Czech Master Resin 1/72 Hawker Tempest Mk.II

By Chris Banyai-Riepl

History

The Hawker Tempest was a continuation from the Typhoon, and the Mk.II Tempest saw the matching of a radial engine to the Tempest airframe. The large Centaurus engine was enclosed with a tight-fitting cowl, making the Tempest Mk.II a very streamlined airframe. This tight cowl made cooling difficult and it was by copying the German idea of an annular oil cooler fitted in the cowl and cooled by an impeller that the overheating problem was solved. The Tempest Mk.II saw service mostly in the Far East, with the RAF flying out of India. Arriving too late for much use during the Second World War, the Tempests in India did take part in the Malayan Communist uprising in 1947, as well as fly operations against hostile Indian tribes in the latter half of the 1940s.

Two other countries flew the Tempest Mk.II, both being in the same region as the RAF Tempests. Pakistan and India received surplus RAF Tempests and both used them in skirmishes against rebel tribes in the north. Pakistan was the last country to fly the Tempest Mk.II in active service, with the last flight taking to the air in 1954.

The Tempest was an excellent piston-engined fighter, but the advent of the jet engine cut its life short. While the jet fighters of the late 1940s probably weren't a match for the Tempest, later designs quickly caught up and left even the best piston-engined fighters behind, leaving only a memory behind.

The Kit (Click on thumbnail for larger image)

Luckily, there is now a very nice kit to augment those memories, that being the latest from Czech Master Resin. This kit of the Tempest Mk.II contains 53 resin parts and two vacuformed canopies, along with a nice set of decals. Although the kit is resin, the quality throughout the kit is absolutely stunning, with finely recessed panel lines, a fully detailed cockpit, and a full load of rockets and drop tanks. The interior is very well represented, with a one-piece seat, floor, instrument panel, control stick, rudder pedals, and backrest. Once assembled and painted up, this interior will look quite busy, especially considering how little can be seen from that tiny cockpit opening.

Outside, the kit is broken down in a very easy-to-assemble way. The fuselage is split down the centerline, allowing the cockpit to be trapped between right and left halves. The large resin pour gates for the fuselage is on the front of the fuselage, making the removal easy and subsequent assembly simple, as there's no large lugs to sand down to get the sides to meet. The wing is in one piece and has the front section cut out. This front section has radiator scoops in it, and is molded separately to capture that detail. The wheel wells are true to scale, made all the more obvious by the thinness of the resin where the well meets the upper wing. Detail inside the well is nicely done as well.

The propeller is molded in one piece, with a separate spinner. But the really nice part of the kit is the underwing armament. A total of eight rockets are provided, as well as the streamlined drop tanks seen on many Tempest Mk.IIs. The rockets are molded in two pieces, with the rocket body and railing making up one part and the fins the second part. The fins are very thin and care will be needed in attaching them.

Propagteam most likely prints the decals provided, although they don't say. They feature three different options to finish your Tempest, and all of them are interesting ones. The first is a typical RAF bird, finished in the usual gray and green camouflage. As with any model of a British plane, the hardest thing for decal companies to get right is the color of the sky codes, and in this case I think they've got it close enough. This one would look good with a full load of rockets.

The other two choices are for the other two countries that flew the Tempest Mk.II: Pakistan and India. The Indian one is depicted at the beginning of the Indian Air Force, with the roundel being the Wheel of the Law of Dharma, an intricate design with orange spokes and a green rim. This on a natural metal airplane will really be different! The Pakistani option features the usual green and white roundels with a yellow outline, and the crescent and star fin flash. The camouflage of the Pakistani Tempests was a desert scheme of two shades of brown over a light blue, making this option another colorful bird.

Conclusion

The Tempest Mk.II is an interesting plane, and having a kit of one is a blessing. Having one that is done this well is just icing on the cake. While the kit is a full resin kit, the way that it is engineered makes it look like an ideal first resin kit, and the choice of markings given in the kit will make sure that it's looking good when finished.

Czech Master Resin kits are available from Aviation Usk.