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

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks Andy, Ill be back on the F7F tonight. I've been trying to devise in my head and then execute a small jig type setup after the firewalls are glued in place. Now that they are, I can set about not only smoothing out the exhaust outlets, but also continue on my engine bearer jig, as Ive cut some plastic styrene card out for part of it, but need the firewalls in their final location before it will work. 

[spyrosjzmichos]

Impressive work so far Brian!

Great job on such a tough kit!

[Out2gtcha]

Well its been a lot less time on the big cat than id hoped, but progress non the less. The process took a bit longer than I anticipated as well, but I'm still on target.

 

The Milliput was sanded back, and Mr. Surfacer 1000 applied by brush to the roughest spots. From there, it was sanded back with 400 - 1000 grid wet dry. Next, a layer of Mr. Surfacer 1500 black was applied with the air brush overall to the outside and inside of the nacelles, and the exterior of the nacelles was sanded with 1500 - 3500 wet dry.

Although I plan on spraying the outer surface of the F7F with a light primer since the base color of DSB is very dark, I applied this black layer here as more of a way of getting all things symmetrically painted and knowing where I have to touch-up.

 

The process of Mr Surfacer over Milliput gave me the smooth transition from exhaust ports to firewall that I needed:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obviously I still have most of the rescribing and riveting left to do on the port nacelle that got chopped in two and glued back together, but otherwise I'm happy with the progress.

I've also made a start on one of the engine bearers to see how I wanted to proceed, as the prior idea of making a jig and gluing the bearers on from there with the nacelles taped in their final position did not work out as well as I would have liked. It turned out gluing the bearers in from the back proved nearly impossible, so I'm going a different route on those..................stay tuned!

 

Thanks for stopping in on me and Cheers,

[Troy Molitor]

Love seeing you banging back hard on this one Brian,  Lovely efforts going on here.  

[Thunnus]

Excellent work on the nacelle re-shaping, Brian!  I know what that feels like!  Can you elaborate a little more on the finer grits of sandpaper that you are using?  I usually top out at about 1000 grit and then switch over to Micromesh.

[brahman104]

That surfacer is smooth!!!!! Looking great Brian

 

Craig

[Kagemusha]

A fine testament to your skills Brian, looks just like it should.

[RadBaron]

Go man, GO!

Youre doing a great job of beating the beast into submission!

[LSP_Kevin]

Lovely work, Brian!

 

Kev

[Derek B]

Looking really good Brian 

 

Derek

[MikeMaben]

Beautious 

[Anthony in NZ]

This is the comeback Cat....loving this Brian.  Your workmanship is second to none.

[JayW]

Brian - it's somehow gratifying to read of your difficulties and challenges on this effort.  This is not a Tamiya build!!  Many of us can relate.  Most of the builds I have done the last few years (all the 1/18 ones) have been one big challenge after another.  I have to force myself, sometimes, to turn my mind away from it lest I lose sleep or tick off my mate!   But you know - the mind needs exercise, especially old ones like mine.  And this hobby of ours helps with that, I am convinced.   Your solutions, and execution of same, are commendable.  I can only hope to come close.

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks Jay, high praise indeed coming from you, as your 1/18th projects are way above what Im doing here. This is just basically survival! AKA, just finishing the damn thing.

 

In this case, I did actually get some paint (MPR interior green) shot on the interior of the nacelles, as well as some on the firewalls. I have also finally gotten both of the engine bearers on and all glued together. 

That is the good news, they are in the final position they need to be in (I think)......but the bad news is it didn't quite go like I planned. I probably broke, re-broke and glued parts of each 5 or 6 times. They are in the right place, but they look like a monkey Dr. set a broken leg. Its a tad embarrassing actually, but I've slathered the worse in Mr Surfacer 500, and now that interior of the nacelles is painted, I can get on with a wash there, and then will start to proceed on some detailing and wiring. 

[MikeMaben]

10 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

       ... the bad news is it didn't quite go like I planned. I probably broke, re-broke and glued parts of each 5 or 6 times.

 

Jay's right , I somehow feel better now