Eduard Tempest Mk.II Late ProfiPACK (82125) 1:48

[Mike]

 Tempest Mk.II Late ProfiPACK (82125)

1:48 Eduard

 

 

The Tempest was the successor to the Typhoon, both of which were penned by the incredibly talented Sidney Camm and his team.  The Tempest was split into a number of parallel sub-projects to prevent it stalling in the event that any of the potential engine options ran into difficulties or were cancelled.  The Tempest II was designed from the ground-up to be powered by a radial engine, and eventually used the Centaurus that had originally been destined for the failed Tornado project, a fact that initially caused some teething troubles until the engine mounts were replaced and some other tweaks made.  The aircraft was very similar to the more well-known Mk.V from the firewall backwards, but with the huge cylindrical cowling it bears more than a passing resemblance to a Sea Fury.  Due to the state of the war as it reached service, the initial orders were successively cut back, even though the aircraft's massive power delivery and more streamlined front section resulted in a faster aircraft.  Under 500 airframes were eventually built, some as pure fighters, while the rest were converted to fighter-bombers, as the needs of the war shifted once the Allies dominated the skies.

 

In service, the Tempest Mk.II was found to be an excellent aircraft, and was the fastest prop-driven fighter of WWII at low altitude, even faster than its sibling, despite the heavier Centaurus engine, which was more than compensated for by the missing weight and drag of the chin-mounted radiator. It was also rugged, could take plenty of punishment, and could be thrown around the sky by a competent pilot despite its thin wing, and some airframes were converted for use as fighter bombers.  After the war the surplus airframes were sold to other nations following retirement from RAF service, with some lingering on as target tugs into the 50s.

 

 

The Kit

This is a reboxing of the Eduard Early kit, which contains identical plastic to this one.  It arrives in the new gold-themed box with a digital painting of a British Tempest II launching rockets during a ground-attack on the lid, plus profiles of the decal options on the sides.  Inside are six sprues in blue-grey styrene, two clear sprues, a fret of pre-painted Photo-Etch (PE) parts, a small sheet of kabuki tape masks, two decal sheets, and a glossy instruction booklet in spot colour with full colour profiles at the rear.

 

Anyone that has seen the initial Tempest kits from Eduard will know the quality of the mouldings, and some of the sprues in the box are from the original Mk.V, while two are newer, complete with exceptional detail that includes rivets, cowling fasteners, and fine engraved panel lines that are at the pinnacle of current injection moulding technology.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the pilot’s seat, which is assembled from back with two side parts, plus the adjustment mechanism that is fixed on the right, with the PE lap belts added, leaving the shoulder harness until later.  The seat is fitted to the rear bulkhead, which has the floor slotted into it, the rudder pedals and the control column put in place, complete with the three-faceted instrument panel, which has the choice of painting a detailed styrene panel, adding four instrument decals applied to a simplified panel, or using the pre-painted PE parts with their glossy dials that attach to a mixed PE and styrene frame and consist of two layers for the best detail.  This fits to the front of the sidewall frames, which both have additional PE and styrene details glued on, plus the cross-member that supports the compass, which also has its own PE face.  The frames, cross-member and front bulkhead are added to the sides and front of the cockpit, and the instrument panel installs on two pegs on the cross-member along with the port side console.  When closing up the fuselage there is a styrene engine front and spacer that inserts into the front cowling lip, then the fuselage halves need a coat of paint inside the cockpit area, plus a few small parts added to the port side, and a bit more paint in the tail wheel bay and its two-part bay former, then you can glue them together.

 

Attention shifts to the wings, starting with the wheel bays, the ribbed roof of which is moulded into the underside of the upper wing halves. The bay walls are boxed in with individual panels, plus a few ribs and stiffeners, all of which is painted in interior green on both sides, with a splash also applied to the full-width underside of the bays and the radiator intakes, which also has a radiator core inserted into the starboard wing root. The wings and fuselage are brought together and joined by the front cowling lip, which also gets the interior green treatment, and in the top of the nose, just forward of the canopy, a styrene louvered intake is scraped back to take a PE replacement for the filters originally only fitted to tropical-converted airframes, but eventually becoming a de facto standard.  The tail of the beast has the vertical fin moulded-in, to which you add the rudder, the elevator fins and flying surfaces that are all able to be posed deflected if you choose.  The ailerons are also posable, and are made up from two parts each, one in each wing as you’d expect.

