Italeri 1/48 F7F-3N Night Fighter by Brett Green

Italeri's 1/48 scale
F7F-3N Tigercat Night Fighter

by Brett Green

F7F-3N Tigercat Night Fighter

Meng's 1/48 scale F-35A Lightning II is available online from Squadron for USD$59.99

Description

Here is my latest completion, although the project has been brewing for more than 20 years.

This is the Italeri 1/48 scale F7F-3N Tigercat (originally released by AMT) with a stack of after market accessories and decals, some of which I have been accumulating since 1997. I finally decided it was time to build my Tigercat night fighter.

The kit nose is a bit bloated and overly curvy, so it really needed a replacement. I seem to have missed out on the Cutting Edge nose, but I had picked up the solid resin replacement nose from Hi-Tech years ago. The shapes and casting are very good, but there was a bit of extra surgery and lots of backfilling with Milliput required to blend with the lower part of the kit nose. I had to sand all the way through the plastic of the lower nose in places.

I also used the Hi-Tech cockpit - everything for the front cockpit and a few parts for the radar operator's position.

Ultracast seats with their cast-on harnesses were employed here.

The AeroMaster Tigercat Detail Set was used for the separate flaps.

The weird back-to-front kit propellers were replaced with a pair of Ultracast 13' 1" Hamilton Standard 3-blade prop and spinner sets. The sliding pilot's canopy was substituted with the Falcon vacform part.

Decals are from the 1997-issue Aeromaster decal sheet, Tigercat Night Prowler Pt.1, Item No. 48-311. Considering their venerable vintage, they performed very well on the model!

The Italeri Tigercat scrubs up pretty well when built and fit is generally excellent, although the undercarriage is fiddly.

It is very satisfying to finally have this model finished and sitting on its own wheels (albeit only with a LOT of weight in the forward fuselage!)

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