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Some rare track for passenger stock as Locomotive Services Limited Class 47s, 47593 "Galloway Princess" and 47853 (carrying former number 47614) lead the ECS for the following day's Statesman Rail Settle & Carlisle circular (from Scarborough) via the freight avoider lines at Crewe.
The pair of Sulzers are seen heading across Salop Goods Junction and onto the Down Manchester Independent as they make their way to stable overnight in York as 5Z39 11:48 Crewe Holding Sidings to York Holgate Siding.
Crewe Alexandra F.C.'s ground, Gresty Bridge, is in the background.
Full consist: 47593 47853 + 3348 3344 3426 3384 1211 3312 3229 8004 33188 3438 17056
Tip:
Avoid puncturing the fuel tanks
__________________________________________________________________
Well, it's finally done. The light effect is achieved by a small LED flashlight in the back, and some trans orange panels to act as a filter.
56005 comes off the York avoiding line with a southbound MGR heading to one of the Aire Valley power stations. This class 56 had another ten years of service before being cut up at Booth,s scrapyard at Rotherham. July 14th 1986.
“In Vichy France, fishing boat captain Harry ‘Steve’ Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) avoids getting involved in politics, refusing to smuggle French Resistance fighters into Martinique. But when a Resistance client is shot before he can pay, Harry agrees to help a hotel owner smuggle two fighters to the island. Harry is further swayed by Marie ‘Slim’ Browning (Lauren Bacall), a wandering American girl, and when the police take his friend Eddie (Walter Brennan) hostage, he is forced to fight for the Resistance.” Synopsis on Google
Movie trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBM5Bte4ltg
Spiders hate the smell of citrus fruits such as lemons and oranges so always carry one with you. ( If you don't like them )
This amazingly lifelike painting by JXC is on the roof of the Blenhiem shopping center in Penge waiting for its next victim.
To avoid confusion with some group invitations, all of my images are created from blank. Any image from a photo is clearly marked as such.
LNER class 800 Azuma no. 800102 heads south towards Holgate Junction on the York avoiding line on 29th December 2022 with 1E11, an Aberdeen to Kings Cross service. Due to extensive engineering works taking place during the Christmas/New Year period, trains were unable to enter the station from the north. Passengers for York were detrained at Northallerton for a bus service onwards.
To avoid confusion with two buses heading through the City with the same number, buses going in the same direction out of the City ran from the same stops, services like the 12, 13 and 37 from Friar Lane serving Beeston whilst Processional Way hosted most of the Clifton and West Bridgford services.
402 enjoys a breather on Processional Way with a 12 to Wolds Estate via Trent Bridge and West Bridgford.
fuckin tagged.
by antonis and blur-maria. so there is no way to avoid it. mmmmm.
k
1. i am a real eel.
2. i have some girl parts as well.
3. the first thing i do in the morning is piss.
4. the last thing i do at night is a secret.
5. i am a fresh water, garden variety eel. but i always wished for a squirt of moray.
6. six is an unjesus-like number. especially if there are three of them in a row or when there is just one of them w a nine living next door.
7. i have a dented ass cheek from spending so much time on the computer.
8. i like missing teeth and facial scars. pls email me if you have been blessed w both.
9. my favourite kinda photo is a self. always. anybody.
10. antonis and maria did a way better job at this.
11. if i could trade places w anyone on flickr for a week , it would have to be bc65s" or his doppleganger bc65x". and then i could see what all this forest fuck stuff is about. and he could monitor my eel and crinkle papers.
12. i used to shit in the toilet every year at christmas and then act like i was wounded or something and fool my step father into running into the can and finding my stupid turd. always made my brother laugh his ass off.
13. www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDt42Vs-teI
14. ive never swum w dolphins. they have those dangerous beaks.
15. penguins are cool though. i saw some one time in chicago, flying underwater like little missiles. there was a bay bee beluga too. although those creatures have beaks as well..
16. im not gonna fucking tag anyone. fuck that. this shits painful.
