Jump to content

F7F-3 Tigercat - BuNo 80405 - VMF 312 MCAS - El Toro, CA 1946


Out2gtcha

Recommended Posts

Hi Brian,

Love what you are doing. I have also bought the model - and whilst disappointed by some of the issues that really should have been resolved before production I, like you, really want to have a large scale Tigercat. Your WIP is showing us exactly how to approach these issues and build a stunning model.

 

Best,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks gents!! It's going to be a long and hopefully detail oriented build, but I'm really starting to get into the flow of the build, and am having s lot of fun.

 

 

Nice work so far, B

 

Not to pop your optimism ... But you're going to need a whole lot of Rosie (the riveter - that is) ... for that wing of yours.

HpH aren't going to re-master anything ... Heinz just reported back on the HpH news thread.

 

Rog :)

Bummer. Havent read that yet, but it's really not a surprise, and thanks to our own LSP_Ray, I may have a workable solution that will save that wonderful surface detail, and prevent mounds of it having to be filled!

 

I have to look over the wing to see how best to carry the plan out, but it's an Idea I has not thought of before, and looks really promising.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well back at it again tonight guys. Once again I find myself having a lot of fun doing this.  Im progressing at an astounding rate for what is being done VS my normal rate and completion of scratch-building. I only hope I can keep it up! (Giggty) Whatever happened, whether my resolve to push on with the project just kicked in, or my modeling MoJo did, something happened and Im having fun again. :D

 

Fist off, over the weekend besides taking some RFI shots of previously finished models, I finished up the detailing on the nose gear well pack. The modular nature of this lent itself very well to finishing off all the detailing and nose gear prior to gluing it in the fuselage. I think this is going to work out just fine in the end. I hope.

Regardless Ive put about as much detail in there as I care to, as its already getting a bit crowded, and with the nose gear, nose gear, hydraulic actuator piston, and torque actuator bar to go, its only going to get more crowded. Overall Im quite happy with it, but in the end, Im not sure how much of it will really be visible:

 

DSC_0098-XL.jpg

 

DSC_0099-XL.jpg

 

DSC_0103-XL.jpg

 

DSC_0100-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

I also secured the nose gears final forward angle as well. This seemed about visually right after comparing all the forward side view pics I could. This is roughly where I want to be with the fuselage and nose gear angles, if not just a skosh too tail high:

 

20171217_221016-XL.jpg

 

DSC_0107-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Ive also gotten the basics done for the secondary nose gear support leg, that on the real deal is folding, and two actual rods. Beginnings.........

 

DSC_0106-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Here you can see the two pieces shaped as needed, and still a bit rough, but cut out, and starting to look the part:

 

20171218_202722-XL.jpg

 

20171218_202651-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

MORE.................................

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Test fit for length, to see of Im in the ball-park after measuring cutting, filing and repeating about 20 times...................

 

Yay, we have a good fit! (Tamiya tape here temporarily holding the joint together so I could test length):

 

20171218_203222-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Looking quite stable actually:

 

20171218_204539-XL.jpg

 

20171218_204542-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Here it is in situation from the bottom, and you can start to get an idea of how my hinge setup looks as well:

 

20171218_204621-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Then came the hydraulic nose gear actuator piston. I cut off the bottom, and attached two scratch built hinge plates side by side, curved to fit the base of the nose gear hinge:

 

20171218_213645-XL.jpg

 

20171218_213659-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

You can see here how it will look when attached to the base of the nose gear, and will eventually go up to the front through the forward nose bulkhead:

 

20171218_213847-XL.jpg

 

20171218_213907-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

I chopped off the resin oleo part of the strut, drilled a suitably sized hole, and will replace it with a piece of hardened steel rod, which I can polish up later before assembly and paint:

 

20171218_214032-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

All for now lads, but I can feel momentum building here, so Im going to try to capitalize on that, and get back to the bench every night this week if I can. I have two weeks of "work-from-home" time coming up starting at the end of this week, so I hope to make much more progress! 

 

Cheers, 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, looking good, Brian!

Hope the wing idea works out, but it looked doable on my end. If you look closely, the lower wing that appears the detail is 'pushed' towards the wing tip, also has a larger gap at the nacelle. That is what gave me the idea. Slice, slice, sand, sand, add a wedge and a row of rivets and (hopefully) it is done. You might need to do similar on the inner half, but on my copy, that part didn't look as bad.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...