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A photo of my birthday gift to myself.
I tore everything off, going for lean and mean, and modified the front standard for SWING
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the model, the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The AH-1 Cobra was developed in the mid-1960s as an interim gunship for the U.S. Army for use during the Vietnam War. The Cobra shared the proven transmission, rotor system, and the T53 turboshaft engine of the UH-1 "Huey". By June 1967, the first AH-1G HueyCobras had been delivered. Bell built 1,116 AH-1Gs for the U.S. Army between 1967 and 1973, and the Cobras chalked up over a million operational hours in Vietnam.
The U.S. Marine Corps was very interested in the AH-1G Cobra, too, but it preferred a twin-engine version for improved safety in over-water operations, and also wanted a more potent turret-mounted weapon. At first, the Department of Defense had balked at providing the Marines with a twin-engine version of the Cobra, in the belief that commonality with Army AH-1Gs outweighed the advantages of a different engine fit. However, the Marines won out and awarded Bell a contract for 49 twin-engine AH-1J SeaCobras in May 1968. As an interim measure the U.S. Army passed on thirty-eight AH-1Gs to the Marines in 1969. The AH-1J also received a more powerful gun turret with a three-barrel 20 mm XM197 cannon based on the six-barrel M61 Vulcan cannon.
During the 1990s, the US forces gradually phased out its Cobra fleet. The withdrawn AH-1s were typically offered to other potential operators, usually NATO allies. Some were also given to the USDA's Forest Service for fire surveillance, and a handful AH-1s went into private hands, including the NASA. Among these airframes were some USMC AH-1Js, which had in part been mothballed in the Mojave Desert since their replacement through more powerful and modern AH-1 variants and the AH-64.
About twenty airframes were, after having been de-militarized, bought by the Kaman Corporation in 2003, in a bold move to quickly respond to more than 20 inquiries for the company’s K-1200 ‘K-Max’ crane synchropter since the type’s end of production in 2001 from firefighting, logging and industry transport requirements. While not such a dedicated medium lift helicopter as the K-1200, which had from the outset been optimized for external cargo load operations, the twin-engine AH-1J promised to be a very effective alternative and a powerful basis for a conversion into a crane helicopter.
The result of this conversion program was the Kaman K-1300, also known as the “K-Cobra” or “Crane Cobra”. While the basic airframe of the AH-1J was retained, extensive detail modifications were made. To reduce weight and compensate for the extensive hardware changes, the SeaCobra lost its armor, the chin turret, and the stub wings. Beyond that, many invisible changes were made; the internal structure between the engine mounts was beefed up with an additional cage structure and a cargo hook was installed under the fuselage in the helicopter’s center of lift.
To further optimize the K-Cobra’s performance, the dynamic components were modified and improved, too. While the engine remained the same, its oil cooler was enlarged and the original output limit to 1.500 shp was removed and the gearbox was strengthened to fully exploit the twin-engine’s available power of 1,800 shp (1,342 kW). The rotor system was also modified and optimized for the transport of underslung loads: the original UH-1 dual-blade rotors were replaced with new four-blade rotors. The new main rotor with rugged heavy-duty blades offered more lift at less rotor speed, and the blades’ lift sections were moved away from the hub so that downwash and turbulences directly under the helicopter’s CoG and man hook were reduced to keep the cargo load more stable. Due to the main rotor’s slightly bigger diameter the tail rotor was changed into a slightly smaller four-blade rotor, too. This new arrangement made the K-1300 more stable while hovering or during slow speed maneuvers and more responsive to steering input.
The Cobra’s crew of two was retained, but the cockpit was re-arranged and split into two compartments: the pilot retained the original rear position in the tandem cockpit under the original glazing, but the gunner’s station in front of him, together with the secondary dashboard, was omitted and replaced by a new, fully glazed cabin under the former gunner position. This cabin occupied the former gun station and its ammunition supply and contained a rearward-facing workstation for a second pilot with full controls. It was accessible via a separate door or a ladder from above, through a trap door in the former gunner’s station floor, where a simple foldable bench was available for a third person. This arrangement was chosen due to almost complete lack of oversight of the slung load from the normal cockpit position, despite a CCTV (closed circuit television) system with two cameras intended for observation of slung loads. The second pilot would control the helicopter during delicate load-handling maneuvers, while the primary pilot “above” would fly the helicopter during transfer flights, both sharing the workload.
