1/72 Hawker Tempest Mk. V by Airfix - release Autumn 2021

[Johnson]

Not much about forthcoming Tempest Vs in the last few posts.

I suggest we move on? 

[Julien]

2 hours ago, Johnson said:

Not much about forthcoming Tempest Vs in the last few posts.

I suggest we move on? 

Quite. Please keep posts to the point and leave politics out. 

[StephenMG]

On 1/7/2021 at 4:29 PM, T-21 said:

I will build mine as a TT.V 233OCU,   RAF Pembrey  where my father flew them including NV778  from 1953-55.

 

An excellent choice T-21! Thats' exactly what I did with my Heller one (although I never did get around to finishing the base!) - my father was an airframe fitter on Hunters at Pembrey 1956-57.

 

I also did some profile artwork for a D&V Tempest book a few years ago and made sure to inlcude a 233 OCU TT.5 in that too!

[T-21]

That looks fabulous even the guard cables at the tail .

[Meatbox8]

On 1/11/2021 at 4:34 PM, Procopius said:

Fairbanks, as an American who ran away from home to join the RCAF, and then remained in the RCAF after the US entered the war, and then opted to become Canadian, is one of my heroes. I dearly hope someone makes decals for his aircraft.

One of his aircraft is featured in the Osprey book 'Typhoon and Tempest Aces of WW2'.  It is EJ762 JJ-F of 274 Squadron while based at Volkel.  Apparently it was one of his favourite aicraft and he claimed two destroyed and one damaged '109s in it on his last flight in the aircraft on 17th December 1944.  It has standard markings, with a sky fuselage band and spinner, although this appears to have a black back-plate, and the reduced under-fuselage invasion stripes of the period.  No wing stripes.  It should be easy enough to reproduce from after market decs as it doesn't seem to have any difficult to reproduce personal markings although the colour profile is of the port side only.    The aircraft was later passed to 3 Sqn where it force landed in enemy territory.  The pilot, Flt Lt Bruce became a POW.  Hope that is of interest. 

[Johnson]

5 hours ago, Meatbox8 said:

Hope that is of interest.

 

It is, thanks MB8.

 

Fairbank's EJ762 JJ-F, was featured in Aero Master's Storms in the Sky Pt. XII in 1/48. But I think it's a shame that Fairbank's aircraft appears to have been overlooked by decal makers in 1/72. Maybe with the new 1/72 kits we might see some decals? Hope so.

[AlCZ]

Huh, i wait for Eduard or Special Hobby small scale Tempest. I think, when downscaled their 1/48 or 1/32 kit, have nicest surface details as Airfix.

 

But 1/24 Tempest will be nice side by side Tiffy.

 

 

[Homebee]

Tempest 3D renders and Airfix designer explanations here:

https://uk.airfix.com/community/blog-and-news/workbench/hawkers-tempestuous-typhoon-upgrade

 

 

 

V.P.

Edited April 4, 2021 by Homebee

[Rabbit Leader]

Looks good from those design drawings however I do wish Airfix also include two types of wheels. The early Mk.V Series 1 Tempest had small wheel hubs, similar to Typhoon style, whilst the later Series 2 version had larger hubs like what’s been illustrated with this kit so far. 
Cheers.. Dave 

[Johnson]

Looks like we are getting clear drop tank mounts. Good!

Edited April 4, 2021 by Johnson
Not reading the Airfix article carefully enough!

[Mr T]

21 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Looks good from those design drawings however I do wish Airfix also include two types of wheels. The early Mk.V Series 1 Tempest had small wheel hubs, similar to Typhoon style, whilst the later Series 2 version had larger hubs like what’s been illustrated with this kit so far. 
Cheers.. Dave 

I noticed that as well Dave and commented on it in the discussion page. We shall see. The ones shown look a weird hybrid to me with larger hubs but five slots on at least one render. 

Edited April 5, 2021 by Mr T
Spelling

[TEXANTOMCAT]

So Airfix haven’t following Matchbox and had a II/V nose swap option so if we see a II it will be with a new fuselage which seems unlikely...

