Italeri F7F-3 Tigercat

Wolfman_63 · Mar 15, 2019

Next up is the Italeri 1/48 F7F-3 Tigercat with Eduard photo etch details. The F7F-3 aircraft entered service late in the war in 1944. They were produced in day fighter, night fighter and photo-reconnaissance versions. They were originally designed to be carrier based but there were some issues that caused them to fail carrier qualification. They ended up being used by the Marines and did most of their service later during the Korean War.
Starting off with the cockpit, the dashboard was detailed with photo etch parts. The photo etch seat was adorned with the seatbelts then mounted to the cockpit. While assembling the cockpit to the fuselage I noticed the kit did not have parts for the front a rear bulkheads of the nose gear bay.
I used a contour gauge to measure the fuselage and cut out the bulkheads from sheet styrene. They grabbing so extra photo etch parts from my spares drawer I detailed the bulkheads . with a little minor shaping they fit right in. Another detail I did was to drill out the gun barrels of the nose guns for a more realistic appearance.

See my build log for more detailed photos. 1/48 F7F-3 Tigercat

Wurger · Mar 15, 2019

vikingBerserker · Mar 15, 2019

Very nice!

fubar57 · Mar 15, 2019

Agreed. Gotta get me one of the contour thingmees

Gnomey · Mar 16, 2019

Good work so far!

Wolfman_63 · Mar 16, 2019

fubar57 said:
Agreed. Gotta get me one of the contour thingmees

They are available on amazon. Amazon product ASIN B00004T7RA

fubar57 · Mar 16, 2019

Amazon wants my CC number; haven't used that thing for about 15 years. I just checked eBay where I use PayPal. I believe eBay is now retarded...note what I typed in the search box and what they show...

Wolfman_63 · Mar 17, 2019

fubar57 said:
Amazon wants my CC number; haven't used that thing for about 15 years. I just checked eBay where I use PayPal. I believe eBay is now retarded...note what I typed in the search box and what they show...

View attachment 532025

Check local hardware stores or wood working stores. It is normally used for matching wood trim. Home Depot here sells them for $10-$12.

Take the word "small" off your Ebay search.
General Tools 837, 6 Inch Contour Gauge / Gage with Stainless Steel Pins | eBay

Wolfman_63 · Mar 22, 2019

More progress on the Tigercat. I first cut out the molded wing tip lights. Later I will add clear parts to make the lens. Next I assembled and detailed the main gear bays with some photo etch and detail painting. Moving onto the engines I used the photo etch wiring harness. The engines were painted with aluminum for the cylinders and black for the pushrod covers. The wiring was painted burnt umber and the front cover was painted light gray with chrome bolts. The landing gear was then detailed. The main struts had the hydraulic lines molded on. I cut them off and replaced them with black sleeved 32 awg wire. I drilled a small hole at each end then stripped the sleeving off to the bare wire and CA glued the wire into the hole. I added the one for the nose gear as well.
When assembling the fuselage I filled everything forward of the cockpit to the nose with lead weights. Alas even with all the weights the aircraft still wants to sit on its tail. There just isn't enough room to add more weight due to the sleek fuselage. I am most likely going to make a display base for the aircraft to sit on so that it displays correctly. The fuselage has been base coated and the decals will be the next step.

You can see all the build photos from the start on my blog at 1/48 F7F-3 Tigercat

Wurger · Mar 22, 2019

Looking good. But it seems that you didn't attach the proper amount of weight into the nose of the model.

Crimea_River · Mar 22, 2019

That's what he said in the post. Nice work.

Airframes · Mar 22, 2019

Shame about the nose weight, but it's looking good and, on a display base, can be fixed in place properly.

Wolfman_63 · Mar 22, 2019

There is not enough room to add more weight. From what I have been told the real aircraft had to have something holding up the tail if it was out of fuel. Maybe Grumman should not have made it with a nose wheel.

Gnomey · Mar 23, 2019

Lovely work so far!

fubar57 · Mar 27, 2019

Looking good. I think a 45 gallon drum was used as support

EDIT: found this........

....here...RR48041 F7F Tigercat Tail Support

fubar57 · Mar 27, 2019

....or just add wheel chocks.

From the web. Couldn't find a source

Wurger · Mar 28, 2019

Wolfman_63 · Mar 29, 2019

I will be adding wheel chocks and mounting it on a base. The kit did come with a drum with a crate on top to use for support. I am going to mount the aircraft to the base. I will be using the drum/crate as a background to the base.

Wolfman_63 · Mar 29, 2019

I am getting closer to completing the Tigercat. This week I put on the decals and sealed the aircraft. Once sealed, I added some weathering to the exhaust areas using light blue, brown, gray and finally black pastel chalk. Next I added the recognition and wing tip lights. I finally added the antenna wire using EZ-line.

You can see how I did them in my tips and tricks section. Tips and Tricks

I started working on the HVAR (High Velocity Aerial Rocket) and that's when the problems arose. First the kit rockets have a cut-out area where the fins are mounted. Second the rockets are about .2" too short. I tried using the photo etch fins to see if I can make them look decent then realized the photo etch set only has enough fins for only four of the rockets. So I opted to buy the Eduard "Brassin" HVAR set. These look a lot more realistic than the kit rockets and even include the rocket to aircraft ignition wire. Once I finish the rockets I will then start on the display base. Stay tuned for more.

All the build photos from the start are in my build log 1/48 F7F-3 Tigercat

Kit HVAR's that I will not be using.