Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies

I'd recommend investing £8~15 on an electric paint stirrer. A few seconds will see anything properly stirred and thus avoid this sort of problem across the board of whatever you use. Otherwise, I've found Humbrol Matt Clear to be pretty good stuff - although admittedly I'm spraying it, and then after the above electric stirring treatment.

It's had some touch ups and another clear coat today. I realised I'd missed the control column from the cockpit!!! That has been added and we need say no more about that. I painted the undercarriage legs this morning and tonight added the main doors and stuck the legs on. At the back end, the tailwheel doors have been added, and the step, pitot and radio arial stuck on. The wheels have been painted aluminium but still need the tyres painted and some highlighting of detail before they go on, and it needs some exhaust soot and staining. Ironically, the one thing the Tamiya thinners did shift whilst trying to remove the Tamiya wash was the Tamiya nav lights, so they have been started again. I reckon one more evening will see this done in time for Perth this coming weekend. We still have packing to do though ...

It's hard to imagine a worse aeroplane to mask. Not only is it ugly, it is an absolute chore to prepare for paint!

I have applied some pre-shading and RLM65 this afternoon whilst waiting for other things to dry.

This may be slight wishful thinking but; Thinking with some frustration about anything else I could finish in time for the Aberdeen Modellers' Society table at the Scottish Nationals next weekend and getting nowhere (now I have access to 30,000 tins of paint, my excuses are a bit 3rd-world-problems like "lack of decals for the exact aeroplane I want to build" or even "lack of paint masks for this wholly unappetising Ju87B canopy") I decided to strip the Tempest, not because it could be repainted and decals purchased, delivered and applied in time, but rather just to avoid doing nothing and wasting an evening. I attacked it under a running tap and 1200grit wet and dry paper. I'm starting to wonder if this might be retrieved with some very careful touch-ups. It won't be my finest work, but it would be better than bin-fodder. I know I can rely on the good people of Britmodeller to be honest - so what do you think? Worth a shot as a dirty example? Or just keep sanding?

Build yourself an aircraft carrier. It's the best of both worlds*! *Don't. That is literally the worst idea for starting with ships.

I'm still hacked off, but considering the unsavory prospect of stripping and painting the thing a 3rd time I have realised that whilst I can get replacement decals for roundels, squadron codes and registrations easily, getting replacement stencils is less so. Hannants don't have any stencil sets listed for Tempests. Google is no better from a brief hunt. Typhoons are no problem, and 1/72 may be ok too but I can't find any in 1/48. I can imagine many modellers are quite this bad to have needed replacement stencils, but on the off chance that someone has made as big a mess of a Tempest as I have publically demonstrated and subsequently found stencils, a point in the right directiom would be appreciated. TIA.

The Kagero book details the scheme well and I'd recommend it. It corroborates well with the photographs I've collected. The actual colours used were compiled by John Snyder and are named here: https://www.sovereignhobbies.co.uk/pages/german-navy The colour names are correct so if you wish to paint with something else, the names are transferrable.

I might break it up and retrieve the tail and cockpit for future use but not before Perth. It'll need completely stripped and started over again (plus new decals). This one has just been a fight from the beginning and mostly an unpleasant experience. I'm thinking I'll just call it a bad job, forget about it and move on.

I shouldn't have got out of bed today. The Tempest is knackered. I applied a wash using the same technique / products that I've used a million times before (i.e. acrylic wash on top of enamel clear). I've no idea what is different/ wrong this time but it has stuck like proverbial poo to a blanket. I've tried alcohol to try to shift it and it's just creeping under the paint and lifting it. I'm giving up.

The post man came today. Well, he comes every day but usually it's just bills and pamphlets explaining why I should vote for some politician or another. Today though, he brought gun barrels.

Someone hit my car (and naturally fled -hatchback wielding fool) this morning and on the way home a deer jumped out in front of me (I've hit 2 deer on separate occassions before), so I braked hard and broke a box of eggs on the passenger footwell floor. I walked in in a bit of a a humph but the postie had been and delivered the new Tempest wheels.

I decided the undercarriage legs were a bit vague looking. I looked online to see about getting metal replacements, but to be honest they just looked a bit roughly cast and still vague. I was thinking it was really just the damper strut that looked a bit ill defined, so I cut it out. Then I realised whilst looking at photographs that the parallel motion links were a bit, well, vague too, so I did a little carving of the kit items to give an impressionist representation of what they look like from a distance if you squint a bit, and then thought I'd have a crack at representing the hinge pins so I drilled them out (whilst also drilling in through the bottom link from below) Some sprue was stretched (I'm just showing off now Duncan) and stuck in the holes (the damper strut has since been sliced off where it protudes in this photograph having dried sufficiently) I'm pretty shattered after a very busy week of day-jobbing so the rest of the Tempest has had a flat clear coat, the nav lights painted on using Duncan's old technique, the exhausts (re)painted and a few touchups around wheel wells and stuff. That'll do for tonight.

I've been out this evening, but before I go to bed I decided to touch up those dodgy decals. The walkway was simple enough. I used the Infini cutting mat to quickly hack out a circular arc the same radius as the roundel and did that too. Luckily the Eduard decals were/are a good match for the roundel blue I had.

They're also much more robust than axial flow compressors, and inherently easier to defend against FOD / bird strikes etc.

This'll be good

Thank you Stew - yes they are Eduard's own. They're actually very nicely printed in the main. All the stencils were actually a pleasure to do and I usually hate stencilling! They're all clearly legible etc. It's just the walkways and two roundels which let the side down a bit, but it's nothing that can't be fixed with a tin of black and a tin of oxford blue! I'm impressed with myself Duncan, not because the model is anything special but because this is the first time in this half of my life that I've avoided an aborted project after such a set-back. I could start to enjoy this modelling thing again!

Thank you! It's going to need a couple of touch-ups before the next clear coat goes on to seal everything in, so sorry Duncan it won't be ready by tomorrow night! (and I think I'll be working late-ish and will head over straight from work) The decals are finished though: I always think British WW2 subjects look a bit "in your face" when glossed and the decals are applied, but usually they tone down nicely and capture the feel when dulled a bit. Hopefully that holds true again this time!

The main markings are now on. Stencils still to go. The walkway decals broke up a little, but fortunately none of the others have. That said, 1 underwing and 1 overwing roundel is printed slightly out of register so they have the 98% solar eclipse look, whixh isn't really visible until they leave the carrier film. I'll take care of that in due course.

Afraid so. Parcel Force are expensive to deal with, but they are more intelligent than the rest at least.

The eagle eyed / those of us above average on the autism spectrum may have clocked that I managed to break off the little stub for the prop. Everyone knows instinctively from childhood that the success or failure of a model is judged 90% on whether the propeller turns or not, and 10% for everything else. Therefore I asked myself "what would a clever person do here?". An answer wasn't forthcoming, for reasons which are perhaps obvious. Nevertheless, I procured a 1.5mm carbon fibre rod from my radio control stash and, with the help of a 1.5mm drill bit, converted the broken bit of plastic rod into a tube into which the carbon fibre was superglued. The fuselage was likewise drilled and now it seems fit for purpose / probably stronger than it started.

Thank you. I didn't know that, but such things do indeed interest me Thank you. I didn't know that, but such things do indeed interest me

Superb as usual Duncan

Hi John, You must have got that from us at Perth last year? We only used those labels for Perth and changed them as soon as we got back because several people commented that the colour name was too small to read (and the transparent logo image printed out with a yellow tinge which annoyed us). Hope to see you again this month

I use Blutac rolled into thin sausages to mask the lines, then just infill with Tamiya tape.