1/48 Chance Vought F7U-3M Cutlass

by Fabian Mario Vera

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This is the first time that I participate in this website and I wanted to introduce myself with a kit that was built out of the box, with little modifications.

This is the old HobbyCraft kit. It is very simple, with quite marked recessed panel lines. The cockpit, in terms of details, is quite bare and the seat is very primitive. Though there is an aftermarket seat, I have decided not to use it.

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When I first saw the boxart, I got very happy with the chance of building a grey/white scheme with yellow markings, but when I saw the contents I found that this is impossible as the supplied decals are for a prototype of the 3M series.  Hobbycraft's kit is not an M and the second version is overall aluminum so I had to use the decals from Condor Decals (#48033). This is a new set printed in light blue paper that has a couple of intakes made in resin that allow the transformation into an M version.

Bibliography I used is “Chance Vought F7U Cultass” from “Naval Fighters”, number six. This recommends this set of decals and the plane is shown in page 103.

Paints are Model Master and I painted the kit following the instructions of the book.

The tanks were painted polished aluminum (ModelMaster) and the shiny efect that I achieved was very good as the pictures testify.

This model, built OOB, was a very swift project that has allowed me to add a nice model  to my collection in a short time. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did building it.

Cheers!

Fabian 

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Photos and text © by Fabian Mario Vera