 

If you look at the cockpit aperture, it is far too large at this stage, until the sill insert is added along with a number of parts on the rear deck and the gunsight under the front edge.  It’s time to insert a pair of clear nav-lights in the wingtips, a pair of leading-edge inserts for the twin cannons, their tiny barrel stubs, and finally the exhaust stubs peeking out from behind the cowling on each side.  They’re not hollow tipped, but at that size only a sharp-eyed viewer will notice.

 

The tail wheel is first to be added, made from a two-part styrene wheel with anti-shimmy groove, slipping it between the yoke, which attaches to the strut, then inserts into a depression in the bay roof.  The bay doors are attached to the sides with small tabs, and an actuator fits in the rear of the bay behind the wheel.  The main gear has the smooth styrene wheels with Dunlop in raised lettering on the sidewalls.  These slide onto the axles of the struts, and have the captive gear bay door glued to the opposite side, then the completed assembly slots into the bay roof, and would benefit from some brake hoses from your own supplies of lead wire.  The retraction struts are fitted later, along with two additional bay doors.  While you’re fitting the wheels, you fit the identification lights, two tiny clear parts behind the spent cannon brass chutes, another in the mid-fuselage, and two tiny parts under the fuselage level with the wing leading edge.  The crew access stirrup has a replacement PE handle added and a short aerial with PE alternative are arranged around the trailing edge of the wing, then that big prop is made up.  The prop has all the blades moulded into a central boss, which is trapped between the back-plate and spinner cap before being slipped over the drive-shaft.  You get the choice of open or closed canopy that uses the same clear parts, beginning with the windscreen that is glued to the front of the cockpit, then the canopy with a separate frame can be glued closed against the windscreen, or slid back to get a better view of the interior.  The final airframe elements are a couple of gear-down indicator lollipops that glue into their depressions in the inner wing panels, and another choice of PE or styrene aerial just behind the canopy.

 

You have another choice ahead of you, which is to have a clean aircraft, one loaded with additional fuel tanks, or a set of eight unguided rockets, four under each wing.  The tanks and their short pylons are all moulded in clear, and there is a decal to be applied over the clear level indicators on the side of each pylon.  The rockets each have separate tails and a PE igniter lead, and a detailed guide to their correct painting, each one glued into its own set of holes, which you should probably have drilled out from the inside earlier.  Remember that one.

 

 

Markings

You get a generous six decal options on the extensive larger sheet, with a few choices of overall colour schemes, plus a choice of desert or temperate for option D, as the researcher felt it was inconclusive – that one’s up to you.  You also get a sheet of kabuki tape masks for the canopy and tailwheel, plus the walkways at the root of the wing if you’d rather not use the decal option.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

• PR805, No.33 Sqn., Butterworth, Malaysia, 1951
• PR772, S/Ldr. G T A Douglas, No.152 Sqn., Risalpur, India, November 1946
• PR782, No.16 Sqn., RAF Fassberg, Germany, 1948
• A152, No.5 Sqn., Royal Pakistan Air Force, 1949
• PR666, Sqn. Ldr. T H Meyer, No.30 Sqn., Santa Cruz, Bombay, India, 1946
• HA598, No.7 Sqn., Royal Indian Air Force, 1947

 

 

 

 

Decals are by Eduard, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas.  The smaller decal sheet contains the stencils for the airframe, optional weapons and fuel tanks.  These are also available as a separate set from Eduard if I recall correctly.

 

 

Conclusion

It’s a highly detailed kit right out of the box, made better by adding some rather nice PE for the cockpit and a well-appointed decal sheet with plenty of options.  The Tempest II didn’t get a fair shake of the stick in service, so make sure you buy plenty so they get some belated attention.

 

Very highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of