I have an old Monogram 1:72 F-7F Tigercat … I’ve gotten the STARFIGHTER DECALS sheet, COBRA COMPANY has made me a “special” single-seat cockpit and I bought the QUICKBOOST engines and cowls for it - so - it’s ready to be given to my builder to build. I have a question.
Which is:
I do know the plane was that overall blue … but, what were the colors for the following items:
I have an old Monogram 1:72 F-7F Tigercat … I’ve gotten the STARFIGHTER DECALS sheet, COBRA COMPANY has made me a “special” single-seat cockpit and I bought the QUICKBOOST engines and cowls for it - so - it’s ready to be given to my builder to build. I have a question.
Which is:
I do know the plane was that overall blue … but, what were the colors for the following items:
The cockpit bulkheads
The Seat
The cockpit floor, the pedals
The instrument panel
The gear-wells
The gear struts and wheel-hubs
Whatever area of the engines which are visible
Can you please help?
Thank you,
Tim
When I did the Italeri F-7F3 Tigercat in 1/48, I painted the cockpit bulkheads, cockpit floor and pedals, seat and wheel wells green zinc chromate. Gear struts were interior green with silver accents. Wheel hubs were matching blue to the overall exterior color. Engines were anadonic gray, steel, and other metallizer colors.
Radial air-cooled engines are a painting project all there own. As a previous poster said, “and various other colors.” The thing to do is do a google search on that engine, or that plane with a good view of the engine, and go from there. As a start, the crankcase is a seperate color, usually gloss gray. The cylinders are usually not painted, but either natural metal or some chemical coating or treatment. The cylinder heads, on those engines with seperate heads, may be a different color than the cylinders themselves. The pushrod tubes may be another color yet (on many museum or restored aircraft, they may be chromed whereas they might have been painted originally). There may well be a loom or tube for the plug wires that might be a different color, as are the wires themselves. Dry brushing or washes may make cylinders look more realistic.
The Air Force Museum has a web site that has many good pictures of their engine collection. But in general if you do not know the engine model, google the name or designation of the aircraft plus the word “engine.” However, if you find the model of engine, and search that, you will find more pictures, and usually all aircraft that use that engine will have same coloring on engine.
I agree on the interior colors. The gear wells and gear on sea blue planes were usually painted the same color. Sea blue. Sometimes the gear was silver. John
Interior green for the cockpit, blue for the gear bays, gear, and hubs. Engines are Pratt & Whitney 2800s, aluminum for the cylinder heads and push rod tubes, semi gloss black for the cooling fins, gray for the crankcase. Pushrod tubes were sometimes highly polished. Check pics to be sure. Find a suitable tail prop, with the resin cockpit there won’t be enough room to put enough weight in to keep her nose down. You might be able to get there with tungsten, but not with lead. Show us pics as she comes together.
