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New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) R188 no. 7320 (Kawasaki, 2010-2016) is the lead motor on a Queens-bound 7 train seen stopped at 34th St-Hudson Yards Station on the Flushing Line. This car was converted from an R142A, adding equipment compatible with the communications-based train control (CBTC) and automatic train operation (ATO) systems installed on the Flushing Line.
Norman M. Dean's 120 medium format film conversion for the iconic and beloved Polaroid Automatic Land Camera. Blog and discussion on today's Film Photography Podcast Ep. 241.
Please share the excitement!
filmphotographyproject.com/podcast/2020/01/podcast-episod...
LightArt-Photography by JanLeonardo
(Light Painting)
Made with Canon 5D MKII, Carl Zeiss Distagon 21/2,8, Manfrotto Tripods and High Performance Torches from Led Lenser.
May the light be with you.
Hover conversions for classic vehicles! Keep those old cars on the new roads with hover-drive retrofit kits from Sirius Cyberdine Industries! Don't be bound to the ground any longer! No more expensive tires! Greater comfort and ride-handling! Each kit is custom-designed for the classic auto of choice, and once prototyped, will be available in SCI inventory until all documented examples of that make/model are extinct. From cruisers, to sports cars, to utility vehicles, let SCI become your vendor of choice for updating your ride!
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
In the early to mid-1930s, developments in airframe design outstripped available aircraft engine power, allowing large aircraft to be built that existing engines were unable to sufficiently lift or propel (at least not alone). A period ensued in which multi-engine designs mostly outperformed aircraft designed with just one engine. In air racing in Europe, the Dornier Do 17 outran every single-engine fighter it competed against. In Germany, this led to the idea of the "Schnellbomber", fast bombers that were expected to fly right past the defensive fighters. Although this period of twin-engine superiority would be short-lived, it also led to many air forces considering twin-engine fighter designs, resulting in the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, Westland Whirlwind, Grumman XF5F Skyrocket, and the Fw 187.
This eventually led to the Messerschmitt Bf 110, which was intended as a heavy fighter (“Zerstörer”) – but as soon as WWII broke out and especially during the Battle of Britain the Bf 110 showed its weaknesses: it was too big and too heavy to compete with single engine fighters. Losses were high.
In the meantime, alternative programs were on the way, namely the Me 210 as direct and improved successor. The first examples of the Me 210 were already ready in 1939, but they proved to have poor flight characteristics from serious, unanticipated design flaws. A large-scale operational testing program throughout 1941 and early 1942 did not cure the aircraft's problems. The design eventually entered limited service in 1943, but was almost immediately replaced by the next generation, the Messerschmitt Me 410 Hornisse ("Hornet").
The development troubles with the Me 210 led the design team to look into a different solution which could be realized on short notice and might be based on existing components – this led in 1940 to the idea of a twin-engined Bf 109 with higher range and performance and a heavy cannon armament.
Internally the project was designated P.1020 and it was soon approved by the RLM and received the official number “205”.
The Me 205 was a slender and compact aircraft of conventional layout, based on the latest version of the Bf 109, “Fritz”. From this basis, about 50% were taken: most of the fuselage as well as the wings, which were added outboard of the engine nacelles. The heavy armament comprised four 20mm cannons plus two heavy machine guns.
Powered by two DB 601E engines with 1.350 hp (992 kW) each, the Me 205 was a fast aircraft - the first prototype easily reached 650 km/h (400 mph), and later service machine often broke the 700 km/h barrier (435 mph) in level flight. Compared with the Bf 109's limited range of ~700 km (435 ml), the Me 205 could, on internal fuel only, reach 1.200 km (745 ml), even more than the Bf 110 but considerably less than the Me 210/410, which had a range of up to 2.400 km (1.490 ml).
A wet hard point under the fuselage allowed the carriage of a 300l drop tank or a single bomb of up to 500 kg (1.100 lb) caliber, two more hardpoints under the outer wings could be used for ordnance with up to 250 kg (550 lb) each, including bombs or launch tubes for Wfr.Gr 42 unguided air-to-air rockets, which were introduced in early 1943, too - two pairs could be carried, and together with the massive gun power of the Bf 205 this posed a serious threat to Allied bombers.
Serial production started in winter 1942 and the first serial machines (A-1 variant) arrived at the Reich Defence Staffeln in Spring 1943.
Anyway, serial production did not last long: In late 1943 all efforts concerning the Me 205 were stopped, because of several reasons. The RLM still preferred multi-purpose aircraft, and when the Me 410 finally overcame its teething troubles it received priority. Another factor was the Me 262 - the jet fighter showed much promise, it was even faster than the Me 205 and offered more firepower, so that this new "Wunderwaffe" was politically favored, too. The final blow was then the decision to save material - namely engines - and allocate these to single engine fighter production.
Only a mere 230 Bf 205 A-1s were eventually built, most of them used by the Luftwaffe, but some were also handed over to Slovakian, Croatian and Romanian forces.
General characteristics:
Crew: 2
Length: 9,58 m (31 ft 4 in)
Wingspan: 13,32 m (46 ft 7 1/2 in)
Height: 3.49 m (11 ft 5 1/4 in)
Wing area: 30.40 m² (327.22 ft²)
Empty weight: 3,700 kg (8,157 lb)
Loaded weight: 5,000 kg (11,023 lb)
Powerplant:
2× Daimler Benz DB 601E 12-cylinder inverted-V piston, 992 kW (1.350 PS) each
Performance:
Maximum speed: 695 km/h at 4,200 m (431 mph at 13,780 ft)
Service ceiling: 12,000 m (39,370 ft)
Rate of climb: 1,050 m/min (3,445 ft/min)
Wing loading: 164.14 kg/m² (33.62 lb/ft²)
Armament:
4 × 20mm MG 151/20 cannons with 200 RPG in the lower forward fuselage
2 × 13mm MG 131 machine guns with 350 RPG in the upper forward fuselage
The kit and its assembly:
This Frankenstein creation was inspired by a recent Westland Whirlwind conversion: what could a German counterpart have looked like? The only comparable aircraft had been the Fw 187 Falke, but it was only built in a small pre-serial batch and did not see wide use. Any other German counterparts had been two-seaters, bigger, and rather multi-purpose aircraft than dedicated fighters. Only the late Ta 154 would conceptually come close, but it ended up as a two seat night fighter.
Time to spin the saw and create a personal interpretation and answer to this question. My idea was to use a Bf 109 as basis, since it is rather small and sleek, and convert it into a twin engine design. BTW, that's not as far-fetched as it sounds: a very similar concept had actually been planned for the P-40 in real life!
My choice fell on the elegant Bf 109, the F or early G models, since the aircraft was supposed to enter service right after the Battle of Britain, around 1943.
As basis I used two Hobby Boss kits, one of them was severely sliced up and re-arranged, together with some external donation parts. The second kit just donated the engine and the propeller.
From both kits, the engines were cut off. One pair of Bf 109 wings would be used as outer wings, the inner wing parts come from a Matchbox P-51D (from the scrap box). The engine nacelles are actually nose sections from two PZL Iskra kits (Master Craft, ex KP Models), the engines and propellers are transplants from the original Hobby Boss kits, and they fit very well in size and shape.
For the landing gear wells, the old wing openings in the Bf 109 and P-51 parts were faired over and new opening under the Iskra noses opened. The main landing gear comes from a Matchbox Vickers Wellington, sliced up and mated with wheels from a Matchbox P-51. The respective covers were taken from the scrap box.
Back to the fuselage: instead of the DB engine a new nose was fitted, donated from an ESCI Ka-34 ‘Hokum’, plus a 6mm plug for added length. Cockpit and canopy were taken OOB, just a voluminous Airfix pilot added that covers much of the interior’s bleakness.
In order to compensate for the bigger wing span and overall size a bigger and deeper fin was implanted: the upper section of a Revell Me 262 fin. Using the original Bf 109’s fin root position, the new, deeper fin lengthened the fuselage by maybe 5mm. In total, this would be enough to keep length/span proportions balanced. The stabilizers come from a Heller P-47, but they were reduced in depth and span in order to match the slender wings.
Once the basic arrangement was settled I had to look for a decent place for the radiators. The original Bf 109 arrangement had to go because of the engine nacelles, so I placed the new ones under the wing roots. These were built from scratch.
The armament is based on the state-of-the-art of the contemporary Fw 190 A-8, also with four cannons and two heavy machine guns.
Amazingly, the resulting aircraft reminds a lot of the Japanese Ki-45 and Ki-46, and slightly of the D.H. 88 Comet race plane (due to the cockpit position)?
Colors and markings:
The aircraft was supposed to enter service around 1943, so I settled for a typical „Type 5“ splinter scheme of that time in RLM 74/75/76. The paint scheme was inspired by contemporary Bf 110 aircraft, and I used Humbrol colors. 245 and 247 (RLM 74 and 76) are IMHO very good representations of the Luftwaffe tones, especially the RLM 74 is nice because it has a recognizable greenish hue that most other offerings lack. Only Humbrol's RLM 75 (246) looks a bit fishy to me - it is IMHO too dark, it almost looks like German Panzergrau. Even British Extra Dark Sea Grey (164) is better, or Modelmaster's Authentic tone.
I used Humbrol 176 (US Neutral Grey) as replacement, it is lighter than RLM 75 but this just emhances the color contrast with the RLM 74.
RLM 76 was taken high on the fuselage flanks and the fin, and large blotches with RLM 75, 74 and 02 added – this time not a finely mottled finish, but “art brut”.
The codes and markings are based on a real Bf 109 from VII/JG1 and represent a machine that was just marked in the newly introduced Reichsverteidigungcodes with fuselage bands in different colors and compositions. The simple red band was allocated to JG1. Only the white fin rudder is a personal addition. All markings were puzzled together from various aftermarket sheets (e .g. from Printscale), the red band was manually cut from a generic red TL Modellbau sheet which offers a perfect, dull red.
A bit of shading was done through dry-brushing and a light black ink wash, but that was all - no soot stains or chipped paint. Finally, the kit was sealed with acrlyic matt varnish.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the model, the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
In the aftermath of the Second World War, Sweden required a strong air defense, utilizing the newly developed jet propulsion technology. This led to a pair of proposals being issued by the Saab design team, led by Lars Brising. The first of these, codenamed R101, was a cigar-shaped aircraft, which bore a resemblance to the American Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star. The second design, which would later be picked as the winner, was a barrel-shaped design, codenamed R 1001, which proved to be both faster and more agile upon closer study.
The original R 1001 concept had been designed around a mostly straight wing, but after Swedish engineers had obtained German research data on swept-wing designs, the prototype was altered to incorporate a 25° sweep. In order to make the wing as thin as possible, Saab elected to locate the retractable undercarriage in the aircraft's fuselage rather than into the wings.
Extensive wind tunnel testing performed at the Swedish Royal University of Technology and by the National Aeronautical Research Institute had also influenced aspects of the aircraft's aerodynamics, such as stability and trim across the aircraft's speed range. In order to test the design of the swept wing further and avoid any surprises, it was decided to modify a single Saab Safir. It received the designation Saab 201 and a full-scale R 1001 wing for a series of flight tests. The first 'final' sketches of the aircraft, incorporating the new information, was drawn in January 1946.
