Tempest Mk 1b

[Gondor]

So looking at the spinner on the propeller I decided to modify things a little.



Which lead to the spinner sitting like this....



It obviously needs a little adjustment in length as the measurements I took did not allow for the width of the tube I added to the front of the propeller or the width of the inside of the spinner at the depth. The amount I am reckoning that needs to be removed is shown by the black line in the top picture of this post.

Digital verniers are wonderful, especially when you can take a measurement and then zero the reading to find out how much further you have to go to reach the end. That's how I came up with the length of plastic tube, I simply forgot to take every factor into account 

I also managed to trim the tube that was sticking out of the front of the nose. It looks much better now



The black line around the outside of the tube was drawn to act as a guide when opening the hole up.

Slightly peeved though as I managed to glue the top to my bottle of superglue 

Gondor

[Gondor]

Well I have now finished the propeller!!

The parts prior to final assembly



Here is the actual propeller with it's nose in place



And here is the propeller spinner in place and glued.



Not much difference to how the kit would have it built but there is now a gap all around between the propeller and the spinner when previously it was slightly touching in places.

So why go to all that effort to produce a gap that is almost impossible to see? Because the method of fitment and lack of a gap between the propeller and the spinner was bugging me.    but then the solution was rather simple and easy to do as well.

Not much left to do, so hears a list of twenty odd items to help finish it off 

Well ok, maybe not    but that's the kind of thing that happens. The exhaust flaps for the leading edge radiators need to be sanded/filled into the underside of the wing, tail surfaces need to have filler applied at the joint and the last main change is the carburettor intake needs to be fashioned and added.

So perhaps I can start to think of which squadron would be operating the aircraft?

Torn a bit between normal Late War Day Fighter scheme and the "Palestinian" scheme

Gondor

[NARSES2]

Palestine scheme would be interesting. You don't see many models finished in it

[Gondor]

Palestine scheme would be interesting. You don't see many models finished in it

Only thing is I did my modified Typhoon known as The Hushle in that scheme so I am wary of doing something similar with this build although it is different.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Only a little work done yesterday. The Carburettor intake has been sourced from an old KP Spitfire Mk IX  and vastly reduced in length. No pictures yet as it still needs to be tidied up.

Gondor

[Gondor]

I finished adding the Carburettor a few minutes ago and realised that the front is slightly squint  I may adjust it but unless you pick it up and look at it from the underside it's not noticeable so I will probably leave it alone 





And this is what it looks like with the spinner in place



Mote later hopefully as it now time to add some filler

Gondor

[Gondor]

Filler has been applied and sanded back. Next lot of filler added and ready to sand back which will hopefully allow me to go to the primer stage then paint!

Gondor

[KiwiZac]

Looking sharp! Nice work on the new lower nose.

[PR19_Kit]

That looks a big beefy prop there Alastair, is that the standard Tempest one or something special?

[Gondor]

That looks a big beefy prop there Alastair, is that the standard Tempest one or something special?

Straight out of the Heller box Kit. Only modification I have done is described earlier.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Gave up on the PSR, or maybe that was "getting fed up with the PSR", however the end result is that paint is going on it. Copying the colours from Airfix's Mk22 Spitfire which gives Humbrol numbers 165, 106 and 30 of which I found I did not have 106 as that but I did have it in the Authentic range as HB 3 

Pic's when I get her finished in a few days time and when I have decided which squadron etc

Gondor

[Gondor]

Finally got some work done. Found that I had got a reasonable amount of the camouflage pattern wrong so I had to repaint most of the forward half of the aircraft but that's now done and I should manage to touch up the demarcation lines where I have gone over the undersurface colour. The rest of painting the aircraft will be easy but so far I have not decided which RAF squadron will be operating the aircraft, let alone its serial number.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Still making progress on this. Mainly detail painting and touching up where the paint is not quite how I want it. Tyres are still to be painted and added as are the underwing tanks. Decals will be a mix of the kit supplied ones and Modeldecal code letters. I wonder if anyone would spot my using a Bomber Command Squadron code 

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

That's look sleek ! Can't wait to see some paint on her. Just dirty it up a bit to hide the patchy psr 

[Gondor]

I had the canopy on her for a while only to find that my fat fingers got in the way of the glue and left a fingerprint on the side of the canopy 

I managed to remove the canopy without any further damage and them got most of the excess glue removed with a polishing kit. There was a small part next the the lower canopy frame that was not moving so I took a file to it and then polished some more. Nearly binned the canopy and used a spare until that developed a tear where the tree was attached 

I managed to clarify the original canopy with a bath in some Klear which I also subjected the spare canopy to. The result is I am going to attach the first canopy again and hope to find something that I can use to repair the second one which still has a lump missing from the canopy frame in a couple of places 

Gondor