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2. The
Eduard 1/48th Scale Hawker Tempest Mk V (early version). The 'early version'
refers to the longer Cannon Barrels in the wings (left). |
3. By
early June I had stripped of all the paint that had originally been
applied and 'un-assembled' all of Steve's original work to bring the kit
back to pristine status |
4. After reversing all of the original construction
I painstakingly started
from scratch and rebuilt the cockpit and assembled the wings. |
5.
Although the instructions show the cockpit tub being assembled separately
this makes painting difficult. Instead it is always better to fix all
sections of the cockpit inside the fuselage in such a way that it make
painting easier. |
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6. Here
we see the seat after the paint & superglue had been stripped away. This had
been assembled incorrectly by its previous owner so was re-assembled as
shown here. |
7. These
photo's give a bit more detail of how the cockpit sides and bulk heads were
assembled in situ. You need to tape the fuselage sides together temporarily
then secure everything with BluTak. |
8. When everything is temporarily fixed then
simply superglue all the resin components in place. The BluTak is
obviously not strong so use scrap plastic in the joints (right). |
9.
The exhaust pipes were drilled out for realism. You can buy better exhausts
from Moskit but I was trying to build this ProfiPack 'straight from the
box'! |
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10. The
general scene of chaos, around early June 2005, on the Modelling Workbench.
After cockpit, wing, propeller, exhaust, radiator and tail assembly. Then I
took a few weeks to clear the Attic out... |
11. This
photo was taken at the end of July 2005. The only progress this month was
the airbrushing of the interior grey and black. |
12. The
next sequence of photo's are taken in September 2005. The black cockpit
areas are masked off so that the green can be air-brushed on. |
13.
...and the same for the other side. Note I have masked off the Radiator area
to prevent any accidental overspray ruining the finish in these areas. |
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14. After the masking came off, and some
hand painting with a fine brush, this is the finished cockpit detail. A
little dry-brushing picks out the details. |
15. The
radiator assembly and photo-etch grill after they were airbrushed Humbrol
Metalcote Gunmetal. This polishes to a great metallic finish. |
16. The cockpit floor and undercarriage wheel
wells shortly after airbrushing interior green. |
17.
After a wash of black acrylic (heavily thinned and with a drop of acrylic
gloss) and some paint chips, & this bay is finished. |
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18. A similar acrylic black wash treatment to the rest of the
cockpit yields good results. |
19. The
undercarriage doors after having been airbrushed green ..... |
20. ...and after they have been 'washed' (with the same recipe black acrylic) and
weathered. They just come alive don't they? |
21.
With the inside finished it's time for major assembly. First the fuselage
(which fitted together very well)... |
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22. ...and then the wings & tail to the fuselage.
Note the very poor fit at the wing/horizontal tail roots requiring much
filler. I tried for a while to cut away the cockpit floor to make this
fit better but the problem appears to be with the fuselage side
mouldings. |
23.
Pictured in early October 2005. All those awful joints have been filled and
smoothed off. Some black paints was added to highlight any problems before
finishing off. In this photo the undercarriage has temporarily been
installed so that the retraction arms, on the main gear, can be glued to the
legs in the correct position. The scalpel holds everything in place. |
24. A few weeks later at the end of October
all those evenings in are starting to pay off. By now the grey undercoat
is on and the preshading has been done. The RAF Sky band on the rear
fuselage has been air-brushed on as have the wing-leading-edge yellow
strips. The kit is now mounted on a temporary toothpick
"undercarriage"........... |
25.
Turn the Tempest upside-down and we see that the white areas for the
Invasion stripes have been added. All these coloured areas will be carefully
masked off ready for the application of the final camouflage scheme. This
views show very well the temporary wooden under-cart which comes in very
handy for handling the kit during air-brushing. |
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26. By
early November the camouflage colours have been airbrushed on using
Xtracrylics. Here we see a close-up of the cockpit with its toothpick strut
that supports the model when upturned for painting. |
27. Here
we see an overall view of the painted model as a comparison to the next
photo taken after application of decals, weathering and finishing. |
28. By the middle of November 2005 the
Tempest is complete. As a divergence from normal practices this model
had its panel lines airbrushed with Xtracolour Tyre Black. The
experiment was not entirely successful. |
29.
Despite the imperfection the finished paint job looks pretty good. The
original priming undercoat did not go on very well and had to be cut back
with Micromesh to make it smooth. |
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30. In this area of the tail we see how the
post-shading of the panel lines doesn't work too well. The airbrush line
should have been narrower and the colour lighter. Better still the post
shade colour should not have been black. |
31. A
close-up of the sharp end of the Tempest showing off the beautiful detail in
the radiator. This item is the photo-etch item shown earlier. |
32. The Eduard details add realism to the
cockpit - such as these seatbelts. |
33.
The canopy is from Falcon Clearvax but it was considerably larger than the
kit's and may have been over-sized..... |
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34. Another peek at that cockpit from above. |
35.
This photo does its best to show those fantastic details that are so
difficult to see. |
36. The other side of the tail showing a
slightly more subtle application of the post-shade. In future it is best
if the post shade colour is a much darker version of the base colour.
Then the panels should be in filled with a lighter version of the base
colour. |
37.
Even so the effect is not too bad with the dark grey used here for post
shading. The wing areas look very good. The panel lines have been initially
picked out with a wash of black oil paint thinned with white spirit. |
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38. The post-shading with dark grey
is most effective on the underside where it is dark grey over light
grey. |
39. A
close up of the underside of the wings shows the beautiful realism of the
weathering. |
40. ...and the same on the other wing. |
41.
The underside of the tail also came out well. |
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42. A little Xtracolour Exhaust has been
applied to the Cannons and links chutes |
43. The
undercarriage received only a wire brake line. Apart from this it is
straight-out-of-the-box. |
44. The
underside looks quite neat. |
45.
Nothing wrong here. The finish is a little rough. |
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46. A wider view of the same area. |
47. A final overall shot of the underside. |
48.
Photo added September 2006 showing the Tempest on its Base. |
49.
Close up of the cockpit area with the flash on to show the interior. |
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| 50.
Side shot of the Tempest on the base. It represents an area of PSP on a very
muddy and wet day at Tangmere. |
51.
This offers a slightly better view of the mud and puddles. The full story of
the making of the Base is in our "Gallery" section
here. |
52.
Here we see a close up of the PSP. This is actually from a FlightPath
photo-etch set. The base is modeller's clay. |
53.
And in conclusion.... Eduard's Tempest Mk. V (early)... |