To accommodate the cabin under the fuselage and improve ground handling, the AH-1J’s skids were replaced by a stalky, fixed four-wheel landing gear that considerably increased ground clearance (almost 7 feet), making the attachment of loads on the ground to the main ventral hook easier, as the K-1300 could be “rolled over” the cargo on the ground and did not have to hover above it to connect. However, an external ladder had to be added so that the pilot could reach his/her workstation almost 10 feet above the ground.
The bulky ventral cabin, the draggy landing gear and the new lift-optimized rotor system reduced the CraneCobra’s top speed by a third to just 124 mph (200 km/h), but the helicopter’s load-carrying capacity became 35% higher and the Cobra’s performance under “hot & high” conditions was markedly improved, too.
For transfer flights, a pair of external auxiliary tanks could be mounted to the lower fuselage flanks, which could also be replaced with cargo boxes of similar size and shape.
K-1300 buyers primarily came from the United States and Canada, but there were foreign operators, too. A major operator in Europe became Heliswiss, the oldest helicopter company in Switzerland. The company was founded as „Heliswiss Schweizerische Helikopter AG“, with headquarters in Berne-Belp on April 17, 1953, what also marked the beginning of commercial helicopter flying in Switzerland. During the following years Heliswiss expanded in Switzerland and formed a network with bases in Belp BE, Samedan GR, Domat Ems GR, Locarno TI, Erstfeld UR, Gampel VS, Gstaad BE and Gruyères FR. During the build-up of the rescue-company Schweizerische Rettungsflugwacht (REGA) as an independent network, Heliswiss carried out rescue missions on their behalf.
Heliswiss carried out operations all over the world, e. g. in Greenland, Suriname, North Africa and South America. The first helicopter was a Bell 47 G-1, registered as HB-XAG on September 23, 1953. From 1963 Heliswiss started to expand and began to operate with medium helicopters like the Agusta Bell 204B with a turbine power of 1050 HP and an external load of up to 1500 kg. From 1979 Heliswiss operated a Bell 214 (external load up to 2.8 t).
Since 1991 Heliswiss operated a Russian Kamov 32A12 (a civil crane version of the Ka-27 “Helix”), which was joined by two K-1300s in 2004. They were frequently used for construction of transmission towers for overhead power lines and pylons for railway catenary lines, for selective logging and also as fire bombers with underslung water bags, the latter managed by the German Helog company, operating out of Ainring and Küssnacht in Germany and Switzerland until 2008, when Helog changed its business focus into a helicopter flight training academy in Liberia with the support of Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
A second Kamov 32A12 joined the fleet in 2015, which replaced one of the K-1300s, and Heliswiss’ last K-1300 was retired in early 2022.
General characteristics:
Crew: 2, plus space for a passenger
Length: 54 ft 3 in (16,56 m) including rotors
44 ft 5 in (13.5 m) fuselage only
Main rotor diameter: 46 ft 2¾ in (14,11 m)
Main rotor area: 1,677.64 sq ft (156,37 m2)
Width (over landing gear): 12 ft 6 in (3.85 m)
Height: 17 ft 8¼ in (5,40 m)
Empty weight: 5,810 lb (2,635 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 9,500 lb (4,309 kg) without slung load
13,515 lb (6,145 kg) with slung load
Powerplant:
1× P&W Canada T400-CP-400 (PT6T-3 Twin-Pac) turboshaft engine, 1,800 shp (1,342 kW)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 124 mph (200 km/h, 110 kn)
Cruise speed: 105 mph (169 km/h, 91 kn)
Range: 270 mi (430 km, 230 nmi) with internal fuel only,
360 mi (570 km 310 nmi) with external auxiliary tanks
Service ceiling: 15,000 ft (4,600 m)
Hovering ceiling out of ground effect: 3,000 m (9,840 ft)
Rate of climb: 2,500 ft/min (13 m/s) at Sea Level with flat-rated torque
External load capacity (at ISA +15 °C (59.0 °F):
6,000 lb (2,722 kg) at sea level
5,663 lb (2,569 kg) at 5,000 ft (1,524 m)
5,163 lb (2,342 kg) at 10,000 ft (3,048 m)
5,013 lb (2,274 kg) at 12,100 ft (3,688 m)
4,313 lb (1,956 kg) at 15,000 ft (4,600 m)
The kit and its assembly:
This is/was the second contribution to the late 2022 “Logistics” Group Build at whatifmodellers.com, a welcome occasion and motivation to tackle a what-if project that had been on my list for a long while. This crane helicopter conversion of a HueyCobra was inspired by the Mil Mi-10K helicopter – I had built a 1:100 VEB Plasticart kit MANY years ago and still remembered the helicopter’s unique ventral cabin under the nose with a rearward-facing second pilot. I always thought that the AH-1 might be a good crane helicopter, too, esp. the USMC’s twin-engine variant. And why not combine everything in a fictional model?