When we go out someplace crowded, like shopping at the mall, we have to disguise ourselves or the paparazzi will be all over us ! LOL
So, in part to avoid sitting in the house and obsessing about the latest developments in the news, I went for a wander round Wimbledon this afternoon.
I went up past a church on the hillside that I've only seen from the train before. It's a Roman Catholic one called Sacred Heart and I thought the building was in fine fettle. Here's just a simple portrait taken from the entry path ...
A crowd of summer escapees at Oneonta Falls in the Columbia River Gorge. I thought I would avoid this by going out on a Thursday and for a few brief minutes I did, but then the crowds rolled in. Despite its relative seclusion, this falls actually gets a lot of traffic, maybe because it tends to be 20 degrees cooler in the gorge by the falls than out on the road. Normally I do not mind the crowds so much, sort of comes with the territory. I used to be of the opinion that I couldn't stand a person in one of my landscape shots, but that was pretty early on. I eventually discovered that, often the interaction of people with their environment can produce some unique photographs. Depending on the frame of mind I am in, or the result I am going for, I will purposely wait for people to wander out of the frame...or into it. But I always find it ... amusing when people show no hesitation in walking or standing in front of an obviously set up tripod with a camera on it, even when the photographer (me in this case) is clearly in the middle of taking a photo. I do not let it bother me much though, as I figure if they want to stand in front of my tripod then they must want their picture taken. ;-) So naturally, I took pictures of the crowd. I actually like this shot too. Bonus.
Now for a bit of a shocker, at least to those who follow my stream. This is a digital image. Shot with a borrowed Nikon D1X, mainly because I was lent a Tiffen 87 Infrared filter and I wanted to experiment with some digital infrared. I have been eager to do that for some time, just had not gotten the appropriate filter. As I have said before though, cameras are cameras. Different ways of making pictures. There I things I like and dislike about this method. In particular the camera is not all that great. Shooting in RAW and the largest acceptable print I could make without upsizing is an 8x12?! Yikes. Poor battery life, big and clunky. Guess I am spoiled by my Nikon FM2 and wooden pinhole(both of which together cost less than half of what this D1X did just a few years ago). ;-) Not to mention the noise and other artifacts, though in this case I actually like them, they are most noticeable in the water, and give the image an interesting look I think. I am not of the opinion that every photo needs to be perfect in every way, from sharpness to lack of noticeable grain/noise, etc to be a good photo. Sometimes in fact it is a picture's imperfections that make it a great photo. A great example of this is the famous shot of D-Day that Robert Capa took. Though the blurring of that picture was not really his fault or intention. I think if it hadn't been "ruined" in the darkroom it would have been a less impressive photo. But that is just my opinion.
30 second exposure by the way.
On July 1st I avoided the highways and celebrated Canada Day by going to Reader Rock Garden. This is a magical garden in the center of the city. I took far too many photos to post all of them so have made a few collages.
Thanks for your visits and comments! They are all greatly appreciated.
Here are some links to very interesting information on the history.
www.calgary.ca/csps/parks/locations/se-parks/reader-rock-...
"Marian column (also plague column) is a baroque sandstone column located in the central part of Velké náměstí in Hradec Králové. It was built in 1714–17 (1715–17, 1716–17) as thanks for Hradec Králové avoiding the plague epidemic that hit Bohemia in 1713.
When the plague epidemic raged in Bohemia in 1713, a procession went from Hradec Králové to Chrudim on November 6 to the image of St. Salvator, where the members of the municipality promised that if the city was spared the plague, they would have a Marian statue erected. The plague really avoided the city, so the pillory was removed from the area in the middle of the Great Square and a pedestal was erected in its place, then the column itself, and statues were placed on the ends. The final works included the addition of metal elements and gilding. The column was completed in 1717, but its consecration by Hradec Bishop Jan Adam Vratislav of Mitrovic did not take place until August 24, 1718. Queen Eleonora Magdalena Falcko also contributed to the construction of the column with a donation in the amount of three years' road tolls, which Hradec Králové paid her as a dowry city. Neuburg.
