These are a few Streamlined and Semi-streamlined steam locomotives in HO scale. All are brass, except the two British LNER locomotives. Grand Trunk Western RR (GTW) U4B by Park Models for Nickel Plate Products.

Another LMS engine completed! Aside from lining yet again. But this was a nice challenge. Especially the front of the engine. Getting that iconic bathtub shape was not easy. But I think it paid off in the end. This is also my first complete engine to use 3XL drivers.

The engine control details in the cab.

The New York Central K-5b Pacific Class 4-6-2 steam locomotive #4915 with Henry Dreyfuss' streamline design. Originally manufactured in 1926 by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO), no. 4915 and her sister no. 4917 were streamlined in 1936 to lead The New York Central’s most luxurious experience on rails.

 

This project is my first MOC and has taken about a year and a half to complete with many challenges arising in trying to obtain the beautiful "streamline moderne" styling. Perseverance paid off however and through 1/2 steps, 1/3 steps and even 1/6 steps I have ended with a final version that I hope you all will enjoy.

 

The model is 8-wide, built to 1:48 scale and is designed to fit all standard lego track geometry. The locomotive is powered by two Power Functions M motors.

 

Directions to the build can be found here:

www.etsy.com/shop/ChristopherLocoWorks

Outfit Details

Top: H&M

Skirt: Anthropologie Abstract Greenery Skirt

Shoes: Uggs

Necklace: Anthropologie

 

Blogged on: tolookforstyle.blogspot.com

The LMS Princess Coronation Class 6229 Duchess of Hamilton was built in 1938 at Crewe as the tenth member of its class and the last in the second batch of five red streamliners.

In 1939 no. 6229 swapped identities with the first of the class 6220 Coronation and was sent to North America with a specially-constructed Coronation Scot train to appear at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

The locomotive was shipped back from the States in 1942 after the outbreak of the Second World War, and the identities of the locomotives were swapped back in 1943.

 

6229 was painted wartime black livery in November 1944. Her streamlined casing was removed for maintenance-efficiency reasons in December 1947 and she was then given the LMS 1946 black livery.

In 1948 she passed into BR ownership. BR added 40000 to her number to become 46229 on 15 April 1948.

46229 was saved from the scrap yard along with classmate 6233 Duchess of Sutherland as a result of Sir Billy Butlin's efforts to place these locomotives as children's playground exhibits at his holiday camps. Duchess of Hamilton survived at Minehead Holiday Camp and it returned to steam on the main line under the auspices of the Friends of the National Railway Museum.

 

Credit and thanks to Wikipedia for the Duchess of Hamilton information.

Officially unveiled in May 2013, the newest S-Class has a more streamlined appearance than the outgoing model. Some interesting features include a large front grille inspired by the F700 Concept car and LED lights used exclusively inside and out - a first in the automotive industry.

 

Two strong converging character lines give the flanks a more sculpted look, while integrated exhaust tips and a large glass roof (likely optional) highlight the design. Inside, almost every surface is covered by a 'luxury' material - everything that looks like leather is genuine leather and metal is used rather than any plastic alternative. The instrument cluster consists entirely of two widescreen (30.5 cm diagonal) LCD displays with animated graphics. A 'Head-Up' display and gesture responsive touch pad became options in early 2014.

 

The W222 debuts the available Magic Body Control, consisting of windshield mounted stereo cameras that can 'read' the road ahead (Road Surface Scan) and communicate with the Active Body Control suspension to ready it for an uneven road surface. Initially only available on 8-cylinder models and above, Magic Ride Control attempts to isolate the car's body by predicting rather than reacting to broken pavement and speed humps (Wikipedia).

 

Available luxury appointments over and above what was offered in the W221 include a choice of massage type for each seat occupant (the W221 offered various intensities of a single massage type) and two levels of premium audio from luxury German brand, Burmester.

