HAWKER TEMPEST Mk.V Hi-Tech 2 - Special Hobby 1/32

[Dacciar]

Morning folks! So, I headed down to the basement on a mission: grab the 1/32 Tamiya Spitfire kit, ready to go now that the Westland Lynx is sitting proudly in my display case (Here). Mission accomplished, you’d think… but nope! Because, as every modeller knows, the moment one kit makes it to the display case, another from the stash stares at you and whispers: ‘my turn’. And just like that, goodbye original plans… the workbench already has a new tenant.
My eyes just happened to fall on another WWII RAF beauty, sitting there all smug in its box. And, as you well know, dear British friends, the Royal Air Force is one of my biggest modelling obsessions. Long story short… I came back upstairs with a completely different box under my arm. Oops.

But hey, it’s not my fault — the stash speaks, and we modellers must obey. Besides, you can never have too many RAF legends waiting their turn on the bench… right?

Now, as the box name suggests, this kit comes with a generous set of CMK-branded resin parts, canopy masks, wheels and lights, a small photo-etch sheet, and fabric seatbelts. First impressions? Excellent: 8 crisply moulded sprues, no flash, and some lovely surface detail. The kind of stuff that makes you want to drop everything and start cutting and gluing straight away.

Most of the resin parts are dedicated to the engine. This version of the Tempest was fitted with the Napier Sabre II — a liquid‑cooled, H‑24 sleeve‑valve beast. As Mr. AI from Google puts it in its overview: The Tempest Mk. V engine is the Napier Sabre II, a powerful 24‑cylinder, liquid‑cooled H‑type engine with a sleeve‑valve design, typically producing around 2,180 to 2,420 horsepower, depending on the specific version (IIA, IIB, etc.). This groundbreaking engine was crucial to the Hawker Tempest’s excellent performance, giving it impressive speed and power at lower altitudes — was one of the most powerful engines of its time, giving the Tempest exceptional speed and climb rates. Its advanced sleeve‑valve design was a significant engineering feat. The powerful Sabre engine was essential to the Tempest’s role as one of World War II’s most formidable fighters, capable of high speeds and rapid ascent.

In short: a powerhouse that, even in 1/32 scale, makes you want to build it with the care of a Swiss watchmaker.

I have to say, assembling the engine is quite a long and complex job: the instructions even call for some scratch-building by the modeller, mainly cables and pipes. Here’s a mid-build shot of the engine — not yet fully dressed in all its resin glory — with a coat of flat black to represent the operational power units.

All the wiring and many of the pipes (marked in the instructions as brass) are still missing; they’ll be added after a good dry-brushing session to bring out the endless details. I don’t know about you, but for me this is hands down the best engine I’ve ever seen included straight out of the box in a kit.
That’s all for now. I hope I can turn this into a decent model and that you’ll enjoy following this build.
Dan

[Nito74]

That engine is superb…superb !!

I’m currently building the big brother Tempest II
Tempest II

But I didn’t get the Resin engine upgrade.

I think I have a spare AM extra, the seat belts,

I don’t know if it’s the same for your Tempest, if you want it, send me a PM

[Dacciar]

@Nito74

That engine is superb…superb !!

Thanks, but hold on! I still have plenty of time to mess it all up

[Johnnych01]

Superb looking engine. I also really like the Tempest, a real beefy looking plane. I’d like a 1/32 bird to build, but display space would be a factor for me sadly … great start though

[Dacciar]

Hi John, tank you for appreciation.
1/32 scale is incredibly rewarding, but size is certainly a deciding factor. I love this scale and have plenty of space to display my models, but I also had to make some choices. 1/32 for WWII figures, but 1/48 for modern jets and helicopters. Just to give you an idea, my 1/48 Su-35 is the same size as my 1/32 Ju-87, which certainly wasn’t a small plane! In fact, Su-35 model is longer!
Dan

[Johnnych01]

No probs Daniele, I have followed a lot of your builds and they are always impressive. I was actually just looking at the Revell 1/32 Mosquito and Tornado … I usually do armour but I occasionally try a favourite 1/48 aircraft … I am tempted by a big 1/32 though.

