AREA 88 - F7F-3 Tigercat "Mickey"

John Thomas
Greg, very nice work. You have the first boxing of the kit going back to 1966. Nice work on the rescribing. Engines look good. Greg, what did you use as our scribing tool and what kind of guild did you use?

Greg Baker
Thanks John. It's kind of fun n to be working on a kit this old. It's more retro than nostalgia for me since it's a few years older than I am! I added pics of my scribing tools. They're nothing fancy, a steel tip "pen" is my main weapon. I use that and the Hasegawa templates to lightly set down a track (usually 1-2 passes will do it) then go over it with a photoetched saw blade to make the scribe. It usually works pretty well as long as there's not a lot of curves. As you can see from the pics, I boxed in the wheel well with my favourite board-n-batten styrene and I added the tanks behind the landing gear by plugging the ends of a bit of tubing, sanding a bevel and the carefully adding some strapping

John Thomas
Greg, our wheel well looks nice and our oil tank. I had an old resin oil tanks from my spare box. I dont know from what set. In the future I will have to build my know. I have an old needle I use, not the best, I am looking for a better tool, also need some templates. I have some Dymo tape but not great for small detail work. I think it is much more fun to add our know detail to kits than to relay on resin detail sets and some kit have no resin set for them. I am not a big scribing fan but it is a skill I need to learn. Looking nice.

Marcel Klemmer
Looks good. Cross my Finger for the scribing act.

Greg Baker
I was quite pleased with my work on the oil tanks until I saw yours! At first I thought they were scratch-built and my reaction was "how the heck...?" I felt a bit better after I saw they were resin. Still looks good and I might have to go find some sodder now.😉 As for the scribing, I find the tool makes all the difference (as usual)! I started with the needle-in-a-pin-vise trick but it didn't work well. Since the needle is thin, you get a lot of flex at the tip. My thick steel pen doesn't move at all, and a few rubs on the whetstone and it's extremely sharp. I also like the PE saws to make the groove because they actually cut and remove the debris without pushing up too much of a ridge. I'm hardly an expert, but it seems to be working and I'm improving my skill, so I'm happy enough.

Łukasz Gliński
Watching

John Thomas
Greg and Lukasz Thanks

John Thomas
Greg, our scratch building skills are fine and looks great. If it looks right to you, then it's right. I am still learning very day Scratch building see what works and trying new ideas. I was lucky to fine mine oil tanks, dont know what set it's from and that why I dont throw out anything. You never know what old parts you can use to up grade our projects. The sodder I got at Radio Shack some years ago. I also have lots of Copper and Brass wire of varies sizes. I am now looking for a better scriber. More photos up soon.

John Bollig
Wow, I haven't seen that kit since 1977. brings back some memories for me and my modeling
How on earth did you find that one.?

Dave Flitton
Looking real good!!

Greg Baker
Thanks guys! I'm done the scribing now, and a few "oops" aside, I'm pretty happy with the result. It's a lot better than the first few times I've tried it. John, I actually got mine through a "stash reduction sale" over at whatifmodellers.com/ along with an old Airfix Buccaneer and a Starfix T-38 Talon. I've seen several on eBay though, so you can still find them. The one I had was partially started, so the first bit was cleaning off decades-long paint. 😉

John Thomas
John and Greg, I fine a lot of mine older kit at model shows here in the US. I go to three or four a year and you can fine lots of the older kits I found 4- F7F Tigercats for $5.00 dollars each and 3- F8F Bearcats for $5.00 dollars each all 1/72 scale. I am seeing that a lot of vendors are dumping many of the older kits. So if you like older kits they are out there,some other kits I did have to go to ebay.

Rex
For the Old Tigercat and Bearcat, it is even easier. Just go to a vendor that sells Revell of Germany kits. You can just order them, and get new decals in the bargain. My versions of these two models are a mix of old and new boxings.

Greg Baker
You sure about that Rex? The Revell Tigercat is out of stock everywhere I've looked.