 

TT

[Rabbit Leader]

52 minutes ago, TEXANTOMCAT said:

So Airfix haven’t following Matchbox and had a II/V nose swap option so if we see a II it will be with a new fuselage which seems unlikely...

 

TT

It’ll also need news wings (or inner leading edge intake inserts) to achieve both of these versions. Looks like we’ll just end up with Mk.V Series 1 and Series 2 box options for this base kit and have to rely on the AM conversion experts for other variants. 
Cheers.. Dave 

[dogsbody]

I hope it doesn't take as long to get one as the Beaufort's taking! At least up here, on The Backside of Beyond.

You Antipodians excluded from this, as you seem to have all the available Beauforts.

 

 

 

 

Chris

[stevehnz]

27 minutes ago, dogsbody said:

You Antipodians excluded from this, as you seem to have all the available Beauforts.

Only the ones in the West Island so far, none on this side of the ditch that I've seen.

Steve.

[Dave Fleming]

1 hour ago, Beermonster1958 said:

Very competitive I'd say, especially if Eduard makes no such announcement.

 

John

Indeed, likely the Airfix kit will be available in many more outlets than Eduard kits are in.

[Max Headroom]

21 hours ago, Dave Fleming said:

Indeed, likely the Airfix kit will be available in many more outlets than Eduard kits are in.

Indeed, bring it on as there will be room for both. The aftermarket bods will no doubt shower us with extra parts and colourful marking options. So we’re all winners 😀

 

Trevor

[Denford]

On 4/4/2021 at 7:58 PM, TEXANTOMCAT said:

So Airfix haven’t following Matchbox and had a II/V nose swap option so if we see a II it will be with a new fuselage which seems unlikely...

 

TT

I never expected them to. 

Like the Spitfire Vc, just a simple 'plain vanilla' kit aimed at the junior modeller to encourage him (or her) to move on from 'lego type' assembly to real kits like the ones that Dad used to make.

[Denford]

On 2/21/2021 at 10:00 PM, Johnson said:

 

It is, thanks MB8.

 

Fairbank's EJ762 JJ-F, was featured in Aero Master's Storms in the Sky Pt. XII in 1/48. But I think it's a shame that Fairbank's aircraft appears to have been overlooked by decal makers in 1/72. Maybe with the new 1/72 kits we might see some decals? Hope so.

This is in fact just one of several Tempests he flew:  well known because there's a good captioned photo of it showing the burn damage received after being hit in the leading edge tank.  He received a DFC (I think) for bringing it back.

 

The Tempest website (would have no idea how to link to it) shows his various victories, both here and during a brief spell in 3 Squadron.  Although the serial numbers are listed, that's not always the case for individual aircraft letters.  To confuse matters these would surely have been re-allocated for replacement aircraft.  What's more he flew several different aircraft in the squadron presumably dependent of availability.  The website credits the National Archives for the information.

 

My wish is to model NV943 in which he destroyed an Ar234 (originally recorded as an Me262) with the two alongside each other.  Whereas the 'victim' 4U + DH is well documented, there's no indication beyond serial number of the 'victor'.  Presumably flown by others during its service, it could just be that the individual aircraft letter is mentioned somewhere.  So if anyone knows or finds out, please make a posting here.

[ho590hm]

Looks like the MkII may be covered by the KP kit.

 

[Mr T]

1 hour ago, ho590hm said:

Looks like the MkII may be covered by the KP kit.

 

And the MkVI

[alt-92]

On 4/7/2021 at 1:50 PM, Denford said:

The Tempest website (would have no idea how to link to it)

copy address from address bar in browser, paste here. 

Did you mean https://www.hawkertempest.se/ ?

