Tigercat built in less than 1 day!

[ghodges]

For the 2nd year in a row, I participated in a "1 day New Years Day" build challenge, and got this 1/48 AMT F7F-3N Tigercat done in 22hrs-45mins from start to when I put on the props to finish it at 10:48 this evening.

Despite my camera having the wrong year in it (like my first checks of the year probably will), as you can see by the clock on the wall I began at 12:03am just after ringing in the new year.

Just a close up to show none of the parts have been painted or assembled; just removed from their trees.

This pic, a little before 1am, shows a lot of the initial painting that's been done to many of the parts. I used a lot of Tamiya rattle can colors because they dry fast! I built the assemblies with superglue so I could sand seams right away, alternating between assembling parts and painting for 3-4hrs.

This is around 5am.... and the model is ready to be painted.

This is at about 6am..... everything is painted and I finally head to bed to allow things to dry. I've also finally managed to correct the camera date too!

This is where things stood about 2pm..... the model has been glossed where the decals will go and the rest of the subassemblies and parts have been finished painting.

After letting the glossed areas dry, I got the decals on about 6pm.

I let the decals dry until a little after 8pm and then flat coated the model. I let that dry about an hour and then started adding the landing gear and all of the fiddly bits and finishing up all of the other minor details, finishing just before 11pm.

Despite the kit instructions saying the gear wells should be interior green, I painted all of the gear bays, the landing gear, and the drop tank in GSB because Tigercats were originally delivered in overall GSB just like their Panther, Banshee, Corsair, and Skyraider contemporaries at the time leading up to the Korean War. But I could be wrong....

Though a bit of a challenge it was fun! I also now have 1 model built in 2025 with 364 days yet to go! Comments, critiques, and questions welcome as always.

 

Gil 

 

[Mark Deliduka]

Man this rocks! Such incredible quality in such a short build! I love it!

 

Bring on the New Year!

[Stikpusher]

!!!????24 Hour challenge!!!??? Wow!!!

🫡 That is incredible that you pulled this off in this timespan! Salute!

[VMF211]

That came out great!! Good grief.....I can't finish mine and it's been 5 years!!!