Special Hobby Tempest

[Cheetah11]

My late father was a teenager during the Second World War and  I suppose like the rest of his generation it left a lasting interest in the war, especially the air war. He had a great collection of virtually all the biographies written after the war, which was where I developed my interest in aviation history. One of the most interesting books for me was 'The Big Show" by Pierre Closterman . I am sure most of you do not need an intro to the book. I found his account interesting as he had a more candid view on Allied losses than most of the other biographies.  It also introduced me to the Hawker Tempest as in those day almost all literature only referred to the Spitfire and Hurricane on the British side. I immediately took a liking to the Tempest and built a Frog kit in the seventies and a Heller kit in 1982.

I never expected a 1/32 Tempest and when Special Hobby released their kit, I snapped up one and started building. The kit was 99,9% finished a year ago but I only found some clear paint for the wing tip lights last week. If you want to see a super build, follow Chuck's build. This one is straight from the box with codes with the Silhouette Cutter and light pastel weathering as the Allied aircraft did not seem to have a very much longer service life than that of the Luftwaffe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A small memento from the seventies. An Esci decal sheet for a Tempest.

 

 

Enjoy

 

Nick

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2020 by Cheetah11
Additional text

[Out2gtcha]

Brilliant work! The paint and construction look wonderful

[dennismcc]

Great job on that, the Tempest certainly looks a powerful aircraft.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Kagemusha]

Always a pleasure to see a Tempest, when I was a kid I built the Matchbox kit, had a soft spot ever since. 

[Anthony in NZ]

That's beautiful Nick....the colour tones and soft demarcation lines are perfect from my screen view!

[Dpgsbody55]

Nice work.  The Tempest was an extraordinarily good plane and you've done it proud.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[mozart]

Lovely work Nick, a real show stopper. Cracking model  and a very good illustration of what can be achieved with the use of masks from the Silhouette cutter. It would be worth putting in the Gallery and the masks file in the right section on Kev’s other site: 

https://www.scalemodelpaintmasks.com/index.php

Edited September 7, 2020 by mozart

[Troy Molitor]

Well done Nick.  I have read the “The Big show”  several times.  I even picked up a first editions book from Rick, LSP.   Why?   Just to have it.   I ha e a lithograph somewhere call Rat Catchers.  Signed by Closterman many years ago.  Your model is awesome and most importantly thanks for sharing it with us and your story. 

[Cheetah11]

 

Thanks for all the compliments gents. Max I did not even know of the site. Thanks for the information. I think I will certainly use the site.

 

Cheers

 

Nick

 

 

[MikeMaben]

Nice job Nick, turned out great 

[alain11]

Hi Nick

what a nice build !!!! Perfectly done, light weathering , perfect soft démarcation lines , it’s a very Good job !!! It pays a nice tribute to an extraordinary  man , for a no less extraordinary plane

Alain

[MikeC]

Beautifully done! 

 

I well remember those ESCI sheets: in the late 1960s/early 1970s my local model shop actually sold them, which was quite rare then I think.

[chuck540z3]

Very nice Tempest Nick.  Your paint work and stencils are outstanding!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[Madmax]

A very classy model Nick!

 

Lovely to hear the motivation behind the build. I'm sure it resonates with many readers of the forum...