Hawker Tempest Mk.V series 2; Airfix 1/72 - FINISHED

[Ngantek]

Recently I've been hacking away at Airfix's new Tempest. It being a fairly agricultural attempt at a relatively simple, common kit, all OOB, I've so far spared you all the WiP; but I've accumulated enough questions that I felt it was finally worth starting one. So here it is you poor sods, with my sincerest apologies! 

 

So far it's been mostly plane sailing, this being a really well designed and great fitting kit. The radiator inner surface is part of the lower wing, and it locks nicely over the radiator assembly. The undercarriage bay walls are a single piece that provides a lot of strength to the wing and with little care, the wingroots came together perfectly in a tight, filler free join.

 

The only real issue has been the trailing edges, which are very thick and needed a lot of scraping to bring to a reasonable edge. Aside from a drop of filler under the spinner, the seams have all been tight enough to just require a little sanding and a quick brush of Tamiya extra thin to 'sprue goo' the resulting dust. Just a little modification of the vertical locating pins between the two sides was needed to prevent an offset ledge along the cowl.

 

 

The cockpit floor is part of the upper wing assembly. Aside from eduard PE belts, the cockpit was bosched together in my usual lazy shambolic and ineffective style, and having not taken pictures, I can't honestly remember how it went; I guess we'll see when it gets unmasked. I've gone with the usual 'RLM66ish' (xf63) for black, and @Casey's mix for RAF interior green. The only slightly strange part is the separate upper fuselage around the cockpit, which would've benefitted from being a more sensible shape.

 

A plus of airfix kits is the provision of wheels up parts, which I've repurposed into spray masks. The fit is excellent to the point that I'll probably have to drill a hole in them to get them out again. 

 

 

Its simplicity meant this was a good kit to assemble in part, when away from home, so I used opportunity to try out brush painting the undersides, which I figured might be a useful skill to have. Tamiyas are notoriously poorly suited to brushwork, so this attempt used a mix of about 50% xf83, perhaps 30% x-20a thinners, a good dollop of tamiya acrylic retarder (which was blimming hard to get hold of, I believe it isn't listed by UK tamiya distributors) and a similar squirt of x22 gloss varnish (my current theory is that I might get a smoother, tougher and even straight decallable finish by cutting my matte tamiyas with gloss, thanks to @John Laidlaw for the tip). @Troy Smith I believe suggested water for brushing tamiyas, but I thought using the (deliciously) chalky Cambridge variant that was available to me was probably asking a bit much of chemistry. I should point out that I'd given the model a layer of Mr Surfacer 1500, straight from the can, to help give a surface for the paint to key on.

 

The hard part was leaving enough time to cure between coats since tamiyas become touch dry so fast. 3 hours or so seemed enough if one is able to resist the temptation to keep 'going over' too much. Certainly I think the mix needed more retarder as the coat became tacky after a single stroke, after which it would bobble or lift up with repeated brushing. 3 or 4 coats, brushing in alternating directions yielded this:

The result was I think decent for a first effort but certainly room for improvement. The gloss at least, has come through, though the thickness has certainly blunted the detail somewhat. Notice I immediately ruined the colour with overspray from the yellow leading edges, which will need fixing at some point. 

 

I've opted to go for a mishmash of schemes, using the included pre- D Day 486 squadron decals, but over a later 'just the under fuselage invasion stripes' scheme, along with all the kit parts that suggested a series 2 aircraft rather than the series 1 that the instructions portray. Of course the serial number won't be historically accurate, but it's not the kind of thing I lose sleep over if it looks okay.

 

A lot of jiggey pokery with masking, some tactical use of a 72nd scale rule that @Troy Smith was kind enough to refer me to, and hopefully it won't be too horrific when the tape comes off. Turns out I've not built anything in DFS yet, and I hear Tamiya's Ocean Grey is too cold and their Dark Green too warm, but I figured I'd press on with the lazy option. Back home by this point, here's the OG cut with some x22, sprayed over the masked off leading edges and invasion stripes.

I'm broadly happy with this new (for me) approach of glossing the xf paints, but the proof will be in the decalling.

