+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

The Sea Fury was a British fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by Hawker. It was the last propeller-driven fighter to serve with the Royal Navy, and also one of the fastest production single piston-engined aircraft ever built. Developed during the Second World War, the Sea Fury entered service two years after the war ended. The Sea Fury proved to be a popular aircraft with a number of overseas militaries, and it was successfully used during the Korean War in the early 1950s where it could keep up with 1st generatiom jet fighters like the MiG-15.

Since 1975, Thai Marines have been assigned to Narathiwat as Marine Corps special forces, and this. after ten years of frequent and successful use, was the end of the Thai Tubro Furies - the type was retired in late 1975. Two specimen were sold into the USA and the remaining airframes (a total of 5 had been lost, two through accidents and three had been shot down by AA fire) were scrapped.

General characteristics

Crew: One

Length: 36 ft 2 in (11.05 m)

Wingspan: 38 ft 43⁄4 in (11.69 m)

Height: 15 ft 101⁄2 in (4.84 m)

Wing area: 280 ft2 (26.01 m2)

Empty weight: 10.500 lb (4.767 kg)

Loaded weight: 14,100 lb (6.400 kg)

Max. takeoff weight: 15,650 lb (7.105 kg)

Powerplant:

1× Allison T56 turboshaft engine rated at 2.206 kW (3.000 hp) plus 750 lbs of residual thrust

Performance:

Maximum speed: 490 mph (427 knots, 790 km/h) at 18,000 ft (5,500 m)

Range: 700 mi (609 nmi, 1,126 km) with internal fuel;

1,040 mi (904 nmi, 1,674 km) with two drop tanks

Service ceiling: 35,800 ft (10,910 m)

Rate of climb: 4,320 ft/min (21.9 m/s)

Armament:

4× 20 mm (.79 in) Hispano Mk V cannons in the wings

Eight underwing hardpoints for an external load of 4.000 lb (1.814 kg),

including bombs, unguided rockets, napalm tanks or drop tanks

The kit and its assembly:

This is tehe second build of the same kit conversion idea - spinning forth the initial fictional background story. Well, the combination of a WWII figher design and a C-130 Hercules sounds unlikely, but that's what I built. The idea of revamped piston-engine aircraft for a post-WWII-use has its charm and continually brings forth impressive designs, so here's another contribution to that wild bunch of whifs.

Inspiration came with a set of 1:72 aftermarket C-130J resin engine nacelles from OzMods, which I had bunkered a while ago. This time the engine was mated to a two-seater, the simple but solid "Bagdad Fury" from Pioneer2/PM Models. The Hercules engines are an almost perfect fit - the original fuselage just had to be cut away behind the original exhaust reflectors. Some sculpting had to be done on both sides, and the wing roots filled up in order to match the new, more narrow engine, but things went really smoothly. Additionally, the rear cockpit opening had to be faired over, and the canopy had to be adjusted a little.

For the turboprop's exhaust I drilled up oval holes on the fuselage flanks, under the cockpit, and inserted styrene tubes - the best position I could think of?

The spinner comes from the OzMods set, too, but the C-130J sickle-shaped propeller blades were just a bit too modern and too large for the Sea Fury. I was lucky to have some spare blades from a Pavla propeller set for the Academy B-24 Liberator - these were attached to the pointed spinner, and it looks menacing!

Otherwise, only littel things were changed. In the cockpit a new seat and a dashboard cover were added. The underwing hardpoints were new, too, and I added some antennae for a more modern and purposeful look of the aicraft.

All pylons are new, and the bomb ordnance was puzzled together from the spares box (P-47 drop tanks and four unguided rocket pods from the Revell G.91).

Painting and markings:

When searching for a potential user after the PAF I came across Thailand; the country had operated a handful of Fairey Fireflys after WWII, but these had to be retired in the early 50ies and the Thai Navy lost its air arm. These machine probably carried standard Extra Dark Sea Grey/Sky liveries.

One of these is on display in the Thai Air Force museum - and probably in a garish, non-authentic livery with a light blue underside, and very light grey uppers. Anyway, it looks odd enough to incorporate the concept onto my whiffy Turbo Fury...

The basic colors are Revell 57 (RAL 7000, very close to FS 35237) and FS 34515 for the lower sides. The Thailand (Navy) markings come from a Fairey Firefly aftermarket decal sheet, and suit the Fury well. Tactical codes and the "RTMC.

The cockpit interior was kept in very dark gray, the landing gear is in Aluminum.

Again, the "Turbo Fury" looks very conclusive, and the conversion is rather simple. Acutally, I might add a third chapter and build another one, since history opens an interesting "final use" to this aircraft. Maybe more in some time...

Some background:

The Saeqeh (Persian: صاعقه, "Thunderbolt"), alternatively spelt Sa'eqeh, Shaequeh or Saegheh, is an Iranian built single-seat jet fighter, derived from the American Northrop F-5. It is a joint product of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force and the Iranian Ministry of Defense, and the second generation of the Iranian Azarakhsh fighter.

On 26 August 2012, deputy Defence Minister Mohammad Eslami announced that an upgraded version of the Saeqeh, with enhanced radar systems and smart munitions, would be introduced in the Iranian Air Force by the end of the Solar Hijri year 1391 (2013).

General Characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 52.13ft (15.89m)

Width: 26.67ft (8.13m)

Height: 13.12ft (4.00m)

Weight (Empty): 9,700lbs (4,400kg)

Weight (MTOW): 19,842lbs (9,000kg)

Performance (estimated):

Maximum Speed: 1,056mph (1,700kmh; 918kts)

Maximum Range: 1,864miles (3,000km)

Service Ceiling: 52,493ft (16,000m; 9.9miles)

Rate-of-Climb: 34,400 feet per minute (10,485m/min)

Powerplant:

2x afterburning turbojet engines of unknown type (probably General Electric J85 engines or close derivatives)

Armament:

1× (early versions 2×) internal 20mm cannon, probably M39A2 guns of American origin

A total of seven hard points (incl. Wing tip missile mounts) for various air-to-air, air-to-surface guided or drop munitions including missiles, bombs, rocket pods and fuel drop tanks.

The kit and its assembly:

A rather simple whif, close to reality - kind of a semi-whif, if that exists at all? Besides, I wonder why there are no kits of this Iranian F-5 derivative available, not even conversion kits? The Saegeh has been around for some time in the real world, mostly as a phantom, though, but it seems to be overlooked. Time for a change, even though I must admit that I considered the first pictures I saw of it some time ago to be Photoshop jokes, and it is not the sexiest aircraft. But it is easy to realize, and here’s my take on it.

Another reason why I built one is that I actually wanted an aircraft in the smart IRIAF MiG-29 (also seen on Chinese MiG-21F/Chengdu F-7) paint scheme in pale, bluish gray and sand with small roundels and only a few stencils. Since I could not find any picture of an in-service Saegeh (you only find the Blue Angels style demonstrators, or some parade paint schemes), this indigenous aircraft would be the ideal option to realize such a project.

“My” Saegeh is based on the Hobby Boss F-5E, only with minor changes. Compared to the simple, smaller Hobby Boss kits this one turned out to be disappointing. While there is ample detail in the cockpit and landing gear wells as well as fine engravings, the overall fit is rather poor, esp. between the fuselage halves, the wings, even the landing gear remains a puzzle. Well, I do not regret that I donated the kit to the whif surgery table.

Most obvious addition are the twin fins – these are actually the outer wing parts from a vintage Matchbox F-5 which I cut down to about 3.2 cm and simply glued to the rear fuselage, where the original central fin was simply omitted and its fairing leveled out. The spine’s end was shaped after consulting pictures of the real aircraft, but I did not get the outer base area of the twin fins right – I did not find good pictures of that fuselage section in time, but the result is very O.K., anyway, so I stuck with it.

One cannon was removed (according to pics of real Saegeh, even though some specimen feature two of them?), and I provided the aircraft with ordnance of Russian origin: a pair of modern R-73 AAMs on the wing tip rails (from the very good ICM Rusiian/Soviet AAM set), and a pair of vintage Kh-23 AGMs (from the not-so-good mixed set from Master Craft). As a design gimmick I added a guidance pod for the latter under one of the outer pylons - not certain if that would be necessary, it just looks cool...

A Matchbox pilot was added, as well as some blade antennae, an air scoop on the rear fuselage and something what looks like stabilizers/connectors at the base of the fins' inside. The arrestor hook was omitted, even though some Saegae seem to carry one - sources remain controversial.

Painting and markings:

As mentioned above, this model, despite being based on a real world aircraft, is to depict a contemporary but fictional service aircraft in IRIAF colors. Iranian MiG-29s became the benchmark for the cammo pattern and the colors.

IRIAF MiG-29 almost have a surreal look, esp. when fresh from the factory, but the paint seems to deteriorate quickly and fade out so that the appearance differs strongly from picture to picture.

Taking pictures of real IRIAF aircraft from airliners.net and a painting guidance from Begemot as benchmarks I decided to mix the colors. The overall grey is 50% Humbrol 127 (FS 36375) plus 40% Humbrol 147 (FS 36495) and 10% Russian Cockpit Tourquise, as the original color appears to have a greenish, even teal hue, at least when fresh. Other aircraft show a pale and dull gray, similar to FS 36375, if not lighter – there's a wide range of tones.

The sand tone is based on Humbrol 121 (60%), with some Humbrol 94 (30%) and 64 (10%). After a black ink wash both tones were thoroughly dry-brushed with lighter shades, in order to simulate a sun-bleached and somewhat dusty look, blurring the edges and emphasizing the panel lines.

Decals come from various aftermarket decal sheets, most of them from an F-5 Aztec Decal sheet, the aforementioned Begemot MiG-29 sheet (which offers more then 50 options for different aircraft!) and even from a MicroScale Su-24 sheet, plus some warning stencils from the Hobby Boss kit itself and the scrap box.

With some graphite, soot stains and dirt around the engines was added, and finally everything sealed under a coat of matt acrylic varnish.

The cockpit interior was kept medium gray (Humbrol 140), while the landing gear is all Aluminum, as well as the inside of the opened air brakes and the landing gear wells.

Overall, a simple (semi) whif, and the twin fins suit the F-5E well – even though I have my doubts that just adding these improves a Tiger II's performance to F/A-18 level?

The Cabinet has 4 easily accessible outlets-DC, AC and USB charging.

The breaker goes between the alternator and the Projecta.

The Projecta (from Australia) charges the house batteries while we are driving. It is a 'smart' charger in that it can be programmed to charge your specific battery type and monitors them for state of charge. Highly recommended.

Our friends from the PSNI preparing for the NorthWest 200 'After Party'

Mono conversion for the Mono MAYhem Group

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Temco Model 63 "Buckskin" trainer was designed by Texas Engineering & Manufacturing Company (TEMCO) as a private venture to replace the US Navy's piston-engine, land-based Beech Model B45 'Mentor' primary trainers in the mid 1960ies, but with better performance and more likeliness to modern jet fighters.

The Model 63’s forerunner, the Temco Model 51, had been initially proposed to the US Air Force in response to an Air Force competition for a jet-powered primary trainer, which was eventually won by the Cessna T-37 Tweet. A small number of the Model 51 were built and put into service, powered by a Continental Motors J69-T-9 (a license-built Turbomeca Marboré) jet engine and officially designated TT-1 ‘Pinto, but only saw a limited career.

The US Navy liked the turboprop engine, though, but wanted a less complex aircraft. This eventually materialized in the early Seventies with the T-34C Turbo-Mentor. After a production hiatus of almost 15 years, the Beech Model 45 returned, powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-25 turboprop engine. Mentor production restarted in 1975 for deliveries of T-34Cs to the USN and of the T-34C-1 armed version for export customers in 1977, this version featuring four underwing hardpoints. Since the late 1970s, T-34Cs have been used by the Naval Air Training Command to train numerous Naval Aviators and Naval Flight Officers for the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Coast Guard, and numerous NATO and Allied nations - and the small T2T fleet was phased out by 1979.

General characteristics:

Crew: two

Length: 32 ft 7 in (9.93 m)

Wingspan (incl. tip tanks): 29 ft 10 in (9.09 m)

Height: 8 ft 1 1/2 in (2.48 m)

Wing area: 150 sq ft (13.9 m2)

Empty weight: 2,848 lb (1,292 kg)

Loaded weight: 5,400 lb (2,448 kg)

Powerplant:

2× Turbomeca Bastan IV turboprop engines, rated at 650 shp (485 kW) each

Performance:

Maximum speed: 345 mph (300 knots, 556 km/h) at 15,000 ft (4,600 m)

Never exceed speed: 518 mph (450 knots, 834 km/h)

Cruise speed: 247 mph (215 knots, 398 km/h) at 25,000 ft (7,600 m)

Stall speed: 69 mph (60 knots, 111 km/hr)

Endurance: 2.5 hr

Service ceiling: 30,000 ft (9,145 m)

Rate of climb: 1,900 ft/min (9.7 m/s)

Armament:

2x underwing hardpoints for a total load of up to 1.000 lb (454 kg)

2x optional wing tip tanks

The kit and its assembly:

The final entry for the 2016 "In the Navy" Group Build at whatifmodelers.com, and a close call since I started work on this conversion only 5 days before the GB's deadline!

The original inspiration was the photoshopped picture of a private TT-1 in all-blue USN markings, created by artist "Stéphane Beaumort" in 2010 (check this illustration originally posted at AviaDesign: aviadesign.online.fr/images/temco-buckskin2.jpg).

A slightly bizarre aircraft with the tandem propellers and the twin tail booms, and IMHO with some fishy details in the CG rendition, e.g. including the idea of driving both propellers with a single engine through shafts and gearboxes. But the concept looked overall feasible and Special Hobby offers a very nice TT-1 Pinto kit, which I was able to procure from Poland an short notice. As a bonus, this kit comes with markings for this specific, blue aircraft (“13/S”), actually a re-constructed, privately owned machine.

The Special Hobby kit became the basis for my personal interpretation of the T2T, and it underwent some conversions, being outfitted with a variety of donation parts:

- The front engine once was a cut-away Merlin from a Hobby Boss Hawker Hurricane

- The tail booms and fins come from a Revell Focke Wulf Flitzer

- The stabilizer was created from two Hobby Boss He 162 tail elements

- Propellers come from a vintage, box scale Revell Convair Tradewind

- In order to attach them, styrene tubes were implanted and the props mounted on metal axis’

- The front wheel also belongs to a Hobby Boss He 162, longer than the OOB parts

- The main wheels are bigger, from a Matchbox Folland Gnat

Work started with the central fuselage, the added front engine and conversions for the rear pusher engine. Once the wings were in place and the propeller diameter clear, attachment points for the tail booms were scratched from styrene tube and added to the wings' upper sides (leaving the lower surface free, so that the OOB landing gear could be used). Then the tail booms and the tailored stabilizer were mounted, as well as the wing tip tanks.

The landing gear came next; the main struts and covers were used, but slightly bigger wheels chosen from the scrap box. For the front wheel well, a "hole" had to be dug out of the massive new nose section (consisting of 2C putty and lead beads) - the OOB covers were used, though, and a longer and more massive front wheel was mounted.

Sounds simple and conclusive, but things evolved gradually and the job involved a lot of body work - under dire time pressure. The fact that the kit fell from my workbench after day #2 and hit the floor in a nasty angle, so that the tails suffered severely and needed repair, did not help either...

Another issue became the canopy. I am not certain where the problem lies, but the canopy turned out to be 2mm too short for the fuselage? Could be the result of the massive rhinoplasty with the added front engine, but I am also a bit worried about the position of the cockpit tubs – when I mounted them, the appeared to be in the correct position, but once the fuselage was closed both seat positions appear to be too far to the back – even though the dashboards seem to be correct?

Painting and markings:

I used the CG drawing as benchmark, also because the Special Hobby kit came with the right decal set for an all-blue USN livery, which historically was about to be changed in the late Fifties to brighter schemes.

The interior surfaces, both cockpit and the landing gear, were painted in a very light gray (FS 36495, Humbrol 147), just as on the real world TT-1. All outside surfaces became Sea Blue FS 35042 (ModelMaster). Very simple, and some panel shading with was done for a more dramatic look on the otherwise uniform airframe.

The silver leading edges on wings and stabilizer, as well as the yellow canopy framing, were created from decal strips. The propeller spinners became, as a small highlight, bright red, and some of the OOB sheet’s red trim for “13/S” were used, too. No more weathering was done, and, finally, everything sealed under a coat of gloss acrylic varnish, except for the propeller blades and the black anti-glare panel, which became matt.

An odd creation, and taking into account the four and a half days time frame from sprues to beauty pics (including background research and text), as well as the body work involved in the building process with the new front engine and the tail booms, I am quite happy with the result. Could have been better, sure, but it was finished in time, just as planned/hoped for. ;)

Anyway, the T2T looks interesting; my build slightly differs from the benchmark CG renditions, but remains true to Stéphane Beaumort’s basic idea. Cheers!

+++ 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:

Following World War II the Allies dissolved the Wehrmacht with all its branches on 20 August 1946. However, already one year after the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany in May 1949 and because of its increasing links with the West, the Consultative Assembly of Europe began to consider the formation of a European Defence Community with German participation on 11 August 1950.

Only a small number (40 plus two prototypes) of Spähpanzer Puma (Neu) were eventually converted or re-build from spares, but they became in 1957 the launch equipment of the Bundeswehr’s armored reconnaissance brigades, together with M8 Greyhound scout cars donated by the USA, even though the latter were soon complemented and replaced by tracked vehicles, based on the Schützenpanzer Kurz. However, due to their high road speed and excellent range, the Puma (Neu) scout cars were popular and remained in service until the late Seventies, when a new generation of 8x8 reconnaissance vehicles in the form of the amphibious Spähpanzer Luchs was introduced and replaced all 1st generation Bundeswehr vehicles.

