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Welcome all to my next WIP build, the new 1/72 Airfix Hawker Tempest. First impressions of this one are really good: there's a good amount of plastic in the box, a nicely detailed cockpit, nice clear instructions and two great looking schemes to choose from. Here's the obligatory box shot: This one will be mostly ootb, the cockpit is really closed off so won't add detail other than some foil seatbelts and think I'll use the kit markings to complete the version with yellow spinner and invasion stripes. I started with lots of dry fitting and found the thick trailing edges that others have commented on - why didn't they mould the flaps with the upper surface then have the join underneath? Anyway, I ground away some plastic on both upper and lower parts with my fake dremel tool then sanded the trailing edges until they were just going see through. I've now added the transparent bits, guns (drilled out too) and added the 0.6mm holes required for later. I glued the two halves together this evening and will see how it all looks before a bit of filling around the edges and more sanding away the TE if needed. The biggest modification I plan to make is to do a thorough riveting job on this little model as the larger scale versions I've seen look great with the extra detail. I'll do a bit of practice on an old paint mule and then get stuck in before gluing fuselage and wings together. Thanks for dropping in, more to come soon! Sam

This is my interpretation of Wing Commander ‘Bee’ Beamont’s Tempest Mk. V, a plane he test-piloted for Hawker before flying it into combat with incredible skill, flipping V-1s amongst other acts of unbelievable daring. I hope he really did have that drink with Hemingway in the officer’s mess afterwards. The enjoyment of building this was an extension of the thought that went into designing it; Airfix strike a nice balance between small structures (the grooved tail wheel and interlocking two-part exhaust stubs) and buildability, which keeps the modeling experience fluid. I bought the kit intending to pose it in-flight, even though – like the Typhoon – the Tempest looks just as good on the ground. However, I found I wanted to experience the designers’ solution to the problem of the undercarriage’s complexity, which is pretty ingenious; delicate rods are anchored to big chunks of plastic, locking into the wheel wells with a Bandai-like inevitability when it all fits together. I only used what came in the box (excluding the Eduard seat harness) as the overall quality is very satisfying, with parts that fit and decals that go down and melt in where they need to. I tried to paint a machine that isn’t so much worn out as one that’s seen a lot of use in a short space of time, as a plane in 1944 must’ve done. Thanks for looking!

