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

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks again boys, and happy Sunday...........

 

Well, I am OFFICIALLY done (building) all 36 exhaust stacks!   Now all I have to do is finish sand, fill, prime, sand, paint and weather each one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finishing up the bottom side on the 2nd engine

 

 

 

 

 

 

THEN I moved onto the very last and final exhaust port, engine #2 port side:

 

 

 

 

Im showing this one blank, as I had encountered this big girl giving me one last fit on THE VERY LAST exhaust stack #2 18 shown above on the very bottom.

I was cutting this exhaust stack down as for some reason HpH gave me the last one as a shorty for the rear row, and not a long one for the forward row of cylinders.

 

As I was chopping the open end of the stack off to get it to fit, I must have chopped it at a slight angle, as it pinged away from the razor blade, up in the air, and as I watched bounced off a soda can in my trash can and made a couple other tinging sounds as it bounced around and descended into the depths of my VERY full trash can.

 

*SIGH* 

 

She was REALLY testing me and pushing me, and on THE very last exhaust stack too!  

 

I took a look at the full trashcan and decided it was gone forever....................then I thought better and figured I may as well give it at least and attempt to look for it. So for the next 45 min or so I delicately combed through all the trash in the can, taking all of it out and looking each disgusting bit as I went putting it in a separate box. There was a LOT of crap in the can:

 

 

 

 

 

 

After about 30 or 40 min I finally got to the bottom and figured I probably missed it, but was worth a shot to look around for it. I sifted around in that bottom bit with some long hemostats for 10 or 15 min

 

 

 

 

 

I was literally JUST about to give up and say @#*% it, when a miracle happened......................

 

No clue how I actually spotted it, since it really just looked like an ordinary gray piece of cut sprue:

 

 

 

 

 

 

NO WAY!  I was pleasantly pleased for sure.  I could have made a scratched one, but had nothing the replicated the exact inside dimensions.  Onward and upward to filling sanding, priming, painting and weathering.

 

Cheers,

[Greg W]

Man, we've all been there! Your heart just sinks and the light dims in the room.

 

I have a pre flight checklist before working on a model and one of the checklist items is to make sure that I've pushed the waste basket all the way under my work bench. So glad you found it!

[Oldbaldguy]

Spent many hours myself on my belly with an LED light looking for some tiny part that always ends up in some impossible location miles from where it should be.  BTW, I believe there might be some upscale art galleries on the West Coast that would be interested in exhibiting your trash can photos.  They fit right in with current trends and you might could make a couple of bucks!

[JayW]

I laughed and laughed over that last post.  And I thought for some reason only I am capable of flinging an important part into the trash can!!  I laugh, but for sure I am not laughing when it happens to me!  Sometimes, after cutting a very small piece of plastic sheet, I will throw it away with the scrap on the bench!  Becuase it looks kind of like the scrap itself.  At least I can make another, something you didn't have the luxury of doing.  Long ago I quit making models on shaggy rugs.  But even with a plain floor, parts have an amazing ability to bounce under any furniture or other objects near by, resulting in a lengthy and angering search ending either successfully, or not.  Great and painstaking work on those stacks BTW.  Cannot wait to see the finished sets installed.

 

Edited January 17, 2022 by JayW

[MikeMaben]

16 hours ago, JayW said:

                    I laughed and laughed over that last post.

Yep , me too and for the same reason. There have been times when I spent

so much time on the floor looking for a part that I forgot what I was looking for.

 

[dodgem37]

Good on you.  It all is such a pain in the ass.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[Jaro]

On 1/16/2022 at 9:39 PM, Out2gtcha said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NO WAY!  I was pleasantly pleased for sure.  I could have made a scratched one, but had nothing the replicated the exact inside dimensions.  Onward and upward to filling sanding, priming, painting and weathering.

 

Cheers,

 

I always believe that patience pays off!

 

[airscale]

your spirit is quite inspirational Brian - it is rare to see perseverence like this, that is why we have shelves, so we can fling those that resist up there and never speak of them again..

 

things like this shape us, even though at times it feels super tough, I genuinely think it breeds skills, resilience and approaches that ultimately make us better at what we love doing

 

the day is not far away when your absolute favourite airframe will be done and you will have that Cat in your collection you always wanted

 

..then it will all be worth it..

 

Peter

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks again all!

 

19 hours ago, airscale said:

your spirit is quite inspirational Brian - it is rare to see perseverence like this, that is why we have shelves, so we can fling those that resist up there and never speak of them again..

 

things like this shape us, even though at times it feels super tough, I genuinely think it breeds skills, resilience and approaches that ultimately make us better at what we love doing

 

the day is not far away when your absolute favourite airframe will be done and you will have that Cat in your collection you always wanted

 

..then it will all be worth it..

 

 

 

And thanks directly to you my friend, for the wonderful F7F engines and the like!

 

This kit wouldn't be what it is without you.

 

After a few hours of taking a reamer to each, making sure each of the 36 stack tips were open.......

 

Ok, everybody got their correct label? Everyone in their correct rows?

 

 

 

 

 

Alrighty then, everyone gets a spritz of 1500 Mr surfacer black with the air brush, then some brushed on filler in spots then another round of primer filler and set to dry overnight to be sanded smooth and hopefully get another round of primer.

 

 

 

 

 

While I had the old girl upsidedown, I installed the two outside mounts for the supporting arms of the MLG, in prep for getting the mains squared away before overall paint.

There was really no support base for the outer MLG arm what so ever and I assume HpH would have you glue it directly into the engine mount.

Instead, I created these small squared off mounts the end of the 45deg angled arms can fit into for extra support and strength.