With this plan the basis became a Fujimi 1:72 AH-1J and lots of donor parts to modify the basic hull into “something else”. Things started with the removal of the chin turret and part of the lower front hull to make space for the ventral glass cabin. The openings for the stub wings were faired over and a different stabilizer (taken from a Revell EC 135, including the end plates) was implanted. The attachment points for the skids were filled and a styrene tube was inserted into the rotor mast opening to later hold the new four-blade rotor. Another styrene tube with bigger diameter was inserted into the lower fuselage as a display holder adapter for later flight scene pictures. Lead beads filled the nose section to make sure the CraneCobra would stand well on its new legs, with the nose down. The cockpit was basically taken OOB, just the front seat and the respective gunner dashboard was omitted.
One of the big challenges of this build followed next: the ventral cabin. Over the course of several months, I was not able to find a suitable donor, so I was forced to scratch the cabin from acrylic and styrene sheet. Size benchmark became the gunner’s seat from the Cobra kit, with one of the OOB pilots seated. Cabin width was less dictated through the fuselage, the rest of the cabin’s design became a rather simple, boxy thing – not pretty, but I think a real-life retrofitted cabin would not look much different? Some PSR was done to hide the edges of the rather thick all-clear walls and create a 3D frame - a delicate task. Attaching the completed thing with the second pilot and a dashboard under the roof to the Cobra’s lower hull and making it look more or less natural without major accidents was also a tricky and lengthy affair, because I ignored the Cobra’s narrowing nose above the former chin turret.
With the cabin defining the ground helicopter’s clearance, it was time for the next donors: the landing gear from an Airfix 1:72 Kamow Ka-25, which had to be modified further to achieve a proper stance. The long main struts were fixed to the hull, their supporting struts had to be scratched, in this case from steel wire. The front wheels were directly attached to the ventral cabin (which might contain in real life a rigid steel cage that not only protects the second crew member but could also take the front wheels’ loads?). Looks pretty stalky!
Under the hull, a massive hook and a fairing for the oil cooler were added. A PE brass ladder was mounted on the right side of the hull under the pilot’s cockpit, while a rear-view mirror was mounted for the ventral pilot on the left side.
The rotor system was created in parallel, I wanted “something different” from the UH-1 dual-blade rotors. The main rotor hub was taken from a Mistercraft 1:72 Westland Lynx (AFAIK a re-boxed ZTS Plastyk kit), which included the arms up to the blades. The hub was put onto a metal axis, with a spacer to make it sit well in the new styrene tube adapter inside of the hull, and some donor parts from the Revell EC 135. Deeper, tailored blades were glued to the Lynx hub, actually leftover parts from the aforementioned wrecked VEB Plasticart 1:100 Mi-10, even though their length had to be halved (what makes you aware how large a Mi-6/10 is compared with an AH-1!). The tail rotor was taken wholesale from the Lynx and stuck to the Cobra’s tail with a steel pin.
Painting and markings:
Another pushing factor for this build was the fact that I had a 1:72 Begemot aftermarket decal sheet for the Kamow Ka-27/32 in The Stash™, which features, among many military helicopters, (the) two civil Heliswiss machines – a perfect match!
Using the Swiss Helix’ as design benchmark I adapted their red-over-white paint scheme to the slender AH-1 and eventually ended up with a simple livery with a white belly (acrylic white from the rattle can, after extensive masking of the clear parts with Maskol/latex milk) and a red (Humbrol 19) upper section, with decorative counter-colored cheatlines along the medium waterline. A black anti-glare panel was added in front of the windscreen. The auxiliary tanks were painted white, too, but they were processed separately and mounted just before the final coat of varnish was applied. The PE ladder as well as the rotors were handled similarly.
The cockpit and rotor opening interior were painted in a very dark grey (tar black, Revell 06), while the interior of the air intakes was painted bright white (Revell 301). The rotor blades became light grey (Revell 75) with darker leading edges (Humbrol 140), dark grey (Humbrol 164) hubs and yellow tips.
