Matchbox Tempest Mk. II (x2)

[woody37]

This is the kind of modelling that I enjoy watching. Bashing these old kits into something that looks 21st century! Brilliant work.

[Andrew]

Thanks Neil, much appreciated.

[Listel]

Very nice job so far! Having the same project I'll be pleased to follow your build 😉

 

Cheers

[Andrew]

Thanks @Listel, happy to help out however/wherever I can.

 

I'm really grateful for the folks who have taken the time to reply with a post in this thread - it was starting to feel like an echo chamber for a while there.

[Andrew]

It's been a while since my last update, but the rescribing is a slow process. Worthwhile (I hope!), but slow.

 

The sharp-eyed will have noticed that in removing all of the detail on the wings I took the extreme measure of obliterating Matchbox's cannon blisters as moulded. I wasn't completely comfortable doing so, but needs must... I wasn't sure how I was going to replicate the blisters, thinking that shaping half-round sprue into a tear-drop planform might be the best solution. Hmmm.... I wasn't too keen on that idea, considering there were 8 of the bloody things to make! I have access to scribing templates to help with getting the outline right, but seriously.... anyway, cue my brain arriving at the party in it's traditionally late fashion, with a genius idea to put the hard-working Heller kits to even more service! Yes, dear reader, you've guessed it, I'm borrowing (!) the cannon blisters from the Heller wings. It wasn't easy, but if you sand the underside of the blisters long enough, the surrounding wing surface just fades away into oblivion, leaving (mostly) just the blister ready to apply! To wit:

 

Almost ready to apply -

 

 

In the general vicinity (don't ask about the little umm.... incident adjacent to where this blister will be applied... let's just say that all that thinning of the wing surface leaves the plastic.... umm.... thin...) -

 

 

Yeah, that's a blister, alright -

 

 

And, finally, because too much sanding/scribing is never enough, I've moved on to the tailplanes;

 

 

We don't need no steenkin' part numbers at Andrew's workbench, by the way... unless of course it's later shown that I do...

 

[TeeELL]

I’ve got to say that you are really going to town with these 2 kits.  I feel a bit of a sham with mine!  Nevertheless, I may well look at what you are creating with thoughts of making 3D versions so that SMER kits don’t have to be sacrificed.  I see no point in doing any more work to the Centaurus or gearbox as they can barely be seen.  I am thinking about enhancing the U/C bays - if you've other suggestions I am open to consideration for design.  
I am inclined to wonder it creating some fine ‘stretch sprue’ glued into the panel line trenches might be a better option for sorting the wings etc?

[Listel]

Hi TeeELL,

 

Inserts or additional pieces for the u/c bays + a new top fuselage for the cockpit area would nicely complete your set! 😉

 

Cheers

Edited February 8 by Listel

[TeeELL]

12 hours ago, Listel said:

Hi TeeELL,

 

Inserts or additional pieces for u/c the bays + a new top fuselage for the cockpit area would nicely complete your set! 😉

 

Cheers

OK,

  I’ve another Matchbox Tempest so I will take a look at what could be done.  I still wonder if there is enough interest to justify the work though?

[Listel]

6 minutes ago, TeeELL said:

OK,

  I’ve another Matchbox Tempest so I will take a look at what could be done.  I still wonder if there is enough interest to justify the work though?

I would be your first customer 😉

Nothing that can't be done without of course, but it's so much easier with your 3D parts!

 

[Gondor44]

8 hours ago, Listel said:

I would be your first customer 😉

Nothing that can't be done without of course, but it's so much easier with your 3D parts!

 

Add me to your list of future clients for the conversion.

 

Gondor

[Ragtag]

I'd be on that list too

[Andrew]

In a very happy update, I can now report that the Tempests have their wings and tailplanes!

 

While this is a long-awaited development (by me!), it was a little bittersweet: the fit of the wings was poor, and has required much in the way of shimming with plastic stock and filling. Not a big issue in and of itself, but it's meant more sanding, refining, rescribing etc... I'm a bit over it to be honest.

 

Anyway, here they are in all their technicolour glory:-

 

 

 

 

I don't think anyone doubts that they're Matchbox kits!!! That said, I won't miss the harlequin colours and as of this morning I've given the kits their first pass of primer - in this case I'm using Stynylrez's 'metal' (silver) offering. I like Stynylrez as a primer and I chose the silver for its ability to show surface imperfections readily. Unfortunately I don't have any photos to share at this stage, but I hope to get a decent coat on this evening and will share the results later.

