Hawker Tempest V - Academy 1/72

[WolfRacer]

Hi Folks,

I recently finished off this model. I was unsure whether or not to post it because I'm aware it has some historical accuracy issues. It's painted similar to one of Pierre Closterman's aircraft, but has the wrong serial number (should be NV994) and wrong roundels on the upper side of the wings.

I mainly painted it as a test case for cutting masks on my electronic die cutter, but I thought it came out nicely so thought I'd share it anyway.

It's Academy's kit, even though I haven't built many kits I'm really liking Academy's 1/72 range. The cockpits are simple but effective and more than anything I like the panel line detail on them. Most 1/72 aircraft I've seen have panel lines that look like giant ravines but the 1/72 Academy kits I've looked at have much shallower panel lines while retaining good detail.

So if you paint them well, they can end up looking like 1/48 scale kits in 1/72 because the surface detail is finer. I've also done one of their 1/72 Griffon Spits. The seatbelts are done from Tamiya tape and don't look great close up, but on my display shelf I think they look acceptable.

Comments and criticisms welcome! I'm always trying to learn and improve from each kit.

Maybe I'm wrong, but the chord length on the propeller seems too large to my eye, but never having seen one in person or measured the prop on one I'm not sure.

I bought this kit a few months ago because I love the Tempest and wanted to do one, but a few weeks after buying it Special Hobby came out with their 1/32 Tempest which I snapped up and am currently working on.

 

[Wurger]

Not too bad at all. Looking very nice.

As far as the a/c serial is concerned.. as memo serves ... Pierre Clostermann used three Tempest V kites with the JF_E code. One was of the NV724 serial ( quite well known ) Also the NV994. But there was probablt another one - the SN222. The NV724 is his post-war mount.

The list of Tempests flown by him...
The Tempest V : EJ 781, JJ-x ; NV 722, JJ-x ; EJ 893, JJ-W ; NV 942, JJ-x ; NV 722, JJ-x ; NV 971, JJ-x ; EJ 706, JJ-x ; NV 660, JJ-x (274 Sqn), EJ 708, US-W ; NV 728, US-X ; NV 927, US-Z ; NV 965, US-S ; EJ 804, US-M ; NV 970, US-O ; NV 987, US-R ; NV 667, US-A ; SN 131, US-P ; EJ 536, US-W ; NV 968, US-G ; NV 974, US-K (56 Sqn), NV 994, JF-E, SN 222, JF-x and post-war NV 724, JF-E.

Regarding the prop .. the diameter was of 3886mm. So.. 3,886/72x100=5,39722cm what is about 5,4cm for the scale.

 

[Capt. Vick]

I love it!

 

[WolfRacer]

Not too bad at all. Looking very nice.

As far as the a/c serial is concerned.. as memo serves ... Pierre Clostermann used three Tempest V kites with the JF_E code. One was of the NV724 serial ( quite well known ) Also the NV994. But there was probablt another one - the SN222. The NV724 is his post-war mount.

The list of Tempests flown by him...
The Tempest V : EJ 781, JJ-x ; NV 722, JJ-x ; EJ 893, JJ-W ; NV 942, JJ-x ; NV 722, JJ-x ; NV 971, JJ-x ; EJ 706, JJ-x ; NV 660, JJ-x (274 Sqn), EJ 708, US-W ; NV 728, US-X ; NV 927, US-Z ; NV 965, US-S ; EJ 804, US-M ; NV 970, US-O ; NV 987, US-R ; NV 667, US-A ; SN 131, US-P ; EJ 536, US-W ; NV 968, US-G ; NV 974, US-K (56 Sqn), NV 994, JF-E, SN 222, JF-x and post-war NV 724, JF-E.

Regarding the prop .. the diameter was of 3886mm. So.. 3,886/72x100=5,39722cm what is about 5,4cm for the scale.

If that's going off memory I'm impressed!

I meant the chord length of the propeller blades rather than the overall diameter, though I just checked and the overall diameter is ~58mm so it seems it's a bit oversized in diameter. But the individual blades have a max chord length just over 5mm (maybe 5.2ish, my digital caliper is out of batteries) which visually looks very large, but maybe it's right?

Where abouts did you get that info from? I'm looking for references for the 1/32 Tempest I'm working on because I want to get that one correct.

I love it!

Thanks!

 

[Wurger]

Sometimes the memo can fail..

The prop data can be found in the Crowood Aviation Series for Hawker Typhoon,Tempest and Sea Fury ...

The one in the 4+Publications for the Tempest ..

And this in the Czech book.. Modelpres vol.5

The diagrams...

 

[Wurger]

So the correct diameter for both the Rotol Hydromatic and the deHavilland prop of 4,27m diameter is 4,27/72x100=5,93cm. The shape of both blade types you can see above i the first diagram posted..

 

[WolfRacer]

Wow, thanks! I'm going to start a thread soon on the Special Hobby Tempest so I'm going to have lots of questions I should try and get my hands on some books.

So this being a Mk V should have a 4.27m diameter prop, which means the Academy kit is correct on the diameter, but going by the diagrams I think the prop blade chord length is too long, as in the the blades look too broad, but really it's hard to tell, I'd probably have to print off those pics and lay the prop on top of them.

I know from pictures of Tempests they had a pretty massive prop, but they just seemed too paddle-like.

 

[Wurger]

My pleasure..

Just a note regarding the Academy Minicraft 1/72 scale kits.. although these look great but are full of mistakes made. Therefore I would be quite carful of the accuracy unless the mistakes wouldn't mind me.

 

[Gnomey]

Good work!