Official FlightLine RC 1600mm F7F-3 Tigercat Thread

[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]

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)

[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]

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?? 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

[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

[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)

[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

[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

[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

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Grossman56]

A little update to the re rebuild.

Bottom of the starboard wing, just started filling in the cracks and wrinkles. What I do is hollow out a slot where the wrinkle is and fill with E6000 as you can see just below the outer flap.
I added more E6000 to the blemish beside the radiator intake and sanded a little on the wingtip around the nav light. Once the glue is dry, I'll give it a coat of Krylon Foam Primer so I get an idea of what it cooks like in one solid color. If needed, I'll fill and sand, then wet sand the whole thing.


Upper side of the same wing, all ready for some wet sanding. The line in the inner flap is where I glued the two parts together, they weren't quite broken, so I glued the underside with Foam Tac and slightly 'troughed' out the upper and applied E6000.
Some minor repair work to the flaps, they were just glued on this morning as I had to wait for the Foam Tac to arrive.

Second layer of spackle applied and drying. There was some separation between the two halves and one side was slightly pushed inwards, so I hollowed out the space between the two sides applied E6000 and held them in proper place as I inserted a toothpick to hold it there 'til the glue dries.


Slightly different angle. All that open area is really just the glue in the crack. As you can see, there is a fair amount of filling and sanding yet to be done, but it's more time consuming than difficult.
Got some batteries all charged up and was backing the truck out when I saw the dang wind was up again.

Oh well, welcome to Cody.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Elbee]

Grossman56

Amazing repair work, Danger.

You got skills, Brother.

Best, LB

[jetfool]

Fantastic Dan! This is what I like to see, the dirty work before the resurrection. looking ugh,great.
Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

I can see this airplane flying next Spring!

Cheers

Davegee

[Grossman56]

The nacelle I posted pics of in #2351 has really come along A lot of sanding and filling then priming resanding, filling, coating with Varathane, sanding and smoothing. Today, I gave it its first coat of Pearlescense paint. I had great success with the Bearcat by applying the Pearl before the main color so I thought I'd try it here. Pics coming maybe tomorrow. In the meantime, over at design quarters, I've been working on the Cheyenne tail turret for Dave, after doing a complete design, basically to figure out just how to attempt it for real, I redesigned just the very rear, making some changes and using the experience from the first attempt. Will get together with Dave and hash out dimensions this weekend.

Looks pretty good to me!
So many projects, oh did I mention the Christmas village is going up as well (about 60 houses on five big white tables) which is a three day affair and Christmas lights this weekend. Dang!

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[jetfool]

Dan,
What do you do in your spare time? Lol
Ain't life grand.
Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

The nacelle I posted pics of in #2351 has really come along A lot of sanding and filling then priming resanding, filling, coating with Varathane, sanding and smoothing. Today, I gave it its first coat of Pearlescense paint. I had great success with the Bearcat by applying the Pearl before the main color so I thought I'd try it here. Pics coming maybe tomorrow. In the meantime, over at design quarters, I've been working on the Cheyenne tail turret for Dave, after doing a complete design, basically to figure out just how to attempt it for real, I redesigned just the very rear, making some changes and using the experience from the first attempt. Will get together with Dave and hash out dimensions this weekend.

Looks pretty good to me!
So many projects, oh did I mention the Christmas village is going up as well (about 60 houses on five big white tables) which is a three day affair and Christmas lights this weekend. Dang!

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

I hope they haven't found out about all your hidden talents for doing miniature projects! If so, they'll probably make you "project manager" for the whole 60 houses on 5 white tables! Maybe you could make it an airport type setting, and add your Tigercat as a repair project during the Korean War. Then, you could fake working on the Christmas project and instead fix your Tigercat. If anyone complains, just tell them you ARE working on the Christmas village project, it's just that it takes place at an airport. I bet they would LOVE that!!

davegee

[Grossman56]

If what they say about idol hands is true, I guess I'm safe!
Oh yeah, pictures, hang on a moment, I'll go take some.....

[Grossman56]

So, as you may recall, I started like this:





Now, it's like this:











It has one coat of Pearl on it which gives it a strange greeny color, but no big deal, next I'll give it another coat then add the final silver grey on it, this will also help fill in any imperfections. Finally, about six coats of Varathane, sand and repeat as necessary. Before assembly, I'll paint in the exhaust stacks and the chrome pieces. Much easier to do before assembly.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Elbee]

Danger, coming along nicely, Sir. You do good work. Best, LB

[jetfool]

Dangerous,
Fantastic! Funny what a little thought and time can turn out. Your going to have a beautiful Puddy Cat when done.
Best Regards, Rex