Special Hobby Tempest V - FLT LT Jim McCaw DFC 486(NZ) SQN RAF 15 Jul

[Whitey]

On the 15th July 1944 FLT LT Jim "Black Mac" McCaw DFC, from Oamaru in New Zealand, was flying a Hawker Tempest V, JN860, SA-Z, on an anti-diver patrol. When he attacked a V-1 "Diver" (as they were named then) it exploded so close in front of him that a great deal of paint was burnt off the aircraft as he flew through the explosion. A video and still photos from his gun camera film can be readily found through the internet. I think he shot down 3 V-1s on that day and finished the war with a total of 19.5 V-1s and a couple of Luftwaffe aircraft as well. (Someone out there will have the right number)

 

Jim's family are synonymous with the New Zealand aviation industry, especially the gliding fraternity, but his grandson, Richie, is much more famous as the all conquering New Zealand All Black's dual World Championship Captain. Upon his recent retirement from rugby, Richie has taken up the aviation bug again and was asked by the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand to make a presentation at each of the Instructor seminars that CAANZ ran around New Zealand over the last week or so.

 

After seeing that RIchie's presentation included reference to his grandfather's flying exploits, one of my colleagues, a fellow modeller and a flight examiner, asked me if I would build "Black Mac's" Tempest as a gift to Richie for providing such great inspiration to the flying instructors in attendance. How could I refuse.

 

The Special Hobby "High Tech" Tempest V was in my cupboard so in early June I started it and finished it last week in time for the presentation. 

 

Undercarriage up, pilot in cockpit and on a stand were the requirements - something I had never done before.

 

The kit is really nice but apparently there are some shape issues with the nose and spinner but with just a little bit of seam cleaning up it all went together really well together. I will wait for the Barracuda nose and spinner to come out before I build another 486 (NZ) RAF Squadron Tempest that will stay in my cabinet. The next one will be SQNLDR Jimmy Sheddan DFC 's SA-M in 1945.

 

The cockpit is fiddly but if you put the front and back bulkheads onto the side panels before you add the cross members it goes together ok and fits like a glove into the fuselage from below once the two fuselage halves are together.

 

 

The radiators are also fiddly and I installed them in the nose and joined the two nose halves. I don't think that there is any other way to do it but the result was some extra work sanding the join to the rest of the fuselage and then re-scribe the detail. In hindsight I should have done more dry fitting and shaved some plastic of the vertical join of the "firewall" and it would have fitted without the extra sanding effort.

 

It is a quite big aircraft as can be seen in the next photo where the kit instructions are shown. Booklet is A4 size.

 

 

After major construction was completed I painted the "invasion stripe" area white, followed by the camouflage colours, except for around the windscreen which still needed to be fitted. Tamiya Lacquer sprays were decanted with the camouflage pattern going on freehand which worked ok. The demarcation should be harder than I have depicted but you get a smoother result this way.

 

 

 

I had one minor hiccup when the masking tape pulled up a small bit of grey paint, but it was easily rubbed back and re-sprayed.

 

 

 

 

 

A very minor amount of weathering was applied as the model needed to look schmik, rather than too dirty. A Flory models dark wash, some grime behind the engine applied with oils and a bit of gunsmoke and exhaust stains using Tamiya Smoke, were about all that was added.

 

Kit roundels were used with the squadron codes being from an OldModels sheet available on the internet. John is a member of my local model club, Scale Models Wellington IPMS and I am impressed with his decals. 

 

Fitted to a Tamiya stand she came up pretty well. Jim had dark eyebrows so I think I have captured his steely-eyed fighter pilot stare.

 

 

I didn't have time to figure out how to do the black outline around the code letters on the white stripe.

 

 

 

 

I was away working in another part of New Zealand on the day the presentation was made to Richie and I have been told by several attendees that he was suitably surprised and impressed, which is what we were hoping for.

 

 

The Flight Examiners and Aviation Safety Officers from CAANZ with Richie McCaw.

 

Edited August 12, 2017 by Whitey

[Uncarina]

Great work and a fine tribute! I love it when there are historical connections that we can forge with our hobby.

 

Thanks for sharing this.

 

Tom

[Guest]

Very cool!!.....Harv

[LSP_Kevin]

That's awesome, mate!

 

Kev

[LSP_K2]

Very nifty indeed.

[Kagemusha]

Very nice story, and model.

[ericg]

Well done mate. Looks great and I hope you are proud of it.

 

Eric.

[Gazzas]

Nice!

[Simmo.b]

Fantastic Pete!!

Can you fill me in on how you fitted the gear doors in the closed position? My build has stalled over this issue.

Cheers

Brent

[Joel_W]

Just an outstanding build of a rather difficult model.  The presentation just makes the build stand out that much more. 

 

Joel

[Out2gtcha]

Neat!   Really well done 

[Whitey]

Fantastic Pete!!

Can you fill me in on how you fitted the gear doors in the closed position? My build has stalled over this issue.

Cheers

Brent

Hi Mr B,

 

it wasn't too hard, just tacked the smallest door in position and then carefully fitted the others. It still took some sanding but not too much. Then I re-scribed the door outlines.  All before fitting the top half of the wing.

[Simmo.b]

Cheers Pete, will have to get back into mine!!

[Mikester]

Nice build and story!

[Bill Cross]

Nice build and great story.