 

The W222 has driver assistance systems aboard that allow it to steer a course within a lane and follow a leading vehicle for a short period (DISTRONIC PLUS with Steering Assist, also called traffic jam assistant). It will also slow or come to a dead stop and accelerate in response to traffic ahead. Mercedes engineers claim to have, under controlled conditions, ridden aboard a W222 S Class that has driven autonomously for 50 km, merely by altering parameters controlling equipment already fitted. Such modifications are not available to the general public.

 

Like the W221 S500, the W222 S-Class will be powered by a more powerful twin-turbo V8 producing 455 hp (339 kW) while the S600 will carry a twin-turbo V12. There is also a diesel-powered S350 BlueTEC version, a hybrid S400 with a 20-kilowatt electric motor and 306 hp (228 kW) V6 engine, a diesel-electric hybrid S300 BlueTEC. A S500 Plug-in Hybrid was later introduced at the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) with a market release of 2014 and claimed a 3 litres/100 km mileage, a CO2 rating of 69 g/km and up to 30 km of emissions free driving. The S500 Plug-In hybrid is fitted with a 329 hp (245 kW) 3-litre V6 and an 80-kilowatt electric motor. AMG fettered S63 (V8 bi-turbo) and S65 (V12 bi-turbo) LWB sedans are also on offer. All S-Class models will come with a 7-speed automatic transmission.

 

Along with the sedan, the S-Class will spawn a coupe (Mercedes-Benz C217) and convertible as well as an extended-wheelbase 'Pullman' variant, longer than the long wheelbase 'L', that will fill the Maybach void. While the short-wheelbase model carries chassis code W222, the long-wheelbase model uses chassis code V222. Unlike with previous generations, Mercedes focused primarily on the development of the longer model as many customers in the fast-growing Asian markets prefer to be chauffeured.

 

At the end of 2014 IMSA tuning has made some improvements to the engine of Mercedes S63 AMG Coupe so the car is able to produce now 720 bhp and a maximum torque of 1,080 Nm.

Olympus E-5, Zuiko digital 25mm f2.8

...but it obviously makes them happy! The engine they drive is the heaviest and most powerful express steam engine which is operational these days. It is a class 01.10 from 1940 which wore a streamlined shroud when it was new. After WW II the shroud has been removed and the engines where equipped with new high performance boilers. Some of them (including the sample in the image) were converted to oil burners which gave them some extra ooomph. The 01.10 heavy pacific is a three cylinder engine. When it accelerates a heavy train you feel like being exposed to a brute natural force. It shivers your very bones - simply fantastic.

Running practically on even time, fully-streamlined LNER Gresley A4 No.4464 'Bittern' drifts past the fields north of Langford with the first leg of Steam Dreams' 'Cathedral Express to Scotland' from Kings Cross to Perth on the 14th June 2013. BR Green-liveried classmate No.60009 'Union of South Africa' was due to take over at York for the leg to Scotland and the Fife.

This arching, streamlined bakelite, hinged box was most likely made by Lady Lillian Company for nail polish in the 1930's. More of the Depression green color.

 

A similar box can also be seen on page 49 of the Keresztury's book, "Art Deco Bakelite and Jewelry Boxes."

A closer look at 4464 'Bittern' as she stands at Newcastle waiting to head south whilst working 1z64 Newcastle - Bristol Temple Meads as far as York

Fish, any of approximately 34,000 species of vertebrate animals (phylum Chordata) found in the fresh and salt waters of the world. Living species range from the primitive jawless lampreys and hagfishes through the cartilaginous sharks, skates, and rays to the abundant and diverse bony fishes. Most fish species are cold-blooded; however, one species, the opah (Lampris guttatus), is warm-blooded.

