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

[silentsage]

Chuck -

 

I've read many of your past build threads, and I'm following this one. I've learned a great deal from the excellent descriptions you provide of how each step of the build is accomplished.  Most of all, I've learned some excellent tips on how to do various things.  I know that writing these threads is a lot of work.  Like many folks, I really appreciate your efforts.  Thanks very much!

[chuck540z3]

1 hour ago, silentsage said:

Chuck -

 

I've read many of your past build threads, and I'm following this one. I've learned a great deal from the excellent descriptions you provide of how each step of the build is accomplished.  Most of all, I've learned some excellent tips on how to do various things.  I know that writing these threads is a lot of work.  Like many folks, I really appreciate your efforts.  Thanks very much!

 

What a nice and much appreciated response.  Thank you, and as the saying goes, "I try!"  Some may wonder why I bother, which is a combination of the following:

1. Much of what I do I learned from others, so I like to pass on this information, along with other tips I discover along the way
2. These build threads make me a better modeler, especially when posting close-up images of my work.  Often times I will photograph a build step and find some flaws which I had not noticed before.  If I'm lucky and it's early enough in the build, I fix them and the model is better for it
3. I try to make my build threads interesting, which often attracts experts on my subject who offer tips and advice, helping me build a more accurate model.  I can't think of model I've made that wasn't influenced by others, including this one
4. I'm still learning, which makes this hobby always interesting.  With a public audience, I push myself to try new things and get better.  As we all know, this forum has many expert modelers that we will never equal, but it's still fun to try!
5. I'm also interested in photography, which like my models, has improved quite a bit over the last 5 years or so, as I try and learn new photographic techniques
6. I write modeling articles, mostly for FineScale Modeler magazine.  When my build is over, I have a nice archive of build steps and pics to choose from for my article.  This magazine is for the novice to intermediate modeler who want to know how you did certain things, rather than just looking at a nicely finished model.  These build threads facilitate that.
7. I like feedback and I'm not afraid to admit that I enjoy some praise now and then.  We have a relatively lonely hobby that not much of the public can relate to, so receiving "attaboys" from your peers who understand what you have accomplished is very rewarding, much like your response above

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

 

 

 

Edited September 2, 2020 by chuck540z3

[MikeMaben]

4 hours ago, chuck540z3 said:

                  so receiving "attaboys" from your peers who understand what you have accomplished is very rewarding,             

 

That's true, I've said before, it's nice to be appreciated by people who know what they're talking about.

 

Hi SS 

[bdthoresen]

Chuck-

 

I can only echo what others have said here already, in that I truly appreciate you taking the time to post your builds, but also your dedication to the craft itself. I used to have a lot more time for the hobby, but, between working on military aircraft as a career, as well as my own 1/1 aircraft restoration, I don’t have many opportunities for mode building anymore.....So it sure is awful nice to catch up with the likes of you, as well as others I consider masters on this site.....so, thanks!

 

THOR, who had to go back to work!!!!! 

[chuck540z3]

September 13/20

 

New Forum software, cool!  Thanks to Kevin and the LSP crew for keeping this site feeling new and fresh (with a few adjustments ).

 

Well, I have finally discovered what the difficulties with the main landing gear wells are all about!  After a lot of dry fitting, checking the builds of others like Rick K’s (thanks!) and trying to find an easy solution to the problems, I think I have a method that works fairly well.  What are the problems?  Not much, other than:

 

• There is a big error in the instructions.  Thanks to “Leitch” for the heads-up on that earlier.
• The instructions are confusing and they should not be followed exactly
• The 6 main parts of each gear well do not fit each other very well and many of them need to be trimmed significantly to fit.  Further, most of the parts also need to be trimmed to fit between the main wing parts.
• There are no definitive locking tabs or other ways to ensure that the parts are being placed correctly.  It is easy to unknowingly flip pieces incorrectly.

 

So here is Step 29 (Step 28 will be posted later), which has you glue the gear well parts to the lower wing.  The problem with that if you do, is that they will not fit the upper wing which can easily be seen from below.  Second, the long parts at the front, H21 and H33 should be flipped, which I have edited in the instructions.

 

 

 

 

 

The only place you see the front of these parts and what is correct, is in Step 30, but the parts are now flipped completely upside down, adding to the confusion.  The right gear bay (left side in Step 29 above) is in the middle and the lower right.

