Special Hobby Tempest Napier Sabre Engine (4393 for Eduard) 1:48

[Mike]

Tempest Napier Sabre Engine (4393 for Eduard)

1:48 CMK by Special Hobby

 

 

Eduard’s new Tempest is hardly light on detail, but the cowling is moulded closed with no engine within.  The Sabre is a huge lump with a H-shaped block and sleeve-valves in order to produce up to 2,000hp, it was shoe-horned into the Tempest’s fuselage with little room to spare.

 

 

This set from CMK is a resin upgrade to the kit with 54 detailed parts on 15 casting blocks in grey resin, and arrives in a yellow-themed blister pack with header card and instructions within.  The kit will need to be adjusted with your finest razor saw to remove the cowling from the exhaust stacks upwards, and back to the firewall joint, as shown in the instructions.  The main part of the upper engine is supplied in one large piece of resin to which the ancillary parts are added, then the firewall, supports and some more ancillaries are glued in place, including some delicate hoses, tiny catches/levers (with spares supplied) and just a little extra 0.3mm and 0.5mm wire from your own supplies needed, which is pointed out in blue.  The exhausts are fitted individually on each side, and the thick cowling panels you removed earlier are replaced with highly detailed and more scale accurate new parts to be placed around the airframe on the wings or ground.  You should note that the underside of the engine isn’t depicted, just from the exhausts up for light maintenance.  There is another set that includes the tanks between the firewall and instrument panel if you feel like removing more panels.

 

No colour call-outs are given during construction, but if you google “Napier Sabre Engine” you’ll be able to find plenty of images to help you out, with a choice of green or shades of grey to black for the block seeming to be your main choices.

 

Conclusion

The detail in this set is phenomenal, and with sympathetic painting it should look superb on your finished model.

 

Very highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of