1/32 Special Hobby Hawker Tempest V - Fairbanks JJ+F

[Nighthawk Calling 1]

Looking great John, keep up the good work.

[Thunnus]

On 4/8/2022 at 6:17 PM, chuck540z3 said:

Great work John! 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Thanks Chuck!  Got your build on file as I approach the main landing gear wells!  Hopefully, I can avoid major troubles there.

 

 

 

On 4/8/2022 at 8:30 PM, Citadelgrad said:

Your work is inspiration, John.   I have several of your past builds in my stash.  This is fantastic.  A formerly solitary pursuit is now a place where i can interact with really talented people and hopefully improve my own skills. 
 

thank you for sahring, not just your results but how to achieve them, amd often, the “why”, too.  
 

i really appreciate this forum. 

Thanks Bill for that very astute comment.  What you said really struck me as true for me.  "A formerly solitary pursuit is now a place where I can interact with really talented people and hopefully improve my own skills."  Yeah, that's it.  As a 50-something engineer, I found that I have a desire to express myself in ways that I cannot do at work.  It's not just the building of the models that gives me pleasure but the act of sharing here on this forum.  Having people look at my work and understand the passion and effort that goes into each little detail is priceless to me. And to have modelers that I look up to and admire, comment on my work... wow!

 

 

 

On 4/9/2022 at 12:23 AM, Nighthawk Calling 1 said:

Looking great John, keep up the good work.

Thanks so much!  I'm trying!

 

It's unfortunate that things get covered up but I'm ok with it as I've got a good photo record of the cockpit.  This eventuality doesn't stop me from doing what I like to do and that may mean adding detail that won't be seen or noticed.  Like this tiny knob on the lap harness, which I forgot to put on but felt compelled to do so now.

 

 

The clear parts had some scuff marks so I took some time today to polish them out. I use the Novus set of plastic polishes for this.
Before...

 

 

After...

 

 

Here's the tail wheel assembly fit into one of the fuselage sides. After I verified the fit of the components, I painted each separately.

 

 

The wheel well floor, as well as the fuselage sides, were painted the same green as the cockpit.  I performed some hairspray chipping and a fairly heavy dose of pastel wash weathering.  This will be significantly dirtier than the main wheel wells.  I figure that tail well is small and hard to get to and probably didn't receive as much maintenance attention as the main wheel wells.

 

 

The tail wheel has been painted with a base of dark brown/black and weathered with different color chalk pastels.

 

 

The tail wheel strut has also been painted.  I've elected to portray the landing gear legs as light grey. The tail wheel strut may be given a little more weathering than what is shown here.

 

 

I'm going to glue the tail wheel floor into place prior to attaching the two fuselage sides together.  The tail strut and wheel will be kept off until the beast is painted.

 

Edited May 13, 2022 by Thunnus
Postimage issues... content unchanged

[brahman104]

So good!

 

Craig

[Thunnus]

Thanks Craig!  I appreciate the comment!

 

With the cockpit tub being complete, I started doing some major component dryfitting with the cockpit in place.  I've read other builds of this kit having an issue with the cockpit being too wide and not allowing the fuselage sides to close completely.  To this end, I made sure that the cockpit frame was glued as tightly together as possible, especially when it came to overall dimensions.  Fit is VERY precise on this kit and alignment pins and holes need to be inspected and adjusted as necessary, especially after painting, to ensure a flush fit.

 

Even with this precaution, I found that the both the front and rear of the cockpit bulkheads appeared to be too wide and were shaved down to get the fuselage sides to close without forcing seams shut. With the fuselage buttoned up with tape, I was able to slide the fuselage onto the wings, from back to front, without having to trim the outer edges of the cockpit cage.  This may change when the wheel well parts go in but for now, the fuselage to wing fit seems ok.

 

 

Another issue with the cockpit forcing the fuselage halves apart is that it may throw off the wing alignment, pushing center wing portion into an anhedral position when it should be flat.  I don't seem to having that problem as of now.

 

 

The bottom wing to fuselage joint doesn't look great so we'll have to keep an eye on this area. Shims might help.

 

 

The two nose halves have been glued together a long time ago.  With the top half sawed off to accept the resin engine, the joints that hold the two parts together are confined to the front and bottom.  This has left the rear to be noticeably narrower than the fuselage.  Keep in mind that there are some internal parts in the nose that may help to spread this apart. Or I may have to consider shims here too.