 

 

 

 

Since the upper wing parts (B2, B3) are where the parts should fit the best, you should glue them to these parts and use Step 30 as your guide, not Step 29.  Instead of just gluing them all together at once, I did this iteratively, starting with Parts H21 and H33 at the front as the anchor points.

 

 

 

 

I dry fit them to the bottom wing as the glue dried to get the correct angle.  When they dried completely and were hard, I sanded off quite a bit to the top edge on both sides.

 

 

 

 

Dry fitting them many times in between sanding steps to get a snug fit that allowed the wing halves to close completely.  With only one part cemented in, it was easy to determine where things fit and where they didn’t.

 

 

 

 

I then glued the middle Part J13/J14, let it dry, then did the same sanding and dry fit routine.  Again, using only one part at time makes alignment troubleshooting easy.  Here the ridges on the bottom for Parts H19/H20 to attach to are too thick and should be thinned allowing them to connect to Parts J13/J14 cleanly.

 

 

 

 

Here are all 12 gear well parts trimmed and glued together one at a time, including the landing gear anchor points Parts H15/H16 within the outside edges to provide a solid bond.  Many adjustments were made for width, length and angle as they were dry fit to each other and the bottom wing.

 

 

 

 

Not only were the gear well parts trimmed, but many places on the lower wing needed trimming as well.   This to me is proof positive that if you glued all parts to the lower wing in Step 29 as instructed, fit to the upper wings would be a mess.

 

 

 

 

A view from the top with everything dry fit together.  The inner walls should be sanded a bit, because they can interfere with the outside cockpit cage in the fuselage.  This entire area should be painted interior green as well, since some of it will be visible from the top of the cockpit.

 

 

 

 

From the bottom.  Everything should fit snugly without the need for clamps.

 

 

 

 

When the wing halves are glued together, the gear wells provide interior strength.

 

 

 

 

 

The next steps will be to add several parts to gear wells, paint them, weather them, then glue the wings together.  Thanks for your continued interest in this slow project.

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited September 13, 2020 by chuck540z3

[JayW]

Chuck - as a great fan of gear and wheel well work, I offer my congratulations for a fine effort.  I would have thought this kit and its tooling were designed and manufactured from computer modelling software.  Which would have better assured great fit.  I guess not!

 

[Alex]

Yep, those look like Special Hobby instructions to me... 

 

Great demonstration of the methodical way to sneak up on an excellent fit with sub-excellent starting materials.  The detail molded into those wheel well parts is actually quite nice, and your final product (as usual) looks great.  It's too bad that SH couldn't pair the slick looks with a slick fit...

[Cheetah11]

Hi Chuck

Great work on fixing the gear walls. You make it look so easy. 
 

I remember on my build after opening the box and looking at the fine surface detail I thought “ Tamiya is in trouble “. After sweating through the wheel wells I realized Tamiya is far from trouble.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Nick

 

 

 

[dodgem37]

Very well done.

 

What is the white shim at the strut base about?

 

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mark

Edited September 14, 2020 by dodgem37

[dennismcc]

What a great tutorial, it will certainly save time and a lot of grief when I finally get round to my build, keep up the good work.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[fastterry]

Great work with the heads up about the wheel wells. My Tempest V is a PCM one which is in the cabinet however I have a SH Mk II in the stash so your experiences will be of great help when I come to putting her together. As others have said keep up the good work.

TRF

[alain11]

very well done !!!!!!!!!!!!!!  that seems so easy !!! any extra details inside ?????????? 

Alain

[chuck540z3]

Thank you Gents!

 

4 hours ago, dodgem37 said:

What is the white shim at the strut base about?

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mark

 

Shim?  I haven't added anything yet, so maybe you are looking at the little tab for the outer landing gear door?

 

25 minutes ago, alain11 said:

very well done !!!!!!!!!!!!!!  that seems so easy !!! any extra details inside ?????????? 

Alain

 

It is easy, but very time consuming, so be ready for that.  I will only add hydraulic and other lines if they are obvious on the real deal, but probably not too much.  While I used to go nuts with detail in landing gear wells, I have found over time that it's mostly a waste, since you rarely see any of it again when the model is finished.  We'll see!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[Landrotten Highlander]

I think the 'shim' is a reference to the top of the wall between the space where the wheel goes and the space where the strut and retracting mechanism lives.  However, looking closer I think it is just the light reflection which makes this part appear white compare to the rest of the wheel bay.

[Marcel111]

Not entirely my subject but your work is pristine as always. Maybe make a late career change to plastic surgery? Oh wait, that’s what you’re doing already...