I’ve had a couple of Trumpeter and the Hobbycraft versions of the Hawker Sea Fury in my growing stash waiting for a rainy-day project to come around. I really like the brutish appearance of this big five-bladed prop driven monster. I purchased several Barracuda Studios aftermarket goodies for the Trumpy kit to do a colorful Canadian Navy Artic Research version. So, when Airfix announced their version of this aircraft, and it came up for grabs from the kit review stash, I jumped at the chance to do a review build as a warm-up for and comparison to the others. John Noack had been given the Fundekal’s Sea Fury Pt. 2 decal sheet at last year’s Phoenix Nationals for review. He emailed an offer to use them as I was in the middle of the build. You can find my concurrent review of that sheet elsewhere on the IPMS Reviews website. The Sea Fury’s colorful history is well known and extensively documented, so let’s get on with my build and impressions of this 1/48 scale plastic version.

The “LööK” instrument panels sets are a welcome addition to the ever expanding offerings from Eduard. They provide the modeler with a ready to use panel. To compliment these, they are accompanied by a set of steel pre-painted seat belts. These two items will really set a cockpit apart and take it to the next level from the standard kit parts.

When the IPMS offered Eduard’s latest releases for review, I requested the Tempest Mk V along with this set. My intention was to use the LööK instrument panel and seat belts.

The Tempest kit was the ProfiPACK that included a color photo etch (PE) instrument panel.

Eduard’s new PE instrument panels come complete with clear gloss over the instruments. No more having to carefully add tiny clear gloss drops to simulate glass instrument lenses. The LööK instrument panel likewise includes clear “glass” over the instruments.

These Hawker Tempest resin wheels replace the already nice kit plastic wheels. The stand out features are the extra detail on the rims and tire side walls, flat spots and they are single pieces.

The kit wheels are supplied in two halves to be glued together and the seam dealt with. The resin wheels just have to be removed from the resin pour block with a razor saw. This is located under the flat spot. If you are careful cutting it off, you only need a few swipes with a sanding stick to smooth out the cut, and the wheel is ready for paint.

Paint masks are supplied and fit nicely, resulting in great looking wheels that really compliment Eduard’s superb Tempest Mk V model. These are a direct fit replacement, although I found the axel holes needed to be opened a little for a good fit.

My thanks to Eduard and the IPMS for the opportunity to review this fantastic product.