Special Hobby 1/72 Hawker Tempest Mk.II

SPECIAL HOBBY 1:72 HAWKER TEMPEST MK.II
'INBOX Review'

Reviewer: Kevan Vogler (rec.models.scale)

I was very excited to see this kit recently at my local hobby shop and snapped it up right away. While the Tempest has been covered fairly well in 1/72 and a bit in 1/48, the kits have had their focus on the MK.V variant that saw service late in WWII.

The MK.II Tempest, which could be said to be the aircraft the Tempest was meant to be from the beginning, suffered developmental problems with the marriage of the Bristol Centaurus radial engine to the reworked Typhoon airframe that the Tempest was. As a result, the Typhoon’s Napier Sabre in-line engine was reverted to and the Tempest V was born. The Tempest II entered service too late to have a part in WWII.

Until now, with the exception of the elderly Matchbox 1/72 Tempest kit, A MK.II could only be achieved through conversion of existing Tempest V kits. That’s why this kit is so exciting, it’s a MK.II from the beginning and nothing else. The MK.II was the most powerful of the Tempest line, and I dare say the most attractive.

On to the kit:

Two sprues of darkish grey styrene, two vacuum formed canopies (one is a spare), 16 nicely done resin bits, small fret of photo etched bits along with the decals and instructions come packed in one of Special Hobby’s standard end opening boxes.

The major styrene components, wings, fuselage and horizontal stabilizers, look quite nice with only a bit of flash and finely engraved panel lines. However, the plastic is of the softer variety that we often see in limited run kits and this causes a few issues with finer parts. In this kit the main landing gear legs are well captured and convincing in detail, but they are very wobbly even on the sprue so I have some serious concerns about their ability to successfully hold up the weight of the finished model. Additionally, the main gear wheels in my kit both had sink marks that rendered them unusable.

The propeller that comes in this kit could be better when I compare it to pictures I’ve seen on the internet. The blades seem to be a bit too wide in chord. Generally speaking the prop seems to lack a certain definition that is seen on the other styrene parts in the kit. I also have reservations about the strength of the styrene on this component as well.

The resin parts are also quite well done, typical CMK fare here. Most of them are cockpit related, but we also get main and tail landing gear bays, engine exhausts, wing radiator facings and the very front part of the engine cowling in resin. There is a huge pour stub on top of the main gear well that will require a lot of sanding before it will properly fit between the wing halves.

The photoetch fret is small and provides us with the cockpit instrument consoles, seat harnesses, an optional wing radiator facing if you don’t like the resin one and a nice extra radiator section that sits on top of the fuselage between the cockpit and engine section; this radiator was fitted to Tempests that were destined to operate in the Far East and other tropical areas.

The decals are spot on in register and seem to have good colour density. The big black post war RAF serial codes that are on the undersurfaces of the wings are broken up so you can apply them to the landing gear doors without having to chop them up yourself if you build this kit gears down.. The decals cover three post war RAF machines:

A: 54 Squadron, 1954. This is a camouflage finish with Pacific theatre ID markings on it.

B: 135 Wing, 1948. This is either a bare metal or aluminium painted aircraft. Instructions say it was based in Fassberg, Germany.

C: 5 Squadron, no date given. Based in India.

Options B and C have “Aluminum” given as their overall colour. My understanding is that in 1946 an order was given by the RAF for camouflage to be stripped from its aircraft in favour of bare metal or an aluminium dope overspray. I’m not sure about the aircraft in option B, but the option C aircraft most certainly would have had the aluminium overspray. Given that it was based in a tropical region such as India, corrosion control would have been a major issue and the aluminium dope would have given good protection to the airframe on that front.

The instructions are generally clear in construction, but a bit hard to follow on finer points. For example: the tropical radiator, according to the instructions, goes on the B and C options. However, the box art shows the camouflaged A version and clearly shows the radiator on it. To my mind it would make more sense to say that the tropical radiator went with the A and C versions as the A version was intended to go to the Far East and the C version actually saw service in the tropics. Definitely some research in order here.

A note on the box art; you’ll notice a bomb pylon on the aircraft in the box art, this kit does not have bomb pylons. The only underwing stores you get are drop tanks that have their pylons molded to them.

I’ve done a bit of dry fitting with the styrene components and they look like they will come together well with minimum fuss. It definitely captures the lines of the Tempest.

The real downside to this kit is in the aforementioned soft landing gear and questionable prop. I would have to say a good set of cast metal gear legs and prop blades from the aftermarket would not be unwelcome in building this kit. For myself, I have Heller’s tried and trusted Tempest kit that I will take these parts from. Its gear legs look good and should fit with no problem and its prop seems a bit better.

I can recommend this kit without too much reservation to more experienced modelers who have good research materials at hand and experience with limited run kits. If you want a good Tempest II straight from the box, this is it so far.

If you like doing your research on line, I doubt you’ll do better than this site:

www.hawkertempest.se

This Swedish based page is a mother load of information about the tempest and all of its various incarnations. Lots of walkarounds, technical drawings and even a page of Tempest model kit reviews.

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