The originally envisioned powerplant for the new fighter type was the de Havilland Goblin turbojet engine. However, in December 1945, information on the newer and more powerful de Havilland Ghost engine became available. The new engine was deemed to be ideal for Saab's in-development aircraft, as not only did the Ghost engine had provisions for the use of a central circular air intake, the overall diameter of the engine was favorable for the planned fuselage dimensions, too. Thus, following negotiations between de Havilland and Saab, the Ghost engine was selected to power the type instead and built in license as the RM 2.
By February 1946 the main outline of the proposed aircraft had been clearly defined. In Autumn 1946, following the resolution of all major questions of principal and the completion of the project specification, the Swedish Air Force formally ordered the completion of the design and that three prototype aircraft be produced, giving the proposed type the designation J 29.
On 1 September 1948, the first of the Saab 29 prototypes conducted its maiden flight, which lasted for half an hour. Because of the shape of its fuselage, the Saab J 29 quickly received the nickname "Flygande Tunnan" ("The Flying Barrel"), or "Tunnan" ("The Barrel") for short. While the demeaning nickname was not appreciated by Saab, its short form was eventually officially adopted.
A total of four prototypes were built for the aircraft's test program. The first two lacked armament, carrying heavy test equipment instead, while the third prototype was armed with four 20mm automatic guns. Various different aerodynamic arrangements were tested, such as air brakes being installed either upon the fuselage or on the wings aft of the rear spar, along with both combined and conventional aileron/flap arrangements.
The flight test program revealed that the J 29 prototypes were capable of reaching and exceeding the maximum permissible Mach number for which they had been designed, and the flight performance figures gathered were found to be typically in excess of the predicted values.
In 1948 production of the type commenced and in May 1951 the first deliveries of operational production aircraft were received by F 13 Norrköping. The J 29 proved to be very successful and several variants and updates of the Tunnan were produced, including a dedicated reconnaissance variant and an all-weather fighter with an on-board radar.
A trainer variant was deemed to be useful, too, since the transition of young pilots from relatively slow, piston-engine basic trainers to jet-powered aircraft was considered to be a major step in the education program. At that time, the only jet-powered two-seater in Swedish inventory was the DH 115 Vampire. 57 of these, designated J 28C by the Swedish Air Force, had been procured from Great Britain in the late Forties, but an indigenous alternative (and a more capable successor) was politically favored.
In 1952 initial wind tunnel tests with scaled-down models were conducted, since it was not clear which layout would be the best from an aerodynamic, structural and educational point of view. After a thorough inspection of wooden 1:1 mock-ups of alternative tandem and a side-by-side cockpit layouts, as well as much political debate between Saab, the Swedish Air Force and the Swedish government concerning the costs and budget for a dedicated Saab 29 trainer fleet’s development and production, a compromise was settled upon in early 1953: No new trainer airframes would be produced. Instead, only existing airframes would be converted into two seaters, in an attempt to keep as much of the existing structure and internal fuel capacity as possible.
The side-by-side arrangement was adopted, not only because it was considered to be the more effective layout for a trainer aircraft. It also had the benefit that its integration would only mean a limited redesign of the aircraft’s cockpit section above the air intake duct and the front landing gear well, allowing to retain the single-seater’s pressurized cabin’s length and internal structure. A tandem cockpit would have been aerodynamically more efficient, but it would have either considerably reduced the J 29’s internal fuel capacity, or the whole aircraft had had to be lengthened with a fuselage plug, with uncertain outcome concerning airframe and flight stability. It would also have been the more costly option,
However, it would take until 1955 that the first trainer conversions were conducted by Saab, in the wake of the major wing and engine updates for the J 29 A/B fleet that lasted until 1956. The trainer, designated Sk 29 B, was exclusively based on the J 29 B variant and benefited from this version’s extra fuel tanks in the wings and fully wired underwing weapon hardpoints, which included two wet pylons for drop tanks and made the Sk 29 B suitable for weapon training with the J 29’s full ordnance range.
The trainer conversions only covered the new cockpit section, though. The Sk 29 B did not receive the new dogtooth wing which was only introduced to the converted J 29 D, E and F fighters. The upper pair of 20mm cannon in the lower front fuselage was deleted, too, in order to compensate for the two-seater’s additional cockpit equipment weight and drag. Performance suffered only marginally under the enlarged canopy, though, and the Sk 29 B turned out to be a very sound and useful design for the advanced jet trainer role.
However, budgetary restraints and the quick development of aircraft technology in the Fifties limited the number of fighter conversions to only 22 airframes. The aging Vampire two-seaters still turned out to be adequate for the advanced trainer role, and the Sk 29 B did not offer a significant advantage over the older, British aircraft. Another factor that spoke against more Sk 29 Bs was the simple fact that more trainer conversions would have reduced the number of airframes eligible for the running fighter aircraft updates.
All Sk 29 Bs were concentrated at the F 5 Ljungbyhed Kungliga Krigsflygskolan training wing in southern Sweden, where two flights were equipped with it. Unofficially dubbed “Skola Tunnan” (literally “School Barrel”), the Sk 29B performed a solid career, even though the machines were gradually retired from 1966 onwards. A dozen Sk 29 B remained active until 1972 in various supportive roles, including target tugging, air sampling and liaison duties, while the final Vampire trainer was already retired in 1968. But by the early Seventies, the trainer role had been taken over by the brand new Saab 105/Sk 60 trainer, the long-awaited domestic development, and Sk 35 Draken trainers.
General characteristics:
Crew: 2
Length: 10.23 m (33 ft 7 in)
Wingspan: 11.0 m (36 ft 1 in)
Height: 3.75 m (12 ft 4 in)
Wing area: 24.15 m² (260.0 ft²)
Empty weight: 5,120 kg (11,277 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 8,375 kg (18,465 lb)
Powerplant:
1× Svenska Flygmotor RM2 turbojet, rated at 5,000 lbf (22.2 kN)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 1,010 km/h (627 mph)
Range: 1,060 km (658 mi)
Service ceiling: 15,500 m (50,850 ft)
Rate of climb: 30.5 m/s (6,000 ft/min)
Armament:
2x 20mm Hispano Mark V autocannon in the lower front fuselage
Underwing hardpoints for various unguided missiles and iron bombs, or a pair drop tanks
The kit and its assembly:
Another Saab 29 conversion of a variant that was thought about but never materialized, much like the radar-equipped all-weather fighter. The impulse to tackle this stunt was a leftover D. H. Vampire trainer fuselage pod in my stash (from the ‘Mystery Jet’ conversion a couple of months ago, from an Airfix kit). The canopy’s shape and dimensions appeared like a sound match for the tubby J 29, and so I decided to try this stunt.
The basis is the Heller J 29 kit, which is, despite raised surface details, IMHO the better kit than the rather simple Matchbox offering. However, what makes things more hazardous, though, is the kit’s option to build the S 29 C reconnaissance variant – the lower front fuselage is a separate part, and any surgery around the cockpit weakens the kit’s overall stability considerably. Unlike the J 29D all-weather fighter built recently, I had no visual reference material. The only valid information I was able to dig up was that a side-by-side cockpit had been the preferred layout for this paper project.
Implanting a new cockpit is always hazardous, and I have never tried to integrate a side-by-side arrangement into a single seater. The Vampire cockpit was finished first, and also mounted into the Vampire’s original cockpit pod halves, because I was able to use its side walls and also had the original canopy parts left over – and using the Vampire’s cockpit opening would ensure a good fit and limit PSR work around the clear parts. Once the Vampire cockpit tub was complete, the “implant” was trimmed down as far as possible.
Next step was to prepare the Tunnan to accept the donor cockpit. In order to avoid structural trouble I finished the two fuselage halves first, mounted the air intake with the duct to the front end, but left the fighter version’s gun tray away (while preparing it with a load of lead). The idea was to put the Vampire cockpit into position from below into the Tunnan’s fuselage, until all outer surfaces would more or less match in order to minimize PSR work.
With the Vampire cockpit as benchmark, I carefully tried to draw its outlines onto the upper front fuselage. The following cutting and trimming sessions too several turns. To my surprise, the side-by-side cockpit’s width was the least problem – it fits very well inside of the J 29 fuselage’s confines, even though the front end turned out to be troublesome. Space in length became an issue, too, because the Airfix Vampire cockpit is pretty complete: it comes with all pedals, a front and a rear bulkhead, and its bulged canopy extends pretty far backwards into an aerodynamic fairing. As a result, it’s unfortunately very long… Furthermore, air intake duct reaches deep into the Tunnan’s nose, too, so that width was not the (expected) problem, but rather length!
Eventually, the cockpit lost the front bulkhead and had to trimmed and slimmed down further, because, despite its bulky fuselage, the Tunnan’s nose is rather narrow. As a consequence the Vampire cockpit had to be moved back by about 3mm, relative to the single-seater’s canopy, and the area in front of the cockpit/above the air intake duct had to be completely re-sculpted, which took several PSR stages. Since the Vampire’s canopy shape is very different and its windscreen less steep (and actually a flat glass panel), I think this change is not too obvious, tough, and looks like a natural part of the fictional real-life conversion. However, a fiddly operation, and it took some serious effort to blend the new parts into the Tunnan fuselage, especially the windscreen.
Once the cockpit was in place, the lower front fuselage with the guns (the upper pair had disappeared in the meantime) was mounted, and the wings followed suit. In this case, I modified the flaps into a lowered position, and, as a subtle detail, the Tunnan kit lost its retrofitted dogtooth wings, so that they resemble the initial, simple wing of the J 29 A and B variants. Thanks to the massive construction of the kit’s wings (they consist of two halves, but these are very thin and almost massive), this was a relatively easy task.
The rest of the Tunnan was built mostly OOB; it is a typical Heller kit of the Seventies: simple, with raised surface detail, relatively good fit (despite the need to use putty) and anything you could ask for a J 29 in 1:72 scale. I just replaced the drop tanks with shorter, thicker alternatives – early J 29 frequently carried Vampire drop tanks without fins, and the more stout replacements appeared very suitable for a trainer.
The pitots on the wing tips had to be scratched, since they got lost with the wing modifications - but OOB they are relatively thick and short, anyway. Further additions include a tail bumper and extra dorsal and ventral antennae, plus a fairing for a rotating warning light, inspired by a similar installation on the late J 29 target tugs.
Painting and markings:
As usual, I wanted a relatively plausible livery and kept things simple. Early J 29 fighters were almost exclusively left in bare metal finish, and the Swedish Vampire trainers were either operated in NMF with orange markings (very similar to the RAF trainers), or they carried the Swedish standard dark green/blue grey livery.
I stuck to the Tunnan’s standard NMF livery, but added dark green on wing tips and fin, which were widely added in order to make formation flight and general identification easier. However, some dayglow markings were added on the fuselage and wings, too, so that – together with the tactical markings – a colorful and distinct look was created, yet in line with typical Swedish Air Force markings in the late Fifties/early Sixties.