 

The term fish is applied to a variety of vertebrates of several evolutionary lines. It describes a life-form rather than a taxonomic group. As members of the phylum Chordata, fish share certain features with other vertebrates. These features are gill slits at some point in the life cycle, a notochord, or skeletal supporting rod, a dorsal hollow nerve cord, and a tail. Living fishes represent some five classes, which are as distinct from one another as are the four classes of familiar air-breathing animals—amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. For example, the jawless fishes (Agnatha) have gills in pouches and lack limb girdles. Extant agnathans are the lampreys and the hagfishes. As the name implies, the skeletons of fishes of the class Chondrichthyes (from chondr, “cartilage,” and ichthyes, “fish”) are made entirely of cartilage. Modern fish of this class lack a swim bladder, and their scales and teeth are made up of the same placoid material. Sharks, skates, and rays are examples of cartilaginous fishes. The bony fishes are by far the largest class. Examples range from the tiny seahorse to the 450-kg (1,000-pound) blue marlin, from the flattened soles and flounders to the boxy puffers and ocean sunfishes. Unlike the scales of the cartilaginous fishes, those of bony fishes, when present, grow throughout life and are made up of thin overlapping plates of bone. Bony fishes also have an operculum that covers the gill slits.

 

The study of fishes, the science of ichthyology, is of broad importance. Fishes are of interest to humans for many reasons, the most important being their relationship with and dependence on the environment. A more obvious reason for interest in fishes is their role as a moderate but important part of the world’s food supply. This resource, once thought unlimited, is now realized to be finite and in delicate balance with the biological, chemical, and physical factors of the aquatic environment. Overfishing, pollution, and alteration of the environment are the chief enemies of proper fisheries management, both in fresh waters and in the ocean. (For a detailed discussion of the technology and economics of fisheries, see commercial fishing.) Another practical reason for studying fishes is their use in disease control. As predators on mosquito larvae, they help curb malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases.

 

Fishes are valuable laboratory animals in many aspects of medical and biological research. For example, the readiness of many fishes to acclimate to captivity has allowed biologists to study behaviour, physiology, and even ecology under relatively natural conditions. Fishes have been especially important in the study of animal behaviour, where research on fishes has provided a broad base for the understanding of the more flexible behaviour of the higher vertebrates. The zebra fish is used as a model in studies of gene expression.

 

There are aesthetic and recreational reasons for an interest in fishes. Millions of people keep live fishes in home aquariums for the simple pleasure of observing the beauty and behaviour of animals otherwise unfamiliar to them. Aquarium fishes provide a personal challenge to many aquarists, allowing them to test their ability to keep a small section of the natural environment in their homes. Sportfishing is another way of enjoying the natural environment, also indulged in by millions of people every year. Interest in aquarium fishes and sportfishing supports multimillion-dollar industries throughout the world.

 

Fishes have been in existence for more than 450 million years, during which time they have evolved repeatedly to fit into almost every conceivable type of aquatic habitat. In a sense, land vertebrates are simply highly modified fishes: when fishes colonized the land habitat, they became tetrapod (four-legged) land vertebrates. The popular conception of a fish as a slippery, streamlined aquatic animal that possesses fins and breathes by gills applies to many fishes, but far more fishes deviate from that conception than conform to it. For example, the body is elongate in many forms and greatly shortened in others; the body is flattened in some (principally in bottom-dwelling fishes) and laterally compressed in many others; the fins may be elaborately extended, forming intricate shapes, or they may be reduced or even lost; and the positions of the mouth, eyes, nostrils, and gill openings vary widely. Air breathers have appeared in several evolutionary lines.

 

Many fishes are cryptically coloured and shaped, closely matching their respective environments; others are among the most brilliantly coloured of all organisms, with a wide range of hues, often of striking intensity, on a single individual. The brilliance of pigments may be enhanced by the surface structure of the fish, so that it almost seems to glow. A number of unrelated fishes have actual light-producing organs. Many fishes are able to alter their coloration—some for the purpose of camouflage, others for the enhancement of behavioral signals.

 

Fishes range in adult length from less than 10 mm (0.4 inch) to more than 20 metres (60 feet) and in weight from about 1.5 grams (less than 0.06 ounce) to many thousands of kilograms. Some live in shallow thermal springs at temperatures slightly above 42 °C (100 °F), others in cold Arctic seas a few degrees below 0 °C (32 °F) or in cold deep waters more than 4,000 metres (13,100 feet) beneath the ocean surface. The structural and, especially, the physiological adaptations for life at such extremes are relatively poorly known and provide the scientifically curious with great incentive for study.

