Special Hobby 1/32 Tempest Dihedral - I cannot take it any more!

[fastterry]

I was lucky enough to score the PCM Tempest back in the day which didn't seem to have any assembly problems that I can recall and it also didn't need the replacement Barracuda resin nose. I finished mine as EJ721 US-C found in the excellent 2nd Tactical Airforce book(s). I am not out of the woods yet though as I have a SH Tempest II in the stash and I too will be looking up Chuck Sawyer's article on LSP to sort out the wing assembly.

 

TRF

[gingerbob]

On 11/25/2022 at 10:21 PM, fastterry said:

If you're going to build big models you need to visit Large Scale Planes for some hints especially 'SH Tempest V "kicked up a notch" by Chuck540z3. In his master class he goes into some detail on how to fix the wing problem amongst a host of other stuff.

 

TRF

 

For the benefit of the Googlephobic, here's the link:

https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/84784-sh-tempest-mk-v-kicked-up-a-notch-january-1421-new-ebook/

[ilj]

4 hours ago, gingerbob said:

 

For the benefit of the Googlephobic, here's the link:

https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/84784-sh-tempest-mk-v-kicked-up-a-notch-january-1421-new-ebook/

 

I wouldn't advise using that particular item as a guide to getting the angles right on that kit - the rake of the landing gear is way off, producing the tiptoes stance, unfortunately.  Careful adjustment of the gear angle with comparison to reference images and plans is helpful.   ilj

 

 

 

[Alan P]

48 minutes ago, ilj said:

 

I wouldn't advise using that particular item as a guide to getting the angles right on that kit - the rake of the landing gear is way off, producing the tiptoes stance, unfortunately.  Careful adjustment of the gear angle with comparison to reference images and plans is helpful.   ilj

I agree.

 

@ilj did a far better job at getting the wings and landing gear correct. On these pics, it's still not straight.

 

[wellsprop]

Sadly, once noticed, it can't be un-noticed!

[ilj]

52 minutes ago, Alan P said:

I agree.

 

@ilj did a far better job at getting the wings and landing gear correct. On these pics, it's still not straight.

 

 

 

I think the 'splay' angle and the angle of the wheel was done very well on that^ build (see below, plans from Eduard instructions), along with 99% of the rest of it.  It is the rake angle (in addition to the wing angle) that is difficult on this kit (among other things).  In my previous post (above in this thread) I made a mistake, I wrote that there is wide latitude in the gear rake allowed by the 'sockets' into which they insert.  That's not quite right.  In fact, the gear inserted smoothly into the kit gear wells but at the decidedly wrong (tip toe) rake angle.  Even more, attempts to rake the gear forward encountered resistance from both the space in the 'socket' and also the secondary gear struts, that came up against the forward edge of the gear well and essentially stopped me from adjusting the main gear legs forward to the correct angle.  After several unsuccessful attempts to bend the gear to the required forward rake, and having cemented this in place with CA glue, at the wrong angle (as displayed in many builds, see my linked items above), I took a deep breath.  Then I sawed off both the main gear and the secondary gear, drilled tap holes in the parts and repositioned the gear using brass pins and the reference photos and plans to get the rake right.  This was not fun.  I referenced three builds (above in this thread) that managed this successfully (not sure how they did it).

 

"examples of builds that reproduced the correct wing and gear rake, and that I think totally aced this difficult kit:

 

https://chriswauchop.com/2017/12/27/special-hobby-1-32-hawker-tempest-mk-v/

 

https://modelingmadness.com/review/allies/cleaver/gb/fighter/tctemp.htm

 

https://www.largescaleplanes.com/articles/article.php?aid=2836

"

This is a difficult kit.

 

ilj

 

 

 

Edited November 29, 2022 by ilj
added reference URLs

[gingerbob]

4 hours ago, ilj said:

This is a difficult kit.

 

Hey, watch it- it's careless talk like that that makes me want to get one out of the stash and see for myself!  (Do not interpret this as any smug '...and I'll show you!')

 

bob

[ilj]

2 hours ago, gingerbob said:

 

Hey, watch it- it's careless talk like that that makes me want to get one out of the stash and see for myself!  (Do not interpret this as any smug '...and I'll show you!')

 

bob

 

Go for it.  This kit produces an outstandingly cool 1/32 scale tempest.  Just go in to the project knowing about the parts of the build where you are really going to have to perform some tricks.  My attempt came off OK, but after fighting with the above-described challenges, the kit stencil decals were the bane of it for me.  I would say use some other stencil decals or go with the new masks for stencils from 1ManArmy. https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/32DET003

 

My attempt:

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/1-32-special-hobby-hawker-tempest-v-series-i-rolan-t525416.html

 

ilj

 

 

[MikeC]

Slightly o/t, but many modellers seem, at the moment, to have a similar undercarriage rake problem with Mustangs. Again, the gear is raked forward, although more subtly than the Tempest's, and to have it perpendicular to the chord of wing makes it look like it's on tiptoe. So I feel your pain.