[Dacciar]

Be tempted, be tempted!
And of course always thanks for your support and appreciation!
Dan

[Dacciar]

Hi everyone!

I’ve given the engine a good push forward, and also worked on the wheel bay sections of this kit. The latter still need a bit more aging and wear, while the Napier Sabre II is essentially finished — and here it is. Whether it turned out great or not, it definitely took a fair amount of effort. And, as often happens with our builds, most of that work will end up hidden forever inside the nose of whichever aircraft is on the bench, leaving behind only a memory… and a few photos taken along the way.

As I mentioned when introducing this engine, some of the pipes are included in the resin casting set that comes with the kit, while others needed a bit of scratch-building on my part.

I’d say the final result turned out quite well, and I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts. One thing’s for sure — and I know I’m repeating myself — this is hands down the best representation of a WWII piston engine I’ve ever come across in a kit.

That’s it for now. See you in the next update.

Dan

[Dacciar]

Hey folks, had a bit of a slowdown due to family stuff, but I’m back. Just finished the cockpit—wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. The fit isn’t quite up to Tamiya standards, but with a few tweaks, it turned out decent enough. The Quinta Studio set looks good overall, especially the instrument panel, that part looks impressively realistict. The surface finish of the rest of the set lacks a bit of realism and the scale feels slightly off. And the price… almost as much as a full kit! Still, I’m happy with the result and I think I’ll be using these sets again.

Here are a few intermediate steps along the way — nothing fancy, but they show the process.

This time I tried to give a more “lived-in” effect with a slightly heavier weathering.

As always, when photographing at high magnification, the images appear grainy, with orange-peel surfaces. To the naked eye, everything appears more acceptable.

Here is the finished cockpit.

Meanwhile, I started working on the interior walls of the fuselage, which, once assembled, will form an integral part of the cockpit itself.

To conclude, I’ve been working with MRP colors (my favorite, when I can). Drybrushing was made with a silver enamel paint, and weatherig with a Raw Umber Abteilung oil.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned

Dan

[Nito74]

Superb work Daniele , despite your issues I still think at this scale , going for a 3D Quinta Set is the best option,

Your cockpit turned out … Superb… looks really amazing. Congrats !!!

[Dacciar]

Hi Nito, thank you for appreciation. This Tempest isn’t exactly a breeze to put together—plenty of saw and knife work to modify some parts according to the instruction sheet.

Many, many resin parts that I don’t particularly enjoy working with.

I might share some build steps once I get to the final stage.

Dan

[Dacciar]

A quick update on the fly.
It’s finally starting to take shape. Notice the seam line between the two fuselage halves, thin but not perfect, and the strip of CA glue, currently, in my humble opinion, the best way to solve the problem. You might argue: yes, it’s the best solution, but it’s also the most destructive for rivets and panel lines once sanded. I agree, but a little patience in redoing them is definitely worth the final result.

Dan

[Dacciar]

After the massacre (the smoothing of the cyanoacrylate glue), the rebirth (the re-engraving of the rivets and panel lines). The seam seems to be still there , but everything is as smooth as glass. Where once there was empty space, the cyanoacrylate glue now joins everything seamlessly.

To the next post.

Dan

[Nito74]

I’m still behind with mine.

I remember I finished the cockpit.

And I was working on the wheel wells and landing gear.

I will get back to it mid-November perhaps, I still have a few things I need to work on next week.

[Dacciar]

Ohh…I’m also going much slower than I would have liked…

[Dacciar]

Hello guys,
today’s update is about prepping the underside of the aircraft—painting and installing the underwing stores, I mean the fuel tanks. Starting with those, I have to say the kit parts are a bit lacking. The fit between the two halves isn’t great, and there are also some small but noticeable differences in length between them.
Look at this:

.

