Scale Aviation Modeller International – March 2019

Europe. Once the airframe
was primed and pre-shaded,
I sprayed area of the invasion
stripes XF-2 Flat White. Taking
my cue from the painting guide
I then roughly cut some strips
of Tamiya tape to mask of the
white stripes. XF-85 Rubber
Black followed after which
I masked of the completed
stripes. The Sky band then
followed in XF-21 Sky, which
was then masked in its turn.
With about a third of the model
already covered in tape, inally I
could turn to some camoulage
and this began with a coat of
XF-83 Medium Sea Grey on
what was left of the underside.
This was masked and followed
by XF-54 Dark Sea Grey sprayed
freehand on the upper surfaces,
yet more masking with white
tack sausage and tape, and the
inal colour – XF-81 Dark Green.
After some initial
trepidation, the Cartograph
printed decals settled well
over and into every nuance of

the Tempest’s surface detail

without a hint of trauma.

The decal sheet is more than

comprehensive with codes and

roundels for the ive diferent

aircraft, along with suicient

stencils to keep anyone happy

for hours. There are 143 pairs of

little red dashes to be applied

on ‘all AMAL fastenings on the

wing and fuselage’, so while

I commend Eduard for their

attention to detail, I politely

declined. The remainder of the

stencils went on perfectly and

once this was done, they were

followed by my usual practice

of blending all decals into the

background with X-19 Smoke

and some Tamiya weathering

powders. The usual Matt

spray from a rattle can was

followed by the inal additions

to the airframe, these being

the undercarriage, aerials,

footrest, radiator lap, canopy

and inally that enormous

airscrew. I was unimpressed

by the exhausts supplied with

the kit, so I sourced some

lovely cast Brassin, but am I

wrong in thinking that such

things should be included

in a ProiPACK release?

CONCLUSION

This release from Eduard

caused great excitement

when announced, and we

all expected it to be up there

with the very best. So, does it

make the grade? It does...just.

If not for that hideous join

along the laps, I would have

awarded it 9/10. As it is... 7/10.

In every other area this model

has the Eduard air of quality;

the cockpit is exquisite, and

the surface detail is awesome

• as long as you can avoid
  sanding it of. What cannot
  be denied is that it is every
  inch a Tempest – big, brutal
  and uncompromising, and it
  builds easily into an important
  addition to anyone’s collection
  of wartime RAF aircraft.

The box-art is a beautifully

realised study of Tempest

JN751 flown by W/Cdr

Beamont pulling away from a

V1 Flying Bomb

SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL • MARCH 2019

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