Jim R
SMF Supporter
Hi Tony
Looking good. Each little issue the kit has you are sorting out
Jim
Looking good. Each little issue the kit has you are sorting out
Jim
AMT 1/48 Grumman f7f-3 Tigercat
- Thread starter yak face
- Start date
Cracking work so far Tony, looking good.
The plastic card infills did the trick under the nacelle , base primer now on , UMP matt black . Next is a roughly applied misting of white , heavier in the centre of panels etc so that hopefully when the dark sea blue goes on it’ll not just look like a solid block of colour but varied and highlighted. Ive also given the inside of the engine cowlings a coat of ZC green . 
Flying along Tony. Yes I've used that one before. It's a nice looking aircraft I'm not familiar with, but I see what you mean - it's all about the engines.
Looking good
Got some colour on this now . I started by lightly going over the panel lines , avoiding the centre of the panels and gradually building up the colour density while trying to keep the shading visible . Its now all done and ready for a gloss coat tomorrow. 
Jim R
SMF Supporter
Very nice work on the painting Tony
Heres the top side finished ready for gloss
After looking at lots of period photographs ive come to the conclusion that operational tigercats had the undercarriage painted dark sea blue . Lots of photos on the net show silver but most of these are restored warbirds or repainted museum pieces so im going with the pics of actual machines in service .
After looking at lots of period photographs ive come to the conclusion that operational tigercats had the undercarriage painted dark sea blue . Lots of photos on the net show silver but most of these are restored warbirds or repainted museum pieces so im going with the pics of actual machines in service .
Probably very wise. I've got a Hellcat to build, an earlier machine, but it's all blue, everything, well except the tyres.
Found a very interesting photo on the net ( and period photos of the tigercat are very scarce ) showing a line up of tigercats , one of them is sitting on the tail, nose wheel up in the air . I did read somewhere that when not fuelled or loaded with ammo for the guns they were very prone to sitting up at the slightest provocation, hence the ammo crates and oil drum prop supplied in the kit. This method was used in the field sometimes or maybe not as this photo proves!
For once a model can be a tail sitter, and factually correct. Brilliant.
Its had a couple of coats of alclad aqua gloss and is now ready for the decals . The kit decals were not brilliant , having very large areas of yellowy carrier film round them , particularly the bare stars and bars . Not only that but the stars and bars are combined with the green and white areas so if youre not doing the trainer version ( I’m not ) you have to cut them out which would cause all sorts of hassle . I got a cheap set of aftermarket decals for f6 hellcats which feature similar bare stars and bars , theyre slightly bigger than the kit ones but im not fussed . The other part of the scheme is the large yellow letters which again have excess yellow carrier film , ill have to cut these out individually . Anyone wanting a tigercat in 1/48 is better off getting the Italeri rebox of this kit , youll get better decals and i think they got rid of the rubber tyres too 
That airbase photo is one of the best "paint chipping" examples I've seen.
Decals now on and its had a good wet coat of aqua gloss. A bonus with the aftermarket Hellcat decals is 2 lots of markings for the props were included and they were a lot better and more comprehensive than the poor kit offerings. The canopy problem has been sorted by using the old , damaged canopy as a former and gently heating and bending some clear acetate ( shampoo bottle!) over it . After a couple of goes I got one i was happy with so it then got some aluminium tape applied for the frames. The exhausts have been painted and the engines have now been fully assembled, ready to go on at the last minute