The authorship of the column is not entirely clear: either Giovani Battista Bulla or Jan Pavel Cechpauer are mentioned as creators.
In 1791, Brandenburg soldiers wanted to tear down the column in order to gain more space for their encampment in the square, but at the pleas of the townspeople, they abandoned their intention.
The building is 19 meters high and consists of a column with a statue of the Virgin Mary, standing on a four-sided plinth with four statues, complemented by four more statues on separate plinths and an enclosure in the form of a balustrade. The material is medium-coarse light gray sandstone, which was originally imported from the Boháňka quarry near Hořice. From 1965, however, material for repairs and reconstruction was taken from the quarry in Podhorní Újezd.
The statue of the Virgin Mary stands on a column on a globe and at her feet are angel figures. The statue has a halo of six-pointed gilded stars around its head. Statues of Saint Charles Borromeo, Saint John of Nepomuk, Saint Jachymus and Saint Ludmila are placed around the four-sided plinth (some sources give a statue of Saint Anne instead of Saint Ludmila). On the base itself there are Latin chronograms and below them reliefs with the coat of arms of the city (this is the very first depiction of the new Králové Hradek city coat of arms: a lion holding the letter G), with Saint Rozália Sicilia – patroness against the plague, as well as a relief with the coat of arms of the empire and a relief St. Francis Xavier. Statues of Saint Wenceslas, Saint Joseph, Saint Sebastian and Saint Lawrence are placed on separate plinths in the balustrade. On the front side of the balustrade is a wrought-iron door.
Hradec Králové (Königgrätz in German) is a statutory city in eastern Bohemia, located at the confluence of the Elbe and Orlica. It has approximately 94 thousand inhabitants and is the capital of the Hradec Králové region. Together with nearby Pardubice, it forms a metropolitan area with 340,000 inhabitants.
Due to its favorable characteristics, the territory of Hradec was already inhabited in prehistoric times. In the Middle Ages, it was the dowry city of Czech queens, and it is to this period that the Gothic cathedral of St. Ducha on its Great Square, which today, alongside the White Tower and the Old Town Hall, is one of the city's landmarks. In the years 1766 to 1857, the city served as a military fortress, due to the lack of interest of the city, it was restored and abolished only in 1884. The city administration made full use of the possibility of complete management of urban development. This literally freed up space for the golden era of Hradec Králové architecture at the beginning of the 20th century, from which, thanks to the buildings of Gočár and Kotěra, the city earned the title Salon of the Republic.
Hradec Králové is a university town, the University of Hradec Králové, some faculties of Charles University and the University of Defense teach here. For example, the regional court or the bishops of the Royal Hradec Catholic and Czechoslovak Hussite dioceses are based here. Klicper's theater is a recognized scene that has won the award "Theatre of the Year" four times, artkino Central is proud of the award "Best European cinema for young audiences" from 2008. Hradec Králové Park 360, which was created in part of the area of the former military airport, provides space, among other things, for the summer of the Rock for People festival.
Bohemia (Latin Bohemia, German Böhmen, Polish Czechy) is a region in the west of the Czech Republic. Previously, as a kingdom, they were the center of the Czech Crown. The root of the word Czech probably corresponds to the meaning of man. The Latin equivalent of Bohemia, originally Boiohaemum (literally "land of Battles"), which over time also influenced the names in other languages, is derived from the Celtic tribe of the Boios, who lived in this area from the 4th to the 1st century BC Bohemia on it borders Germany in the west, Austria in the south, Moravia in the east and Poland in the north. Geographically, they are bounded from the north, west and south by a chain of mountains, the highest of which are the Krkonoše Mountains, in which the highest mountain of Bohemia, Sněžka, is also located. The most important rivers are the Elbe and the Vltava, with the fertile Polabean Plain extending around the Elbe. The capital and largest city of Bohemia is Prague, other important cities include, for example, Pilsen, Karlovy Vary, Kladno, Ústí nad Labem, Liberec, Hradec Králové, Pardubice and České Budějovice, Jihlava also lies partly on the historical territory of Bohemia." - info from Wikipedia.
Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.
Now on Instagram.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The OV-10 Bronco was initially conceived in the early 1960s through an informal collaboration between W. H. Beckett and Colonel K. P. Rice, U.S. Marine Corps, who met at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California, and who also happened to live near each other. The original concept was for a rugged, simple, close air support aircraft integrated with forward ground operations. At the time, the U.S. Army was still experimenting with armed helicopters, and the U.S. Air Force was not interested in close air support.
The concept aircraft was to operate from expedient forward air bases using roads as runways. Speed was to be from very slow to medium subsonic, with much longer loiter times than a pure jet. Efficient turboprop engines would give better performance than piston engines. Weapons were to be mounted on the centerline to get efficient aiming. The inventors favored strafing weapons such as self-loading recoilless rifles, which could deliver aimed explosive shells with less recoil than cannons, and a lower per-round weight than rockets. The airframe was to be designed to avoid the back blast.
Beckett and Rice developed a basic platform meeting these requirements, then attempted to build a fiberglass prototype in a garage. The effort produced enthusiastic supporters and an informal pamphlet describing the concept. W. H. Beckett, who had retired from the Marine Corps, went to work at North American Aviation to sell the aircraft.
The aircraft's design supported effective operations from forward bases. The OV-10 had a central nacelle containing a crew of two in tandem and space for cargo, and twin booms containing twin turboprop engines. The visually distinctive feature of the aircraft is the combination of the twin booms, with the horizontal stabilizer that connected them at the fin tips. The OV-10 could perform short takeoffs and landings, including on aircraft carriers and large-deck amphibious assault ships without using catapults or arresting wires. Further, the OV-10 was designed to take off and land on unimproved sites. Repairs could be made with ordinary tools. No ground equipment was required to start the engines. And, if necessary, the engines would operate on high-octane automobile fuel with only a slight loss of power.
The aircraft had responsive handling and could fly for up to 5½ hours with external fuel tanks. The cockpit had extremely good visibility for both pilot and co-pilot, provided by a wrap-around "greenhouse" that was wider than the fuselage. North American Rockwell custom ejection seats were standard, with many successful ejections during service. With the second seat removed, the OV-10 could carry 3,200 pounds (1,500 kg) of cargo, five paratroopers, or two litter patients and an attendant. Empty weight was 6,969 pounds (3,161 kg). Normal operating fueled weight with two crew was 9,908 pounds (4,494 kg). Maximum takeoff weight was 14,446 pounds (6,553 kg).
The bottom of the fuselage bore sponsons or "stub wings" that improved flight performance by decreasing aerodynamic drag underneath the fuselage. Normally, four 7.62 mm (.308 in) M60C machine guns were carried on the sponsons, accessed through large forward-opening hatches. The sponsons also had four racks to carry bombs, pods, or fuel. The wings outboard of the engines contained two additional hardpoints, one per side. Racked armament in the Vietnam War was usually seven-shot 2.75 in (70 mm) rocket pods with white phosphorus marker rounds or high-explosive rockets, or 5" (127 mm) four-shot Zuni rocket pods. Bombs, ADSIDS air-delivered/para-dropped unattended seismic sensors, Mk-6 battlefield illumination flares, and other stores were also carried.
Operational experience showed some weaknesses in the OV-10's design. It was significantly underpowered, which contributed to crashes in Vietnam in sloping terrain because the pilots could not climb fast enough. While specifications stated that the aircraft could reach 26,000 feet (7,900 m), in Vietnam the aircraft could reach only 18,000 feet (5,500 m). Also, no OV-10 pilot survived ditching the aircraft.
The OV-10 served in the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Navy, as well as in the service of a number of other countries. In U.S. military service, the Bronco was operated until the early Nineties, and obsoleted USAF OV-10s were passed on to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms for anti-drug operations. A number of OV-10As furthermore ended up in the hands of the California Department of Forestry (CDF) and were used for spotting fires and directing fire bombers onto hot spots.