"I ask you to look at the map of Europe today and see if you can suggest any way in which we could win this war if we entered it. Suppose we had a large army in America, trained and equipped. Where would we send it to fight? The campaigns of the war show only too clearly how difficult it is to force a landing, or to maintain an army, on a hostile coast. "Suppose we took our Navy from the Pacific and used it to convoy British shipping. That would not win the war for England. It would, at best, permit her to exist under the constant bombing of the German air fleet. Suppose we had an air force that we could send to Europe. Where could it operate? Some of our squadrons might be based in the British Isles, but it is physically impossible to base enough aircraft in the British Isles alone to equal in strength the aircraft that can be based on the continent of Europe. "I have asked these questions on the supposition that we had in existence an army and an air force large enough and well enough equipped to send to Europe; and that we would dare to remove our Navy from the Pacific. Even on this basis, I do not see how we could invade the continent of Europe successfully as long as all of that continent and most of Asia is under Axis domination." -- Charles Lindbergh, "America First", 23 April 1941 "[N]othing is more certain that every trace of Hitler's footsteps, every stain of his infected, corroding fingers will be sponged and purged and, if need be, blasted from the surface of the earth." -- Winston Churchill, "Speech to the Allied Delegates", 12 June 1941 "You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you." -- General Dwight Eisenhower, 6 June 1944 On 9 June 1944, Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel ordered General der Panzertruppe Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg, commander of Panzergruppe West, the main armoured reserve and primary striking force of the Heer in Normandy, to plan a counterattack that would sweep the Allied landing back into the sea. One of Germany's leading prewar armoured theorists, Geyr von Schweppenburg had commanded a panzer division in the invasion of Poland, and panzer corps in both the fighting in France and in Russia. Though a very experienced and successful officer, he had notably never fought a battle against the Western Allies after 1940. The massive volume of radio traffic required to coordinate a corps-level attack did not escape British notice. ULTRA decrypts, translated very nearly in real time, reached the 2nd Tactical Air Force by early the next morning. 124 Typhoon Wing, 139 Mitchell Wing, and four squadrons of Spitfires drawn from both ADGB and 84 Group were ordered to put on a maximum effort strike on the Chateau de la Caine, not far from Caen. Shortly after 2100, as the staff officers of Panzergruppe West were sitting down to eat dinner in the chateau, they heard air raid sirens and rushed out to see what was happening. As they stood spellbound, seventeen Typhoons from 247 and 181 Squadrons each salvoed off eight rockets apiece. As the Typhoons veered away, the Mitchells arrived. Bombing from 12,000 feet in cells of six aircraft, the Mitchells dropped over five hundred 500lb bombs in the target area. Then the second wave of Typhoons swooped in, blasting anything left standing. The raid was a total success. Geyr von Schweppenburg was seriously wounded. His chief of staff and every other staff officer save one were killed. Plans for a counteroffensive had to be totally shelved, and the units assigned to Geyr von Schweppenburg were transferred to the control of the ardent Nazi "Sepp" Dietrich, one of the Party's "alter kampfer" who had risen to high rank in the Waffen-SS owing to his ties to Hitler and was promoted far beyond his competence. The Heer never succeeded in launching a corps-level counterattack in the Anglo-Canadian sector during the summer of 1944. I will be building Hawker Typhoon MN317/ZY-B "China British", of 247 (China British) Squadron. On this op, it was flown by F/Sgt John Alan Dyce "Jack" Meechan DFC AFM from Edinburgh, who survived the war (and at least one Typhoon crash). As late as 1953, he was still a Flight Sergeant, though rather chunkier, by then delivering new Canadair Sabres to the RAF. He died in 2001. Happily, we have a photo of MN317 taken shortly before the op, so we know pretty much what she looked like: She had the three-bladed prop, and apparently the earlier tailplanes so prone to just plumb falling off the aircraft, a perennial and never-fully-resolved problem with the Tiffie, poor old dear. I'm using the Brengun kit for this, both because it's suited perfectly for building a mid-production Typhoon, and because dimensionally, I think it's a bit better than the Airfix kit, being appropriately beefier and so forth. Also, I have about a jillion of them, thanks to mon frere d'autre mere @Stew Dapple, who sent me approximately five hundred of the Brengun kits as a birthday present a while back. You see Stew, I do sometimes build them! The Brengun is in fact my preferred Typhoon kit (Stew's so thoughtful!), but it's not without issues. In fact, it's kind of a bitch to put together. For instance, on the cardoor versions, which this one is mercifully not, the canopy simply doesn't fit, and you really need to go and buy the vacform one Brengun sells if you want a hope in hell of getting it on without it looking absurd. And that's just rewarding bad behaviour! Additionally, the instructions are crude, the cockpit assembly is too wide and needs sanding, the landing gear bays are too tall and need so much sanding that I thought I was going to die from ingesting about a pound of styrene shavings, there's flash everywhere, etc etc etc. The point is, if you want your Typhoon to look big and butch, as it should, you'll suffer and build the Brengun. It doesn't mean you can't complain, lord knows I'm going to. But it's the best of what's out there in the only scale that matters. Here's where we are now. I've started on the wheel bays and the guts of the intake, as well as the seat and IP. You know you're in for a good time when you need to use filler on the seat. Everything so far has involved a certain amount of sanding, fettling, micro-chiseling, and judicious and injudicious swearing, especially when for a few hot minutes it looked like I'd lost the windscreen and vile imprecations flowed freely from my lips.

Hello everyone... Two quick question’s that cover some of Hawkers finest, particularly the Typhoons and Tempests. Now am I correct that these all pretty much stayed in the NWE theatre ? I know 451 Sq. Tested three in North Africa but I don't think any were operational in the N.A./Med. or SEA Theatre’s. I’ve got an old Frog car door Typhoon winging its way to me and was starting my research for this future build. Second question concerns the underside I.D.striping, was it 3 black and 4 white stripes ? Or was it 3 white and 4 Black stripes ? I think the white bands were twice the width of the black ~vs~ the same size on the later D-Day stripes ? And last the lower cowling is also white but not the fuselage if I'm correct ? Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated ? Dennis

