The last fighter of Hawker lineage to see combat in World War II, the Tempest was the zenith of piston power for the Royal Air Force at the end of the war.
Pacific Coast Models’ deluxe 1/32 scale Tempest includes a generous amount of photoetched metal and a handful of well-molded resin parts, including a substantial main-gear bay. A large decal sheet with a surprising number of stencils takes care of the five decal options, which include a postwar overall silver Tempest for those who want something unusual. Be aware there are a couple of numbering mistakes with the decals — for instance, the squadron leader pennants are reversed for SA-M- and JF-M-coded airframes — but you can easily tell by reading the squadron number on the pennant itself. Clear parts are thin and well molded, with no distortion or cloudiness. Surprisingly, the drop-tank pylon halves are molded in clear – a well-researched one-up on all other Tempest kits. Decals are included for the stiffeners on these pylons, but Pacific Coast shorted decals 4 and 5 by a pair each.
This release of the Tempest actually includes parts that were remanufactured by the molder, Sword, at Pacific Coast’s request. These include a new, correctly sized radiator assembly and a short-chord spinner with a corrected shape. Also included is a replacement main-gear bay, as a number of the initial kits had badly warped parts. Kudos to Pacific Coast for listening to feedback and taking immediate corrective action! The new radiator parts still need trimming but are much improved over the originals — which are still in the kit — even negating the need for the photoetched-metal intake screen. Similar to its predecessor, the Hurricane, the interior of the Tempest is mainly tubing.
Still, this is basically a large short-run kit — you will need to trim and clean up pieces to get the fits just right. Studying the parts, I realized the tubing location holes were just dimples on the side frames. So, I drilled them out before assembly.
Having built Pacific Coast’s Hurricane, I suspected there might be an easier way to build up the cockpit. Instead of assembling the entire structure outside the fuselage, I attached the side frames to each fuselage half. After painting, I built the fuselage from the nose back to the tail, adding cockpit components one at a time as I went. This allowed the fuselage to grow around the cockpit structure. Had I glued the fuselage together, then tried to install the fully assembled cockpit, I am sure I would have had a fight on my hands, as the fuselage wanted to be much narrower than it needed to be without the cockpit bulkheads and cross members in place.
Prior to installing the floor, I added the colored photoetched-metal side panels – the instructions were very vague as to placement, so check your references. Taking my time in constructing the fuselage bit by bit paid off; by the time I made it to the tail there were hardly any seams to fill and the cockpit fit was great. I did have to remove 1⁄16" from the tray attached to the cockpit floor. With a bit more work, rudder and stabilizers were attached and the fuselage was done.
Interestingly, there is no mention of the clear fairings (Part CP2) that are apparently intended for the rear of the stabilizers — these sometimes are missing from the real aircraft. Mine went missing after a run-in with an antiaircraft tweezer-pult.
After the long slog with the fuselage, the wings were quick. The improved resin main-gear bay was still a bit warped, so I dipped it in very hot water for about two minutes with the help of spaghetti tongs (shhh … don’t tell my wife!) and all was perfectly flat. A quick test-fit reminded me that this is a short-run kit — the resin gear bay and wing root had to be carved back to allow them to meet one another without interference. After gluing in the gear bay, I attached the center section to the fuselage. Careful trimming, thinning, and fitting of the upper wing halves allowed a near seamless join at the wing roots. Similarly, the lower outboard sections fit well after thinning the wing at the attachment point. Only a bit of filler was needed at the front joint; like most kits, the Tempest required a bit of filler at the rear junction between the fuselage and the center section of the wing.
The newly molded short-chord spinner fits very well to the back plate, but only after aligning the dimple molded into both the back plate and the spinner. This is not mentioned in the instructions, nor is there any guidance on which style of spinner is used with which decal option (check your references). Make sure you test-fit the blades before committing to the position of the prop hub inside the spinner – I incorrectly made the assumption that the center of the blade is in the center of the cutout in the spinner.
I used the side views to generate paper masks for painting. Decals went on well and settled nicely, although it took longer than I expected as there are a number of stencils. A bout of weathering, a flat coat, and my Tempest was complete. I spent a bit more than 46 hours on the build; I’m convinced that a modeler with some experience of short-run kits will have no problem building up a storm with this Tempest.
Note: A version of this review appeared in the March 2014 FineScale Modeler.