Specifications:

Crew: Four (commander, gunner, driver, radio operator/2nd driver)

Weight: 10.500 kg (23,148 lbs)

Length: 6.02 m (19 ft 9 in)

Width: 2.36 m (7 ft 9 in)

Height: 2.84 metres (9 ft 4 in)

Suspension: Independent on each wheel, with leaf springs

Track width: 1.95 m (6 ft 4 1/2 in)

Wading depth: 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in)

Trench crossing capability: 2m (6 ft 6 1/2 in)

Ground clearance: 350 mm (13 3/4 in)

Climbing capability: 30°

Fuel capacity: 240 l

Armor:

9-30 mm (.35-1.18 in) steel armor

Performance:

Maximum road speed: 80 km/h (49 mph)

Operational range: 800 km (500 mi)

Fuel consumption: 30 l/100 km on roads, 45 l/100 km off-road

Power/weight: 17 PS/t

Engine:

Air-cooled, supercharged 10,622 cc (648³ in) Magirus-Deutz F8L 614K V8 diesel engine,

with 132 kW (180 hp) output at 2.500 RPM

Transmission:

Büssing-NAG "GS" with 6 forward and reverse gears, eight-wheel drive

Armament:

1× 20 mm (0.79 in) Rheinmetall (Hispano-Suiza) MK 20 Rh202 autocannon with 750 rounds

1× co-axial 7.62 mm MG42/57 light machine gun 2.000 rounds

The kit and its assembly:

This German 8x8 vehicle is a contribution to the “Back into service” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com in late 2019. Beyond aircraft I also thought about (armored) vehicles that could fit into this theme, and the SdKfz. 234/2 “Puma” (even though this popular name was never official!) came to my mind, because it was a very effective vehicle with many modern features for its time. So, what could a modernized Puma for the young Bundeswehr look like…?

The starting point became the very nice Hasegawa SdKfz. 234/2 kit, which did not – except for some PSR between the hull halves – pose any complications. I did not want to change too much for the Bundeswehr update, but new/wider wheels and a new, more modern turret with a light post-war weapon appeared sensible.

The wheels come from a ModelTrans aftermarket resin set for the LAV-25 – they are quite modern, but they do not look out of place. Their different, more solid style as well as the slightly bigger diameter and the wider tires change the Puma’s look considerably. In order to mount them, I modified the suspension and cut away the former attachment point on the four axles, replacing them with thin, die-punched styrene discs. This reduced the track width far enough so that the new, wider wheels would fit under the original mudguards. It’s a tight arrangement, but does not look implausible. The spare wheel, normally mounted to the vehicle’s rear, was omitted.

The turret was taken from a Revell “Luchs” Spähpanzer kit, but simplified so that it would have a more vintage look. For instance, the machine gun ring mount above the commander’s hatch was omitted, as well as the rotating warning light and the modern smoke grenade dischargers. The latter were replaced by the WWII triple dischargers from the Hasegawa kit, for a more vintage look.

To my astonishment, the Luchs turret was easy to mate with the Puma chassis: its attachment ring diameter was almost identical! The new part could be attached almost without a problem or modification. I just added some reinforcements to the hull’s flanks, since the Luchs turret is slightly wider than the SdKfz. 234/2’s horseshoe-shaped turret. Beyond that, only small, cosmetic things were added, like mirror fairings for both drivers above their workstations, license plates at the front and the rear and antennae.

Painting and markings:

Creating an early Bundeswehr vehicle is a simple task, because there is only one potential color option until the Eighties: a uniform livery in Gelboliv (RAL 6014). Due to the livery’s simplicity, I used a rattle can to paint hull, turret and wheels separately.

After some detail painting, a very dark brown wash with acrylic paint and some post shading with Revell 42 (also Gelboliv, but a rather greenish and bright interpretation of the tone) as well as dry-brushing with Revell 46 and 45 along the many edges were used to weather the model and emphasize details. After decals had been applied (mostly from a Peddinghaus sheet for early Bundeswehr vehicles, plus some tactical markings from the Revell Luchs), the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.

Once dry and completed, some artist pigments were added around the wheels and lower hull in order to simulate dust and dirt. On the lower chassis, some pigments were also "cluttered" onto small patches of the acrylic varnish, so that the stuff soaks it up, builds volume and becomes solid - the perfect simulation of dry mud crusts. I found the uniform livery to look quite dull, so I added some branches (real moss, spray-painted with dark green acrylic paint from a rattle can) to the hull – a frequent field practice.

This was a very quick project – in fact, the model was completed in the course of just one evening, and painting it was a quick affair, too, lasting only another day. However, I like the result. The SdKfz. 234/2 already had a quite modern look in its original guise, but the new wheels and the Luchs turret change its look considerably, it really has an even more modern feel that fits well into the early Bundeswehr era.

If you are doing a campervan conversion installing running boards should be the first thing you do. You will go in and out measuring/installing a thousand times. Running boards make it a whole lot easier. The Promaster is lower than most but still it is a step up.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The OA-1E was a response to the 1963 "tri-service" specification for the Light Armed Reconnaissance Aircraft (LARA) for U.S. Navy, Air Force and Army. The LARA requirement was based on a perceived need for a new type of "jungle fighting" versatile light attack and observation aircraft. Existing military aircraft in the observation role, such as the Cessna O-1 Bird Dog and Cessna O-2 Skymaster, were perceived as obsolescent, with too slow a speed and too small a load capacity for this flexible role.

Consequently, the field tests were stopped in late 1970, the three machines taken back to the US and Douglas and further development of the LAGOS concept was halted, even though the insights were transferred to other developments like the OV-10D NOGS for the USMC and the AC-130 gunships for the USAF.

General characteristics:

Crew: Three

Length: 38 ft 10 in (11.84 m)

Wingspan: 50 ft 0¼ in (15.25 m)

Height: 15 ft 8¼ in (4.78 m)

Wing area: 400.3 ft² (37.19 m²)

Empty weight: 11,968 lb (5,429 kg)

Loaded weight: 18,106 lb (8,213 kg)

Max. take-off weight: 25,000 lb (11,340 kg)

Powerplant:

1× Wright R-3350-26WA radial engine, 2,700 hp (2,000 kW)

Performance:

Maximum speed: 322 mph (280 kn, 518 km/h) at 18,000 ft (5,500 m)

Cruise speed: 198 mph (172 kn, 319 km/h)

Range: 1,316 mi (1,144 nmi, 2,115 km)

Service ceiling: 28,500 ft (8,685 m)

Rate of climb: 2,850 ft/min (14.5 m/s)

Wing loading: 45 lb/ft² (220 kg/m²)

Power/mass: 0.15 hp/lb (250 W/kg)

Armament:

2× M2 20mm (0.79 in) cannon in the wings

1× XM 197 20mm (0.79 in) cannon in a ventral turret

15 hardpoints for theoretically up to 8,000 lb (3,600 kg) of external ordnance, but rarely used due to the massive ammunition magazine of the XM 197

The kit and its assembly:

This has been on my whif agenda for long, and was initially inspired by the OV-10D NOGS project – a Bronco with night vision sensors and a turreted cannon under its belly. I wondered if this concept could not have been tested a few years earlier, during the Vietnam conflict? The technology underwent initial field tests at that time, e. g. in form of the AP-2H or the B-57G “Tropic Moon”. Gunships like the AC-47 or AC-119 were also a proven concept – so why not meld everything into a compact aircraft?

The A-1E seemed a good basis, with its spacious fuselage, and the basis for this modification is the Monogram kit from the late 60ies, in this case a Revell re-boxing.

The kit is rather simple and has some weak points, e.g. the crude landing gear and engine, or massive ejector pin markings under the stabilizer. I only changed what I deemed necessary, as this was to become a prototype on the basis of a stock A-1E. Hence, I only changed the interior layout with a massive box (the ammunition depot, actually a Revell Me 262 cockpit tub turned upseide down…) and a work station for the observer/gunner behind the pilots’ cabin with a seat and a screen.

The sensor and turret balls were scratched – these are actually shoulder joints from a Dorvack PA mecha kit, fitted in matching holes in the fuselage. As a side effect, the things can be moved and the shoulder fulcrum was used to mount the cannon, so that this became moveable, too. The space between the turrets was faired as good as possible.

On the hull, several antennae and bumps were added, and different main wheels (IIRC from an Italeri MiG-29!) were used. The flaps were lowered, too, for a more lively look. As ordnance, two drop tanks (smaller than those that come with the kit, from an Italeri BAe Hawk), a single pair of LAU rocket launchers on the outer wing stations (from an Italeri A-4M, IIRC) and two first generation ECM pods (an ALQ-81 and ALQ-101, from a Hasegawa aircraft weapon set) were added.

Painting and markings:

The wrap-around paint scheme was another important factor to build this whif kit - it looks pretty cool and popped up several times in the late 60ies and the 70ies, e. g. on the USMC’s OV-10D prototypes, and on the US Navy’s AP-2Hs from VAH-21 in Vietnam.

The scheme was, AFAIK, made from three grey tones: FS 36118 (Gunship Grey), FS 36231 (Dark Gull Grey) and FS 36440 (Light Gull Grey), and these colors were prone to weathering and bleaching under the tropical East Asia climate, so that the Light Gull Grey appears almost like white. This was simulated with some black ink wash and dry-brushing all over the hull.

The interior was painted in Neutral Grey (FS 36173), while the landing gear was kept all-white.

The decals were puzzled together, but mostly from the Revell kit's decal sheet that offers a USAF machine and two USN machines, a blue and a grey one.

IMHO, the result was worth the effort - the paint scheme looks very good on the bulky Skyraider, and the changes with the weapon/sensor gondola is rather subtle, it's only obvious at second glance and it IMHO even looks plausible in this position and arrangement?

The A70 could be supplied as a cab/chassis with the back of the cab behind the doors removed allowing body builders to fit their own body. I think that this is one such conversion.

Some background:

The Saeqeh (Persian: صاعقه, "Thunderbolt"), alternatively spelt Sa'eqeh, Shaequeh or Saegheh, is an Iranian built single-seat jet fighter, derived from the American Northrop F-5. It is a joint product of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force and the Iranian Ministry of Defense, and the second generation of the Iranian Azarakhsh fighter.

On 26 August 2012, deputy Defence Minister Mohammad Eslami announced that an upgraded version of the Saeqeh, with enhanced radar systems and smart munitions, would be introduced in the Iranian Air Force by the end of the Solar Hijri year 1391 (2013).

General Characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 52.13ft (15.89m)

Width: 26.67ft (8.13m)

Height: 13.12ft (4.00m)

Weight (Empty): 9,700lbs (4,400kg)

Weight (MTOW): 19,842lbs (9,000kg)

Performance (estimated):

Maximum Speed: 1,056mph (1,700kmh; 918kts)

Maximum Range: 1,864miles (3,000km)

Service Ceiling: 52,493ft (16,000m; 9.9miles)

Rate-of-Climb: 34,400 feet per minute (10,485m/min)

Powerplant:

2x afterburning turbojet engines of unknown type (probably General Electric J85 engines or close derivatives)

Armament:

1× (early versions 2×) internal 20mm cannon, probably M39A2 guns of American origin

A total of seven hard points (incl. Wing tip missile mounts) for various air-to-air, air-to-surface guided or drop munitions including missiles, bombs, rocket pods and fuel drop tanks.

The kit and its assembly:

A rather simple whif, close to reality - kind of a semi-whif, if that exists at all? Besides, I wonder why there are no kits of this Iranian F-5 derivative available, not even conversion kits? The Saegeh has been around for some time in the real world, mostly as a phantom, though, but it seems to be overlooked. Time for a change, even though I must admit that I considered the first pictures I saw of it some time ago to be Photoshop jokes, and it is not the sexiest aircraft. But it is easy to realize, and here’s my take on it.

Another reason why I built one is that I actually wanted an aircraft in the smart IRIAF MiG-29 (also seen on Chinese MiG-21F/Chengdu F-7) paint scheme in pale, bluish gray and sand with small roundels and only a few stencils. Since I could not find any picture of an in-service Saegeh (you only find the Blue Angels style demonstrators, or some parade paint schemes), this indigenous aircraft would be the ideal option to realize such a project.

“My” Saegeh is based on the Hobby Boss F-5E, only with minor changes. Compared to the simple, smaller Hobby Boss kits this one turned out to be disappointing. While there is ample detail in the cockpit and landing gear wells as well as fine engravings, the overall fit is rather poor, esp. between the fuselage halves, the wings, even the landing gear remains a puzzle. Well, I do not regret that I donated the kit to the whif surgery table.

Most obvious addition are the twin fins – these are actually the outer wing parts from a vintage Matchbox F-5 which I cut down to about 3.2 cm and simply glued to the rear fuselage, where the original central fin was simply omitted and its fairing leveled out. The spine’s end was shaped after consulting pictures of the real aircraft, but I did not get the outer base area of the twin fins right – I did not find good pictures of that fuselage section in time, but the result is very O.K., anyway, so I stuck with it.

One cannon was removed (according to pics of real Saegeh, even though some specimen feature two of them?), and I provided the aircraft with ordnance of Russian origin: a pair of modern R-73 AAMs on the wing tip rails (from the very good ICM Rusiian/Soviet AAM set), and a pair of vintage Kh-23 AGMs (from the not-so-good mixed set from Master Craft). As a design gimmick I added a guidance pod for the latter under one of the outer pylons - not certain if that would be necessary, it just looks cool...

A Matchbox pilot was added, as well as some blade antennae, an air scoop on the rear fuselage and something what looks like stabilizers/connectors at the base of the fins' inside. The arrestor hook was omitted, even though some Saegae seem to carry one - sources remain controversial.

Painting and markings:

As mentioned above, this model, despite being based on a real world aircraft, is to depict a contemporary but fictional service aircraft in IRIAF colors. Iranian MiG-29s became the benchmark for the cammo pattern and the colors.

IRIAF MiG-29 almost have a surreal look, esp. when fresh from the factory, but the paint seems to deteriorate quickly and fade out so that the appearance differs strongly from picture to picture.

Taking pictures of real IRIAF aircraft from airliners.net and a painting guidance from Begemot as benchmarks I decided to mix the colors. The overall grey is 50% Humbrol 127 (FS 36375) plus 40% Humbrol 147 (FS 36495) and 10% Russian Cockpit Tourquise, as the original color appears to have a greenish, even teal hue, at least when fresh. Other aircraft show a pale and dull gray, similar to FS 36375, if not lighter – there's a wide range of tones.

The sand tone is based on Humbrol 121 (60%), with some Humbrol 94 (30%) and 64 (10%). After a black ink wash both tones were thoroughly dry-brushed with lighter shades, in order to simulate a sun-bleached and somewhat dusty look, blurring the edges and emphasizing the panel lines.

Decals come from various aftermarket decal sheets, most of them from an F-5 Aztec Decal sheet, the aforementioned Begemot MiG-29 sheet (which offers more then 50 options for different aircraft!) and even from a MicroScale Su-24 sheet, plus some warning stencils from the Hobby Boss kit itself and the scrap box.

With some graphite, soot stains and dirt around the engines was added, and finally everything sealed under a coat of matt acrylic varnish.

The cockpit interior was kept medium gray (Humbrol 140), while the landing gear is all Aluminum, as well as the inside of the opened air brakes and the landing gear wells.

Overall, a simple (semi) whif, and the twin fins suit the F-5E well – even though I have my doubts that just adding these improves a Tiger II's performance to F/A-18 level?

+++ 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 Parder was a successor of the Tiger I & II tanks, combining the latter's thick armor with the armor sloping used on the Panther medium tank (which was, in fact, inspired by Soviet designs, most of all by the T-34). While several Entwicklungspanzer designs were under development, the Parder was a short-term attempt to overcome the Tiger II's main shortcoming: its weight of almost seventy metric tons (it was protected by up to 180 mm/7.1" of front armor!), the resulting lack of mobility and an overburdened drivetrain originally intended for a lighter vehicle. Leaking seals and gaskets also took their toll on reliability.

The Parder was issued to heavy tank battalions of the Army (Schwere Heerespanzerabteilung – abbreviated s.H.Pz.Abt) where it replaced the Tiger I & II.

Specifications:

Crew Four (commander, gunner, loader, driver)

Weight 54 tonnes (60 short tons)

Length 7.02 metres (23 ft in) (hull only)

10.64 metres (34 ft 10 1/3 in) with gun forward

Width 3.88 metres (12 ft 9 in)

4.14 metres (13 ft 6 3/4 in) with optional Thoma shields

Height 2.84 metres (9 ft 4 in) w/o AA machine gun

Suspension torsion-bar

Ground clearance: 495 to 510 mm (1 ft 7.5 in to 1 ft 8.1 in)

Fuel capacity: 820 l (180 imp gal; 220 US gal)

Armor:

30–120 mm (1.2 – 4.7 in)

Performance:

Speed

- Maximum, road: 41.5 km/h (25.8 mph)

- Sustained, road: 38 km/h (24 mph)

- Cross country: 15 to 20 km/h (9.3 to 12.4 mph)

Operational range: 240 km (150 mi)

Power/weight: 12,96 PS/tonne (11,5 hp/ton)

Engine:

V-12 Maybach HL 230 P30 gasoline with 700 PS (690 hp, 515 kW)

Transmission:

Maybach OLVAR EG 40 12 16 B (8 forward and 4 reverse)

Armament:

1× 8.8 cm KwK 43 L/71 with 80 rounds

1× co-axial 7.92 mm Maschinengewehr 34 with 3.000 rounds

The kit and its assembly:

Something different… a whif tank! This was spawned from curiosity and the “wish” to build a German vehicle that would fit right into the E-25… E-100 range of experimental tanks.