Most modellers will have one or two kits lying around that never made it to completion. The majority of those kits languish on shelves or in boxes, unloved and forgotten. However, a select few end up in a worse state: They become experimental subjects, exposed to all sorts of toxic substances and chemicals. Enter my Matchbox Tempest II. This kit started life happily enough on the shelf of a toy store in the early 90s and was picked up for a few quid by my dad and early-teens me. She was destined for, lord knows what really. We only built planes that had seen service with the Dutch forces at that time. It was probably the similarities to the Seafury that did it, because a few years later I set out to turn it into exactly that. A valiant effort was made, unassisted at the time of course by internet references and just a few Seafury photographs in a book. It was quite a modification I recall: I moved the oil cooler from the starboard to the port wing, set out to add a propeller blade, changed the shape of the gear doors... The kit made it to the painting stage, and that is where it stalled. It sat on a shelf in its Dark Sea Gray / Sky livery for years. I went to college, started working and for about ten years didn't do much in the way of model building. In 2009 I picked up the hobby again and I completed many of the old kits that had been left in various stages of completion. However, a few years older and wiser and with the help of the internet I realized that my Tempest-to-Seafury conversion had been somewhat misguided. I'd missed some obvious differences which are hard to correct, like the mid-wing section and resulting changes in the gear well positions, elevated cockpit as well as a few other things. Rather than dump the kit, it ended up as an airbrush test model and over the next ten years it accumulated layer after layer of paint. Still, the Tempest II remained an attractive plane to me and I found myself looking forward to actually building one, so I set out to buy another kit. However, like some other Matchbox kits, this one actually commands a rather hefty price tag. I didn't want to spend 15-20 pounds on it so I started considering renovating it. I'd never tried paint stripping with oven cleaner before but it went very well and within a day or so my poor Tempestfury was clean. Only after doing the cleaning did I realize I had done quite a lot of work on the tail as well, Changing it back into a proper Tempest II would prove to be more work than my original conversion to a Seafury. I'd also lost most of the parts apart from the main airframe, so they would have to be sourced elsewhere. Not wanting to spend the money on another Matchbox kit, I got the cheapest Tempest 72nd scale I could get my hands on in Telford last November. The kit would serve as donor for the prop, landing gear, doors, wheels and canopy. I got hold of the ancient Revell tooling, but this turned out to be a bit of a mistake. The prop and spinner are a single molding and after removing the flash it does look rather anemic. The main gear and doors are single piece moldings as well but look ok once the ejector towers (I didn't know they could squeeze two in on such a small part!) were removed from them. The canopy only looks vaguely Tempest-like and is a lousy fit on the Matchbox kit, but hey, I wasn't building a show winner here and with some plastic card and putty I faired it in. I used the rudder from the Revell kit (despite it being short shot, needing more card) as the original had so much material removed to make it more Seafury-like. More plastic card was employed to restore the tail fillet and move the oil cooler back to the port wing. The gun ports were filled, redrilled and Albion Alloy tubing inserted to clean them up a bit. The only completely unusable parts from the Revell kit were the main wheels. They have a sort of non-descript hub cap, rather than the spoked hub design of the original. There are resin aftermarket wheels for the Tempest but I stole a set from an Academy Typhoon. At some point I will have to fork out the dough for a new set. Or maybe use the Revell wheels on the Typhoon I couldn't find the decals anymore but then I didn't look too hard for them; the original kit only offered Indian marking for the Mk II which I wasn't interested in building and they'd in poor shape anyway, so I invested in an Xtradecal sheet with Tempests and selected the most colorful option, MW800/HF-V from No.54 Squadron, flown by Squadron Leader Frank Jensen during the Victory Day Flypast on June 8th 1946. So there she is, almost 20 years in the making: Matchbox's Tempest Mk II. Not the quickest, neatest or most efficient build I have ever done, but I feel really good when I look at her and see her all cleaned up and finally reaching her intended purpose.

Began this new project today, Eduard's new tool Hawker Tempest Mk.V Series 2 in 1:48. I will be using the plastic parts instead of the PE that comes with the kit. Box: Decals, PE and masks: The sprues: Instructions: Wings completed yesterday: So far, it's been an easy ride, though I did brake part of the tubing of the cockpit framing.

I found Academy´s Tempest at a good price, and I wanted to know the opinions of other people before I buy it (fit etc...) Also, about the decals. An article on Modeling Madness says they worked perfectly, but the author of the kit´s preview on the same site mentions Academy decals would peel off the model after some time, and comments on other sites say the decals wouldn´t even stick to the model. Is this something that could be solved by soaking them in very hot water and then applying decal softener (I use Vallejo´)? Thank you kindly.

