rkranias

More scratch work. Rigging bar on rudder, left. Grab bar on tail, right. Will reduce the rib via sanding prior to paint. Grab handles/rigging retainers .4mm styrene rod, bent via mandrel and hair dryer, top main body near base of rotor mast and bottom of main body installed. Tail pad just below stabilizer. Also added .4mm aluminum tube just forward to tail pad for rigging. Grab handles/rigging retainers on rotor mast. What the heck are these? Formed using a mandrel and hairdryer I glued the straight pieces to curved pieces. After a little trimming. Cleats don't fail me now! The cleats and grab/rigging retainers were offered in PE. I elected to makes these out of stryene as they weld to kit plastic. The PE would eventually get knocked off as there will be much handling during painting and rigging. I feel these will be stronger than PE attached with CA. Almost ready to start painting.

Thanks Harv!

Skids added. This required more .5mm styrene rods. The Fly plastic is soft and works well with welding the styrene to Fly plastic. Cement is Tamiya Thin Cement. MEK is too hot for this. Skids added using only one kit part for braces. All others were measured and replaced with .5mm styrene rod. I drilled a .7mm hole at base of rotor mast. Inserted a trimmed .7mm aluminum tube completely through. This will be used for the rigging.

My OCD has reached an enhanced level. Steelers are turning into an ICU recovery floor. My hopes remain positive. However, my wife is carefully monitoring my activities with sharp pointy things.

a resurrection! love the subject.

Watching this one Jeroen!

My plan is to crank this out by November then start something really big. The Fa330 always interested me as a unique aircraft with an equally unique mission. This was towed by a U-Boat so the pilot could see beyond U-Boat horizon view and report any enemy activity. Finally there is a lot of rigging and I will use either RB or GasPatch turnbuckles. This will get me feeling comfortable for my WNW build, next on the bench. That's right Kiwi Mike...no typo here. 30 minutes into this build I was already regretting this. This aircraft is mostly tubular and the parts are typical short run injection. Loads of flash and seams. Cleaning these tubes are going to drive me batty. So I will cut all remaining tubular parts from .5mm, .4mm and .3mm styrene rod. This will actually be easier than cutting from sprue and cleaning. Building balsa wood and tissue models experience will come in handy. Resin main control pully wheel (feel free to correct me on correct definition) and control stick installed with epoxy. I also wrapped the control stick handle with .2mm lead wire. A brush coat of paint will give the handle a ribbed appearance. Spar and 4 sub control pully wheels are cut from styrene. More fun with .5mm and .4mm styrene rods. The rudder gets a .4mm rod on both sides and will be sanded down and this was fabric. Will also add grab handle I cut out at top of rudder.

Thanks Mike!

Thanks Rob. ANYZ resin is well done. I pushed thin electronic wire through the braided thread which allowed me to bend. Before you push wire through bend end of wire no more the a few mm's to create a "smooth" tip so you may easily push wire through the braided thread. Thanks Ernie. Way too generous, but thanks I'll take it! I'd be honored to have posted on the LSM FB page. Thanks Hubert!

A Thing Divine For Nothing Natural I Ever Saw So Nobel Special Hobby Tempest Mk.V #32052 was used for Evan Mackies mount. Mackie, RNZAF, was the highest scoring Tempest ace with 20+ kills. Albeit, most of Mackies kills were in Spitfires. This kit is a most difficult build. I started this almost 2 years ago and binned it several times as my MoJo was clearly flattened with this. From the cockpit, wing root and landing gear construction offered me plenty of WTFFF! and Are You Kidding Me! moments. There was a good chance you may have heard my screams. This kit is clearly recommended for experienced modellers only. I chose Mackies build as I have several Kiwi friends and the lack of ordinance and invasion stripes show the beautiful lines of the Tempest. Weathering kept to a minimum as this aircraft was delivered to Mackie May 1945. See my build log. Build Details Yahu 3214 IP, center panel only as side panels do not fit Barracuda 32334 Nose Correction Set, 32140 Tempest Wheels, 32011 Spitfire Cockpit Upgrade Part II (Acemaker II gunsight only) Master Model 32096 Tempest Mk.V "short" Cannon Tips Maketar Masks 32122 Tempest Mk.V REXX 32043 exhausts ANYZ AN011 .5mm Braided Thread, AN016 Line Connectors MV Lenses 197 Amber, LS800 Red & Green, PN21 Clear Albion Aluminum Slide Fit Tubes .3mm, .5mm, .7mm and .9mm MR Paint 77 Nato Black 110 RAF Green 111 RAF Interior Grey Green 112 RAF Medium Sea Grey 115 RAF Ocean Grey 118 RAF Sky 122 RAF Marking Yellow 123 RAF Marking Red 135 Insignia White 183 Oxford Blue Vallejo 306 Dark Rubber Various Alclad Colors Tamiya X22 Clear, XF86 Flat Clear MiG Washes Dark Wash Streaking Grime 1203 Engine Oil 1408 PLW Deep Grey 1602 PLW Green Brown 1612 MiG Pigments Light Dust 3002 Black Smoke P023 Rust P025 Russian Earth P034 These publications, highly recommended, were critical helping me on this build. Especially the landing gear rake. Airframe Minature No.4 Hawker Tempest Osprey 27 Typhoon and Tempest Aces of WWII Warts and all this build yielded some great lessons. Thank you all for your encouragement and support during this build.