 

Almost all natural bodies of water bear fish life, the exceptions being very hot thermal ponds and extremely salt-alkaline lakes, such as the Dead Sea in Asia and the Great Salt Lake in North America. The present distribution of fishes is a result of the geological history and development of Earth as well as the ability of fishes to undergo evolutionary change and to adapt to the available habitats. Fishes may be seen to be distributed according to habitat and according to geographical area. Major habitat differences are marine and freshwater. For the most part, the fishes in a marine habitat differ from those in a freshwater habitat, even in adjacent areas, but some, such as the salmon, migrate from one to the other. The freshwater habitats may be seen to be of many kinds. Fishes found in mountain torrents, Arctic lakes, tropical lakes, temperate streams, and tropical rivers will all differ from each other, both in obvious gross structure and in physiological attributes. Even in closely adjacent habitats where, for example, a tropical mountain torrent enters a lowland stream, the fish fauna will differ. The marine habitats can be divided into deep ocean floors (benthic), mid-water oceanic (bathypelagic), surface oceanic (pelagic), rocky coast, sandy coast, muddy shores, bays, estuaries, and others. Also, for example, rocky coastal shores in tropical and temperate regions will have different fish faunas, even when such habitats occur along the same coastline.

 

Although much is known about the present geographical distribution of fishes, far less is known about how that distribution came about. Many parts of the fish fauna of the fresh waters of North America and Eurasia are related and undoubtedly have a common origin. The faunas of Africa and South America are related, extremely old, and probably an expression of the drifting apart of the two continents. The fauna of southern Asia is related to that of Central Asia, and some of it appears to have entered Africa. The extremely large shore-fish faunas of the Indian and tropical Pacific oceans comprise a related complex, but the tropical shore fauna of the Atlantic, although containing Indo-Pacific components, is relatively limited and probably younger. The Arctic and Antarctic marine faunas are quite different from each other. The shore fauna of the North Pacific is quite distinct, and that of the North Atlantic more limited and probably younger. Pelagic oceanic fishes, especially those in deep waters, are similar the world over, showing little geographical isolation in terms of family groups. The deep oceanic habitat is very much the same throughout the world, but species differences do exist, showing geographical areas determined by oceanic currents and water masses.

 

All aspects of the life of a fish are closely correlated with adaptation to the total environment, physical, chemical, and biological. In studies, all the interdependent aspects of fish, such as behaviour, locomotion, reproduction, and physical and physiological characteristics, must be taken into account.

 

Correlated with their adaptation to an extremely wide variety of habitats is the extremely wide variety of life cycles that fishes display. The great majority hatch from relatively small eggs a few days to several weeks or more after the eggs are scattered in the water. Newly hatched young are still partially undeveloped and are called larvae until body structures such as fins, skeleton, and some organs are fully formed. Larval life is often very short, usually less than a few weeks, but it can be very long, some lampreys continuing as larvae for at least five years. Young and larval fishes, before reaching sexual maturity, must grow considerably, and their small size and other factors often dictate that they live in a habitat different than that of the adults. For example, most tropical marine shore fishes have pelagic larvae. Larval food also is different, and larval fishes often live in shallow waters, where they may be less exposed to predators.

 

After a fish reaches adult size, the length of its life is subject to many factors, such as innate rates of aging, predation pressure, and the nature of the local climate. The longevity of a species in the protected environment of an aquarium may have nothing to do with how long members of that species live in the wild. Many small fishes live only one to three years at the most. In some species, however, individuals may live as long as 10 or 20 or even 100 years.

 

Fish behaviour is a complicated and varied subject. As in almost all animals with a central nervous system, the nature of a response of an individual fish to stimuli from its environment depends upon the inherited characteristics of its nervous system, on what it has learned from past experience, and on the nature of the stimuli. Compared with the variety of human responses, however, that of a fish is stereotyped, not subject to much modification by “thought” or learning, and investigators must guard against anthropomorphic interpretations of fish behaviour.

