The Italeri 1/48 F7F-3 Tigercat is complete. The HVAR's have been replaced with Eduard Brassin rockets. These look way better than the kit rockets. The photo etch mounts look great as well. I then built the base using Tamiya's accessories, the oil barrel with crate from the kit, resin wheel chocks, and a Scene-A-Rama kit that I found at a local arts and crafts store. The Scene-a-Rama comes with many nice features. It has grass mats, bushes, trees, gravel, and many other items. I did have to purchase the sand mat separately.
I bought a wood base and using contact cement spray I attached the sand mat and trimmed the edges. Using the white glue in the kit I put a coat of white glue on the edges and on the edge of the sand mat. I sprinkled the road gravel and built up the area behind the barrels and gas cans. I painted the oil barrel black and the crate green drab then weathered with light and rust pastel chalk. The Tamiya fuel barrels and gas cans were painted olive drab and weathered the same way. The folded tarp was painted desert tan with dark tan in the folds. This was then weathered with tan light tan and brown pastel chalk. I used 80 lbs test braided fishing line to create the rope and weathered with dark gray pastel chalk.
The resin wheel chocks were painted safety yellow. To keep the aircraft stable and mounted to the base, I use 28 awg wire and drilled a hole in the bottom of each wheel. Then I drilled corresponding holes into the base. I used CA glue to glue the wire posts to the base. The white glue from the kit was used to attach the other accessories.
As for this build, I really like how this came out. Aside from the weight issue trying to keep it from tail dragging and the poor kit HVAR's this was a nice kit to build. The decals were very good. If you build this kit the only other thing I would like to note is the main landing gear is a little tricky getting mounted. It takes some tedious work to get it inside the bay and lined up. Overall it presents great. Thanks for following along. On to the photos!
See the entire build from start to finish at
1/48 F7F-3 Tigercat