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Hawker Tempest of Wing Commander Evan "Rosie" Mackie, Wing Co of 122 Wing RAF at the end of WW2. (Finished)


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Lets be rash & start with some sprue shots shall we. :) I've already made a start by gluing a couple of assemblies together, Radiator, Cockpit & Prop, I should get some paint on the important bits of these over the next couple of days & then be able to assemble the big bits. This one will be built pretty much OOB apart from maybe seat belts in the cockpit. I'm intending to paint it as it was pre VE day when it was still in std 2nd TacAF colours before it got a funny coloured spinner & such things that generate debate & uncertainty.

 

DSCF3071

 

Steve.

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From what I remember he quoted Olive Drab and Grey?? to repaint the Desert camouflaged Spitfire I used a mixed grey and a greenish OD but I built i in the last century so my memory isn't that accurate. What i tried to do was make it different to other TLS models in my cabinet. 

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That sounds like what I had in mind, photos of this aircraft after painting show a very low contrast finish & I tend to think this could be OD/Sea Grey. I rather fancy leaving it with an Azure underside? I was tending to white codes but the same photos show them as maybe sky or yellow. "Spitfire Leader" just says they were painted greens & greys in Malta prior to the invasion of Sicily.

Steve.

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Steve, 

 

 for what it's worth I dug out my 1997 build of Mackie's Spit after its repaint.

Ewan Mackie Spitfire VC

I need to do some remedial work as I've lost the aerial and the paintwork is really  dusty. I make no claim to accuracy but it might give you some ideas. I used a set of Mk VC wings from ED models that I don't think were every on general release, I was give them as a review sample for Quartet Scale Modeller.

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Sorry to keep hijacking your thread Steve, but I went with grey codes as per illustration 17 in Ospreys Spitfire Mk V Aces, which was published in 1997 and I also had as a review sample! I still had to buy the base kit though. I think with hindsight that Sky is a good shout, there are two photos of JK715 on page 84 of that book and frankly they could be either colour, as you saw the contrast between the upper surface colours is  very low.

 

Now back to out scheduled program.. 

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Welcome along Steve 

 

Great to see another build of the mighty Tempest and an aircraft belonging to a very pilot.

 

Will follow with interest. 

 

James

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Some small progress today, though nearly as big a step back as forward.I was unhappy with the radiator intake opening on the kit, it should have basically parallel smooth sides, not fall away from the opening like the kit does. Some googling has shown me a quickish fix with a strip of card, ideally in about 10thou but the thinnest I seem to have is 20thou so I've done a proof of concept with that, I think it'll work but I've ordered some 10thou, hopefully it won't take too long. I can however prepare the opening for it & carry on with the rest of the kit once I do some painting on the radiator face. I've been pondering the barrel shaped blob in the front of the rad, I'm guessing its a crude representation of the cuckoo door dust filters so thought to do some scribing of lines on it & let it go at that, maybe @Chris Thomas could share an opinion on my ponderings. Here is my bit of interior green on the cockpit & the strip wrapped in the radiator opening.

DSCF3074

Steve.

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On 7/21/2020 at 2:16 PM, stevehnz said:

Some small progress today, though nearly as big a step back as forward.I was unhappy with the radiator intake opening on the kit, it should have basically parallel smooth sides, not fall away from the opening like the kit does. Some googling has shown me a quickish fix with a strip of card, ideally in about 10thou but the thinnest I seem to have is 20thou so I've done a proof of concept with that, I think it'll work but I've ordered some 10thou, hopefully it won't take too long. I can however prepare the opening for it & carry on with the rest of the kit once I do some painting on the radiator face. I've been pondering the barrel shaped blob in the front of the rad, I'm guessing its a crude representation of the cuckoo door dust filters so thought to do some scribing of lines on it & let it go at that, maybe @Chris Thomas could share an opinion on my ponderings.

Steve.

Hiya Steve.  Better late than never ...

 

Nice idea to line the radiator fairing.  I presume the upper surface cam colours wrapped round onto the interior walls, as per the Typhoon, but I don't think I have a photo that shows it.

