Grumman Iron Works Group Build

I started making progress again on my F9F-5 Panther last evening.  Here are photos of the top and bottom of the fuselage showing the filler on the seams.  I have all but finished sanding the filler down, and will scribe a few lines that were removed.  I seem to be having more fit issues than a friend of mine who built this out of the box a couple of years ago.  Anyway, enjoy the photos.

Raptordriver,

The Avenger looks great!

All,

I made some progress on the Panther and finally took some photos as well.  Here are a couple of photos of the Blackbox cockpit for your enjoyment. 

Sorry about the focus on this one..

A shot of the ejection seat installed...

I installed a "rope" for the face curtain pulldown as this matched what was shown in the movie "the Bridges at Toko-Ri".  I watched the movie this past weekend as I was finishing the cocpit details to verify some colors.  For this particulat seat, the pulldown should have been a horizontal loop of black and yellow cord, but the rope always stood out for me watching the movie.  Besides, except for you folks, only an expert will ever know.   Any and all comments will be appreciated.

Ok here it is just got it finished.

 This was a pretty long build but was worth it. Thanks for looking.

Nice Tomcats everyone

Here's some progress on the avenger almost finished.

jeaton01 wrote:

Well done, born to(something)2002!  The weathering is great.

Actually, BTP is my wife's, my daughter's and my initials and the year I made that nickname...I guess now it should be updated to btp2k8

btp2k2,

That is one nice looking CAG aircraft!

Thanks Aggie!

For all the grief people give this kit it really builds into a nice bird....

Here are the "official" pics...

btp,

Nice Tomcat!  I only skimmed what you wrote and didn't realize that it wasn't quite done, but I've already posted one of your photos in the Iron Works section of the first page.  When you get the completed photos, I'll update.

John,

For an older kit, you certainly made the engine look like something out of a new Trumpeter 1/32 scale release.

btp2k2,

Your cat is looking very good.  I am looking forward to seeing the end product.

Here is my Italeri F-14A Tomcat.

It still needs a top coat of future and then weathering...going to add the coat of future in about 5 minutes and then weathering should happen tomorrow. Once I weather, I will put on the gear bay doors and the shoulder pylons. The aircraft will also carry a TARPS pod. I will photograph it properly when completed

The kit bang seats were pretty laughable, so I liberated some spare seats from a Hasegawa Tomcat...the ventral fins were WAY off shape wise, so I grabbed the ventral fins from the same Hasegawa donor kit the seats came from. The kit came with two closed Pratt & Whitney nozzles, I had a spare open P&W nozzle from an Academy kit, so I used that on the port engine. The markings I used were from an early Tomcat, the kit did not come with the proper chinpod, so I liberated that from an old Revellogram Tomcat. The VF-111 Sundowners markings came from Aeromasters "Tomcat Supreme part 2" sheet.

John, that engine looks great!

I hope to be done with the decaling on my Italeri Tomcat by tomorrow.

The induction manifold was arguing with me so I persuaded it.

Your tools of persuasion seem to have worked.    Nice looking engine, John.

Working on the engine and cowl for the Hasegawa 1/32 F6F.  This is a nice kit but you can tell it is an older mold, in terms of fineness of some details.  Great fit and sharpness and only a little flash on this newer pressing.  Edges of the cowl need some thinning around the cowl flaps, and I am reworking the supercharger scoop to open it up.  Blanked off in this scale just doesn't work for me.  They aren't even taking that route in 1/72 in the better new kits.  Some photos below.  More detail to add to the engine still, but I have to show it cause I'm having so much fun with it.  The fuselage halves are glued and the seams are filled, not much work there.  The fit of the wing at the lower rear looks like it will take some care during gluing.

The first photo is my engine assembly fixture.  The induction manifold was arguing with me so I persuaded it.  It is not always a bigger hammer that does the job.

Nice!

I love seeing the size differences between scales. Like these 32nd scale Tomcats compared to the normal 48th scale....when you think in terms of numbers, 32 isn't all that far away from 48....but then when you see them next to each other...WOW!

The paint on your 48th scale looks great....

John, nice progress on that big Hellcat.  Looking forward to seeing her complete.

btp, I've added your second Tomcat to the list.  I built that same kit last year along with a 1/144 version and made a wall plaque out of them.

Well....the big scale Tomcats stalled a little....so I ran to the hobby shop to find something to get me out of the funk....

So last week I picked up an Italeri Tomcat. It's waiting for the paint to set and then will get a coat of future tomorrow....

Aggie, can you add this to the list? 1/48th scale Italeri F-14A

Thanks

I finally have made some progress on my Hasegawa 1/32 Hellcat, which I am going to do in Alex Vraciu's markings.  I met him once, sat next to him at a dinner. Told him "thanks".  A fine fellow, he is.

I'm using a Verlinden cockpit set and the Eduard PE parts, some of each.  The Eduard panel has film instruments, and I added a white styrene sheet backing to make it more rigid and to provide the white for the gauge markings.  The Verlinden parts need a fair bit of fitment, but I like the quality of the castings.  I didn't like the thickness of the F6F-3 windows and had a hard time getting the area cut out accurately, so I used a thin clear acetate that is oversize and faired them in, then masked the inside and outside to protect the smaller area of the windows while I am painting.  I also made a bulkhead and shelf for the aft window area, it will be visible and pictures in Detail ands Scale are "sort of" like what I made.  Probably ought to add some wiring or plumbing back there, but at this point I haven't found a convincing photo of the area.

Here's my progress, this is  a challenging kit. But nice.

Hello, at the invite of Aggieman here is my Hobbycraft 1/48 F8F Bearcat in South Vietnamese Air Force markings.  This kit was an easy and quick build.  Overall finish is Floquil Old Silver.  A new technique for me was done on the formation lights on the wings.  Although you can not see in this image, I used Tamiya clear blue with a clear lens on top.  The decals were punched out using a punch and die set so that they would lay over the lights.

Thanks for letting me show my work

Jeff