F-11 Tiger - why didn't it ever achieve wide modeling popularity?

Aug 11, 2006 11 Replies

Tonight I was reviewing some old Blue Angels photos, and came upon the F-11 Tiger. It served the Blues for quite a while, and that got me thinking: why hasn't the Tiger taken off (pun intended) with modelers like the Phantom or Crusader? Seems like it's the forgotten USN fighter (btw, is Hasegawa the only/best kit of the subject in 1/72?)



That and the fact that they never saw combat.

That's the only one I know of. At one time I had about 5 of them just to build all the markings on the Microscale sheet plus the Blue Angels ship.

There also was a 1/48 kit from Lindberg which appears to represent a prototype short-nose airplane. Revell had a 1/54th kit (my first F11F) that wasn't too bad, given the odd scale. It had at least two issues, one of which was a Blue Angels' ship.

I always found the prototype to be a sexy shape. I think the reason they aren't more popular was their fairly short frontline career.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

And don't forget Monogram's F-11 Blue Angels kit featuring four small scale Tigers in Diamond Formation.

Martin

And don't forget Monogram's F-11 Blue Angels kit featuring four small scale Tigers in Diamond Formation.

Martin

Yeah, 2-3 years before pushed into the reserves. But I agree, very sexy indeed! For a flame-can that is :-)

It also had a rather long career in the training command, most notibly with the VT-26 "TIGERS" at NAS Chase Field. A lot of future Naval Aviators got their introduction to air-air combat in the F11F.

John Alger IPMS 10906 Charlotte Scale Modelers

I have somewhere in all my junk an Airmodel vacuform Tiger. It's extremely basic and I think you'd have to rob the detail parts out of a Hasegawa kit to make it look anywhere near halfway decent.

Al Superczynski wrote: : : That and the fact that they never saw combat. : Not that that has slowed sales or kits of Luft '46 kits and "targets". Or, for that matter, kits of varients of Bf-109's that never got past the prototype (if that far) stage. :-(

Bruce

Not from Hasegawa et al... ;)

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