 

After my rather unsuccessful attempts at freehand with the martlet, I've opted for good old blutack worms this time. Again some gloss thrown into the mix.

 

 

 

Side note, XF81 does look a little 'brownish' to me.

Bit of patching up needed here and there, and we're caught up with my current progress.

 

Now this is one of my four on the go builds, all meant to be simple kits that I would just enjoy, get off the bench 'quicky' and not get too bogged down in making 'just right'. It's not working out for me so far! I had planned to do this one as clean and factory fresh as possible (tidiness has not been my forte), but even the sharp clean look benefits greatly from some shading, as I've discovered with much envy, while poring over @mark.au's back catalogue. 

 

My attempts at this technique so far have been pretty awful, so I'm at the decision point as to whether to just get this one done as simply as possible with uniform blocks of colour, or to let it slide into the same hole of failed self improvement that my other builds have succumbed to. I've been looking at pictures of 'clean' tempests all day with a view towards the kinds of shade variations and spray shapes that might work, but with little free time and other builds getting bogged down, perhaps it's a good idea to 'play to my level' on this one. I'm having enough issues with techniques use regularly anyway. 

 

So there we are, sorry for the wall of text, perhaps starting a WIP early is preferable that this alternative 'lead with an essay to the face' approach! Thanks for looking in if you've managed to make it this far!

 

Cheers,

Andy

[Casey]

This one looks good! I had a lot of fun doing their Airfix Typhoon. For me hardest part was the open gun bay and the huge decals strips, in an afterthought I'd just spray them next time instead of relying on decals.

 

And yep freehading those squiggles is not easy, good airbrush and good paint do help a lot. I used Sotar 20/20 there and it is best airbrush I have for precise details.

[mark.au]

This is looking very nice indeed so far, I’m feeling a bit Tempest-y at the moment so very interested to follow.

 

Thanks for the kind words on my shading.  
 

57 minutes ago, Ngantek said:

My attempts at this technique so far have been pretty awful, so I'm at the decision point as to whether to just get this one done as simply as possible with uniform blocks of colour, or to let it slide into the same hole of failed self improvement that my other builds have succumbed to. I've been looking at pictures of 'clean' tempests all day with a view towards the kinds of shade variations and spray shapes that might work, but with little free time and other builds getting bogged down, perhaps it's a good idea to 'play to my level' on this one. I'm having enough issues with techniques use regularly anyway. 

 

I’m not sure I agree with your assessment on your past efforts.  The key is to work slowly and with heavily thinned shades of the base colour to gradually built up the texture.  I do most of it while applying the base colours but a final shade can be added with a very - very - thin dark grey applied to wear areas, select panels, etc.  Give it a go Andy, you’ve not much to lose, it doesn’t take much time and the only way to progress is practice!

[bigbadbadge]

Agreed it does look very nice indeed.   Great work so far, I cannot say anything re the airbrushing but pleased to see you brushpaint the underside,  and with Tamiya paints too, brilliant. 

I often try to improve a kit and sometimes get bogged down too, I sometimes set them to one side for a while then pick then up another time and often they build up quickly when restarted.

Keep going and give the effects a try, you'll end up feeling glad you did when you get a cracking result. 

Chris

[Troy Smith]

2 hours ago, Ngantek said:

The fit is excellent to the point that I'll probably have to drill a hole in them to get them out again. 

try a loop of gaffa tape round your finger.

 

2 hours ago, Ngantek said:

I believe suggested water for brushing tamiyas, but I thought using the (deliciously) chalky Cambridge variant that was available to me was probably asking a bit much of chemistry.

Many years ago I bought a lire of de-ionised water from the supermarket.  It wasn't much,  it used for irons.  

 

2 hours ago, Ngantek said:

I should point out that I'd given the model a layer of Mr Surfacer 1500, straight from the can, to help give a surface for the paint to key on.

You can, or just use Halfords grey car primer.

