Here is my second entry to this group build, the F7F 3N Tigercat in 1/48th by Italeri (from am AMT/ERTL mold). This kit was a good kit for the most part. It went together easily. Instruction booklet left something to be desired in terms of accurate painting guide and did not include any "gotcha's" like Accurate Miniatures instruction booklets do. More on that in a bit.
My biggest complaint about the kit was the main canopy. It was not shaped properly and did not align itself well to the surrounding fuselage. I had intended to install it in the open position but there was simply no way that piece was going to look good if installed open. So I closed it up.
The biggest "gotcha" I encountered was with the rockets. The rockets were the first parts I put together, which is a departure for me in that I usually put parts like that together last. In any event, the instructions are pictures only with no verbiage to guide one in the proper construction. I probably should have spent more time researching these rockets, but I did not and now have only 2 rockets attached to the wings. The reason is that the separate pieces for the fins should have been installed as an "X" rather than a "+" at the end of the rocket body, and then there would have been room to fasten each rocket. Because the fins were in the "+" orientation, each horizontal fin overlapped. Really ticked at myself about this, but I'll get over it.
I hand-painted the canopy framing and I'm generally pleased with that work although the pictures show that the blue could stand to be re-touched. Will do that later tonight. As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I started out by painting the entire structure insignia blue and then followed that with a "splotchy" flat black coating. The idea was to replicate a hastily re-painted aircraft that had been transferred from a Navy to a Marines squadron. I don't know if that's the true history of this particular aircraft but it sounded good.
I put a ton of weight in the nose and all of my testing indicated that I had enough weight to keep this from being a tail sitter. The real Tigercat had a propensity for tail sitting, so I guess I wasn't surprised once I got everything put together, painted, and the landing gear installed that even though the center of gravity leaned toward the nose, it plopped right onto its tail the moment I put it on its LG. So I constructed and painted the barrel/box combination that comes with the kit and is intended to prop up this aircraft.
I photographed this kit on an Eduard PSP display base that I have not painted as of this moment. Eventually I'll get that base painted and get some fake railroad grass "planted" in the cracks, but that's not something I want to tackle today.
This is a US Marines bird attached to VMF (N) 513 operating out of Pyontaek (K-6) air base in Korea in 1952.
