Hawker Typhoon/Tempest fuel tanks. Help!

[quangster]

Hello modeller friends,

I’m building the Eduard Tempest and wants to represent it with the nose panels removed. I’m busting on the fuselage oil and fuel tanks in front of the windshield and would like to ask for your assistance to help me out. 

I’ve read that the tanks were self-sealing. A friend told me they were covered with rubber like on the Spitfire, but on the pictures they’re clearly metallic. Some photos also showed them painted in dark red colours like on the Hurricane. What’s the consensus about it?
Thank you for your help.

Cheers,

Quang

[Ossington 2]

If it looks like its had a blanket draped over it, then I suggest it's got a self-sealing covering. Think of two layers of sorbo rubber with a semi-sticky gel compound in the middle. Should a round puncture the tank, this compound expands in the presence of petrol to close up the leak. Not need post-war and on todays air display machines, though I suspect the many wartime build tanks in the supply chain would have been used up until the Tempest retired.

[quangster]

So self-sealing tanks would only be present on wartime period photographs. That would explain a lot.

Thank you very much for your input.

Cheers,

Quang