metal parts that you see on the
engine have been hand-painted
using AK extreme enamels, and
then washed over with the AK
Engine and Turbines wash from
their engine weathering set. The
resin exhausts are a beautiful
addition to the kit, and I painted
these with a base coat of red brown,
then added some slight chipping
with a lighter version of the same
paint. I went over the exhaust
stacks with a thinned-down black
acrylic wash to give them a sooty
look. The wash needed to be thin
enough not to paint the exhaust,
but have enough bite to stain.
Once I was happy with the
engine, the engine compartment
and cover rail were also painted
in the grey-green colour
and given a dark wash.WINGS AND FUSELAGE
The fuselage halves went together
with no issue, but sadly the same
cannot be said for the wing-to-
fuselage joining. When first test-
fitting you notice that the fuselage
and wings join seamlessly, but the
multi-part landing gear bay caused
some interference. The wheel
bays sit below the cockpit, but the
cockpit framing sits too low in the
fuselage and causes some major
interference with the wheel wells.
There is no way around this
issue without the removal of a
large majority of the lower cockpit
area, which turned out to be
not really an issue as it cannot
be seen once the cockpit and
fuselage are closed together.
With the moulding of the
Tempest being made to produce
different versions, the wings
have some panels that need to be
placed on the leading edges of the
wings near the wing root. Many,
myself included, have asked the
question, “What is the point?”
The answer is that the Tempest
MK.VI and MK. II had air intakes
on the wings for cooling, and
Special Hobby designed this kit
with these other versions in mind.
With the fuselage and wing join
now fitting (after the removal of
some protruding cockpit), there
was one noticeable area that needed
to be dealt with is the underside
of the fuselage wing join. This is
something that is common in the
design on many aircraft kits, so
it’s not something that Special
Hobby can be criticised for.
Re-scribing and re-riveting is66 • AUGUST 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL
064-71-RAF100-Tempest-0818.indd 66 12/07/2018 11:49