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


Out2gtcha

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Brain, I like your solution to the oleo and nose gear! I think your on the right track. Great work and hang in there and think of how outstanding it'll be when your finished.

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Thanks again guys.

 

Well gents, a battle is a battle is a battle!   In this case for the first time, Im getting into battling. I know its not ALL going to be like this, but its a bit trying when each step is a new ordeal, and must be changed, added to, or completely scratch built. However, it seems Im getting into the flow of the big twin kitty, so that is a good feeling. 

 

The other feelings Im getting are not quite as good.............

 

Here is my continued work on the nose gear well detailing and the nose gear assembly. 

First off, I took the main nose gear and inserted it into the hole provided, which has to be bored out a bit. No biggie. The problem is, Once I did that, then put the nose gear well pack into the fuselage to see where the nose gear fell, I found the next issue.

 

Here is the main gear inserted into the OOB hole, after the nose gear pack was inserted into the fuselage in the correct place (the gear is upside down as you can see the slight bend I put in the lower part - I put this in upside down as the lower part of the rod was still straight, only to demonstrate the angle at which the nose gear rests if you put it in OOB):

 

20171211_201057-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

This to me not only doesnt look right overall it doesnt even look like the pictures that HpH Provided:

 

F7F_1_32_HpHmodels_08-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

So, what I did was to put the ever-so-slight bend forward in the top of the main gear rod that you can see at the bottom of the gear in the first pic above.

After my very slight modification, here is what the gear looks like after. This is not a huge change, but it makes a huge change to the look:

 

20171211_201221-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

After looking at the HpH example, I may not have even bent mine far enough:

 

F7F_1_32_HpHmodels_11-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Im still at a loss as to how the built HpH F7Fs rear nose gear strut even remotely got glued to the nose well in their example. In mine, with only that very slight bend, which appears even that is not enough to be correct, the secondary folding strut doesn't even reach the nose well roof:

 

20171211_201349-XL.jpg

 

20171211_201345-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Its now clear, that as the OOB example is missing the folding joint in the secondary nose gear brace, as well as completely missing the torque/retraction bar, that I am going to have to scratch up this brace as well.

 

I also managed to get a decent start on the well roof detailing. This pretty much has to get done before it gets glued in the fuselage, and has to get done before the gear too, since getting any of this detail in with the gear in would be much more difficult. 

Some of this detail is spurious, and a lot of it is just a representation of the detail that is in the 1:1. However I think it will look good in the end. I have a long LONG way to go here. Some of the good points here for HpH are that they have provided quite a few holes in the nose well roof for added detail like hydraulic lines and what not:

 

20171211_215724-XL.jpg

 

20171211_215845-XL.jpg

 

20171211_215730-XL.jpg

 

20171211_215751-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

So this is where I am right now. The next step I think will be to finish up the detailing in the nose well, then I can move onto making the rest of the nose gear, and getting the main section cleaned up. This will get me to being able to finish up the nose well pack as a 1 piece that I can then insert into the fuselage as a single unit. Then it will probably be onto the cockpit!   Or, maybe start on the two very nice looking R2800s!     Fun!   

 

I hope things go significantly better in either of those two areas, where the fit and look may not be quite as critical as they are in the nose well.

 

Cheers until your older! 

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Richard, Peter, Shawn, dutik, Juraj, Andy, John thanks one and all for stopping by. 

 

Well, its basically leaving one fight to join another that the first caused. When I put in the actual nose gear together, it appears like it is 90deg perpendicular to the fuselage. That may (or may not) be an optical allusion. This contradicts the pictures of the HpH Tigercat online, which for all intents and purposes, has the typical forward sweep to the nose gear:

 

F7F_1_32_HpHmodels_08-XL.jpg

 

 

I would disagree, look at this picture again to me the nose gear is perpendicular to the nose but the forward stance is being achieved by the tail heavy stance of the whole airframe just my 0.02

 

Cheers Fred

Edited by stusbke
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Im not convinced. If you look at my picture  of the gear in its OOB position as dictated by the instructions VS what the HpH kit is showing, to me there is not just a difference, but a vast difference in stance:

 

20171211_201057-XL.jpg

 

F7F_1_32_HpHmodels_11-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

Here is a shot of the HpH example, and my example, both with a red line drawn on the exact same panel line up to the center of the main nose gear leg.  Then another red line trhough the center of each gear leg, meeting the first  red line drawn on the panel line.

