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

[Lemonstein]

7 hours ago, Thunnus said:

 

Yes, it's John but that's ok!  I think lots of people think "Chuck" when they see a Tempest build!

 

The engine will be left uncovered with cowlings off.  Due to shape and configuration of the three cowlings, I don't see a way to have them placed onto the aircraft unless they were glued on.  And they are too thin to accommodate magnets.  That's ok with me... I went into this build thinking that the engine would be left uncovered.

 

 

Very sorry about that John! I was looking at a few different builds and got a little confused - clearly the weekend needs to get here sooner for me!

 

The "surgery" on the engine/cowling is really paying off! Cockpit details look good too

[zaxos345]

Some really nice work there John!! 

[chuck540z3]

John,

 

Really enjoying watching you deal with the fit issues of the Barracuda nose AND the engine at the same time.  If anybody can do this cleanly, you can for sure.  Without all this extra effort, it''s just another Tempest.  With it, it's going to be another "Thunnus" masterpiece, I am certain!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!

 

Family medical situation prevented me from spending too much time in the modeling room.  Actually, I had the TIME but the worry that went with the waiting didn't have me in the right frame of mind.  The only thing I managed to do on the Tempest build was to look and think about the cockpit components and I made some modifications to the cockpit lights.  I drilled out the faces, painted them white and then used uv clear epoxy to simulate the lenses.  I added a wire to the back of lights to hold them while painting and they can be utilized as the power cables.

[D.B. Andrus]

Hope all is well with your family, John.

 

Damian

[scvrobeson]

Good progress. Hope everything is okay now John.  Family is more important

 

 

 

 

Matt 

[Derek B]

Nice work john.

 

Derek

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!  My elderly mother-in-law fell down and we had to take her to the emergency room.  Broken bones in her neck and sinus plus a 4 inch gash on her head that needed stitches.  She's at home recovering now but it was a scary few days for us.

 

I received a package from Barracuda Studios today.  I tried to compare sizes right out of the box but couldn't get a good read based on the interference caused by the casting block.

 

 

After I removed the casting block carefully so as not reduce the diameter of the spinner one iota, I made some measurements.  According to the digital calipers, this spinner is slightly larger in circumference at the base than the original spinner.  Neither of them are perfectly round so the two measurements (approximately 1/2 way between the prop blade openings) are different.

 

Old: 25.14mm & 25.92mm

New: 25.37mm & 26.07mm

 

There is an overlap in dimensions and this is reflected in the test fittings of the new spinner on the backplate... better but still smaller than the backplate in some areas.  The differences can be reduced/increased by rotating the spinner but not completely eliminated.

 

 

It's definitely workable now but I'm a bit disappointed that the spinner was still, in essence, undersized.  So... using the Barracuda resin components will need shaving of the backplate to match the spinner and also some shaving of the fuselage to match the backplate since the out-of-round condition on these parts creates gaps.

 

 

To make the resin engine fit, the front portion  of that engine will need to shaved down to match the reduced radius of the Barracuda spinner.  The kit parts fit much better and will require no shaving or adjustments of the kit spinner, backplate, fuselage or engine.  However, an insert piece, which forms the ceiling of the large intake is a bad fit and will be some work to cleanly fit that part in.  It is incorporated into the Barracuda resin cowling.

 

 

So the choice is still not clear.  If the spinner was a better fit or even slightly oversized, I think I would've been swayed to go with the resin cowling.  I know that there are differences in the intake to consider and my spinner re-shape is still a bit more bulbous than the corrected spinner but I'm still considering the kit parts.  I may play with that insert piece and see what issues are involved there before making any decisions.

 

[Martinnfb]

amazing work as always John. ,  joy to follow 

[aircare84]

On 3/5/2021 at 8:28 AM, Thunnus said:

Mounting the Barracuda spinner backplate reveals the remaining issue if I want to go this route:  The front of the engine mount will have to be shaved down to meet the backplate, losing some nice detail.  I have Archer's raised rivets so I could probably get most of the detail back.

John,

That was the issue I had mentioned about getting the engine to fit Barracuda's nose. Have to reduce the diameter of the front engine 'frame' ring & radiator to fit the smaller nose. I don't think a bothered to add the raised rivets afterwards.

Larry

[Troy Molitor]

What a conundrum.  This shouldn't be.  An aftermarket set designed specifically to correct or enhance a production kit issue.  I have this same aftermarket set sitting inside my own kit.  What a bummer of a situation.  Regardless, I'm still looking forward to what you come up with John.  

 

I have a similar issues with select AIRES sets.  The resin shrinkage is just awful on some of their sets.  

[crobinsonh]

Great work and description of the problems and potential solutions.

[Derek B]

Might be worth having another go at the kit spinner John, as it doesn't look that far off now.

 

 

Derek

Edited March 9, 2021 by Derek B

[Scale32]

26 minutes ago, Derek B said:

Might be worth having another go at the kit spinner John; it doesn't look that far off now.

 

 

Derek

THAT is a great photo. 

 

Cheers Bevan 

[Thunnus]

On 3/8/2021 at 3:46 PM, Martinnfb said:

amazing work as always John. ,  joy to follow 

 

Thanks Martin!  Always a pleasure to read your comments!

 

 

 

On 3/8/2021 at 4:00 PM, aircare84 said:

John,

That was the issue I had mentioned about getting the engine to fit Barracuda's nose. Have to reduce the diameter of the front engine 'frame' ring & radiator to fit the smaller nose. I don't think a bothered to add the raised rivets afterwards.

Larry

 

Thank you for those excellent reference photos Larry!  Gives me a very good idea of how the resin engine fits within the Barracuda cowling and the scope of necessary adjustments.  Just hope mine turns out half as nice as yours!

 

 

 

On 3/8/2021 at 8:15 PM, Troy Molitor said:

What a conundrum.  This shouldn't be.  An aftermarket set designed specifically to correct or enhance a production kit issue.  I have this same aftermarket set sitting inside my own kit.  What a bummer of a situation.  Regardless, I'm still looking forward to what you come up with John.  

 

I have a similar issues with select AIRES sets.  The resin shrinkage is just awful on some of their sets.  

 

As far as resin goes, I think it is par for the course.  I've seen better and I've seen worse.  There was no message or note with the package so I don't know if the slightly revised spinner will be offered to existing owners of the cowling set.  As far as I can tell, the differences are very minute and doesn't go the full way to correct the issue.

 

 

 

20 hours ago, crobinsonh said:

Great work and description of the problems and potential solutions.

 

Thank you!  I actually enjoy the conundrums that present themselves during each build and I'm truly grateful that we have access to such a wide range of aftermarket products.  Both routes are do-able... it's just a matter of picking a road and moving forward.  Which I haven't done yet!

 

 

 

20 hours ago, Derek B said:

Might be worth having another go at the kit spinner John, as it doesn't look that far off now.

 

 

Derek

 

Thanks Derek!  Yes, I think the kit spinner is getting to acceptably close in shape.  It's very easy to chuck it into my David 300 rotary tool and adjusting it even now.

 

I haven't decided which cowling to use and didn't feel like working on the cockpit so I conducted a paint test, even though that stage is very far away.  I used a spare wing to test two sets of RAF colors.  On the right side are Mr Color paints and on the left Mr Hobby Aqueous + Tamiya.  I think I'm going to go with the Mr Color paints as they spray a bit nicer and offer a better contrast between the two grays.  I also cut some masks and tried my hand at the 4-color RAF roundels.  Not perfect but I think I've established a working order for the color application with a minimum of mask transfers.