 

Fishes perceive the world around them by the usual senses of sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste and by special lateral line water-current detectors. In the few fishes that generate electric fields, a process that might best be called electrolocation aids in perception. One or another of these senses often is emphasized at the expense of others, depending upon the fish’s other adaptations. In fishes with large eyes, the sense of smell may be reduced; others, with small eyes, hunt and feed primarily by smell (such as some eels).

 

Specialized behaviour is primarily concerned with the three most important activities in the fish’s life: feeding, reproduction, and escape from enemies. Schooling behaviour of sardines on the high seas, for instance, is largely a protective device to avoid enemies, but it is also associated with and modified by their breeding and feeding requirements. Predatory fishes are often solitary, lying in wait to dart suddenly after their prey, a kind of locomotion impossible for beaked parrot fishes, which feed on coral, swimming in small groups from one coral head to the next. In addition, some predatory fishes that inhabit pelagic environments, such as tunas, often school.

 

Sleep in fishes, all of which lack true eyelids, consists of a seemingly listless state in which the fish maintains its balance but moves slowly. If attacked or disturbed, most can dart away. A few kinds of fishes lie on the bottom to sleep. Most catfishes, some loaches, and some eels and electric fishes are strictly nocturnal, being active and hunting for food during the night and retiring during the day to holes, thick vegetation, or other protective parts of the environment.

 

Communication between members of a species or between members of two or more species often is extremely important, especially in breeding behaviour (see below Reproduction). The mode of communication may be visual, as between the small so-called cleaner fish and a large fish of a very different species. The larger fish often allows the cleaner to enter its mouth to remove gill parasites. The cleaner is recognized by its distinctive colour and actions and therefore is not eaten, even if the larger fish is normally a predator. Communication is often chemical, signals being sent by specific chemicals called pheromones.

 

Many fishes have a streamlined body and swim freely in open water. Fish locomotion is closely correlated with habitat and ecological niche (the general position of the animal to its environment).

 

Many fishes in both marine and fresh waters swim at the surface and have mouths adapted to feed best (and sometimes only) at the surface. Often such fishes are long and slender, able to dart at surface insects or at other surface fishes and in turn to dart away from predators; needlefishes, halfbeaks, and topminnows (such as killifish and mosquito fish) are good examples. Oceanic flying fishes escape their predators by gathering speed above the water surface, with the lower lobe of the tail providing thrust in the water. They then glide hundreds of yards on enlarged, winglike pectoral and pelvic fins. South American freshwater flying fishes escape their enemies by jumping and propelling their strongly keeled bodies out of the water.

 

So-called mid-water swimmers, the most common type of fish, are of many kinds and live in many habitats. The powerful fusiform tunas and the trouts, for example, are adapted for strong, fast swimming, the tunas to capture prey speedily in the open ocean and the trouts to cope with the swift currents of streams and rivers. The trout body form is well adapted to many habitats. Fishes that live in relatively quiet waters such as bays or lake shores or slow rivers usually are not strong, fast swimmers but are capable of short, quick bursts of speed to escape a predator. Many of these fishes have their sides flattened, examples being the sunfish and the freshwater angelfish of aquarists. Fish associated with the bottom or substrate usually are slow swimmers. Open-water plankton-feeding fishes almost always remain fusiform and are capable of rapid, strong movement (for example, sardines and herrings of the open ocean and also many small minnows of streams and lakes).