 To my eye they are so far apart its not even remotely close:

 

My%20F7F%20nose%20gear1-XL.jpg

 

HpH%20F7F%20nose%20gear1-XL.png

 

 

 

 

 

There is definitely something off there for sure

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Just doesnt look right compared with the HpH built example, the joys of an HpH kit I guess.......only built one (Ta-154) and there is always something lurking round the next corner to catch you out if not careful! Keep onplugging away Brian, nice progress on the gear well!

 

Regards. Andy

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The MLG angle was also way-off in the HPH La-7 build I have underway - not sure if it was me making an error with installing the wheel wells or just the way the resin was. I ended up having to carve away the mounting locations completely (a real mess as this area was already all painted etc) and drilled new locations at the correct angle. The wells are now a mess from that - I need to address that still....

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Yes Mark as a matter of fact it is. It's a pretty big deal breaker for most. Hopefully, my solid brass lower gear assembly will work out and support the model. There won't be a lot of the weight pushing down on the nose gear in the end.

 

Yeah every model is different in this way too.

A lot of tricycle gear plane models are tail sitters by nature (P-38, B-25, etc).

The actual aircraft is balance very close to the main gear so that the pilot can rotate upon once reaching takeoff speed.

So on the model once you add weight to get the tail up you end up with very little force on the nose gear after all....

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Just doesnt look right compared with the HpH built example, the joys of an HpH kit I guess.......only built one (Ta-154) and there is always something lurking round the next corner to catch you out if not careful! Keep onplugging away Brian, nice progress on the gear well!

 

Regards. Andy

 

 

Thanks Andy. Indeed that seems the way it goes with HpH kits!  However expensive they are, they do come with great detail, and usually are subjects that are not produced by anyone else, so that is a good thing for sure

 

 

 

just think of how good it will feel to complete this challenge!

 

Exactly!  This being my all time favorite air-craft, it will most definitely feel great.   I cant wait to have my all time dream model setting on my display shelf. 

 

 

 

The MLG angle was also way-off in the HPH La-7 build I have underway - not sure if it was me making an error with installing the wheel wells or just the way the resin was. I ended up having to carve away the mounting locations completely (a real mess as this area was already all painted etc) and drilled new locations at the correct angle. The wells are now a mess from that - I need to address that still....

 

Well that does make me feel a bit better, knowing that its likely not me, and Im not actually crazy!  But, not that much cause I have the La-7 to build too!

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Yeah every model is different in this way too.

A lot of tricycle gear plane models are tail sitters by nature (P-38, B-25, etc).

The actual aircraft is balance very close to the main gear so that the pilot can rotate upon once reaching takeoff speed.

So on the model once you add weight to get the tail up you end up with very little force on the nose gear after all....

 

 

Exactly. In the end, even with nearly 10oz of weight in the nose, there will be very little force pushing down on the nose gear when completed.   I really really hate the nose high "California lift" look that the F7F-3 and Ta-154 usually have.

 

I will be correcting that on my model.   The following pics are much closer to the attitude that I will be shooting for on my model in the end:

 

76114_1414164445-XL.jpg

 

DSZ_4898-XL.jpg

 

20256_1416797584-XL.jpg

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76114_1414164445-XL.jpg

 

Judging from the tyre in that picture, there's quite a bit of weight on the nosewheel

 

Or the 'plane is braking hard

 

Richard

I agree. Also in previous pics the same aircraft the oleo strut was quite a bit more extended, so there is every chance he was breaking a bit here
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