Posted by Matty on February 8, 2009, 12:58:50 Message modified by board administrator November 23, 2009, 0:36:32
With all the reference to kitbashing lately - my IL-4T build, Hudson MkV project, various ideas for "scratch-bashing" a U-505, and, before that, my Do217k2 and F2H Banshee, etc. - now seems a good time to unveil another project idea - perhaps the ultimate aircraft kitbash - which I've had in mind for some time now:
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The Grumman F11F Tiger; a 3-view drawing of it at left. The Tiger was a supersonic record-setter of the '50s - a true classic from Aviation's Golden Age - with the minimalist lines of an arrow, pure and simple. Plus the high-tech twist of having one of the very first "equal-area cross-section" - or, more commonly, "coke bottle" - type fuselage; a forerunner of the "Century Series" of land-based aircraft.
At right, Garry Beebe's old kit - the Hasegawa 1/72nd scale F11F-1 - has but one problem: it is just too small for my taste. Meanwhile, the few 1/48 kits of it are just way more than I want to pay. Particularly when I have the time and motivation to kitbash - and my stash is already replete with other jets - which I know I'll never build othewise - and which could provide many if not all of the elements needed to approximate the Tiger's simple airframe. For kitbashing to make sense, of course, this choice of which kit to expend, depends (at least) as much on which are available for sacrifice at little or no cost, as anything else.
So I began by considering the most expendable kits in my stash:
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The ubiquitous, Monogram 1/48 scale F-104 (left), my example in cheesey, commercial-TV-promo boxing - that I picked up for a song at K-Mart, IIRC; which toy- and craft stores commonly stock, or at least used to stock, such kits for practically a dime a dozen - as they can also be found heavily discounted at the hobby shops, too.
A "Century Series" fighter, the F-104 reveals itself in the overlay-comparison of drawings, at center, to have only limited features in common with the Tiger. Really, the primary match is only in the lower fuselage profile (top, and x-section at bottom); thus, I scaled- and positioned it to fit best that way. The -104 being a slightly bigger airframe, this incorporation of my 1/48 scale kit would produce a Tiger of 1/39.9; almost exactly 1/6th larger in scale, though adjusting the overall dimensions back to 1/48 would still be quite easy, within all the other cutting and pasting required.
Overall, this plane is not much of a fit for the F11F, the primary reason being that its "coke bottle" shape is very different from the Tiger's; the air intakes forming much more distinct "shoulders" and the central body becoming widest at the aft end - just the opposite of the F11F's. Meantime, the wings and tail surfaces simply don't provide any matches, to any significant degree. The extensive features still required - and potentially available - from other kits (see below) would later suggest that perhaps the best use of the F-104 fuselage - its aft end, at least - might in fact be to reverse it, split the tailpipe housing and use its halves for the more rounded, air intake "shoulders" of the Tiger, as demostrated at right, above.
Clearly, more "raw material" is needed:
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At left, regard my old Monogram 1/48 scale F-105 ThunderChief kit, obtained for cheap, some years ago. When I think about a "coke bottle" fuselage, the -105, another "Century Series" jet, is one of the first planes to come to mind. However the F-105 was not a fighter at all, but an attack bomber, which explains why its fuselage is also not a good match for the diminutive Tiger, as shown at center-left. The "coke bottle" is simply too long - and too large, at both ends - plus the air intake "shoulders" are located in the wing, not the fuselage sides.
Still, the -105 derives from much the same aerodynamic engineering as the Tiger - as evidenced by the wings and all tail surfaces; the rudder being almost a perfect match, right OOB. At center-right, the wings and stabilizers have been slightly repositioned to demonstrate their near-perfect matches, as well. The wings would have to be thinned somewhat, as the wings of the Tiger were near razor thin - machined, in fact, each from a slab of solid aluminum! Meantime, at top the fuselage is depicted reversed; to suggest how some part(s) of the aft end might could fit the central body of the Tiger. If so, that is the only part of the fuselage, as the nose of the Thunderchief is far too large, as shown at middle - so large, in fact, that, when resized to 1/72 (relative) scale, at right, the nose of the -105 becomes a potentially pretty good match! But this is not where we're going - I don't have a 1/72 scale F-105, anyway - and what I'm planning is to simply copy all the Thud's wings, stabilizers and rudder in resin; to supply all the Tiger's aerodynamic surfaces - here again, as above, in 1/40 scale, but likewise easily shaved down to 1/48, if required.
Although now getting somewhere, still the above does not provide the very core of the plane - the central fuselage (nor cockpit area) - and this project languished accordingly, until I finally (I think) hit upon the "jackpot":
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One of many, inexpensive 1/48 scale kits of the French Mirage; my example, at left, being the Academy Mirage IIIc. The comparison (right) - again, for a 1/39.9 scale Tiger - reveals a near-perfect match in the main fuselages - with the entire dorsal profile matching the F11F so completely, that even the cockpit fairings coincide; suggesting that the entire cockpit could be essentially just dropped into place! Only on the underside does some dishing-upwards degrade the match - but for this area we already have more than enough fuselage pieces available from the F-104 above.
The addition of the Mirage suddenly advances us to this point:
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A 90%-complete scheme for a kitbash! Of course, manipulation of the F-104 contributions (black) will be the most complex - but all of it still highly do-able, IMHO. Including coming up with the required canopy and nose cone - both simple, and standard components - in fact quite possibly available from a 1/48 scale F-18 Hornet also sitting in my "bash pile".
What do you people think? If anyone(s) has a better idea(s) for kits to use - or if there is an inexpensive 1/48 scale Tiger anyone(s) has located - let me know ASAP, before this Bash-O-Rama begins!
