Thunnus Posted April 29 Author Share Posted April 29 16 hours ago, SwissFighters said: How come there are only 8 exhausts? x2=16. I guess two were routed into each other? I don't know, to be honest! Here is a pic of a Tempest II with the cowlings off to verify that 8 is the correct number of exhaust tips on port side. 7 hours ago, scvrobeson said: Great start John. It's interesting that Special Hobby has the Indian roundels clipped off by the black wingtips, but Eduard has them overlap. I wonder which one is correct? Matt Thanks Matt! Another good question. I found a few photos of black-tipped Indian Tempests... I am going to go with roundels above the black tips. Moving along now, I've painted most of the cockpit components separately. The green color is AK Real Color RAF Cockpit Grey Green (RC293). The tail wheel well has been painted and weathered. MikeMaben, LSP_Kevin, patricksparks and 6 others 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMaben Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted April 29 Author Share Posted April 29 Thanks Mike! Time to start cobbling the cockpit parts together. Here is the floor board with the foot rests and control stick in place. I've decided to use the decaled instrument panel instead of the photoetch. Detail is noticeably heavier than the PE but this might be a good thing once the panel gets covered by the coaming. The compass has been added, topped off by PE cover as the decal folded onto itself and became unusable. The seat has been glued onto the bulkhead and the PE harnesses have been added. I've added some random kinks and bends to get rid of that straight-as-ruler look that PE belts often have. I also dirtied them a little by adding a dark wash around the buckles. The delicate tubular sidewalls have been not been glued onto the bulkhead just yet as I'm just checking out fit. The floor board is now temporarily slide into place. The cockpit is noticeably smaller than what I am used to working on but very good detail out of the box. TankBuster, LSP_Kevin, JayW and 8 others 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoggz Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 Lovely cockpit detailing there John. You can see the Hawker lineage in that cockpit! Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayW Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 John- true masters can create clean detail in small scales. Perhaps a reason I like big scales, because I just can't do that. You are putting on a clinic. Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted April 30 Author Share Posted April 30 14 hours ago, Shoggz said: Lovely cockpit detailing there John. You can see the Hawker lineage in that cockpit! Thank you, Richard! Yes and similarities to the Spitfire as well. But be a British thing. 10 hours ago, JayW said: John- true masters can create clean detail in small scales. Perhaps a reason I like big scales, because I just can't do that. You are putting on a clinic. Thank you Jay! I'm not exactly loving the "smallness" of everything but it's a good tune-up for bigger projects, I think. And luckily, the Tempest is one of the bigger WW2 fighters. Last night, I went a little further and tried to get the instrument panel into place. A little too much pressure and the starboard side sidewall collapsed. I managed to get the tubular frame back together with some Tamiya Extra Thin cement. I decided to let the glue cure overnight and then reinforce the broken joints with CA glue the next day. Thankfully, the repair went well and I was able to proceed with the cockpit assembly without further hiccups. LSP_Ray, scvrobeson, SwissFighters and 9 others 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted April 30 Share Posted April 30 Good recovery John! Your work still stands out, even at the smaller scales Matt Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoggz Posted April 30 Share Posted April 30 Masterful rescue work John. Mine arrived like that! That cockpit looks great. JayW and Thunnus 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted April 30 Author Share Posted April 30 14 hours ago, scvrobeson said: Good recovery John! Your work still stands out, even at the smaller scales Matt Thanks Matt! I look at this as good practice for my large scale builds. 7 hours ago, Shoggz said: Masterful rescue work John. Mine arrived like that! That cockpit looks great. Thanks Richard. The tubular sidewalls are VERY delicate but once they are sandwiched between the two bulkheads, its not an issue anymore. And I was SO close! A few views of the cockpit embedded in each side of the fuselage. This is just a test fit but you can see how the cockpit starts to disappear once the fuselage halves go together. The view will be further restricted by the top deck piece which includes the coaming over the instrument panel and the turtle deck behind the pilot seat. Before the fuselage halves are glued together, the radial engine facsimile is painted. Keeping it simple since hardly anything will be seen through the front cowling. scvrobeson, denders, KUROK and 7 others 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 Speeding through another build. Good recovery on the sidewall, looks like it'll be invisible once it's sealed up Matt Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted May 1 Author Share Posted May 1 Thanks Matt! The fuselage halves have been fused together with the engine, cockpit, and tail wheel well sandwiched in between. As always, I use Tamiya Extra Thin. Checking the nose cowling ring and seems to be an excellent fit. View into the engine from the front is minimal even without the prop. I picked up a set of Barracuda resin wheels because I saw one photo of an Indian Tempest with the block treads. Had a little trouble drilling out the axle hole square so I assembled the kit wheels as a back-up. I still need to paint and install the top deck onto the fuselage. The gun sight is attached to the front part of this deck. I added a reflector glass and sun shade. Not completely accurate but adds a little complexity to the overly simplistic kit part. The fuselage joint is pretty good but still need some minor filling. I used black CA glue for the initial leveling and then topped it off with Mr Surfacer 1000 to feather everything down. Still working on re-establishing the panel lines and rivets across the joints. The small square fuel in front of the windscreen was eradicated by the fill work so I had to re-scribe it. The vent grill on top of the fuselage has a PE option. After test-fitting both, I elected to glue the PE grill on top of the kit part using thin CA glue and then gluing the kit part into the recess. Fuselage work isn't finished yet but I got impatient and took a look at the wings. I immediately cut the fragile pitot tube from its base. It will be replaced with brass tubing. To further complicate this warm-up build, I'm going to throw in these composite resin/PE flaps by Eduard. scvrobeson, SwissFighters, patricksparks and 7 others 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 Very nice work, John! Kev Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted May 2 Share Posted May 2 Breezy progress so far. And it looks like it's going pretty smoothly with nice fit from Eduard. What scribing template are you using to redo the hatch? Matt Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted May 2 Author Share Posted May 2 Thanks guys! 19 hours ago, scvrobeson said: What scribing template are you using to redo the hatch? I have a couple of Chinese-made scribing templates. The one used for this hatch (rounded corner square) was from U-Star that I picked up from EBay a while back. Like this... Here is the bottom wing after surgery. The flaps were removed with a razor saw. A thin raised portion along the trailing edge of the wing tops also needed to be shaved down to accept the PE flap enclosures. Here are the PE flap enclosure parts. Two versions are given for the outer flaps: gun cover on and off. The reverse side of the outer parts have a recessed portion. The instructions don't mention this but I think this is meant to be burnished to create an extruded shape on the other side. Since I had a spare (gun cover off), I tried but it distorted the part. Instead, I am going to added these raised portions using sheet styrene. A photoetch folding tool is essential for getting uniform bends. I like The Bug from The Small Shop. The folded bits are test fit onto the aircraft The top deck has been glued onto the fuselage. I took a lot of care to make sure the edges of the deck were flush with the fuselage but it turns out that the front portion needs to be slightly recessed to accommodate the windscreen. Luckily, I was able to push the front edge down after the fact. The front engine cowling has been attached using Tamiya Extra Thin. A preview of the prop spinner attached to the business end of the Tempest II. D.B. Andrus, scvrobeson, Kahunaminor and 9 others 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Ray Posted May 2 Share Posted May 2 Fast progress! The Bug is my most-used bending tool. I love it! Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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