The NMF livery was created with an overall coat of Revell 99 acrylic paint (Aluminum), on top of which various shades of Metallizer were dry-brushed, panel by panel. Around the exhaust, a darker base tone (Revell 91, Iron Metallic and Steel Metallizer) was used. Around the cockpit, in order to simulate the retrofitted parts, some panels received a lighter base with Humbrol 191.
The raised panel lines were emphasized through a light black in wash and careful rubbing with grinded graphite on a soft cotton cloth – with the benefit that the graphite adds a further, metallic shine to the surface and destroys the uniform, clean NMF look. On the front fuselage, where many details got lost through the PSR work, panel lines were painted with a thin, soft pencil.
The cockpit interior became dark green-grey (Revell 67 comes pretty close to the original color), the landing gear wells medium grey (Revell 57). The dark green markings on fin and wing tips were painted with Humbrol 163 (RAF Dark Green), which comes IMHO close to the Swedish “Mörkgrön”. The orange bands were painted, too, with a base of Humbrol 82 (Orange Lining) on top of which a thin coat of fluorescent orange (Humbrol 209) was later added. Even though the NMF Tunnan did not carry anti-dazzle paint in front of the windscreen, I added a black panel because of the relatively flat area there on the modified kit.
Decals come from different sources: roundels and stencils come from the Heller kit’s sheet, the squadron code number from a Flying Colors sheet with Swedish ciphers in various colors and sizes for the late Fifties time frame, while the tactical code on the fin was taken from a Saab 32 sheet.
Finally the kit was sealed with a “¾ matt”, acrylic varnish, mixed from glossy and matt varnishes.
An effective and subtle conversion, and a bigger stunt than one might think at first sight. The Tunnan two-seater does, hoewever, not look as disturbing as, for instance, the BAC Lightning or Hawker Hunter trainer variants? The rhinoplasty was massive and took some serious PSR, though, and the livery was also more demanding than it might seem. But: this is what IMHO a real Saab 29 trainer could have looked like, if it had left the drawing boards in the early Fifties. And it even looks good! :D
This was the seventh of eight conversions.
The eight buses involved in order of conversion completion were - 323 (VRS 323) June 1968, 298 (SRS 298) December 1968, 324 (VRS 324) March 1969, 320 (VRS 320) March 1971, 322 (VRS 322) June 1971, 321 (VRS 321) by July 1971, 319 (VRS 319) by end 1971 & 318 (VRS 318) by May 1972.
Fleet numbers in sequence were 298, 318 - 324.
1964 VRS 319 mix cpy3
This is the Donside Village Hydro Turbine located within the nature reserve , I've taken some info from their website on the story behind the project to install and utilise the turbine to produce HydroElectricity.
The micro hydro scheme is located at a bend of the River Don, at the edge of the former papermill which is now being re-developed for a variety of other purposes, including residential housing, with the riverside being developed by the community for recreational use and wildlife value.
The land for the hydro was secured from the landowner and developer, Sanctuary Group, by the community for the generation of renewable energy.
By short-cutting this bend in the river, the hydro makes use of the gradually sloping river bed that falls over a depth of about 2.5m and covers a distance of 200m. The hydro scheme will be fed by a new lade and make full extent of the natural fall by cutting across the bend.
A feasibility study indicated that the site has the potential to generate about 400kW of power but under the current government energy subsidy regime (Feed-in-Tariff ) a scale of 100kW is the most economically feasible.
Donside Village has an enviable location on the banks of the River Don approximately 4km from the city centre of Aberdeen. It is on the site of the former Donside Papermill in the wider Tillydrone community. The papermill occupied the site until its closure in 2001 and demolition in 2006.
The site has been, and continues to be re-developed into a sustainable mixed community one of the UK’s largest Registered Social Landlords; Sanctuary Housing.
Inside the original boundary of the former papermill, new modern energy efficient flats and houses have been built, with a mix of social housing, part buy and owner occupied properties. The properties overlook the river which will be designed and landscaped by the community as an amenity for people and wildlife from the local community and beyond.
This community is known as Donside. It is represented by the Donside Community Association, made up of the residents and friends of Donside Village.
Hydroelectricity involves the conversion of energy stored in water held at a height as it travels to a lower level. The flow of water drives a mechanical shaft which then drives an electric generator.
The vertical fall of the water, known as the head, is essential for hydropower generation. Fast-flowing water on its own does not contain sufficient energy for useful power production.
Aberdeen Community Energy have purchased and installed a Landustrie Hydropower Screw Turbine for the Donside Hydro.
Bradford, PA. September 2019.
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If you would like to use THIS picture in any sort of media elsewhere (such as newspaper or article), please send me a Flickrmail or send me an email at natehenderson6@gmail.com
I've tested possibilities to convert color JPG to B&W JPG using GIMP Desaturate -> Mono Mixer... (with Preserve Luminosity ON). Firstly I increased saturation of blue (polarized sky blue on water surface) and red (dark brown leaves in few visible trees). Secondly typical corrections in GIMP (contrast, sharpness and Aspect Ratio). It went not bad.
BTW Click the image as Flickr generates overly contrasted picture. One click brings back correct picture.
Tau commandos in ghillie suits. The suits are made from very fine medical gauze dipped in 50/50 water and PVA glue then draped around the models. The models are then painted dark angels green, given a quick layer of PVA glue and rolled in flock.
I've done very little sports photography, but had the chance to shoot rugby this weekend so gave a go.
Just another RELL reduced to an RESL with subtle differences to the previous one - but enough to warrant a different approach to the job.
Required reducing in length, adding a second door, extending front bay and moving front axle forward then chopping the rear end down to create one full bay from the original 2 short ones.
All in a day's work - or several in this case! For reference, go back 4 pics - the donor is the red / cream EFE RELL in the illustration for the last job.
Our old house is attached to what was originally a cattle-byre, then used as a school until 1904 when a new bigger school was built in the village. After that the little building was used as a Mission Room before becoming an offshoot of the Parish Church in the nearby town. It was known as St James' Chapel, but after about 80 years of use with minimal maintenance the place had deteriorated so much that it was dangerous, and the current vicar decided to hand it back to us. (The rent had originally been set at 6d a year, £1.00 every 20 years, and never raised, so the landlords couldn't afford to patch it up either.)
So we decided to make it into a little house, and the work is progressing nicely. This is the upstairs floor, just installed (having been removed when the Chapel conversion happened). For ODC Natural Light
+++ 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 Royal Danish Air Force (RDAF) was formed as a military service independent from the Army and Navy in 1950 from the merger of the Hærens Flyvertropper (Danish Army Air Corps) originally founded on July 2, 1912 and the Marinens Flyvevæsen (Danish Naval Air Service).
In the 1960s and 1970s the RDAF operated a number of US financed Lockheed F-104G Starfighters, North American F-100D/F Super Sabres, plus several other types, including an export version of the Saab 35 Draken in the ground attack role.
The 70ies brought a major re-structuring of the RDAF: The Hawker Hunter was phased out in 1974, as well as the Republic RF-84F Thunderflash reconnaissance aircraft in 1971. In order to rejuvenate their air forces in the 80ies, the NATO countries Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, and Belgium undertook a joint arms and introduced the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon as their common fighter-bomber in January 1980. The F-16 was later bought by further NATO countries, Greece and Turkey, and the United States of America, also a NATO member, operates the F-16, too.
As the F-16 deal was closed in the late 70ies it became clear that the Danish aging F-100 fleet and the limited number of Saab Draken (locally designated F-35) would leave a serious gap in the country's defense in the mid-80ies, esp. against ground and sea intruders. Additionally, the F-104G fleet was also about to reach its service life end, so Denmark decided to fill this gap with upgrades of existing types and the introduction of an interim fighter bomber.
One of the results was the WDNS (Weapon Delivery and Navigation System) update for the Danish Saab 35 Draken fleet. In the early 1980s all aircraft (a total of 51 was operated by the RDAF) received a Marconi 900 Series HUD and a Ferranti LRMTS (laser rangefinder and marked target seeker) in a characteristic nose fairing that resembled the photo recce version of the Saab 35, and an ALQ-162 jammer.
In parallel, Denmark bought a batch of IAI Kfir fighter bombers from Israel in 1978. The Israel Aircraft Industries Kfir (Hebrew: כְּפִיר, "Lion Cub") was an Israeli-built all-weather, multirole combat aircraft based on a heavily modified French Dassault Mirage 5 airframe, with Israeli avionics and an Israeli-made version of the General Electric J79 turbojet engine. The Kfir entered service with the IAF in 1975 in the C.1 version, but the updated C.2 with canard foreplanes and "dogtoothed" leading edges on the wings for better maneuverability followed soon.
The export aircraft for Denmark were basically of C.2 standard, but the RDAF had these aircraft further modified and brought up to the Drakens’ WDNS standard. This modification gave the Danish Kfirs a true all-weather ground attack capability, which was superior to the Drakens’ potential in many ways.
The latter were only capable of carrying outdated and rather unreliable AGM-12 Bullpup AGMs, as well as iron bombs or pods with unguided rockets. The modified Kfirs (locally designated F-21D and nicknamed 'Løve' (= Lion, as a translation of the type’s original name and hinting at a ‘more mature’ version), were not only able to carry state-of-the-art smart weapons like the AGM-65 Maverick or various HOBOS and Paveway guided bombs, they were also able to carry external sensor equipment like a TISEO (Target Identification System Electro-Optical), FLIR (Forward Looking Infra Red) or LANTIRN (Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night) pod. This offered, together with the LRMTS in the nose, a true and very flexible all-weather strike capability. Furthermore, the RDAF F-21Ds were able to carry more powerful electronic countermeasures which would significantly improve the type's survivability in hostile environment.
Most significant external difference of the Danish Kfir to its Israeli C.2 brethren was a modified nose with a stepped shape, similar to the updated Draken fighter bombers – the Kfir’s original, telemetric Elta Systems radar was omitted. Another modification for Denmark was an integral ALQ-162 jammer and an ALR-69 radar warning system, housed in a characteristic pod on top of the fin.
Less obvious changes included a beefed-up landing gear with an anti-brake system, night formation lights to NATO standard, a new Martin Baker ejection seat, a modern glass cockpit (with HMD capability and two 127×177mm MFDs) and the avionics to carry and deploy various guided weapons.
Even though the F-21Ds had an excellent rate of climb and top speed, and were able to carry up to six AIM-9 Sidewinder AAMs and retained their 30mm cannons, they were exclusively used in the ground attack/fighter bomber role. They replaced the last F-100D in Danish service at Eskadrille 727 and 730, relieving the F-35 fleet during the update measures and also filling gaps in the F-104G ranks, as some aircraft had been lost in accidents. The RDAF retired their Starfighters in 1986, being replaced by F-16 in the interceptor role.
Being just a gap-filler, though, the Løve only had an active service career of 12 years in the RDAF. It was gradually taken away from front line service from 1990 on, as more and more brand new F-16 became available. By this time, the F-21D fleet had also already been reduced to 16 aircraft through several flight accidents and engine failures. The last Danish Kfir/Løve was finally retired together with the Danish Saab 35 fleet in 1993. The remaining aircraft were returned to Israel, where they were partly stored and partly revamped to c.7 standard and sold to other foreign customers like Sri Lanka.