This was not the end of the OV-10 in American military service, though: In 2012, the type gained new attention because of its unique qualities. A $20 million budget was allocated to activate an experimental USAF unit of two airworthy OV-10Gs, acquired from NASA and the State Department. These machines were retrofitted with military equipment and were, starting in May 2015, deployed overseas to support Operation “Inherent Resolve”, flying more than 120 combat sorties over 82 days over Iraq and Syria. Their concrete missions remained unclear, and it is speculated they provided close air support for Special Forces missions, esp. in confined urban environments where the Broncos’ loitering time and high agility at low speed and altitude made them highly effective and less vulnerable than helicopters.
Furthermore, these Broncos reputedly performed strikes with the experimental AGR-20A “Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System (APKWS)”, a Hydra 70-millimeter rocket with a laser-seeking head as guidance - developed for precision strikes against small urban targets with little collateral damage. The experiment ended satisfactorily, but the machines were retired again, and the small unit was dissolved.
However, the machines had shown their worth in asymmetric warfare, and the U.S. Air Force decided to invest in reactivating the OV-10 on a regular basis, despite the overhead cost of operating an additional aircraft type in relatively small numbers – but development and production of a similar new type would have caused much higher costs, with an uncertain time until an operational aircraft would be ready for service. Re-activating a proven design and updating an existing airframe appeared more efficient.
The result became the MV-10H, suitably christened “Super Bronco” but also known as “Black Pony”, after the program's internal name. This aircraft was derived from the official OV-10X proposal by Boeing from 2009 for the USAF's Light Attack/Armed Reconnaissance requirement. Initially, Boeing proposed to re-start OV-10 manufacture, but this was deemed uneconomical, due to the expected small production number of new serial aircraft, so the “Black Pony” program became a modernization project. In consequence, all airframes for the "new" MV-10Hs were recovered OV-10s of various types from the "boneyard" at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.
While the revamped aircraft would maintain much of its 1960s-vintage rugged external design, modernizations included a completely new, armored central fuselage with a highly modified cockpit section, ejection seats and a computerized glass cockpit. The “Black Pony” OV-10 had full dual controls, so that either crewmen could steer the aircraft while the other operated sensors and/or weapons. This feature would also improve survivability in case of incapacitation of a crew member as the result from a hit.
The cockpit armor protected the crew and many vital systems from 23mm shells and shrapnel (e. g. from MANPADS). The crew still sat in tandem under a common, generously glazed canopy with flat, bulletproof panels for reduced sun reflections, with the pilot in the front seat and an observer/WSO behind. The Bronco’s original cargo capacity and the rear door were retained, even though the extra armor and defensive measures like chaff/flare dispensers as well as an additional fuel cell in the central fuselage limited the capacity. However, it was still possible to carry and deploy personnel, e. g. small special ops teams of up to four when the aircraft flew in clean configuration.
Additional updates for the MV-10H included structural reinforcements for a higher AUW and higher g load maneuvers, similar to OV-10D+ standards. The landing gear was also reinforced, and the aircraft kept its ability to operate from short, improvised airstrips. A fixed refueling probe was added to improve range and loiter time.
Intelligence sensors and smart weapon capabilities included a FLIR sensor and a laser range finder/target designator, both mounted in a small turret on the aircraft’s nose. The MV-10H was also outfitted with a data link and the ability to carry an integrated targeting pod such as the Northrop Grumman LITENING or the Lockheed Martin Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod (ATP). Also included was the Remotely Operated Video Enhanced Receiver (ROVER) to provide live sensor data and video recordings to personnel on the ground.
