Special Hobby Tempest F2: the elusive Malaya schemes

[thierry laurent]

Hi guys,

 

To me, the Tempest F2 may only be painted in the colors of the Malayan campaign. The new Special Hobby kit has just one aluminum scheme for such planes and very frankly it is not my favorite. Deep in my memory, I kept the image of camo-painted Tempests launching rockets over the jungle.

 

So, this triggered soon one question in my mind: which colors?

 

For some reason, there are not many pictures of the Tempest that were taken in that theater of operations and few were finally published. Unfortunately, the web does not really help with regard to this exercise. So, I went back to my library yesterday evening and allocated some time to understand the topic.

 

33 squadron Tempests were based in Germany when the decision to transferred the unit to Asia was taken.

 

HMS Ocean carried the planes in July 1949 with Spitfire F24 fuselages for the Squadron 80. They arrived in Seletar on 2 August.

 

The following planes were shot on the carrier:

PR852/5R-N
MW423/5R-G
MW416/5R-H (already in Aluminium scheme)
PR785/5R-F
PR782/5R-R
PR916/5R-B

According to the records of the Squadron, there were at least five other Tempests. However, it is more probable there were six other planes (to get a more logical allocation of 12 airframes).

 

Among multiple pictures of the planes taken in Germany and Malaya, I identified the following airframes:

 

PR533/5R-V

PR859/5R-Z

PR771/5R-D

PR689/5R-E

?????/5R-Y

?????/5R-X

 

However, I have no certainty this list is 100% correct as possibly a plane was replaced by another one I did not identify and the correspondence between the serial number and the individual code may have changed. A handful of N°33 Squadron's Tempests were already in the "dope" scheme when they arrived in Malaya but from October 1949 the rest (including PR859/5R-Z) were similarly resprayed at Changi in the aluminium scheme. Spinners were painted red for A Flight or Blue for B flight. The squadron started normal operations in December 1949.

 

However, because of a new regulation scheme that was issued in April 1951, the remaining planes were repainted in a dark green, dark sea grey and PRU blue scheme very similar to Hawker's original "A" scheme (5R-D was one of them). The spinner that should have been repainted in dark sea grey seemingly kept the Flight color. Plane codes and serials were logically repainted in white. It is very probable only a handful were repainted in camo colors as the conversion to the Hornet started in June of the same year.

 

So, for an operational aircraft, the choice of Special Hobby is the most logical one as the planes were painted in aluminium for at least one year and a half.

 

The part that becomes weird is the fact that the picture of plane 5R-D repainted in the "new" camo shows a quite tired paint on the belly. How this paint scheme could have been so damaged in this so short amount of time (weeks/months) does not seem logical to me...!

 

Any idea?

 

Thierry

 

 

 

 

 

 

[scvrobeson]

Bet being in Malaya in the summer had a rather destructive effect on the paint

 

 

 

 

Matt 

[thierry laurent]

Indeed, but to me, this may not fully explain the cowling edge chipping or the filthy undersides. Launching rockets has a bad impact on the wings paint but cannot explain how the belly looks so dirty...

[Guest Airfixer]

I'm fully aware it's a long, long shot...

 

A couple of Tempest Mk.II had the overall Aluminium Day Fighter Scheme directly applied onto the original paint scheme which resulted in a rather flaked and scruffy appearance within a short period of time. Hypothetically speaking, what if it has been the other way round? Omitting the prescribed pretreatment, undercoat and primer and applying the the "new" camouflage straight onto the Alumium dope.

 

How well would the new topcoat adhere? Was it consistently applied? Cellulose stock DTD colours only or stock DTD synthetic enamels? Combinations of both cellulose and synthetic paints? Any differences in terms of overall adhesion on "Aluminium dope" between cellulose and synthetic paints without proper pretreatment? Locally authorised deviations from applicable A.M.O.s in view of the Hornet's imminent commissioning?

 

One thing is for sure: it's highly conspicuous that a  comparatively new finish would deteriorate that quickly.

[thierry laurent]

Who knows?

 

In any case, it is better having pictures you cannot explain rather than a fact in a squadron book for which you have no picture! From a modelling perspective, my problem is solved even if I do not understand the logic hidden behind...

 

Thierry

[Guest Airfixer]

Exactly. Who knows? And sometimes ignorance is a bliss

 

Erik

[Iain]

Hi Thierry - and anyone else that has any knowledge of the Firedog Tempest IIs...

 

I'm just about to start spraying up a Tempest II that's been sat on the shelf of doom for waay too long and restore some MoJo.

 

Really want to do a late Firedog 33 Sqn machine in the last camouflage - as an old friend of mine, Flt Lt Chris Armstrong RAFVR(T), was an armourer on 33 during the Malayan emergency - he primarily worked on the Hornets - but I believe they were just transitioning from Tempests when he arrived. Sadly Chris is no longer with us to advise.

 

So - just to confirm: PRU Blue undersides - Dk Green and Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces?

 

My options appear to be:

 

PR771/5R-D - red spinner

 

PR805/5R-S - blue spinner (Eduard 1:48 kit has this option - but calls out Azure Blue/Dk Green/Medium Sea Grey as colours?)

 

Does anyone have any more thoughts/input on the subject - and any pointers to period photos - apart from one image I'm drawing a blank...

 

Iain

 

 

[MikeC]

Sadly I can't help, as my Tempest II is planned as a 226 OCU bird at RAF Bentwaters, to go with my Meteor 4. Nevertheless, this is a fascinating discussion,  I'm following with interest.

[thierry laurent]

Hi Iain,

 

It always amazed me how the immediate postwar RAF topics are badly documented. I did not go back to the topics for years as unfortunately I did not find any additional information in the meanwhile. The scheme colours are a logical assumption and there are some pictures. So I think the best approach is to try to reproduce what the rare pictures are depicting as far as possible... By the way, I recently developed interest in the seventies Dhofar rebellion in Oman and it seems that topic is not better covered than the campaign in Malaysia...! 

BTW, I'm wondering where Eduard got the information related to PR805...

 

I will have a look at your Tempest project!

 

Cheers

 

Thierry 

[Iain]

Thanks for responding Thierry - appreciated!

 

I'm having another look just now - and found some archive images of Tempest IIs on the dump at Butterworth - which you may not have seen yet?

 

I'm now off to follow that trail down a rabbit hole with a search through the RAF Seletar Association that page refers to, to see if I can find any more images...

 

iain

[fastterry]

Hi Thierry, I don't know if you are a member at Britmodeller but this query seems to be something that members on there could answer. If not let me know and I will ask the question. 

 

TRF

[Iain]

Hi fastterry - funnily enough I asked the question over on Britmodeller last night. 

 

Looks like the Eduard 'Ultimate Tempest' package includes a useful book with a couple of images - alongside their 1:48 kit.

 

Apparently that calls out Dark Sea Grey for one of the illustrated schemes, but another boxing of their 1:48th kit calls out Ocean Grey - which is possibly a typo/misreading of images?

 

 

Just had the 'Tempest Squadrons of the RAF - by @Chris Thomas' arrive and that helps - and have 'Tempest: Hawker's Outstanding Piston-engined Fighter by Tony Butler' on the way tomorrow to see if that has any images.

 

And can anyone confirm the size of the upper wing roundels?

 

Why, as modellers, do we always go for the unusual/difficult to research? 

 

Iain