Enzo the Magnificent Posted April 26, 2022 Share Posted April 26, 2022 I'm having a bit of a Tempest frenzy at the moment with five of them on the go at the same time: Airfix, KP, Matchbox, Heller and Academy. These are being documented elsewhere. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235108335-enzos-tempest-frenzy/ So... why not add a sixth? This is the newly released Airfix kit. It represents an early Mk V Srs 1 aircraft but strictly speaking it needs some modification for that. See my Tempest Frenzy thread. I will be building this as a post-war Mk V Srs 1 in overall High Speed Silver. The aircraft will be JN876 of the Metropolitan Communications Squadron in August 1947. The aircraft was the personal mount of ACM Roderic Hill and carries his initials. These markings are provided in the Kovozavody Prostejov "Series 1" boxing of their new kit. However the KP kit is a trickier build than the Airfix one and so not really suited for a Blitzbuild. I'll just rob the codes and serials from it. You can see in the photo above that the Airfix kit provides two sets of mainwheels. The five-spoke options are for Srs 1 aicraft indicating that this kit will be reboxed as a Srs 2 kit sometime in the future. Sadly, however, the Srs 1 wheels are inaccurate. They should have smaller hubs, similar to those of the Typhoon. In this case, it's not an issue for my chosen subject. A photograph in Tony Buttler's excellent Tempest monograph shows that JN876 was retrofitted with Srs 2 wheels. JN876 also had the guns removed so the barrel parts in the lower right corner of the above sprue will not be required. This is going to be fun! 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hockeyboy76 Posted April 28, 2022 Share Posted April 28, 2022 I somehow had one of these delivered to me after a quick look on the Airfix online shop, “funny I don’t remember ordering one, honest guv!” Good luck with your build 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted April 30, 2022 Author Share Posted April 30, 2022 Hold on tight, rider! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted April 30, 2022 Author Share Posted April 30, 2022 First step was to build the wing. It's a nice simple construction. There is a part which provides the undercarriage bay walls preventing a see-through look for the wings. The undercarriage bays were painted with an odd interior green colour. There is an in-depth discussion of this in ,my Tempest Project thread. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235108335-enzos-tempest-project/page/3/ I mixed my own paint: 80% : 20% Xtracrylix XA1015 Light Aircraft Grey and Tamiya XF-04 Yellow Green. The cockpit floor is provided as part of the wing uppersurface. The Series I aicraft had centre-section frames from Typhoons. These had small fairings on the uppersurface of the wing fillet to cover some bolt heads. Series 2 aircraft had a redesigned frame with the bolts accessed from below. In the picture above you can just see the relevant fairings directly behind the undercarriage bays in line with the inner limits of the bays. For a Series I aircraft, these will need to be sanded off. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted April 30, 2022 Author Share Posted April 30, 2022 On to the cockpit area. This is nicely detailed although as the cockpit opening is quite small I don't know how much of the detail will be visible. I added a seat harness from Eduard. The kit provides a reflector gunsight on the transparency sprue. Wartime Tempests did not use a reflector sight so the reflector itself should be sliced off before fitment. This particular aircraft, JN876, had the guns removed so I left the gunsight off as well. And we're ready for main assembly. I have filled in the gun ports. You can also see some sanding work around the port wing root. Series 2 aircraft had a fuel tank in this area and the kit provides rivet detail to represent this. The Series I aircraft did not have the tank, so the rivet detail needs to be filled in. I used sprue goo but a thick application of paint should suffice. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olmec Head Posted April 30, 2022 Share Posted April 30, 2022 Looks good and you put the cockpit dials decal on, I forgot that on my 'parallel' Airfix Spitfire 22. Is the Tempest going to be HS Silver or NMF finish please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted April 30, 2022 Author Share Posted April 30, 2022 2 hours ago, Olmec Head said: Is the Tempest going to be HS Silver or NMF finish please? HS Silver. That's certainly how it looks in the photo that I have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted April 30, 2022 Author Share Posted April 30, 2022 The tailplanes are handed so to make sure that the modeller doesn't get them wrong, the location tabs are labelled. Main assembly complete. No filling required. I sanded the wing roots but it wasn't really necessary. I then masked off various areas and primed the whole thing with my usual grey plastic car primer from a rattle can. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted April 30, 2022 Author Share Posted April 30, 2022 As I mentioned earlier in this thread, the Series I aircrft had small fairings on the wing roots which will need to be added. The black dot shows the location. I used 5 Second Light Fix glue to represent these. It is a very viscous glue which has a precision applicator. Once the parts that one needs to cement together are in place, the glue is cured using a UV light. I usually use this for attaching transparancies as it dries clear. I applied a small drop of the adhesive which then, due to its natural viscosity, assumes a teardrop shape. Five seconds with the UV light and it's all done. I finished off the priming and then gave the model a coat of alumnium lacquer from a rattle can. High Speed silver was itself an aluminium lacquer so this works quite well. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted April 30, 2022 Author Share Posted April 30, 2022 Stickers on! The fuselage and underwing roundels, fin flashes and walkways are from the Airfix kit sheet. The serials, codes and rank pennants are from the KP "Series 1" boxing. KP provide Type C1 upperwing roundels for this scheme. However I believe that to be a mistake. Numerous 2ATAF aircraft carried small Type C1 roundels on their upper wings in the closing stages of world war 2. This seems to have been a misreading of the new marking scheme which intended for a white ring to be added to the Type B roundel to convert it into a large Type C. By 1947 all of these would have been repainted with correct roundels, especially those which were painted in High Speed Silver. I took suitable roundels from an Xtradecal general sheet. I have done a bit of faffing around with the greeblies ready for fitment tomorrow. But that's it for the day. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olmec Head Posted April 30, 2022 Share Posted April 30, 2022 Super speedy ! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted April 30, 2022 Share Posted April 30, 2022 Nice work and no time waisted! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinxman Posted May 1, 2022 Share Posted May 1, 2022 Lovely finish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted May 1, 2022 Author Share Posted May 1, 2022 The greeblies have been fettled and are ready for fitment. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hockeyboy76 Posted May 1, 2022 Share Posted May 1, 2022 Great silver finish and some fast building too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FalkeEins Posted May 1, 2022 Share Posted May 1, 2022 ..nice! I realise other makes are available ..but is that Halfords Alu? Tempted to do another one myself now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted May 1, 2022 Author Share Posted May 1, 2022 6 hours ago, FalkeEins said: ..nice! I realise other makes are available ..but is that Halfords Alu? It is by Autotek. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted May 1, 2022 Author Share Posted May 1, 2022 And we're finished! 18 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted May 1, 2022 Share Posted May 1, 2022 Nice , I'm mixin with the big lads here (he says semi beaten)🤭 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted May 1, 2022 Share Posted May 1, 2022 A fine looking specimen, that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnson Posted May 2, 2022 Share Posted May 2, 2022 Great build Enzo, lovely photos. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olmec Head Posted May 2, 2022 Share Posted May 2, 2022 Very impressive the Airfix Tempest does turn out well, when done by an obvious expert. But no dinosaur! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hockeyboy76 Posted May 2, 2022 Share Posted May 2, 2022 Great job. Looks amazing-bobs in silver. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinxman Posted May 2, 2022 Share Posted May 2, 2022 Great build and lovely finish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted May 2, 2022 Share Posted May 2, 2022 Outstanding work Enzo you are the Usain Bolt of model making with the added bonus of a quality finish! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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