 

[Denford]

Thanks for this.  Worked perfectly

[Homebee]

Sprues pics

Source: https://uk.airfix.com/community/blog-and-news/workbench/valiant-leads-britains-deterrent-force

 

Quote

Tempest test frame time

 

A real muscle aeroplane, the Hawker Tempest was not only one of the fastest aircraft of the Second World War, it represented the very pinnacle of piston engined fighter technology

 

As one of the high profile new tooling projects announced at the beginning of the year, our new 1/72nd scale Hawker Tempest V adds to our growing range of kits in this hugely popular scale by presenting modellers with an example of one of the most potent fighter-bombers of the Second World War, an aircraft which could be described as Hawker’s ‘Super Hurricane’. Despite the fact that the Tempest was only introduced during the final few months of the war, it still proved itself to be one of the most capable single engined fighters of the war, continuing Hawker’s proud legacy of producing world class fighting aeroplanes. We are pleased to report that we are now in a position to share the very latest images of the test frame shots produced by the new Tempest V tooling with our readers, the first time these will have been seen outside the high security confines of the Airfix office. It does have to be said that despite the fact that these represent the latest frames produced by the Tempest tooling and several previous iterations have already been produced and inspected, they may still be subject to alteration before the model is released for its first production run.

 

An aircraft which has to be considered one of the finest fighting aeroplanes of the Second World War, the Hawker Tempest V could trace its design lineage back to the Hurricane fighters which proved so decisive during the Battle of Britain only two years earlier and indeed back to the inter-war biplane Fury, which was the first RAF fighter to exceed 200mph in level flight. The Tempest represented the absolute zenith in piston engined fighter design and when accomplished designer Sydney Camm was looking to produce his ‘Super Hurricane’ replacement for the aviation saviour of the Battle of Britain, the aircraft he surely had in mind at that time was something possessing the performance of the Tempest V. As it was, the Tempest is often confused with its predecessor in Royal Air Force service, the Typhoon, even though the two are very different aeroplanes.

The original fighter replacement for the Hawker Hurricane was the Typhoon, an aircraft which attempted to combine the most powerful piston engine available at the time with a small, yet strong and heavily armed airframe. Although intended as an interceptor fighter, it became apparent during development that the new aircraft would not be able to fulfil this role, as the thickness of the wing was not conducive to high performance at higher altitudes. In fact, the Typhoon would be forced to endure quite a troubled development and service introduction, to the point where cancellation of the programme was seriously considered at one time. Nevertheless, the Typhoon would eventually go on to find its aviation niche as a hard-hitting ground attack aircraft and one which would come into its own during the time of the Allied invasion of Normandy.

 

Aware that their Typhoon had great potential but was in need of improvement, the Hawker design team started work on a new fighter project, one which incorporated many of the same philosophies included in Typhoon, but also, several significant modifications and improvements. Indeed, the new aircraft was initially referred to as the Typhoon Mark II, but this was changed to Tempest as the prototype aircraft’s first flight approached. Although this was still a relatively large aeroplane for a single engined fighter, its airframe was light and it would be powered by the massively powerful 24 cylinder Napier Sabre engine, a powerplant which would give the new fighter spectacular performance. Making its first flight on 2nd September 1942, the new Hawker Tempest featured a newly designed laminar flow wing, which was much thinner than the wing used on its predecessor and allowed the new fighter to slip through the air at incredible speeds.

 

At first glance, the Typhoon and Tempest do share many similarities, however, if you know where to look, it is not difficult to tell them apart. Without doubt, the wing is the most obvious distinguishing feature, as not only is this thinner than the one used on the Typhoon, it is also a completely different shape. With a straighter leading edge and more elliptical trailing edge, the Tempest’s wing was designed for speed, even though it could still be used effectively in a ground attack role. Other Tempest design differences include a slightly longer nose and a tail section which appears to be much larger, with a more generous vertical stabiliser which features a pronounced dorsal fillet. During the prototype aircraft’s maiden flight, it posted an impressive top speed of 477 mph in level flight, impressing both the design team and the watching Air Ministry.