It was to become a battle tank, and while browsing options and donation kits, I settled upon a replacement for the formidable but heavy and cumbersome Tiger B, also known as Tiger II, Königstiger or (wrongfully translated) King Tiger.

Anyway, creating a tank that would look (late war) German and still be whiffy was trickier than expected, and finally easier than expected, too. My solution would be a kit bashing: using many Tiger B parts (including the stylish Porsche tower and the running gear) and combining it with a hull that would offer better armor angles and look less “boxy”.

I effectively bashed two kits: one is the excellent 1:72 early Tiger B from Dragon, the other is Roden’s Soviet IS-3 tank – also very nice, even though the styrene is somewhat brittle.

My biggest fear was the running gear – combining the IS-3 hull with the Tiger B’s totally different legs scared me a lot – until I found that the parts from both kits (the Tiger B’s lower hull with all the suspension and the IS-3’s upper hull) could be combined rather easily combined. Just some cuts and improvised intersections, and the “new” tank hull was done!

As a side effect, the huge turret moved forward, and this considerably changes the silhouette. The IS-3’s opening had only to be widened slightly in order to accept the Porsche turret. Things matched up pretty well, also concerning size and proportions.

Otherwise, not much was changed. All wheels and tracks come from the Trumpeter Tiger B, the turret was also borrowed wholesale. I just changed some details (e. g. moving the spare track elements to the hull front), added some handles and also a heavy AA machine gun on the commander’s cupola, which is OOB, too.

Too simple? Well, for me it was not enough. For a more personal edge to the kit I decided to add Thoma skirts! Not the massive 5mm plates you frequently see on late Panzer IV tanks and its derivatives, rather the mesh type – lighter, less material-consuming, and a very special detail.

These were scratched. There are PE sets available, but that was too expensive and I was not certain if such items would fit in shape and size? So I made a cardboard template for the flanks and built a pair of skirts from styrene strips and a fine PET mesh that I had salvaged from a wallet long time ago.

The stuff is hard to glue onto something, so the styrene frame had to carry the mesh parts – and it works! The attachments to the hull were also scratched from styrene.

The Thoma shields add more width to the flat tank, but I think that they set the kit even more apart than just the borrowed IS-3 hull?

Painting and markings:

Hmmm, not totally happy with the finish. This was supposed to become a simple Hinterhalt (Ambush) paint scheme in Dark Yellow, Olive Green and Red Brown, but I did so much weathering that not much from the scheme can be recognized…

Painting was straightforward, though – I used Humbrol 94 and 173 as well as Modelmaster’s RAL 6003 as basic colors. The scheme’s benchmark is the official Tiger B scheme.

The basic colors received mottles in green on the yellow and yellow on the green and brown, and then the thing was thoroughly weathered with a black ink wash, dry-brushing, some aquarelle paint to simulate dust, and finally some pigments that simulate mud.

The tracks are made from soft vinyl, and also received a paint treatment in order to get rid of that shiny vinyl look: at first, with a mix of black and silver, which was immediately wiped off again, and later with a second, similar turn with silver and dark brown.

The mud was added just before the whole running gear was mounted as one of the final assembly stages, and final retouches were made with acrylic umbra paint.

Alas, I think I overdid it – much of the formidable and very attractive paint scheme was lost, even though the yucky, brownish finish now also works fine and looks like rough duty?

So, an experiment with good and bad results. Certainly not the last whif tank (at least one more on the agenda), and after so many aircraft a new kind of challenge. ^^

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Messerschmitt Bf 109 was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser during the early to mid-1930s. It was one of the first truly modern fighters of the era, including such features as all-metal monocoque construction, a closed canopy, a retractable landing gear, and was powered by a liquid-cooled, inverted-V12 aero engine.

The Bf 109 first saw operational service during the Spanish Civil War and was still in service at the dawn of the jet age at the end of World War II, during which time it was the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. From the end of 1941 the Bf 109 was supplemented by the Focke-Wulf Fw 190.

Originally conceived as an interceptor, later models were developed to fulfill multiple tasks, serving as bomber escort, fighter-bomber, day-, night-, all-weather fighter, ground-attack aircraft, and as reconnaissance aircraft. It was supplied to and operated by several states during World War II, and served with several countries for many years after the war. The Bf 109 was the most produced fighter aircraft in history, with a total of 33,984 airframes produced from 1936 up to April 1945.

After the success of the Bf 109's demonstration at the meeting of Zürich in 1937, the idea came up to develop an export version of the Bf 109 but with a different engine than the DB 601. The engine chosen was the P&W "Twin Wasp" SC-G of 1200 hp. The Messerschmitt company received a contract from RLM/LC on 13 June 1938 to fit the P&W Twin Wasp on the Bf 109 V21 Werknummer 1770 (D-IFKQ). Even the maiden flight date is not known; it is established that Hermann Wurster flew it at Augsburg on 17 August 1939. In September 1940 it was part of the DVL (Deutsche Versuchtanstalt für Luftfahrt) at Brauschweig-Völkenrode with the Stammkennzeichen code KB+II. Its end is not known, and due to WWII hostilities this initial conversion was not followed further.

Anyway, as the BMW 801 radial engine became available, a Bf 109F, Werknummer 5608, callsign D-ITXP was converted with a BMW 801 A-0. This aircraft became a prototype for the Bf 109X, how the export version was now called. The fuselage had a wider cross-section, and a new canopy with a lowered spine was fitted. The wing tips were akin to that of the Bf 109E.

The prototype was first flown by Flugkapitän Fritz Wendel on 2 September 1940, and the test flights continued despite troubles with the BMW 801A powerplant. Development carried on and from late 1941 on the Bf 109X was presented to German allies as well as some neutral states like Turkey and Sweden.

Japan showed great interest for license production on the Asian continent, and in July 1942 an agreement for production of the Bf 109X at Mansyū (Manshūkoku Hikōki K.K. - Manchurian Aeroplane Manufacturing Company Ltd., a subsidiary of Nakajima) under the re-used Ki-63 designation,a version of the Nakajima Ki-62 that would have been powered by the 1,050hp Mitsubishi Ha-102 radial engine but which was abandoned in late 1941.

Plans and jigs were quickly transferred, but unfortunately the license production of the BMW 801 was not permitted - the aircraft had to be outfitted with a domestic radial engine.

This was both a blessing and a curse - the heavy BMW 801 severely hampered the light aircraft's handling (one of the main criticism of the Japanese pilots who preferred agility to speed and even fire power), but the only available replacement option that could be easily mounted without major re-design of the forward fuselage was the Nakajima Sakae two-row, 14-cylinder air-cooled radial engine.

The result was the Ki-63甲 (Kō, 'a'), which was modified to carry a Nakajima Ha35 Model 24 radial, with 1.150 hp (858 kW) output which could be boosted to 1.250 hp (930 kW) with water-methanol injection. Even though the power output was much less than the BMW 801's 1.700 hp, the resulting aircraft was rushed into production.

The Ki-63 had a maximum speed of 565 km/h (351 mph) at 6,000 meters and reached that altitude in 7:01 minutes. It carried two 20mm cannons in the wings as well as a pair of synchronized 12.7mm machine guns above the engine, plus up to 318kg ordnance (a drop tank or a single bomb) under the fuselage.

About 90 Ki-63s were built - 50 were delivered directly to the Manchukuo Imperial Air Force (Chinese: 大満州帝国空軍; pinyin: Dà Mǎnzhōu Dìguó Kōngjūn), where it started replacing the Manchukuo Air Force's main aircraft, the obsolete Nakajima Ki-27b "Nate" light fighter. Money to pay for these fighters was donated”by various Japanese companies based in Manchukuo.

15 Ki-63s were delieverd to the Imperial Japanese Army Air Arm for evaluation and about 20 entered service with the Royal Thai Air Force.

The Ki-63 was never popular in service, though. Its performance was not outstanding, and keeping its Bf 109 ancestry and flaws like the narrow main wheel track, many aircraft were lost in taxiing accidents.

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length: 8.55 m (28 ft 0⅝ in)

Wingspan: 8.60 m (28 ft 2½ in)

Height: 3.30 m (10 ft 10 in)

Wing area: 12.4 m² (133.47 ft²)

Empty weight: 1,640 kg (3,616 lb)

Loaded weight: 2,580 kg (5,688 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 2,880 kg (6,349 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Nakajima Ha-35 Type 24 air-cooled,two-row fourteen cylinder radial engine,

rated at 1.150 hp (858 kW), boosted to 1.250 hp (930 kW) with water-methanol injection

Performance:

Maximum speed: of 565 km/h (351 mph) at 6,000 meters

Cruise speed: 350 km/h (188 kn, 217 mph)

Range: 1,200 km (648 nmi, 746 mi)

Armament:

2× 20 mm Ho-5 cannons in the outer wings, 120 rpg each

2× 12,7 mm (0.50 in) Ho-103 machine guns above the engine, 250 rpg each

318kg ordnance (a drop tank of a single bomb) under the fuselage.

The kit and its assembly:

This whiffy whif was a spontaneous idea, when I wondered what non-Japanese aircraft could plausibly wear Manchukuo markings? A German type was an option, and then I came across the stillborn Messerschmitt Bf 109X with its radial engine – an aircraft of which only a single prototype was ever built and flown.

There are even model kits available of this obscure aircraft. My basis is the Amodel kit, a typical short-run IP kit with good overall detail (interior and landing gear is nice), thick material but many smaller flaws and rather mediocre fit (the fuselage halves seem to belong to two different aircraft, fin & rudder, too!).

In order to turn it into something “more Japanese” I tried to graft a cowling plus engine of a Hasegawa Mitsubishi A6M 'Zero' onto the fuselage (the BMW 801 is VERY bulky on the slender Bf 109 airframe!), which worked well and yields a more aerodynamic look. The propeller was taken OOB from the Bf 109X, but a metal axis added so that it can spin freely.

Otherwise not much was changed – I just added an antenna mast, a head protection in the cockpit, the wing cannons with bulges on the wings’ undersides and scratched exhaust stubs and a carburetor intake.

Painting and markings:

The livery is a mix of styles: the paint scheme is a mix of a scheme for an early IJA Ki-27 fighter, with an all-grey fuselage and lower sides and camouflaged upper wing surfaces in green and brown. AFAIK many Manchukuo Air Force aircraft were simply painted all-grey, but I found that to be too simple, and there were a few Ki-46 that carried green blotches, probably the former Japanese paint scheme with overpainted roundels.

For the wing colors I went for Khaki (Humbrol 26) and Army Green (Humbrol 102), but the greenish-grey basic color for the rest was tricky. You find very contradictive information concerning this IJA tone, and even more confusing representations in source material - best modeler's bet might IMHO be Gunze's #128, but that's not available around here, so I went for a hand-made replacement.

Replacement recommendation is basically Sky "Type S" a.k.a. Humbrol 90, but this tones is IMHO much too bright - it's rather a dull, greenish grey, like a very light FAA Slate Grey. So I mixed an individual tone from Modelmaster 2077 (RLM 63; Hellgrau), 97 (Egg shell; which is more yellow-ish than 90 but very similar) and a bit of Humbrol 224 (Cockpit Green).

All interior surfaces were painted in Humbrol 78, with some dry-brushed 120 on top. The spinner was painted in simple black, while the propeller blades received a typical Japanese red primer finish with Humbrol 160.

After basic painting the kit received a light black ink wash in order to emphasize the kit's engraved panel lines, as well as some dry painting to highlight single panels. An overall dry painting with light grey added some weathering effects, and finally some exhaust and gun soot stains with grinded graphite were added.

Markings come from an Authentic Decals Ki-27 aftermarket decal sheet, just the 2nd Hikotai's emblem on the fin was improvised, based on illustrations.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background

The history of Focke Wulf's Fw 190 in Japan started with a rejection: in 1943 a single FW 190 A-5 had been supplied to Japan for evaluation, but at first, the type was not put into production by the Japanese. Anyway, the results of the study by Japanese engineers were incorporated in the design of the Ki-61 fighter. This evaluation did not go unnoticed, since the type received the Allied code-name 'Fred'.

Its only drawback was - as with the original Fw 190 - that performance dropped at heights above 6.000m. This should not have posed a problem with the J2M, but that type's delay left the Allied high-altitude bomber attacks relatively unharmed, so that the J10F3 version was hastily developed, but failed to realize. In Germany, the similar situation resulted in the Fw 190 D-9 variant and finally in the superb Ta-152.

J10F1General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 9.29 m (30 ft 6¾ in)

Wingspan:10.51 m (34 ft 5 in)

Height: 3.95 m (12 ft 12 in)

Wing area:18.30 m² (196.99 ft²)

Empty weight: 3,490 kg (7,694 lb)

Max. take-off weight: 4,840 kg (10,670 lb)

Performance:

Maximum speed: 656 km/h (408 mph) at 19,420 ft (5,920 m)

Rate of climb:17 m/s (3,300 ft/min)

Range: 800 km (500 mi)

Service ceiling: 12,000 m (39,370 ft)

Engine: 1 Mitsubishi MK4R Kasei 23e radial engine with 1.820hp

Armament:

2 × 13.2 mm Type 3 machine guns, 300 rpg, in the nose

4 × 20 mm two Type 99 Model 2 cannons, 200 rpg, two in the wing roots, two outside of the landing gear.

Three hardpoints, one under the fuselage (max. 500 kg/1.102 lb) and one under each wing for 250 kg/550 lb each for bombs or fuel tanks. Total external ordnance load of 1.000kg (2.205 lb).

The kit and its assembly

The 'Japanese Fw 190' is a popular what-if topic, so I wanted to add my interpretation to the plethora of whifs and replicas of the real test machine. Actually, a clean Fw 190 looks pretty Japanese with its radial engine and sleek lines. When I recently came across a similar build at britmodelers.com, I thought that painting a Fw 190 green/grey and putting some Hinomarus on is logical and simple, but there's more in the subject than just cosmetics. I wanted a bit more... And while the concept remained simple, I had enough ideas and spare parts for a twin combo! In the end, the J10F was built as a pure interceptor and as a 'special purpose' night strike aircraft.

Basically, my limiting design idea for the J10F's design was the idea that Japan would not have received the Fw 190’s original BMW 801 radial engine, so that an alternative powerplant had to be fitted. I had hoped that this would have set the 'new' plane outwardly a bit apart from its German ancestor, and also make you look twice because the result would not be a 1:1 "Japanized" Fw 190 A/F. I tried, but I suppose that the effect is not as 'powerful' as intended – but judge for yourself?

The basic kits for both conversions come from Hobby Boss. It is a simple and clean kit, but with very good fit and engraved details. In an attempt to change the plane's look a little, I tried to transplant other engines - radials, too. Donation parts for both kits come from an Italeri Ju 188, which features two pairs of engines. The radials I used are actually BMW 801’s, too, but they lack the typical cooling fan and the cowlings are 3-4mm longer because they'd carry the engine mountings on the Ju 188's wings. Actually, the fuselage is minimal longer now, maybe 4-5mm, but the shape is still very close to the original Fw 190, so I think that this mod hardly is recognizable at all?

The change was a bit tricky, due to the massive fuselage of the Hobby Boss kit, but it worked. The new cowlings received new cooling louvres and exhaust pipes. New, four-bladed propellers were added, scratch-built from leftover Mosquito NF.30 propellers from the Airfix kit and drop tank front halves.

Otherwise, though, not much was changed, the two kits just differ in equipment details and received Matchbox pilot figures in order to cover up the bleak and very deep cockpit.

The interceptor:

As an interceptor I left the plane clean, without external ordnance. I wanted to emphasize its elegant look, which makes it look like a Ki-43 on casual glance, or even an A6M. The plane carries the normal gun armament (from a Fw 190 A-8), this is supposed to be the original/standard J10F mentioned above.

The night attacker:

The J10F1-G variant saw more modifications, including a new exhaust system with flame dampers built from scratch. Other special equipment comprises an IR sight in front of the canopy, flare protectors, the fuselage hardpoint and the scratch-built Ke-Go 110 bomb. In order to cover the deleted gun access panels under the wings, I added streamlined bomb shackles for two Japanese 60kg bombs each, donated from a Matchbox Ju 87 kit.

About the Ke-Go bomb

This bomb, which looks like a penguin, is a fantasy derivate of a real Japanese development series until summer 1945. In a nutshell, the Ke-Go bomb actually was one of the first “fire and forget” weapons I have heard of. With the guidance of a bolometer seeker and a self-correcting steering mechanism, the bomb would (only) be useable against strong and clear heat sources – a ship’s kettle at night, when surrounding heat level was low, would qualify, and the bomb would be guided by deviation and correction from that heat source - if it locked on correctly, though! My Ke-Go 110 is a smaller version of the original Ke-Go bombs, suitable for lighter planes.

Painting

Being an IJN plane, paint scheme choices for the J10F were rather limited - and since it is a whif plane I stuck to my policy that I rather use a simple/subtle paint scheme.

The interceptor:

For the clean and rather conservative interceptor I settled for a simple IJN Green/Gray livery (N. 2 ‘Aomidori-iro’, a bluish, very dark green and N.10 ‘Hairyokushoku’, respectively), with Testors 2116 and 2117 as basic tones. Yellow wing leading edges were added, cut from an aftermarket decal sheet. As a design twist I painted the engine cowling black, A6M-style. The propeller spinner was painted in red brown (typical Japanese WWII primer color), with an orange tip, matching the arrow symbol decal on the tail fin. The propeller blades were painted with Testor’s ‘Rubber’, #1183.

