The results of the pre-shading and all of your work on the camo are amazing, Colin (@coling). All of the planning and masking really paid off. Looking forward to the markings.

Thanks, George@gblair. Getting the masks off was a big relief. They were ugly but they did the job well, the results being quite clean. I will definitely be doing F/O John W Garland's aircraft, W2-D EJ667, in which he destroyed an Me 262 and one of three FW-190s to his credit. I am working on the masks for the code letters now. It's slow work to create the masks but is nice not to have to worry about decal film in the end. I can even do the black serial numbers by rearranging the number order in some Montex masks I have on hand. I wouldn't be able to create those on my own otherwise - too small.

Since I last posted I endured a whole new series of mishaps with this build - mostly problems of my own making. But I dealt with them all and got it done. I won't bore you with all the details and images but a few facts and pics could be useful to fellow modellers. First, I attempted to do the stencils for the codes for W2-D EJ667. The results were not what I hoped for. The Sky code color was wrong somehow and the shape of the lettering very hard to capture. I ended up over-painting my efforts to go with decals instead. That was a lot of work but ended up quite cleanly restored in the end to my great relief. Next, a nasty crack developed in the leading edge of the starboard wing - right through the yellow ID panel. This was the wing halves separating from too much handling pressure, as well as the pushing and pulling of masking tape on the wings. GRRR. I elected to re-glue the edge with liquid glue and fill it with some new acrylic Mister Surfacer I had just bought. Since the crack was limited to the ID panel, I was able to sand the new seam clean and CAREFULLY mask and repaint the whole panel..

Success!

I then continued with usual stages of clear coating oil wash and decaling until I was finally ready to flip the model on its back to attach the landing gear. I was trying to figure out how all the complex struts were supposed to fit when I was floored by another potential disaster! Despite all the care I had taken putting the wheel wells together I had somehow reversed the front panels of the wells so that the brace for the main gear was on the wrong side!

I felt what could only be described as utter despair, thinking that after all my hard work the model would still end up being unbuildable! Clearly, it would be impossible to fit the landing gear with the bracing in backwards! I considered doing it with wheels up and gear doors closed, but there was no way I could fit a pilot in there. Maybe crashed with wheels up in a diorama?

I finally made up my mind to fix it even if I damaged the delicate finish while doing so. I used my second Tempest kit to examine the shape and fit of the reversed bracing to see how I could reproduce it in styrene.

It took about an evening's work to construct the necessary pieces from Evergreen sheet plastic. The next day I carefully shaved off and sanded down the existing bracing on the wrong side and facing the wrong direction. I decided to put a tiny piece of 5 thou Evergreen to cover the ghost of the brace left after sanding. Then I installed my scratch-built pieces, taking care to test fit how well they would support the complex hydraulic ram/jack part of the gear support. When attached, the braces looked surprisingly good and worked almost perfectly. Once the gear was friction fitted, my confidence grew. I couldn't afford to be off even half a millimeter when gluing in the gear, so I decided to cut off and drill out the part of the ram or jack that slides back and forth on the real thing. I only had to drill it out and refit it on the oleo part to allow the same flexibility on the model. That worked well.

So, to make a long story short, I fixed the wheel well problem completely and got the gear installed as accurately and securely as originally intended. I proceeded with attaching the parts for the air intake flap as well as all gear and doors

I also had to create new oleo arms for the central gear doors as these had broken off long ago. Evergreen rod coated with rub n buff gave the appropriately shiny look. As for damage from all this repair work,I had a bit of repainting to do on the Medium Sea Grey around one wheel well, but I otherwise kept the finish on the model intact. Careful handling and gently cutting and sanding inside the wheel well had paid off. All the little bits to attach at the end, including nav lights, pitot tube, extended stirrup, whip antennas, teeny-tiny resin cannon barrels, and short pieces of styrene rod to keep the canopy attached inside of the runners, all attached well. But it was very slow and tedious work for several days. Throughout this stage of the build, I was super careful with the semi-matt Vallejo finish I had applied. I had also dulled it down a bit with Gunze Flat coat in a thin overspray so it was even more potentially fragile. Gloves were a must. Regarding the finish, I think I captured the semi-matt look of real Tempests in late war photos, it looks duller in lower light and somewhat shinier under bright artificial light or direct sunlight. I will include 2-3 photos of the finished model to show the overall look, but no need to comment on that until I get a concluding article posted tomorrow.

So now it is finally done. I will post a full article in headlines late Monday. I only wanted to share this last challenge as an encouragement to others to NEVER GIVE UP, no matter how bad things look. It also pays not to waste time getting angry with yourself or the model. Simply getting to work to salvage things is self-punishment enough for building misdeeds! Easier said than done to soldier on, I know, but I often think of the old saying"nothing worth doing was ever easy". Happy modeling!

Excellent work on the correction, Colin @coling
She looks really amazing this way.
Looking forward to the full article.