Deemed a turkey once it hit the fleet, the Cutlass has IMHO some of the finest lines of any airframe around. This is the Fujimi 1/72 kit straight from the box with the exception of scratch seat belts and a couple of wires in the office. It was a nice kit of an often overlooked subject. I can’t imagine “calling the ball” with an angle of attack this high during a carrier approach.
Enjoy!
Ray
NIce job on the build ’ cool little plane does anyone make it in 1/48
I always thought that an odd looking airplane. But your’s sure does look good.
Beautiful job, on one of my favorites.
In 1/48 there are a couple of Hobbycraft F7U-3’s and an ancient Lindberg F7U-1 that is pretty good in outline, but the Fujimi 1/72 kits are much nicer.
There is a 1/48th scale kit made by Hobbycraft (Not sure of availability) - It is believed to be a “scaled up” copy of the Fujimi kit. - Check this out: http://features02.kitparade.com/f7upb_1.htm
Also, I believe “way back when”, Lindberg made a very basic, crude rendering of this aircraft wearing Blue Angels colours.
Very nice it’s always been one of my favorites too. I’ve got a 1/48 Hobbycraft kit on my to do pile.
Very pretty. Nice job!
Mark
Hey - that looks pretty good, mate.
The good old “Gutless”…the Blue Angels hated that thing…so did most of the fleet…but you’re right - she’s got some great lines.
It’s still a weird looking bird if you ask me but it’s a lovely build, nice job Ray [tup]
Always loved the look of the Cutlass, but, boy I would have hated to plop that stalky thing down on the deck of pitching carrier at sea!
Here are a few comments, quoted from the article mentioned above:
"…from Steve Ginter’s excellent book, ‘Naval Fighters Number Six,’ notes that the Cutlass was the first American fighter designed from the outset to use afterburner-equipped engines; the first swept-wing Navy aircraft; first tailess jet to go into production in the U.S.; and the first Navy jet with steerable nose wheels and an irreversible power control system. It was a tough plane to land, especially coming aboard ship. The photo sequence in the Ginter book showing a Cutlass ramp strike and subsequent fireball must not have been a great naval aviation recruiting tool!
Nice build, gotta look out for the HobbyCraft kit (I, unlike some of the more obsessive rivet counters among us, like the H/C kits).
Very nice build. Great looking model of an a/c not often seen. Well Done !!
Regards, Rick
Thanks for the kind words!
never heard the nickname “gutless”, but is certainely does make sense.
Interesting link to the HC kit. Strange how the same markings can be so different according to the kit manufacturer.
Ray
Beautiful work on the “Gutless Cutless”. It was a very aesthetically pleasing airplane to look at, but apparently a royal pain to fly. The Blue Angels flew the dash 1 model which was even worse than the -3. They were doing a cross country back to home drome when both Cutlesses had to make emergency landings at NAS Memphis. They were so PO’ed at the planes that they just abandoned them right there.
Darwin, O.F. [alien]
VERY nice job on the cockpit, especially in 1/72 scale. Being able to leave the canopy open makes it worth it. I’ve decided that on my WW II bombers and such, to just use a bit of paint because once the canopy gets glued on, you can’t see diddly inside anyway.
I’ve decided that on my WW II bombers and such, to just use a bit of paint because once the canopy gets glued on, you can’t see diddly inside anyway.
Ditto for many kits in 1/48 scale, as well. By the time you do all the work to the office, the only person who even knows it is you and the precious few others who might actually know what they’re looking at.
Your wife or S/O thinks youre wasting time with those “toys” and rarely does more than grumble about them or give you a courtesy wave. And most people only look at the surface finish anyway. This hit me once when I had a nicely finished Hurricane in 1/48 and someone commented, “You did all that detail work?”
I puffed up an was all proud, because it was the old HobbyCraft kit and I had accurized it alot. When I started to point out all the details in the cockpit, they said, “Oh, I didnt even notice that stuff… I was talking about the paint job!”
Your build looks really nice. I have to admit I have very little knowledge about the real planes…why did it sit so high in the nose? Thanks for any education you can give me…
Leon
Looks GOOD, I aways liked the odd looking planes [:-^]
Bud
Nice clean build, and I mean that in a good [tup]
Really suits the lines of the Cutless.
Karl
Thanks for the words guys.
Leon - I’m not certain why the nose sits so high. I imagine it has the high angle of attack to provide more lift at lower speeds such as a carrier approach. Also the power plants probably did not provide a very high thrust to weight ratio so the pilot probably had to keep them spooled up during the approach hence the higher angle of attack. If someone has more on the “guttless” please let us know.
Ray
Ditto on the build. VERY nice. The 1/48th Lindberg model is re-released periodically and is usually not difficult to find. The Cutlass molded by Lindberg is more or less the proto-type aircraft or earliest production of the aircraft, as is its F100, A-4, F-8, F-104, and a few others. These early kits were generally accurate as to dimensions, but lacked detail or had extensive oversized details such as the rivets. It was a time of toy like features, such as retractable landing gear or a spring loaded ejection seat. Again, very nice Cutlass.