A slightly worn look was achieved through a light wash with black ink and some dry painting with paler shades of Green (Humbrol 91 and 185) and Aluminum, plus light exhaust marks and gun smoke residues with flat black. Some bare metal spots were added, which also highlight some details and add to the worn look.

All decals for the green fighter come from a Hobby Boss A6M, only the arrows come from the Hobby Boss He 162. Finally, everything was sealed under a semi-matte varnish, for a light shine to the surface – typical IJN machines appear to be rather shiny?

The night attacker:

This variant received a more fantastic and stealthy paint scheme - I wanted to set the plane apart from the clean and shiny interceptor: a grunty, desperate strike aircraft against overwhelming sea forces.

AFAIK, there had not been specific nocturnal cammo schemes at the IJNAS, except for all-green aircraft? A bit boring, I thought, esp. with a typical green/gray sister plane.

So I made up a personal variant: In a first step, upper surfaces were painted in a brownish-grey basic tone, AFAIK called ‘Ameiro’ – it is the color which was used on early Zeroes which were based on carriers, and the tone faded quickly to a light gray. This color is very similar to RAL 7014 ‘Fenstergrau’ and reminds of B.S. ‘Hemp’. I improvised it with a mix of Humbrol 141 (60%), 83 (35%) and a bit of 155 (5%). On top of that a dense array of dark green blotches (Humbrol 185, Chrome Green, at first, and later also with Humbrol 116 for more contrast) was applied, breaking up the plane’s lines and covering the light gray tone almost completely.

Undersides originally sported ‘Ameiro’, too, but they were painted as if they had been covered with a very dark gray tone in the field (Humbrol 67), even leaving out the hinomarus and flaking off everywhere. The black engine cowling was retained.

Hinomaru and squadron emblems come from the same Mitsubishi A6M from Hobby Boss as mentioned above, featuring even less markings. As a side note: I have never seen Hinomaru with a black(!) rim before? I am not certain if this is correct or an authentic modification - it matches the night fighter role perfectly, though. This time I chose a matte varnish, except for the cowling which received some streaks with more shiny semi-matte varnish.

In both cases, cockpit interior surfaces and landing gear wells were painted in ‘Aodake Iro’, simulated with a base of Aluminium (Humbrol 56) and a coat of translucent blue lacquer on top.

All in all, these pair of rather simple model kit was built in a couple of days, taking the pictures and waiting for good light took almost the same time! I am not 100% happy, because the engine mod is not as obvious as I expected, even though the four-bladed prop and the slightly elongated fuselage give the J10F a menacing and fast look, like a “Baby Tempest”.

sadly, when I was moving one board of soundproof plasterboard the whole pile (14 sheets plus chipboard!) collapsed on me, wedging me between them and a freezer! this is a photo taken a few minutes after it happened.

Quick shots from a recent project I was invited to be involved with. This guy takes a standard van and converts it into a camper van. Awesome stuff!

Brian Massey, the Conversion Scientist, leads a DMA workshop entitled "Optimizing Your Web Site for Conversion and Business Success" in Austin, Texas on October 8, 2009.

Data conversion can convert any type of document (e.g. PDF, HTML, XML, etc.) into a format that suits your needs. Get unbeatable data conversion services at DEO.

For more information visit : www.dataentryoutsourced.com/conversion-services/

Architects for the conversion were (Desmond F) Smith (D Noel) Tracey (Eric D ) Lyon & (Leslie T) Brock and the application made late in 1954 when the building was owned by Harry Davis. after negotiation of a Referees appeal about fire separation from the upper level, the project was OK for builder E H Hegarty to proceed towards practical completion by March 1955. Eric Lyon was the project architect..

Neon Electric Signs carried out the facade illumination and later the famous neon Pellegrini sign on the side wall.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Heinkel He 162 Volksjäger ("People's Fighter"), the name of a project of the Emergency Fighter Program design competition, was a German single-engine, jet-powered fighter aircraft fielded by the Luftwaffe in World War II. It was designed and built quickly and made primarily of wood as metals were in very short supply and prioritised for other aircraft. Volksjäger was the Reich Air Ministry's official name for the government design program competition won by the He 162 design. Other names given to the plane include Salamander, which was the codename of its construction program, and Spatz ("Sparrow"), which was the official name given to the plane by Heinkel.

The first He 162 C-0 (registered with the Stammkennzeichen VN+DA and designated "M48") made its successful maiden flight at Heinkel's production facility at Salzburg in Austria on 7th of May 1945. The initial flight tests, which only lasted two weeks, were positive. Esp. the handling and directional stability had improved in comparison with the rather trappy He 162 A, and despite the higher weight due to more fuel and the bigger wings, the He 162 C-0's performance was better than the He 162 A's. Beyond the better handling characteristics, top speed was slightly higher (plus 20 km/h or 15 mph) and the aircraft's endurance was almost doubled. Plans were made to replace the He 162 A soon on the production lines, but with the end of hostilities the He 162 C program was prematurely terminated. Two more prototypes (M49 and 50) were under construction at Salzburg when the Red Army arrived, and all airframes including the project's documentations were destroyed - probably by German engineers who tried to prevent them to fall into Allied hands.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1, pilot

Length (incl. pitot): 10, 73 m (35 ft 1 1/2 in)

Wingspan: 8,17 m (26 ft 9 in)

Height: 2.6 m (8 ft 6 in)

Wing area: 16.4 m2 (177 sq ft)

Empty weight: 1.980 kg (4.361 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 3.500 kg (7.710 lb)

Fuel capacity of 1,020 litres (270 US gallons)

Powerplant:

1× BMW 003E-1 axial flow turbojet, rated at 7.85 kN (1,760 lbf)

Performance:

Maximum speed: 810 km/h (503 mph) at normal thrust at sea level;

865 km/h (537 mph) at 6000 m; using short burst of extra thrust

Range: 1.800 km (1.110 mi)

Service ceiling: 13.000 m (42.570 400 ft)

Rate of climb: 1.650 m/min (5.400 ft/min)

Armament (as flown):

2× 20 mm MG 151/20 autocannons with 120 RPG

The kit and its assemby:Painting and markings:

As a prototype aircraft I wanted something unusual, but nothing flashy or too exotic. I iamgined that the He 162 C prototype might have been converted from an existing airframe, so I gave some parts of the model (tail cone, upper fuselage, engine pod) standard He 162 A colors, RLM 81, 82 and 76.

However, for the modified cockpit section and the new ing attachment points, I decided to add section in natural metal finish, and as a special detail I added greenish filler that was used on panel seams. The nose cone became RLM 02, for more variety.

The makeshift look was further emphasized through wing panels that were left in bare laminated wood look, with metal tips and camouflaged rudders. The wooden texture was created with a basis of Humbrol 63 (Sand) and some poorly-stirred Humbrol 62 (Leather) added on top with a flat, rather hard brush. Very simple, but the effect - at least at fist glance - is very good, and the unusual color makes the model look much more interesting than camouflaged surfaces.

The markings were puzzled together from various sources, including German crosses from a Special Hobby Fw 189 sheet and from TL Modellbau. The Stammkennzeichen and the "M48" designation were created with single black decals letters, also from TL Modellbau.

Finally, after a black ink washing and some post-shading, the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.

A nice and simple what-if/Luft '46 project, done in less than a week. And for the attempt to create a model of a paper project (beyond pure fantasy), I am happy with the result, the model comes pretty close to the drawings, even though noone can tell what a real prototype might have looked like.

Mercedes Benz SL Black Series Conversion. Facelift conversion for SL500, SL55, SL65, SL600 and SL63 AMG

Prior Design is now offering a Black Edition Conversion for you SL Mercedes. This kit can be used on all SL models 2003-2011. This is a super high quality kit with perfect fitment. Our kit sets a new level of perfection for aerodynamic tuning companies.

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+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Würger (English: Shrike) was a German single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft designed by Kurt Tank in the late 1930s and widely used during World War II. Along with its well-known counterpart, the Messerschmitt Bf 109, the Fw 190 became the backbone of the Luftwaffe's Jagdwaffe (Fighter Force). The twin-row BMW 801 radial engine that powered most operational versions enabled the Fw 190 to lift larger loads than the Bf 109, allowing its use as a day fighter, fighter-bomber, ground-attack aircraft and, to a lesser degree, night fighter.

A planned high performance E-3 with a 2.250 hp DB 605 engine and a reduced armament (only three MG 1515/20) as well as a high altitude E-4 with a DB 603 engine, a pressurized cockpit and extended wings never materialized..

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 10.20 m (33 ft 5½ in)

Wingspan: 10.50 m (34 ft 5 in)

Height: 3.35 m (11 ft 0 in)

Wing area: 18.30 m² (196.99 ft²)

Empty weight: 3,490 kg (7,694 lb)

Loaded weight: 4,270 kg (9,413 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 4,840 kg (10,670 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Daimler Benz DB 605 12-cylinder inverted-Vee piston engine rated at 1.800 PS (1.295 kW)

and a temporary emergency output of 2.050 HP (1.475 kW) with MW 50 injection

Performance:

Maximum speed: 710 km/h (440 mph) at 7,500 m (24,600 ft) altitude

Range: 835 km (519 mi)

Service ceiling: 11,410 m (37,430 ft)

Rate of climb: 18 m/s (3,540 ft/min)

Wing loading: 233 kg/m² (47.7 lb/ft²)

Power/mass: 0.30–0.35 kW/kg (0.18–0.22 hp/lb)

Armament:

1× 30 mm (1.2 in) engine-mounted MK 108 cannon with 65 rounds (rarely mounted)

2× 13 mm (.51 in) MG 131 machine guns with 475 RPG above the engine

2× 20 mm (.78 in) MG 151/20 cannons with 250 RPG in the wing root

Optional: 2× 250 kg (550 lb) SC 250 bombs or 300 l drop tanks under the wings

The kit and its assembly:

A popular what-if/Luft ‘46 topic: a Fw 190 with a late Bf 109 nose, and sometimes other transplants, too. This one was triggered by a fictional profile created by fellow user ysi_maniac at whatifmodelers.com, but it’s rather a personal interpretation of the idea than a hardware recreation of the artwork. The reason is simple: virtually putting together 2D profiles is an easy task, but when the 3rd dimension comes to play, things become more complicated.

One of the consequences is that such an aircraft would have been very unlikely in real life. Another factor against the idea is that the Daimler Benz engines were primarily earmarked for Messerschmitt products, esp. the late Bf 109. Even Kurt Tank’s Ta 152, powered by his favored DB 603, was hard to realize – and the RLM’s unwillingness to provide him with this engine delayed this high potential aircraft so far that the Fw 190 D-9, with its Jumo 213 as a fallback option, was realized as an interim/second best solution.

However, whifworld offers the freedom of creativity, and I have never seen a hardware realization of a Fw 190/Bf 109 hybrid, so I created the Fw 190E through the mating of a Fw 190D (Academy kit) with the engine/front end of a Bf 109K (Heller).

The transplantation was basically straightforward, starting with the Bf 109 engine cut off of the fuselage. Then a matching section from the Fw 190 nose was cut away, too. While the diameters of both sections (in a side view) match each other quite well, the fuselage diameter shapes are to tally different, and the Bf 109 engine is MUCH too narrow for the Fw 190. That’s the problem the CG whiffers can simply ignore.

The eventual solution concerned both donor parts: the DB 605 was widened by ~2mm through the insertion of wedge-shaped pieces of styrene between the halves. As an unwanted side effect, the Bf 109’s machine guns on the cowling would squint now, so they had to be erased with putty and re-drilled, once the body work was finished.

The fuselage section in front of the Fw 190’s cockpit was, on the other side, narrowed through wedges taken out, and some force – again narrowing the fuselage width by another ~2mm. That does not sound much, but at 1:72 these 4mm mean a major disparity! This modification also created a gap between the fuselage and the wing roots towards their front end, which had to be filled, too, and the wing roots themselves had to be re-shaped in order to match the much more narrow DB 605’s underside.

Furthermore, the engine internally received a styrene tube adapter for the propeller’s new metal axis, and the oil cooler intake was filled with foamed styrene (it would normally remain empty). Once the engine had dried and the fuselage halves with the OOB cockpit closed, both elements were mated and the cowling gap filled and re-sculpted with 2C putty, since the OOB part with the Fw 190’s engine-mounted machine guns would not fit anymore.

As a result, the profile view of the aircraft is O.K., it looks slender and quite plausible, but when you take a look from above, the (still) wide section in front of the cockpit looks odd, as well as the widened rear section of the BD 605 cowling.

Another central issue was the radiator installation for the DB 605. In real life, I’d expect that an annular radiator would have been the most probable solution, and the aircraft wouldn’t have differed much outwardly from the Dora. But for the sake of a different look, and following the idea of a rushed emergency conversion program that would use as many stock elements as possible, I rather went for the complete Bf 109K nose, coupled with a separate ventral radiator under the fuselage. Wing coolers (as used on board of the Bf 109) were ruled out, since I expected them to be too complicated to be quickly added to the Fw 190’s airframe and wing structure.

The radiator fairing was scratched from leftover ship hull parts – thanks to its wide and relatively flat shape, the arrangement looks quite aerodynamic and plausible.

The propeller had to be modified, too: I retained the Bf 109’s spinner, but rather used the Fw 190’s slightly bigger propeller blades, for a balanced look.

The canopy became another issue. While the Academy kit is very nice and goes together well, the clear parts, esp. the sliding part of the canopy, has a major flaw: the headrest is to be glued into it, and in order to give the builder some help with the proper position, Academy added some locator slots to the clear part. This could be nice, and the rear pair will later be covered under paint, but the front pair is plainly visible and reaches up very high into the side windows! WTF?

You can hardly sand them away, and so I dediced outright to replace the canopy altogether - I was lucky to have a Rob Tauris vacu canopy, actually for the Hasegawa Fw 190A/F in the donor bank. This does naturally not fit 100% onto the (modified) Academy fuselage, but with some (more) PSR work the vacu parts blend in quite well, and the thin material is an additional bonus.

Apart from the engine and the canopy, not much was changed. The landing gear is OOB, I just replaced the wing root gun barrels with hollow steel needles.

Painting and markings:

I did not go for anything spectacular, rather a slightly improvised look of many late-production German fighters which were painted with whatever was at hand, if at all. The overall pattern is based on the typical Fw 190D-9 scheme, with two shades of green, RLM 82 and 83 on the upper surfaces (Humbrol 102 and 75). The fuselage was painted in a greenish variant of RLM 76 (a mix of Humbrol 90 with a little 247), frequently referred to as RLM 84, but this color never officially existed. Some light mottles of the upper tones, plus an underlying layer of RLM02 mottles, were added to the flanks, too.

The wings’ undersides were left in bare metal (Revello 99), with their leading edge kept in grey primer (RLM 75, I used Humbrol 123). The undersides of the ailerons and stabilizers, as well as the vertical rudder, were painted in RLM 76 (Humbrol 247) – both a frequent late WWII practice, when the parts were manufactured in separate, outsourced factories. The mottled landing gear covers are an unusual detail, but this appreared quite frequently on late-war Fw 190s, esp. on Doras.

The cockpit interior was painted in dark grey (RLM 66, I used Humbrol 67), while the interior of the landing gear was painted with RLM 02 (Revell 45).

The tactical markings were improvised; the blue fuselage ID band for the JG 54 was created with generic decal sheet material, other markings come from various sheets, e. g. from an Academy Fw 190A/F. The black dot as a squadron marking is unusual - but as a sqaudron of a (rare) fifth group, no standard symbols were typically assigned, so this is within historic limits.

The kit received some light weathering thorugh dry.brushing and grinded graphite, and finally a coat with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).

A more complex conversion stunt than it might seem at first glance – and proof that a virtual 2D whif is not easily transferred into hardware. The 3rd dimension still exists, and in this case it posed severe problems that could eventually be overcome with the help of (lots of) PSR. The flawed OOB canopy is another issue. However, the result does not look bad at all, even though the DB 605-powered Fw 190 somehow reminds me of the British Fairey Fulmar naval fighter, and also somewhat of the Ju 87?

Another attempt at 2D/3D conversion of another Anton Semenov work of art.

This was the first. The prototype based on Catachan legs, arms and lasguns with Cadian torso and forgeworld Cadian respirator helmets

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Lavochkin La-7 (Russian: Лавочкин Ла-7) was a piston-engine Soviet fighter developed during World War II by the Lavochkin Design Bureau (OKB). It was a development and refinement of the Lavochkin La-5, and the last in a family of aircraft that had begun with the LaGG-1 in 1938.

Even though a sub version of the La-7, the type received the separate Air Standardization Coordinating Committee (ASCC) code "Flake" as it was initially mistaken as a new Lavochkin type.

General characteristics

Crew: 1

Length: 8.89 m (29 ft 1 1/2 in)

Wingspan: 10,16 m (33 ft 3 in)

Height: 2.41 m (7 ft 11 in)

Wing area: 19.59 m2 (210.2 sq ft)

Gross weight: 3,315 kg (7,308 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Shvetsov ASh-82FN air-cooled 14 cylinder radial engine with a two-stage supercharger and

fuel injection, 1.380 kW (1.850 hp), driving a 4-bladed VISh-110V propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 680 km/h (422 mph; 367 kn) at 6.000 meters (19.685 ft)

Range: 665 km (413 mi; 359 nmi)

Service ceiling: 11.500 m (37.667 ft)

Rate of climb: 17.25 m/s (3.410 ft/min)

Time to altitude: 4.8 minutes to 5.000 meters (16.404 ft)

Armament:

2 × 23 mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-23 cannons, 150 RPG, plus 200 kg (440 lb) of bombs

The kit and its assembly:

This whif was a bit of a spontaneous use of a Hobby Boss La-7 kit, part of a kit lot, for which I lacked any good idea. Anyway, I always had an eye on kits for the more streamlined La-9/11s – and then the idea was born to convert the leftover La-7 into something that would come close to the later types.