To improve overall performance and to better cope with the higher empty weight of the modified aircraft as well as with operations under hot-and-high conditions, the engines were beefed up. The new General Electric CT7-9D turboprop engines improved the Bronco's performance considerably: top speed increased by 100 mph (160 km/h), the climb rate was tripled (a weak point of early OV-10s despite the type’s good STOL capability) and both take-off as well as landing run were almost halved. The new engines called for longer nacelles, and their circular diameter markedly differed from the former Garrett T76-G-420/421 turboprop engines. To better exploit the additional power and reduce the aircraft’s audio signature, reversible contraprops, each with eight fiberglass blades, were fitted. These allowed a reduced number of revolutions per minute, resulting in less noise from the blades and their tips, while the engine responsiveness was greatly improved. The CT7-9Ds’ exhausts were fitted with muzzlers/air mixers to further reduce the aircraft's noise and heat signature.
Another novel and striking feature was the addition of so-called “tip sails” to the wings: each wingtip was elongated with a small, cigar-shaped fairing, each carrying three staggered, small “feather blade” winglets. Reputedly, this installation contributed ~10% to the higher climb rate and improved lift/drag ratio by ~6%, improving range and loiter time, too.
Drawing from the Iraq experience as well as from the USMC’s NOGS test program with a converted OV-10D as a night/all-weather gunship/reconnaissance platform, the MV-10H received a heavier gun armament: the original four light machine guns that were only good for strafing unarmored targets were deleted and their space in the sponsons replaced by avionics. Instead, the aircraft was outfitted with a lightweight M197 three-barrel 20mm gatling gun in a chin turret. This could be fixed in a forward position at high speed or when carrying forward-firing ordnance under the stub wings, or it could be deployed to cover a wide field of fire under the aircraft when it was flying slower, being either slaved to the FLIR or to a helmet sighting auto targeting system.
The original seven hardpoints were retained (1x ventral, 2x under each sponson, and another pair under the outer wings), but the total ordnance load was slightly increased and an additional pair of launch rails for AIM-9 Sidewinders or other light AAMs under the wing tips were added – not only as a defensive measure, but also with an anti-helicopter role in mind; four more Sidewinders could be carried on twin launchers under the outer wings against aerial targets. Other guided weapons cleared for the MV-10H were the light laser-guided AGR-20A and AGM-119 Hellfire missiles, the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System upgrade to the light Hydra 70 rockets, the new Laser Guided Zuni Rocket which had been cleared for service in 2010, TV-/IR-/laser-guided AGM-65 Maverick AGMs and AGM-122 Sidearm anti-radar missiles, plus a wide range of gun and missile pods, iron and cluster bombs, as well as ECM and flare/chaff pods, which were not only carried defensively, but also in order to disrupt enemy ground communication.
In this configuration, a contract for the conversion of twelve mothballed American Broncos to the new MV-10H standard was signed with Boeing in 2016, and the first MV-10H was handed over to the USAF in early 2018, with further deliveries lasting into early 2020. All machines were allocated to the newly founded 919th Special Operations Support Squadron at Duke Field (Florida). This unit was part of the 919th Special Operations Wing, an Air Reserve Component (ARC) of the United States Air Force. It was assigned to the Tenth Air Force of Air Force Reserve Command and an associate unit of the 1st Special Operations Wing, Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). If mobilized the wing was gained by AFSOC (Air Force Special Operations Command) to support Special Tactics, the U.S. Air Force's special operations ground force. Similar in ability and employment to Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC), U.S. Army Special Forces and U.S. Navy SEALs, Air Force Special Tactics personnel were typically the first to enter combat and often found themselves deep behind enemy lines in demanding, austere conditions, usually with little or no support.
The MV-10Hs are expected to provide support for these ground units in the form of all-weather reconnaissance and observation, close air support and also forward air control duties for supporting ground units. Precision ground strikes and protection from enemy helicopters and low-flying aircraft were other, secondary missions for the modernized Broncos, which are expected to serve well into the 2040s. Exports or conversions of foreign OV-10s to the Black Pony standard are not planned, though.
