Gondor's Grumblings

[kitbasher]

Top notch Hawk, very convincing 👍

The extended jetpipe looks odd (to me) as originally intended on a 'first generation' Hawk, but looks absolutely right on a 'second generation' machine.  It's the longer nose - creates more a balanced looking aeroplane.

[NARSES2]

Hawk's an absolute stunner Alastair 

[su27rules]

   Nice!!

[PR19_Kit]

In the plastic it looks even better than the pics too. 

[Gondor]

Damage Report from the Scottish National this year. Actually everything went well from my point until packing my Hawker Tempest Mk.1 away when one of the main undercarriage legs collapsed. Both legs look as if they have been fixed in the past so tomorrow I will drill and pin the offending leg. The next two casualties were noticed while I was attempting to rearrange my transport boxes to accomidate the Hawk and Tempest VI as well fitting in my Su-27. My Royal Navy P-40 had one of the arms for the wing fold fall out as I had decided to try storing the wings seperatly from the fuselage. In one of the boxes I found a wheel, never a good sign, so lifting the nearest model found that both the main wheels were missing and the second wheel was laying in plain sight. It appears that when I glued them onto their legs there was not enough glue to make a strong bond, this has been sorted and the aircraft, a Swift F.7 is now sitting on a stand while the glue dries. So apart from the Tempest undercarriage leg all problems have been very minor 

Gondor

[The Wooksta!]

The Academy and Heller Tempest legs are so thin they are almost scale thickness and thus are extremely fragile.  They will collapse over time just due to the weight of the model.  Don't know how the newer Airfix and AZ/KP kits will fare.  The Matchbox kit never had that issue due to the leg being moulded integral with the u/c doors

[Gondor]

I have white metal replacement legs in the stash. I think I will just replace the legs as that should be almost as easy as a repair due as Lee says, to the almost scale thickness of the legs meaning there is not much leg to put a pin into 

Gondor

[Gondor]

Well I have just finished reorganising both of my model storage boxes so that nothing is too crowded. The thing will be that before the boxes get hauled out of storage to go to another show I should have finished yet another model, hopefully several. Might be time to get another box I think, though not for a couple of months.

Gondor

[DogfighterZen]

That Tempest is an absolute BEAST!!!   

If your talking about this




That is an F-40Rn based on a Pegasus P-40Q

This is the Tempest



The base kit is the Airfix Mk.V with a Freightdog Mk.VI conversion set, with main wheels and decals from a KP F.6 kit

Gondor

The landing gear should've been enough to spot the P-40 in it... which means, you fooled another one!

But my words stand, the Tempest is a BEAST... As is the F-40Rn.

Regarding the Hawk...

[Gondor]

She's Got Legs......



And they are glued in after a lot of faff getting rid of what had been there before.

I think that when I built this I had lost the rear undercarriage doors so I sorced a closed pair from the Airfix Kit which I have thinned a little and once painted will be "opened" and glued in place. I was haveing difficulty removeing the axle's from the wheels so decided new wheels were in order so an early pair were pinched from a KP kit, I may even source the small doors missing from the top of the main undercarriage legs.

Gondor

[Rick Lowe]

Nice job on all of those, and the P-40 fooled me, too - "What a large chin intake on a Seafire", thought I, not looking too closely... well done. 

And thanks Lee for the tip on the Tempest & Typhoon u/c legs 
I will have a look at replacements for the Mk.II that is on hold due to a lack of decision over who the user will be...
And for the unbuilt Heller & Academy kits...

[The Wooksta!]

Might be worth using PM Sea Fury legs.  Not as well detailed but they will hold the weight.

[Gondor]

Might be worth using PM Sea Fury legs.  Not as well detailed but they will hold the weight.

In that case I could use white metal legs for a Sea Fury on a Tempest  and I am sure I have a couple of pairs as well.... somewhere..

Gondor

[The Wooksta!]

I think Airwaves may still be doing Sea Fury undercarriage legs.

IIRC, in that bag of bits I passed over, there's a Tempest F1 lower cowl.  If you cut the lower cowling on the kit below the exhausts, it'll lower the cowling enough for a Fury/Seafire 47/Mustang style intake.  Bit of filling at the back, maybe a exit louvre, but it does look really good with the leading edge radiators.  Done it a few times now.  Might be some photos from back in the day on site.  Two examples have suffered from the collapsing u/c issue.

Found one!

[Rick Lowe]

Might be worth using PM Sea Fury legs.  Not as well detailed but they will hold the weight.

Good thought, sadly I will be building both the examples I have on their wheels.

I guess I could always glue the legs solidly to the doors, or replace them with something in the sewing pin or paper clip line.
There are bound to be a host of cheap options I could use, so it depends what I can think of at the time, I guess.