Official FlightLine RC 1600mm F7F-3 Tigercat Thread

[Grossman56]

Yep, way too much fun!
This will be one of the Winter projects, I have new gear retracts with the bigger pin for the Corsair and the P51B to (hopefully) assemble with the parts from the now late BBD P51D.
Meanwhile, it would be nice to get a couple more flights in but every time I'm off, the wind is up:confounded:

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[jetfool]

Dan,
I used some of the packing foam on my Corsair to fill the screw holes at the stabilizer. it sanded fine and finished great. Elbee suggested that to me, said he used it on his models. Man, that was almost 5 years ago that I started buying foam scale models! Been a great ride so far.
Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

You bet, Dan. I think they were taken a couple years ago along with a bunch others. They all went on the Cloud and have been waiting for me to find them. Beautiful plane, and I’m sure you’ll eventually get it looking great and in flying condition again!

davegee

[Grossman56]

I've heard of using the fiber glass method, I'll check out Ace and see if I can get the lite cloth. I was thinking of the foam that the airplanes come packed in as well, have you tried that?
I was thinking of putting "Flying Glue Pot" on the starboard side

Thanks for the pictures Dave, GREAT SHOTS!

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[jetfool]

Grossman56.
Great progress. I have used blue foam and sanded, shaped to fit mashed foam and with lite fiberglass cloth and polyacrylic clear turned out like new and little weight .
Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

Hi Dan: I found some shots I took of your Tigercat flying a couple of years ago. I found them while looking for something else. Do you want me to post them here?? Here are three I found at the moment. Still having to go through some gymnastics to get them out of the hard drive and sent them here. There are more, I think.


Davegee

davegee

[Grossman56]

That would be great! Post away my friend!
In the meantime, I took some pics of the progress. A Lot of filling now that the main pieces are glued back together.

Here's where the wing was broken, I glued the spar back into the wing and rejoined the two pieces using the new Gorilla glue (it's like E6000).



Once it was solid again, I 'trenched' the crack and filled with more glue and a final coat of spackle, sanding and adding more as needed. I checked all the other cracks to see if they were just wrinkles or more serious and filled them in accordingly.

Had to chip some of the paint off as it was pretty thick, she has several coats of clear Varathane on her.
You can just see where I used a self tapping screw to hold the crack in the nacelle in place while the glue dried. I sank it in far enough to be able to leave it in there for added strength.

The side of the nacelle, the damage has been glued, trenched and filled with some sanding.

The nose had some pretty harsh road rash but its coming along quite well.

I think the best way to tackle this is to concentrate on one area at a time, so the wing is my priority right now, then the nacelle (starboard side) once that's done, I'll move on.
The other nacelle has some of the trailing end missing so I trimmed it off and I'm thinking balsa wood shaped and sanded to match the original, any thoughts?



Also, the rudder and the vertical stab have some wrinkles in them that I'm thinking of somehow repairing.

So its a slow process but doable. I have some small parts and some Foam Tac on the way to get the flaps reinstalled. I did find a complete set of screws for the nacelle to wing attachment which was good news.

Don't mind this pic, it showed up twice for some reason





Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[davegee]

Hi Dan: I found some shots I took of your Tigercat flying a couple of years ago. I found them while looking for something else. Do you want me to post them here??

davegee

[Grossman56]

I've debated on changing the scheme, but she's always been Lady Pat (La Patrona) at our house and I think she'll stay that way. I was sanding and puttying this evening and can show you some pics maybe tomorrow.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[jetfool]

Grossman56,
Would love to see photo's of the bits and pieces being put back together. I learn a lot from major rebuilds. Will the paint scheme stay the same or are you doing something new?

Best Regards, Rex

[Grossman56]

Priming sanding filling, you know how it goes.
I had an accident with her a couple of years back and spent a lot of time repairing her then.

To...
And now she's going through her second rebuild

I was flying patterns and decided to roll her. Whoops, lawn darted to the mess you see at the top of this thread.
Today, I solved the problem of the main gear door that had broken its top rear pin off. I drilled a pilot hole in the arm and inserted a self tapping screw of the same diameter as the late pin and then cut the head off the screw. With a little playing around, it made a great substitute for the plastic pin.
So far so good, the Krylon Foam Primer arrived today from DK Hardware. Bought two cans as it seems to be getting hard to find. This company was very good to deal with and with a great response time.
The crack in the nacelle that was allowing the forward end to droop slightly is repaired. I'm using the new Gorilla Glue that is like E 6000 and I like it. I carved out the crack and filled it with glue, then threaded a self tapping screw from one side of the crack to the other and sunk it into the foam, did a great job holding everything in place and I'll probably leave it in for added strength.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[jetfool]

Dan,
Plastic bag always follows me to the field. Your rebuild looks great and probably fly better than new when finished. I am still flying my Tigercat, 3 yrs. now, and love how it handles. Flying weather is almost over for us so my winter will be spent in the skunkworks on modding the Phantom and hope to enter at Toledo in April. Plan to enter my FMS P-47 in the WW2 class.
Keep us posted on updates, please.

