Beautiful 1:48 scale model by Michał Wołowczyk
The Hawker Tempest was a British fighter aircraft primarily used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the Second World War. The Tempest, originally known as the Typhoon II, was an improved derivative of the Hawker Typhoon, intended to address the Typhoon’s unexpected deterioration in performance at high altitude by replacing its wing with a thinner laminar flow design. Since it had diverged considerably from the Typhoon, it was renamed, Tempest. The Tempest emerged as one of the most powerful fighters of World War II and was the fastest single-engine propeller-driven aircraft of the war at low altitude.
Upon entering service in 1944, the Tempest was used as a low-level interceptor, particularly against the V-1 flying bomb threat, and as a ground attack platform, in which it supported major events such as Operation Market Garden.
Later, it successfully targeted the rail infrastructure in Germany and Luftwaffe aircraft on the ground, as well as countering such attacks by German fighters. The Tempest was effective in the low-level interception role, including against newly developed jet-propelled aircraft such as the Messerschmitt Me 262.
The further-developed Tempest II did not enter service until after the end of hostilities. It had several improvements, including being tropicalised for combat against Japan in South-East Asia as part of the Commonwealth Tiger Force.
This beautiful 1:48 Scale Special Hobby Tempest Mk.II representing RAF No. 33 Squadron, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 1949, was constructed by master modeler Michał Wołowczyk. If you would like to contact Mr. Wołowczyk you can email him here wolowczyk.michal@gmail.com.
Michał is currently a 24-year-old student of medicine and modeler from Poland. He’s been building and painting models since he was 8 or 10 years old. His early endeavors were “nothing professional” and he got out of the hobby for more than ten years.
Michał returned to the hobby two and half years ago, bought an airbrush, and got back into it. Michał says he learns mostly from YouTube channels like Plasmo and NightShift and builds, almost exclusively, airplanes in 1:48 scale.
Michał says the Special Hobby Tempest Mk.II is a great kit and has been waiting more than a year for its release. The kit is a collaboration between model manufacturers Eduard and Special Hobby. One issue was how shallow the rivets on some of the surfaces were, but he said those issues were an easy fix.
Michał’s only regret was that he didn’t do more color modulation on the silver finish, but it was, after all, not originally a natural metal finish but painted silver on the actual aircraft.
The Scale Model section of The Florida Pilot is a new one. There are so many talented modelers out there that put thousands of hours of work into these masterpieces, I think I have an obligation as a journalist to bring some light to their efforts.
The historic value and research value that goes into a build like this one, and others, make these kinds of story features a win-win-win. Please contact me if you’d like to feature a model in this section. Many thanks go out to Michał Wołowczyk for his cooperation in helping me put this together. I think there’s a good chance you will be seeing more from Michał.
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