SPA Modeler

An excellent looking tailwheel bay John, I've spent enough time with my head in gear bays to say you've nailed it.

Nice work on sorting out the assembly.

Stikpusher wrote: nice… VERY nice!

Thank you Carlos! Appreciate you stopping by!

Stuart wrote:An excellent looking tailwheel bay John, I've spent enough time with my head in gear bays to say you've nailed it.

Nice work on sorting out the assembly.

Thanks Stuart! I felt like I overdid the weathering at one point but decided to keep it as is for the reasons stated. I don't think I'll weather the main wheel wells as heavily.

Oh... and on John's point about the tail wheel being underinflated, I did manage to find a nice hi-res photo of a real life Mark V at the RAF Museum in Hendon.


Zooming in on the tail wheel, we can see similar deformation as depicted in the Typhoon example and the resin tail wheel.


If in doubt, always check your resources!

The Type I Mark III gun sight has been painted. I added a drop of UV-activated clear epoxy to serve as the optical element.



The cockpit has been secured into place and the fuselage halves glued together. I'll do the obligatory seam clean up work after the glue dries.


In the mean time, I've jumped over to the massive wings and given them a check application of brown pastel wash. Instead of re-riveting and re-scribing everything, I'm going to inspect the wash to determine which areas need attention. The wash will then be scrubbed off.

John, I used to work on N3N's many years ago which used exactly that tire and if we didn't keep them well inflated they would shimmy. I was just trying to help. Of course, under load they will deflect some as will most tires, but the picture of the one on your model just seemed extreme. I do enjoy your work.

Thank you for trying to help but did you not see the photos of the real life Typhoon and Tempest with the similar deformation as portrayed on the kit tail wheel? Does that affect your opinion in any way? I want to be helpful too and as modelers, I think it is important to see what are eyes are showing us. Memories and real life experiences can be very valuable but does your experience relate to the subject at hand? I don't know what an N3N is or if they used the exact same tire as the Hawker Tempest Mark V. But for that recollection to be applicable, the N3N should be comparable in weight as the Tempest. How much does an N3N weigh? The Tempest Mk. V's gross weight varied from 11,400 to 13,500 pounds in service. Keep in mind that the museum samples that I showed were probably much lighter than that, lacking fuel, ordnance and pilot and those tail wheels are already showing deformation. If you are talking about the Naval Aircraft Factory N3N tandem-seat biplane, it's gross weight is 2,792 pounds. If this is accurate, the Tempest would be almost five times as heavy, resting on that exact same tail wheel. Does that change your opinion? I'm curious... are you seeing my posts or are you convinced otherwise based on your own past experiences or other reasons?

I do see your posts and I respect that it is your model and your interpretation. The N3N's I worked on were crop dusters, some with 600 hp R-1340's and they weighed much more the military version. To my eye the tire on your model just looks like it's quite underinflated. I've been around many warbirds with those tires and I would expect to see some deformation but not a great deal, depending on the aircraft's loading. But lets just enjoy the modeling and move on.

Let's be clear here. This is not MY interpretation. As I stated initially, the flat spot has been molded in resin by Special Hobby and not placed there by me. I simply defended the representation with photos in support. I respect that you've had a lot of past experience with aircraft but an N3N cannot be used as an apples to apples comparison with a Tempest, crop duster or not. It's just not realistic. The weight difference between a P&W P-1340 and a Wright R-760 is 360 pounds. Insignificant... 2-3% of the total gross weight of a Tempest. It is not a reasonable comparison, in my opinion.

You made a similar criticism on my Shiden build, stating that the weathering of my seat was overdone. Similarly, you referenced your personal experience with, I think it was farm equipment or something that I thought had no connection to a WW2 Japanese fighter aircraft. I pondered a rebuttal but chose to let it go and move on.

But here is the seat in question.



And a photo of a real Shiden seat. Granted it looks to be worn from age as much as service but still a much more valid reference than subjective recollection of a totally unrelated object.


I'm choosing to defend this one.

That's not a problem, John. You should defend your positions, that's what makes it an honest discussion. I did register that you were at odds with my comment on the Shinden seat, but I just meant that my take on the degree of weathering was different than yours, it wasn't meant as a judgement. I know you put a lot of effort in to every aspect of your modeling, that certainly shows.

Been a bit busy at work so I've not been able to make any big chunk of progress lately. Been jumping around. Looking at the wings and preparing to line up the wheel well components, I thought I'd try a different tack with the leading edge inserts. Instead of gluing them in when the wing is being attached to the fuselage as shown on the plans, I'm going to glue them in now, one at a time, while the wings are still separate.


This will allow me get the best fit on wing surface joints and it will also be much easier to tidy up these seams without the fuselage in the way.


Fit is not great and two of the four pieces have visible gaps.


White Milliput forced into the gaps with a toothpick and then smoothed out with a damp paper towel is my preferred fill method on these types of long seams.



Also looking at the chin intake components. I've verified the fit and the parts are ready for painting before assembly.


All kit parts here. Leading edges have been thinned and sharpened.

Wise choice to add those inserts when you did, as opposed to when the instructions directed. I suspect it would have been a lot more difficult at that point.