For the “HELOG/Heliswiss” tagline the lower white section had to be raised to a medium position on the fuselage, so that they could be placed on the lower flanks under the cockpit. The white civil registration code could not be placed on the tail and ended up on the engine cowling, on red, but this does not look bad or wrong at all.
The cheatlines are also decals from the Ka-32 Begemot sheet, even though they had to be trimmed considerably to fit onto the Cobra’s fuselage – and unfortunately the turned out to be poorly printed and rather brittle, so that I had to improvise and correct the flaws with generic red and white decal lines from TL Modellbau. The white cross on the tail and most stencils came from the Begemot sheet, too. Black, engine soot-hiding areas on the Cobra’s tail were created with generic decal sheet material, too.
The rotor blades and the wheels received a black ink treatment to emphasize their details, but this was not done on the hull to avoid a dirty or worn look. After some final details like position lights the model was sealed with semi-matt acrylic varnish, while the rotors became matt.
A weird-looking what-if model, but somehow a crane-copter variant of the AH-1 looks quite natural – even more so in its attractive red-and-white civil livery. The stalky landing gear is odd, though, necessitated by the ventral cabin for the second pilot. I was skeptical, but scratching the latter was more successful than expected, and the cabin blend quite well into the AH-1 hull, despite its boxy shape.
A 12M air suspension Asiad from Vasai neatly modified by divisional workshop. It was on its way to Swargate
I solved the frame spacing problem of my Pentacon six TL by simple means: Cut two pieces out of a sponge (had only a yellow one at hand that Sunday morning... may replace it with a black one) and sticked it with double-sided tape onto the lid of the camera. This way, the film rolls are always under slight pressure and do not unwind. Inspired by my Holga, where the sponge is in the body, underneath the spools.
Changed the foam to a ca. 3mm layer of neopren (smoother surface). Film transport is easier now. No overlaps anymore, but some frames are very close (still a narrow rim between shots). The 120 film takes 13 shots this way. Film transport without holding the shutter down .
When transported by glider, the classic Jeep was modified with a shortened front bumper and had the running boards removed. This example represents these modifications.
Memorial Pegasus
Ranville-Bénouville, Normandy, France
8th July 2022
Brisa: WTF!! They are very cute, but they are messing up my photosession... and tell them to stop smelling my face please. ¬¬
/
Brisa: Pero que narices...! Muy bonitas, pero me están estropeando la sesión de fotos... y diles que dejen de olerme la cara por favor. ¬¬
Tataynarata's Brisa
® Eyemech Modification by Sheryl Designs
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the model, the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
In the early days of World War II, Royal Navy fighter requirements had been based on cumbersome two-seat designs, such as the fighter/dive-bomber Blackburn Skua (and its turreted derivative the Blackburn Roc) and the fighter/reconnaissance Fairey Fulmar, since it was expected that they would encounter only long-range bombers or flying boats and that navigation over featureless seas required the assistance of a radio operator/navigator. The Royal Navy hurriedly adopted higher-performance single-seat aircraft such as the Hawker Sea Hurricane and the less robust Supermarine Seafire alongside, but neither aircraft had sufficient range to operate at a distance from a carrier task force. The American Vought F4U Corsair was welcomed as a more robust and versatile alternative.
In November 1943, the Royal Navy received its first batch of 95 "birdcage" Vought F4U-1s, which were given the designation "Corsair [Mark] I". The first squadrons were assembled and trained on the U.S. East Coast and then shipped across the Atlantic. The Royal Navy put the Corsair into carrier operations immediately. They found its landing characteristics dangerous, suffering a number of fatal crashes, but considered the Corsair to be the best option they had.
The Royal Navy cleared the F4U for carrier operations well before the U.S. Navy and showed that the Corsair Mk II could be operated with reasonable success even from escort carriers. It was not without problems, though: one was excessive wear of the arrester wires, due both to the weight of the Corsair and the understandable tendency of the pilots to stay well above the stalling speed, and because of the limited hangar deck height in several classes of British carrier, many Corsairs had their outer wings "clipped" by 8 in (200 mm) to clear the deckhead. However, the change in span brought about the added benefit of improving the sink rate, reducing the F4U's propensity to "float" in the final stages of landing. The Royal Navy developed further modifications to the Corsair that made carrier landings more practical. Among these were a bulged canopy (similar to the P-51 B/C’s Malcolm Hood), raising the pilot's seat 7 in (180 mm), and wiring shut the cowl flaps across the top of the engine compartment, diverting frequent oil and hydraulic fluid spray around the sides of the fuselage so that the windscreen remained clear.
