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F7F Tigercat SOH Project

The Tigercat Goes To War

This F7F-3N belonged to VMF(N)-513. It wears the matte black livery used briefly when the squadron was deployed for combat operations in Korea. Since the smaller, more maneuverable F4U-5N Corsair was more suitable for intercepting North Korean Po-2 night bombers, and the F3D Skyknight was more suited to escort B-29s against night-flying MiGs, the Tigercat wound up flying mostly daytime ground attack missions.

The matte black paint weathered fairly quickly, but I'm no good at weathering, so the plane looks like it did at the beginning of VMF-513's combat tour.



 
Mick said:
This F7F-3N belonged to VMF(N)-513. It wears the matte black livery used briefly when the squadron was deployed for combat operations in Korea. Since the smaller, more maneuverable F4U-5N Corsair was more suitable for intercepting North Korean Po-2 night bombers, and the F3D Skyknight was more suited to escort B-29s against night-flying MiGs, the Tigercat wound up flying mostly daytime ground attack missions.

The matte black paint weathered fairly quickly, but I'm no good at weathering, so the plane looks like it did at the beginning of VMF-513's combat tour.
Click to expand...

I read that the F7F-3N's managed only 2 PO-2 kills. Because of the disparity of airspeeds it was hard for the F7F pilots to target a "Bed Check Charlie" (PO-2). From what I can find, those were the only Tigercat kills in combat, apart from ground attacks.

Cheers,
Maarten
 
Maarten said:
I read that the F7F-3N's managed only 2 PO-2 kills. Because of the disparity of airspeeds it was hard for the F7F pilots to target a "Bed Check Charlie" (PO-2). From what I can find, those were the only Tigercat kills in combat, apart from ground attacks.
Cheers,
Maarten
Click to expand...

I think that's correct.

Under the circumstances it's sort of surprising that they made those two. The Air Force tried to shoot down Po-2's with F-94s and the result was disastrous - an F-94 was lost when it over-ran its target and collided with it. The only real success claimed against the Po-2 hecklers was by Navy Corsair pilot Guy Bordelon, who was credited with five of them, though the veracity of his claims has been questioned by historians.

The Tigercat flew mostly daytime ground attack missions in Korea. And just as the Corsair and Skyknight were more suited, respectively for the night interception and bomber escort missions, the AD-4N was a better night attack plane. It would have been just as well if they'd sent day fighter variants to Korea, but I don't think there were any of those left by then. Anyway, the Corsair and Skyraider were both more formidable ground attackers. Around that time, photo recce Cougars and Banshees put the -3P out of a job too. So Korea was the Tigercat's swan song; it was already obsolete by then.
 
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Mick --

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I liked this scheme on the F4U-4's and -5's that were flown by Marine pilots in Korea. Never knew that the Tigercat wore these colours too. Very nice work, mate.

BB686:US-flag:
 
Yellowbird

BuNo 80411 was the only F7F-3K target drone. It was converted by Bell Aircraft. It crashed on a demonstration flight at MCAS Cherry Point, NC on 8/8/46 and no more drone conversions were made. While the Tigercat didn't prove suitable as a drone, the entire surviving fleet of -2/-2N were converted into F7F-2D drone controllers. The -2D's served into late 1957, the last Tigercats in military service, and the most colorful, with their yellow wings and red bands.




 
Texture Tweaks

Well, I seem to have caught up with myself on painting the Tigercat, and as often happens, no sooner would I finish a skin than I'd find a new reference, or notice something I'd overlooked - mostly that last part, the overlooking of things, and mostly involving the presence, absence and extent of the prop warning bands on the nose of various planes. There are a few other tweaks to various markings. I'm happy to say that none of the glitches are horrible, and rather than re-releasing all those paints for such little errors, I've assembled a set of modified texture files to correct all the skins I've released so far. For each fix, all you have to do is drag and drop the replacement files into the appropriate texture folders. Offered with apologies for the errors that led to the creation of this package.

 
Hi there,

Alerted by Mick's post concerning texture fixes, I realised that my repaints uploaded at FlightSim.com earlier this month showed the same error. So I just corrected the (mini) issues. A "Fix" zipfile (fix_f7f-3_n6178c_nx379ak_nx700f.zip) is available now at FlightSim.com. Unfortunately only there because I am encountering some mysterious upload issues at SOH for a while.

Anyway, this zipfile contains texture fixes for the my repaints FS2004 Grumman F7F-3N Tigercat NX379AK (Grumman_F7F-3N_NX379.zip), FS2004 Grumman F7F-3P Tigercat "Bad Kitty" (Grumman_F7F-3P_N6178C.zip) and FS2004 Grumman F7F-3P Tigercat Here Kitty (Grumman_F7F-3P_NX700F) for Milton Shupe and Team's Grumman F7F-3 Tigercat.
Just drop the textures in the respective texture folders, overwriting the original texture. That is all.

Thank you, Mick, for the HU.

Cheers,
Maarten
 
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Pylon Racer

"La Patrona," 2-seat F7F-3P Tigercat, was purchased by Rod Lewis in 2008 and is one of five flyable Tigercats as of 2015. She was the first ever to race at the National Championship Air Races in Reno.

I'm not usually much interested in warbirds, but this one called out to me.

