I have been going from one kit box to another to figure out what I want to do. I do hate being idle but with all the irons I have in the fire I shouldn't have that problem. What I am doing is this; I get bored with a build then I go back to one that I have on the shelf. I'll build on it a while then on to another. I try not to open another new kit until I have finished a shelf queen. In this case I have two of the Special Hobby Tempest Mk Vs. One is the high tech and the other is the basic kit. This one I started a few months back, around last November, and I just lost interest in it. I bought the barracuda resin cowl set that contains the cowl and four bladed prop and spinner with the gauge for getting the prop blades on right.
I guess the most challenging part to the build is the pit,for me at least, because it is still some what a limited run kit. Personally I don't have a good record finishing limited run stuff and that is because I get frustrated with the kit and usually wind up giving it away. The wing and wheel well assemblies are a bit of a work out in their own right but I had then in their places in short order. As far as the new Barracuda cowl goes, it is a real nice piece of resin and fits the fuse pretty well. The radiator had to be reshaped quite a bit to fit snugly but after all was said and done I got a good feeling that this will be one nice kit when done.
Once the canopy goes on then there wont be too much to see in there.
The kit had nice instructions and the high tech kit has ALL of the goodies including a very nicely detailed Napier Sabre engine. I may just have to get started on that one after Christmas some time.
Cheers
Paul
Looking good. The Tempest is a brute of a machine. The nose correction looks good. I can remember an old guy telling me "Only 3 puppies at a time". Good luck with the 'shelf of doom'.
Coming along nicely! Don't lose the mojo!!
Finally I see some progress on this build. All of the flying surfaces are secured in place and I finally got some alclad II surface primer and micro filler. after a thorough airbrush cleaning I shot it and then burnished all of the roughness out. I then used my tape for curves, which reminds me of the vinyl electricians tape we used in the navy, and came as close as I could to the camo pattern that is depicted in the instructions. I know there are some areas that look too squared off or too round but that , I believe, is the nature of the tape. I didn't want to use the blue tac because it is pretty old and getting time to toss it . It is now leaving residue and that really messes with the paint.
I did lay down the dark sea gray before I taped it and I hope I can find the dark green that I need. The last that I saw of it it was running around the Swordfish box.
I got all of the invasion stripes done. They are just like the originals, not straight nor even in width. Since this is just a practice model I really don't care. I also applied the decals. They are as thick as the old Hasegawa and Academy decals but they did respond well to Tamiya Markfit decal solution. I am pleased how they came out. I do have a couple more to add and then I can put on the gear, prop and all the fiddly bits that make you cringe when you build a kit.
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Looking good. The deckles look good and laid down nicely. D-Day stripes look good too.
Man those 1/32 kits are BIG! Everything looking good on this - and those decals did lay down nicely.
I am headed into the home stretch here. All of the difficult things are complete and all that I have left to do is a couple of decals, fiddly bits and the weathering. This will sit for a bit until I get back into the swing of things after some sort of two day thing that had me under the weather.
The Barracuda cowl resin set is pretty good but the only gripe I had was with the spinner assembly that came with the upgrade. No matter how much I sanded I I did not get the back plate to fit well inside the spinner. I used too dark a gray for the dark sea gray so the contrast is pretty poor there. The stripes are kind of wonky but I really don't care at this point.The landing gear, which I was thinking would give me trouble, went in with out any problems. Some of the gear bay innards should be placed before and some after the wings go together. you need to really read the instructions thoroughly and then make a decision when, what and should I paint it now. Most modelers paint the inside of the gear bay and gear doors interior green which may be OK but I chose to keep it light gray, the same color as the underside, in accordance to some of the pictures I saw.
Here is a shout out to all of you guys that have given me inspiration and encouragement.
More to come after the weathering.
Cheers
Paul