SH Tempest Mk V "Kicked Up A Notch". January 14/21 New eBook!

[Flipper]

To my surprise, those exhaust stains looks symmetrical on both sides. I have checked that in my pictures, and really, it looks like that primary airflow was not that one from propeller, as I have expected.

 

[chuck540z3]

4 hours ago, nmayhew said:

very eye catching

 

re the exhaust stains, i have noticed in addition to the arc you describe, that there are sometimes stains in pretty much a straight line further back on the fuselage, aft of the cockpit and stretching almost the to Sky band

 

these aren't there on every airframe, and am not that familiar with PC's bird, but let me know if you want pointers to a pic or two

 

I think I'm happy with the minimal exhaust staining effect, for a couple of reasons:

 

1.  Exhaust staining is often overdone.  I don't want to be that guy

2.  I'm trying to replicate the pic of PC standing on the wing of this aircraft which I've shown many times above, and I don't see any obvious staining past the cockpit area onto the code lettering.  Tough to determine on this old pic, but it also has brand new paint on the Cross of Lorraine and the 3 Squadron badge, so maybe it was cleaned up a bit?

3.  Scale.  As the exhaust staining dissipates aft of the engine area, it obviously is less visible.  Most of the time I am looking at this model from about 1 foot away, so I want to show what I could see from 32 feet away from the real deal.

4.  Randomness of any staining.  I looked at a lot of pictures other than the ones shown above and found some similarities, but lots of differences too, so I went with the core of what is most common on both sides.  For whatever reason, some had almost no staining (cleaning?), like the pic below.  Paint looks pretty new too, so it likely is fairly new.

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[zaxos345]

Great, really great so far Chuck!!!

 

John

 

[airscale]

jaw dropping stuff Chuck...

 

such a delicate touch - looks 100% authentic

 

have really enjoyed this build - thanks for all your efforts in presenting it and you should be super proud of the outcome

 

Peter

[nmayhew]

No worries Chuck - was just a suggestion

 

i think JF-M pic is from RAF Newchurch which is just a few miles from me (it’s down towards the Kent coast) and I plan to make one of these birds soon; your build will serve as the inspiration/ blueprint of how to build these kits!

 

thanks again for showcasing your skills 

Nick

[Hawkwrench]

Totally agree with Peter. Absolute jaw dropping work!

(Still looking for the same background blue material you use for pics, but can't find it.)

Got any leftover you'll sell???

 

Tim

[chuck540z3]

2 hours ago, Hawkwrench said:

Totally agree with Peter. Absolute jaw dropping work!

(Still looking for the same background blue material you use for pics, but can't find it.)

Got any leftover you'll sell???

 

Tim

 

Thanks.  I'd give you some of this blue fabric Tim, but I got mine with a small photo-booth that I use all the time below.  I've got a larger photo-booth with the same fabric for larger models and final pics, so it must be common somewhere.  I'd try a professional camera store or fabric store.

 

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[AlbertD]

Exhaust stains look about perfect Chuck. I also really like the exhaust manifolds. They have a very convincing texture and color. Was the chipping on the prop and spinner done with hairspray? I just tried hairspray chipping for the first time today using MRP lacquer and it worked great. Way more controllable and natural looking than water based acrylics.

[Hawkwrench]

4 hours ago, chuck540z3 said:

 

Thanks.  I'd give you some of this blue fabric Tim, but I got mine with a small photo-booth that I use all the time below.  I've got a larger photo-booth with the same fabric for larger models and final pics, so it must be common somewhere.  I'd try a professional camera store or fabric store.

 

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Thanks for the offer Chuck.

I'll keep looking.

Its just harder not knowing what kind of blue it is! Lol

 

Tim

[Kagemusha]

Great work on one of Britain's finest Chuck!

[dennismcc]

What a great reference thread this is, thank you Chuck.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Huey195thAHC]

5 hours ago, Hawkwrench said:

Thanks for the offer Chuck.

I'll keep looking.

Its just harder not knowing what kind of blue it is! Lol

 

Tim

 

Tim, I found some at Wal-Mart in the fabric section.  May not be exact, but it "looks" right.  Taken with my phone under my work light.

 

 

[chuck540z3]

November 20/20

 

Step 37: Landing gear!

 

 

 

 

If there’s one thing that causes me a lot of stress in modeling, it’s the building, painting and installation of landing gear.  Tiny landing gear parts always seem to have big seam lines on every single part that are hard to remove, painting is picky work- which often reveals flaws- and getting the gear and wheels installed correctly and straight can be a real challenge.  Flawed landing gear alignment is a very common deduction at model contests, because it’s so common (ask me how I know!), so I try everything to avoid it.  On my last model of the Harvard/Texan, I got the landing gear alignment perfect while the model was on it’s back, only to have one of the legs toe out when under its own weight.  Crap!, which is another lesson learned.  Only glue on the wheels permanently with the model standing on them.

