Michael,
I am very sorry to hear about this. I recently experienced a similar situation where I had to completely strip off all of the paint on my Panther jet build. Unfortunately the filler material came out when the paint was removed. This is another reason I started using liquefied styrene as a filler in place of putty.
As far as the sizes that were used on the Tigercat, I'll have to do some research on that. I don't know offhand what is correct and I wouldn't want to lead you the wrong direction. By chance did you happen to scan the original decal set before using them ? If so it's possible you could use this as a pattern to make some masks ?
I use decals made by a company called Fantasy Printshop. They offer these 45 degree letters and numbers in various sizes and scales. They also are available in different colors, like, white, yellow, black and red...I used these for my NAS Jacksonville F4U, and on a NAS Daytona Beach F6F Hellcat. Here's a few pictures of the ones I used. The steel ruler shows you the size reference.
On some sets, various sizes are included on each set, so you need to watch out when you place your order not to get the wrong ones.
When it came to my NAS Jacksonville Corsair, I had to make a set of masks for the larger "485". I used a steel ruler, a brand new blade, and some tape. It worked out great ! I think you can do it too.
Here's a link to my Corsair journal. Scroll down towards the bottom and that's where the information is shown in more detail.
https://imodeler.com/groups/work-in-progress-aircraft/forum/topic/1-48-tamiya-f4u-1-birdcage-corsairs/?topic_page=5&num=15
As far as your previous question about what color was used under the Dark Sea Blue by Grumman... I stumbled across it a few days ago, but by then it was too late as you had already painted your plane.
I have some good friends who restore WW2 aircraft. They recently finished up a 'survivor" F6F Hellcat that was original and untouched in many areas. They carefully documented the colors they found as it was disassembled. They found a lot of Grumman Gray on a lot of surfaces, including on the exterior of the plane. So when they painted it after the metal work was done, they also painted it Grumman Gray before the Dark Sea Blue was applied.
My friends used a computerized camera to scan the original colors they found, so they could return the Hellcat to as close as possible with the correct colors.
Here's a picture of the Hellcat before painting it blue.
I don't know for sure if the Tigercat was painted the same way... but chances are it was.
Hope this helps...