 

Bottom-living fishes are of many kinds and have undergone many types of modification of their body shape and swimming habits. Rays, which evolved from strong-swimming mid-water sharks, usually stay close to the bottom and move by undulating their large pectoral fins. Flounders live in a similar habitat and move over the bottom by undulating the entire body. Many bottom fishes dart from place to place, resting on the bottom between movements, a motion common in gobies. One goby relative, the mudskipper, has taken to living at the edge of pools along the shore of muddy mangrove swamps. It escapes its enemies by flipping rapidly over the mud, out of the water. Some catfishes, synbranchid eels, the so-called climbing perch, and a few other fishes venture out over damp ground to find more promising waters than those that they left. They move by wriggling their bodies, sometimes using strong pectoral fins; most have accessory air-breathing organs. Many bottom-dwelling fishes live in mud holes or rocky crevices. Marine eels and gobies commonly are found in such habitats and for the most part venture far beyond their cavelike homes. Some bottom dwellers, such as the clingfishes (Gobiesocidae), have developed powerful adhesive disks that enable them to remain in place on the substrate in areas such as rocky coasts, where the action of the waves is great.

 

The methods of reproduction in fishes are varied, but most fishes lay a large number of small eggs, fertilized and scattered outside of the body. The eggs of pelagic fishes usually remain suspended in the open water. Many shore and freshwater fishes lay eggs on the bottom or among plants. Some have adhesive eggs. The mortality of the young and especially of the eggs is very high, and often only a few individuals grow to maturity out of hundreds, thousands, and in some cases millions of eggs laid.

 

Males produce sperm, usually as a milky white substance called milt, in two (sometimes one) testes within the body cavity. In bony fishes a sperm duct leads from each testis to a urogenital opening behind the vent or anus. In sharks and rays and in cyclostomes the duct leads to a cloaca. Sometimes the pelvic fins are modified to help transmit the milt to the eggs at the female’s vent or on the substrate where the female has placed them. Sometimes accessory organs are used to fertilize females internally—for example, the claspers of many sharks and rays.

 

In the females the eggs are formed in two ovaries (sometimes only one) and pass through the ovaries to the urogenital opening and to the outside. In some fishes the eggs are fertilized internally but are shed before development takes place. Members of about a dozen families each of bony fishes (teleosts) and sharks bear live young. Many skates and rays also bear live young. In some bony fishes the eggs simply develop within the female, the young emerging when the eggs hatch (ovoviviparous). Others develop within the ovary and are nourished by ovarian tissues after hatching (viviparous). There are also other methods utilized by fishes to nourish young within the female. In all live-bearers the young are born at a relatively large size and are few in number. In one family of primarily marine fishes, the surfperches from the Pacific coast of North America, Japan, and Korea, the males of at least one species are born sexually mature, although they are not fully grown.

 

Some fishes are hermaphroditic—an individual producing both sperm and eggs, usually at different stages of its life. Self-fertilization, however, is probably rare.

 

Successful reproduction and, in many cases, defense of the eggs and the young are assured by rather stereotypical but often elaborate courtship and parental behaviour, either by the male or the female or both. Some fishes prepare nests by hollowing out depressions in the sand bottom (cichlids, for example), build nests with plant materials and sticky threads excreted by the kidneys (sticklebacks), or blow a cluster of mucus-covered bubbles at the water surface (gouramis). The eggs are laid in these structures. Some varieties of cichlids and catfishes incubate eggs in their mouths.

 

Some fishes, such as salmon, undergo long migrations from the ocean and up large rivers to spawn in the gravel beds where they themselves hatched (anadromous fishes). Some, such as the freshwater eels (family Anguillidae), live and grow to maturity in fresh water and migrate to the sea to spawn (catadromous fishes). Other fishes undertake shorter migrations from lakes into streams, within the ocean, or enter spawning habitats that they do not ordinarily occupy in other ways.

 

The basic structure and function of the fish body are similar to those of all other vertebrates. The usual four types of tissues are present: surface or epithelial, connective (bone, cartilage, and fibrous tissues, as well as their derivative, blood), nerve, and muscle tissues. In addition, the fish’s organs and organ systems parallel those of other vertebrates.

 

The typical fish body is streamlined and spindle-shaped, with an anterior head, a gill apparatus, and a heart, the latter lying in the midline just below the gill chamber. The body cavity, containing the vital organs, is situated behind the head in the lower anterior part of the body. The anus usually marks the posterior termination of the body cavity and most often occurs just in front of the base of the anal fin. The spinal cord and vertebral column continue from the posterior part of the head to the base of the tail fin, passing dorsal to the body cavity and through the caudal (tail) region behind the body cavity. Most of the body is of muscular tissue, a high proportion of which is necessitated by swimming. In the course of evolution this basic body plan has been modified repeatedly into the many varieties of fish shapes that exist today.