Biggest surgery concerned the aerodynamic surface; everything was modified:

• Outer wings from a Matchbox P-51D

• Stabilizers from a Heller P-51D

• Fin tip from an Academy Fw 190A

Wings were cut just outboard of the landing gear wells, while the Mustang wings were cut at the 2nd machine gun. Depth fits surprisingly well, only the La-7’s trailing edge had to be adapted, but that only a small effort.

Another mod is the new, for-bladed propeller, scratched from the spares box, and I added some cockpit details and a pilot torso (the canopy was to remain closed). I also removed the original tunnel oil cooler and moved this device into the wings’ leading edges, for a cleaner fuselage.

For the same clean look I left away any ordnance. Actually, when all major parts were in place, I even considered to make a race aircraft (Reno Unlimited?) from the kit, since the Lavochkin looks really fast, but then I reverted to the military use option. A North Korean whif was still missing!

Painting and markings:

When I started building there was no clear idea which country should use the La-7bis – I did not want Soviet markings, though. After some search in the decal stack I found spare North Korean markings, and from there things unfolded naturally.

The odd paint scheme was derived from real Korean La-11 fighters – a kind of tiger stripe pattern, dull green over a grey background with pale blue undersides. I used Humbrol 64 (light Sea Grey) and FS 34096 from Modelmaster, and FS 35414 from Modelmaster, too, for the undersides. Later, these colors were shaded with lighter tones. A yellow fin tip is the only color marking.

North Korean roundels come from a Print Scale MiG-15 decal sheet, the tactical code comes from the scrap box; the fine silver trim around the cowling and the black stripe under the yellow fin tip are decals, too, from generic TL Modellbau sheets.

All interior surfaces were painted with Humbrol 240 (RLM 02, plus a black ink wash), and to add some Soviet style the wheel discs were painted in dark green. The panels on the fuselage flanks were painted in a Metallizer Mix of Steel and Titanium.

The kit received a light black ink wash, plus some soot stains around the cannons and the exhaust shields. Finally, all was sealed with Revell’s acrylic matt varnish.

In the end, the La-7bis looks like less work than it actually was - one can argue if the effort has been worth it? The major transplantations are hard to discern and you have to look at least twice to recognize the differences between a La-7 and the later La-9 and -11. But that was intended – subtle and unspectacular.

For this conversion you have to grind the back of the dropout I got from QPB, which are not my favorite bike people but these dropouts are worth dealing with arrogant bike snobs once or twice a year to get. You could hack some off a bmx bike but these used in conjunction with a hole saw make for a nice sano conversion.

alternate style CD cover for big finish audio

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The P-74 "Charger" was a fighter aircraft built by Lockheed for the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). Its configuration was unusual as it was designed as a twin boom pusher configuration, where the propeller is mounted in the rear of the fuselage, pushing the aircraft forward.

The P-74 entered service with the USAAF in late 1944, its conception dated back to 1939 when the U.S. Army Air Corps requested with the Circular Proposal R40C domestic manufacturers to develop high performance fighter types, allowing (even demanding) unusual configurations. Lockheed did not respond immediately and missed the chance to sign a development contract in mid-1940 until early 1941. Twenty-three proposals were submitted to R40C, and after a fist selection of ideas three companies, Vultee with the large XP-54 Swoose Goose, Curtiss with its XP-55 Ascender and Northrop's XP-56 Black Bullet were able to secure prototype contracts.

Vultee eventually won the competition, but all these innovative new aircraft suffered from various flaws or development delays, missing various performance goals, so that none ever entered service.

In the meantime, Lockheed had been working on the 1939 request in the background on a private venture basis, as it was clear that by 1944 a successor to the company's own P-38 Lightning had to be offered to the USAAC.

The new North American P-51 Mustang was also a sharp competitor, esp. for the Pacific conflict theatre where long range was needed. This role was filled out very well by the P-38, but it was a relatively large and complicated aircraft, so an alternative with a single engine was strived for. Even though jet engines already showed their potential, it was clear that the requested range for the new type could only be achieved through a piston engine.

This aircraft became the XP-74, originally christened “Laelaps”, following Lockheed’s tradition, after a female Greek mythological dog who never failed to catch what she was hunting. It was presented as a mock-up to USAAC officials on August 8th 1942 and immediately found sponsorship: with the disappointing results from the XP-54,55 and 56 was immediately ushered into the prototype stage. Its name, though, was rejected, and the more common name “Charger” was adopted.

Just like Lockheed’s successful P-38 the XP-74 Charger was designed as a twin-boom aircraft, but it was driven by only a single Packard (License-built Rolls Royce Merlin) V-1650 pusher engine in the aft part of the fuselage. The tail was mounted rearward between two mid-wing booms, with a four-bladed 12-ft propeller between them. The design also included a "ducted wing section" developed by the NACA that enabled installation of cooling radiators and intercoolers in the wing root section.

The advantages of a pusher design are that the view forward is unobstructed and armament can be concentrated in the nose, while a major drawback is difficulty in escaping from the aircraft in an emergency, as the pilot could get drawn into the propeller blades. Lockheed deliberated between systems that would eject the pilot, or jettison the propeller or the engine, via a system of explosive bolts. Lockheed eventually installed an early ejector seat which was driven by pressurized air, combined with a mechanism that would blow the canopy off. The system was successfully tested in summer 1943, even though skepticism remained among pilots.

Initial armament comprised one 20mm Hispano cannon and four 12.7mm Browning machine guns, the same as in the P-38, but two machine guns were relocated from the nose into the front ends of the tail booms because of the new aircraft’s smaller overall dimensions.

The first prototype was ready in October 1943, with a different engine and heavier armor fitted. The second prototype was built to this specification from the start, which would become the serial production standard, the P-74A.

The P-74A used the new V-1650-9 engine, a version of the Merlin that included Simmons automatic supercharger boost control with water injection, allowing War Emergency Power as high as 2,218 hp (1,500 kW). Another change concerned the armament: a longer weapon range was deemed necessary, so the gun armament was changed into four 20mm Hispano cannons, two of the placed in the fuselage nose and one in each tail boom front end. Each gun was supplied with 250 RPG.

Alternatively, a nose installment with a single 37mm cannon and two 12.7mm Browning MGs was tested on the first prototype, but this arrangement was found to be less effective than the four 20mm cannons. Another factor that turned this option down was the more complicated logistics demands for three different calibers in one aircraft.

The P-74A was ready for service in summer 1944, but its deployment into the Pacific region took until December – the 5th Air Force first units replaced most of its P-38 and also early P-47Ds with the P-74A.These new aircraft had their first clashes with Japanese forces in January 1945.

The P-74 was used in a variety of roles. It was designed as an intreceptor against bombers, but its good range and handling at all altitudes made it suitable for tasks like fighter sweeps against enemy airfields, support for U.S. ground forces and protection of sea convoys and transport routes.

While the P-74 could not out-turn the A6M Zero and most other Japanese fighters when flying below 200 mph (320 km/h), its superior speed coupled with a good rate of climb meant that it could utilize energy tactics, making multiple high-speed passes at its target. Also, its focused firepower was deadly to lightly armored Japanese warplanes.

Because of its late service introduction, only 305 P-74s were ever produced until the end of hostilities, and they were exclusively used in the Pacific theatre. The P-74's service record shows mixed results, but usually because of misinformation. P-74s have been described as being harder to fly than traditional, single-engined aircraft, but this was because of inadequate training in the first few months of service.

Another drawback was the ejection seat system – it worked basically well, but the tank for the pressurized air turned out to be very vulnerable to enemy fire. Several P-74s literally exploded in midair after cannon fire hits, and this poeblem could only be cured when the tank section behind the cockpit received a more rigid structure and additional armor. Anyway, the P-74 was quickly retired after WWII, as the USAAF focussed on P-47 and P-51.

General characteristics

Crew: 1

Length: 10.45 m (34 ft 3 in)

Wingspan: 11.6 m (38 ft 0 in)

Height: 3.97 (13 ft 0 in)

Wing area: 22.2 m² (238.87 ft²)

Empty weight: 3,250 kg (7,165 lb)

Loaded weight: 4,150 kg (9,149 lb)

Max. take-off weight: 4,413 kg (9,730 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Packard (License-built Rolls Royce Merlin) V-1650-9 ,

rated at 1,380 hp (1,030 kW) and 2,218 hp (1,500 kW) w. water injection

Performance

Maximum speed: 640 km/h (343 knots, 398 mph)

Cruise speed: 495 km/h (265 knots, 308 mph)

Range: 1,105 mi (1,778 km)

Ferry range: 1,330 nmi (1,530 mi, 2,460 km)

Service ceiling: 11,000 m (36,090 ft)

Rate of climb: 15 m/s (2,950 ft/min)

Armament

4× 20 mm (0.79 in) Hispano-Suiza HS.404 cannons with 250 RPG

2× hardpoints for up to 2,000 lb (907 kg) of bombs, 6 or 10× T64 5.0 in (127 mm) H.V.A.R rockets

The kit and its assembly:

This whif was inspired by a CG rendition of a Saab J21 in a natural metal finish and with (spurious) USAAF markings, probably a skin for a flight simulator. Anyway, I was more or less enchanted by the NMF on the Saab – I had to build one, and it would become the P-74, the only USAF fighter code that had never been used.

The kit is the venerable Heller Saab J21A, an “old style” design with raised panel lines. But it is still around and affordable. No big mods were made to the kit during its transition into a USAAF fighter, even though I changed some minor things:

● Main landing gear was completely exchanged through struts from an Airfix A-1 Skyraider and the wheels from a Hasegawa P-51D; thin wire was added as hydraulic tubes

● New propeller blades: instead of the three-bladed original I added four much broader blades with square tips (from a Heller P-51D) to the original spinner

● Different exhaust stubs, which actually belong to a Spitfire Merlin (Special Hobby kit)

● Underfuselage flap was slightly opened

● A pilot figure was added to the nice cockpit

● The gun barrels were replaced with hollow styrene tubes

Painting and markings:

NMF was certain, but the rest…? I wanted to have a colorful aircraft, and eventually settled for a machine in the Pacific theatre of operations. When I browsed for options I eventually decided to apply broad black stripes on wings and fuselage, typical 5th Air Force markings that were used e. g. on P-47Ds and P-51Ds.

Overall design benchmark for my aircraft is a P-47D-28 of 310th FS/58th FG. The tail would be all white, and the rudder sported red and white stripes, early war insignia. The red nose trim and the deep yellow spinner were taken over from this aircraft, too. The blue individual code number is a personal addition, as well as the nose art, which was puzzled together from a Czech 'Perdubice' Meeting MiG-21 and leftover bits from a Pacific use P-51.

The aircraft was basically painted with Aluminum Metallizer (Humbrol 27002) and Polished Steel Metallizer (Modelmaster), and some panels were contrasted with Aluminum (Humbrol 56).

The anti-glare panel in front of the cockpit was painted in Olive Drab (Humbrol 66), the red nose trim with Humbrol 19. The tail was painted with a mix of Humbrol 34 & 196, for a very light grey, and later dry-painted with pure white.

The black ID stripes as well as the red and blue rudder trim were not painted, but rather created through decal sheet material (from TL Modellbau), cut to size and shape to fit into their respective places. The tail was a PITA, but for the black stripes this turned out to be very effective and convenient - an experiment that willcertainly see more future use.

Cockpit interior was painted in Humbrol 226 (Cockpit Green) and Zinc Chromate Green from Model Master, the landing gear wells received a chrome yellow primer (Humbrol 225) finish.

The landing gear struts were kept in bare Aluminum.

For weathering the kit received a rubbing treatment with grinded graphite, which adds a dark, metallic shine and emphasizes the kit’s raised panel lines. Some dry painting with Aluminum was added, too, simulating chipped paint on the leading edges, and on the black ID stripes some dark grey shading was added.

A relatively simple whif, but I love how the Saab 21 looks in the unusual, shiny NMF finish - and the USAAF markings with the prominent ID stripes suit it well, even though it looks a bit like a circus attraction now?

20 mazorcas == 800 gramos de Cacao en grano == 1 Kg de Chocolate amargo.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

After the success of the Soviet Union’s first carrier ship, the Moskva Class (Projekt 1123, also called „Кондор“/„Kondor“) cruisers in the mid 1960s, the country became more ambitious. This resulted in Project 1153 Orel (Russian: Орёл, Eagle), a planned 1970s-era Soviet program to give the Soviet Navy a true blue water aviation capability. Project Orel would have resulted in a program very similar to the aircraft carriers available to the U.S. Navy. The ship would have been about 75-80,000 tons displacement, with a nuclear power plant and carried about 70 aircraft launched via steam catapults – the first Soviet aircraft carrier that would be able to deploy fixed-wing aircraft.

Beyond this core capability, the Orel carrier was designed with a large offensive capability with the ship mounts including 24 vertical launch tubes for anti-ship cruise missiles. In the USSR it was actually classified as the "large cruiser with aircraft armament".

Furthermore, carrier Project 1153 was cancelled in October 1978 as being too expensive, and a program for a smaller ship called Project 11435, more V/STOL-aircraft-oriented, was developed instead; in its initial stage, a version of 65,000 tons and 52 aircraft was proposed, but eventually an even smaller ship was built in the form of the Kuznetsov-class aircraft carriers in 1985, outfitted with a 12-degree ski-jump bow flight deck instead of using complex aircraft catapults. This CTOL carrier was finally equipped with navalized Su-33, MiG-29 and Su-25 aircraft – and the MiG-SK paved the early way to these shipboard fighters, especially the MiG-29K.

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length: 13.28 m (43 ft 6 in)

Wingspan: 10.39 m (34 ft)

Height: 3.9 m (12 ft 10 in)

Wing area: 22.6 m² (242.5 ft²)

Empty weight: 5.172 kg (11,392 lb)

Max. take-off weight: 7,560 kg (16,632 lb)

Powerplant:

2× Sorokin R3M-28 turbojets afterburning turbojets, rated at 33.8 kN (7,605 lbf) each

Performance:

Maximum speed: 1,145 km/h (618 knots, 711 mph) at 3,000 m (10,000 ft)

Range: 2,060 km (1,111 nmi, 1,280 mi) with drop tanks

Service ceiling: 17,500 m (57,400 ft)

Rate of climb: 180 m/s (35,425 ft/min)

Wing loading: 302.4 kg/m² (61.6 lb/ft²)

Thrust/weight: 0.86

Armament:

2x 30 mm NR-30 cannons in the wing roots with 75 RPG

4x underwing pylons, with a maximum load of 1.000 kg (2.205 lb)

The kit and its assembly:

This kitbash creation was spawned by thoughts concerning the Soviet Naval Aviation and its lack of CTOL aircraft carriers until the 1980ies and kicked-off by a CG rendition of a navalized MiG-17 from fellow member SPINNERS at whatifmodelers.com, posted a couple of months ago. I liked this idea, and at first I wanted to convert a MiG-17 with a solid nose as a dedicated carrier aircraft. But the more I thought about it and did historic research, the less probable this concept appeared to me: the MiG-17 was simply too old to match Soviet plans for a carrier ship, at least with the real world as reference.

A plausible alternative was the MiG-19, esp. with its twin-engine layout, even though the highly swept wings and the associated high start and landing speeds would be rather inappropriate for a shipborne fighter. Anyway, a MiG-21 was even less suitable, and I eventually took the Farmer as conversion basis, since it would also fit into the historic time frame between the late 60ies and the mid-70ies.

In this case, the basis is a Plastyk MiG-19 kit, one of the many Eastern European re-incarnations of the vintage KP kit. This cheap re-issue became a positive surprise, because any former raised panel and rivet details have disappeared and were replaced with sound, recessed engravings. The kit is still a bit clumsy, the walls are very thick (esp. the canopy – maybe 2mm!), but IMHO it’s a considerable improvement with acceptable fit, even though there are some sink holes and some nasty surprises (in my case, for instance, the stabilizer fins would not match with the rear fuselage at all, and you basically need putty everywhere).

Not much from the Plastyk kit was taken over, though: only the fuselage’s rear two-thirds were used, some landing gear parts as well as fin and the horizontal stabilizers. The latter were heavily modified and reduced in sweep in order to match new wings from a Hobby Boss MiG-15 (the parts were cut into three pieces each and then set back together again).

Furthermore, the complete front section from a Novo Supermarine Attacker was transplanted, because its short nose and the high cockpit are perfect parts for a carrier aircraft. The Attacker’s front end, including the air intakes, fits almost perfectly onto the round MiG-19 forward fuselage, only little body work was necessary. A complete cockpit tub and a new seat were implanted, as well as a front landing gear well and walls inside of the (otherwise empty) air intakes. The jet exhausts were drilled open, too, and afterburner dummies added. Simple jobs.

On the other side, the wings were trickier than expected. The MiG-19 kit comes with voluminous and massive wing root fairings, probably aerodynamic bodies for some area-ruling. I decided to keep them, but this caused some unexpected troubles…

The MiG-15 wings’ position, considerably further back due to the reduced sweep angle, was deduced from the relative MiG-19’s landing gear position. A lot of sculpting and body work followed, and after the wings were finally in place I recognized that the aforementioned, thick wing root fairings had reduced the wing sweep – basically not a bad thing, but with the inconvenient side effect that the original wing MiG-15 fences were not parallel to the fuselage anymore, looking rather awkward! What to do? Grrrr…. I could not leave it that way, so I scraped them away and replaced with them with four scratched substitutes (from styrene profiles), moving the outer pair towards the wing folding mechanism.