This is one of the more fascinating conversion projects I've run across in a while! Allow me to offer my assistance - I'm pretty sure I've got a couple of 1/48 AIM-9s lurking about for the Tiger's missile armament, you are more than welcome to them. They're going to be later model -9s, but the beasts are VERY easy to backdate, and in that scale can be turned into neat little models on their own.
AIM-9s are Sparrows, right - or is that SideWinders?
In any case, I don't think this is going to be the bird I can use 'em on - because it's such a graceful, elemental airframe that - assuming I can do the mods cleanly enough - I am leaning strongly to finishing her as a Blue Angel. (I already did that with a 1/48 SkyHawk, and it has remained one of my all-time favorites to look at, for years. I figure a nicely done Tiger should look even better!)
But, I sure appreciate the offer, buddy - and waiting on deck I have a 1/48 "Rhino" and "Mig-Master", so sooner or later I'll certainly be able to use 'em, no doubt!
The -9 is indeed the Sidewinder, AKA the 'Winder, AKA the Heater! Many a day of my misspent youth was engaged in putting the beasts together, checking them out, or hauling them from Point A to Point B and back again.
I do have to agree with you though - the Tiger is probably the most graceful bird the Iron Works ever sent out the door, and as I can remember seeing the Blue Angels in their Tigers, your choice is going to look great. When you do build your F-4 and F-8, let me know - there's a lot of detail you can add to the weapons that really sets things off...so to speak.
Cheers, Mike
Update 11/14/09: Hold That Tiger - AFFORDABLE KIT Snagged!
Posted by Matty on November 22, 2009, 22:46:43, in reply to "BASH-O-RAMA: Grumman F11F TIGER" Message modified by board administrator November 24, 2009, 1:27:34
As much as you know I love to kitbash, it's not always clear that kitbashing likes me - as it really slows down and complicates my building - so it was with great excitement that I just ran across, and duly picked up for cheap, this ancient kit:
A classic Lindberg Tiger - in the crucial 1/48 scale I'm after.
Ancient it may be - note the boast of "50 parts" - and accordingly I was prepared to do substantial plastic surgery to get it decent - however what I discovered inside proved to be much higher quality than I could have dreamed:
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Note at left, on the instructions the number of parts has already increased to 62! But seriously, who cares - the photo-transferred graphics are accurate to the actual parts (does anyone know how they used to do that?), and included is a complete engine/afterburner assembly, as well as (dubious) fuselage "access panel" to view it (see below).
But the real gratification was that the parts are generally finer and more detailed than expected. At center, note the rockets may be featureless but they are slim, and the wheel hubs decently detailed as is the landing gear door, which at least has some interior ribbing. This is all significantly better than roughly contemporary kits like, for example my Hawk/Testors Banshee.
Meanwhile, at right the overall shape is consistent with the box art depiction of the early, short-nosed Tiger, and includes a very plausible "coke-bottle" ("area-rule") contour. Note the engine access panel (bottom) also fits beautifully flush (and its hinge is also quite precise). Though I will definitely want to convert to the long-nosed variant, this fuselage looks good.
Encouraged by the above to really check the accuracy, I turned to my "gold standard" Tiger reference, my 1/72 Hasegawa kit:
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At left, a tracing of the Lindberg fuselage is re-scaled and overlaid on the Hasegawa mold (top) and its painting guide drawing (bottom), confirming near-perfect agreement and therefore presumably very high accuracy - this new acquisition is not your typical Lindberg ship kit, by a longshot!
Meanwhile the lengthened nose can be largely achieved, as demonstrated at center, by "bolting on" a new nose cone - this one deriving from the Monogram 1/48 F-18 Hornet kit, at right. Although it's width (not shown) is significantly too great, this should be relatively easy to reduce by splitting the cone, in the process of adding the small amount of length still required. Quite the reduction in work from the extensive (three-) kit-bash originally contemplated!
There will of course also be several other things required:
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The wings, in particular, were found to be the worst parts in the Lindberg kit. Although molded in a single, thin part - just as the real thing was machined from a solid aluminum slab - the Lindberg wing contains copious rivet detail not found (for this very same reason) on the real thing, as accurately depicted in the Hasegawa wing, at bottom-right. Some robust sanding will take the rivets off - just as well anyway, as my kit's wings also (are its only parts to) have a peculiar, "melting wax" surface texture, which definitely needs to go.
Note the Hasegawa part indicates that (at least) the later Tiger wing had a different leading-edge, with a more swept extension at the root - and possibly greater sweep overall (I will have to check). The air dam is also significantly smaller than depicted on the Lindberg. All easy-peasy mods, in any case.
Still - and this is where I really should seek professional help - in all the above scrutiny, I was inspired that this mold could be bashed into yet another 1/48 carrier jet which has long eluded me:
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With canopy and the McDonnell Douglas F-18 nose cone in place, it struck me this profile already evokes another Tiger contemporary, and McDonnell Douglas creation: the F3H Demon! No, Nooooooo - I will not start bashing a Demon - not from this kit nor even from another one, if I can snag it - until after I finish this F11F!
So Help Me, God!
Cheers,
-Matty
Man! Talk about tripping over a pot of gold.........
I bought it on eBay - and nobody else bid on it! I don't know if that means the mold is soon to be (or recently was) re-issued - or maybe this was a known, lousier boxing (remember the messed-up wing textures) - or maybe even a mistrusted seller (though he treated me just fine).
Anyway, as it's the only affordable 1/48 scale Tiger I've ever found (and I really got it cheap-cheap (!) - and now with most of it found to be actually quite accurate - I won't sell this baby, but build, BUILD 'er, by Krikey!