I wasn’t exactly thrilled about spending so much time on these tanks, but they really were in no shape to be left as they were. So I armed myself with some patience, the usual cyano glue, a bit of acrylic putty, a set of progressively finer files, and a scriber to restore the panel lines that got wiped out during sanding.
While I was at it, I also gave it a light preshading with MRP 171 matte black. Here’s the final result, waiting for the paint job.

Once painted, they should be as they deserve.
As for the bulk of the work, I got the surface ready for painting—again with a bit of preshading—and set things up to paint the four-color national insignias. They’ll all be the same type and placed on the fuselage, as well as on the top and bottom of the wings.(Note**)
So I laid down a coat of MRP 4 white, which serves as a base for the inner ring of the insignias and also helps with the outer yellow ring—since yellow is notoriously tricky due to its poor coverage. Same logic for the base coat under the yellow leading-edge stripe on the wings.
Here’s how it turned out.

Side note (**): I was talking about the national insignias, and this brings me back to a fantastic research article written by Chris Thomas in 2019, specifically dedicated to the aircraft I’m building: the much-depicted JF-E, flown by the legendary French ace Pierre Clostermann.
Here the link: JF-E “Le Grand Charles”
This article, which I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys digging into historical details, clears up a few things. Most importantly, it confirms two key points. First, Clostermann’s aircraft was serial number NV994, and the one featured in the kit—SN222—was just a temporary replacement while his plane was being repaired.
Second, the red spinner, the scoreboard, and the name “Le Grand Charles” were all post-war additions, applied after the end of hostilities. During the wartime period—and that’s the timeframe I’m focusing on for my builds—the spinner was black, and both the scoreboard and the name “Le Grand Charles” were absent.
That’s why I’ll represent my model in its wartime livery and with the serial number NV994. Luckily, I found some paint masks that allow me to do so.
Hope I haven’t bored anyone, but I really enjoy the historical side of things—not quite as much as the modeling itself, maybe, but definitely a lot.
Stay tuned.
Dan

[Dacciar]

Hey guys, quick update! The assembly’s at an advanced stage, just need the lights, the machine gun barrels and a couple other bits. The landing gears and propeller are the main thing left, but they are all ready to go, so I’ll fit them in one of the final steps after I’ve finished painting the model.

So, we’d left off with the white under the wings, where the national insignia were supposed to go. Below are some intermediate steps,

and finally, the finished job.

They’ve faded somewhat, appearing a bit worn. The final aging process will make them less vivid and more believable to the naked eye.
Just a couple of words on the drop tanks. I got them painted Medium Sea Grey. For the “noses”, I used that same MSG, but heavily faded it up with a lot of white to make them look worn from the airflow. Then I added the connection pipe between the drop tank and the internal tank myself (it wasn’t in the kit box), and I glued on the pylons, the clear ones, just like the real deal. Just need to get the stencils on.

Okay, they look a bit better than they did right after the initial assembly .
The underside of the plane just needs the weathering/wash work for the rivets and panel lines. The finish on the wings benefits from the pre-shading, which already gives it that ‘worn’ look.

A note on fitting the gunsight, which was a bit tricky: the way the box suggests mounting it (directly attached to the front canopy) wasn’t convincing based on photos of the real thing. It looked too close to the glass. After a bit of filing, I fixed it to the side walls of the cockpit in a more appropriate position for the pilot’s use.

I’ll wrap up today’s update with the start of the work on the national insignia and identification letters on the right fuselage. I’ve put down a coat of Sky S (MRP 118) and positioned the ‘E’, as its placement had more reference points for correct alignment. Following that towards the tail, I’ve placed the outer frame of the insignia, which I’ll use to correctly position the insignia itself after putting down the white again for the central ring and the base for the outer yellow one.

To finish off, ‘JF’.