2 hours ago, Ngantek said:

 

The hard part was leaving enough time to cure between coats since tamiyas become touch dry so fast. 3 hours or so seemed enough if one is able to resist the temptation to keep 'going over' too much. Certainly I think the mix needed more retarder as the coat became tacky after a single stroke, after which it would bobble or lift up with repeated brushing. 3 or 4 coats, brushing in alternating directions yielded this:

OK.  The point of a pure water with a tiny amount of (>5% ) FLOW IMPROVER is to make the paint flow.    You do not want a retarder. This slow paint drying,  and the water does this anyway. 

A simple way to make the mix, get a small, I use a 1ml syringe, draw up 0.95ml water and then 0.05ml flow improver, and shake.

You DO NOT want to let it cure between coats, you want to apply as soon as touch dry,  to build up the coats, and then let it cure.

Acrylic paint does not bond to plastic like an oil based paint.   It forms a skin round it. .   If you apply  further layers of paint to an existing layer as soon s possible, it bonds to the existing layer.  When cured it forms one fairly thick and reasonably tough layer.    If it too think, it way too fragile.

 

Use a small flat brush, i find  1/4 inch or 6mm brush works well.    

 

Add some paint to a pallette, a few drops.  Add the water/flow improver mix, you can add a drop at a time until like semi milk,  then brush on, you want to brush it out fast, in all directions.  It will be patchy, and will dry very very quickly.    Add another coat, and repeat until a smooth even good coverage is achieved.

"Certainly I think the mix needed more retarder as the coat became tacky after a single stroke, after which it would bobble or lift up with repeated brushing."

 

If it lifts, this is because the next coast is too thick and too 'hot' basically the solvent in the paint is lifting the existing paint.  The water/FI mix stops this. 

 

It's easier than it seems.  A few models I have done on here have all been done like this, using either Tamiya or vallejo, or in one case Xtracrylix.   

I see lots and lots of posters going "acrylics are terrible and I can brush them or spray them"  on here all the time ....   

OK, you decide, these are done the way I describe.

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235052380-hurricane-airfix-72nd-fabric-wing-mki-oob/

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235073488-spitfire-pr-xix-airfix-72nd-as-i-thought-it-would-be-easy/#elControls_3690454_menu

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235107668-pk-29-skyhawk/#elControls_4418161_menu

 

Note, I have a old cheapy camera.  I like it, the pics are very much what I see.  A really good camera can show up every tiny flaw..... that I can't see with a really strong light and an optivisor...

 

3 hours ago, Ngantek said:

I hear Tamiya's Ocean Grey is too cold and their Dark Green too warm,

 

I don't know of good acrylic matches for RAF paints.    Certainly the Tamiya "matches" are not very close.    BUT....  well... what are going to do?  Get some colour chips (where from?  You can get a BS381c chips set, or a long OOP book from the RAF museum...  and spend hours and hours doing drop mixes, brush them out, and then peering at them against chip, until you get close, and then with a viewing card (two slots in a bit of grey card) ...requiring a mix of mild insanity, bloodymindness, patience, time and daylight,  only to realise that Tamiya don't seem to be very batch consistent....

 

XF-81 is slightly too brown, XF-82 is too blue (Ocean grey is subtly green hued) while XF-83 is too brown, real MSG  has a very slight purple to it

assuming my chips have not drifted  since being made ...

I did make matches for OG and MSG, both based on XF-82.... 

 

Or you go full blown @Casey with a spectrometer and a load of math....  who has posted up various Tamiya mixes. 

 

Or, you could could just shrug and paint your model.. ....  which you have.  

 

Which is why I have my SIG line about 'what works for you'  ...  I my linked builds, note I do not use an overall final flay coat, as I want the different sheen and textures of oil and exhaust deposits to add contrast. 

3 hours ago, Ngantek said:

some tactical use of a 72nd scale rule that @Troy Smith was kind enough to refer me to

can't remember it , glad it was of use.  

 

3 hours ago, Ngantek said:

My attempts at this technique so far have been pretty awful, so I'm at the decision point as to whether to just get this one done as simply as possible with uniform blocks of colour, or to let it slide into the same hole of failed self improvement that my other builds have succumbed to. I've been looking at pictures of 'clean' tempests all day with a view towards the kinds of shade variations and spray shapes that might work, but with little free time and other builds getting bogged down, perhaps it's a good idea to 'play to my level' on this one. I'm having enough issues with techniques use regularly anyway. 

see my builds for the my preferred method,  artist oil wash thinned with lighter fuel.   

fast, cheap. easy.     