The Corsair Mk I was followed by 510 "blown-canopy" F4U-1A/-1Ds, which were designated Corsair Mk II (the final 150 equivalent to the F4U-1D, but not separately designated in British use). 430 Brewster Corsairs (334 F3A-1 and 96 F3A-1D), more than half of Brewster's total production, were delivered to Britain as the Corsair Mk III. 857 Goodyear Corsairs (400 FG-1/-1A and 457 FG-1D) were delivered and designated Corsair Mk IV. A total of 2,012 Corsairs were supplied to the United Kingdom during WWII, and British Corsairs served both in Europe and in the Pacific. Despite the large number of aircraft, the Mk IIs and IVs were the only versions to be actually used in combat.
The first, and also most important, European FAA Corsair operations were the series of attacks in April, July, and August 1944 on the German battleship Tirpitz (Operation Tungsten), for which Corsairs from HMS Victorious and HMS Formidable provided fighter cover. From April 1944, Corsairs from the British Pacific Fleet took part in several major air raids in South-East Asia beginning with Operation Cockpit, an attack on Japanese targets at Sabang island, in the Dutch East Indies. In July and August 1945, RN Corsairs took part in a series of strikes on the Japanese mainland, near Tokyo, operating from Victorious and Formidable. It was during this late phase of the war that the Admiralty was expecting new and more powerful indigenous naval fighters to become available, primarily Griffon-powered Seafires and the Hawker Sea Fury, a navalized derivative of the Hawker Tempest fighter powered by the new Centaurus radial engine. Both types, however, faced development problems, so that the Royal Navy approached Vought and requested a new variant of the proven Corsair, powered by the British Centaurus engine and further tailored to the Royal Navy’s special needs. This became the Corsair Mark V.
The Corsair V was based on the newest American variant, the F4U-4, but it differed in many aspects, so much that it effectively was a totally different aircraft. The F4U-4 was the last American Corsair variant that would be introduced during WWII, but it only saw action during the final weeks of the conflict. It had a 2,100 hp (1,600 kW) dual-stage-supercharged -18W engine, and when the cylinders were injected with the water/alcohol mixture, power was boosted to 2,450 hp (1,830 kW). To better cope with the additional power, the propeller was changed to a four-blade type. Maximum speed was increased to 448 miles per hour (721 km/h) and climb rate to over 4,500 feet per minute (1,400 m/min) as opposed to the 2,900 feet per minute (880 m/min) of the F4U-1A. The unarmored wing fuel tanks of 62 US gal (230 L) capacities were removed for better maneuverability at the expense of maximum range. Other detail improvements were introduced with the F4U-4, too: The windscreen was now flat bullet-resistant glass to avoid optical distortion, a change from the curved Plexiglas windscreens with an internal armor glass plate of the earlier variants. The canopy was furthermore without bracing and slightly bulged – an improvement adopted from the Royal Navy Corsairs.
The original "4-Hog" retained the original armament of six 0.5” machine guns and had all the external load (i.e., drop tanks, bombs, HVARs) capabilities of the F4U-1D. A major sub-type, the F4U-4B, was the same but featured an alternate gun armament of four 20 millimeters (0.79 in) AN/M3 cannon, and the F4U-4P was a rare photo reconnaissance variant with an additional camera compartment in the rear fuselage, but fully combat-capable.
The Royal Navy agreed to adopt the new F4U-4 but insisted on the British Centaurus as powerplant and demanded British equipment and armament, too. The latter included four Hispano 20 mm cannon in the outer wings, adapted wirings for British unguided rockets under the outer wings and a four-channel VHF radio system, a radio altimeter and a G2F compass. Vought reluctantly agreed, even though the different engine meant that a totally different mount had to be developed in short time, and the many alterations to the F4U-4’s original airframe would require a separate, new production line. Since this would block valuable resources for the running standard F4U production for the USN, the Corsair V was outsourced to the newly established Kaiser-Fleetwing company (a ship builder with only limited aircraft experience so far) and designated FK-1 in American circles.
As expected, the development of the FK-1 alone took more time than expected – not only from a technical point of view, but also due to logistic problems. The Centaurus engines and most vital equipment pieces had to be transported across the Atlantic, a hazardous business. The first precious Centaurus engines for the development of the modified engine mount were actually transferred to the USA through the air, hanging in the bomb bays of American B-24 bombers that were used as transporters to supply Great Britain with vital materials.