General characteristics
Crew: One
Length (incl. pitot): 15.73 m (51 ft 6 1/4 in)
Wingspan: 8.22 m (26 ft 11½ in)
Height: 4.61 m (14 ft 11 3/4 in)
Wing area: 34.8 m² (374.6 sq ft)
Empty weight: 7,285 kg (16,060 lb)
Loaded weight: 11,603 kg (25,580 lb) two 500 L drop tanks, two AAMs
Max. take-off weight: 16,200 kg (35,715 lb)
Powerplant:
1× General Electric J-79-J1E turbojet (IAl Bedek-built) with a dry thrust of 52.9 kN (11,890 lb st) and 79.62 kN (17,900 lb st) with afterburner
Performance
Maximum speed: 2,440 km/h (2 Mach, 1,317 knots, 1,516 mph) above 11,000 m (36,000 ft)
Combat radius: 768 km (415 nmi, 477 mi) in ground attack configuration, hi-lo-hi profile, seven 500 lb bombs, two AAMs, two 1,300 L drop tanks)
Service ceiling: 17,680 m (58,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 233 m/s (45,950 ft/min)
Armament:
2× Rafael-built 30 mm (1.18 in) DEFA 553 cannons, 140 rounds/gun under the air intakes
7× external hardpoints under the wings and fuselage for up to 5,775 kg (12,730 lb) of payload, including unguided air-to-ground rockets, AIM-9 Sidewinder AAMs; AGM-45 Shrike ARMs, AGM-65 Maverick ASMs, Mark 80 series bombs, Paveway series of LGBs, CBUs, BLU-107 Matra Durandal, reconnaissance pods, drop tanks or other tactical equipment like sensor pods.
The kit and its assembly:
This was a spontaneous idea when I stumbled across a cockpit detail set from Pavla for the Saab Draken. The cockpit itself was not so interesting for me (actually passed it on to a friend who has some Draken kits in store…), but the set included the characteristic, kinked nose of the reconnaissance Draken which was also used for the upgraded, Danish fighter bombers. I wondered onto which aircraft this piece could be grafted on, creating a fantasy fighter in Danish service…
As in many cases, the idea of building an aircraft in the characteristic livery of its user was another major factor behind this whif project: the all-green Danish F-100, with their quickly deteriorating finish. This look is a true modelling challenge, but I did not want to build an F-100.
The F-104 was a candidate, but that was not whiffy enough. In the end, I came up with the venerable Kfir as a conversion basis. Not only does the Kfir fit in size to the Draken’s camera nose, the type’s introduction in the mid-70ies would also fall in a very plausible time frame to create a rather low-budget F-100 replacement for Denmark, before the F-16 came to Europe in the 80ies.
Said and done, I got me an Italeri Kfir C.7 and started. I have built more than a dozen of these kits, so I know its trouble zones well: the cockpit tub is hard to install properly, the fit between wings, fuselage and air intakes is tricky, and you can add some more details on the hull, as well as weapon stations. Expect some putty work – OOB it won’t fall together well.
For the price it is hard to beat, though, the Hasegawa alternative is much more expensive but does IMHO not justify this premium.
As I wanted to create a "modern" fighter bomber (well, for its time and RDAF standards), the WDNS nose was not enough, and the idea of adding external sensor pods, combined with AGM-65s as payload, was born. This would also create a nice color contrast to the otherwise all-green aircraft, and distract a bit from the striking, white landing gear...
The Mavericks with their launch rails come from a Heller F-5E, the sensor pods from an Italeri F-16C/D kit. A new seat was implanted into the cockpit, as well as a Matchbox pilot and a HUD. The jammer/RWR pod on top of the fin was scratched, using updated Danish Drakens as benchmarks.
All around the fuselage some small details were added (air scoops, pitots, blade antennae) that are simply missing in the Italeri kit - but they are really just small things.
Painting and markings:
Well, this one is simple and tricky at the same time. An all-green aircraft sounds primitive, but it can easily look very boring and unnatural. And there’s another twist: it is actually VERY difficult to find a good tone that represents the "SM/67" dark green that was used on Danish aircraft.
FS 34079 is frequently recommended, but IMHO it is "too green", and too light as a basic tone. The real stuff has a (relative) olive drab touch, a bit more yellow-, even brown-ish, it reminds a bit of RAL 6014.
The paint’s quick deterioration, esp. of the early matt finishes, makes it hard to define, too. But there are some museum aircraft pictures which yield a good impression of the tone when you compare pictures from different angles and in different light conditions. In the end, it’s still a guesstimate.
I accidently found a great option for “SM/67” among the new RLM enamels from Humbrol: 253, RLM 83! It fits right between FS 34079 and RAL 6014, and it is also dark enough. The overall impression is very good.
In order to add some visual excitement I weathered the aircraft – not as dramatic as many F-100s look like, but it should become a typical matt green RDAF aircraft, with all of the effects on the exterior. The later, glossy paint finish kept an almost immaculate look, and appeared in a much more olive-drab-like tone, even though it is still SM/67 dark green.
Painting was done with brushes, and I faced some trouble with the new RLM enamel: pigments appear to be pretty large, and they would not mix well with the thinner. As a result, the paint would not dry up as an opaque coat, requiring at least two, better three layers of paint. Not optimal – I more or less solved this challenge through a thin basic layer which worked like a primer, onto which a truly covering, thicker layer was applied. But it just took more paint than necessary to get the Kfir green, I hope the other RLM tones do not suffer from the same flaw…
Weathering was done just with slightly lightened/toned Humbrol 253, applied with a brush. I used mixes of 253 and 116 (with varying shares of the lighter 116, depending on the area of the model and also to avoid a uniform look) as well as 253 and 155. A black ink wash darkened the whole thing considerably, esp. the basic 253 coat which turned out to be very matt, with a coarse and open surface that would almost soak up the black ink pigments.
Some soot stains were added with grinded graphite, which yields a metallic shine and a very smooth, fading of the stains around the guns, nozzle and various air outlets. Some bare aluminum was also applied at leading edges and panel joints.
The landing gear was painted all-white, with gray wheel disks and bright red brake covers. The whole landing gear was heavily washed with black ink, too.
The cockpit was held in medium gray, and the added pilot received a low-viz outfit without bright colors or a “bone dome”.
The RDAF markings come from an Xtradecal F-100 sheet, the warning stencils were taken from the original, vast Kfir decal sheet, plus some more from the scrap box, like the Kfir badges on the fin or the formation stripes. With all the red stencils the aircraft lost much of its green dullness!
The ordnance was painted in light grey, and the sensor pods became white and medium gray, just to add some variety and have a contrast to the all-green rest of the aircraft.
Finally, everything was sealed under a matt acrylic varnish.
In the end, the Danish Kfir looks very natural, the dark livery and the shorter nose suit the sleek type very well! Since this was no big conversion (except for the new nose, which fits well into its new place!), the overall build went smoothly, in about a week from sprues to photos.
Well some of them need to be shooting! The knife on the arm has a green stuff strap which is the finest/smallest detail I've attempted so far. I liked the way the broken sword on the base worked out.
44t rings to fit the old style 151 Record cranks are hard to find and expensive. For a rider, this makes more sense to convert common 144 bcd 44t rings that most people do not want anyway.
Offshoot of Ocklawaha River in Putnam County, Florida. (Shot in Infrared using a full-spectrum conversion and a Hoya 25A external filter.)
Veterinary ambulance in Devon. Good use of an Old ambulance.
I love the front 'blue' repeater lights!
Little bit of back story: name means 'executioner' because of the faceless helmet's similarity to an executioners hood. And because of his tendency to use his naginata-style blade to decapitate his enemies. Doesn't make him any less useless in a game though.
+++ 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 Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star was the first jet fighter used operationally by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). Designed and built by Lockheed in 1943 and delivered just 143 days from the start of the design process, production models were flying, and two pre-production models did see very limited service in Italy just before the end of World War II.
Designed with straight wings, America's first successful turbojet-powered combat aircraft, it helped usher in the "jet age" in the USAF. The US Navy was also keen to enter the jet age, so several P-80A Shooting Stars were transferred beginning 29 June 1945, retaining their P-80 designations. At Naval Air Station Patuxent River, one Navy P-80 was modified with required add-ons, such as an arrester hook, and loaded aboard the aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt at Norfolk, Virginia, on 31 October 1946.
The following day the aircraft made four deck-run takeoffs and two catapult launches, with five arrested landings, flown by Marine Major Marion Carl. A second series of trials was held on 11 November. The tests were passably successful, but the P/F-80A C was not a very suitable carrier aircraft. Even with the arresting hook and the bridle attachment points it still lacked a lot desired for carrier operations: No wing fold (greatly hampering parking on the deck and below in the hangar deck, and elevator handling), not protected against the salt water environment, not optimized for low speed handling around the carrier, and perhaps most troublesome it did not have a structure robust enough for sustained carrier operations.
In parallel, the U.S. Navy had already begun procuring its own jet aircraft, but the slow pace of delivery was causing retention problems among pilots, particularly those of the Marines who were still flying Vought F4U Corsairs. To increase land-based jet-transition training in the late 1940s, 50 F-80Cs were transferred to the U.S. Navy from the U.S. Air Force in 1949 as jet trainers. Designated TO-1 by the Navy (changed to TV-1 in 1950), 25 were based at Naval Air Station North Island, California, with VF-52, and 16 assigned to the Marine Corps, equipping VMF-311 at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. These aircraft were eventually sent to reserve units. The success of these aircraft led to the procurement by the Navy of 698 T-33 Shooting Stars (as the TO-2/TV-2) to provide a two-seat aircraft for the training role.
Concerning the single-seat fighter, the US Navy was by late 1948 impressed (or desperate) enough to order a navalized version of the F-80C, with an uprated J-33-A-35 engine, an ejection seat and fitted with 260 US gal (220 imp gal; 980 l) tiptanks. This became the F2V, which addressed many of the early carrier trial shortcomings. For instance, the wings were modified with folding hinges at about half the wings' span, and tanks in the outer wing panels were deleted. This structural weakness precluded the carriage of the F-80C's large tip tanks, though, so that smaller, integral tip tanks were added to the wing tips. Internal structure and landing gear were reinforced, externally recognizable through a slightly higher stance of the aircraft on the ground. An arrester hook was added under the rear fuselage as well as catapult launch cable hooks under the air intakes. For better low-speed handling the flaps could be lowered more strongly than on the F-80, and slats were added to the outer wing panels. In order to provide the pilot with a better field of view esp. during carrier landings, a bigger and taller teardrop canopy was fitted, with a raised position for the pilot. The armaments consisted of six 0.5" machine guns with 300 RPG, plus underwing hardpoints fo up to eight five inch HVARs or two 1.000 lb bombs, similar to the USAF's F-80C.