These are just square brass tubing cut and shaped with some bolt heads attached and with some square U shape channel styrene in them so the MLG arm will slide right into them.

You can see them here on the outer upper sections of the horizontal main section of the engine mount. I had to remove paint from the engine mount and file a round profile into the brass square tubing to fit, so these still need touchup after they set up overnight. I used JB Weld to glue them in as they will be assisting with actually holding the MLG in position.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll finish touching up the paint on the MLG mounts once the JB Weld has set, and then will also move to smooth out the 36 exhaust stacks and hopefully be able to give them a final primer coat in prep for their paint and weathering.

 

Closer and closer gents......

 

Cheers!

[brahman104]

Rock on Brian!!!

 

The wheel wells look amazing and reflect the exceptional dedication you've given to this model!

 

Keep with it mate  

 

Craig

[MikeMaben]

               Careful Brian ...

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by MikeMaben

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks gents. I've sanded all the stacks and given them a final round of primer.

I'll try to get some paint and weathering on them this weekend. After they are done, I'm going to try to get the MLG squared away. The main components do the MLG are pretty much ready for assembly with JB Weld. I've got to make sure all my angles are good and I hope to have the main struts of the MLG glued up so I can start detailing them away from the airframe while it is smoothed, re-scribed and painted.

[jeroen_R90S]

Fingers crossed!

[Out2gtcha]

Thank you again, one and all, the nice responses and encouragement has really pushed me through some of the previous blocks (like the MLG and exhausts!) that have stopped me on this big girl putting her on the SOD. Not this time!

 

Ive actually got a surprising amount of rekindled passion for her again, as two out of 3 of the last very big hurdles have been not fully sorted yet, but are well on their way to getting sorted. Great news as that spells good news for a finished 1/32nd scale F7F at some point in the not too distant future.

 

The props are well on their way to getting fully painted with only wet stencils to go. Back to primer then some DSB, then mask off the prop boss and get some aluminum shot on the base:

 

 

 

 

 

 

All 36 exhaust stacks are now finished!

The stacks were completed, then given a finish sanding, then some primer and and some further refinement then the final steps were, a light layer of Mr. Surfacer 1500 black, some MRP super flat back followed by a rub down with some Mig pigments graphite, then some layers of mig pigments rust in the bends of the stacks then a shot of MRP Navy white on the tips, and some MRP soot/exhaust to tame the bright white and finally a layer of MRP flat overall.

 

The rust/orange tones dont show that well in the photos, but more so IRL. None of it really will be seen anyway after the cowls are on, but hey-ho here we are:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right after I got those done a ballast in one of my overhead bench lights went out. Boo! Its very noticeable when working so will have to look on line to see if I can match up a new ballast and get the full light complement back:

 

 

 

 

 

Now it was time to move onto the MLG since I have the foam masking removed for the exhausts. I started by re-aligning the angle of the main wire running inside the MLG to fit the outer triangle supports that control how much splay outward the gear actually has. 

This dimension is critical to me, as the model looks very odd if the gear are splayed too far out to each side. This can also cause the Tigercat to sit too nose high which I really want to avoid.

Another issue this can cause is that the MLG axles do not light up perpendicular to the ground, which would cause the tires to do the same, which I also really wanted to avoid. 

First job up was to get the outer triangle side support distances figured out and bend the main wire up top just a smidgen to get them to line up and seat nicely into the engine mount bases I had made and glued on w/JB Weld previously:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I had to check the alignment with the rear main articulating support to see how the overall look and angles were. Things seemed like they were lining up quite well:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I even put on the other side MLG to see if the forward rake was the same. Its not, but its also not that far off, so I have left some adjustment ability in the system for just such and event:

 

 

 

 

 

 

With things lining up surprisingly well I went ahead and decided to knock out boxing in the top of the MLG and get that end squared away since I had removed that resin part when I modified the HpH gear to use SS oleos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It all looked great, and the new boxed in bases for the MLG I made even helped stiffen up the connection to help when I get ready to actually glue things in.

 

As soon as I realized all the happy thoughts I was having, I heard myself mention out loud how well things were going! My heart sank and I felt the need to QUINTUPLE check all my measurements and angles at that point, as those feelings and things "going so well" were NOT normal for this build.

 

Sure as *&%#@!

 

I put the MLG on in its intended place with the outer triangle side supports in place and placed the big girl right side up to see how the angles of the axles in relation to the ground were. 

Boooooo!  It looked like she was standing on her heels with her toes pointed up in the air. This would have left the MLG tires to rest on the inner edges of the tire and not flat at all. It also looked WAY too raked out, and not at all like it should be. 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a sit on it, and a surprisingly (comparatively) easy solution came to me. I just had to extend the outer side supports and then bend the MLG internal wire just a tad to accommodate. This would effectively reduce the outer rake of the gear and hopefully get the MLG axles perpendicular with the ground.

It was hella scary as these two parts are fairly critical, but I took one of Radus razor saws to the top of both and used a piece of square styrene in between the cut.

After adjusting the hardened steel wire at the top, I broke one of the bases, but got it repaired. You can see here the inserted chunk that extends the outer side supports:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was coated in CA, then sanded and shaped, then primed. In the end after correcting the wire up top, this put the MLG more or less perpendicular with the ground:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All for today lads, but Im back at it tonight!   inching ever closer..........

 

Cheers! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[easixpedro]

Love it. Perseverance and great problem solving! As for the light, go to Home Depot and swap ‘em out for LEDs. Simple cheap and super effective. Swapped ‘em out in the garage and the best $50 or so dollars I’ve spent in the new (ish) house. Wrenching in the garage is much more enjoyable now.