1/72nd Matchbox Tempest

[tonyot]

Hiya Folks,

              Well I have found a complete Tempest in the stash so I thought that I would give it a go;

DSCF2170 by Tony OToole, on Flickr

 

Cheers for now,

                      Tony

[Rabbit Leader]

I now make this 6 (six) Matchbox Tempests being built in this GB!! 

I’ll guarantee it will be built quicker than mine and end up looking superb. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

[stevehnz]

Yeah, wot Dave said, looking forward to this.

Steve.

[tonyot]

Cheers Fellas,....always nice to see that you are aboard!!

 

Well I`ve decided upon a Mk.II,....but what scheme?

 

I like the Pakistani Air Force desert scheme;

Although the above one appears to be of those handed over in theatre and retains its RAF Day Fighter grey/green scheme with Sky band,.....the upper wing looks to retain its RAF C Type roundel too and the others in the background also wear RAF markings! 

 

,..Next,....and probably my favourite scheme,.... the British Forces of Occupation (BAFO) based in Germany, especially with rockets or drop tanks

fitted;

 

OR,.....a camouflaged RAF aircraft based in India, especially this 5 Sqn scheme with the units Maple Leaf on the cowling;

 

 

Or even,....and yet again on my `to do' list,.....( but in this case it depends on how well the panel lines turn out!) a silver aircraft from BAFO or India!;

Frank Carey`s personal aircraft while based in Germany.

 

 

 

This Indian AF scheme with black id markings is quite tempting too!

 

Decisions decisions!!

 

Thankfully,....I do have the Xtradecal sheet, Model Alliance sheet and a couple of Special Hobby kits to select some decals from;

 

 

Oh dear,...... I think I can feel another kit coming along!!!

 

Cheers for now,

                       Tony

 

 

[tonyot]

Hiya Folks,.....before starting anything,.....we have those panel line! In this case I decided to fill them in so did this first;

DSCF2176 by Tony OToole, on Flickr

 

So the final scheme depends on how the surfaces turn out!

 

And as the interior will be all but invisible, especially through the thick clear canopy,.....this area was just painted black.

 

Cheers for now,

                        Tony

[Beard]

Decisions, decisions but whichever scheme you choose, I'm sure it'll turn-out looking great.

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

You always have such a wealth of reference material for your builds Tony, I am impressed!

 

 

[Rabbit Leader]

Rocket armed 16 Squadron BAFO scheme works for me Tony... that woukld be my pick.

We don't appear to have any Pakistani versions, so that probably comes a close second.

Either way (and like the others have mentioned) it'll turn up a treat.

 

Cheers.. Dave

[Graeme H]

Blimey, good to see you have at least a huge choice of subjects, didn't know half of those existed

[tonyot]

Cheers fella`s,..... warming to the Germany based option and 16 Sqn looks good to me.

 

After sanding down the individual parts I assembled the main airframe parts and then added some more filler!!

 

DSCF2206 by Tony OToole, on Flickr

DSCF2205 by Tony OToole, on Flickr

 

Cheers

           Tony

[Thom216]

Looks like the make-up has been caked on! But she'll be real perty when done.

[stevej60]

Great progress Tony,love the choice of scheme.

[tonyot]

Cheers Fella`s,

                    I finished sanding the model today, the wings had a lot of plastic sinkage  along the top surfaces in front of the trailing edge, hence the additional filler;

 

DSCF2210 by Tony OToole, on Flickr

 

And I compared the model alongside 2 other part built Tempest Mk.II`s,.... on the left the Academy Mk.V with a Freightdog  edit Heritage conversion set which is easy to build and looks the part,... and on the right,..... the Special Hobby Mk.II which looks lovely in the box but must have been designed by a commitee as nothing has fit properly so far! 

 

DSCF2213 by Tony OToole, on Flickr,

 

Cheers

          Tony

 

 

Edited December 27, 2017 by tonyot

[wyverns4]

Hi Tony,

 

One of my favourite Matchbox models! Must have built several over the years, including two that were hanging from my son's bedroom ceilings. Certainly two had similar shrinkage, one so bad that there a series of holes running parallel to the trailing edge.

 

With so many interesting, unusual and down right tempting schemes to choose from it looks like there may be more Tempests in the future...

 

How do you rate the three kits?

 

Christian, exiled to africa

[tonyot]

4 minutes ago, wyverns4 said:

Hi Tony,

 

One of my favourite Matchbox models! Must have built several over the years, including two that were hanging from my son's bedroom ceilings. Certainly two had similar shrinkage, one so bad that there a series of holes running parallel to the trailing edge.

 

With so many interesting, unusual and down right tempting schemes to choose from it looks like there may be more Tempests in the future...

 

How do you rate the three kits?

 

Christian, exiled to africa

I agree,....one of my favourites too and I`ve built a few squadrons worth over the years,..... mostly as a kid. I also agree that there are so many good schemes to choose from too.

 

When comparing the three models,....th Aademy is the best,....hands down. The Special Hobby one has nice surface detail, resin etc but it just doesn`t it,.....massive gaps at the wing roots, wheel wells too thick or the wings, engine cowling too big for the fuselage,..... so it has to come last after the faithful old Matchbox kit.

 

Cheers,.. and Merry Christmas

                                              Tony 

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good afternoon Tony

 I would like to know where you have found the Freightdog conversion ?

Best regards

Patrice

Edited December 24, 2017 by TEMPESTMK5

[johnd]

I wasn't aware that Freightdog did a Mk.II as well as their Mk.VI. Heritage Aviation did one but I believe this has been discontinued.