Because Kaiser-Fleetwings had to establish a proper production line for the FK-1 and supplies for raw F4U-4 airframes had to be diverted and transported to the company’s factory at Bristol, Pennsylvania, delays started to pile up and pushed the Corsair Mk. V development back. The first Centaurus-powered Corsair flew in January 1945 and immediately revealed massive stability problems caused by the engine’s high torque. Enlarged tail surfaces were tested and eventually solved the problem, but this measure changed the F4U-4s standard airframe even more. It was furthermore soon discovered that the early Centaurus engine suffered frequent crankshaft failure due to a poorly designed lubrication system, which led to incidents of the engine seizing while in mid-flight. The problem was resolved when Bristol's improved Centaurus XVIII engine replaced the earlier variant. Tests and adaptations of British equipment to the airframe continued until May 1945, when the Corsair V was eventually cleared for production. But when the first of 100 ordered machines started to roll off the production lines the war was already over.
At that time many of the Fleet Air Arm's carrier fighters were Seafires and Lend-Lease Corsairs. The Seafire had considerable drawbacks as a naval aircraft, notably the narrow undercarriage, while the Corsairs had to be returned or purchased. As the UK did not have the means to pay for them, the Royal Navy Corsairs were mostly pushed overboard into the sea in Moreton Bay off Brisbane, Australia.
Since the Corsair V had not been part of the Lend Lease agreement with the United States, the Royal Navy was not able to easily retreat from the production contract and had to accept the aircraft. Because the Royal Navy’s intended new standard shipborne fighter, the Hawker Sea Fury, was delayed and almost cancelled during this period of re-organizations and cutbacks, the Admiralty bit the bullet, used the inevitable opportunity and procured the Corsair V as a stopgap solution, even though the original production order from May 1945 was not extended and effectively only 95 Corsair Vs were ever produced in the USA and transferred as knocked-down kits via ship to Great Britain.
The first re-assembled Corsair Vs entered Royal Navy service in August 1946, but their frontline service with 802 and 805 NAS, both based at Eglington (Northern Ireland), was only brief. Following the successful completion of weapons trials at the A&AEE Boscombe Down, the Sea Fury was eventually cleared for operational use on 31 July 1947 and quickly entered service. The Corsair Vs were gradually replaced with them until late 1948; 805 NAS was the first unit to abandon the type when 805 Squadron was reformed as a Royal Australian Navy FAA squadron operating Hawker Sea Fury Mk II aircraft. In 1950, 802 NAS was assigned to HMS Ocean and equipped with the Hawker Sea Fury, too, and sent to Korea.
Most Corsair Vs were then relegated to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) in August 1951, where they replaced Supermarine Seafires and took over their role as classic fighter aircraft, despite the Corsair V’s strike/attack potential with bombs and unguided missiles. Most of the time the Corsairs were used for lang range navigation training. RNVR units that operated the Corsair V included Nos. 1831, 1832, 1833, 1834, 1835 and 1836 Squadrons. No. 1832, based at RAF Benson, was the last RNVR squadron to relinquish the type in August 1955 for the jet-powered Supermarine Attacker, and this ended the Corsair V’s short career.
General characteristics:
Crew: One
Length: 34 ft (10.37 m)
Wingspan: 40 ft 8 in (12.10 m)
Height: 15 ft 4 in (4.68 m)
Wing area: 314 sq ft (29.17 m²)
Empty weight: 9,205 lb (4,238 kg)
Gross weight: 14,670 lb (6,654 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 14,533 lb (6,592 kg)
Powerplant:
1× Bristol Centaurus XVIII 18-cylinder air-cooled radial engine with
2,470 hp (1,840 kW) take-off power, driving a 4-bladed
Rotol constant-speed propeller with 14 ft (4.3 m) diameter
Performance:
Maximum speed: 453 mph (730 km/h, 397 kn) at sea level
Cruise speed: 215 mph (346 km/h, 187 kn) at sea level
Stall speed: 89 mph (143 km/h, 77 kn)
Range with internal fuel, clean: 1,005 mi (1,617 km, 873 nmi)
Combat range with max. ordnance: 328 mi (528 km, 285 nmi)
Service ceiling: 41,500 ft (12,600 m)
Rate of climb: 4,360 ft/min (22.1 m/s)
Armament:
4× 20 mm (0.787 in) Hispano Mk II cannon in the outer wings, 250 RPG
A total of 11 hardpoints under the wings and the fuselage for a total ordnance of
4,000 pounds (1.800 kg), including drop tanks, up to 16× 60 lb unguided aircraft rockets on twin
launch rails and/or bombs of up to 1.000 lb (454 kg) caliber
The kit and its assembly:
My first submission to the 2023 “Re-engine” group build at whatifmodellers.com, and a British Corsair with a Centaurus instead of the original R-2800 is almost a no-brainer. But taking the idea to hardware turned out to be a bit trickier than expected. I based my fictional conversion on an Italeri F4U-4, which would have been the appropriate late-WWII basis for a real-life conversion. The kit has good ex- and internal detail with fine engraved panels and offers the late Corsairs’ all-metal wings, too.