In 1951, immediately after the first F2V-1s had been delivered and sent to Korea, a second order for an upgraded variant was placed. Basically, the F2V-2 did not differ much from its predecessor, it was just outfitted with a slightly uprated J33-A-35A engine and the internal armament was changed to four 20mm Colt Mk. 12 cannon with 100 RPG in the nose. 32 F2V-2s were ordered, plus 12 additional F2V-2Ps, an unarmed photo reconnaissance version which had a similar camera nose as the RF-80. The standard equipment included a K-17 camera with a 6" lens and two split vertical K-22 cameras with 24" lenses. While the F2V-2P did not carry any offensive capability anymore, the underwing hardpoints were retained for photo flash cartridge dischargers, allowing a limited night photography capability.
USAF F-80Cs as well as USN F2Vs saw active combat service in the Korean War and were among the first aircraft to be involved in jet-versus-jet combat. They flew both air-to-air and air-to-ground sorties, claiming several aerial victories against North Korean Yak-9s and Il-10s. But despite initial claims of success, the speed of the straight-wing F-80s was inferior to the 668 mph (1.075 km/h) MiGs, and the heavier F2V fared even worse. A further problem of the F2Vs was their poor resistance against sea water-related aircraft wear. Even though Lockheed had tried to save the airframe and the internal systems from higher humidity and salt exposure, corrosion and electrical defects plagued the aircraft during its whole career, which was relatively short. The fighters were soon replaced by the more capable Grumman F9F Panther, and type that had been from the start been designed as a naval aircraft and was built by a company with more experience in this field of work.
When sufficient Sabres were in operation to counter the MiG-15s, the Shooting Stars flew exclusively ground-attack and photo reconnaissance missions. For the latter task, 20 surplus F2V-1s were modified in field workshops to F2V-1Ps. These were basically of the same technical standard as the F2V-2P, but retained the weaker engine. In fact, by the end of hostilities, the only Shooting Stars in USAF and USN service still flying in Korea were photo-reconnaissance variants. After the Korean War, the F2V fighters were quickly phased out, just the photo reconnaissance versions were still flying in reserve units, but were also soon replaced by Grumman Panthers and Douglas Banshee recce variants. By 1958, all F2Vs were already retired.
Lockheed's experience with the F2V was not futile, though. The USN's persisting need for a carrier-compatible trainer led to a further, more advanced design development of the P-80/T-33 family, which came into being with the Lockheed designation L-245 and USN designation T2V. Lockheed's demonstrator L-245 first flew on 16 December 1953 and production deliveries to the US Navy began in 1956.
Compared to the T-33/TV-2/F2V, the T2V was almost totally re-engineered and fully optimized for carrier landings and at-sea operations. This included a redesigned tail, naval standard avionics, a further strengthened undercarriage (with catapult fittings) and lower fuselage (with a retractable arrester hook), power-operated leading-edge flaps (to increase lift at low speeds) to allow carrier launches and recoveries, and an elevated rear (instructor's) seat for improved instructor vision, among other changes. The T2V eventually had a much higher ability to withstand sea water-related aircraft wear from higher humidity and salt exposure.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 34 ft 5 in (10.49 m)
Wingspan: 40 ft 9 1/2 in (12,45 m) incl. tip tanks
Height: 11 ft 3 in (3.43 m)
Wing area: 234.8 sq ft (21.81 m²)
Aspect ratio: 6.37
Airfoil: NACA 65-213
Empty weight: 9,273 lb (4,210 kg)
Gross weight: 14,392 lb (6,534 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 17,280 lb (7,846 kg)
Zero-lift drag coefficient: 0.0134
Frontal area: 32 sq ft (3.0 m²)
Powerplant:
1× Allison J33-A-35A centrifugal compressor turbojet with 4,900 lbf (22 kN) dry thrust
and 6,100 lbf (27.2 kN) with water injection'Allison J33-A-24/24A turbojet,
Performance:
Maximum speed: 590 mph (950 km/h, 513 kn) at sea level
Maximum speed: Mach 0.75
Cruise speed: 439 mph (707 km/h, 381 kn)
Range: 825 mi (1,328 km, 717 nmi)
Ferry range: 1,380 mi (2,220 km, 1,200 nmi)
Service ceiling: 46,800 ft (14,300 m)
Rate of climb: 6,870 ft/min (34.9 m/s)
Time to altitude: 20,000 ft (6,100 m) in 5 minutes 30 seconds
Lift-to-drag: 17.7
Wing loading: 51.3 lb/sq ft (250 kg/m²
Thrust/weight: 0.364
0.435 with water injection.
Armament:
No cannons installed
Underwing hardpoints for up to 2× 1,000 lb (450 kg) bombs, but typically left empty or outfitted with photo flash
cartridge dispensers for night photography
The kit and its assembly:
This build is another submission the "In the Navy" group build at whatifmodellers.com in early 2020, and it was a spontaneous decision, following the discussions under a "F-80 in USN service" thread elsewhere in the forum (www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=33956.0).
I remembered that I had an Airfic F-80C in the stash, and the idea was born to build a kind of a missing link between the USN's purely land-based TO/TV-1 and the later, dedicated T2V-1 carrier-capable trainer.
I wanted the modified Shooting Star to stay close to the land-based original, but with some upgrades. These included foldable wings (hinted at with profiles on the upper wings surfaces, hiding the respective joints), a raised cockpit in the form of a new/bigger canopy (from a Hasegawa F9F Panther, with an added dorsal fairing) and a modified landing gear. For the latter, the main gear was taken over, but I raised the main legs by maybe 2mm - not much, but I wanted a rather stalky, Skyhawk-esque look that conveys the upgraded landing gear. For the same reason I replaced the front leg with a leftover donor piece from a Matchbox A-4M - it has a different construction and is also longer, so that the F2V now had a nose-up stance for a better angle of attack when launching from a carrier. I contemplated and actually tried a fin fillet, but found after hardware trials that this, together with the more bulbous canopy, totally ruined the F-80's elegant lines, so it went off again.
An extra of this conversion is the camera nose, taken from the Heller T-33/RT-33 kit, a straightforward mod because the same nose was also mounted onto the RF-80C photo recce variant of the Shooting Star. However, once again the challenges of body transplants on model kits should not be underestimated. While, in theory, the RT-33 nose should have been easy to graft onto the F-80 body, it was not. While the dorsal area would fit quite well, the lower shapes, esp. in front of the air intakes, differ considerably between the models. I assume that the Airfix F-80C is slightly too narrow/sleek at its front end. Integrating the different nose necessitated some serious PSR, and while the parts do not match as good as one might have suspected, the outcome looks fine and I am happy that I now have "something different", not just a standard fighter.
I also wanted to add wing tip tanks, but neither the early underwing tanks that come with the Airfix kit, nor the large tanks from the T-33 - I found them both to be too big for a carrier-borne aircraft. Finding suitable donor parts was not easy, though; initially I dug out a pair of leftover tip tanks from a Matchbox T-2 Buckeye. which are pretty slender, but they eventually looked too modern and streamlined for an aircraft from the early Fifties. I tried some further mods but eventually rejected them. The final choice became a pair of underwing drop tanks from a Hobby Boss MiG-15 that lost their fins.
Painting and markings:
Once more, a conservative approach. While the real TO/TV-1s of the US Navy retained their bare metal finish with black markings, I gave the T2V a classic all-blue livery, because I thought that it would suit the elegant lines of the F-80 well.
The F2V was painted overall in FS 35042 (from Modelmaster), later treated with a black ink wash and some post-shading. The interior surfaces of cockpit, air brakes and landing gear wells were painted with an individually mixed zinc chromate green, consisting of Humbrol 80 and 159 in a roughly 1:1 ratio. The silver wing leading edges were created with decal material, a more convenient solution than trying to mask and paint them. The landing gear struts and wheel discs were painted in aluminium (Humbrol 56).
Decals and markings were puzzled together. The "Stars and Bars" come from an Artmodel F8F Bearcat, as well as the "Navy" tag on the fuselage. The VC 61 markings come from a Hobby Boss F9F Panther, and I added some F-80/T-33-specific markings from various aftermarket sheets. The red highlights on nose and fin were done with paint (Revell 330), framed by thin white decal strips. The ranging radar was framed with similar material, just in silver.
Even though I considered opening the camera windows in the nose and glazing them, I left them closed, since a lot of lead had to be hidden inside for a proper stance. Instead, the windows were simply filled with black, clear paint, for a glossy finish. The rest of the aircraft was sealed with a mix of matt and semi-gloss Italeri acrylic varnish, which turned out duller than hoped for - but I left it that way.
A relatively simple project - or so I thought! The rhinoplasty was more complicated than expected, the wing tip tanks became a trial-and error odyssey and the different landing gear and the canopy were also not without trouble. The resulting fictional aircraft is very subtle, though - even more so through the standard USN livery, which suits the Shooting Star VERY well and might onlookers mislead to see a Fifties Banshee or a Panther. The F2V just blends right between these types.
DISCLAIMER
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
The Chinese J-7FS was a direct descendant of the J-7E. The Chengdu J-7 itself has a long heritage of development, even though it is originally a Soviet design, a license-built MiG-21F, which has its roots in the mid 50ies.
It took China long way to develop and produce a true supersonic fighter aircraft: in March, 1964, Shenyang Aircraft Factory began the first domestic production of the J-7 jet fighter. However, the mass production of the aircraft, which had been developed through Soviet help, license production and reverse-engineering, was severely hindered by an unexpected problem—the Cultural Revolution. This incident and its consequences resulted in poor initial quality and slow progress.
This, in turn, resulted in full scale production only coming about in the 1980s, by which time the J-7 design was showing its age. However, through the years the J-7 saw constant development and refinement in China, and the J-7FS was one of the many directions the simple, basic design went in order to imporve performance and to keep it up to date.
The J-7FS was designed in the late 90ies as a dedicated interceptor, and as a lighter option than the twin-engined J-8 fighter of indigenous design. Main task was to incorporate a true air-to-air radar with surveillance capabilities, since the J-7 only featured a rader-based range finder in the central shock cone of the air intake.
Fitting a more capable radar required a larger radome, which meant either a bigger central shock cone (as in the 2nd generation MiG-21 fighters) or a totally new nose and air intake arrangement. The accordingly modified J-7FS saw first daylight as a technology demonstration aircraft built by CAC. Its most prominent feature was a redesigned under-chin inlet, reminiscent of the F-8 or A-7 nose, which provided air for a WP-13IIS engine. Above the air intake, a fixed conical radome offered space for a bigger radar dish. “139 Red”, how the first aircraft was coded, first flew in June 1998, starting a 22-month test program. Two prototypes were built, but only the first aircraft was to fly – the second machine was only used for static tests.
"139 Red" soon saw major progress in design and equipment: it received a new double-delta wing which nearly doubled internal fuel capacity and improved performance, a modified fin, a more potent WP-13F turbojet engine, and a new 600 mm slot antenna planar array radar using coherent technology to achieve scan, look-down and shoot-down capabilities.
The revamped aircraft also received a sand/green camouflage paint scheme, less flashy than the original white/red livery. The new wing, which was also introduced on the J-7E, made the aircraft 45% more maneuverable than the MiG-21F-like J/F-7M, while the take-off and landing distance is reduced to 600 meters, in comparison to the 1.000 meter take-off distance and 900 meter landing distance of earlier versions of the J-7.