General characteristics:
Crew: 2
Length: 42 ft 2½ in (12,88 m) incl. pitot
Wingspan: 45 ft 10½ in(14 m) incl. tip sails
Height: 15 ft 2 in (4.62 m)
Wing area: 290.95 sq ft (27.03 m²)
Airfoil: NACA 64A315
Empty weight: 9,090 lb (4,127 kg)
Gross weight: 13,068 lb (5,931 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 17,318 lb (7,862 kg)
Powerplant:
2× General Electric CT7-9D turboprop engines, 1,305 kW (1,750 hp) each,
driving 8-bladed Hamilton Standard 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) diameter constant-speed,
fully feathering, reversible contra-rotating propellers with metal hub and composite blades
Performance:
Maximum speed: 390 mph (340 kn, 625 km/h)
Combat range: 198 nmi (228 mi, 367 km)
Ferry range: 1,200 nmi (1,400 mi, 2,200 km) with auxiliary fuel
Maximum loiter time: 5.5 h with auxiliary fuel
Service ceiling: 32.750 ft (10,000 m)
13,500 ft (4.210 m) on one engine
Rate of climb: 17.400 ft/min (48 m/s) at sea level
Take-off run: 480 ft (150 m)
740 ft (227 m) to 50 ft (15 m)
1,870 ft (570 m) to 50 ft (15 m) at MTOW
Landing run: 490 ft (150 m)
785 ft (240 m) at MTOW
1,015 ft (310 m) from 50 ft (15 m)
Armament:
1x M197 3-barreled 20 mm Gatling cannon in a chin turret with 750 rounds ammo capacity
7x hardpoints for a total load of 5.000 lb (2,270 kg)
2x wingtip launch rails for AIM-9 Sidewinder AAMs
The kit and its assembly:
This fictional Bronco update/conversion was simply spawned by the idea: could it be possible to replace the original cockpit section with one from an AH-1 Cobra, for a kind of gunship version?
The basis is the Academy OV-10D kit, mated with the cockpit section from a Fujimi AH-1S TOW Cobra (Revell re-boxing, though), chosen because of its “boxy” cockpit section with flat glass panels – I think that it conveys the idea of an armored cockpit section best. Combining these parts was not easy, though, even though the plan sound simple. Initially, the Bronco’s twin booms, wings and stabilizer were built separately, because this made PSR on these sections easier than trying the same on a completed airframe. One of the initial challenges: the different engines. I wanted something uprated, and a different look, and I had a pair of (excellent!) 1:144 resin engines from the Russian company Kompakt Zip for a Tu-95 bomber at hand, which come together with movable(!) eight-blade contraprops that were an almost perfect size match for the original three-blade props. Biggest problem: the Tu-95 nacelles have a perfectly circular diameter, while the OV-10’s booms are square and rectangular. Combining these parts and shapes was already a messy PST affair, but it worked out quite well – even though the result rather reminds of some Chinese upgrade measure (anyone know the Tu-4 copies with turboprops? This here looks similar!). But while not pretty, I think that the beafier look works well and adds to the idea of a “revived” aircraft. And you can hardly beat the menacing look of contraprops on anything...
The exotic, so-called “tip sails” on the wings, mounted on short booms, are a detail borrowed from the Shijiazhuang Y-5B-100, an updated Chinese variant/copy of the Antonov An-2 biplane transporter. The booms are simple pieces of sprue from the Bronco kit, the winglets were cut from 0.5mm styrene sheet.
For the cockpit donor, the AH-1’s front section was roughly built, including the engine section (which is a separate module, so that the basic kit can be sold with different engine sections), and then the helicopter hull was cut and trimmed down to match the original Bronco pod and to fit under the wing. This became more complicated than expected, because a) the AH-1 cockpit and the nose are considerably shorter than the OV-10s, b) the AH-1 fuselage is markedly taller than the Bronco’s and c) the engine section, which would end up in the area of the wing, features major recesses, making the surface very uneven – calling for massive PSR to even this out. PSR was also necessary to hide the openings for the Fujimi AH-1’s stub wings. Other issues: the front landing gear (and its well) had to be added, as well as the OV-10 wing stubs. Furthermore, the new cockpit pod’s rear section needed an aerodynamical end/fairing, but I found a leftover Academy OV-10 section from a build/kitbashing many moons ago. Perfect match!