 

This kit has really nicely detailed landing gear with LOTS of seam lines, but the biggest challenge is getting the leg alignment correct.  Thanks to MikeMaben, he posted the schematic diagram below to help me with same.  To give credit where credit is due, it came from this build thread of a 1/48 Airfix Hawker Sea Fury here:

 

 

 

1/48 Airfix Sea Fury Build

 

 

 

 

 

Note how both the gear legs angle outwards, including the wheels.  Without this pic, I might have made the legs straighter and the wheels for sure, which is technically wrong, but maybe “correct” at a model contest? 

 

 

The main problem with the landing gear is that there is no real solid anchor point to attach them to.  Likely for accuracy, the top of each gear leg is a rounded egg-like shape that fits into a shallow recess, which can be moved all over the place in every direction.  Very confusing and problematic to many modelers, so after thinking about it at 3 AM while I should be sleeping (as usual!), I found a simple solution.  After drilling a small hole in the bottom of the gear leg and recess it fits into, I glued a short piece of copper wire into the leg as an anchor point that is stiff, but still flexible.  That way I can insert the leg and move it around, but the leg remains stationery.  Note that I have already added the main hydraulic brake line, more or less according to references.

 

 

 

 

The next main part of the gear assembly is parts H22/ H23, which have an actuator that I already cut off, so that I could install a steel pin into it later.  Carefully dry fitting this part and the gear leg, you get an idea of where the parts should fit before gluing them permanently.  Here they are dry fit, thanks to the copper pin in the main leg, which you could never do without it.

 

 

 

 

As I searched around for the correct alignment of these parts, I looked at pics of the real deal, but also other builds of this kit.  Alignment of landing gear on models was hard to find (maybe for a reason?), so right or wrong, this is how I did it, so I will show several pics of same.  First, the forward angle which is quite pronounced.

 

 

 

 

Once I figured out what all the angles should be, I used extra thick CA glue at the top of the gear legs, which gave me a good 10 minutes to move things around a bit as required, before they were solid.  After the glue had set, I added the rest of the landing gear parts, one by one.  While some of them had to be trimmed a bit, I was surprised at how good the fit really was.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While I was at it, I cemented in the tail wheel assembly, which fit really nice into its recess.

 

 

 

 

When the main gear was installed, I darkened the gear bays with “The Detailer” wash of 50/50 Brown and Black.  What’s great about this wash is that it’s water soluble and if you don’t like what you done, just add more water to change or remove it.  I also added some staining to the bottom of the wings and fuselage with pastels, but tried not to overdo it.  All of the bright aluminum parts were then sprayed with dull coat to knock down the unrealistic shine.  This is hard to photograph from any distance, so here's a super close-up....

 

 

 

and a bit further out....

 

 

 

 

 

Then I glued on the CMK resin wheels/tires that came with the kit, which are perfect.  The wheels on my aircraft are the later 4 spoke type and I again used thick CA glue that gave me time to align them according to references- with the model putting weight on them this time!.  Here’s a view that you will rarely see with this kit, because both the top and bottom of the inner wing should be flat and no 1/32 models are.  While I could not fix the upper portion of the wing, I got the bottom of the wing about 90% correct.

 

 

 

 

And a detailed pic of the leg alignment, which I think matches the schematic above pretty good.

 

 

 

Now a bit of a walkaround for future modelers of this kit who want to see some details.  I think I got everything as correct as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I’m running out of parts!”.  I say that at the end of every build, which is both a happy thought, but also a bit sad.  While I look forward to my future CF-104 build, I think this kit hit the right spot of quality vs challenges to keep me motivated and still have some fun.  I have lots of little things to do yet, like landing gear doors, etc., so my next post will be the finished model in maybe a week or so?  Stay tuned, and thank you for your continued interest in this model.  I hope this build log will help many of you with this kit in the future and I had a lot of fun creating both!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited November 21, 2020 by chuck540z3

[Hawkwrench]

12 hours ago, Huey195thAHC said:

 

Tim, I found some at Wal-Mart in the fabric section.  May not be exact, but it "looks" right.  Taken with my phone under my work light.

 

 

Do you remember the color name of the fabric by chance?

 

EDIT: Chuck, won't hijack your build thread any longer. SORRY!!!

 

Tim

Edited November 21, 2020 by Hawkwrench

[JayW]

Chuck - landing gear fabrication is one of my favorite things to do!  I guess I might be in the minority.  I agree that so many great models get the LG orientation wrong.  The P-47 also has weird angles to work with, and few modelers get it right.  I did on my 1/18, but only because I had access to drawings.  Something you do not have the luxury of with the Tempest.   Looks great so far.