Smer Tempest V *FINISHED*

[Beard]

I'm going to attempt to build the Smer (ex-Heller?) kit. I've got four Academy Tempest, which appear to be based on this one, in the stash but they're destined to be converted into MkVIs so it's this one (raised panel lines and and all).

 

 

The sprues:

 

 

 

 

The decals:

 

(Not sure I'll be using the codes.)

 

I've made a start painting bits and pieces.

The wheelwells got a coat of Tamiya Flat Aluminium:

 

as did the undercarriage doors:

 

Thanks for looking.

Edited May 5, 2018 by Beard
to insert photographs.

[JOCKNEY]

Nice one, look forward to seeing this one progress.

 

I built my first Smer kit recently and it went together really well, I hope yours is the same. That's a lot of decals for a relatively small aircraft ?

 

cheers Pat

[Col.]

Welcome to the GB Beard. You're off to a good start with this one 

[bull-nut]

[Beard]

On 31/03/2018 at 9:40 AM, JOCKNEY said:

Nice one, look forward to seeing this one progress.

 

I built my first Smer kit recently and it went together really well, I hope yours is the same. That's a lot of decals for a relatively small aircraft ?

 

cheers Pat

Thanks Pat. I'm at the stage of joining the fuselage halves together so I'm about to find out how well it fits. This is a re-boxing of the Heller kit, I think most Smer kits are re-boxings. Incidentally, like the Fulmar, it's also being in Airfix and Revell boxes:

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/147644-sm-r-169-hawker-tempest-mk-v

 

On 31/03/2018 at 10:22 AM, Col. said:

Welcome to the GB Beard. You're off to a good start with this one 

Thank you.

 

 

Not much done yesterday but a little done today.

I re-painted the wheelwells; aparently, only post-War Tempests had aluminium ones:

 

Installed the cockpit and the bit that goes in the chin:

 

The curse of Smer undercarriages strikes again; I lost an undercarriage leg on the Smer Fulmar I'm doing in the Carriers Ahoy! GB), this time it's a short-shot leg:

 

Luckily I have the parts from an Academy Tempest, that was destroyed in a wrapping paper incident, which I can use.

 

Thanks for looking.

[theplasticsurgeon]

Nice, and very familiar - should be a straightforward build.

I've built that kit 4 times,  Twice from Airfix, once from Heller - and from Smer.

[Beard]

The airframe is complete:

 

Thanks for looking.

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good evening Beard

 Very nice job so far ...

 

Patrice

[Beard]

On 02/04/2018 at 6:57 PM, TEMPESTMK5 said:

Good evening Beard

 Very nice job so far ...

 

Patrice

Thank you Patrice, there's plenty of time left for me to make a mess of it.

 

This evening, I splashed a second coat of Colourcoats Medium Sea Grey on the undersides.

 

Thanks for looking.

[Beard]

Apologies for the lack of updates on this build (in my defence, I'm building two kits in another Group Build, painting a Spitfire and trying to put the finishing touches to seven other kits).

Anyway, I've started painting the uppersurfaces. They've had a coat of Colourcoats Ocean Grey and WWII Dark Green:

 

Thanks for looking.

[johnd]

On 01/04/2018 at 16:27, Beard said:

I re-painted the wheelwells; aparently, only post-War Tempests had aluminium ones:

Really? Where did that information come from, please? 

 

John.

[Beard]

9 hours ago, johnd said:

Really? Where did that information come from, please? 

 

John.

I've got confused between MkVs and MkIIs, it appears that the later may have had grey-green wheel wells. I'll be repainting them later today.

[JOCKNEY]

On 13/04/2018 at 9:09 PM, Beard said:

Apologies for the lack of updates on this build (in my defence, I'm building two kits in another Group Build, painting a Spitfire and trying to put the finishing touches to seven other kits).

Anyway, I've started painting the uppersurfaces. They've had a coat of Colourcoats Ocean Grey and WWII Dark Green:

 

Thanks for looking.

Shocking, so you admit to two no wait three timing us with other group builds ! 

 

You should be ashamed of yourself !

 

Great progress by the way  

 

cheers Pat

[Beard]

15 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

Shocking, so you admit to two no wait three timing us with other group builds ! 

 

You should be ashamed of yourself !

 

Great progress by the way  

 

cheers Pat

Thanks Pat. Two of the builds are in Group Build you are also taking part in... I'll say no more.

 

Uppersides done, maybe a few re-touches needed but I'm pretty happy.

 

I'll give it a gloss coat before masking and painting the exhausts.

 

Thanks for looking.

[Beard]

Re-touches done and a gloss coat applied so it's ready for the decals.

 

I'm going to do JN751, Roland Beamont's aircraft, and have found a photograph that seems to support Smer's lack of invasion stripes:

 

The bad news is that it appears to be a Series 1 aircraft so has cannons protruding from the wing.

 

Thanks for looking.

Edited April 21, 2018 by Beard
to correct spelling.

[Col.]

Do you think it'll be possible to add a set of cannon to the wing using some shaped plastic sprue or rod?

[Beard]

1 hour ago, Col. said:

Do you think it'll be possible to add a set of cannon to the wing using some shaped plastic sprue or rod?

I was thinking of buying some metal ones but your suggestion is a lot cheaper.

[Black Knight]

If you haven't got plastic or brass tube are you any good at heat stretching sprue? Heat stretch a plastic bar from a cotton bud or two or three. Most bud bars are hollow, a bit too big for cannon, but once heat stretched its a smaller diameter

[stevehnz]

3"/typhoon rockets make good raw material for early Tempest cannon, its what I used on my Mk II prototype & I've seen others do likewise, two cannon from each rocket & a gentle taper sanded onto the front & you're good to go. Don't forget to make the outer ones stick out a tad more than the inners.

Steve.

[Beard]

11 hours ago, Black Knight said:

If you haven't got plastic or brass tube are you any good at heat stretching sprue? Heat stretch a plastic bar from a cotton bud or two or three. Most bud bars are hollow, a bit too big for cannon, but once heat stretched its a smaller diameter

I used the stretched cotton bud trick when I made an early Spitfire (to represent the sticky-out Browning barrels); with practice, you can get a very thin tube.

10 hours ago, stevehnz said:

3"/typhoon rockets make good raw material for early Tempest cannon, its what I used on my Mk II prototype & I've seen others do likewise, two cannon from each rocket & a gentle taper sanded onto the front & you're good to go. Don't forget to make the outer ones stick out a tad more than the inners.

Steve.

I like this idea... especially as I have plenty of spare 3" rockets.

[Beard]

Time to stick the transfers on.

 

The codes look a little lurid to me so I'll replace them with some aftermarket.

 

The roundels are okay though.

 

I'll have to dig a Wing Commander's pennant out of the spares box though.

 

Thanks for looking.

[Beard]

That's better:

 

Just the underwing roundels and stencils to do:

 

Thanks for looking.

[Beard]

I've decided that @stevehnz's suggestion to use 3" rocket warheads for the Series 1 cannons is worth a try - mainly because it's a cheap option.

 

I think they look pretty good and we'll worth a few minutes work on the rockets with some coarse every paper and opening up the cannon holes with drill and round file.

Now to do the other side.

 

Thanks for looking.

[stevehnz]

Simon. it was the skinny bit between the warhead & tail fins I used &it  appeared about the right diameter scale wise, those might be a bit chubby perhaps.

Steve.

[Beard]

6 hours ago, stevehnz said:

Simon. it was the skinny bit between the warhead & tail fins I used &it  appeared about the right diameter scale wise, those might be a bit chubby perhaps.

Steve.

There's a word I want to use but can't.