The production J-7FS which was ready for service in summer 2000 featured even more changes and novelties: the J-7FS incorporated HOTAS, which has since become standard on other late J-7 versions, too. This version is also the first of J-7 series to be later upgraded with helmet mounted sights (HMS). However, it is reported that the helmet mounted sight is not compatible with radars, and air-to-air missiles must be independently controlled by either HMS or radar, but not both.
The serial production radome now had an ogival shape with an even larger base diameter, and for additional avionics such as weapon management, global positioning and flight data recording systems, the production J-7FS featured a bulged spine, reminiscent of the 3rd generation MiG-21 (or the respective Chengdu J-7C, a reverse-engineered MiG-21MF). The aircraft was even able to carry medium range AAMs, e .g. the Chinese PL-11 missile, a license-built Selenia Aspide AAM from Italia, itself a modernized descendant of the venerable AIM-7 Sparrow. Another feature which set the FS version apart was the ventral, twin-barreled Type 23-III gun instead of the single-barelled 30mm cannon at the flank.
The role of the J-7FS in the People's Liberation Army was to provide local air defense and tactical air superiority, even though it certainly was only a stop-gap until the introduction of the much more potent Chengdu J-10, which started to enter PLAAF service in 2005 after a long development time. With its more powerful radar the J-7FS was supposed to act as a kind of mini AWACS platform, guiding groups of less potent J-7Es to potential targets. It is known that the J-7FS’s new radar had a range greater than 50 km and could track up to eight targets simultaneously. The aircraft's overall performance is expected to be similar to early F-16 variants.
The number of built specimen is uncertain, but it is supposed to be less than 100, probably even less than 50. It is rumored that the type had also been offered to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka around 2001, but was not bought.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 14.885 m (Overall) (48 ft 10 in)
Wingspan: 8.32 m (27 ft 3½ in)
Height: 4.11 m (13 ft 5½ in)
Wing area: 24.88 m² (267.8 ft²)
Aspect ratio: 2.8:1
Empty weight: 5,292 kg (11.667 lb)
Loaded weight: 7,540 kg (16.620 lb)
Max. take-off weight: 9.100 kg (20.062 lb)
Powerplant:
1 × Guizhou Liyang WP-13F(C) afterburning turbojet with 44.1 kN (9.914 lb) dry thrust and 66.7 kN (14.650 lb) with afterburner:
Performance
Maximum speed: Mach 2.0, 2,200 km/h (1.189 knots, 1.375 mph)
Stall speed: 210 km/h (114 knots, 131 mph) IAS
Combat radius: 850 km (459 nmi, 528 mi) (air superiority, two AAMs and three drop tanks)
Ferry range: 2,200 km (1.187 nmi, 1.367 mi)
Service ceiling: 17,500 m (57.420 ft)
Rate of climb: 195 m/s (38.386 ft/min)
Armament:
1× twin-barreled Type 23-III 23mm (0.9") cannon with 250 rounds under the fuselage;
5× hardpoints (4× under-wing, 1× centerline under-fuselage) with a capacity of 2,000 kg maximum (up to 500 kg each); Ordnance primarily comprises air-to-air missiles, including PL-2, PL-5, PL-7, PL-8, PL-9 and PL-11 AAMs, but in a secondary CAS role various rocket pods an unguided bombs of up to 500kg caliber could be carried
The kit and its assembly:
This whif is based on the real world J-7FS, which actually flew but never made it beyond the technical demonstrator stage. However, I found the air intake design with its raked shape and the pointed radome interesting, and since I had a crappy Matchbox MiG-21MF with misprinted decals in store I decided to use that kit for a whif conversion. There’s even a resin kit of the first J-7FS (still with the standard delta wing, though, and horribly expensive) available, but I wanted to create a more advanced what-if model, if the type had somehow entered service.
The kit saw major modification all around the fuselage: the wing tips were clipped and scratch-built ends for the J-7E double delta wing shape attached. The shape is certainly not correct, but it's IMHO the impression that counts. The MiG-21MF's deep fin was replaced by a donation part from an F-16 – the 2nd J-7FS already featured a distinctive kink at the fin’s top which made it already look rather F-16ish, and the taller and more slender fin suits the MiG-21 well.
A brake parachute housing with a disctinctive, blunt end was added just above the jet exhaust, and some antennae and pitots were added in order to enhance the bleak Matchbox kit a little. The Type 23-III cannon was sculpted from a piece of sprue, just like the brake parachute housing.
The nose section/radome is the front half of an F-18 drop tank. An oval, tapered piece of styrene was implanted as the raked intake lip, trying to copy the look of the real thing according to the few pictures I had at hand. I also added a central splitter in the air intake, which houses the front wheel bay.
Some putty work was necessary to blend the new nose into the front fuselage, as well as the dorsal spine into the new fin, but that turned out to be easier than expected.
The jet exhaust originally is just a vertical "plate" in the MiG-21's tail. I opened it and implanted a new cover inside of the fuselage, in a deeper position. For some more detail I also added a (simple) jet nozzle, IIRC it is a leftover part from a Matchbox Jaguar kit, probably 30 years old... Not much, but it defininitively enhances the rear view of the machine.
The original cockpit only consists of a bulky seat and the pilot figure, and the clear canopy is clear but horribly thick. Hence, I decided to keep the cockpit closed, but nevertheless I added a floor and some side panels, and used an Airfix pilot figure.
The missile ordnance comes from the scrap box, reflecting “modern” Chinese air-to-air weaponry: two PL-7 (Matra Magic AAMs from an Italeri NATO weapons kit) on the outer and two PL-11 (two Aspide missiles from the same set ) on the inner wing hardpoints. All wing hardpoints come from MiG-21F kits, one pair is from the Academy kit, the other from the vintage Hasegawa kit, both have the launch rails molded into the weapon pylon. The drop tank is a typical Chinese item - it resembles the Russian/soviet PTB-490 drop tank, but has a more blunt nose and smaller fins - it comes from a FC-1 kit from Trumpeter.
Paintings and markings:
Since it is an air superiority aircraft, I wanted an appropriate livery, but not the dull overall grey of contemporary PLAAF fighters. But I found some weird real life paint schemes which inspired the final camouflage.
Since the plane was not supposed to look too American through FS tones I rather used 'other' colors for a wraparound scheme. The basic tone is Testors 2123 (Russian Underside Blue), and from above a darker contrast color was added, Humbrol 230 (PRU Blue). Both tones have a greenish/teal hue, which complements each other well. Together they create a pretty distinctive look, though, esp. with the red and yellow insignia and codes. IMHO these colors suit the fighter well.
The kit received a light black ink wash and some dry painting with lighter blue-grey shades (Humbrol 87 and 128), but no weathering, since modern Chinese aircraft tend to look pretty clean and pristine.
The decals were puzzled together from the scrap box, IIRC the insignia originally they belong to a Il-28 Trumpeter kit. The 5 digit code comes from a Revell MiG-29 and the number itself is based on the information published in the 2010 book “Chinese Air Power” by Yefim Gordon und Dmitriy Komissarov, where the Chinese code system is explained – I hope that it is more or less authentic ;)
So, all in all a rather simple kit conversion, and certainly not a creative masterpiece. To be honest, the similarity with the real thing is just at first glance - but since it is whif world, I am fine with the outcome. ^^
"Little by little, therefore, you correct those who offend,
you admonish and remind them of how they have sinned,
so that they may abstain from evil and trust in you, Lord."
– Wisdom 12:2, which is part of today's 1st reading at Mass.
My sermon for today, the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, can be read here.
This is a plaque showing the Third Luminous Mystery of the Rosary: Christ preaching and calling to conversion. It is from the grounds of the Motherhouse of the Nashville Dominican Sisters.
"You have heart, Murray."
"Hey, Loki? Why are you talking to my shoes when I'm behind you, and why are you hanging outside the bath while I was having a shower?"
+++ 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 Vickers Vanguard was a British short/medium-range turboprop airliner introduced in 1959 by Vickers-Armstrongs, a development of their successful Viscount design with considerably more internal room. The Vanguard was introduced just before the first of the large jet-powered airliners, and was largely ignored by the market. Only 44 were built and the Vanguard entered service in late 1960.
Even though the Vanguard could match the early passenger jets on short distances, the type was quickly relegated to other roles: In 1966, Air Canada removed all the seats in CF-TKK and refitted the aircraft for pure cargo work, in which role it could carry 42,000 lb (19,050 kg) of freight. Known by the airline as the "Cargoliner," it was the only such conversion, but survived to be the last Canadian Vanguard to be retired in December 1972.
BEA operated nine Vanguards modified to the V953C "Merchantman" all-cargo layout from 1969. A large forward cargo door measuring 139 by 80 inches (350 by 200 cm) was incorporated. The Merchantmen continued in service with BA until late 1979.
Beyond civil use, the most noteworthy military operator was Thailand, with an anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft conversion for the Royal Thai Navy, the SeaGuard MR.1. The need for aerial maritime patrol with proprietary aircraft was first formulated during the withdrawal of United States forces from Thailand in the mid Seventies, when the Thai Air Force assumed use of the installations at Takhli and Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat).
Inspired by similar conversions, e. g. the Canadian CP-107 Argus derived from the Bristol Britannia airliner and the highly successful Douglas P-3 derived from the L-188 Electra, the Thai "SeaGuard MR.1" fleet was created from three former Canadian airliners (ex Air Canada), converted by Canadair in Montreal.
Work started in 1977, and the former airliner underwent considerable modifications. The SeaGuard MR.1's core system became an AN/APS-115 radar, a development of the earlier, analogue AN/APS-80A used in American aircraft like the P-3A .The AN/APS-115 was state of the art technology and the first attempt of digitization by providing digital input into the onboard digital combat system. The system was able to achieve a resolution of 1.5 ft and the typical range against a submarine periscope is 15.5 nautical miles. Since the 42" rotating search antenna necessitated a relatively large fairing. A draggy, ventral position (e. g. like the P-2 or Il-38) was ruled out, for aerodynamic and structural reasons, as well as for space for an internal weapon bay (see below), so that a characteristic "duck bill" radome was added to the SeaGuard's nose.
The SeaGuard MR.1 was also equipped with a magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) in an extended fiber glass tail stinger, far from other electronics and ferrous metals on the aircraft. The MAD enabled the aircraft's crew (a typical crew numbered roughly 9 members) to detect the magnetic anomaly of a submarine in the Earth's magnetic field. The limited range of this instrument required the aircraft to be near the submarine at low altitude, so that it could primarily be used for pinpointing the location of a submarine immediately prior to a torpedo or depth bomb attack.
Streamlined fairings under the outer wings carried extra fuel and a searchlight (starboard) as well as a missile guidance antenna and a 'sniffer' (port) that could detect exhaust fumes and particles from diesel submarines.
Ordnance was to be carried in a single internal bomb bay under the forward fuselage, which was structurally beefed up for the rougher conditions over sea and prolonged low altitude operations. Special care was also given to the structure's protection against the naval environment, too. An additional fuel tank was installed in the wing root section and, while the rear section carried a trim fuel tank, avionics and other, lighter mission equipment.
