1/48 AMT Ertl Grumman 

F7F-3 Tigercat 

by Dirk Adel

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This one was built during last summer. There was a story about Dick Bertea´s F7F-3 Tigercat in a German vintage aircraft magazine "Flugzeug Classic".  I decided to do this one, as I did not like the liveries that came with the kit.  Dick´s Tigercat is for sale, perhaps now it is already sold.

I have no idea why this lovely bird is no topscorer in the gallery of ARC. It is a superb kit and it looks amazing when finished. Of course it is very big, as it has more wingspan it needs more space than a 1/48 Hornet.

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The bird was built out the box, no corrections were made as the finished model looks like a Tigercat. You might compare it to the pic of the real plane. The real rubber wheels were replaced by resin weighted wheels of Cutting Edge. As you can see they are a littlebit "over-weighted", especially on the front wheel.

The model is a horrible tailsitter. I had to fill every little space in the nose with lead. This Cat was painted using Tamiya sprays and top coat of Mr.Hobby. The decals came from the spare box for the stars and bars, Verlinden dry transfers for the bigger inscriptions and custom-made decals for the small texts at the rear end of the bird.

For VMF-542 the right tailcode would be WF, so this one must be for Richard Bertea.

Hope you like my Cat!

Dirk

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Photos and text © by Dirk Adel