Post-war Tempest Mk.V

[Zero77]

Hello guys !!!!

 

I'm working on this Special Hobby kit for a few weeks. The details are great, but the kit is definitely not easy to build. Yep, it's Special Hobby !

 

It will be a post-war Tempest, and i will use the Xtra-decals decals to make the J5*H :

 

 

 

Here are my first pictures of the cockpit. It's a kit in the kit, and the rate of detail is very impressive OOB. The cockpit is all black, which is not very fun to paint, but i found a few tricks to ehance it and highlight the details. I painted it with black primer first, and then over sprayed some dark grey over it, from above. Then a heavy drybrush with a lighter grey, and finally a "dust deposit" wash, which looks pretty nice and realistic on this otherwise plain cockpit.

 

 

The fuselage interior sides :

 

 

[Zero77]

The front fuselage was not easy to deal with. I got a pretty large gap between the upper bulhead of the rear radiator cowling. The quick and easy way to correct it was to put some plastic putty, the one you can wipe the excess with water. 10 minutes later, i sprayed some touch ups with the airbrush, problem solved.

 

 

 

I bought the resin exhaust pipes. The plastic ones look ok, but i though these ones would be easier to fit after the fuselage is closed as they are separated. I painted them with various alclad shades and wheatered them with some AK (or MIG?) exhaust wash. I kept them pretty clean as i want to built a pretty clean aircraft. I did not find a lot of post-was tempest pictures, but i did not see any with heavy exhaust staining and burnt exhaust pipes.

 

 

And the cockpit with the fuselage closed. Now the whole fuselage is assembled with wings and front parts.

 

I'm still struggling with a few detail parts to be flush (especially the forward wing root parts). Pictures to come !

[Shawn M]

very nice work!

[Zero77]

Thanks Shawn !

 

 

Here is were i am now (the Tempest is defenitely big ! i put a picture of it besides my BAe Hawk to show the size).

 

But now i'm stuck with the gunsight.

As i'm buidling a post war Tempest, i think i should use the gyro gunsight Mk.II, but it's been 3 weeks that i'm deperately looking for detail pictures of how it's mounted in the cockpit. Finally, i got another idea today, i looked in the Tempest Mk.II instruction manual, and indeed, everything is explained ! There is a part supplied in the kit.

 

Ok. But that answer brought another question ! In the Tempest Mk.II instructions, the instrument panel used is different than the part i used in my cockpit. I dont know if this difference is because of the Mk.II version vs the Mk.V version, or if it is because of the different gunsight?

 

If it's only due to the aircraft version, that's not a problem, i'd adapt my own instrument panel to use the supplied support part to fix the gyro gunsight. But if the difference is due to the gunsight, now i cannot change the IP anymore, so i'd have to use the former reflector gunsight. And i dont know if it would be accurate on a post war Tempest (i guess not).

 

Any idea about that?

[mark31]

Nice work looking forward to see more

 

Mark

[Joel_W]

A most impressive build so far. I'm particularly impressed with how you went about improving the look of an all flat black cockpit. The end result is astonishing.

 

Joel 

[Dpgsbody55]

Very nice!!.  I like your technique for the otherwise dull as ditchwater black cockpit.  That really brings it to life.

 

 

Cheers,

Mike

[Zero77]

As for my gunsight dilemma, i finally chose the reflector gunsight, and too bad if it's not accurate for a post war tempest.

(Anyway i will build a Mk.II and a Mk.VI later, so i will have models with the gyro gunsight)

 

After a very long masking of the inside areas this week, and a long preparation of the surface (sanding, filling, a lot of putty, sanding again, rescribing, rerivetting....) i was able today to spray a coat of primer. 

 

As the finish will be the british High Speed Silver but i did not want it to be too much plain, i tried to make some variations in the primer. I painted the panels one by one, from various direction, and also marbled the surface. Sorry but it's absolutely not visible on the pictures !

 

 

 

Then i applied some alclad High Speed Silver. At first i thought i was a bit too shiny, but finally it's not too bad. The marbled and uneven undercoat looks pretty good and acts as a kind of pre-weathering. In some areas it even looks like a kind of stressed skin in trompe l'oeil. I'm quite satisfied with it and will use the technique for further british silver aircraft. The aircraft is very big and the Alclad HSS doesnt cover very well, so i used almost 2/3 of the bottle. (and i still have to paint the landing gear doors).

[Zero77]

Then i painted the anti-slip strips on the wing roots and the anti-glare panel. I really love the Tempest in the Silver livery.

 

 

And this evening i applied the decals. It was quite fast they are not a lot. The Xtra-decals (printed by Microscale) are very good. With 2 or 3 coats of microsol, the film is not anymore visible.

 

 

Now i can start the weathering, which i need to make pretty subtle.

[Joel_W]

 The Tempest in the NMF in Alcad Silver definitely has a brighter finish then their Aluminum I always end up using. I would expect a post war aircraft to be much better maintained then during the war, so a shinier NMF would be in order.  You decaling sure looks like they were painted on with masks. Very nicely done.

 

  Looking forward to your next update.

 

Joel

[Cees Broere]

Very nice finish. How did you eliminate the step between the fuselage and the nosesection (topside)?

[Miloslav1956]

Very nice finish. How did you eliminate the step between the fuselage and the nosesection (topside)?

 

This step is correct, a transition plate is mounted on the wing surface.

 

Therefore, there is this step.

[Miloslav1956]

   

[Breaker]

Zero, try a black primer next time your going for a HSS finish. You'll find it's easier to get decent coverage with the Alclad. 

[Whitey]

That is a ripper Zero.