 

 

 

A test with a temporary spreader bar to see if a fix was possible and it seems to be fixable.

 

 

 

The internal parts within the nose seemed to help but not completely cure the issue.  The bottom joint looks ok though.

 

 

A few more peaks at the cockpit through the fuselage opening. One thing that is puzzling me is the blank rectangular section on the top center of the instrument panel.  I've seen some builds where this has been cut out and other builds that have left it in.  It is full width plastic so it will take some effort to saw it out plus the complication that the IP has already been glued into place.  The gun sight and mounting frame will probably hide most of it so I'm leaning on just leaving it alone.

 

[Sasha As]

It's been a great cabin!

[Thunnus]

15 hours ago, Sasha As said:

It's been a great cabin!

 

Yes, so one more look at it!

 

A final long goodbye to the cockpit from a slightly different perspective...

 

 

I'm just about ready to secure the cockpit in place and glue the fuselage halves together.

[tomg]

Good Bye Cockpit 

[chuck540z3]

Looking beautiful John!

 

As for the dihedral of the bottom of the wings changing when the fuselage is installed, this only happens when the landing gear bay parts are installed to the wing.  The inner walls of the bays are too thick, so when the fuselage is dry fit, the wing must be flexed in order to do so, creating an anhedral situation that also creates a gap at the wing root.  The solution is to just sand down those inner walls, which I would do before gluing them in permanently to make it easier.

 

The square cut-out at the top of the instrument panel is real, but the pics that I have show that there's something directly behind it, so just leaving it as is is pretty accurate.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[Thunnus]

On 4/11/2022 at 1:58 PM, tomg said:

Good Bye Cockpit 

 

Yup... now it's gone!  See below!

 

 

On 4/11/2022 at 2:02 PM, chuck540z3 said:

Looking beautiful John!

 

As for the dihedral of the bottom of the wings changing when the fuselage is installed, this only happens when the landing gear bay parts are installed to the wing.  The inner walls of the bays are too thick, so when the fuselage is dry fit, the wing must be flexed in order to do so, creating an anhedral situation that also creates a gap at the wing root.  The solution is to just sand down those inner walls, which I would do before gluing them in permanently to make it easier.

 

The square cut-out at the top of the instrument panel is real, but the pics that I have show that there's something directly behind it, so just leaving it as is is pretty accurate.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

Yes, thanks Chuck!  That's why I said, "as of now" as the situation may change after I add the wheel well boxes.

 

The Type I Mark III gun sight has been painted.  I added a drop of UV-activated clear epoxy to serve as the optical element.

 

 

The cockpit has been secured into place and the fuselage halves glued together. I'll do the obligatory seam clean up work after the glue dries.

 

 

In the mean time, I've jumped over to the massive wings and given them a check application of brown pastel wash. Instead of re-riveting and re-scribing everything, I'm going to inspect the wash to determine which areas need attention.  The wash will then be scrubbed off.

 

[Thunnus]

Been a bit busy at work so I've not been able to make any big chunk of progress lately.  Been jumping around.  Looking at the wings and preparing to line up the wheel well components, I thought I'd try a different tack with the leading edge inserts.  Instead of gluing them in when the wing is being attached to the fuselage as shown on the plans, I'm going to glue them in now, one at a time, while the wings are still separate.

 

 

This will allow me get the best fit on wing surface joints and it will also be much easier to tidy up these seams without the fuselage in the way.

 

 

Fit is not great and two of the four pieces have visible gaps.

 

 

White Milliput forced into the gaps with a toothpick and then smoothed out with a damp paper towel is my preferred fill method on these types of long seams.

 

 

Also looking at the chin intake components.  I've verified the fit and the parts are ready for painting before assembly.

 

 

All kit parts here. Leading edges have been thinned and sharpened.

 

[Citadelgrad]

I cant wait to see this with paint.  Excellent update, as we have come to expect.  

[zaxos345]

Amazing John!!! 

[dennismcc]

Looking good and some nice ideas for my build when it happens.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!  I painted the radiator intake components.

 

 

I dirtied up this area using airbrush post shading and pastel washes and splattering.

 

[Rockie Yarwood]

Awesome!