Though I have only seen one of these planes, using an F7F as a fire bomber must have been a real thrill. It undoubtedly had to be the highest performance plane used to fight a fire. No information is given with the sheet to tell anything about the planes, so I'll have to leave that part blank. The only kit in 1/48 is the AMT F7F and it should not be that difficult to find as I've seen them at swap meets and on eBay enough times.

There are markings for three planes, all identical except for the registration numbers. The instruction sheet provides a template for the nose so that you can get the color down correctly. Instructions say a red color, but it looks more like a red-orange to me, similar to international orange. The fuselage and wing tips are white with most of the wings and engines in aluminum. There are large areas of the red-orange on the nose, wings and tail. The sheet provides the black demarcation lines for these areas. These planes carried a large belly tank when fighting fires and Aeromaster lists a Ventura resin part for it. I think someone else did one as well. However, finding it may be a problem as this sheet was released in 1997 and as you know, things resin disappear in a rather short time after release.

Just an additional note, these planes were generally a bit different from each other in terms of the exact radio and nav fit, so it would be a great idea to have a photo of the subject. The instructions say that these schemes were taken from personal photos, so it makes it tough to verify the markings and such. Having seen this sheet used on a kit, I can tell you it is a real eye magnet!

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