 

But again... it what works for you.

 

Your Tempest looks fine, I refer you my Hurricane build.  Get the darn thing finished.    A build is really only as good as the weakest aspect.   Once it's done and as long as it's tidy, no seams, correctly aligned,  it's really worth making sure that it sits right, a little subtle wash/weathering, which heps it look little less flat and toylike, you may well find it's a pleasureable  object to look at, which is rather easy to lose sight of.....   I have a fair few 'stalled' builds from getting booged down....usually from becoming to 'invested' and not wish to rush/bodge/compromise and then it end up in a box...... 

 

Any clarifications ask away...

 

HTH  

 

 

 

[Steve Coombs]

Looking good!

I have three examples of this kit in the stash (I have a cunning plan, probably to be realised in the new year now) and every single one of them has problems with the side stays for the undercarriage - twisted and broken, short-shot, or missing. Has anyone else experienced this, or have I been singled out for particular persecution?

[Ngantek]

20 hours ago, Casey said:

This one looks good! I had a lot of fun doing their Airfix Typhoon. For me hardest part was the open gun bay and the huge decals strips, in an afterthought I'd just spray them next time instead of relying on decals.

 

And yep freehading those squiggles is not easy, good airbrush and good paint do help a lot. I used Sotar 20/20 there and it is best airbrush I have for precise details.

Thanks, yeah it looks like the general kit design follows the typhoon. 

 

Having learned from experiments with dodgy and badly suited airbrush kit in the past, I invested in a nice iwata eclipse this time around, the aim being whatever was going wrong, I unequivocally couldn't blame it on the brush! Having said that I'm having issues related to poor care so I guess you can't win!

 

20 hours ago, mark.au said:

This is looking very nice indeed so far, I’m feeling a bit Tempest-y at the moment so very interested to follow.

 

Thanks for the kind words on my shading.  
 

 

I’m not sure I agree with your assessment on your past efforts.  The key is to work slowly and with heavily thinned shades of the base colour to gradually built up the texture.  I do most of it while applying the base colours but a final shade can be added with a very - very - thin dark grey applied to wear areas, select panels, etc.  Give it a go Andy, you’ve not much to lose, it doesn’t take much time and the only way to progress is practice!

That's very kind Mark. I've had a mess around this afternoon but actually ran into a lot of airbrush issues, so the

 

results were dodgy and I didn't achieve much. I think it's down to a slightly bent needle actually. But as you say I won't get better unless I try. The hard part for me is knowing the look I'm going for; I have no eye for this technique.

 

18 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Agreed it does look very nice indeed.   Great work so far, I cannot say anything re the airbrushing but pleased to see you brushpaint the underside,  and with Tamiya paints too, brilliant. 

I often try to improve a kit and sometimes get bogged down too, I sometimes set them to one side for a while then pick then up another time and often they build up quickly when restarted.

Keep going and give the effects a try, you'll end up feeling glad you did when you get a cracking result. 

Chris

Thanks Chris, not sure about cracking result, but it's all fun at least! I'll try and get this one off the bench, I'm a little fearful of shelf of Doom syndrome, especially given how many shiny new kits I have lying around.

 

17 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

 

HTH  

 

 

 

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to give such a thorough guide on brushing Tamiyas, colours and other complimentary techniques! I really appreciate it! Excellent point about using too hot a thinner, I will certainly try water. Also will allow those layers to 'bond' as you say if they aren't cured. A lot to be experimenting with.

 

Yeah despite my dodgy colour vision, I can certainly see that the tamiyas look a little out. I don't really trust my own eye for matching so I'm very grateful for work like Casey's. But since I've not done DFS yet and since I use Tamiyas generally, I thought it would be a good idea to go with theirs first time to 'calibrate' against. In future no doubt I'll try for something closer.

 

I agree with what you say about just getting it done. Actually I have a lot of these builds for not particularly great kits of subjects I'm not excessively bothered about that I intend to just give a simple build and paint job, know it'll be fun and look perfectly nice on the Shelf. Being so early in coming back to the hobby though, there seem infinite new things I want to try, so I really struggle to keep to that path!