Under the wings, four new pylons were added (two from an IAI Kfir, two from a Su-22) and the ordnance gathered from the scrap box – bombs and rocket pods formerly belonged to a Kangnam/Revell Yak-38.

The landing gear was raised by ~2mm for a higher stance on the ground. The original, thick central fin was reduced in length, so that it could become a plausible attachment point for an arrester hook (also from the spares box), and a pair of splayed stabilizer fins was added as a compensation. Finally, some of the OOB air scoops were placed all round the hull and some pitots, antennae and a gun camera fairing added.

Painting and markings:

This whif was to look naval at first sight, so I referred to the early Yak-38 VTOL aircraft and their rather minimalistic paint scheme in an overall dull blue. The green underside, seen on many service aircraft, was AFAIK a (later) protective coating – an obsolete detail for a CTOL aircraft.

Hence, all upper surfaces and the fuselage were painted in a uniform “Field Blue” (Tamiya XF-50). It’s a bit dark, but I have used this unique, petrol blue tone many moons ago on a real world Kangnam Forger where it looks pretty good, and in this case the surface was furthermore shaded with Humbrol 96 and 126 after a black in wash.

For some contrast I painted the undersides of the wings and stabilizers as well as a fuselage section between the wings in a pale grey (Humbrol 167), seen on one of the Yak-38 prototypes. Not very obvious, but at least the aircraft did not end up in a boring, uniform color.

The interior was painted in blue-gray (PRU Blue, shaded with Humbrol 87) while the landing gear wells became Aluminum (Humbrol 56). The wheel discs became bright green, just in order to keep in style and as a colorful contrast, and some di-electric panels and covers became very light grey or bright green. For some color contrast, the anti-flutter weight tips on the stabilizers as well as the pylons’ front ends were painted bright red.

The markings/decals reflect the early Soviet Navy style, with simple Red Stars, large yellow tactical codes and some high contrast warning stencils, taken from the remains of a Yak-38 sheet (American Revell re-release of the Kangnam kit).

Finally, after some soot stains with graphite around the gun muzzles and the air bleed doors, the kit was sealed with a coat of semi-matt acrylic varnish and some matt accents (anti-glare panel, radomes).

A simple idea that turned out to be more complex than expected, due to the wing fence troubles. But I am happy that the Attacker nose could be so easily transplanted, it changes the MiG-19’s look considerably, as well as the wings with (much) less sweep angle.

The aircraft looks familiar, but you only recognize at second glance that it is more than just a MiG-19 with a solid nose. The thing looks pretty retro, reminds me a bit of the Supermarine Scimitar (dunno?), and IMHO it appears more Chinese than Soviet (maybe because the layout reminds a lot of the Q-5 fighter bomber)? It could even, with appropriate markings, be a Luft ’46 design?

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the model, the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

On 27th November 1940, Moldova followed closely behind its neighbor and protector, Romania, and joined the Axis Powers. Now eligible for German military equipment, the Royal Moldovan Air Force sought to update its inventory with German types and gain access to German training. In January 1941 an agreement was reached that enabled both; by then, German troops had already entered Moldova to “secure the border [with the Socialist Union] from Red aggression.”

(Background and model inspired by fellow modeler comrade harps at whatifmodelers.com)

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 9.00 m (29 ft 5 in)

Wingspan: 10.51 m (34 ft 5 in)

Height: 3.95 m (12 ft 12 in)

Wing area: 18.30 m² (196.99 ft²)

Empty weight: 3,200 kg (7,060 lb)

Loaded weight: 4,417 kg (9,735 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 4,900 kg (10,800 lb)

Powerplant:

1× BMW 801 D-2 radial engine, 1,250 kW (1,700 PS, 1,677 hp)

Performance:

Maximum speed: 656 km/h (408 mph) at 19,420 ft (5,920 m)

Range: 800 km (500 mi)

Service ceiling: 11,410 m (37,430 ft)

Rate of climb: 15 m/s (2,953 ft/min)

Wing loading: 241 kg/m² (49.4 lb/ft²)

Power/mass: 0.29–0.33 kW/kg (0.18–0.21 hp/lb)

Armament:

2× 7.92 mm (.312 in) synchronized MG 17 machine guns with 900 RPG

4× 20 mm MG 151/20 E cannon, two of them with 250 RPG, synchronized in the wing roots,

and two more with 125 RPG outboard in mid-wing mounts

A retrofitted centre-line ETC 501 rack, typically holding a 250 kg (550 lb) bomb or a 300 L drop tank

Some machines also carried Luftwaffe Rüstsätze, e .g. R1 with a pair of WB 151 weapon

containers, each holding 2× 20-mm-MG 151/20 with 125 RPG under the wings

The kit and its assembly:

A remake of an inspiration. This build is a follow-up, and a further interpretation of another modeler’s idea, comrade harps from whatifmodelers.com, who came up with a Moldovan Bf 109E and a respective background story some time ago. After all, the Russian Liberation Army (ROA) also operated German aircraft like the Bf 109G, so the idea was not as weird as it might seem at first. I liked the idea of an overlooked Moldovan operator very much, and my first build within this fictional framework was a Heller Bf 109 F trop (a horrible kit, BTW).

This time I wanted to tackle an early Fw 190 A fighter, and also finish it in winter camouflage. The kit I used is the Academy Fw 190 A-6/8 model. It is certainly not the most detailed and up-to-date model of the aircraft, but it is a solid model, goes together well and is IMHO a priceworthy offering.

Building-wise, I did not change much about the kit, it was built OOB with some minor mods. The pitot, OOB mounted close to the wing tip for an A-8 version, had to be relocated towards a mid-wing position for an earlier A-6 variant. As an extra I lowered the flaps and cut away the lower sections from the wheel covers; this was a common practice on Fw 190s operated at the Eastern front during wintertime, because snow would clog up between the wheels and the covers, freeze and eventually make the aircraft inoperable.

As another extra I used the WB 151 gun packs which come with the kit – resulting in the massive firepower of eight(!) 20mm cannon, plus a pair of machine guns that would operationally fire tracer bullets, so that the pilot knew when he could unleash the cannons! The optional tropical sand filters came with the kit, too.

Painting and markings:

To a certain degree quite conservative, since this was supposed to be a former Luftwaffe aircraft, transferred to the Moldovan air force from the Mediterranean TO. As such I gave the aircraft a standard Luftwaffe camouflage with RLM 74/75/76 (using a mix of Modelmaster enamels). As a side note, this does not speak against the aircraft’s potential former use in North Africa – many Fw 190s operated there did not carry any desert camouflage at all.

However, I wanted to present the aircraft in a temporary/worn winter camouflage on the upper surfaces with washable white paint, overpainted former Luftwaffe insignia and additional new Moldovan markings. I also wanted to visualize the short period of time between the aircraft’s arrival at the Russian Front from Northern Africa and its immediate employment in Moldovan hands, including tactical markings of the Axis forces in the Eastern TO from around late 1941 onwards. Sounds complicated – but it’s the logical translation of the made-up background, and I think that such a concept, literally telling a story, makes a what-if model more convincing than just putting some obscure markings on an off-the-rack kit.

After the original German scheme had been painted, the next step was to paint over the former German and African TO markings. I used a light olive green and a light blue tone, as if the machine had been modified in a Moldovan field workshop with Romanian paints (or whatever else) at hand. The new yellow ID markings (lower wing tips, engine front (both painted with Humbrol 69) and fuselage band (decal) were added at this stage, too. Then came a black ink wash, emphasizing the model's engraved panel lines.

Once dry and cleaned-up, the new Moldovan markings were added. They come from a Begemot MiG-29 sheet. The flag on the rudder was improvised with a mix of paint (blue and red) and a ~2.5mm yellow decal stripe. The tactical code, the red "26", comes from a Soviet lend-lease P-40.

But the Fw 190 was till not finished - now the whitewash was added. This was simply created with Humbrol 34 (Matt White) and a soft, flat brush, in streaks which were made from the back to the front. This creates an IMHO quite plausible look of the worn, washable paint, and in some areas (around the cockpit, on the wings) I thinned the whitewash layer down even more, simulating wear.

Once dry, the decals received a light tratement with sandpaper, in order to match their look to the worn surroundings, and exhaust stains and gun soot were added with grinded graphite. Some dry-brushing with light grey was done on some areas, too. The wheels and the landing gear received a layer of "snow cake", created with white tile grout.

Finally, the model received a coat of matt acrylic varnish and finishing touches like a wire antenna (made with heated black sprue material).

Even though it's almost an OOB build, except for the markings, the result looks quite convincing. The result cannot be called “pretty”, but I think the extra work with the whitewash paid out. The fictional Moldovan Fw 190 looks really …different, especially in the BW beauty shots, the aircraft looks pretty convincing, and now it can join its Bf 109F stablemate in the collection.

The folks at Genuine Bicycle Products offer this conversion headset. It's a basic 1-1/8" threadless headset with the cups turned down to fit an old-school Chicago Schwinn, so you can run a contemporary fork on your vintage whip

Experiment with little light

+++ 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:

Military aircraft development made huge leaps in the 50ies, and it was around 1955 that the successful, transsonic MiG-19 was to be replaced by a next generation fighter - which was to attain more than Mach 2. At that time, these speed and performance figures were terra incognita, but OKB Mikoyan tackled the official request for a new light tactical fighter, which was primarily intended to be used against high flying bombers, guided by ground radar.

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length (incl. pitot): 16.05 m (53 ft)

Wingspan (incl. drop tanks): 8,18 m (21 ft 6 in)

Height: 3.81 m (12 ft 6 1/3 in)

Wing area: 18 m² (196,1 ft²)

Aspect ratio: 7.3:1

Empty weight: 4.820 kg (10.617 lb)

Loaded weight: 7.844 kg (17.277 lb)

Max. take-off weight: 8.625 kg (19.000 lb)

Powerplant: 1 × Tumanskiy R-11F-300 turbojet, rated at 3875 kgp (8.536 lbf) dry and 5.760 kgp (12.686 lbf) with afterburner

Performance

Maximum speed: 725 mph (1.167 km/h) at sea level, 1.190 mph (1.917km/h) at 13.000m (42.640 ft)

Combat radius: 450 km (245 nm, 280 mi)

Range: 850 ml (1.370 km)

Service ceiling: 19.000 m (62.320 ft)

Rate of climb: 38 m/s (7.480 ft/min)

Armament:

2× Nudelmann-Richter NR-30 30mm cannons with 50 RPG;

1.500 kg (3.300 lb) of payload on four external hardpoints, including:

- 2x PTB-350 wing tip drop tanks (fitted as standard)

- 2× K-13/R-3S (AA-2/"Atoll") AAMs on underwing pylons

- Alternatively, the two underwing pylons could carry pods with unguided missiles or iron bombs of up to 1.100 lb calibre.

The kit and its assembly:

Another whif, based on vague indications that this Starfighter-like design was seriouly considered at OKB MiG in the early 50ies because there exists a (crude) desktop model which shows a MiG-21 fuselage with F-104 wings and tail. An appealing design, and a good story to tell with a model. Anyway, AFAIK the 'Ye-3' designation was never used in the MiG-21 development phase or anywhere else at OKB MiG, so I borrowed it for the kit. The NATO code 'Filbert' is also a fantasy product.

Basically, this model is a kit-bashing. It consists of a Hasegawa MiG-21F-13 fuselage with new wings. The Hasegawa kit is ancient, I guess it is from the early 70ies. It has several flaws, so it is good fodder for such a project. For example, the MiG-21 lacks any serious interior, the landing gear is not even a joke and the prominent Soviet Red Stars have been molded onto the parts as raised panel lines! The area-ruled fuselage is pretty, though, very sleek.

Much room for improvements and improvisation, though. Hence, I built a cockpit interior from scartch and added an Airfix pilot, since these figures look very Soviet. As a side benefit, the figure is rather voluminous, so it covers much of the primitive cockpit interior...

Another modification is the landing gear - I wanted to incorporate much of the aforementioned F-16's landing gear, so that new wells had to be cut into the fuselage. This turned out to be easier than expected, and I did not waste too much effort on it. The F-16 landing gear is shorter than the MiG-21's, so the Ye-3 is closer to the ground than its real world cousins.

For the new thin wings I considered at first butchering an Airfix F-104G Starfighter as donation kit, but eventually found the wings being simply too small for my taste and for what the desktop model paradigm shows. I eventually ended up with wings from an Italeri F-16, which - believe it or not - have the SAME leading and trailing edge angles as the F-104, you just have make angled cuts at the wing tips and the wing roots... I just had to cover up the original flap engravings and fit them to the fuselage. The F-16's horizontal stabilizers were taken, too, but shortened in order to match the smaller dimensions for a Starfighter-like look.

The fin was clipped on top and a new upper end created from the single MiG-21 under-fuselage stabilizer. The latter was replaced by two splayed fins, an arrangement which was featured on the original Ye-prototypes but were later replaced by the single fin.

The missiles and their launch rails are leftover pieces from my recent MiG-21G conversion (from a Hobby Master kit), they were painted orange as dummies, according to Soviet practice.

As extra equipment for a test airfcraft, a small camera pod (based on real life picture of other MiG prototypes and test aircraft) was added under the front fuselage - for recording live missile launch tests.

Painting:

I wanted, according to the background story, keep this a prototype aircraft. Unfortunately, this means that I'd be limited to a natural metal finish - and I hate such surfaces, because they are a great challenge, esp. with the manual brush technique I use...

But I tried to make the best of it and painted the model with a plethora of metal tones - ranging from Testors/Model Master Metallizer (Polished Aluminum, Polished Steel, Titanium, Exhaust) through Humbrol enamels (Aluminum, Gun Metal, Chrome Silver) up to Revell Aqua Acryllics (Aluminum). Additionally, some service flaps were painted in light grey (Humbrol 64), the nose cone (which would have been a metal piece, not a plastic radome) was painted in Humbrol 140.

The kit also received a wash with black ink - not to make it look worn, but to add to a "metallic" look with more contrast at edges and raised panel lines. To enhance this metallic look further, the kit received a treatment with a 'graphite rubbing'.

To make the machine look even more interesting (but not out of style), I added some phototheodolyte calibration markings on fuselage and fin: simple, black stripes, but, again, based on real test aircraft of that era. Additionally, "31 Blue" received four stars under the cockpit as mission markers - not for shot-down aircraft, but for successful live missile launches.

After the decals were applied - puzzled together from the scrap box and several aftermarket sheets for Russian/Soviet aircraft - everything was sealed under a coat of semi-matte acryllic varnish (Tamiya TS-79).

In the end a rather simple conversion, but quite effective and convincing. I think that this potential MiG-21 layout does not look out of place - but there certainly were reasons why the thin, unswept wings did not make it to the hardware stage at OKB MiG...

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

In 1942, Albert Speer placed an order for a howitzer mounted on a tank chassis to keep up with the Panzer Divisions. Alkett received the order to design the new vehicle, which would be known as the Sd.Kfz.166, Sturmpanzer, or Sturmpanzer 43. Although commonly referred to as the Brummbär, this was the nickname given to the Sturmpanzer 43 by Allied intelligence, not by the Germans. They referred to it casually as the “Stupa 43”.

The chassis was the one of the reliable mass-produced Panzer IV. Above it, Alkett fitted a massive 15 cm (5.9 in) Sturmhaubitze (StuH) 43 L/12 developed by Škoda, which had common ammunition with the standard siG 33 howitzer in German service. The howitzer was protected by a casemate with sloped sides and thick armor plates. The first production vehicles proved their superstructure was way too heavy for the chassis, and experienced breakdowns of suspension elements or the transmission. The second series corrected this issue with a newly shaped, lighter casemate. The decision was taken in October 1943 and after the redesign, 800 kg (1,800 lb) of steel were spared, including from the gun mount itself on the third series. This new series was named StuH 43/1. Also, the Zimmerit anti-magnetic coating was factory-applied until September 1944. All in all, around 300 were built and primarily saw service in 4 dedicated battalions, the Sturmpanzer-Abteilungen (Stu.Pz.Abt.) 216 - 219.

By that time, the limits of the Sd.Kfz.166 had become apparent and constant losses required new or at least more vehicles of this type. To fill these gaps and provide the assault gun carrier with improved mobility and protection, a successor on the basis of the then-state-of-the-art German medium battle tank Sd.Kfz. 171 Panzer V ‘Panther’ was conceived. The Panther had been born out of the shock of combat on the Eastern Front during the 1941 Operation Barbarossa. There, German units first met the T-34 and KV-1 tanks which posed significant problems to the German tank and anti-tank cannons. The use of sloped armor kept the weight of the tank down but maintained its protection level. Panther tanks first saw action on the Eastern fronts, but they were subsequently also used in Italy, France, Belgium and Holland. The tank had better cross-country mobility than the heavy Tiger and had the same if not more hitting power, with its 7.5 cm Kw.K 42 L/70 long barreled high velocity anti-tank gun. Around 6,000 were produced.

By early 1944 a dedicated anti-tank SPG on the Panther’s basis had been developed, too, the Panzerjäger V Panther, also known as “Jagdpanther”, even though its official designation was “Sd.Kfz. 173 8.8 cm (3.46 in) Pak 43/3 auf Panzerjäger Panther”. It was based on the upgraded Panther Ausf. G that had just entered production. This type was earmarked to be converted into a Sturmpanzer, too, but it became soon clear that the 15 cm Sturmhaubitze (StuH) 43 required a different mount than the Pak 43, placed further forward in the casemate to accept the weapon’s stronger recoil and leave enough room for the crew to properly handle the bigger and heavier rounds. While the Panther chassis was retained, the superstructure had to be modified accordingly. As a consequence the “Stumpanther” became an almost independent development from the Jagdpanther, even though it was still regarded as a variant of the latter with the designation Sd.Kfz. 173/2.