The engine replacement is a massive resin piece from OzMods, part of a conversion twin set for a Bristol Brigand; I assume it’s intended for the Valom kit? The set includes resin four-blade props with deep blades which I rather wanted to use than the Sea Fury’s typical five-blade prop.
The Italeri Corsair was basically built OOB, but beyond the different engine, which caused some trouble in itself (see below), I incorporated several mods to change the aircraft’s appearance. The streamlined Centaurus was insofar a problem because it has s slightly smaller diameter than the original R-2800 cowling. Not much, but enough to make a simple exchange impossible or at least look awkward. While the upper cowling section and its curvature blended well into the Corsair fuselage, the difference became more obvious and complicated underneath: late Corsairs have a “flattened” bottom, and from below the Centaurus appears somewhat undersized. To smooth the intersection out I grinded much of the cooling flaps away, and to even out the profile I added a shallow air scoop from an Italeri F4U-7 under the engine, which required some PSR. A good compromise, though. The resin propeller was mounted onto a metal axis and fitted into a hole/channel that was drilled through the Centaurus’ massive resin block.
As an FAA Corsair the wing tips were clipped, which was easy to realize thanks to the massive parts in this area. The Corsair’s original oil coolers in the wing roots were retained, but the four guns in the wings (separate parts in the Italeri kit with quite large holes) were replaced with faired Hispano cannon for/from an early Hawker Tempest, aftermarket brass parts from Master Models.
To change the model’s look further I modified the tail surfaces, too; the rounded fin was replaced with a rather square and slightly bigger donor, a stabilizer from a Novo Supermarine Attacker. The original stabilizers were replaced, too, with trapezoidal alternatives from a Matchbox Meteor night fighter, which offer slightly more area. Since the tail surfaces were all graft-ons now I implanted a vertical styrene tube behind the rear cockpit bulkhead as a display holder adapter for later flight scene pictures. Together with the clipped/squared-off wingtips the new tail creates a consistent look, and with the propeller and its dominant spinner in place the Corsair V reminds a lot of a late Bristol Firebrand mark or even of an Unlimited Class Reno Racer? It looks fast and purposeful now!
Even though unguided missiles and/or bombs could have been a valid ordnance option I decided to leave the Corsair V relatively clean as a pure gun fighter; I just used the OOB drop tank on the centerline station.
Painting and markings:
Very dry and using real 1948 Royal Navy aircraft as benchmark, the Corsair V ended up with a rather simple and dull Extra Dark Sea Grey over Sky (Humbrol 123 and 90, respectively) with a low waterline, and still with wartime Type C roundels with “Identification red (dull)”, even though the RAF officially had reverted to bright identification colors in 1947 and started to use the high-viz Type D roundel as standard marking. To add a British flavor the cockpit interior was painted in very dark grey (Revell 06, Tar Black) while the interior of the landing gear wells was painted in a pale cream yellow (Humbrol 74, Linen) to mimic zinc chromate primer. The only highlight is a red spinner, a contemporary unit marking of 805 NAS.
The kit received a light black ink washing and post-shading to emphasize and/or add surface structures, and this nicely breaks up the otherwise uniform surfaces. Decals/markings came from Xtradecal Hawker Sea Fury und late WWII FAA/RN aircraft sheets, and some decals were mixed to create a fictional serial number for the Corsair V (TF 632 was never allocated, but the code fits into the model’s era). Some light oil and exhaust stains were also added, but not as severely as if the aircraft had been operated under wartime conditions. Finally, the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.
While a classic F4U with a British Centaurus engine sounds simple, and actually is, getting there was not as easy as it sounds – the ventral air scoop came to the rescue. With some more small mods like the new tail surfaces the aircraft got a subtly different look from its American ancestor(s). The Corsair V IMHO has now a very Blackburn-ish look, thanks to the big spinner and the square fin! And I wonder what I will do with the other Centaurus from the conversion set?
