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

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks all!

 

I feel like this thread is becoming sort of a proving grounds/guinea pig of sorts for the HpH Tigercat. In a way I think that is good, as it shows any potential bad and good things about the kit.

 

Although Im focused on the nose gear here, and to me that is one of several biggie "bad" things for me, there are a lot of very good things here too. I am really the type that like to tackle the most difficult stuff first (with this MO im sure is partly a reason why I can get burnt on high complexity builds) so that I can get that worst out of the way, then its all down hill from there. 

There really and truly is some superb detail in this kit, and the passion I have for the subject is keeping me in the game and will keep me in the game, however slow, all the way to the end. 

 

 

Last night I also managed to take a look a the oleo strut area of the nose gear. This is represented as a piece of resin right below the connecting point for the rear nose gear support arm. 

Its definitely not perfectly cylindrical on my copy, and for as much as I love foil, even polishing section of foil to glue on this would be tenuous as best, so I opted for a different route.

You can see here, the real deal, how the oleo strut is placed where on the HpH kit, the rod goes through, and comes out the bottom, to enter the top of the tire:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took a sanding bit to the Dremel and sanded smooth the outer layer of the (not brass) rod going through the nose gear. This allowed me to slip a tube over that, that could represent the oleo. I was out of my normal stainless steel tube in this size, so I opted for some aluminum. I polished it up a bit, and it slipped right over the nose gear rod with ease.

You can see here the rod smoothed out:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I polished the aluminum tube:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Test fit is a go for the Oleo! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later gents, 

Cheers! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RLWP]

I must say, I'm enjoying your build of this no matter what the faults

 

Mind you, I built a Battleaxe Fokker D.VII, so I think you've getting it pretty easy

 

Richard

[Guest Peterpools]

Brian

amazing work on the nose gear... sure wish I had your abilities to pull the modification off.

Keep 'em coming

Peter

[Shawn M]

outstanding solution!

[dutik]

Oh well, I took some runs to read the whole storie. It was really heartbreaking...

 

To sum it up: The kit is a perfect SNAFU.

 

 

Well, there are positive waves -sort of:

HPH makes Trumpeter look like a good guy. Trumpy replaced on customer demand another US naval fighter kit for a more accurate copy. At least once.

 

...

 

OK, your build is like the USMCs way:

To win a battle with proper equipment is easy. The USMC teaches you to do so with what you've got. You are the greatest!

 

 

Just a little help for a minor problem:

Go for white glue to secure the other pair of barrels. Just add a tiny amount onto the barrel tips before you start to close the fuselage. When you've got the fuselage closed, aligned and clamped together the slow curing white glue is still wet enough to press the barrel tips into the recesses as appropriate, but will be rock hard too once cured.

 

Regards

- dutik

[Trak-Tor]

A really like what you are doing here!

 

Juraj

[Guest Peterpools]

Just taking backseat and will be following, knowing until the issues are solved; I'm out. Nohing more to say.

Peter

[Kagemusha]

Great work Brian.

[Thunnus]

Great use of non-plastic materials to get the job done!  Fantastic work, one issue at at time!

[Out2gtcha]

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:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didnt have time to take pics of mine, but I will later to show what it looks like.  It definintely appears to have less or no rake to it, but I need to compare it to these pics to see where Im at.

 

Also, if one does change the main gear to a more raked attitude forward, this throws off the angled secondary brace in length. This may not actually be that big of a deal, since after looking at pics of the final built HpH model VS the real thing, its missing a LOT of stuff and is not very accurate looking if Im honest. Im actually thinking, since I made the other parts of the nose gear, and am planning the same for the mains, I might as well go ahead and make the rear nose strut too, as it is actually two separate parts that fold, and that joint area is not represented well OOB.

 

I also have figured out that inserting the main nose gear after gluing the fuselage 1/2s together is going to be a HUGE PITA.    It appears, not unlike the nose well detailing, I will have to install the nose gear main strut, rear angled support, the torque/actuator arm, as well as the large main actuating hydraulic piston, prior to closing the fuselage unlike the instructions call out for.

 

Im not sure how HpH got that top main resin base of the main nose gear in between the  front sections of the nose well opening, let alone get glue in there without messing anything up.

 

 

Here is what Im talking about. This is the built up HpH example:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the real deal. The HpH example is missing the torque/actuator brace along side the secondary angled brace Im talking about, above. You can see the last 12" or so peaking out of the top of the nose well here:

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can further see it here to the right of that same secondary brace, going all the way up, and connecting to the nose well. At the bottom of this pic, you can also see the secondary brace mid section where it folds, and the two parts its actually made out of become clear:

 

 

 

 

 

 

To me, the chances of connecting the secondary angled brace that on the model that just glues to the roof of the nose well without any real connection to it, ( it just is supposed to kind of get glued on top of what is supposed to be the actuator hinge, but there is actually nothing there) as well as gluing the torque/actuator brace beside it after the fuselage has been glued together and have it be anything but a mess, are slim to none.

 

Sooooooooooooo this means getting the whole of the nose gear, and all its modifications done and detailed before closing up the fuselage. Bummer.   Well since I now is what it is, and since I have to completely detail the nose well before gluing things on, I might as well work on the nose gear, all at the same time. 

Ive got a lot to add and modify here. 

 

Cheers till later! 

[Kagemusha]

I don't know if this is a stupid suggestion, but could you not glue the bottom forward fuselage together to give you a little wriggle room to add the u/c later?

[Mark_C]

Is that a brass rod from the lg going through the wheel and tire?!

[Guest]

Yep  ........Harv

[Out2gtcha]

I don't know if this is a stupid suggestion, but could you not glue the bottom forward fuselage together to give you a little wriggle room to add the u/c later?

Yes, you probably could, but the only problem I can see is the secondary gear support anchors on the well roof, and getting it attached with the fuse glued even less than 1/2 way would require quite a very large split to get it fit.

At this point I feel like I could get everything set and glued in the nose well pack and then glue that in before the fuselage gets closed with significantly less mess than if I waited.

 

Looking over the nose gear opening in the fuselage, I think this is going to be a real challenge either way.

[Out2gtcha]

Is that a brass rod from the lg going through the wheel and tire?!

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.