 

1 hour ago, Steve Coombs said:

Looking good!

I have three examples of this kit in the stash (I have a cunning plan, probably to be realised in the new year now) and every single one of them has problems with the side stays for the undercarriage - twisted and broken, short-shot, or missing. Has anyone else experienced this, or have I been singled out for particular persecution?

I didn't notice issues on mine, but the I snipped and sprayed them on a sudden whim while I had the ally paint out. Possibly I snipped a short shot off as flash! I'll check!

 

Cheers,

Andy

 

 

 

[dogsbody]

That Tempest looks great to me!

 

 

 

Chris

[Chuuurles]

lookin clean! 

[Ngantek]

On 15/10/2022 at 18:46, dogsbody said:

That Tempest looks great to me!

 

 

 

Chris

Thanks Chris. Don't worry we'll soon remedy that, I'm yet to have at with with my dodgy airbrush shading and manky fingers!😝

 

15 hours ago, Chuuurles said:

lookin clean! 

Thanks Chuuurles welcome back. Expecting that 32nd lanc RFI thread sometime in the next week or so 😄

 

Andy 

[Chuuurles]

7 hours ago, Ngantek said:

Thanks Chuuurles welcome back. Expecting that 32nd lanc RFI thread sometime in the next week or so 😄

 

Andy 

Lol still waiting for the 3rd set of clear parts to arrive 

 

However now that the weather here has turned.. I will soon be starting a build in the armour section. Should be exciting as I have zero experience with that sub genre. 

[Ngantek]

Well new needle arrived, and it did improve matters somewhat, but I'm still getting a little pulsing at low pressure with the trigger just a shade open (if I draw a thin line, it appears in discrete dots, rather like watching a printer work, or something running at a low framerate). Anyway good enough to continue, it was easier to experiment with shading without constantly leaving blobs on the model.

 

So some lighter and darker DG and OG, mostly in random experimental patterns. As I say, I have no feel for how these things should look, or indeed how it will turn out after decals, varnish, washes and whatnot. So we're treating this one as another experiment, but I suppose I'll never get a feel for it if I don't at least try! The masks are off at least, and everthing seems (mostly) okay thankfully.

 

 

 

I was a bit heavy handed in a few places, particularly the underside, but hopefully I'll learn a bit more about what works and what doesn't. Really I should've refered to pictures a bit more, but I think we're at a place where I'm ready to move on once it's dry. Now debating whether to sand lightly and apply decals straight, or give it a gloss cote. The original layer (cut with some x22) went on with a decent sheen, but all that fiddling has made it a bit rougher in places.

 

Anyway that's it for this month's episode of 'Andy interminably drags out simple Airfix 72nd build'. Hopefully some progress next time!

 

[Ngantek]

Here's a quick question on the off chance anyone sees this and knows (it feels a bit offhand for a fresh WWII thread)!

 

The kit listed 486 squadron markings (for an earlier UK based series 1 aircraft, whose decals I'm using) have, on the starboard side, the squadron initials last; that is N O SA on starboard, and SA O N on the port. From other schemes I can find for later aircaft, based at Volkel (about the time mine would match up to), e.g. Eduard 82122 (1/48 series 2 profipack), this practice is continued.

 

 

However, there is this photo which has the reverse, SA O E on starboard (and presumably port). Can anyone shed light on this? I'm just doing the decals now and have reached starboard side, and can't decide which way to go

 

 

thanks for any help!

[Ngantek]

Ach I went with the former in the end, mostly because I didn't trust myself not to bugger up the serial number in the process. Main decals are on (behaved really well despite my best efforts, the Airfix Cartographs have always been good to me), and I think I'll give those a day to set before getting on with the frankly absurd number of stencils. As usual, I forgot to paint the wing walks, and since I already had the decal gubbins out, I've used those in this instance.