The Hawker Tempest V entered Royal Air Force service in early 1944, with the first two squadrons to receive the type having both previously operated the Typhoon. It was thought that managing the incredible power generated by the Tempest’s engine could pose problems for pilots converting from smaller aircraft types and that former Typhoon units would be best placed to negotiate its squadron introduction. In advance of the D-day landings, Tempests were being used in a similar ground attack role to the one being flown so effectively by Typhoon squadrons, however, should it be required to make the shift to air combat operations mid-mission, the Tempest was much more suited to this task. Possessing significantly greater range than the Typhoon, Tempests could loiter in the combat zone for longer periods, allowing offensive strikes deeper into occupied Europe, or allowing pilots to wait patiently for the Luftwaffe to come up and fight, where they could show them what their new fighter could really do.

 

As the fastest Allied fighter at low and medium altitudes, Tempest squadrons were held back for home defence duties in the weeks which followed the successful D-day landings, due to the onslaught of a sinister new weapon, the V-1 ‘Doodlebug’ pulse jet flying bomb. The Tempest proved to be an excellent V-1 killer, using the speed of the fighter, effectiveness of its guns and bravery of its pilots to destroy large numbers of these terrifying weapons before they could wreak their havoc on British towns and cities. Britain’s most effective force against these indiscriminate weapons, hundreds of Doodlebugs were shot down by the RAF’s Hawker Tempest V squadrons, with Squadron Leader Joseph Berry proving to be the most proficient at this work, with no fewer than 61 V-1 ‘kills’ to his name.

 

 

An exclusive Workbench first look at the test frames produced from our new 1/72nd scale Hawker Tempest V tooling, where we can begin to see what took up so much of our designer Tom’s time during the design process. This kit will be a spectacular addition to our 1/72nd scale aviation range

 

 

 

 

 

With the V-1 threat diminishing, the RAF’s Tempest V squadrons were free to embark on aggressive seek and destroy missions into occupied Europe, using the speed, range and firepower of their latest fighter to great effect. Looking for potential V-1 launch sites and increasingly, the new German jet fighters which had started operating against the Allied air forces, the Tempest began to show that it was undoubtedly one of the most capable fighting aeroplanes in the world. Indeed, it has been reported that the aggressively flown Tempest was the Allied aircraft Messerschmitt Me262 jet pilots most feared during those early days of jet powered operations, particularly if they were caught during the landing and taking off phases of flight, when their jets were much more vulnerable. 

 

There is no doubt that the Hawker Tempest V was a real brute of an aeroplane, fast, heavily armed and possessing performance which could better any fighter the Luftwaffe had in service, perhaps with the exception of the Messerschmitt Me262 at full speed. Pilots who had experience flying both the Tempest V and its predecessor, the Typhoon, describe the difference as being like night and day - they actually said that it was like comparing a cart horse with a race horse. Although this seems a little harsh, as they flew the aircraft in combat, we should certainly bow to their judgement. Although appearing relatively late in WWII, the Tempest V still takes its place as one of the most effective piston engined fighters of the Second World War and was perhaps the ‘Super Hurricane’ designer Sydney Camm had always envisaged developing.

 

Designer Tom’s thoughts on his new Tempest frames

As we knew we would be featuring the Tempest V test frame shots in this latest edition of the blog, we wanted to speak to the model’s designer Tom, not only about what he thinks of them, but also about the part they actually play in the development of this new model tooling project as a whole. As always, Tom was generous with his time and was excited to return to the Tempest for just a few moments, as he has already moved on from a design perspective. Indeed, even though the Tempest is still in development, Tom has already worked on 2 further projects since this one, only returning to the Tempest when he needs to check on the latest stage of its progress.

 

In respect of these particular test frame images, Tom told us that these are actually quite advanced in the Tempest development process and represent the fourth round of test frame components he has received from the tooling. This is quite normal for a new tooling project, with the first frames usually being the ones which require the most work to be done, as he must assess not only how his design has been replicated, but also all aspects of how the parts have been manufactured. Checking for short shots, sink marks and ejector pin markings are just as important as checking how the detail in the design has been replicated. It is also important to construct the kit from these parts, again to check the detail, but also to assess the fit and finish of the kit, to see whether any modifications may be required.