The Sturmpanther was produced in two batches, called “Serie 1” and “Serie 2”. The initial production run was based on converted Sd.Kfz. 171 battle tanks, which were typically recovered damaged battle tanks and re-built at Alkett as Sd.Kfz. 173/2s. The tanks lost their turrets and the respective area in front of the engine bay, creating a spacious combat section with the weapon and its crew but also with the driver and a radio operator station (which was occupied by a 2nd gunner who also operated a defensive machine gun in the front, too). Above the chassis’ waterline, a new boxy casemate was added that protected the front section. Viewed from the front, the casemate had a trapezoidal shape with flat walls. While these plates were thick, they were also slightly sloped to provide additional protection. Unlike the Jagdpanther’s construction, the Sd.Kfz. 173/2’s superstructure was not welded to the hull but was instead held in place by bolts, what made it possible to lift the whole casemate away and easily mount/replace the main gun or work on the drivetrain.

To the rear part of each side armor plate, a cone-shaped pistol port was placed. These were actually conical plugs that were connected to chains: When in use, the armored cover would simply be pushed out by one of the crew members. Once open, these would just hang on to the chains and could be closed back by dragging the chain back in. In the middle of the casemate’s rear wall above the engine deck, a large two-door hatch was located, and two additional pistol ports with plugs were placed on both sides of this door. The front plate had a round-shaped opening in the middle for the gun ball mount, which was further protected by a sloped cast deflector mantlet against direct frontal attacks.

The casemate’s top was flat but slightly angled down (4°) toward the front. An arc-shaped armored cover protected the gunner’s periscope. To the right of it, initially only a square-shaped two-piece hatch for the commander with a periscope was located, but this was soon replaced or retrofitted with a shallow command cupola. Further back, on the left side, the loader’s round-shaped two-part hatch was located. In the back corners, two round-shaped ports were used by the two loaders to see the surrounding rear hemisphere with periscopes. In the middle, a ventilation port with protective sides was installed.

The Sturmpanther’s frontal lower armor remained at the Panzer V’s standard 55°-angled 80 mm, while the steeper casemate front plate (just 20° angle) had a thickness of 100 mm to provide comparable protection. However, the seam between hull and casemate was a weak point. The casemate’s side walls were 60 mm thick and placed at a 30° angle, flush with the hull’s side walls. The rear armor was the same armor thickness placed at a 20° angle. The top was much lighter, at only 30 mm.

In the field, especially the frontal armor was augmented with equipment like spare track links, and additional steel plates of 30 mm were frequently bolted onto the front and/or the sides of the casemate – but this added weight, shifted the center of gravity forward, and it reduced the vehicle’s performance and handling, too. Additionally, protective skirt armor made from 4 mm face-hardened steel plates could be added to protect the visible 40 mm chassis side armor visible between the top of the track and below the pannier. It was believed this area would be vulnerable to penetration at close range by Soviet anti-tank rifles, but these items were rarely mounted and were also easily lost in the heat of battle.

For the use in the Sturmpanther, the StuH 43 was modified further and received a longer barrel for more firepower and versatility: the original short L/12 barrel (only 180 cm/ 6 feet) was replaced with a new L/24 barrel, and the gun received a hydro-pneumatic recoil damper to compensate the higher recoil forces. The longer barrel resulted in a considerably higher muzzle velocity and therefore in a longer firing range. The so-called StuH 43/2 had a maximum range of 14.500 m (15,900 yd) when firing a standard I Gr 33 HE round (which weighed 38 kilograms / 84 lb), which now achieved a muzzle velocity of 880 m/sec. (2,887 ft/s), almost three times as fast as the former short-barreled variants of the gun.

The vehicle could fire 1-2 rounds per minute, but the biggest letdown for the Sturmpanther was its limited ammunition capacity: It only had internal space for 20 shells, usually 13 HE and 7 Concrete- or Armor-Piercing, so that many crews stowed more rounds externally on the rear deck, too, sometimes in sophisticated transport racks that were welded to the hull. Smoke rounds were available, too, but only carried/fired when the tactical situation required them. It took up to 40 minutes to resupply ammunition and it needed a very strong loader, as each shell weighed around 40 kg. This would strongly affect combat capabilities, especially if supply lines were bogged down, or if an offensive lasted too long, meaning that the tank would run out of munitions far too quickly. But an experienced crew would make the best use of its limited ammunition and fare well.

Twenty-two “Serie 1” vehicles were converted in this fashion, and they differed from each other in many details as they were based on a mix of already existing variants of the Panzer V. When a dedicated production line was eventually established, “Serie 2” Sd.Kfz. 173/2s were built in a more standardized fashion, using Panther Ausf. G hull and elements from the Jagdpanther production (which had priority). More than sixty Sd.Kfz. 173/2s were newly built this way, and an interspersed “Serie 3” was technically the same as the Serie 2, but were, due to the lack of StuH 43/2 howitzers, only outfitted with a 10.5 cm Leichte Feldhaubitze 18 L28 with 44 rounds. These vehicles received the separate designation Sd.Kfz. 173/3 and were primarily used in urban combat against fortifications, strongholds and bunkers; less than thirty were built.

Exact production numbers are uncertain, but when Sturmpanther production ceased in mid-1945 in favor of the new Einheitspanzer tank series, a little less than one hundred of all variants had been built and delivered. At least one Sd.Kfz. 173/2 was in early 1945 tested with a 38 cm Sturmmörser RW 61 (the same weapon as used on the “Sturmmörserwagen 606/4”, the Sturmtiger), but it was found that the Sturmpanther’s chassis was not strong enough for the heavy weapon, so that the E-75 chassis was chosen instead for the Sturmtiger’s successor.

Being based on the Panzer V, the Sturmpanther was reliable mechanically and even more agile than the regular Panther, thanks to its lower center of gravity. The first vehicles arrived at the front lines in summer 1944 at the Western front and were immediately thrown into action. The Sturmpanther initially tended to be used for direct fire as an assault gun, which saw it fighting against enemy positions, but not necessarily enemy tanks. However, even though rather designed as a bunker breaker, the Sturmpanther was more and more employed as a Jagdpanzer against enemy tanks and turned out to be quite effective in this role. Whilst the weight of the shells resulted in a slow rate of fire and lacked penetration power, the sheer mechanical shock of a hit was enough to kill the crew of an enemy tank or disable it. It was reported that the Sturmpanther’s HE shell could totally blow the turret off of a heavy tank like a Soviet KV-1 or at least jam it, and the blast could turn over a medium tank like an M4 Sherman or T-34 and totally disable it.

AP shells for direct attacks were available, but these large-caliber rounds were expensive, hard to make, and were in very short supply, as well as only being a little more effective than the HE round.

Many Sturmpanther were outfitted in field workshops with launch racks for unguided rockets like the 15 cm Nebelwerfer 41 or 21 cm Nebelwerfer 42 (four to six) were mounted on top of the engine deck, firing forward over the casemate. 8 cm Raketen-Vielfachwerfer (a copy of the Soviet BM-8 “Katyusha” multiple rocket launcher) were occasionally used in this fashion, too, with one or two 12-rocket-racks mounted above each other. These weapons had a range of up to 7 km (4½ ml), gave the Sturmpanther crew more tactical options and stretched the short internal shell supply.

Like the Sturmpanzer 43 before, the Sturmpanther was concentrated in dedicated Sturmpanzer-Abteilungen, but the type’s limited number only made it operational in single companies within three battalions, including the newly founded Sturm-Panzer-Abteilung 220 that exclusively operated the Sturmpanther. The Sturmpanther was heavily used during the “Battle at the Bulge” and also saw extensive action in Southern Germany, Austria and Hungary.

Specifications:

Crew: Five (commander, gunner, 2x loader, driver)

Weight: 45.5 t (44.8 long tons; 50.2 short tons)

Length: 8.46 m (27 ft 8½ in) overall

6.87 m (22 ft 6 in) hull only

Width: 3.42 m (11 ft 3 in)

Height: 2.66 m (8 ft 8¾ in)

Ground clearance: 54 cm (21¼ in)

Suspension: Double torsion bar, interleaved road wheels

Fuel capacity: 720 litres (160 imp gal; 190 US gal)

Armor:

15–100 mm (0.6 – 3.93 in)

Performance:

Maximum road speed: 46 km/h (29 mph)

Operational range: 260 km (160 mi) on road

130 km (81 mi) cross-country

Power/weight: 15.38 PS (11.5 kW)/tonne (13.77 hp/ton)

Engine:

Maybach HL230 P30 V-12 23.800 cm³ petrol engine with 700 PS (690 hp, 515 kW)

ZF AK 7-200 gear; 7 forward 1 reverse

Armament:

1× 150 mm (5.9 in) StuH 43/2 L/24 howitzer with 20 rounds

1× 7.92 mm MG 34 machine gun in the front glacis plate with 800 rounds

The kit and its assembly:

This build was inspired by leftover parts from other projects, including a complete casemate from a Trumpeter 1:72 Elefant and the gun barrel from a Trumpeter 1:72 KV-2. This made me wonder about a German Sturmpanzer, a successor for the Panzer IV-based Brummbär with its short 15 cm howitzer. At first, I considered a Tiger I chassis (got one left in The Stash™) but found that it would resemble too much the real-world Sturmtiger with its 38cm rocket mortar. A medium Panther chassis appeared like a better and more plausible option. The real world Jagdpanther would have been a similar SPG development, so I settled upon a Panther basis, in this case a Hasegawa 1:72 Panther Ausf. G.

The Hasegawa Panther is a simple and by today’s standards almost primitive affair, but it goes together well and can be easily modified. Hull and running gear were taken OOB, including the original rubber-rimmed wheels and parts of the protective side skirts. Mounting the Elefant’s casemate onto the turret-less hull took some effort, though. First, it had to be modified to match the Panther’s front section, and it was tailored down accordingly in height, until width and length matched the hull. A double door from a Jagdtiger was glued to the casemate’s back side, as the original round opening fell victim to the trimming-down measures. As a lucky coincidence, the casemate would fit well between the front glacis plate and the engine deck, resulting in a very Jagdpanther-esque look, and the longer barrel reminds of the Soviet ISU-152 SPG?

Integrating the gun mantlet and the bigger barrel into the new kinked front was a bit tricky, though. To fill the hole in the Elefant’s casemate front plate I used the ball mount from the same kit and fixed it into position with a sturdy styrene tube from behind, so that it would still be movable. The Elefant’s front cover was missing, though, so that I had to improvise from this point on. I found a gun port from a Jagdpanther and totally disassembled it, using it to cover the ball mount from the outside and to frame the narrower opening on the model.

The ball mount had to be further protected with a mantlet, and I used a relatively narrow piece from a Schmalturm (IIRC from a Hasegawa 1:72 Panther Ausf. F), which was glued between the KV-2 barrel and the Elefant’s trimmed-down ball mount. A Frankenstein creation that looks surprisingly natural!

Some small details like sight slits, plug covers and bolts on the casemate were added, and I transplanted a shell rack from the 1:72 Trumpeter KV-2 onto the engine deck, with some additional supports and struts (styrene profile material). I first thought that this was a launch rack for unguided missiles, but due to its fixed in position I rather assume that it is “only” a storage rack for additional howitzer rounds. Still plausible, though, and it adds an interesting detail to the model.

Painting and markings:

Another iteration of the standard Hinterhalt paint scheme, in this case only a two-tone variation with wide stripes in Rotbraun (RAL 8017, Humbrol 160) over a Dunkelgelb (RAL 7028, Tamiya TS-3 from a rattle can as overall primer) base. The model received an overall watercolor washing with black and burnt umbra, as well as dry-brushing with grey and beige. Rust and dirt residues were created with watercolors (burnt sienna, umbra). The black vinyl tracks were painted with watercolors, too, with a mix of grey, ochre and burnt umber.

The tactical code’s color and arrangement are unusual, but this style with the code numbers in a contrasting tone and separated by the national marking was for instance used by the Schwere Pz.Abt.506 (operating Tiger IIs) in early 1945. The Mickey Mouse decoration comes from a Luftwaffe aircraft, as well as the small tank “kill markings” on the barrel; both came from a generic TL Modellbau sheet.

The finished model received an overall coat with matt acrylic varnish, was then assembled (running gear and tracks), and the lower areas were lightly dusted with artist mineral pigments.

A cool model, and this fictional assault gun carrier on the basis of a Panther chassis looks very natural – it reminds a lot of the Jagdpanther, but there are many subtle differences that only become apparent with a second, closer look. I like that. The paint scheme in just two tones also looks better than expected, I expected it to look quite dull. But the tiger stripes are quite disruptive, altogether a pretty subtle whif vehicle.

Protest demanding a ban on conversion therapy - Whitehall, London

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

Although the performance increases of jet-powered aircraft introduced towards the end of World War II over their piston-powered ancestors were breathtaking, there were those at the time who believed that much more was possible. As far back as 1943, the British Ministry of Aircraft Production had issued a specification designated "E.24/43" for a supersonic experimental jet aircraft that would be able to achieve 1,600 KPH (1,000 MPH).

The Levin served only with RAF 29 and 65 Squadron, the latter re-instated in 1970 as a dedicated fighter squadron. When in November 1984 the Tornado squadrons began to form, the Levin was gradually phased out and replaced until April 1987 by the Tornado F.3.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length w/o pitot: 51 ft 5 in (15,70 m), 55 ft 8 in (16.99 m) overall

Wingspan incl. wingtip launch rails: 34 ft 9 in (10.54 m)

Height: 19 ft 7 in (5.97 m)

Wing area: 474.5 ft² (44.08 m²)

Empty weight: 8937 kg (lb)

Loaded weight: 13,570 kg (29,915)

Max. takeoff weight: 15,210 kg (33,530 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Rolls-Royce RB.106-10S afterburning turbojet,

rated at 20,000 lbf (89 kN) dry and 26,000 lbf (116 kN) with afterburning

Performance:

Maximum speed:

- 1,150 km/h (620 kn, 715 mph, Mach 0.94) at sea level

- 2,230 km/h (1.202 kn, 1,386 mph, Mach 2.1;), clean with 2× Red Top AAMs at high altitude

- Mach 2.4 absolute top speed in clean configuration at 50.000 ft.

Range: 1,650 km (890 nmi, 1,025 mi) on internal fuel

Combat radius: 500 km (312 mi); clean, with a pair of wing tip Red Top AAMs

Ferry range: 1,270 mi (1.100 NM/ 2.040 km) with overwing tanks

Service ceiling: 16,760 m (55,000 ft)

Rate of climb: 136.7 m/s (27,000 ft/min)

Wing loading: 76 lb/ft² (370 kg/m²)

Thrust/weight: 0.78

Takeoff roll: 950 m (3,120 ft)

Landing roll: 700 m (2,300 ft)

Armament:

2× 30 mm (1.18 in) ADEN cannons with 120 RPG in the upper front fuselage

2× wing tip hardpoints for mounting air-to-air missiles (2 Red Top of Firestreak AAMs)

2× overwing pylon stations for 260 gal ferry tanks

Optional, but rarely used: 2× hardpoints under the front fuselage for mounting air-to-air missiles

(2 Red Top of Firestreak AAMs)

The kit and its assembly:

Another contribution to the Cold War GB at whatifmodelers.com, and the realization of a project I had on the agenda for long. The EE P.6/1 was a real project for a Mach 2+ research aircraft, as described above, but it never went off the drawing board. Its engine, the RB.106, also never saw the light of day, even though its later career as the Canadian Orenda Iroquois for the stillborn CF-105.

Building this aircraft as a model appears simple, because it’s a classic Lightning (actually a F.1 with the un-kinked wing and the small fin), just with a single engine and a rather tubular fuselage. But creating this is not easy at all…

I did not want to replicate the original P.6/1, but rather a service aircraft based on the research aircraft. Therefore I used parts from a Lightning F.6 (a vintage NOVO/Frog kit). For the fuselage I settled for a Su-17, from a MasterCraft kit. The kit’s selling point was its small price tag and the fuselage construction: the VG mechanism is hidden under a separate spine piece, and I wanted to transplant the Lightning’s spine and cockpit frame, so I thought that this would make things easier.

Nope.

Putting the parts from the VERY different kits/aircraft together was a major surgery feat, with several multiple PSR sessions on the fuselage, the air intake section (opened and fitted with both an internal splitter and a bulkhead to the cockpit section), the wings, the stabilizers, the fin… This model deserves the title “kitbash” like no other, because no major sections had ever been intended to be glued together, and in the intended position!

The landing gear was more or less taken OOB, but the main struts had to be elongated by 2mm – somehow the model turned out to be a low-riding tail sitter! The cockpit interior was improvised, too, consisting of a Su-17 cockpit tub, a scratched dashboard and a Martin Baker ejection seat from an Italeri Bae Hawk trainer.

Since most of the fuselage surface consists of various materials (styrene and two kinds of putty), I did not dare to engrave panel lines – after all the PSR work almost any surface detail was gone. I rather went for a graphic solution (see below). Some antennae and air scoops were added, though.

The overwing tanks come OOB from the NOVO kit, as well as the Red Top missiles, which ended up on improvised wing tip launch rails, based on design sketches for Lightning derivatives with this layout.

Colors and markings:

There are several “classic” RAF options, but I settled for a low-viz Eighties livery taken from BAC Lightnings. There’s a surprising variety of styles, and my version is a mix of several real world aircraft.

I settled for Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces (Modelmaster Authentic) with a high waterline, a fuselage completely in Medium Sea Grey (Humbrol 165 – had to be applied twice because the first tin I used was obviously old and the paint ended up in a tone not unlike PRU Blue!) and Light aircraft Grey underwing surfaces (Humbrol 166). The leading edges under the wings are Dark Sea Grey, too.

