Matchbox Hawker Tempest

[Eric Mc]

Eric and the Amazing Technicoloured Tempest.

All glued together and ready for Halford's Primer.

The first shot shows where a needed to fill a fairly sizeable gap in the starboard wing root.

[dr_gn]

I wonder why Revell didn't ditch their version and use this? With some very fine pre-shading and no wash, those panel lines will look perfectly OK, much better than the raised ones.

[Eric Mc]

Plus the fact you get alternative engine options. Matchbox were very clever in their model design.

[Eric Mc]

Progress report -

Undercoated and primed with Halford's Grey Primer.

Pre shaded with Tamiya Flat Black.

Yellow leading edge ID laid down - to be masked

Sky ID band on rear fuselage laid down - also to be masked

I've painted the bare metal panels to the rear of the Centaurus cowling in Alclad Aluminium and shaded with Alclad Burnt Metal. This will also be masked before the camouflage pattern is applied.

[dr_gn]

Eric Mc said:

Progress report -

Undercoated and primed with Halford's Grey Primer.

Pre shaded with Tamiya Flat Black.

Yellow leading edge ID laid down - to be masked

Sky ID band on rear fuselage laid down - also to be masked

I've painted the bare metal panels to the rear of the Centaurus cowling in Alclad Aluminium and shaded with Alclad Burnt Metal. This will also be masked before the camouflage pattern is applied.

Your pre-shading's going to be completely lost by the time you've completed the gray and green camo (just like it already has been on the sky band).

It should be done after the first coat of the lightest colour, then repeated after masking for subsequent colours. Like any weathering, it's a long process, with a degree of trial and error to get looking right.

The other thing is that it really needs to be *much* finer and follow the panel lines to have any discernable effect.

Just saying like

[Eric Mc]

You do it your way - I do it mine

I'm not that worried if most of it gets lost. That the whole point as far as I am concerned.

Also, the LAST thing I want to do is to delineate the panels to any great extent. All I want is a very slight and subtle tonal variation in the overall scheme. It's not the end of the world if most of it is not really visible.

I'm still experimenting as I go with these techniques. I may very well give up on it in future projects.

[Eric Mc]

Masked and ready for camouflage -

[dr_gn]

Did you forget the exhaust shield masking?

[Eric Mc]

Nope - done after the photo.

[colin m]

I always pre-shade my builds, and if I loose it under the top coat of paint, I'll go for a bit of post shading !

[Eric Mc]

Still in prgress at the mo. Didn't get a chance to work on it last weekend.

[Eric Mc]

Nearly there. Should be finished by the end of the week.

[lufbramatt]

Good work, look forward to seeing the finished pics this was one of my favourite kits when I was little, built mine using the other nose though! I found it recently in a box at my parents loft, I think I got the light and dark greys round the wrong way. The camo looked a bit odd

[Eric Mc]

We had a group build here of various 1/72 Tempests a year or so ago. If you find that thread you will see various built Tempest kits. For that build I used the Airfix (ex-Heller) Tempest V kit which I finished in the colours of Roland Beamont.

[Eric Mc]

Finished - at last.







The decals are from the Special Hobby kit - the old Matchbox decals were far too tired and faded - and they only provided Indian markings for the II.

[perdu]

Mmmm nice one Eric she looks excellent.

I love Matchbox, some of the most exciting model choices around, back then.

Even my old favourite Wessex (which had awful shape issues) was an improvement on the rest of the mainstream companies.

What's next?

[Eric Mc]

I was going to start on the rather ancient (1959) Airfix Sea Hawk - one I picked up for £1 at a model show. But I snapped the fuselage trying to remove the locating lug for the rather primitive ejection seat provided in the kit. I was planning to fit out the cockpit with a scratch built interior (as I did with the Tempest). I have an Aeroclub white metal Martin Baker MkI ejection seat.

I have another Airfix Sea Hawk in the loft so I'll venture up the ladder to see if I can track it down and have another go. I have some nice alternative markings as well. It's amazing how much a rather ancient old model can be spruced up with a set of decent decals.

[Red Firecracker]

I'm still amazed how much the different engine changes the whole feel of the aircraft. Very nicely executed, Eric.

[Eric Mc]

Found the "other" Airfix Sea Hawk now. I'll start another build thread on this project in the next few minutes.

[dr_gn]

Yep, turned out well - nice one. The panel lines don't seem too deep at all considering that this was a common criticism of Matchbox.

Red Firecracker said:

I'm still amazed how much the different engine changes the whole feel of the aircraft. Very nicely executed, Eric.

There is a slight difference with the wing as well - the Matchbox versions were the Tempest II or VI (evidenced by the intakes in the wing roots), rather than the Tempest V in Eric's previous posts. Matchbox wee never that explicit in terms of kit names.