 

John.

[tonyot]

Hiya Folks,

               I started the Academy kit years ago and have dusted it off recently from its box on the shelf of doom,...... I am presuming that it was an old Freightdog conversion set,...especially as there is a Mk.6 one in the box too,..... but to be honest I cannot be sure,..... the resin does look like Freightdog though,.... I`m presuming that it is now unavailable?

Anyway,.... back to the Matchbox model, I have applied MSG to the undersides and masked this off for the Ocean Grey uppers,..... but after a coat o this I wasn`t happy with the wing roots and tailplane joints,...so have re filled these again;

DSCF2222 by Tony OToole, on Flickr

 

I`ll be building the Academy model in 16 Sqn markings so the Matchbox one will probably wear those of an Indian based RAF unit,....hopefully 5 Sqn. 

 

Merry Christmas everybody and all the best,

                                                             Tony

 

PS- The 16 Sqn CO`s aircraft, PR733/ EG-X has very light coloured undersides in the photos that I have of it,.....they seem to match the tone of the Sky band! Does anybody have any idea what the colour was,.....I know it was supposed to be MSG,... but it just looks very light.

Edited December 24, 2017 by tonyot

[johnd]

25 minutes ago, tonyot said:

I am presuming that it was an old Freightdog conversion set,...especially as there is a Mk.6 one in the box too,..... but to be honest I cannot be sure,..... the resin does look like Freightdog though,.... 

2

Does the Mk.II have a resin spinner with individual white metal blades? If so, I believe it's the Heritage one.

 

John.

[davidelvy]

Great to see this kit being built as it brings back fond memories. As a boy I built a Mk II and Mk VI, which, together with an Airfix Typhoon, won a prize for me in a school competition.

[tonyot]

On 24/12/2017 at 6:40 PM, johnd said:

Does the Mk.II have a resin spinner with individual white metal blades? If so, I believe it's the Heritage one.

 

John.

Hiya John,

               Yes I have been looking into it myself and it is the Heritage conversion,.....yes it does have a resin spinner with metal blades. Thanks for confirming it. 

On 24/12/2017 at 9:59 PM, davidelvy said:

Great to see this kit being built as it brings back fond memories. As a boy I built a Mk II and Mk VI, which, together with an Airfix Typhoon, won a prize for me in a school competition.

This entire Matchbox GB has been like delving back into my childhood and it has been a treat to apply what I know now to the kits which I bodged and botched together as a nipper! 

 

Cheers

         Tony 

[tonyot]

Hiya Folks,

               Having done more research into the options,.....the 16 Sqn aircraft is out as the codes on the Xtradecal sheet are not of the correct style or thickness,..... plus I`m unsure of the underside colour and suspect that the white disc on the fin was intended to receive the units crossed keys, as seen on their Canberra`s.

Here is the option from the Xtradecal sheet,....note the light coloured undersides,....plain white disc on the fin and also the codes;

m derry Tempests 022  'Ulster' see  014 by Tony OToole, on Flickr

 

This 16 Sqn Tempest has the crossed keys,....and note not only the style of the codes,.....but the colour too!;

Here is the same crossed keys marking inside a white disc seen on the same units Canberra B.I.8`s;

 

Plus the codes,......here is a typical 16 Sqn Tempest wearing it`s EG codes;

Tempest II, PR736, EG-M, CO`s aircraft by Tony OToole, on Flickr

 

and here is the Xtradecal sheet,...the EG codes are in the top left corner and are too thin, with the gap between the opening of the letter G being too wide;

 

 

 

 

Due to this I`ll be building one of the camouflaged models as one from 33 Sqn when they were still in Germany, most likely this one, PR689, with the unit badge on the tail;

neil robinson tempest 2 pr689 5r-e 33 sqn bafo by Tony OToole, on Flickr

 

and here is another one;

 

 

The other camouflaged model will represent the RAF Museum`s PR536 when it was based in India with 5 Sqn RAF,....with whom it was coded OQ-G & OQ-H,....however I`m pretty sure that like the other Indian based Tempest units it had white codes,....not Sky. Here are some period pics from 5 Sqn;

5 Sqn Tempest MKII 11`s by Tony OToole, on Flickr

5 sqn by Tony OToole, on Flickr

The spinners also appear to be Sky and White with a red tip to some.

 

As for the silver painted aircraft,... I`ll be using the Special Hobby kit and have a few options;

Frank Carey`s personal aircrat coded FR-C;

Tempest II, PR674 poss Frank Careys ac by Tony OToole, on Flickr

IMG_20160914_0005 by Tony OToole, on Flickr

 

The 26 Sqn CO`s aircraft,...again note the thickness of the codes;

IMG_20160914_0004 by Tony OToole, on Flickr

 

Or this 5 Sqn aircraft in India,....but I`m already doing a camouflaged aircrat from this unit!;

images (5) by Tony OToole, on Flickr

 

Cheers

         Tony

Edited December 27, 2017 by tonyot

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good monrning Tony

Thank you for the photo of XC D it seems that the spinner is painted in 2 colours .. too bad I have already painted it in red ..

 

Best regards

Patrice

[johnd]

10 hours ago, tonyot said:

Yes I have been looking into it myself and it is the Heritage conversion,.....yes it does have a resin spinner with metal blades.

Any tips on how to assemble that propeller unit to get the angle and pitch right would be gratefully received!  I was hoping that there was a Freightdog one. They do one piece units...

 

John.

[Ratch]

That's an awful lot of reference pictures of an awful lot of different airframes - how do you decide what is applicable to the specific aircraft you are modelling?