 

 

Andy

[dogsbody]

I just downloaded three images of JN766, from the IWM site:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris

 

[Ngantek]

Thanks Chris, those are wonderful (and perhaps representitive of the shonky lack of research I do!). With this one, I'm not really going for accuracy, since the scheme I've given it doesn't match the aircraft (and JN766 being an earlier series 1, I suspect wouldn't have ever have worn these post - D-day stripes). Likewise, I've taken a few liberties with whatever 'series 2 ish' parts that were included in the airfix kit. So it's not accurate, it's just using the nice parts and decals in the kit to make an imaginary later aircraft. A bit cheeky, I know, but saves on the decal cost!

 

I really do appreciate these photos though, I'll be referring back a lot!

Andy

 

 

[bigbadbadge]

Looking good Andy, great job

Chris

[Ngantek]

8 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Looking good Andy, great job

Chris

Thanks Chris! I guess we'll have to see if those decals bite the raw paint!

Andy

[derekS]

Hi,

 Ref the pics of JN 766 as posted by Dogsbody,the stripes under the wings are 

Not invasion stripes.They are ID stripes usually seen on Typhoons.They are 4 12"

black stripes 24" apart with the spaces in white.They were removed just before

"D" Day and replaced by invasion stripes which were 18"wide each stripe.

Therefore the pics must predate 6 June 44.

HTH

 

Derek S

.

[Ngantek]

Thanks Derek, yes. To be clear for people interested in this kit and scheme, the paint profiles show the aircraft without these earlier ID stripes (perhaps in error?) and there are consequently no decals for these stripes either for those who prefer not to paint them. 

 

There are included complete even spaced DDay stripe decals for the fuselage and wings (including individual decals for the landing gear covers) for the other scheme of 150 wing.

Andy

[Johnson]

Nice build Andy. I like the finish you've achieved and the variation in the paint shades, gives it more of an authentic look.

[Ngantek]

33 minutes ago, Johnson said:

Nice build Andy. I like the finish you've achieved and the variation in the paint shades, gives it more of an authentic look.

 

Thanks, yeah it's very much a first attempt, I don't really have and idea what I'm doing! I was having all kinds of airbrush issues when doing the shading on the ocean grey, and consequently it's a bit of a mess and not really come out; I should redo that, but I kinda ran out of patience. Having had a rough hack at it, I think it needs more all over probably. One thing that I suspect is really hard at the scale is the very fine discolouration that seems to be there on all aircaft, old or new. I see people get good results with oil post shades as well, but I dunno if I'll try on this one.

Andy

[corsaircorp]

Nice Tempest andy.

I will restart mines then.... 

CC

[Ngantek]

16 hours ago, corsaircorp said:

Nice Tempest andy.

I will restart mines then.... 

CC

Thanks cc. Always got time for another tempest!

 

Stencils on (ye gods how many can they cram into a 72nd kit!?) and a bit of gloss to seal it in. I seem to have got worse at gloss cotes each time I try, so am experimenting with x-22 thinned with MLT. Seems much like GX100 to he honest! Got away without crazing anything for once, but I think it's all indicative of never achieving a smooth enough paint layer, and the gloss just reflecting that roughness. I suspect my tendency is to just keep battering the thing, which when combined with varnish overthinned with MLT is just a recipe for disaster or at best the thick glazed doughnut thing.

 

you can see the texture arising from inexpert brush painting of the underside.

 

In this case I've just left it there. My usual next step would be to apply a panel wash, dry and clean, then sand the layer down to remove decal bumps and generally even out the surface. This last step is predictably where problems tend to occur, and adds a certain worn-ish-ness to the whole thing, so I'm debating what other options I have.

 

Anyway that's all for now, just a simple finish to try and improve on the basics.

 

Andy

[bigbadbadge]

Looks good Andy, despite you being hard on yourself and a Marr Varnish should tie everything nicely in at the end.

I use Johnsons Klear as my gloss coats , it's an acrylic floor polish that brushes on beautifully and is thin enough that it levels out, I imagine it is thin enough to airbrush too.  The bottles of this now OOP and fetch quite high prices on Ebay, but they fid do another version which although looks alarmingly milky in the bottle dries clear, this is called Pledge Multi-Surface Wax . That might be worth a look at as I have never had a bad reaction using it.

Keep up the good work

Chris