Hawker Tempest II

[Enzo the Magnificent]

My build for this GB will be the 1/32 Special Hobby Tempest II. 

 

 

This is the Hi-Tech boxing with lots of resin and other goodies.

 

There are lots of things to show in the box, so I will do it in stages.

 

 

 

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Let's start with the plastic.  There are other versions of the Tempest available, so the nose is seperate to cater for that.

 

 

The sprue on the left holds the parts for the cockpit.  The one on the right has parts for various versions, with a radial engine front for the II and inline engine exhausts for the V and VI.

 

 

The wings have cutouts for the leading edge radiators of the II and VI.  These will be filled in on the V kit.  I should have used the Bobby No Mac Standardised Comparison Method to show how big these parts are. 

 

 

This sprue is specific to the Mk II.

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

But wait, there's more!

 

 

 

Note the two different radiator fronts: Mk V is top left, Mk VI is bottom right.  Neither will be used on this build.

 

 

The rocket rails are the Mk III type, which is correct for post-war use.

 

 

I didn't take the transparencies out of the bag as I don't want to scratch them, so this photo is pants.  But you can see that there are transparent pylon covers for the wing drop tanks.

 

 

 

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

There are three decal sheets providing for five marking schemes: two RAF in the Day Fighter Scheme, RAF high speed silver, Indian high speed silver and Pakistani in the Tropical Land Scheme (desert).

 

 

 

Everything shown in the previous posts is in the standard boxing of this kit.

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Let's have a look at the extras for the Hi-Tech boxing.

 

Firstly, there is a nice fabric seat harness from HGW.  

 

 

A yellow box showing a lot of promise.

 

 

It is filled with lots of resiny goodness from CMK!  

 

An open gun bay for the port wing, a replacement seat and replacement wheels.

 

 

Some extra bits for the cockpit and a replacement tailwheel.

 

 

All of these resin extras are available seperately but buying them as part of this boxing costs a few less beer chits.

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Not content with all that resiny goodness, I bought some extra.  CMK have complete resin engines for both the Mk V and Mk II which will set you back as much as the standard kits.  If there had been open gunbays for the starboard wing, I might have re-mortgaged my house and gone for that option.  But as it is, I chose this set which has the engine panels open on the port side only.  I must stress, this set is not included in the kit.

 

 

 

 

 

[trickyrich]

Go Enzo, first of the rank with an awesome looking build.

 

Gee that does look like a really nice model, plus lots of nice extras as well.

 

Any idea for the scheme? The tropical/Indian/Pakistani scheme would be a nice change for the RAF ones....everybody does those.

 

Any hoot good luck with the build, will be interested to see how she builds up.

[modelling minion]

Ooh, this should be a good build!

I have the 1/48 Eduard kit of the same subject and it looks very similar to this.

There are some great schemes for these Tempests and as Rich says an Indian or Pakistani would would look different.

 

🇺🇦

[galgos]

That looks very tasty indeed Enzo….love a bit (well a lot to be honest) of resin. And a Hawker, could you ask for more? 
Max 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Sorry to disappoint you, chaps, but I'll be building the box art scheme.

 

 

[modelling minion]

14 minutes ago, Enzo the Magnificent said:

Sorry to disappoint you, chaps, but I'll be building the box art scheme.

 

 

Not disappointed at all, its a big Tempest, whats not to like!

 

🇺🇦

[Enzo the Magnificent]

I could build a Pakistani Tempest in 1/72 in parallel with this one.  In my Blitzbuild Matilda thread, I posted a picture of the 1/72 model compared to a 1/35 casting of the same vehicle.  A similar comparison would be interesting.  Although 1/32 is 2.25 times the size of 1/72, we usually forget that it is a cubic relationship, rather than a linear one.  The 1/32 model is actually 11.4 times the size of the 1/72 model.

[Thom216]

An attractive scheme for a beast of a plane! Looks very promising!

[marvinneko]

What an overwhelming amount of detailed parts an options. So many extra bits for your spares box. Looking forward to this build. 

[stevej60]

Great choice Enzo I did the Revell boxing, with care a lovely build.

[Doccur]

I will be following along, I am building this boxing at the moment. The build is not without its challenges but will certainly look impressive 

 

Ash

[Biggles87]

I keep taking mine out of the box then putting it away again, perhaps one day I might even build it! I have taken measurement of the leading edge radiators and scaled them down to 1/48 in preparation for a Tempest 6 conversion I have planned..

Watching with interest.

 

John

[Roland Pulfrew]

On 6/4/2023 at 12:16 PM, Biggles87 said:

I keep taking mine out of the box then putting it away again, perhaps one day I might even build it!

 

Watching with interest.

 

John

That makes two of us 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

The first job is to build the cockpit components.

 

 

The decals have not been applied to the instrument panel yet.  I'm staring at the seat harness with trepidation!!!   

 

The cockpit interior was sprayed with Xtracrylix XA1010.  However, for the rest of the interior Hawkers used their own primer which was a yellow/grey colour.   I mixed this using light aircraft grey and chromate yellow.  You can see it in the tailwheel bay.

 

 

 

This kit costs about 80 beer chits.  It's always scary hacking such an expensive kit around.   What if I mess it up?!?!?     So I find it's best to dive right in. 

 

I removed the engine bay doors.  This was quite a time consuming job as the plastic is 1.4mm thick.  I expected the thin parts to snap but the plastic seems to be very soft and forgiving.

 

 

 

[Biggles87]

You’re a braver man than me. I did consider getting one of those for mine but chickened out at the thought of messing it up.

 

John

[Enzo the Magnificent]

1 hour ago, Biggles87 said:

You’re a braver man than me. 

I think the word you are looking for is "foolhardy"... 

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

The engine assembly painted up.

 

 

The gunbay panels have been removed. 

 

[FG2Si]

Looks great. I have a pair of the MkV  Hi Tech kits along with one of the PCM ones. 

Some folks have said that the landing gear legs are a pain to get aligned correctly.

 

Carl

[trickyrich]

Nice start Enzo, with all the lovely resin detail it would have ben a shame to hide it.....it'll be worth all the stress in the end.

[Enzo the Magnificent]

The engine assembly is now complete.