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


Out2gtcha

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Definitely helps Ray! The HpH instructions are pretty lacking, and honestly dont tell you a whole lot about the order in which all the cylinders, intake manifold and crack case need to be in for it all to fit together.   AAMOF, they really dont tell you anything about how to assemble it, and even have the orientation of the exhaust stacks for the outer side misplaced (as far as I can tell with the way the rear part of the engine is aligned) 

 

On to some more progress!  (a REALLY BIG step actually!) 

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Ok here we go!!

 

I started off by painting the engine parts; a mix of RAF sea gray and USAF GSB for the engine crank case, gear box as well as the rear section with all the valves and supercharger equipment, light burnt metal and semi-gloss black for the intake runners and ignition ring, Aclad airframe aluminum for all the cylinders:

 

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Unfortunately, the Alclad airframe aluminum did NOT react well with the MIG enamel wash I put on, forgetting this was straight lacquer, not acrylic so I had to repaint the cylinders in MRP white aluminum. NBD, as they turned out quite nice in MRP white aluminum. I will put a wash on those later, as well as weathering the crack case and cylinder blocks.

 

 

 While all that dried, I got on to the REAL deal; attaching some major airframe parts!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Not sure whats up with my SmugMug, but its doing some crazy crap this AM, so ignore any weird stuff or marks in my posts, as I can’t seem to correct it. 

 

On to the big stuff……………..getting the blasted wings on!  It’s been a LONG time coming, and I wanted to wait for this step until I got the wing tips finished, and the majority of the re-scribing done. I started off by using some blu-tack to secure the fuselage to my mat, then used some artist’s triangles at the same specific points on each wing to hold the correct dihedral in place.  

 

The way HpH made the wing attachment was very smart, and quite secure. It really does keep the wings at the correct and severe dihedral angle required for the F7F. Of course I used my good old trusty standby when one needs a LOT of strength; JB Weld:

 

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And after the applied glue, the joints are very nice and tight, and the JB Weld acted as a bit of filler too:

 

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On to the finished product..............

 

 

 

 

 

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I let that JB Weld cure for 24 hours before messing with it. I then took it off the bench and blue-tack and put it back on my JH Models stand, and used the wing holders to stabilize things, while I attached the horizontal stab.

This was a bit tricky because there are no alignment pins or marks what so ever, so you really have to used the rear middle area of the stab as the center alignment mark, and used the center molding line of the stab to align to the center seem of the fuselage, then I measured several times from wing tip to stab tip, then used a square to make sure the trailing edge of the horizontal stab aligned 90 deg to the center seem of the fuselage too.

 

YAY! 

 

Its actually starting to look more and more like an F7F...................

 

TaDa! 

 

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The JB Weld performs miracles, and if you have never used it before GIVE IT A TRY. Its THE strongest glue I have encountered yet; of any type. I put the horizontal stabilizer on last night, so the JB Weld should be dry by tonight, and Ill be attaching the vertical fin then.   

 

Cant wait to see what the big girl looks like with her airframe more complete!

 

Cheers, 

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