Hi All Here my entry to the GB PM Models Hawker Sea Fury T20 . Here is the starting pic hope to start soon Martin H

I finished this model last night. It represents the plane on which Pierre Clostermann was flying. You know everything about the models, there are no problems for work, except for the decals that are terribly fat. I am pleased that it all turned out in the end. Here's the picture. [

Hi Everyone My B17 Mk III is coming along nicely but I don't have any real progress pictures at the moment as theres not much to show. However for my summer build I've decided on Special Hobby's rather nice 1/32 Hawker Tempest II. It will be built OOB as its the "High Tech" flavoured version so you get everything you need to build what I hope will be a crackin' model. Cheers Iain

Hello all I haven't attempted any modelling for a long time as I've been a little immobile. Well the boredom is driving me mad, mad I tell you . In the past I have referred to my self psychology 'worry kit' approach. To recap briefly, if the project I'm working on gets too difficult, to refresh my mojo I have a few old kits secreted around the bench. These are normally old Frog, Revell, old raised panel line Airfix, Italeri and the like. It's may seem strange I should call them 'worry kits', but they serve the same purpose as 'worry balls'. Here are some worry balls: Basically one fondles the balls in the hand, until one feels a sense of release from worry . 'Worry kits' are approached in the same manner; One fondles the plastic, may even build a bit, until the worry is gone, mojo returned. After a period away from the bench, the wind, wife, children and little green people have turned it into a horror beyond description. Eek. Oh dear So that's where my 'tens' machine is . Trapped in a forest of clamps 🌳 🌳. . In there are 3 current group build subjects, a 'too late' group build subject, and a rather long term WIP threesome. I decided it would be good to tidy it all up, get everything back in order and recommence. . After half an hour I found myself laying on the floor, sweating and groaning (nothing new there then), calling for Mrs. Tiger. A peppermint tea and shuffle to the bedroom later I realised a rethink was necessary. Time for a worry kit. A little shuffle back to the bench, and I pulled it out. A little green one in a bag. It's a Revell 1962 Hawker Tempest. I have no box, but it has instructions and original decals. I found in the bag a set of decals I placed there long ago, for 'Le Grand Charles', one of the Tempest Mk. V aircraft flown by Pierre Clostermann. I am going to construct this kit whilst in my bed. On the only tea tray we have. It it is quite the most lurid, old and disconcerting tea tray I have ever seen. One of my favourite large local fish and chip trays will also be used to, I hope, prevent the tray from sending us all boz-eyed . All very high-tech and tasteful. Photographs next. Meanwhile I found this on 'Pinterest' with no copyright information. I find it rather inspiring: In the interim, could anyone please impart any information on just how inaccurate this kit may be? I will be doing it OOB (out of the bin), and very likely hand painting with Lifecolor acrylics. For a change, it will have a pilot. Just for fun . Thanks for reading folks Have a nice Sunday TonyT

Does anybody know what the source of the markings for NX154 JV-K in the old Matchbox Tempest Mk.II/VI kit is? I've had a trawl through the internet and through Britmodeller but have not found anything. Were the markings based on a contemporary photo or something else? If they were based on a photo, can anyone point me to where I can find it please? I built the kit in the markings provided as a kid, but am now curious as to their origin, especially since I have a spare set and am tinkering with the idea of a modern build of this aircraft. Any help or info would be much appreciated, Mark.

Hi, Two of my old kits - I still like them. They are much younger that Maryland - Hawker Tempest V - Heller/Airfix kit and Hawker Typhoon Ib - Frog kit. As far I I remember - Tempest is basicaly OOB except decals (red outlinings hand painted) wheres Typhoon was reshaped. I made smaller nose and spinner as well as re-shaped air oulet from cooler to make it similar to that of Tempest and I added bulb on canopy (this is a piece drop-like formed clear styrene glued just with Humbrol gloss varnish of the top of canopy. Perhaps there were some other operation which I do not remember now, after almost 20 years. Now I have in stash Airfix new Typhoon waiting for his turn... The Tempest is JN765, JF.K , markings of Squadron 3 RAF, P/O Kosh, Newchurch, UK, Summer 1944. It is like that: Typhoon is RB224 US.H "Land Girl" in markings of Squadron 56 RAF, Matlaske, UK, after March 1943 (name hand written): Comments welcome Regards Jerzy-Wojtek

Finishing off that Typhoon a couple of weeks ago reminded me that I had a completed Academy Tempest sitting somewhere at the back of the garage. I dug it out and gave it a clean (and stuck the few bits that had fallen off). Actually built it about 8 or 9 years ago. I think it was one of the first models I completed with brush painted Tamiya acrylics. Completed out of the box as the aircraft of Wing Commander E.D. Mackie, OC 122 Wing, Fassberg, May 1945. Thanks for looking.