Just one more consideration on the relative positioning between the insignia and letters. As you can see from the historical photos below, both right and left, the ‘E’ seems to be positioned a little closer to the insignia compared to ‘JF’. You can see from my photo that I’ve tried to replicate this small difference."

That’all for now.
Cheers
Dan

[Dacciar]

Here are the first coats of MRP4 white and, above, on the outer ring, MRP122 yellow.
Once the paint is dry, the job is half done. I’ll position the complete insignia mask exactly inside the outer frame, peel it off, and proceed with painting the red center and the large blue ring, simply lifting half of the corresponding mask, painting the exposed surface, let it dry and doing the same for the other half. This is my method with British roundels; I don’t peel off the entire ring because a poor repositioning could affect the work with subsequent colors if the repositioning isn’t absolutely perfect. Even so, if I still have any doubts about this happening, I add a little liquid mask along the separation line. I found these two colors in the Alclad II MIL SPEC range, ready for airbrushing and, in my opinion, faithful to the original. They are ALC-E655 WWII Roundel Red for red and ALC-E652 WWII Roundel Blue for blue. These are enamel paints.

Once this is finished, guys, I’ll focus on the top coat. I’m thinking about a new technique (new to me, I mean) with the aim of giving everything a worn look. I’m excited to experiment, but I’ll tell you about it in the next episode.
Dan

[Dacciar]

Good morning everyone, the work is progressing well. The national insignia are done! Now they are resting under their masks and a generous coat of liquid mask to protect them from unwanted infiltrations of the camouflage paint. As mentioned at the end of the previous post, it’s now time to think about the upper camouflage, still with that doubt: sharp demarcation between the green and grey, or feathered/softened edges?

According to my research, the standard adopted by the RAF was lightly feathered edges. But how feathered? According to other forums I’ve visited, the scale also counts when deciding how to do this job, with the criterion being: small scale = sharp edges, large scale = feathered edges. I think I’ll adopt the middle ground approach: lightly feathered edges using ‘sausages’ of Blu-tack or Patafix.

For now, the RAF Dark Green (MRP110) has been applied, without overdoing it. And here is the technique I am experimenting with to give the eye a final impression of worn and used paintwork.

Above the dark green, using this template…

I applied random patches of a lighter green, like this…

and then a darker green. The final result is this…

the two colors used are these:

What do you guys think? Looks like a mess? Yeah, objectively it looks a mess, but…

The finishing touch: a light coat with the main dark green colour, MRP110, to blend these patches with the base coat, without completely covering them up, just harmoniously mixing them in. The result, to my eyes, is excellent—exactly what I wanted to achieve."

The same process will be adopted for the Ocean Grey camouflage section, using spots of a lighter grey and others of a darker grey, aiming for a final result that is homogeneous with the green section.
We’ll talk more about it in the next update. Cheers everyone, and have a great weekend!
Dan

[Dacciar]

Good morning everybody.
The upper camouflage is now completed using the technique I described at the end of my previous post. I
want to stress that I haven’t invented anything new; I just took inspiration from other works I found online to improve my own techniques!
I have to say I’m very satisfied with the final result, and I hope that when I present the finished aircraft it will also meet with your approval. The plane looks properly “lived-in” but at the same time it doesn’t give the impression of having just emerged from a muddy swamp. What’s still missing are some paint chips along the leading edges of the wings, on the propeller, and in the main walk‑over areas near the left wing root.
This beast (it really is big) has now received all the national markings, hand-painted on the wings, fuselage, and tail surfaces. The upper side is now fully glossed and ready for stencil application. I’ll take care of the underside later, once the top is finished with the last gloss coats, washing, and the final matt finish.
Here are a few random shots from this stage of the build. Feel free to share your thoughts — any feedback or even constructive criticism is always welcome!

Blu tack at work…

Camo completed with glossy first coat:

Engine cowlings polished, with the rivet lines already highlighted. The same goes for the landing gear doors.

Here you can see the effect of the preshading I applied, just as on the entire underside of the aircraft.
Dan