I did a slight modification to Falcon as I didn't quite like the original new Falcon which appeared in 76104. So I combined with 76050's Falcon wings and did some tweaking on the mechanical pack. Personally I prefer this Falcon version better and it's up to us to decide what kind of Falcon design you prefer? Either the original two versions or simply customise your own? You decide.
Slight modification of an earlier photo to pick out the shapes better. Based on an idea from the week before. View large for full effect.
I love this sweater. It's a great pattern by Andrea Mowry. I made two significant modifications detailed in the blog post : theknittingblogbymrpuffythedog.blogspot.com/2019/11/sweat...
Last night I had some airbrushing to do for another doll, so I thought it would be quite easy to work on Marcus as well.
His face is still shiny. The paint isn't wet anymore, but it has a gloss of its own.
He needs a face-up next.
And I am going to work on his teeth and see if I can smoothen them some more.
A few more pictures of the rebuilt CB-95 - with the proper camera settings this time.
This is the most altered section of the Rockfish, with a fully closed command bridge, larger lower crew compartment and rebuilt upper deck and gun turret.
taken on the 21 dec 2012 in wiltshire uk...... Im not sure what these lines in the sky are but as you can see from the pictures they seemed to be pulling the spray left by the aircraft across the sky. As much as i dont like to believe it, i think weather modification is real and poses a great threat to all of us and life on earth in general as we all have to breathe the same air !.. The reason i post these pictures is to try and raise awareness as i feel that the more people that know about this, the more chance there is of putting an end to this complete madness !!! For those of you who have not heard of this before please research geo engineering, chemtrails, solar radiation management... Anyway thanks for looking at my pictures and thanks to all you guys who continue to post great pictures here on flickr.....
Another modification (my first was this one www.flickr.com/photos/8107354@N03/16095108446/in/album-72...) of a City model, the 60112, this model is 6 studs wide. Fire trucks are cool but I wanted something more dangerous ;) so I end up with that one based on the 50"s to 70's military vehicles.
Well he is kinda finished. I see a lot of things I could've done better. But I will alter him when I have time again.
I will sand his eyes a tad better for example. They are a tad bit grainy now. So it needs to be smoother.
But in the end I am happy with the result. He is the little snarling guy I wanted him to be, haha.
Fun project ^^
This is a very simple manipulation, but I am recently beginning to figure out that sometimes, less is more. I kind of wish I added more to this, but whenever I tried, it just didn't look the way I wanted it to. So this is what I settled with and I am very happy with how it turned out.
Model is the beautiful doll-faced Nina, with the hands (literally) of Mikolaj and Nina's twin sister, Emily. Also, a big thank-you to my friend Allie for letting me use her syringe.
*quick note: no model/hands were harmed in the making of this photograph. :)
Musée National de l'Automobile de Turin
TIPO 250F
Year of production: 1954-1958
6-cyl in line 2493 cc engine
DOHC with two valves per cylinder
Bore 84mm and stroke 75mm
Compression ratio 12.0:1
Power output 240bhp @ 7200 rpm
Induction system No 3 Weber 42 DCO3 carburettors
Nett weight 630 kg
Estimated top speed 182 mph
Models built 33
This is one of the most famous race cars in the history of Formula One and was designed by the great engineer, GIULIO ALFIERI. Throughout its history the 250F remained competitive achieving many racing successes. Its most important season was in 1957 when Fangio driving a 250F captured the World Drivers Championship and gave Maserati the World Constructors' Championship. In 1958 it was driven by Italy's first female Grand Prix driver, Maria Teresa de Filippis, now President of the Registro Maserati. Over thirty of these cars were built between 1954 and 1958 with many modifications made during those years. The car shown here is one of the first examples.
Good friend silver-brazing on some modifications to a Tubus Tara rack of mine so the bags will actually stay on.
La fée des Lanternes' Iris
® Eyemech Modification by Sheryl Designs
(Read in this order) PAG: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08.
PHOTOSTORY: In English / En Español
Shin: I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else...
/
Shin: Lo siento, me he confundido...
SHERYL LINKS:
- Pullip .es: Las Fotohistorias de Sheryl
- Sheryl's Flickr: Photostories 2011 - Sketches 2011 / Photostories 2012 - Sketches 2012