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PK-23 Hawker Tempest Mk.VI (F.6) ** FINISHED **


Rabbit Leader

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Hello fellow Matchbox lovers,  

So all this recent talk and nostalgic images of good old Matchbox kits has peaked my interest of late.

This wonderful subject matter has forced me to park some of my other builds in order to join this great GB. 

 

After first attempting to source a cheap Tempest kit online (no luck), I then remembered about an old stalled project from my teens that got me thinking (that was well over 30 years ago!).  

Long story short, I delved into my stash and found approx. 95% of an old Matchbox Tempest kit that was initially used as a donor subject to convert a Heller Tempest V into an Mk.II.    

I was missing the prop, spinner and the right hand Sabre Engine Cowling parts, however BM member Scimitar has come to my aid after quickly answering my 'wants' post in the Wanted section.

Here is an image of the parts I currently have.

 

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On the top right you will see the salvaged wing root intakes that I broke off the never completed Heller conversion. There is also a Heller prop and a few Falcon Clear Vax canopies that I 'may' use. The first hurdle however will be to assemble the wings and neatly re-attach those wing root intakes. This will result in a heap of sanding to get right, so naturally I will loose some of those lovely trench panel lines. As a consequence of this, I've decided to make an effort to fill and rescribe some of these panel lines to something a little less 'Matchbox' like - yes I know, not in the true spirit but serves me right for chopping it up in the first place!

 

So here are some progress shots so far. The first shows the wings being glued together with some of my favourite weapons of choice - Loctite 401 CA and Tamiya's Extra Thin Cement. The lamp on the left is serving to aid my failing eyesight and on the right is probably my third cup of coffee for the day - already getting cold. The salvaged wing root intakes are sitting in the middle of the dirty cutting mat.  

 

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Not that long thereafter, I cut up a few oversized sections of plastic card and mounted them where shown. The previous cut all those years ago had naturally removed a bit too much plastic, so I needed to build this up so that the intake parts would sit level with the wings leading edge.  

 

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Wing root intakes now attached to wings and left to dry for a short while. The plastic card backing sits proud of the surrounding plastic and if my skills are up to it the whole area will be filed back to a smooth finish!  

 

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So did I win? Yeh, not bad. Some heavy sanding has removed a few panel lines but these babies will be going off anyway - my god aren't they deep! 

 

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The next step is always a bit of a nightmare, however I find it to be the best filler around. The Loctite 401 CA is applied with a Toothpick to all areas that need filling. I find that CA dries clear, fast and super strong. It looks horrible when applied, however with a little (actually quite a lot) of Wet n Dry elbow grease it will sand down to virtually new plastic. Hard to believe from the image below!

 

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And here is the final result. One pair of smooth and polished wings without all those nasty trenches. To get this finish I've started with Wet n Dry grades 400, 600, 800 & 1200, then moved on to some well used Micromesh graded 1500, 1800, 2400, 3600, 4000 and finally 6000. A polishing cloth is then vigorously rubbed everywhere until the plastic shines like it's brand new. I have slightly rescribed the ailerons and Cannon bay panel however will apply a few more scribe lines a little later on. I've now applied CA to the lower sides and will repeat this sanding work tomorrow until I'm happy with the finish.  

 

So that's the end of day one and this GB Intro. I was not sure at the start if I could resurrect this chopped up kit to a level that I would be happy with, however the completed wing surgery turned out OK so I should see this one through to the end. I've got a few days off work now, so unless I get dragged away to do some boring household chores (which is very likely), I'll post more progress pics later..

 

Cheers.. Dave.     

 

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Great start with this model. I also use the method with the CA. The only difference with your method is that I use some flour to harden the CA right away, so I can start sanding in just a few seconds and the other plus side is that doesn't become rock sollid and is easier to sand. I always do a line of about 5 to 7 cm at a time.

 

Cheers,

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6 hours ago, Arniec said:

The only difference with your method is that I use some flour to harden the CA right away, so I can start sanding in just a few seconds and the other plus side is that doesn't become rock sollid and is easier to sand. I always do a line of about 5 to 7 cm at a time.

 

Thanks for the tip Arnold. I might try that method - there's still a few lines to fill on that fuselage, although thankfully not as many as the wing upper surface. 

Cheers.. Dave. 

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8 hours ago, modelling minion said:

Nice start.

Great job on the wings, all your efforts have really paid off as they look very good indeed and will form a great base for re-scribing.

 

Thanks Craig - everyone can use sandpaper to achieve a smooth finish, however not everyone can use a scriber to achieve straight and nicely defined panel lines. 

Unfortunately, I firmly belong in the "bad scribers' camp! We'll see how this one turns out. 

 

Cheers.. Dave.  

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19 hours ago, Thom216 said:

Wow! Fantastic work on those wings. Look clean enough to eat off of!

Thanks Thom - good news... I've also cleaned and polished the undersides of these wings, so if any food happens to slide off the leading edge, we can eat off here as well!! 

It's proving to be hard work, however now that it's all on show I'll have to see this one through to the end. More to follow. 

 

Cheers... Dave

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Day 2 Progress pics.. 

 

It was a typical warm and balmy Brisbane day today, with a maximum temperature of 30 degrees C around mid afternoon.

Although the wife was not working, she managed to leave me be for a few hours to get a little more work done on this Matchbox Tempest.

Todays effort was filling and sanding the wing undersides and to start prepping the Fuselage bits.

