History

 

The F11F-1 was the first supersonic Grumman fighter and was the long-time mount of the Blue Angels.  The airframe was considerably smaller than the F9F-8 Cougar and was particularly nimble fighter.  The maiden flight was made on July 30, 1954.  The F11F-1 was assigned to an active USN squadron in March 1957.  They were two versions the short nose and a long nose.  The first batch of 47 aircraft were of the short nose variant while the last 157 were of the long nose type. 

            The aircraft never served in combat but was considered one of the prettiest USN fighters of its period.  The aircraft did not have the capacity to fly more complex and varied missions.  The F11F-1 competed against two very famous and successful designs that were to mark the era of Naval aviation--F-8 Crusader and F-4 Phantom.

 

 

1.72    Hasegawa F11F1 Tiger (short nose variant)

 

Kit Decals

 

 

Construction

 

The Hasegawa 1.72 F11F-1 is one of the older offerings from the 1.72 Hasegawa line.  With this being said, it still holds up well against modern 1.72 kits.  The kit has raised panel lines, which were re-scribed . The cockpit detail is sparse, but I was able to use the Airwaves etched brass detail set.  So the kits major shortcomings are easily remedied.

 The kit goes together rather well and I would recommend it to any builder with a modicum of basic modeling skills.  The airframe has a nice selection of decals and I chose to model a training and test bird from VT-23.  It makes for a colorful aircraft.

 The Hasegawa decals can be a little rough to deal with since they tend to be thick but they are a few aftermarket sheets from Superscale (72-255) , which offers markings for VF-121, VF-51, VF-33 and VA-156.  I believe Scalemaster (22) did a sheet for this aircraft but I can not remember the markings it offered. I recommend Micro-Set and Micro-Sol if you use the Hasegawa decals.  I used the kit decals and the Micro-Set and Sol snuggled the decals down nicely.

  

Conclusion

 

Overall a relaxing build of an important USN early jet in 1.72.  There are few kits of the F11F-1 in 1.48 and they are either rather inaccurate (Lindbergh) or rather expensive (Collect-Aire). 

 

THE KIT

 

CONSTRUCTION

           

 

COLORS & MARKINGS

           

 

FINAL CONSTRUCTION

 

CONCLUSIONS

 

REFERENCES