With this, my skin of the plane the Duxford Tigercat is painted after, and Maarten's three warbirds, we now have skins for all five currently flying Tigercats.

I've always had trouble depicting metallic silver paint, but this paint job showed me that glossy silver paint can be just as difficult! It looks a little better in the sim than in the screenie, but it's still as much gray as silver. The real La Padrona looks more gray than silver in some photos, but not in others. Oddly enough, though the real La Padrona is glossy and not metallic, this skin looks more realistic on the reflective, non-glossy model. In the hope that someone else might come up with a better base color, I've included a big, clean copy of the nose art in the upload.
 
Hey Mick,

What a beautiful livery! I'm sure I'll fly this bird quite a bit. Thank you so much! :applause::applause:

Cheers,
Maarten
 
Maarten said:
Hey Mick,

What a beautiful livery! I'm sure I'll fly this bird quite a bit. Thank you so much! :applause::applause:

Cheers,
Maarten
Click to expand...

You're welcome! I'm glad you like it.

I just wish I could've come up with a better glossy silver base color. Are you any good with silver finishes?
 
Mick said:
You're welcome! I'm glad you like it.

I just wish I could've come up with a better glossy silver base color. Are you any good with silver finishes?
Click to expand...

Not really, Mick, but I could try and toy abput a bit with the alpha channels. I did so with Rachael's templates for the Lodestar and that worked out quite well. At least to my satisfaction. :)
 
Mick,

Thanks for all of your work producing these! Is there any way I can persuade you to do a Yellow Drone version of the -1? :biggrin-new:

Alan :encouragement:
 
Maarten said:
Not really, Mick, but I could try and toy abput a bit with the alpha channels. I did so with Rachael's templates for the Lodestar and that worked out quite well. At least to my satisfaction. :)
Click to expand...

Well, apparently not many painters are good at silver finishes (except for polished natural metal, which reflective textures make so easy.)

I'd just take a section of unmarked silver from a texture by one of those "not many" who are good at it, but then I couldn't add the details from the paint kit; couldn't get a clean copy of the panel and river layers. So instead, all I could do was change the color of the complete texture files, which really limited my options and capabilities.

BUT - I just figured out a way to get the panel lines, and the plane has such a deep, smooth finish that it won't matter of the rivets don't show - it's probably better if they don't. So I will be fiddling with it this afternoon if the rain continues.

In the meantime, feel free to fiddle with my textures any way you wish, and to use my nose art, those red-outlined tail codes, and my non-standard anti-glare panel and prop warning stripe (don't forget to run that stripe over the nose gear door.)

Ask Mr. Google for Images of "F7F La Patrona" and you'll find many high quality photos of the plane that will show you how the finish looks in different lighting conditions (sometimes rather different in different light!) My impression is that the real color is a glossy, completely Non-metallic, somewhat gray-ish silver, like you might see on a nice, silver BMW or Mercedes. I'm sure it's really an Imron-type resin coating, but I think it looks like automobile paint.

I don't understand how the glossy, non-metallic finish looks best on the non-specular, reflective model, but that's how it turned out for me. But if you get a good color, I suggest that you try it on the glossy model with a black white alpha channel. If the color is right, that's how it should display properly. I think mine looks better on the other model because the color isn't right.

I hope you can do better than I did!
 
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ViperPilot2 said:
Mick,

Thanks for all of your work producing these! Is there any way I can persuade you to do a Yellow Drone version of the -1? :biggrin-new:

Alan :encouragement:
Click to expand...

Well, there weren't any -1 drones, nor any other variant; just the single -3 that promptly demonstrated that the F7F drone program wasn't a great idea.

I guess if you want it to have the small tail you could use that skin with the -1 model. I think that would work.
 
La Padrona v.2

By Jove, I think I've got it!

I've painted La Padrona again and this time I think I have a base color that I like. It looks silver in some light and silvery gray in some light, just as the real La Padrona seems to look in photos. It's probably not really right, bu I think it's acceptable.

Annoyingly, the screenie I took that I was going to post here doesn't look like the plane in the sim! It looks all glossy gray without much silver in it at all. It looks in the screenie like the previous version looked in the sim! Oddly enough, if you want to see what the new skin looks like in the sim, scroll up a few posts to my screenie of version 1, which didn't look like that. Very strange!

I think I can get get to look just a little more silver if I fiddle with the alpha channel a bit more. I need to get away from the computer, then come back in a while and look at it again. It's odd to be using the alpha channel with a skin that represents glossy, non-metallic paint, but that seems to be the only way to make it look silver. The trick is to make it look silver, as it should, but not look like bare metal, which is is not. (I wrote earlier that v.1 used a non-glossy, reflective model, but I was confused; that's not correct - there isn't a non-glossy model of the -3P.)

Anyway, I think I have it under control and that by this evening I'll upload a version 2 of LaPadrona that I'm happy with.
 
F7F Tigercat SOH Project F-3 panel and reco version

Hallo Friends,

the 2d panel is full in work and progressing well.
Mick you pointed me to the Reco panel, as you know I picked up the challenge and I asked Gaucho_59 to help me withe graphic part.
Now please can you tell me if you did almost a repaint of the special reco version? If it is so please tell me which one.

Yours
Papi
 
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