 

Yes, 'EDM' would very probably have had a 'cuckoo filter' in the intake.  I have photos of this aircraft about a year later and it had one then.  This proves nothing of course!

CT

Edited by Chris Thomas
Typo
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Good start Steve with what is my favourite aircraft of WW.II, like Chris, I like the idea of lining that radiator intake.

 

The Heller kit is still a nice kit too.

 

Welcome to the GB and good luck with your build.

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Slowly but surely. The fuselage halves are now joined, nothing much to see before that other than some very basic seat belts on the seat as shown above, there is a lot of scope for cockpit details on this kit but not this time around. The instrument panel went in too with a little dry brushing of silver to pick out the instrument bezels, more for effect than accuracy. In truth, there'll be little to see through that small cockpit opening. Today's biggest advance has been to glue in some 10 thou card to wall in the radiator opening. Hopefully it'll look the part when trimmed. I'm impressed with the way this kit is engineered. it goes together quite well, the lower wing is just taped in place, the uppers fit well with little wing root gap. I can see this coming along quite quickly now the internals are sorted.

DSCF3075

Steve.

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When I built my Series 1 Tempest I had them Aluminium right up till the last moment and changed to Interior Grey Green. I read a lot of stuff including the like:

 

One of those things, again, where it is difficult to be emphatically correct either way.

 

Ray

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Not 100% but on a thread I was looking at to get info for this I thought it said interior green up to the end of the war & ali after that, I think, maybe? :unsure: I'll try to find it again unless someone else chips in.

 

5 minutes ago, Ray_W said:

I read a lot of stuff including the like:

 

That was the one Ray, so I was going to do green wells & silver door inners

This was another I found, though in @Troy Smith's link to the Tempest II photo, to my eye that looks like the buff colour that Hawkers also used on their Sea Furies as documented by @NAVY870

Steve.

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2 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

That was the one Ray, so I was going to do green wells & silver door inners

Steve,

 

I have more that led me to the "green" conclusion but would need to do a bit more digging although I expect you have done already much of the same.

 

I finally decided on the same scheme you have chosen.

 

Tempest Wheel Well

 

This is the old late 90's Eduard rendition with a lot of work. I scratch built the retraction gear and unfortunately glued the linkage retraction spring on the wrong side of the wheel well. 

 

Ray

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Yours looks a lot better than mine is going to. My Interior green is a oldish pot of Humbrol 78 acrylic which has quite a strong look to it, though maybe the photo is making it look stronger.

Steve.

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12 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

My Interior green is a oldish pot of Humbrol 78 acrylic which has quite a strong look to it, though maybe the photo is making it look stronger.

Yours may be more accurate. I don't get too hung up on this so long as it is thereabouts. With pre and post treatment and then the photography there are a lot of changes going on. 

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This one is coming along quite nicely, all the main bits together now, I'm so impressed by how this kit goes together, the fit & engineering would put a lot of modern kits to shame. I've glued the pro shaft keeper into the front of the fuselage so the prop can be detached at will. I do think this is such a handsome brute of a plane, especially with that big prop.

DSCF3079

This detail shot showing the radiator housing front with the surrounds walled in & the wee bulge for the coolant outlet in the top of the opening, such a significant part of it & so often missed.

DSCF3080

 

Steve.

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7 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

This one is coming along quite nicely, all the main bits together now, I'm so impressed by how this kit goes together, the fit & engineering would put a lot of modern kits to shame. I've glued the pro shaft keeper into the front of the fuselage so the prop can be detached at will. I do think this is such a handsome brute of a plane, especially with that big prop.

 

This detail shot showing the radiator housing front with the surrounds walled in & the wee bulge for the coolant outlet in the top of the opening, such a significant part of it & so often missed.

 

 

Steve.

Yup, this is one of the Heller classics all right. I built it myself some years ago, and I won't be parting with the other kit in the stash for any money.

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1 hour ago, klr said:

Yup, this is one of the Heller classics all right. I built it myself some years ago, and I won't be parting with the other kit in the stash for any money.

It is still a great kit and one I hope to see feature in the Heller Classic GB later in the year (and yes I'm aware that you and Steve have already signed up for that one).

 

You're getting on well with this one Steve.

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