The 28 ft 4 in (8,64 m) long bay could house conventional Mark 50 torpedoes or Mark 46 torpedoes as well as mines and depth charges. Active and passive sonobuoys could also be carried in the bay, and there were also two vertical ejection shafts with pressure locks in the aft fuselage from which single sonobuoys or other sensor carriers could be manually dropped, e. g. for weather research. Additional underwing stations under the inner and outer wings could carry additional armament and equipment.
The first or a total of three SeaGuard conversions for the Thai Navy was delivered in early 1978, and the trio became fully operational in early 1979, serving in both military and civil duties, e. g. in offshore SAR and pollution control missions.
The Thai SeaGuard MR.1s were kept longer in service than expected. Originally, they were scheduled to serve until 1990, to be replaced by three ex USN P-3A ordered in 1989, but deliveries were delayed because of financial problems and government changes in Thailand, so that the old and well-worn SeaGuards had to soldier on.
In late 1993 the Orions destined for Thailand finally arrived at the NADEP at NAS Jacksonville, where the aircraft were modified to meet RTN requirements, two aircraft were modified to P-3T standard (mainly based on the TAC/NAV Mod version), the third was originally delivered as a UP-3T in late 1995, but was later modified to VP-3T standard with a strengthened floor, passenger seats and a limited SENTAC station enabling the aircraft to perform light surveillance duties. The last flight of a Royal Thai Navy SeaGuard MR.1 took place on October 3rd 1995, and all three aircraft were subsequently scrapped.
General characteristics:
Crew: 11
Length incl. MAD tail boom: 143 ft 5in (43.77 m)
Wingspan: 118 ft 7 in (36.10 m)
Height: 34 ft 11 in (10.60 m)
Wing area: 1,527 ft2 (142 m2)
Empty weight: 82,500 lb (37,421 kg)
Loaded weight: 141,000 lb (63,977 kg)
Powerplant:
4× Rolls-Royce Tyne RTy.11 Mk 512 turboprop, 5,545 hp (4,700 shp, 4,135 kW) each
Performance:
Maximum speed: 425 mph (684 km/h, 367 kn)
Cruise speed at altitude: 378 mph (610 km/h, 328 kn)
Patrol speed: 195 mph (315 km/h, 170 kn)
Range: 4,039 mi (6,500 km; 3,510 nmi) with 3,500 kg (7,709 lb) payload,
maximum fuel and reserves for one hour.
2,299 mi (3,700 km (2,010 nmi) with 5,448 kg (12.000 lb) maximum payload,
at 84 - 85% of maximum continuous power.
Combat radius: 1,546 mi (2,490 km, 1,346 nmi), three hours on-station at 1,500 feet
Endurance: 10 hours
Service ceiling: 28,300 ft[1] (8,625 m)
Wing loading: 92 lb/ft2 (450 kg/m2)
Power/mass: 0.16 hp/lb (0.26 kW/kg)
Armament:
Bomb bay with eight internal weapon stations
Six hardpoints under the outer wings for 127 mm (5.0 in) HVARs or missiles like the AGM-12 Bullpup,
AGM-62 Walleye or Martel ASM, or sensor and air sampling pods
Four more hardpoints under the inner wings for gravity bombs of up to 1.000 lb (454 kg) caliber,
various sea mines and depth charges, torpedoes or inflatable life rafts for rescue missions.
Total internal and external ordnance capacity of 12,000 lb (5.448 kg)
The kit and its assembly:
Another contribution to the 2016 “In the Navy” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com, and a build outside the usual comfort zone. This time, I wanted to build a whiffy maritime patrol aircraft, based on a classic post-WWII airliner, since there were and are many benchmarks (e.g. the Lockheed P-3, based on the Aurora, the Canadian CP-140 Argus, based on the Bristol Britannia, or the Il-38, based on the Il-18).
I found the Airfix Vickers Vanguard as potential basis – and there had actually been a maritime patrol proposal for the RAF. At least one respective whif kit had been built – and there’s even a kit conversion set available.
Anyway, I wanted a personal conversion, and the modifications are actually rather modest:
- Closure of many windows
- Implantation of a nose radome from a VEB Plasticart 1:100 Tu-20/95
- Adapted nose landing gear
- An MAD boom, made from heated, thick OOB sprue
- Underwing pods with a starboard search light (modified MiG 15 slipper tanks)
- A cockpit compartment w/o interior was added, primarily to block sight into the fuselage
- Several small radomes, antennae fairings and strakes were added along the upper and lower hull
- Propellers received a metal axis
- A bomb bay was simulated with engravings and semi-circular fairings, simulating door hinges
- External ordnance could have been added, but I resisted and kept the aircraft clean
- The clear styrene windows were omitted, later to be filled with ClearFix
While these mods appear rather simple, getting this vintage Airfix kit together turned out to be a real fight. No part actually matched another, lots of trimming and putty everywhere were necessary. Raised (even though very fine) panel lines, classic flash (not much, but annoying) and some sinkholes were included, too, as well as rather massive trailing edges. To make things worse, the fuselage halves turned out to be somewhat warped: the seam along the fuselage was canted inwards and the windscreen did not fit at all. O.K., it’s an old kit, but not an easy build, despite the limited number of parts.
Painting and markings:
This part turned out to be a true challenge. A self-evident option would have been an RAF aircraft, e .g. in Extra Sea Grey/Sky, white + grey (early Nimrod style), Hemp + Barley Grey or Medium Sea Grey, the latter two with low viz markings. But I found this option to be too obvious – and I wanted something flashy, and exotic.
Tedious legwork eventually revealed the Royal Thai Navy as potential operator, as well as several authentic livery options. The most pleasing (to me) was the flying boat’s (HU-16 and CL-215) design: overall dark blue with a white fuselage upper half and bright, orange-red wingtips and a fuselage band.
This design was simply adapted to the low-winged Vanguard airliner. The basic dark blue is Humbrol 104 (Oxford Blue), while the upper fuselage was painted first in a very light grey and off-white from the rattle can (which reacted with each other and yielded a mottled finish…). The rest was painted with brushes and lots of masking tape.
The orange wing tips and the fuselage band were created with decal sheet (TL Modellbau), in order to avoid the further trouble of masking and creating an opaque paint film. Black trim was added through generic decal stripes.
After basic painting was finished some panel shading/highlighting with pure white, Lufthansa Blau (Revell 350, RAL 5013) and dayglow orange was added for a more lively impression.
The Thai Navy route was further backed by several 1:144 decal sets from Siam Scale, a company from Thailand that offers a range of aftermarket decals for the country’s air force and navy vehicles.
Finally, the kit was sealed with a not-too-matt acrylic varnish, and as final step the fuselage windows were filled with Humbrol’s ClearFix, because this method was IMHO cleaner than the OOB clear styrene windows and the hustle of masking them, together with the risk of losing one or more in the painting process into the fuselage...
After all, and including many troubles, a pretty aircraft, even though the build as well as the paint job was more of a fight. I know why I do not like 1:144 scale as well as airliners either, and combining both turned out to be just as unnerving as expected… And with the duck bill radome, it’s probably the ugliest Vickers Vanguard ever imagined.
+++ 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 TIE/LN starfighter, or TIE/line starfighter, simply known as the TIE Fighter or T/F, was the standard Imperial starfighter seen in massive numbers throughout most of the Galactic Civil War and onward.
The TIE Fighter was manufactured by Sienar Fleet Systems and led to several upgraded TIE models such as TIE/sa bomber, TIE/IN interceptor, TIE/D Defender, TIE/D automated starfighter, and many more.
The original TIEs were designed to attack in large numbers, overwhelming the enemy craft. The Imperials used so many that they came to be considered symbols of the Empire and its might. They were also very cheap to produce, reflecting the Imperial philosophy of quantity over quality.
However, a disadvantage of the fighter was its lack of deflector shields. In combat, pilots had to rely on the TIE/LN's maneuverability to avoid damage. The cockpit did incorporate crash webbing, a repulsorlift antigravity field, and a high-g shock seat to help protect the pilot, however these did next to nothing to help protect against enemy blaster fire.
Due to the lack of life-support systems, each TIE pilot had a fully sealed flight suit superior to their Rebel counterparts. The absence of a hyperdrive also rendered the light fighter totally dependent on carrier ships when deployed in enemy systems. TIE/LNs also lacked landing gear, another mass-reducing measure. While the ships were structurally capable of "sitting" on their wings, they were not designed to land or disembark their pilots without special support. On Imperial ships, TIEs were launched from racks in the hangar bays.
The high success rate of more advanced Rebel starfighters against standard Imperial TIE Fighters resulted in a mounting cost of replacing destroyed fighters and their pilots. That, combined with the realization that the inclusion of a hyperdrive would allow the fleet to be more flexible, caused the Imperial Navy to rethink its doctrine of using swarms of cheap craft instead of fewer high-quality ones, leading to the introduction of the TIE Advanced x1 and its successor, the TIE Avenger. The following TIE/D Defender as well as the heavy TIE Escort Fighter (or TIE/E) were touted as the next "logical advance" of the TIE Series—representing a shift in starfighter design from previous, expendable TIE models towards fast, well armed and protected designs, capable of hyperspace travel and long-term crew teams which gained experience and capabilities over time.
The TIE/E Escort, was a high-performance TIE Series starfighter developed for the Imperial Navy by Sienar Fleet Systems and it was introduced into service shortly before the Battle of Endor. It was a much heavier counterpart to the agile and TIE/D fighter, and more of an attack ship or even a light bomber than a true dogfighter. Its role were independent long range operations, and in order to reduce the work load and boost morale a crew of two was introduced (a pilot and a dedicated weapon systems officer/WSO). The primary duty profile included attack and escort task, but also reconnoiter missions. The TIE/E shared the general layout with the contemporary TIE/D fighter, but the cockpit section as well as the central power unit were much bigger, and the ship was considerably heavier.
The crew enjoyed – compared with previous TIE fighter designs – a spacious and now fully pressurized cockpit, so that no pressurized suits had to be worn anymore. The crew members sat in tandem under a large, clear canopy. The pilot in front had a very good field of view, while the WSO sat behind him, in a higher, staggered position with only a limited field of view. Both work stations had separate entries, though, and places could not be switched in flight: the pilot mounted the cockpit through a hatch on port side, while the WSO entered the rear compartment through a roof hatch.
In a departure from the design of previous TIE models, instead of two parallel wings to either side of the pilot module, the TIE Escort had three quadanium steel solar array wings mounted symmetrically around an aft section, which contained an I-s4d solar ionization reactor to store and convert solar energy collected from the wing panels. The inclusion of a third wing provided additional solar power to increase the ship's range and the ship's energy management system was designed to allow weapons and shields to be charged with minimum loss of power to the propulsion system.