 

Matchbox had thoughtfully provided small indentations where the Rocket Rails should go. I drilled these out prior to sanding as I was certain that I'd loose these locations after the Wet n Dry attacked them. I'm not sure if I'll fit any rails or rockets as yet, however if I do they will come in handy and if I don't, I'll fill them in with Mr. Surfacer to leave slight demarcations. I also decided to leave the panel lines behind the wheel wells as they are. The lines outboard are all filled and sanded, however as the CA filler is clear, it appears in these photographs that these lines are still in place. Either way it will all be put to the test once the first blobs of paint go on.

 

As I only have one half of the Sabre engine cowling (the other is being sent in the post), I just concentrated on the Port (Left) fuselage half today. Once again CA was used to fill the panel lines I didn't want, however have elected to leave most of the original panel lines to the rear of the leading edge of the Hori Stab. The finished product is shown below and in isolation in the second photograph.

 

Problem #1 (see 3rd photo) - It appears that all this sanding and regluing of original parts previously removed may come back to haunt me.

A dry run fit of the left wing to fuselage results in a very large gap and step. This will be a challenge to correct, but hopefully a strip of plastic card (once again!) painstakingly filled and sanded will solve this dilemma. Actually, I lost count of how many times one of my family members walked past me and said "Are you still sanding that little thing?".. looks like I'll be hearing that a few more times before this project is done and dusted! 

 

Cheers... Dave        

 

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Judging by how good a job you did with filling the wing panel lines for rescribing, that wing to fuselage join is going to be a walk in the park!

 

Looks great Dave and I think this might turn out to be quite something.

 

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It’s so nice to hear words of praise and encouragement, however as they say ‘an artist is never happy with his work’. If I was Van Gogh, I would have probably cut off both ears and perhaps a big toe as well by now! 

 

Cheers and thanks. Still too many things that could go pear shaped yet, but a good start is a handy start. 

 

Dave

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Update #3.

Well, not a lot to report on this weekend. The wifey has been watching too many home renovations shows of late, so most of Saturday was spent painting a 2m x 20m overlapping timber fence with a 3 inch brush!!  

 

Anyway - on with the modelling. The RAF's Post War Tempest F.6's were fitted with an under fuselage tropical filter that is not provided in the kit.

I have seen a resin set online, however it's not cheap and comes with many other bits and some odd looking decals that I won't use, so it was time to scratch build something that would looked passable.

I scoured my spares box and found one half of an Airfix Mustang fuel tank that had roughly the right dimensions.  This was sanded down with 400 Wet 'n Dry until reduced to an approximate height.

It ended up a little slim in the end, but the overall shape was right. I filed the back, sawed off the front and then glued a small rounded section from a Corsair wing tip radar (I think).

This was sanded and polished until I was relatively happy with the shape. A small piece of plastic card was added to the front and it was all lightly rubbed down with some fine micromesh until it all blended in.

Here are some progress pics and the end result.

 

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Next step was to decide If I was going to just use the kit's canopy or cut my wrists and attempt to use a Falcon Clear Vax one (Do modellers really use these?).

The Matchbox canopy seems a little low in height, however it also has this rounded look to the lower edges of the windscreen that is nothing like the original. Obviously, it's also pretty thick, however a dip in future may help the look of that. The Vac canopy was cut and sanded and then both placed on the fuselage to check for fit. The Falcon canopy looks good, however will need a tonne of work to sit properly on the kits low and curving canopy opening.

 

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Matchbox Canopy

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Falcon Canopy 

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A few other fiddly bits were cleaned up and it was at this point that I made the decision to ditch the Matchbox Gear legs and doors and use the superior Heller ones. 

That's about it I'm afraid. I apologise for the waffle, this is the first WIP I've ever done, so I may be getting a little carried away by it all. It will be hard to progress too much further until I receive the missing nose cowling that's being sent from the UK. I've got a few quiet hours spare on Monday, so may start a little rescribing - if I feel up to it.

 

Cheers (until next time).. Dave    

 

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Some great stuff so far, especially the use of the spares box to make the filter, I might pinch that idea when (or if) I get round to assembling the two I have in the stash (I'm planning on using bits from a scrapped Academy kit to tart up one of them).

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4 hours ago, Beard said:

Some great stuff so far, especially the use of the spares box to make the filter, I might pinch that idea when (or if) I get round to assembling the two I have in the stash (I'm planning on using bits from a scrapped Academy kit to tart up one of them).

Beard, 

Thanks for the comments - it's amazing what the spares box and a little head scratching can turn out.

Nice to hear that you've got two of these kits in your stash, they're getting quite rare these days.

I'll be looking for another kit to make a Firedog Mk.II, however it certainly won't be straight after this build!

 

Cheers.. Dave  

 

46 minutes ago, Bigos said:

Don't  forget about the different cooler

 

 

Bigos, 

Thanks for pointing this out. I was going to use the kit supplied part, however its nothing like your image above.

Looks like more digging into the spares box and more head scratching!!

 

Cheers.. Dave  

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6 minutes ago, Bigos said:

I used the oryginal part and rebuilt it a little. 0Bh9sH3.jpg

I really like that. I wonder what the original kit part was supposed to represent? Typhoon type with ‘Cookoo doors perhaps? - not really sure. Your kit looks the goods Bigos, do you have a build thread for your kit? 

 

Cheers.. Dave. 

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58 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

 I wonder what the original kit part was supposed to represent? Typhoon type with ‘Cookoo doors perhaps? - not really sure.

I started with that model a long time ago and I'm not finished yet.
The cooler I previously showed comes from the original Matchbox kit and is more suitable for Mk.V.
Here are some photos of my attempt to build Mk.VI.

http://pwm.org.pl/viewtopic.php?f=257&t=14576

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