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1/48 Hawker Tempest V


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I've been so busy this year that my life seems to have flown by. I've had my first couple of days off (well 1.5 actually) since early July this weekend so I rummaged through the stash for something a) I could make a fresh start on, B) that I actually fancied building and c) had everything I needed to get on with it.

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This Eduard Profipack Tempest has been sat in there for longer than I care to remember. It's a limited run-style multi-media kit with injection moulded main parts. These have nicely engraved panel lines but a lot of ejector pin marks inside and no locating pins on the parts - pretty common for the era. The cockpit is injection moulded on the sprues but the Profipack contains lovely cast resin replacements as well as weighted wheels and a small fret of photo etched brass, plus a pack of canopy masks.

I normally start with cockpits but for some reason I decided to start this model off with the wheel wells. The kit contains injection moulded inserts with some basic rib and stringer detail. Once upon a time, when I was a more content modeller this would have been fine but modern me added hydraulic lines and braces. The reference material was Tempest II restoration project photographs. Feel free to not correct me if it's inaccurate - I'm happy with it.

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The interior parts were given a squirt of British interior grey-green from an early morning stock room raid.

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I assembled the wing next. I feared fit problems but the parts fit is better than many current-day offerings. A little tape was used to keep it snug whilst the cement dried. Once dry, the wheel wells were washed using old acrylics; very dark brown, followed by sandy yellow, followed by an earthy brown.

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The early Tempest V had the original long barrel Hispano cannons. In terms of the kit this means cutting out the leading edges and fitting inserts, which I drilled out.

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That concludes the wing near enough - I think I'll cut out the navigation lights and replace with clear sprue though.

I taped the fuselage halves together as I was dreading the fit with the wing. It'll need a little filler but once again, I've had far, far worse from modern kits. It looks rather Tempesty.

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I've just started detail painting the cockpit, and whilst the black was drying I drilled out the exhaust stacks.

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Nice . I was working on mine last night. The wing and fuse join can be almost perfect with dedicated fitting work. Determine where the contact points are and remove plastic carefully , they will come together nicely. I got mine to fit without the use of any filler other than a very slight smear. Are you gonna use the Alley Cat fuse correction set?

Tally Ho!

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Hi wasn't going to as I'd never looked it up. It'll probably irritate me if I don't now I've seen the difference, but I've only got tomorrow and then back to wall-to-wall working so I'll shelf it until I can order one and have time after it's arrived :)

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Hi wasn't going to as I'd never looked it up. It'll probably irritate me if I don't now I've seen the difference, but I've only got tomorrow and then back to wall-to-wall working so I'll shelf it until I can order one and have time after it's arrived :)

Ya dont hafta! The 4-5mm difference is apparently un noticeable unless there is a corrected one beside it. The set comes with some tailplanes as well and the tail is better so I'm told. I did it ,without knowing better ,but I wouldnt do it again, its a very tough correction . I would consider a 4mm plastic plug directly behind the wing root next time. I spent at least 15 hours mating the two pieces up!

Good luck!

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With my Tempest II, I decided to live with the length difference. The 'must correct' item for me was the fin fillet, as the kit one is rather blunt at the leading edge. I built a new one out of sheet styrene.

Looking good so far!

Cheers,

Jason

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I hadn't actually noticed the length difference - it's more the hump over the tailplane fillets that glares at me!

Stew your last name isn't really Dapple is it? We sent an order to Dundee last week but that's the first one in Scotland for a few weeks???

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The Alleycat tail does fix the length, and the fin, but the fin is easy to fix as long as you back it first.

the other thing that makes a big difference is to thin the wing down. As you have already assembled the wing and fuselage you can't do either of these...

This shot of the tail shows how Hawker added a fillet to the front of the Typhoon fin

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note the code letters are sky as well as the fuselage band!

see

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/77475-jaguar-tempest-kit/#entry851747

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The other item is wheels, the Eduard are really poor, as are the Alleycat. Early Tempests used 5 spoke like Typhoons, Barracudacals do some.

HTH

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Well I guess you will never be short of the right paint colours Jamie :D My order arrived safely a couple of days ago, thanks very much for that.

Very impressive drillwork on the Tempest there B)

Cheers,

Stew

You've got that new Airfix dogfight double lined up haven't you? :)

(Sorry I had to go back and check what was sent - I can't help but try guessing what people are using them for!)

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No, the 'Dapple' is sort of an old pun of my two brothers - you know, stewed apple :lol:

Good guess on the intended recipients of the paint, it's not my usual area of interest but they looked such nice kits I couldn't resist, they look like they will be interesting to build - 'interesting' in a good way, I mean :D

Hope you have a fun build - though it seems to have got 'interesting' already...

Cheers,

Stew

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Stewed Apple. I think I'm going to remember that!

Back to the day job today, but I ordered the new back end today. Hopefully it's here by next weekend although I'm supposed to be welding new sills on to a car for my dad... With a little luck there will hopefully be time to saw a perfectly decent kit in half!

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The post man came today.

I measuredededed (and grafittied)

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The Alleycat tail is a decent casting with no bubbles and not warped which is nice. The fit needs a little work though. with the panel lines and contours over the upper half lining up quite nicely it's the bottom that doesn't seem to fit too well

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I've tackled this by lightly sanding the lower fuselage mating surfaces behind the wing. With a pinch vertically the rear fuselage now matches up with the Alleycat rear fuselage fairly well.

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It does mean that when the wing is offered up the belly stands proud now.

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This I've tackled by sanding the mating surface of the wing fillets thus

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Much better

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I don't want to go any further on the wing so I'll give the opposite mating surfaces on the fuselage halves a tickle likewise and she'll be reet.

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  • 4 weeks later...

That's the best part of a month passed and I haven't touched it.

I fancied working on ships instead but picked up the Tempest again tonight.

The cockpit PE is on now, save for the seatbelts which have silver paint drying as I type. I'll shoot this with matt varnish and apply a little wear and tear next.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I parked this for a wee bit as I fancied working on ships, but picked it up again tonight.

The cockpit is now assembled. I haven't applied any weathering/dirt/shading/highlighting yet because I was rather concerned that the cockpit wouldn't fit the fuselage. As it turns out, the resin profipack seat was slightly wider than the hole in the top of the fuselage, but it does fit within the canopy - so I thinned the sills on the fuselage down a bit and now it does fit.

I can now get in about with some washes etc to bring out some of the detail.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I found time to join the kit fuselage halves and fit the resin replacement rear fuselage.

Being a limited run style, and as with the wings, there were no locating pins but the parts mated up well regardless. The wing isn't stuck on - it's just there.

The rear fuselage shape still needs some reconciliation with the front. This time it appeared sensible to attack the resin and make it fit the plastic. The previous plastic surgery sorted the big difference in depth of the parts. The resin is still fatter than the front though. It's easier to go at that with 240grit wet and dry and rescribe the panel lines than to pad out the plastic with loads of filler, sand and then rescribe. I've done the former now, and the small amount of filler needed is drying as I write.

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There's certainly some room for improvement on the fit of the resin parts James but it's good to see this one coming together. Are you bringing it or any of your ship projects along to the next club meeting?

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I meant to last month Col and simply forgot! My "challenge" is that I come straight from proper work to the club nights and therefore anything I bring needs to be remembered at 6am while I'm stumbling around half asleep in the dark. I was impressed I remembered a book last time! I need to bring a book on destroyer camouflage for that new guy next month too...

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