With Eduard's new 48th scale Series I Tempest kit already being built by Gary, Mr Calum Gibson of "Ham-fisted Modeller" fame decided to start his own build on the latter model, the Series II. He is adding some of Barracuda Studio's latest resin to the kit to further improve on the model. See him start his build in Part I of his construction guide today...
Build Guide: Hawker Tempest Mk/V Series II
From Eduard Model Accessories
1/48th scale
Kit No #82122
Plastic Injection moulded kit
Six decal options from Cartograf
Photo-Etched parts
Painting mask included
Product Link on the Eduard Website
The Hawker Tempest V can be described as a Typhoon with the major problems resolved. This was primarily achieved with a new thinner elliptical shaped wing and a four-bladed propeller driven by a more reliable Sabre engine. These changes were considered enough to give it a new name – Tempest.
The Tempest V was built in 2 sub-variants with the first 100 aircraft being “Series I” and the subsequent 300 aircraft being Series II. The visible differences are:
Series I
• Cannon protruding ahead of the wing leading edge
• Reinforcing strips on the joint between the Tail and rear fuselage
• Typhoon five-spoke mainwheels
• Small blisters on wing root fairing
Series II
• Cannon were new short-barrelled and completely enclosed
• No reinforcing on the tail/rear fuselage joint. (a one-piece casting replaced the original tubular steel frame resulting in a stronger joint)
• Provision for 2 x 45 gal drop tanks
Operations
The first two squadrons equipped with the Tempest V were No’s 3 and 486 (NZ) Sqn with the first operational patrols flown in April 1944 however it’s first kills weren’t recorded until 8th Jun 1944. Kept in reserve on D day it wasn’t until the 8th June that Tempests were operational over France Tempests were flown by No 3 Sqn made their combat debut claiming three 109’s shot down.
The war against the V-1 flying bombs, beginning on 16 Jun 1944 was where the Tempest really earned its spurs. The Tempest was found to have better performance at the altitudes the V-1’s were arriving over England. This along with their steadiness as a gun platform allowed the Tempest to claim around 800 V-1’s before the offensive dried up in August.
The Tempest wing resumed operations over the continent in late August 1944 but it wasn’t until late September 1944 that Tempests were permanently based in Europe. Initially, the Tempest along with the Spitfire Mk XIV was needed on the continent to counter the increasing threat of the Me-262 although encounters with the German jets were fleeting and usually only probable’s were claimed.
The Tempest, like its older brother the Typhoon, also proved an excellent ground attack aircraft and flew many sorties in support of the Western Allied Armies during the final 18 months of the war.
The Kit
Eduard’s new Tempest kit comes in both Series I and Series II boxing’s. I’ll be tackling the Series II boxing. The plastic in each kit appears to be identical with the only difference being the inclusion of the drop tanks in the Series II box. The PE set is also different in each box.
I also have a few Barracuda sets to complement the build, these being the spinner, exhausts, seat and smooth tread wheels. The kit spinner lacks the unique shape of the real thing so the Barracuda part provides a simple fix.
Being a Kiwi I was drawn to the 486 (NZ ) Sqn option, JN803. This aircraft was one of the high scorers against the V-1’s. Interestingly it appears to have a large grill over the intake. Eduard supply this on the PE fret. A quick Google found an image that confirms this and gives me a handy reference for the build.
The tubular framing of the cockpit is quite fine and I was a little concerned that using normal nippers would break the cross tubes, so I used a razor saw for the first one.
Deciding to live dangerously I used my Tamiya Extra Fine Sprue cutters for the 2nd one. No damage occurred. The kit cockpit is extremely well detailed with lots of PE, I promptly lost the rudder foot pedals so had to resort to the plastic ones These are there, but not mentioned in the instructions. After a few engrossing hours, I had a series of sub-assemblies ready to go.
Eduard gives you 3 options for the instrument panels, PE, decals on flat plastic, or raised plastic detail which I assume they want you to paint.
I assembled the PE panel as I assumed it will provide the best representation. It requires a couple of bends to get the geometry right so I used the kit part as a guide.
Whilst doing this I wondered how the decal would go over the raised plastic detail. I’m actually a fan of decals over raised detail for instruments and cockpit detail in general (as long as the decals fit) so I decided to assemble the plastic parts.
The decal fit well over the raised detail and snuggled down nicely with an application of Micro Sol. After a flat coat, I used blobs of UV glue to simulate the glass. There’s not much in it, but I’ll let you be the judge.
The cockpit was painted with Mr Color 364 RAF Interior green and Gaia Notes German Grey. Mr Color does the best RAF interior green in my opinion and German Grey is a great “black” for 48th scale. A rough dry brush was applied with a random Vallejo grey to simulate some wear and break up the monotone black. Although this looks over the top it’s going to be dark in there so it pays to be a bit heavier.
A wash of Winsor and Newton Raw umber oil paint thinned with odourless solvent was used on the green. Again this looks heavy but little if any of this will be seen when the fuselage is together. Another decal was used for the switches on the LH fuselage.
The painted sub-assemblies went together with little trouble. The kit seat and PE belts would look nice but the Barracuda seat is truly a work of art and really adds to the cockpit. The seat details were picked out with various Vallejo acrylics.
A little bit chipping was applied with a fine brush and so Ammo Aluminium paint.
Blobs of Vallejo red, yellow and white were used to build up the coloured levers on the consoles
In the end, I decided I preferred the decaled panel over the PE panel. It just looked a bit better. The rest of the cockpit looks great straight from the box, and even without the PE, I’d be happy with the detail in the kit (I do see some weekend editions in my future).
Now to fit the cockpit to the fuselage. Stay tuned for more on this build over the next few weeks...
Calum Gibson
Thanks also to Barracuda Studios for sending their Tempest improvement kits to us to try out in this build...
