|
|
back to F11F Tiger main |
 |
About designing the Grumman F11F Tiger |
 |
|
This is a lineup of three F11F beta versions
|
|
I chose the F11F Tiger, because it's a jet I had always liked - it's so very classic: One Engine, regular swept wings and air intakes at the side of the fuselage. I used my old Hasegawa 1:72 F11F to check on several details, particularly the landing gears and the structure on the lower side, since it wasn't included in my three-side view. I figured, that since the fuselage of Aircraft is symmetric anyway, it might be enough to build a half fuselage and then mirror it with the computer, but that failed utterly.
|
 |
|
Here you can see the half fuselage I built. The edges were just to unexact. |
|
| |
The Tiger was a heavy birth compared to the Skylancer. The air intakes turned out to be too big and the landing gear well as to complicated to build in the prototype, so the first beta version still had undetailed landing gear. I also had to completely redesign the nose for the short-nosed version, which turned out completely wrong in the first beta.
|
 |
|
The fuselage with too big air intakes |
|
| |
The line structures of the Blue Angels versions caused further complication. They have to pass between Canopy and Air intakes. I corrected both air intakes and Canopy several times, and built a sized up fuselage to draw the lines, which I scanned again to get the transitions between the pieces right.
|
 |
|
| The prototype before the attachment of the wings |
|
| |
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
| The prototype with long nose |
|
The prototype with short nose |
|
| |
 |
|
| The prototype cut apart, getting prepared for scanning |
|
| |
 |
|
These are paint scheme prototypes, printed 144% bigger to get the paint schemes right. |
|
| |
The Cockpit kit for the F11F Tiger was the first ever Stahlhart cockpit kit to be created in April 2010. This first attempt was tough, because I first had to figure out how to do it. I actually used a sideview and seats from several other papermodels rescaled to 1:60 scale as references and then drew a sideview of the cockpit. A similar principle was used for all following fighter jet cockpits. A unique feature of this cockpit is, that it has an access hole for the tweezers in the rear, because I first had problems to get it into the fuselage. I refitted the early ATU-222 build with the cockpit to take photos, but that later got lost, but it would have been obsolete anyway, because the new nose versions were created.
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
| The cockpit test build in 1:30 scale |
|
In a complete forward section |
|
| |
Since the initial creation of the F11F Tiger model, I was rather displeased with the forward fuselage, because I had built one version in 1:72 scale and compared it with a Hasegawa Plastic model version and the front fuselage turned out to be way too narrow. In September 2013, inspired by finding several books on the F11F in the Interent, I decided its time to re-create the front fuselage and built a new nose prototype based on the old one. Of course all the paint schemes had to be redone, and I also intended to do I wider range of liveries, which I did not know about when I first created the Tiger-model. For these I created a new livery-prototype as well as a scaled-up nose version for the short-nose Tiger-mouth version. For this version I also created additional detail, such as foldable wings and optional parts to make extended speedbrakes. And of course, I did the Super Tiger
|
 |
|
| These to builds started off the creation of new F11F-versions |
|
|
The Super Tiger required me to totally redesign the engine section to give it the characteristic Coke-Bottle shape. This was also based on the actual earlier parts. I also needed to modify the canopy and create a spine on the top of the fuselage. Finally I needed a new nose, which is actually the nose of my F-18 slightly rescaled. All other parts were identical with the regular F11F, just like with the real things. Another highlight of the Super Tiger was the creation of several versions depicting the Super Tiger, had it entered service with the airforces that considered buying it. The versions used for this were based on authentic versions of the F-104, which was bought insted of the Super Tiger with the JASDF-demonstrator based on a version of the F-86.
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
| The final Super Tiger-Beta with lines for the "what-could-have-been"-versions. Note the F-104 reference on the screen in the background. |
|
One of the test builds for the liveries. This was also used to test the folded wings. |
|
| |
| |
| |
| return to top |
