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Yet another Tempest Question.


Nachtwulf

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Does anyone know what color the gear down indicators on top of the wing are supposed to be? I would assume they would be  a contrasting color to the camo, but I have yet to find anything definitive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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FWIW I just checked the pilots notes for the Tempest V & II and Typhoon, all mention a mechanical indicator rod or button but do not mention a colour. Red would make sense or a perhaps barber pole type colouring? Tough t find a photo of them even in museum displays... 

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11 hours ago, Nachtwulf said:

Does anyone know what color the gear down indicators on top of the wing are supposed to be? I would assume they would be  a contrasting color to the camo, but I have yet to find anything definitive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe in the Valiant Wings Typhoon/Tempest monographs? I'll see if I can find something. If the Sea Fury also has them, maybe they are the same color?

Mike

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Thank you to all who replied to my post! Barring further direction, I will paint them red. I may also paint the hat in camo as I assume they would only want the red to show when deployed.:shrug: .......... the things modelers obsess about, sheeesh.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Nachtwulf said:

Thank you to all who replied to my post! Barring further direction, I will paint them red. I may also paint the hat in camo as I assume they would only want the red to show when deployed.:shrug: .......... the things modelers obsess about, sheeesh.

 

 

That's not obsession- it's all about getting it right; the difference between building a model and building a replica. It's the kind of stuff that when I see it when judging a  model  at a contest, I say to myself "Now this guy knows how to model!"

Mike

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  • 1 year later...

Came upon this thread trying to answer the same question for an Eduard Mk. V I'm just finishing up. I too would have assumed red, but the only photo I can find where the rod is visible looks more like white. Any further information/opinions?

Thanks, Pip

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I've looked at the Valiant Wings and 4+ publications and none of the diagrams/plans even show or refer to the gear down indicators, indeed only one of the pro built examples in the Valiant Wings book has them in place, so this is or will be a bit of a guess I suspect. My personal best guess based upon one photo where it/they are visible would be white as it is definitely a light colour so probably not red.

 

I suppose a quick e-mail to the RAF museum at Cosford or Hendon may yield more definitive information as they presumably have them in the correct colour for their two examples.

 

One puzzle though is that a quite well known photo in 'Typhoon & Tempest At War' of a Tempest V being serviced shows several erks climbing all over the wing to service the aircraft and walking/standing where the indicator would be, so were they retracted in some way once the aircraft was at rest?

 

Regards

Colin.

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Thanks for the response, Colin. Hmm, perhaps that's why there's so little photographic evidence. Since Eduard provides the parts, and there's a rather obvious hole in each wing to receive them, it's a choice of having them up or retracted. I'll have to cogitate on that.

 

Having done some more poking around, there's a detailed article on the landing gear at hawkertempest.se. It describes a set of three indicator lamps in the cockpit, but says nothing about rods in the wings. I wonder if this was a feature found on Typhoons and possibly early Tempests, but discarded at some point in the production cycle.

 

The Eduard parts are not convincing: the "hats" at the top of the rods have a larger diameter than the hole in the wing. I'm now feeling tempted to install them, cut them off flush with the wing, and paint them camouflage color.

Edited by Seawinder
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7 hours ago, Seawinder said:

the "hats" at the top of the rods have a larger diameter than the hole in the wing

More than likely, the 'hat' sat on top of the wing surface when the rod was not extended; I would imagine the metal disk was very thin and would offer very little exposure to the airflow, so the Eduard part might just be correct. Betting @Chris Thomas knows the answer as to why some aircraft had the rods and some had the indicator lights in the cockpit to indicate whether the undercart was up or down.

Mike

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