Title: Grumman F11F-1 Tiger, Bu.-Nr. 138614, NATC Patuxent River

Elevators after repairing and riveting.  

Wings before repairing the trailing edges. Red position light "in place".  

Wing tip light design: compare with picture 7. 

The panel lines are exactly based on the drawing... but the drawing is not perfect... Compare with picture 6. 

Cut out for the approach light (LSO light: red, green and amber), missed in the kit.  

 

 

Completed minus small side consoles 

 

Etched wing fences with "attachment - lasts" made of 0,13 mm plastic.  

 

Phase 1: shortened nose glued on the fuselage. "Step" on the inside reinforced with plastic. 

Phase 2: left side sanded. Nearly OK minus little step on the underside. A piece of plastic and CA added.  

Side walls reworked: upper stringer glued more upper (on the fuselage). 

Main wheel wells in place (after producing of dust clouds). 

Small side panels added. Ready for paint.  

Completed minus harness & cushion.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reduced gap between ruder and fuselage. 

New panel lines completed. Rivets coming soon. 

Hinges of the acces doors made of 0,3 mm round rod. 

Intake-plate: incorrect shape and correct thickness. 

Ethylacetate helps removing dust and "grat" from the panel lines.  

Intake plate. Corrected shape: the front edge is half so long as the other (compare with next picture: kit part is wrong because the drawing is wrong too). 

 

Tailbumper in place. Wrong shaped cutouts for the elevators filled. 

 

 

 

 

The short nose and different "fuselage bulge" I front of the windscreen is well visible.  

LSO lights: the clear part is made of Tesa film.  

Ready for paint. Different materials for filling the gaps are well visible.  

Rails and hydraulic for the sliding hood.  

Pitot tube of 2 mm alu rod and inserted brass rod 1,5 mm for better strength.  

Painting step/airbrush session 1: black for inner side of windscreen  

Painting step 2: Mr.Color Surfacer 500 because of a lot of surface imperfections.  

Masking for white (base for orange).  

Masking for white areas on upper wings. Light grey as base for white in place.  

Painting step 3: Orange on the tail and white surfaces on upper wings. 

 

Painting step 4: off white on lower surfaces.  

Masking for step 5 (gullgray). 

Painting step 5: gull gray. Note the lighter areas: a kind of post shading (post gloss shading) with base color mixed with gloss varnish to simulate the stressed skin look.  

Demarcation line between white and gray (soft) made with a paper mask (edge bended outwards, aprox. 1 mm distance to the surface.  

 

Artwork for the markings made by MS Visio 2007.  

Painting step 6: orange. 

Painting step 7: anti glare coming soon.  

 

Painting step 9: anti glare and top leading edge of the fin. 

Painting step 8: aluminum on the cone.  

Painting step 10: coroguard on leading edges of wings and fin.  

Ready for decals.  

Decaling: a hard piece of work! Completed minus semi matte varnish there and where. 

Self made decals was tricky to apply. Fortunately the carrier film is very thinn.  

 

 

 

Good quality, thin carrier.  

 

Smoke - colored "strokes/smearing" because too often brushed with MS Decal Film . 

 

 

 

Tiger almost completed: minus leading edges of stabilizers, arresting hook, seat and hood.  

 

 

 

Dry fit of the canopy frame.  

Seat with harnes 🙂🙂: in place.  

Two main parts of the hood: frame and vacuum hood self.  

 

The last of uncounables airbrushing tasks finished. Result is not perfect but acceptable.