All these challenges could be tackled, even though the AH-1 cockpit looks surprisingly stout and massive on the Bronco’s airframe - the result looks stockier than expected, but it works well for the "Gunship" theme. Lots of PSR went into the new central fuselage section, though, even before it was mated with the OV-10 wing and the rest of the model.
Once cockpit and wing were finally mated, the seams had to disappear under even more PSR and a spinal extension of the canopy had to be sculpted across the upper wing surface, which would meld with the pod’s tail in a (more or less) harmonious shape. Not an easy task, and the fairing was eventually sculpted with 2C putty, plus even more PSR… Looks quite homogenous, though.
After this massive body work, other hardware challenges appeared like small distractions. The landing gear was another major issue because the deeper AH-1 section lowered the ground clearance, also because of the chin turret. To counter this, I raised the OV-10’s main landing gear by ~2mm – not much, but it was enough to create a credible stance, together with the front landing gear transplant under the cockpit, which received an internal console to match the main landing gear’s length. Due to the chin turret and the shorter nose, the front wheel retracts backwards now. But this looks quite plausible, thanks to the additional space under the cockpit tub, which also made a belt feed for the gun’s ammunition supply believable.
To enhance the menacing look I gave the model a fixed refueling boom, made from 1mm steel wire and a receptor adapter sculpted with white glue. The latter stuff was also used add some antenna fairings around the hull. Some antennae, chaff dispensers and an IR decoy were taken from the Academy kit.
The ordnance came from various sources. The Sidewinders under the wing tips were taken from an Italeri F-16C/D kit, they look better than the missiles from the Academy Bronco kit. Their launch rails came from an Italeri Bae Hawk 200. The quadruple Hellfire launchers on the underwing hardpoints were left over from an Italeri AH-1W, and they are a perfect load for this aircraft and its role. The LAU-10 and -19 missile pods on the stub wings were taken from the OV-10 kit.
Painting and markings:
Finding a suitable and somewhat interesting – but still plausible – paint scheme was not easy. Taking the A-10 as benchmark, an overall light grey livery (with focus on low contrast against the sky as protection against ground fire) would have been a likely choice – and in fact the last operational American OV-10s were painted in this fashion. But in order to provide a different look I used the contemporary USAF V-22Bs and Special Operations MC-130s as benchmark, which typically carry a darker paint scheme consisting of FS 36118 (suitably “Gunship Gray” :D) from above, FS 36375 underneath, with a low, wavy waterline, plus low-viz markings. Not spectacular, but plausible – and very similar to the late r/w Colombian OV-10s.
The cockpit tub became Dark Gull Grey (FS 36231, Humbrol 140) and the landing gear white (Revell 301).
The model received an overall black ink washing and some post-panel-shading, to liven up the dull all-grey livery. The decals were gathered from various sources, and I settled for black USAF low-viz markings. The “stars and bars” come from a late USAF F-4, the “IP” tail code was tailored from F-16 markings and the shark mouth was taken from an Academy AH-64. Most stencils came from another Academy OV-10 sheet and some other sources.
Decals were also used to create the trim on the propeller blades and markings on the ordnance.
Finally, the model was sealed with a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri) and some exhaust soot stains were added with graphite along the tail boom flanks.
A successful transplantation – but is this still a modified Bronco or already a kitbashing? The result looks quite plausible and menacing, even though the TOW Cobra front section appears relatively massive. But thanks to the bigger engines and extended wing tips the proportions still work. The large low-pressure tires look a bit goofy under the aircraft, but they are original. The grey livery works IMHO well, too – a more colorful or garish scheme would certainly have distracted from the modified technical basis.
'The Mask' 800321 speeds down the Frome Avoiding Line at Styles Hill.This set usually spends its time travelling to Bristol and Cheltenham out of the Capital.So to see it here on '1C74' the 09:02 from Paddington to Penzance was a bit of a bonus!
---11 july 2020---
Class 101 DMU set C821 (formed by vehicles 51509 - 59050 - 51517) on the rear of another set on the Gloucester Avoiding Line in May 1983.