The cockpit interior was painted in dark grey (Humbrol 32 with some dry-brushing), while the landing gear is Aluminum (Humbrol 56).

Once the basic painting was done I had to deal with the missing panel lines on the fuselage and those raised lines that were sanded away during the building process. I decided to simulate these with a soft pencil, after the whole kit was buffed with a soft cotton cloth and some grinded graphite. This way, the remaining raised panel lines were emphasized, and from these the rest was drawn up. A ruler and masking tape were used as guidance for straight lines, and this worked better than expected, with good results.

As a next step, the newly created panels were highlighted with dry-brushed lighter tones of the basic paints (FS 36492 and WWII Italian Blue Grey from Modelmaster, and Humbrol 126), more for a dramatic than a weathered effect. The gun ports and the exhaust section were painted with Modelmaster Metallizer (Titanium and Magnesium).

The decals come from several Xtradecal aftermarket sheets, including a dedicated Lightning stencils sheet, another Lightning sheet with various squadron markings and a sheet for RAF Tornado ADVs.

The code number “XS970” was earmarked to a TSR.2, AFAIK, but since it was never used on a service aircraft it would be a good option for the Levin.

The kit received a coat of matt acrylic varnish from the rattle can – jn this case the finish was intended to bear a slight shine.

This was a project with LOTS of effort, but you hardly recognize it – it’s a single engine Lightning, so what? But welding the Lightning and Su-17 parts together for something that comes close to the P.6/1 necessitated LOTS of body work and improvisation, carving it from wood would probably have been the next complicated option. Except for the surprisingly long tail I am very happy with the result, despite the model’s shaggy origins, and the low-viz livery suits the sleek aircraft IMHO very well.

Interesting trailer made from the rear of an eighties Dodge Maxivan. Aerodynamics is likely not its strong suit.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Arado Ar 96 was a German single-engine, low-wing monoplane of all-metal construction, produced by Arado Flugzeugwerke. Designed by Walter Blume as the result of a 1936 Reich Air Ministry tender, the prototype first flew in 1938. In 1939, an initial batch of Ar 96A aircraft was produced, and this was followed by the major production series, the more powerful Ar 96B, fitted with the Argus As 410 engine.

Eventually, more aircraft were procured, including Boeing B-17s, Bristol Beaufighters, de Havilland Mosquitoes and P-51D Mustangs. Not much later, the Israeli Air Force played an important part in Operation Kadesh, Israel's part in the 1956 Suez Crisis, dropping paratroopers at the Mitla Pass. By then the Avia C-2 trainers had been completely replaced by more modern and versatile T-6 Harvard trainers, which themselves remained in active service until 1974.

General characteristics:

Crew: two

Length: 9.1 m (29 ft 10 in)

Wingspan: 11 m (36 ft 1 in)

Height: 2.6 m (8 ft 6 in)

Wing area: 17.1 m2 (184 sq ft)

Empty weight: 1,295 kg (2,855 lb)

Max takeoff weight: 1,700 kg (3,748 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Argus As 410A-1 inverted V-12 air-cooled piston engine, 347 kW (465 hp)

Performance:

Maximum speed: 330 km/h (205 mph; 178 kn) at sea level

Cruise speed: 295 km/h (183 mph; 159 kn)

Range: 990 km (615 mi; 535 nmi)

Service ceiling: 7,100 m (23,300 ft)

Rate of climb: 5.083 m/s (1,000.6 ft/min)

Armament:

1× 7.92 mm (0.312 in) MG 17 machine gun in the fuselage

2x 50 kg (110 lb) underwing racks for bombs or single unguided missiles

The kit and its assembly:

This is my entry to the 2017 “One Week” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com; this model was inspired by a post a couple of weeks ago from fellow forum member The Wooksta concerning the fictional use of the Ar 96 and other ex-German types from Czech production after WWII in Israel. I kept the idea in the back of my mind, and the upcoming GB was a good occasion to take the concept to the (model) hardware stage.

Since the building time frame was limited to just seven days, the vintage Heller kit (from 1977) saw only little modification – the most noteworthy being a new three blade propeller and an enlarged, scratched oil cooler under the engine. I also added a pair of underwing hardpoints (scratched, too) and a pair of 50 kg bombs (probably left over from an Airfix Fw 189) in order to emphasize the machine’s offensive capabilities in Israel service, and its CAS role during the War of Independence.

Inside of the cockpit and in the landing gear wells I added some structures with styrene profiles, and the clear canopy was cut into four pieces for later display.

The kit went together with only minimal problems, I only faced self-induced trouble when the cockpit floor somehow ended up a little deeper than it was supposed to be – the wings and their respective ventral fuselage connection would not fit anymore. My fault, though, and some trimming solved the problem with ease.

For its age, fit and detail is very good (like many other original Heller kits, they are highly underrated, IMHO), the raised surface details are very delicate, too. A small beauty!

Painting and markings:

Since the ex Czech aircraft would just have been delivered and immediately thrown into armed frontline service, I gave it a basic scheme close to Czech post WWII trainer aircraft, plus typical Israeli markings and an additional makeshift desert camouflage.

I found some reference that most Czech Avia C-2s carried NMF, with some parts sometimes painted with RLM 02. Some had black cowlings, too, and some even carried a uniform RLM 02 livery.

Early IAF trainers carried – AFAIK – yellow ID markings, e.g. wing bands or cowlings. I used this as a basis and gave the aircraft basically a uniform RLM 02 (Humbrol 240) upper surface, aluminum undersides (Revell 99) and yellow bands on wings (created with decal material), a yellow fin rudder and cowling flanks (painted). The cowling’s underside and an anti-glare panel up to the cockpit became black.

The interior became RLM 02, too, but I used Revell 45 (Helloliv) which is a slightly more saturated tone, and the color was further tweaked through black ink and some dry-brushing with light grey.

After a light black ink wash and some post-shading the decals with national markings, the tactical code and further ID markings like the red-and-white stripes on the fin (colors associated with 101 Tajaset: the S-199 fighters carried diagonally striped rudders) were added.

Decals were puzzled together from several sources, including David Shields from a High Decal Line MiG-17(!) sheet. The tactical code “B-02” is a guess; AFAIK the early IAF trainers had a “Beth/B-“ prefix to their code, while fighters had a “Daleth/D-“ letter code. This practice was later changed to a four digit numeric code, at least on the trainers.

Anyway, the green/silver livery with yellow markings would have been the original look of the aircraft upon delivery, but I wanted to add a twist and present the aircraft as an improvised light CAS aircraft.

Consequently, the upper surfaces as well as the yellow ID markings there were crudely painted over with sand (Revell 16, and some Humbrol 237), leaving out the markings.

Being a combat aircraft now, I added a relatively thin white-and-blue fuselage band. This marking was originally carried by contemporary S-199s, in order to make them more distinguishable from Egyptian Spitfires. This, as well as the fin stripes, were created with generic decal sheet and stripes (TL Modellbau).

As a final step, some weathering was done through a light sand paper treatment (blending the overpainted sand blotches with the RLM grey underneath, and emphasizing the raised surface details) and light dry brushing with RAF Hemp (Humbrol 168), primarily on leading edges. Exhaust soot was simulated with grinded graphite, but only very lightly. Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish, while the aluminum lower surfaces received a semi-matt finish for a light shine.

A simple build, the painting process was the more challenging and time-consuming part – but it was intended as a 1-week-build, anyway.

The build has also (once more) confirmed my impression that old kits are not necessarily rubbish, and that the only good(?) model kits come from Japan. Even though the Heller Ar 96 moulds date back to 1977 (mine came in the 1979 boxing), it’s a beautiful kit with good fit and surface details – anything you could ask for. Nice lil’ plane, also in fictional markings!

Another beautiful painting by Robert Connett.

My goodness, Robert, this painting really lives up to its title ;-)

Thanks again for letting me convert this to 3D. I had great fun doing this!

Use red-cyan glasses to see 3D.

If you don't like the colours, switch to full-color mode and learn to view cross-eyed:

www.flickr.com/photos/56307783@N05/10054281555/

VW Eurovan MV 2000 drapes, curtains, modifications mods camping volkswagen You can find van conversions like this eurovan on Gowesty and the samba www.gowesty.com and www.thesamba.com/vw/. Eurovan is a great van to go stealth camping in. Camping in the Eurovan is amazing. What I'd like to do is add a swivel seat to the drivers side of the van, add a heater to the van, do some mods to the van, tint the windows in the van, add a high top or a poptop to the van, and also take out the seat that is in it and have a full time bunk bed in the van. VW Eurovan blog and Eurovan camping journal Go to: eurovanmv.wordpress.com

+++ 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 Fokker D.VII was a German World War I fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz of the Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. Late in 1917, Fokker built the experimental V 11 biplane, fitted with the standard Mercedes D.IIIa engine. In January 1918, IdFlieg held a fighter competition at Adlershof, and for the first time, front line pilots participated in the evaluation and selection of new fighters. Fokker submitted the V 11 along with several other prototypes. Manfred von Richthofen flew the V 11 and found it tricky, unpleasant and directionally unstable in a dive. On short notice, Platz reacted and lengthened the rear fuselage by one structural bay and added a triangular fin in front of the rudder. Richthofen tested the modified V 11 and praised it as the best aircraft of the competition. It offered excellent performance from the outdated Mercedes engine, yet was safe and easy to fly. Richthofen's recommendation virtually decided the competition but he was not alone in recommending it. Fokker immediately received a provisional order for 400 production aircraft, which were named D.VII by IdFlieg.

After the war, the Allies confiscated large numbers of D.VII aircraft after the Armistice. The United States Army and Navy evaluated no less than 142 captured examples and used them in what would today be called “aggressor” units for dissimilar air combat in training and for the development of indigenous military aircraft. Several of these aircraft were re-engined with American-built Liberty L-6 motors, which were very similar in appearance to the D.VII's original German power plants and hard to tell apart. France, Great Britain and Canada also received numbers of war prizes, but these aircraft did not enter active service. Other countries used the D.VII operationally, though: the Polish deployed approximately 50 aircraft during the Polish-Soviet War, using them mainly for ground attack missions; the Hungarian Soviet Republic used a number of D.VIIs, both built by MAG and ex-German aircraft in the Hungarian-Romanian War of 1919; the Dutch, Swiss, and Belgian air forces also operated the D.VII. The aircraft proved still so popular that Fokker completed and sold a large number of D.VII airframes that he had smuggled into the Netherlands after the Armistice. As late as 1929, the Alfred Comte company manufactured eight new D.VII airframes under license for the Swiss Fliegertruppe.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 6.95 m (22 ft 10 in)

Wingspan: 8.9 m (29 ft 2 in)

Height: 2.75 m (9 ft 0 in)

Wing area: 20.5 m² (221 sq ft)

Empty weight: 670 kg (1,477 lb)

Gross weight: 906 kg (1,997 lb)

Powerplant:

1 × 137.95 kW (185 hp) BMW IIIa 6-cyl. water-cooled in-line piston engine with a 180 kW (240 hp)

emergency only rating at low level, driving a wooden 2-bladed fixed-pitch propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 189 km/h (117 mph, 102 kn) at normal power

200 km/h (124 mph; 108 kn) at emergency power

Range: 266 km (165 mi, 144 nmi)

Service ceiling: 6,000 m (20,000 ft)

Rate of climb: up to 9.52 metres per second (1,874 ft/min) at emergency rating

Time to altitude:

1,000 m (3,281 ft) in 1 minutes 40 seconds

2,000 m (6,562 ft) in 4 minutes 5 seconds

3,000 m (9,843 ft) in 13 minutes 49 seconds

4,000 m (13,123 ft) in 10 minutes 15 seconds

5,000 m (16,404 ft) 14 minutes 0 seconds

6,000 m (19,685 ft) 18 minutes 45 seconds

Armament:

2× synchronized 7.92 mm (0.312 in) LMG 08/15 "Spandau" machine guns,

firing through the propeller disc

The kit and its assembly:

My fifth submission for the “Captured” group build at whatifmodellers.com, and a very simple one, since the kit was built OOB. Inspiration came from a profile of a captured Albatros D.III in USAAC markings, unfortunately without further explanation. However, the aircraft sported a garish paint scheme, including bright green and even pink, so that I assumed that it would be not only WWI booty, but also in some operational use, since the paint scheme/camouflage did not look like a German pattern, but rather like an American design, similar to the aircraft operated by the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in continental Europe, just with bright colors.

When I checked options for a different aircraft to apply this idea to, I came across the common Fokker D.VII and the fact that a lot of these aircraft had been captured and tested/flown by the USAAC – and then the weird scheme started to make sense, and this what-if model was born.

The D.VII kit is the ESCI offering, which was released in 1983 but is actually a mold from 1968. I thought I gave it a chance, instead of the Revell kit, which dates back to 1963 and is rumored to be not a pleasant build. The bet and newest one in 1:72 is probably the Eduard kit, which also has the benefit of offering optional parts for various production versions.

As a small biplane model, the ESCI kit is a simple, straightforward affair, and no major conversions were made, I just added a pilot figure, because the ESCI kit lacks one as well as any interior detail except for a kind of tub that it molded into the fuselage halves. IIRC, the figure I used comes from a Revell biplane, and I had to chop the legs off to make it fit into the D.VII’s tight cockpit. However, this solution had the benefit that I did not have to worry about any interior details.

Another weak point of the ESCI kit is that it lacks some finer details like the boarding ladder or handles at the tail. These were scratched with thin wire. Overall fit is also not the best – PSR on the fuselage halves, and on some visible ejection markers (e.g. under the single-part wings) and sinkholes. Esp. the integral cockpit tub with its rather massive walls left visible dents in the flanks that had to be filled! On the other side, the fabric structure on the wings and the fuselage is nicely reproduced, and the cowling is apparently from a late production D.VII with additional/bigger air scoops, so I decided that my model would also be one of the final machines with the uprated BMW engine.

A problem that cannot be blamed on the mold but rather the specific 2nd hand kit I bought is that the stabilizer was missing – it had probably detached from the sprue long ago, and slipped through the box lid, gone and eaten by some carpet monster… ☹ I had to improvise and decided to cut a replacement stabilizer from 1mm styrene sheet. I used the painting instructions (which are almost 1:72 scale) as benchmark and tailored a piece of sheet into shape, sanding away the edges for some light curvature and also added some shallow grooves to mimic the rib structure. Not perfect, but I also did not want to spend too much time on this. As a bonus, though, I added the (tiny) rudder levers of the tail surfaces and the ailerons, which originally are also not part of the ESCI mold. These were later, after painting, outfitted with wires during the final rigging process with heated sprue material – thankfully the D.VII does not require too many strings, just some wires between the landing gear struts and on the tail.

Painting and markings:

The funnier part, with many, really bright colors united in a tiny space – almost like an anime movie prop! I stuck to the original Albatros benchmark and applied scheme, colors and markings truthfully to the D.VII. Paints/tones became, as a guesstimate, Humbrol 155 (Olive Drab), 7 (Light Buff), 47 (Sea Blue) and a mix of 200 (Pink) with a little 68 (Purple), maybe at a 5:1 ratio, for a deeper tone. The contrast between the colors is pretty strong and aircraft looks very individual!

The wing struts were painted in black, the interior in a light olive drab tone. The engine was painted with Revell 99 (Aluminum) and treated with grinded graphite for a more metallic look, and the propeller was painted with a streaky wet-in-wet mix of Humbrol 71 and 113.

The roundels come from a Hobby Boss F4F, and since they have a rather odd style with a kind of dark blue border, they suit the model pretty well, because these roundels were introduced around 1920, so that deviations from the later, “classic” look appear plausible. The tactical code comes from an RAF Gloster Gladiator and the BuNo on the fin were created from a post-war Spitfire code.

A light black ink washing was applied, and some light post-shading was done, in order to emphasize edges and the boxy form of the aircraft with its fabric-covered surfaces. After the decals had been applied, I also added an overall light dry-brushing with khaki drill (Humbrol 72) and light grey (Revell 75). Finally, the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri), final bits were assembled and the rigging was added.

A simple build, but a very colorful one – hard to believe that there were aircraft in real life that actually looked this way! But the small D.VII now really stands out among “seriously” camouflaged biplanes in my collection, a very picturesque model. BTW, I am also surprised how effective the camouflage is, at least in the air - despite the garish colors!

Over a couple of weeks ago I had departed on a lengthy road trip from Texas to Georgia to North Carolina to South Carolina to Georgia (again) to Florida ... and all the way back to Texas. A lot of time spent behind the wheel, fantastic moments with some of my closest friends, and a few photo ventures mixed in between. This image is from my first outing with camera in hand. While the wife ran a couple of miles along the trails of the park (currently training for a half marathon she will be participating in real soon), the pup and I explored and eventually happened upon this spot under a bridge supporting a 4 lane road. Extremely quiet despite the traffic above and behind me along the park trail.

Riverside Park - Roswell, GA USA on 12-Nov-2011.

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Much more to share in 2012...

This will definitely be the last one posted this year. It kills me that my photography has been of little focus because my time was spent mostly elsewhere. My most productive year in a very long time with the web work, which will hopefully continue into next year ... but, I am long overdue on figuring out a way to be as such on both fronts and keep the momentum going. Life can be so daunting at times.

I wish all a happy holiday season and slide into the new year. Stay safe and be merry. Many thanks for the continued interest and support for my work ... some very exciting experiences to share upon my return.

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Constructive criticism and suggestions welcomed! Thank you for dropping by.

©Michael Rathmann 2011. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. No rights granted unless in writing by Michael Rathmann. Please do not use without my explicit permission, but feel free to contact me if interested.