John Thomas
Rex, I will have to check it out, I can all ways use more Tigercats and bearcats

Rex
Oh sure, Greg, they might be sold out today. But, for a few years, both models were easier to get than looking for "Blue or White box" kits. I just wanted people to know that if they are looking at a table during some show that there are other boxes to look for than just "Monogram labels." Just during the last 6 months, I bought three F7F, and all of the items I wanted for details and conversions. I only need one front cockpit and all three are ready to build in a "one man group build" of these kits.

Granted, I might have purchased the "last three" available,,,,,,but, I am a fairly slow buyer. So anyone could have beat me to them, lol.

And always remember, almost every kit is OOP the day that the injection run is completed and boxed up for sale, even if it is an initial release. (once the mold is taken off and a different mold is put in the machine, the first kit is OOP, by definition)

John Bollig
Rex,
You are right, of course and yes I looked on Ebay and a few other sites. Some collections are being trimmed. I am going to the IPMS convention in Omaha next year and I am going to buy a few more kits. Tigercat will be on that list.

Rex
Heya John Bollig,,,,,we have to meet up at one of these Nats. We've "known" each other a fairly long time now, and haven't met yet. We got the Nats in Chattanooga in a couple of years, maybe there?

Always cool to see a guy that likes the old kits, and you definitely fall into that category.

John Bollig
Perhaps we could meet in Omaha , Rex

Edgars Bizūns
That is bloody juicy looking thingie! Can't wait to see more! 🙂 Might come as an inspiration..😉

Greg Baker
Thanks Edgars! Feel free to grab all the inspiration you can... It might be second-hand though, since I've been stealing all my inspiration from John's build.

Taarna Eckart
Nice work and I am glad to see someone else who builds 40 year old kits.

John Thomas
Greg, Thanks for that. Inspiration comes from all kinds of people and places Feel free to steal as much as you like, I do. I have done some more work on my F7F and have the first coat of paint on but now my airbrush is acting up and I need to take a good look at it.

Greg Baker
Thanks Taarna. I'm really enjoying learning some new scratch-building tricks and 40 year old kits give you a freedom to explore in a way that the newer, highly engineered kits do not. I enjoy both, but for different reasons.

Greg Baker
It's looking good John. Too bad about the airbrush. I ran into some trouble of my own until I realized I was trying to run unthinned acrylic paint through it (I thought I had thinned them all!). In the end, it turned out okay because I was able to go back and keep adding some more detail - something I probably wouldn't have wanted to do once the first coat of paint was down.

John Thomas
Greg, Yes it was a pain about the airbrush. I use an old Badger 200 and when cleaning it the interior seal came out and I lost it and now it leaks paint paint all over the place. I do have a new Grex TG airbrush that I have not used yet. So now it look like it's time to step up. I agree with you Greg about the older kits. I have a boat load in my stash most all older kits, all needing a little scratch building TLC

John Thomas
Greg, our engines and wheel wells look nice. Try to add as much weight as you can. I found out that I did not have enough weight in mine and it will be a tail setter, I will have to glue the nose wheel to the base. Now in real life the F7F did set on it's tail when it was parked and unfueled, there are photos of F7F's in the Korean War doing just that. I have done some more work on mine F7F. I removed the under wing rocket mounts, I did not like them and the small raised pylon under the wing for bombs or drop tanks they are just wrong. I still have not finished painting, still finding things too fix first.

Greg Baker
Thanks John. I decided to rethink my painting strategy for the engines. Instead of black trim over a bare metal base, I declared a do-over, cleaned them off and dry brushed metal over a black base. It works much better. I'm still trying to figure out what colour to paint the engine casings - maybe a sea blue/grey? Good advice on the weight, it seems everyone has the same problem. I'll pack in as much as I can and hope for the best. 🙂

John Thomas
I paint all of mine engines Testor Model Master Medium Gray. Then I drybrush Flat Aluminum over the whole engine. Pick out details with Flat Black. Then a Dark Gray Wash to bring out more details and dirty it up a bit. I like our Black base on our engines with the drybrush metal it does look nice

Spanjaard
i have missed this one before. did it got finished?

Greg Baker
Almost...

Dave Flitton
Watching this one