AndrewR's Matchbox Hawker Tempest ***Finished***

[AndrewR]

I'll be making a Matchbox Hawker Tempest, which I picked up for the princely sum of $3.

The kit has two options, a Mk VI from 6 Sqn RAF (The Flying Canopeners), or a radial-engined Mk II from the Royal Indian Airforce, post-independence.

I'll be building the latter. The last time I built this kit was 40 years ago, and I tried to get a natural metal finish by hand painting with Humbrol Silver Fox enamel. It was a bit of a disaster, and put me off NMF finishes for several decades!

This time around, I am equipped with an airbrush and Vallejo Air metallics, so hopefully it will turn out a little better!

Cheers

Andrew

[Molly-new]

The last time I built this kit was 40 years ago, and I tried to get a natural metal finish by hand painting with Humbrol Silver Fox enamel. It was a bit of a disaster, and put me off NMF finishes for several decades!

This time around, I am equipped with an airbrush and Vallejo Air metallics, so hopefully it will turn out a little better!

I shouldn't worry Andrew, you did a cracking job on the Revell Yugoslav P38L Lightening. NMF seems to be your forte.

[AndrewR]

I shouldn't worry Andrew, you did a cracking job on the Revell Yugoslav P38L Lightening. NMF seems to be your forte.

"Whatever, you do, don't mention the P-38"

[Martin R]

Andrew,

I applaud your choice of kit, sir! The Matchbox Tempest is a lovely, fun build. The Mk II is a very cool looking beast, imho.

regards,

Martin

[AndrewR]

Andrew,

I applaud your choice of kit, sir! The Matchbox Tempest is a lovely, fun build. The Mk II is a very cool looking beast, imho.

regards,

Martin

I'd been looking for this kit for about 5 years, and then I walked into my local hobby shop, and there was this huge pile of kits from an estate sale, all at very low prices.
So I ended up getting the Tempest, a P40E (both Matchbox), a Novo Gloster Whittle, MPC Skyray, MPC Banshee, the Frog Mustang II and a Monogram Skyraider - and paid less than $30 for the lot. Heh, heh , heh

And the Mk II is a very powerful looking beast - a land based Sea Fury would be a good description, I think.

I have a Pavla vac-form canopy on order too, as I seem to remember the kit canopy is a bit off shape-wise.

cheers

Andrew

[AndrewR]

Here's the box. Still in cellophane!



You notice that the trademark little window is missing from the back of the box.



This probably means that it is a Hong Kong produced item, after Matchbox had ceased to be...
Not good news for quality control, and there's also no stand any more



The decals look a bit questionable on colours. The brown colour on the decals is meant to be "Indian Saffron". In this case it looks more like Burnt Indian Saffron...



The canopy was rattling around loose in the box, and there was no sign of a sprue. The shape looks much too low. I'm hoping my replacement ones (I ordered two) arrive in time for this build. They're coming from the mother country, but haven't been dispatched yet.

We still get two shades of plastic in the box.



The panel lines are very wide and I am going to leave them as they are. So there!
The cockpit is sporting a pilot and seat and nothing else. There aren't many parts to this kit, so the build itself will be quick. The paint job may not be. The plastic has a lot of flow marks in it, but doesn't seem to have any major sink marks. We will find out how good the surface is once I get a coat of primer on.

cheers

Andrew

[Marek]

I really like this kit, one of classics for me.

[Dirkpitt289]

I have always been drawn toward this kit because of the box art. I would love to get my hands on one someday.

[Martin R]

Andrew,

Up to you, but I personally think that, shape-wise, the only thing I didn't like was the 'blunt' contour to the front of the engine cowling. 10 mins with a sanding stick would improve things no end imho.

The link below is a build log of this kit from the "Luft '46 - with a twist" GB.

http://uamf.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=189&t=2334

regards,

Martin

[Motley]

Does look like a good kit, good luck with it

[lancfan]

i really like this model and have fond memories of building a number of them in my youth. I do want to add one to my stash and wish that Revell would release it once more. As for the decals the red does seem too bright when compared to modern standards and look more like the colours which used to be used on preserved aircraft many years ago, not sure about the orange/safron colour but these are the only Chakra roundels I have ever seen so would be happy to get hold of some even if they were a little too brown. The alternative nose was a useful feature of a number of Matchbox kits and would like to revisit their Hunter & Tempest kits sometime. Your boxing is from the very briefly sold Revell issue from the time shortly after they bought the tools.

David.

[Martin R]

Andrew,

And another thing . . .

No biggie, but time spent fettling the wing 'tabs' to ensure a flush fit between the fuselage underside and wing centre-section is unlikely to be time wasted.

regards,

Martin

[AndrewR]

Thanks for the link to your build Martin, that's very useful.

The history of the Indian Air Force Tempests has been covered very nicely by Polly Singh here:

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Histo ... kings.html;

There are lots of nice profiles at that link, with plenty of variations of markings.

I'm spoilt for choice!

David, the Chakras should be dark blue, similar to the colour in the one in the Indian flag. I'll take a look at the kit decals in good light, because they didn't seem quite right to me - it looked like they were printed in blue and the saffron!

Cheers

Andrew

[Marek]

I just learned a new colour - Saffron . Sounds more like a lady's clothing piece. Seriously though, I'll run through some older decals I have, I may be of help if it comes to Indian roundels, perhaps even letters and numbers if I find old ESCI sheet.

[AndrewR]

I just learned a new colour - Saffron . Sounds more like a lady's clothing piece. Seriously though, I'll run through some older decals I have, I may be of help if it comes to Indian roundels, perhaps even letters and numbers if I find old ESCI sheet.

See here for details, it's the stamen of a crocus, used for medicinal purposes and as a dye. This font colour is about the right RGB hex value. The decals look a bit too brown to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffron_(color;)