 

 

[Andrew]

It seemed to take a verrrrrry long time and a silly amount of fussing and finagling to reach a point where I could apply a primer coat, but the day finally arrived. That day was last night. Here they is, happily occupying messy bench space and looking a little smug, if you ask me... The primer is Stynylrez in its metal (silver) form, thinned and strained with a U-Star paint sieve (found to be necessary after the first attempt earlier in the week).

 

 

 

 

And just to show that I hadn't forgotten that the planes will require undercarriage at some point, here's one of the kits with its undercarriage doors, courtesy of Tony's upgrade set -

 

 

What's next? I think I'm actually at a bit of a loss as to what to do....

[Galligraphics]

Looking very smart in their underclothes...

[Johnson]

Quite a transformation! Don’t they look good!!

[woody37]

Hard to believe these are Matchbox planes!

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Really nice!  Did you thin the Stynylrez with water?  I think a tea strainer would work also, and I've resorted to one for the Stynylrez white primer, which can get lumpy.  What is your plan for a final paint layer?  Vallejo makes a good set of water-acrylic silver/metallic paints for fabric-covered types, which might be appropriate here.

[Andrew]

Thanks to all for your replies and interest.

 

I thinned the Stynylrez with a concoction of 'acrylic thinners' - mostly Golden Airbrush Medium with some distilled water and possibly other mysterious stuff acquired over the years. I've found that Stynylrez is just a little too thick to send through the airbrush neat, but it doesn't need too much thinning; probably about one-third of my strained mixture is thinner.

 

I'm still weighing up the schemes to apply... I think that one will be day fighter scheme with C/C1 roundels, while the other might be an example in painted aluminium finish and D roundels, or possibly an Indian Air Force example in aluminium and black stripes, with their version of D roundels. I'm not too concerned here with replicating a particular aircraft or scheme at this point; something representative is fine for these kits. Besides, I'm hopeful that the fine folks at Special Hobby or Eduard are putting the final touches to a suite of late Tempests in 1/72, no doubt due for announcement just after I finish these two...

[Tomcat101]

Truly amazing work.  You have really stretched these kits to the utmost.  The level of detail is very impressive.  I built the old 1/48 scale AMT Tempest last year and did what I could but your builds are really next level. Well done.

[Andrew]

It's taken me some time to get the kits ready for paint (as opposed to just my lookee-see primer coat), with the canopies, and undercarriage bays and doors in particular requiring more work before the application of paint.

 

With those steps out of the way, I've laid down some white/light grey where the roundels will be applied (for the sake of backing colour consistency) and painted the walkways a very dark grey before masking. The plane at the rear (nose pointing to the bottom right of shot) will be a Pakistani aircraft with white bands around its nose (unsure why, but I thought it looked cool in the one photo I've seen so far), while the foreground kit will be an Indian Air Force plane in silver and black stripes/patches. I'll have to take some more pictures of the kits as they stand now, but here's the pair before I really got going this morning:

 

 

Thanks for looking in.

[Andrew]

I'm trying something a bit different with the painting of these kits, in that I want to use (water-based) acrylic paints where possible; my usual practice in recent years has been to rely on lacquer paints. So far, the experiment is going well!

 

Here's the Pakistani aircraft with azure blue undersides, paint courtesy of Mission Models and Atom by Mig:-

 

 

I like to marble primer coats/undercoats before application of a scheme's colours - this is the uppersurfaces of the Pakistani aircraft with suitably chaotic preparation:-

 

 

Here's the Indian aircraft after application of a metallic finish - the paint used was predominantly Semi-matt Aluminium from Vallejo's Metal Color range, with a few extras like Mission Models' White Aluminium:-

 

 

And with the masking for the black areas removed:-

 

 

 

The painting process has reminded me that I haven't done much with the kits' propellers, partially 'cos I'd decided early on that a prop I made years ago for just such an event would suffice, and so making the other one could just be deferred until later... anyway, it's now later, so here are the bits for a Tempest propeller or two, with @TeeELL's clever propeller cropping jig device.

 

 

Colours will be applied in the nearish future - the Indian one is silver/aluminium, while the Pakistani one will be either blue or black; I'm not sure without doing more research.