived. Ive made the decision that im not going to try and weight the nose as the undercarriage just doesnt look strong enough to cope . My options to ensure a proper stance are . 1. Use the kit supplied oil drum and crate to prop the tail 2. use a thin rod to prop the tail 3 .drill and fix an L shaped wire into the main wheels 4. Glue a pair of wheel chocks to the main wheels . I’m not sure the last option would work well enough so its either 1,2 or 3 . Ive fitted a plastic tube into the rear fuselage and drilled a tiny hole so if I want to use the prop method I can , using a thin steel rod , if not its not going to be noticeable at all , first i might try the wire in the wheels , it worked for me once before on the LET 200 Morava https://www.scale-models.co.uk/threads/let-200d-morava-in1-72-kp-models.31735/

 

[Jim R]

Hi Tony
Engines have come out really nicely. I've only ever built one "tailsitter" and that was only 1/72. I bought a base from Coastal Kits and then used tiny spots of two part epoxy under each wheel. Don't know if it would work for a bigger model and 1/48 bases are more expensive than 1/72. I have no doubt you'll sort it.
Jim

 

[tr1ckey66]

Hi Tony
Great progress. I like the engine detail and I’m sure you’ll overcome the myriad of problems you’ve encountered so far. What happened to the canopy? Looks like a tyre got glued to the the inside and left an impression/broke part of it off. That looks a tough problem to solve.
Cheers
Paul

 

[Tim Marlow]

Looking good Tony. Engines are splendid. Personally I can’t stand rubber tyres and wonder why kit makers insist on including them? Properly moulded styrene ones would be much preferred in my opinion. Rubber tyres are just a toy like gimmick.

 

[rtfoe]

More progress on the tigercat and a few dilemmas thrown up ( Richard , , a heads up for you when you get to yours) .Ive been wiring the second engine , very fiddly but its now done ,just needing the gear housing attaching and a touch up and wash . As seen in the previous posts the wheel well interiors have been painted , theyve now had a wash and the nacelles have been glued together . The fit of these to the wing is not bad ,BUT they sit about a millimetre too far forward . The problem here is the rear section of the two part cowling ( the bit that has the exhausts on it ) wont go far enough back and leaves a gap of about 1 mm on the top . The mating faces of the nacelle fronts need shaving down and the stepped side parts need about 1 mm cut off the end. The raised circular part on the nacelle front also needs sanding down . After lots of fettling and dry fitting I managed to get the gap to close up ( see pics ).View attachment 425512View attachment 425513View attachment 425514
Another headache is the fact that this model is going to need a lot of weight in the nose to avoid being a tail sitter . The kit even supplies an oil drum and packing case to use as a prop for the rear end. The dilemma is that if I decide to use weights to make it sit on its own the undercarriage is maybe not strong enough to cope . The undercarriage is commendably detailed and to scale but looks very fragile ( although a test fit of the main legs showed they were a lot more sturdy than they look)
So do I go for the weighted nose or a tail prop or similar ?
The next big problem lies with the supplied rubber tyres . These look great but when i took them out of the bag with the clear sprues ,disaster!
Something in the rubber has caused a weird reaction with the clear parts , melting them and turning them all rubbery .This has ruined the rear section of the canopy but thankfully the windscreen escaped unharmed. The rear section can be replaced by crash moulding another as its a simple shape ( plus I can make it a little bigger so it can be displayed open , something not possible with the kit one)
I didnt want the tyres to do the same to the plastic hub parts when assembled so a set of aftermarket resin wheels have been ordered.View attachment 425515View attachment 425516View attachment 425517View attachment 425518View attachment 425519View attachment 425520View attachment 425521

Thanks for the heads up on the fit issues Tony, haven't checked my kit for a long while and don't even remember if the tyres come in rubber. Wiring looks great on the engines.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[yak face]

The airframe is all together now and cleaned up . Once ive attached the windscreen and masked up the cockpit and wheel wells its ready for a blast of primer to see if anything needs tidying up . One area that I had to sort is the underneath of the nacelle fronts , this area being behind where some of the exhausts exit . Its not a good joint and impossible to fill and sand as its recessed ,so im going to cover it with a shaped piece of plastic card . Speaking of exhausts the part that contains the cowling flaps has the exhausts on the back edge ,which have been moulded with a hole in each stub. Commendable yes but they need opening out a bit to look better to scale so ive drilled them all larger . The overhead pic really shows the thin, knife like fuselage and broad wings .

 

[Neil Merryweather]

That's looking lovely Tony!

 

[rtfoe]

Nice.

Cheers,
Richard