 

CAD screengrab showing why the Tempest will be such a popular addition to the Airfix kit range

 

Once Tom’s report has been produced and sent back to the manufacturer, with any required changes fed back to them, they will get on producing the next set of test frames for evaluation. The time between sending in change requests and receiving of the latest test frames usually takes between four and six weeks, however, as the project progresses through these various stages, as less things need to be addressed, so the time between receiving the latest test frames reduces.

 

The importance of actually building the model from the test frame components can’t be overstated, as this is an absolutely critical phase of a new model’s development and may initiate quite a few changes, not just in the actual design of the tooling itself. Equally important in the development of any new kit is the production of the instruction booklet, something thousands of people will be inspecting for construction guidance in the months and years to come. Building the kit can have a significant impact on the production of this booklet, as it may dictate a change in the kit’s build order, or require our illustrator to produce more detailed sections (or exploded detail) to highlight various build options or to clarify more challenging aspects of the kit’s construction.

 

We also asked Tom how easy it was to switch between projects, when the receipt of test frames means you have to leave your current project and return to one you may have been working on many months previously. He told us that he has never really struggled with this aspect of his work and how in many respects, this can actually be an effective way of keeping you fresh and if nothing else, an appealing break from your current project. Having invested so much time designing and developing the new Hawker Tempest V, Tom told us that ‘there will always be a small part of his brain which will forever be Tempest!’

 

Looking at the test frames, you will notice that Tom has cleverly included several build options into this tooling which only appeared on the first few Hawker Tempests to enter service, such as the use of larger five spoke Typhoon wheels and the Hispano cannons which protrude from the leading edge of the wing. You will also notice that unusually, the clear parts frame includes components to make two drop tanks, something which is definitely in need of further explanation. On the Tempest, the fairings which attached the underwing drop tanks to the wing itself were made of a clear acetate material, intended to allow ground crews to be able to clearly see that the unit’s securing latches had engaged onto the wing stations correctly. As a consequence, the latches and fuel pipework can be seen through this clear section, something which Tom wanted to incorporate into this new kit’s design. 
  
In summary, we asked Tom how he thought his new Tempest would be received by modellers and what they would potentially be most impressed with? He told us that clearly, he hopes modellers will like the kit, but how the most important thing to him is that he hopes they will enjoy the build experience, essential if they are to continue with the hobby. He thinks that along with the detail and optional parts he has built into the kit, he also thinks that the actual split of parts will impress modellers, along with how the model comes together. Things like the cockpit floor being an integral part of the upper wing structure and the fact that you can model the unusual clear wing tank fairings will hopefully help to make this an enjoyable build project, with just a few little differences from other builds people may have attempted.

 

Another one of Tom’s fascinating Tempest CAD screengrabs, this time showing the undercarriage and undersides of the model, including the two drop tanks which have been designed as clear parts

 

What is of no doubt whatsoever, the sight of these test frames shows that the new Hawker Tempest V tooling is advancing towards production and we are looking froward to being able to bring readers the next development updates from this exciting new project. These will include a built sample model from the test frame components, box artwork reveal and scheme detail confirmation and finally, fully built and painted models using advanced production samples of the kit, all exciting stuff! How we love bringing our readers all these exclusive updates every fortnight.

From a release perspective, it has now become clear that for a number of reasons, this new Hawker Tempest V kit project has suffered some delays during its development and with production slots in our manufacturing facility proving to be incredibly tight at the moment, it is likely that the Tempest will be delayed somewhat. This will not impact on how we continue to chart its development within the blog and as soon as we have more accurate potential release date information, we will certainly let our readers know. For all those displays of 1/72nd scale Hurricanes and Typhoons out there, fear not, your Tempest is definitely on the way!  

 

V.P.

Edited July 23, 2021 by Homebee

[Johnson]

Your top link doesn't appear to work @Homebee Of course, it could be me!

 

Having seen the KP Tempest V sprues and decals that @TEMPESTMK5 kindly posted;

 

 

https://master194.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=117608

 

I think I'll be waiting for the Airfix Mk V, even if it is 2023 (info from Hannants website - https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/AX02109). Although I wonder if that's a Hannants typo?