The Mk.II Tempest became the second version of the basic airframe to be put into mass production, being powered with a Centaurus radial engine. The first of two prototypes was taken aloft for the first time in June 1943, the second prototype followed in September of the same year. The flight testing did not reveal any major trouble and the RAF was excited about these new aircraft. For practical reasons given by the immediate need in the European Theatre of Operations, the Tempest V version was given priority in production though. The first batches of the Tempest II did not leave the production line until October 1944 and it was expected that the first Tempest II equipped wing meant for the Tiger Force would be ready to leave for the Pacific by May 1945. The rapid development of the events of war, however, brought about a change in the situation and from the total number of 452 Tempest II airframes built as many as 300 were not delivered before the war´s end. As the RAF did not hurry to introduce the new fighter to its peace-time service, the only unit to be equipped with these machiches still in 1945 was no. 54 Sqn. In later times, there were another six combat units which operated the Tempest II fighters, these being located in Germany and India. Following the declaration of indepence of India and Pakistan, India received 85 Tempest IIs from the RAF stocks and Pakistan got another 24 airframes.
The Hi-Tech release of our Mk.II Tempest brings finely detailed and 3D-designed resin parts (pilot´s seat, control column, rudder pedals, throttle quadrant, cockpit floor, two styles of the main u/c wheels - with the smooth contour tyre and with a tread pattern, the tail wheel, cannon barrels and also the port wing armament bay with its loading panels open, among other detail parts the modeller may also find a PE fret with seat belt buckles, interior and exterior parts and the armament well edges, also the HGW laser-precut seat belts and a set of masks for clear parts and wheel hubs.
The styrene parts come on nine grey styrene sprues and one clear sprue with canopy parts. The surface of the kit features very finely engraved rivet details. Comparing with the Mk.V Hi Tech release, this kit brings also the option to enrich your model with under wing rocket projectiles and their racks, the modeller may expect also the different nose parts enabling him to build this radial-engined version. The A4 size instruction sheet is printed in full colour and will meticulously guide the modeller throughout the build. There are also three decal sheets in this release with the option of five camouflage schemes, three of them wearing British colours, one is an Indian machine and the last one belonged to the Royal Pakistan Air Force. Two of the British machines are depicted as camouflaged, one of them with white identification stripes, the third British machine was painted silver dope overall. The Indian Tempest is also in aluminium finish, the Pakistani Tempest flew in desert camouflage. The decal sheets cater also for a complete set of stencilling which covers not only the exterior of the aircraft, but also interior and some stencils for the external fuel tanks.
