This is undoubtedly my favourite Grumman propcat! Going to do an all black, weathered Tigercat from the Korean War. Decided to use the AMT / Italeri 1/48 Tigercat and scratchbuild some details to make the kit that bit more realistic in detail. Cockpit details to be enhanced through scratchbuilding and Eduard photo etch details. I started adding interior details to the engine nacelles/ wheelbays with Evergreen styrene. I am going to pose the left engine open so the necessary surgery finished I embarked on detailing the open engine. The rear cockpit floor and front cockpit also received some styrene detailing. All the whip aerials and aerial wires were fashioned from thin copper wire and ultra thin fishing line. A major inaccuracy with the kit is the wing intakes that are blanked off and the wrong shape of the prop blades. I overcame this challenge by fashioning intake details from styrene. The props received squared tips and the prop blade were cut off and correctly positioned by turning them around and slight attention from a sanding stick did the rest. I want to arm the model with two napalm tanks so I sourced them from the spares box. The underwing rockets received new mounting stubs and the fins were suitably thinned. The nose profile of the model is also incorrect in that the nose radar housing is to narrow in profile so I cut off the radome and inserted plasticard to widen the radome and the nose area. The flaps were cut off and attached in a lowered position. The drop tank received a photo etch fuel filler cap. The front wheelbay was slightly widened with styrene to compensate for the slightly widened nose area.

14 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Now this is some sweet scratch building, Morne! I'll definitely follow this thread. Thanks for posting!

Thanks Boris. Scratchbuilding is time consuming but definitely worth the while!

Boy oh Boy ! How did I miss this one ?

This is going to be a very nice looking build Morne...your scratch building skills are impressive !

The Tiger Cat has body lines to it like a race car... very sleek and it looks like it's going 500 MPH even while sitting still. I still have one more of these left in the stash pile, and had planned on building it with the outer wings folded to save some display case room. I am anxiously awaiting further updates on this one...

Great work so far Morne! Please post pictures of your wing intake work- I have two built and a few more in the stash, but would love to resolve the wing intake issue- have not found anything online or in my books- or maybe I have not looked hard enough!?
You have inspired me to jump in this group build with an F7F-3P!

Your doing beautiful work, on yes a beautiful aircraft .

Thanks guys for the positive comments! The intakes in the wing are easy to replicate with plasticard that is bent to form a curved shape. Will post a photo of the scratchbuilt wing intake.

Looks good so far Morne.

I have the Ginter book on the F7F and its an interesting story for sure. I know only one pilot who flew the F7F but he loved it. IIRC it was the only multi-engine plane he flew.

Keep the photos coming!

-d-