Best Regards, Rex

[Grossman56]

Thanks guys, a long way to go yet, I discovered a crack in one of the sides of a nacelle which is being worked on. One of the reasons why I tried assembling the parts again, screws aren't lining up quite right. That may be part of the problem.
8 years old and one of my favorite airplanes, here's a couple of my favorite pics with her.
At NEFI in Muncie:

And at the Powel Wings and Wheels event:

[Elbee]

Grossman56

WOW! :partying_face:

Tremendous work and what a great save.

Bravo Zulu, Sir.

Best, LB

[davegee]

Don't tell me it can't be done!
I started with this mess, just to convince myself she was really irreparable.

So, I disassembled the sad remains and found that most of the damage, short of broken off pieces was cosmetic. Fortunately, I had a big garbage bag on hand when she augured in and so I got all the pieces that I could find and brought them home. Both wings suffered breakage which I've repaired and am just waiting for some FoamTac to reinstall the flaps. Some broken hinges came off a totaled Bearcat as well as one flap servo. Sanding and filling, sanding and filling....


I have some Krylon Foam Primer coming as well which for some reason isn't on Amazon anymore.
I did a trial assembly to get an idea of what I was looking at, and it doesn't look too bad in all honesty.


A lot more work to be done, I have a complete new horizontal stab coming as the Carbon Fiber rod is snapped in the original and tis glued in. I'll check out Ace Hardware to see if I can find new nacelle attachment bolts as these ones are getting up there and the heads aren't in the greatest shape. The battery hatch survive with no damage as well as the gear as it was retracted when she went in. Good news, the motors survived as did the B25 prop mounts, yeah, I know both props are the same, I correct that later. I found one right side main gear door which give me three good doors and one to hopefully modify to work again.
She's a way from being airworthy, but hey, winters upon us again and I guy has to have something to do!!

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

Way to go, Dan! I love the realistic exhaust streaks coming out of the engines on the tops of the wings.

Davegee

[Grossman56]

Don't tell me it can't be done!
I started with this mess, just to convince myself she was really irreparable.

So, I disassembled the sad remains and found that most of the damage, short of broken off pieces was cosmetic. Fortunately, I had a big garbage bag on hand when she augured in and so I got all the pieces that I could find and brought them home. Both wings suffered breakage which I've repaired and am just waiting for some FoamTac to reinstall the flaps. Some broken hinges came off a totaled Bearcat as well as one flap servo. Sanding and filling, sanding and filling....


I have some Krylon Foam Primer coming as well which for some reason isn't on Amazon anymore.
I did a trial assembly to get an idea of what I was looking at, and it doesn't look too bad in all honesty.


A lot more work to be done, I have a complete new horizontal stab coming as the Carbon Fiber rod is snapped in the original and tis glued in. I'll check out Ace Hardware to see if I can find new nacelle attachment bolts as these ones are getting up there and the heads aren't in the greatest shape. The battery hatch survive with no damage as well as the gear as it was retracted when she went in. Good news, the motors survived as did the B25 prop mounts, yeah, I know both props are the same, I correct that later. I found one right side main gear door which give me three good doors and one to hopefully modify to work again.
She's a way from being airworthy, but hey, winters upon us again and I guy has to have something to do!!

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Grossman56]

Rebuilding my Tigercat and so far so good. Will post some pics soon, need to find main gear doors if anyone has some for sale, let me know. Most damage is scuff marks but the wings took the brunt of it, although I think they can be salvaged, time will tell.
Call me crazy but I just can't give up on this bird!

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Grossman56]

Well, it's been a while since this thread was posted on, I noticed today that the Tigercat is not on the list on Motion, so that either means discontinued or, maybe, just possibly, a V2 version!!
First thing to look at would be the props, the B25 prop system is vastly superior and bolts right on to the motors, I believe I replaced the shafts as well though, still, no biggie.
The performance with the 3948 kv760 motors was outstanding. More realistic looking landing gear would have been nice with spring loaded struts out of the box.
Let's face it, I love this airplane and I'm not really willing to pay $100+ for the FMS version with the ugly rivets sticking out of her like a porcupine. One more is definitely in my future if they come out, crossing my fingers!


Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[davegee]

Huntersville, just north of Charlotte.

Thanks. Beautiful country down there!

Davegee

[Evan D]

Huntersville, just north of Charlotte.