Although it was based on the standard twin ion engine design, the TIE/E’s propulsion system was upgraded to the entirely new, powerful P-sz9.8 triple ion engine. This allowed the TIE/E a maximum acceleration of 4,220 G or 21 MGLT/s and a top speed of 144 MGLT, or 1,680 km/h in an atmosphere — almost 40 percent faster than a former standard TIE Fighter. With tractor beam recharge power (see below) redirected to the engines, the top speed could be increased to 180 MGLT in a dash.
In addition to the main thrusters located in the aft section, the TIE Escort's triple wing design allowed for three arrays of maneuvering jets and it featured an advanced F-s5x flight avionics system to process the pilot's instructions. Production models received a class 2, ND9 hyperdrive motivator, modified from the version developed for the TIE Avenger. The TIE/E also carried a Sienar N-s6 Navcon navigation computer with a ten-jump memory.
Special equipment included a small tractor beam projector, originally developed for the TIE Avenger, which could be easily fitted to the voluminous TIE Escort. Models produced by Ysanne Isard's production facility regularly carried such tractor beams and the technology found other uses, such as towing other damaged starfighters until they could achieve the required velocity to enter hyperspace. The tractor beam had limited range and could only be used for a short time before stopping to recharge, but it added new tactics, too. For instance, the beam allowed the TIE/E crews to temporarily inhibit the mobility of enemy fighters, making it easier to target them with the ship's other weapon systems, or prevent enemies from clear shots.
The TIE Escort’s weapons systems were primarily designed to engage bigger ships and armored or shielded targets, like armed freighters frequently used by the Alliance. Thanks to its complex weapon and sensor suite, it could also engage multiple enemy fighters at once. The sensors also allowed an effective attack of ground targets, so that atmospheric bombing was a potential mission for the TIE/E, too.
.
The TIE Escort Fighter carried a formidable array of weaponry in two modular weapon bays that were mounted alongside the lower cabin. In standard configuration, the TIE/E had two L-s9.3 laser cannons and two NK-3 ion cannons. The laser and ion cannons could be set to fire separately or, if concentrated power was required, to fire-linked in either pairs or as a quartet.
The ship also featured two M-g-2 general-purpose warhead launchers, each of which could be equipped with a standard load of three proton torpedoes or four concussion missiles. Depending on the mission profile, the ship could be fitted with alternative warheads such as proton rockets, proton bombs, or magnetic pulse warheads.
Additionally, external stores could be carried under the fuselage, which included a conformal sensor pallet for reconnaissance missions or a cargo bay with a capacity for 500 kg (1.100 lb).
The ship's defenses were provided by a pair of forward and rear projecting Novaldex deflector shield generators—another advantage over former standard TIE models. The shields were designed to recharge more rapidly than in previous Imperial fighters and were nearly as powerful as those found on capital ships, so that the TIE/E could engage other ships head-on with a very high survivability. The fighters were not equipped with particle shields, though, relying on the reinforced titanium hull to absorb impacts from matter. Its hull and wings were among the strongest of any TIE series Starfighter yet.
The advanced starfighter attracted the attention of several other factions, and the Empire struggled to prevent the spread of the technology. The ship's high cost, together with political factors, kept it from achieving widespread use in the Empire, though, and units were assigned only to the most elite crews.
The TIE/E played a central role in the Empire's campaign against rogue Grand Admiral Demetrius Zaarin, and mixed Defender and Escort units participated in several other battles, including the Battle of Endor. The TIE Escort continued to see limited use by the Imperial Remnant up to at least 44 ABY, and was involved in numerous conflicts, including the Yuuzhan Vong War..
The kit and its assembly:
Another group build contribution, this time to the Science Fiction GB at whatifmodelers.com during summer 2017. Originally, this one started as an attempt to build a vintage MPC TIE Interceptor kit which I had bought and half-heartedly started to build probably 20 years ago. But I did not have the right mojo (probably, The Force was not strong enough…?), so the kit ended up in a dark corner and some parts were donated to other projects.
The sun collectors were still intact, though, and in the meantime I had the idea of reviving the kit’s remains, and convert it into (what I thought was) a fictional TIE Fighter variant with three solar panels. For this plan I got myself another TIE Interceptor kit, and stashed it away, too. Mojo was still missing, though.
Well, then came the SF GB and I took it as an occasion to finally tackle the build. But when I prepared for the build I found out that my intended design (over the years) more or less actually existed in the Star Wars universe: the TIE/D Defender! I could have built it with the parts and hand and some improvisation, but the design similarity bugged me. Well, instead of a poor copy of something that was more or less clearly defined, I rather decided to create something more individual, yet plausible, from the parts at hand.
The model was to stay a TIE design, though, in order to use as much donor material from the MPC kits as possible. Doing some legwork, I settled for a heavy fighter – bigger than the TIE Interceptor and the TIE/D fighter, a two-seater.
Working out the basic concept and layout took some time and evolved gradually. The creative spark for the TIE/E eventually came through a Revell “Obi Wan’s Jedi Starfighter” snap fit kit in my pile – actually a prize from a former GB participation at phoxim.de (Thanks a lot, Wolfgang!), and rather a toy than a true model kit.
The Jedi Fighter was in so far handy as it carries some TIE Fighter design traits, like the pilot capsule and the characteristic spider web windscreen. Anyway, it’s 1:32, much bigger than the TIE Interceptor’s roundabout 1:50 scale – but knowing that I’d never build the Jedi Starfighter OOB I used it as a donor bank, and from this starting point things started to evolve gradually.
Work started with the cockpit section, taken from the Jedi Starfighter kit. The two TIE Interceptor cockpit tubs were then mounted inside, staggered, and the gaps to the walls filled with putty. A pretty messy task, and once the shapes had been carved out some triangular tiles were added to the surfaces – a detail I found depicted in SW screenshots and some TIE Fighter models.
Another issue became the crew – even though I had two MPC TIE Interceptors and, theorectically, two pilot figures, only one of them could be found and the second crewman had to be improvised. I normally do not build 1:48 scale things, but I was lucky (and happy) to find an SF driver figure, left over from a small Dougram hoovercraft kit (from Takara, as a Revell “Robotech” reboxing). This driver is a tad bigger than the 1:50 TIE pilot, but I went with it because I did not want to invest money and time in alternatives. In order to justify the size difference I decided to paint the Dougram driver as a Chiss, based on the expanded SW universe (with blue skin and hair, and glowing red eyes). Not certain if this makes sense during the Battle of Endor timeframe, but it adds some color to the project – and the cockpit would not be visible in much detail since it would be finished fully closed.
Reason behind the closed canopy is basically the poor fit of the clear part. OOB, this is intended as an action toy – but also the canopy’s considerable size in 1:50 would prevent its original opening mechanism.
Additional braces on the rel. large window panels were created with self-adhesive tape and later painted over.
The rear fuselage section and the solar panel pylons were scratched. The reactor behind the cockpit section is actually a plastic adapter for water hoses, found in a local DIY market. It was slightly modified, attached to the cockpit “egg” and both parts blended with putty. The tail opening was closed with a hatch from the OOB TIE Interceptor – an incidental but perfect match in size and style.
The three pylons are also lucky finds: actually, these are SF wargaming/tabletop props and would normally be low walls or barriers, made from resin. For my build, they were more or less halved and trimmed. Tilted by 90°, they are attached to the hull with iron wire stabilizers, and later blended to the hull with putty, too.
Once the cockpit was done, things moved more swiftly. The surface of the hull was decorated with many small bits and pieces, including thin styrene sheet and profiles, steel and iron wire in various strengths, and there are even 1:72 tank tracks hidden somewhere, as well as protective caps from syringes (main guns and under the rear fuselage). It’s amazing how much stuff you can add to such a model – but IMHO it’s vital in order to create some structure and to emulate the (early) Star Wars look.
Painting and markings:
The less spectacular part of the project, even though still a lot of work because of the sheer size of the model’s surface. Since the whole thing is fictional, I tried to stay true to the Imperial designs from Episode IV-VI and gave the TIE/E a simple, all-light grey livery. All basic painting was done with rattle cans.
Work started with a basic coat of grey primer. On top of that, an initial coat of RAL 7036 Platingrau was added, esp. to the lower surfaces and recesses, for a rough shading effect. Then, the actual overall tone, RAL 7047, called “Telegrau 4”, one of Deutsche Telekom’s corporate tones, was added - mostly sprayed from abone and the sides onto the model. Fuselage and panels were painted separately, overall assembly was one of the final steps.
The solar panels were to stand out from the grey rest of the model, and I painted them with Revell Acrylic “Iron Metallic” (91) first, and later applied a rather rich wash with black ink , making sure the color settled well into the many small cells. The effect is pretty good, and the contrast was slightly enhanced through a dry-brushing treatment.
Only a few legible stencils were added all around the hull (most from the scrap box or from mecha sheets), the Galactic Empire Seal were inkjet-printed at home, as well as some tactical markings on the flanks, puzzled together from single digits in "Aurebash", one of the Imperial SW languages/fonts.
For some variety and color highlights, dozens of small, round and colorful markings were die-punched from silver, yellow, orange, red and blue decal sheet and were placed all over the hull - together with the large panels they blur into the the overall appearance, though. The hatches received thin red linings, also made from generic decals strips.
The cockpit interior was a bit challenging, though. Good TIE Fighter cockpit interior pictures are hard to find, but they suggest a dark grey tone. More confusingly, the MPC instructions call for a “Dark Green” cockpit? Well, I did not like the all-grey option, since the spaceship is already monochrome grey on the outside.
As a compromise I eventually used Tamiya XF-65 "Field Grey". The interior recieved a black ink in and dry-brushing treatment, and some instruments ansd screens were created with black decal material and glossy black paint; some neon paint was used for sci-fi-esque conmtraol lamps everywhere - I did not pay too much intention on the interior, since the cockpit would stay closed, and the thick clear material blurs everything inside.
Following this rationale, the crew was also painted in arather minimal fashion - both wear a dark grey uniform, only the Chiss pilot stands aout with his light blue skin and the flourescent red eyes.
After an overall black ink wash the model received a dry brusing treatment with FS 36492 and FS 36495, for a weathered and battle-worn look. After all, the "Vehement" would not survive the Ballte of Endor, but who knows what became of TIE/E "801"'s mixed crew...?
Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish, and some final cosmetic corrections made.
The display is a DIY creation, too, made from a 6x6" piece of wood, it's edges covered with edgebonder, a steel wire as holder, and finally the display was paited with semi-matt black acrylic paint from the rattle can.
A complex build, and the TIE/E more or less evolved along the way, with only the overall layout in mind. Work took a month, but I think it was worth the effort. This fantasy creation looks pretty plausible and blends well into the vast canonical TIE Fighter family - and I am happy that I finally could finish this mummy project, including the surplus Jedi Starfighter kit which now also find a very good use!
An epic one, and far outside my standard comfort zone. But a wothwhile build!
From a my flat photo taken in Chengyang, Guangxi, China
CROSSVIEW
To view 3D pics cross your eyes focusing between at the pictures until both images overlap one another in the middle.
Per vedere le foto in 3D incrociare (strabuzzare) gli occhi fino a che le due immagini si sovrappongono formandone una sola centrale.
Qualiti conversions, Curdridge, Botley - formerly FHD 34249, apparently being converted for charity use "in africa"