Narses2's Blog - or what I'm slowly making progress on

[Nick]

Interestingly the Tempest includes both 4 and 5 spoked wheels, the 4 spoke not being used in the box options. They are rather nice and you can even read the makers name (Dunlop) on them 

Among the other non used items are the drop tanks which are moulded on the clear sprue. I'm told this is because the boxing that uses then will include an option for a recce version which had the camera gear in an old drop tank ?

Both of these, and the sprue layout makes me wonder if we will see a series 2 aircraft from Airfix ?

Wasn't there a clear panel on the actual pylon?  IIRC there was mention of this in an Airfix product update a few months ago.

That's right. https://uk.airfix.com/community/blog-and-news/workbench/hawkers-tempestuous-typhoon-upgrade

Unusually, the fairings which attached the tanks to the wing of the Tempest were made of a clear acetate material, to allow ground crews to be able to clearly see that the securing latches had engaged onto the wing stations. As a consequence, the latches and fuel pipework can be seen through this clear section, something which can be modelled on this new kit.

[PR19_Kit]

Those fuel lines inside the pylon will need the good old 'single bristle brush' to paint them properly! 

I've just had a look at my Tempest kit and they're about 0.5 mm across......

[The Wooksta!]

Having had another look at the KP Tempest V, I'll definitely be sticking with there Tempest II/IV boxing, as it's the same plastic as the V but with an additional sprue giving the engines for the II or the VI, plus a Centaurus prop and rockets.  Oddly, to attachment points on the wings, which should be there as standard.  They are on ye olde Matchbox Tempest.

[NARSES2]

Made some progress with my Airfix Tempest and I now have an airframe. So painting can start during the coming week. So far it's been a problem free build. Even the rather odd method of attaching the wing to fuselage works well 

[PR19_Kit]

Why is it odd? Doesn't it just plonk into place from underneath?

[NARSES2]

Why is it odd? Doesn't it just plonk into place from underneath?

It's moulded with the the "roof" of the radiator and you have to slide that in too the open rear of the radiator and then click the wing into place. It fits without a problem, just thought it was a little unusual.

[PR19_Kit]

There's some inventive thinking going on at Airfix these days, and at least the bits fit now, which is more than could be said of some of their earlier efforts.....

[NARSES2]

There's some inventive thinking going on at Airfix these days, and at least the bits fit now,

Yup, but the tolerances are so tight that even the merest hint of paint on a mating surface can cause a problem. Will we ever be satisfied ? 

[scooter]

There's some inventive thinking going on at Airfix these days, and at least the bits fit now,

Yup, but the tolerances are so tight that even the merest hint of paint on a mating surface can cause a problem. Will we ever be satisfied ? 

I'm thinking of a very old Garfield Sunday strip, wherein Garfield narrates Jon's attempt to build a 3 masted ship model, his frustration and turns it into a shake and bake kit.

[Nick]

There's some inventive thinking going on at Airfix these days, and at least the bits fit now,

Yup, but the tolerances are so tight that even the merest hint of paint on a mating surface can cause a problem. Will we ever be satisfied ? 

I'm thinking of a very old Garfield Sunday strip, wherein Garfield narrates Jon's attempt to build a 3 masted ship model, his frustration and turns it into a shake and bake kit.

That's a good one: https://garfield.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:TeeJay87/Two_Approaches_to_Model_Building?file=1996-05-19.gif

https://garfield.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:TeeJay87/Two_Approaches_to_Model_Building

[scooter]

There's some inventive thinking going on at Airfix these days, and at least the bits fit now,

Yup, but the tolerances are so tight that even the merest hint of paint on a mating surface can cause a problem. Will we ever be satisfied ? 

I'm thinking of a very old Garfield Sunday strip, wherein Garfield narrates Jon's attempt to build a 3 masted ship model, his frustration and turns it into a shake and bake kit.

That's a good one: https://garfield.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:TeeJay87/Two_Approaches_to_Model_Building?file=1996-05-19.gif

Yup, I clipped that comic and had it hanging on my corkboard for ages

[NARSES2]

Started to get paint on the Airfix Typhoon 

[NARSES2]

Just e-mailed Airfix with a suggestion for the instruction sheets. Now I do think their current ones are excellent and could be used as the industry standard, but from a personal point of view I wish they had a list of unused parts on the sheet. Just spent time trying to see if I'd missed fitting a part on the Tempest, it's rather an odd part and if I'm honest I've no idea what it is ? You don't need a sprue guide with the new kits as the parts are all clearly labelled, but an unused parts note would be nice.

[PR19_Kit]

Many of their competitors have sprue diagrams on the instructions sheets with the unused parts are crossed or greyed out, which makes a lot of sense.

[NARSES2]

Many of their competitors have sprue diagrams on the instructions sheets with the unused parts are crossed or greyed out, which makes a lot of sense.

Yup and those diagrams are really useful where the parts layout is not exactly logical or there are no part numbers on the sprues. I don't think Airfix need to go that far as the parts are easy to find, but a list of unused parts would be easy I would have thought ?