Photo shoot underway.

Finished Bench shot and test shot on photo table with iPhone. Full SLR photo shoot in a few days. Stay tuned. These 2 side by side clearly show just how big the Tempest is.

Some streaking underneath the radiator. Some streaking applied. The landing gear was nothing short of a nightmare. Every piece did not fit and required a slight trim to fit. Install parts H22 and H23 after full glue cure add parts I51. You'll need to trim H22 and H23 to fit on the main gear H11 and H12. A word of caution. Be sure to test fit landing gear leg H11 and H12 to determine if cut was necessary, it was for me. For me in order to get an accurate landing gear rake I glued parts H11 to D4 and H12 to D3. Once glue cure i will use 15 minute epoxy to glue landing gear to wheel well. As the epoxy cures I am constantly adjusting the landing gear rake using the profile drawing from the Valiant Wings Tempest publication. Tail gear installed as well. After epoxy cure of 48 hours I'm comfortable enough to get the big Tempest on her legs. Roy's wheels added with epoxy and given a long cure time. Color me satisfied with the landing gear rake.

Decal and initial staining has been sealed with gloss varnish. While the varnish cures on aircraft I gave Roy's wheels some love with a shot of varnish. Will pick out details with PLW. While all things varnish cure I work on bits of landing gear, landing gear doors and even some radiator action. Panel Line Wash applied. Weathering will be kept to a minimum for the following reasons...pick one: a) Mackies Tempest was delivered May 1945 so it's in pretty clean shape. b) My weathering skill-sets are not advanced The cockpit. Roy's Acemaker II gunsight looks really nice all jammed into the dashboard comb. Pardon the dust

ah, you be too kind. you by the way are rocking that RCAF Lanc. nice scratch work on the reflectors.

a great scheme on a giant.

that's gonna be a big 'un.

Adding brake lines and I've decided to try ANYZ products Line Connectors AN016 and Braided Line .5mm AN011 Black. ANYZ product is exceptional casting. I also have the Spark Plug set which must be seen to believe. Various size copper wire .3mm and .35mm used. I threaded the wire through the Braided Line so the Braided Line will hold shape. My micro drills .3mm and .35mm I drilled out the ends of connectors, yes it's a painstaking event. Using epoxy to secure the wire to Line Connector I'll pull the Braided Line back then paint the Line Connectors. I have a good feeling about this. May try same approach with ignition lines.

Landing light, MV Products (P/N 21), 3.5mm clear lens installed. A dot of epoxy to secure. The landing light cover needed much sanding and shaping to fit . Mask applied. Will glue cover after epoxy for lens has cured then paint and touch up the nick just above the ejector openings. Not sure if I'll address the slight lift on the red paint on the roundel.

Stenciling all done, over 60. Trust me, see for yourself. Will seal with varnish and begin weathering.

Boy, you ain't kidding Ernie. Thanks i need to crack open my DH9 and Mossie after this. Thanks Carl

While the gloss cures I'll work on the Prop. Roy 's Prop Assembly Jig is brilliant on many levels. The measure for 4' yellow tip is accurate. To assist in masking the tip I extended the tip color break just beyond the blade outline. I primed each blade with Gunze 1500 Black then applied a shot of light grey (to decrease yellow paint build up) on the tip area followed by yellow. After paint cure I placed each prop on the jig and carefully placed tape at the 4" mark. Each blade gets a coat of MRP77 NATO Black. Mask removed...all good. Interior of back plate gets a shot of Alclad116 Semi-Matt aluminum. For me I wanted just a peek of unpainted metal at root of prop blade. Is it accurate? Not sure. I'll get a nice color break from the prop hub and blade. Using 15 minute epoxy i set the blade in position and carefully adjust according to the jig. I let complete cure before I move on to next blade. The prop spinner got painted with MRP255 Black Night Camouflage. This gives a nice contrast between the prop spinner and blades. After near complete epoxy cure I slip on the prop spinner to double check alignment. All four blades mounted and cured the prop hub is carefully glued in place. The prop spinner easily fits on the back plate after all blades glued. Test fit of complete prop assembly. You can see the contrast black between spinner and blades. Pardon the dust. Look at prop root and you can see the aluminum color inside of back plate.

National markings, sn and codes painted. Time to apply gloss. I've tried many gloss varnishes and I'm frequently trying others. Thing is I always keep coming back to Tamiya x22 gloss. I mix 1:1 ratio with Gunze Mr. Leveling Thinner (MLT). The results are always consistent. I also get to use my new Creos Procon Boy PS290 .5mm airbrush with fan tip. This is my new full coverage primer and varnish weapon. Love the nice wide spray pattern and great coverage. Was not sure about using a trigger airbrush. For full coverage this is the bees knees. Gloss applied for stencil decal work. Look forward to cut and place about 50 of these little fellas. While the gloss cures I'll work on other parts and bits.