1/32 PCM Tempest V

[stona]

I have now zipped up the fuselage. For anyone contemplating this kit it goes together nicely, IF you ensure everything is in the right place before assembling the two halves.



As you can probably see, no filler required.

My other project has been fitting the resin wheel wells into the lower wing centre section. This has been fun. The centre section has to fit the fuselage, the a*se end of the radiator assembly and obviously the upper wings.

I must have dry fitted this a dozen times between filing and fettling sessions! The top looks like this now, thinned to almost transparent resin towards the trailing edge of the wing. The resin has been fixed in place with superglue and then strengthened with a superglue/baking soda mix.



It's a tedious job, not helped by the toxicity of the resin dust. I've been wearing a mask and it's a warm day.

Luckily the bit that will be visible looks okay.



That's it for today. I'm pondering how to go about the wing to fuselage join. The fit looks okay but I doubt that I will assemble the entire wing and attempt to attach that as per the instructions.

We'll see tomorrow with a bit of luck.

Cheers

Steve

 

[yak face]

Coming along great steve , the wells look excellent , tony

 

[papa 695]

That is looking good Steve and some very nice tips also looking forward to more work from you soon

 

[stona]

Cheers fellas.

I've decided to attach the centre section c/w wheel wells to the fuselage first. I'll then add the upper wings, which go full span, followed by the outer lower section.

I've given this all a dry run and it seems to work.

Stage 1. Attach centre section.





This isn't bad and should clean up quite well. I lost the lens for the lamp in the middle and that's a replacement from clear sprue. Another good tip. It works well.

Stage 2 might be tomorrow as SWMBO has something planned for this evening!

Cheers

Steve

 

[0ne48thtel]

That is looking great Steve and some good tips thrown in for good measure

 

[Andy Mac]

Looking great so far...

 

[stona]

I have attached the upper wings to the fuselage/wheel well assembly. On a Tamiya Spitfire this would take ten minutes, it's taken me well over three hours to get this how I want it!

I had to remodel the wing slightly to get everything in the correct position (as you'll see further down).

This is the worse side with a bit of filler in.



Have a look at the underside now.



You can see that the outer section of the lower wing has to butt up to the centre section. If you get the upper wing even a fraction out of line that join, running from front to back across the wing, is going to need a lot of sorting. I saw another build of this kit where the modeller had obviously had to fix this. He did a great job, but was probably a victim of following the instructions

You have to plan ahead, particularly with a limited production kit where things will fit, but not necessarily fall into place. Throughout all the numerous dry fits (as I adjusted the upper wing/fuselage join) I included this outer lower section of the wings.

Dry fitted below you can see there is a nice straight join which won't need a lot of remedial work.



There you have evidence for today's tip of the day. Try to plan at least one or two steps ahead. It will prevent you suddenly having something bite you in the ar*e when it is either too late or very difficult to fix!

Cheers

Steve

 

[Vaughan]

All's looking good Steve.

 

[Polux]

Coming along great Steve! Looks and excellent work!

Polux

 

[Dave W]

Looks a nice kit.Coming along well

 

[stona]

The actual construction of the major parts is quite quick. There are no niceties like separate control surface (except for the rudder). As a result the main aeroplane is built and primed. I've spent more time cleaning up the parts than sticking them together. There is a lot of flash on the mouldings!



Now begins a convoluted painting process! I'll be spraying the stripes and tactical markings (Sky tail band, leading edge stripes) in sequence, before the camouflage. It's a system that works for me, though since I use enamel paints it's not exactly quick! I'll post some updates as I go along.

Note to self, don't forget the yellow propeller tips.

Cheers

Steve

 

[eddiesolo]

Looking good there Steve, some great tips and wonderful pictures.

Si

 

[Ian M]

Nice build so far.

Ian M

 

[stona]

The painting!

I've rubbed down the primer (applied last night) and have now moved on to "stage one".

Apply white to an area slightly larger than that to be occupied by the distinctive markings for Overlord. a.k.a. Invasion Stripes.



I always do the white first. Everything will cover this easily, including the black, camouflage colours and other tactical markings in yellow and Sky. White won't cover these, particularly the black and I don't want thick layers of paint on the model. The white coat you see above is the minimum to cover the primer. It isn't as perfectly evenly covered as the photo suggests which is fine. The guys applying the white on the original would have had the same problem!

Once this is dry I will mask off the white stripes precisely and spray the black ones.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Vaughan]

 

[stona]

Stage two is to mask the white stripes. A pair of dividers set to a scale 18" (14.3mm is close enough), patience and plenty of Tamiya tape required. This is followed by spraying the black stripes.

After that I sprayed the yellow on the leading edge of the wing outboard of the stripes. I checked a photo of my subject and the invasion stripes were applied over the inboard end of this marking.

Finally I sprayed the Sky tail band, resulting in this.



After an hour or so I removed all the masking. Why did you do that I hear someone at the back ask? I will have to re-mask the stripes and other markings before applying the camouflage but firstly I want to expose all the paint to the air for at least 24 hours to let it dry off and cure a bit. The white was masked after only 12 hours. I will also touch up the stripes at this stage, rather than at the end of painting, an added bonus.

Here's the current look.



Whilst this dries and cures a bit I will start on the dangly bits. I've got gear doors and undercarriage bits to spray with Alclad and a slightly dodgy looking spinner/propeller assembly to beat into shape.

More when I have something to show.

Cheers

Steve

 

[mobear]

lovely job i do like the crispness of the lines

 

[papa 695]

A very nice job Steve

 

[flyjoe180]

Nice work Steve, I am enjoying watching this project.

 

[eddiesolo]

Coming along superbly. Did you know that late V-1'S sometimes had a wing tip pressure detonator fitted for such tipping manoeuvres, this was to discourage pilots from doing this type of thing + it would destroy the V-1, aircraft and pilot.

Si