Based in part on captured German engineering data, the Vought Cutlass was certainly unique looking! It was not a great success yet my research led me to the conclusion that it was not as poor a machine as I had been led to believe over the years. The F7U-3M was among the first US Navy jets to carry air-to-air missiles, early Sparrow 1's.
The posts sticking out below the canopy are ingress/egress steps which came out when the gear was lowered, in case a ladder was unavailable. They were made by holding stretched sprue lengths near a candle to mushroom the ends. The end caps are supposed to be angled but too bad.
Engine front and rear detail kit provided! I carved off molded detail from the front gear leg and replaced it with wire. I'll probably add brake lines later.
The missile racks needed considerable reshaping and scratch additions. The outer racks also needed their mounting holes moved back a couple of mm's. Unfortunately I didn't quite capture the additional downward angle of the outer racks- the missiles actually should NOT be in line. If you use the Thomason rack drawings you will probably still need to add a downward cant to the outer racks.
This surprisingly good kit from 1987 just needed some extra detailing, new decals from spares, and a few corrections to the nose shape and missiles/missile racks. These were based on excellent info on Tommy Thomason's "Tailhook Topics" blog, which helpfully included scale drawings! Super Metallic 2's were applied over a sanded and buffed black primer surface using Vought drawings showing the different materials used. Some panels were painted with lacquer silver as per the originals. Alclad ALC600 aqua clear gloss was applied under and over the decals mostly because my decal quality varied considerably, and I didn't want to damage the surface.