 

The skeleton forms an integral part of the fish’s locomotion system, as well as serving to protect vital parts. The internal skeleton consists of the skull bones (except for the roofing bones of the head, which are really part of the external skeleton), the vertebral column, and the fin supports (fin rays). The fin supports are derived from the external skeleton but will be treated here because of their close functional relationship to the internal skeleton. The internal skeleton of cyclostomes, sharks, and rays is of cartilage; that of many fossil groups and some primitive living fishes is mostly of cartilage but may include some bone. In place of the vertebral column, the earliest vertebrates had a fully developed notochord, a flexible stiff rod of viscous cells surrounded by a strong fibrous sheath. During the evolution of modern fishes the rod was replaced in part by cartilage and then by ossified cartilage. Sharks and rays retain a cartilaginous vertebral column; bony fishes have spool-shaped vertebrae that in the more primitive living forms only partially replace the notochord. The skull, including the gill arches and jaws of bony fishes, is fully, or at least partially, ossified. That of sharks and rays remains cartilaginous, at times partially replaced by calcium deposits but never by true bone.

 

The supportive elements of the fins (basal or radial bones or both) have changed greatly during fish evolution. Some of these changes are described in the section below (Evolution and paleontology). Most fishes possess a single dorsal fin on the midline of the back. Many have two and a few have three dorsal fins. The other fins are the single tail and anal fins and paired pelvic and pectoral fins. A small fin, the adipose fin, with hairlike fin rays, occurs in many of the relatively primitive teleosts (such as trout) on the back near the base of the caudal fin.

 

The skin of a fish must serve many functions. It aids in maintaining the osmotic balance, provides physical protection for the body, is the site of coloration, contains sensory receptors, and, in some fishes, functions in respiration. Mucous glands, which aid in maintaining the water balance and offer protection from bacteria, are extremely numerous in fish skin, especially in cyclostomes and teleosts. Since mucous glands are present in the modern lampreys, it is reasonable to assume that they were present in primitive fishes, such as the ancient Silurian and Devonian agnathans. Protection from abrasion and predation is another function of the fish skin, and dermal (skin) bone arose early in fish evolution in response to this need. It is thought that bone first evolved in skin and only later invaded the cartilaginous areas of the fish’s body, to provide additional support and protection. There is some argument as to which came first, cartilage or bone, and fossil evidence does not settle the question. In any event, dermal bone has played an important part in fish evolution and has different characteristics in different groups of fishes. Several groups are characterized at least in part by the kind of bony scales they possess.

 

Scales have played an important part in the evolution of fishes. Primitive fishes usually had thick bony plates or thick scales in several layers of bone, enamel, and related substances. Modern teleost fishes have scales of bone, which, while still protective, allow much more freedom of motion in the body. A few modern teleosts (some catfishes, sticklebacks, and others) have secondarily acquired bony plates in the skin. Modern and early sharks possessed placoid scales, a relatively primitive type of scale with a toothlike structure, consisting of an outside layer of enamel-like substance (vitrodentine), an inner layer of dentine, and a pulp cavity containing nerves and blood vessels. Primitive bony fishes had thick scales of either the ganoid or the cosmoid type. Cosmoid scales have a hard, enamel-like outer layer, an inner layer of cosmine (a form of dentine), and then a layer of vascular bone (isopedine). In ganoid scales the hard outer layer is different chemically and is called ganoin. Under this is a cosminelike layer and then a vascular bony layer. The thin, translucent bony scales of modern fishes, called cycloid and ctenoid (the latter distinguished by serrations at the edges), lack enameloid and dentine layers.

 

Skin has several other functions in fishes. It is well supplied with nerve endings and presumably receives tactile, thermal, and pain stimuli. Skin is also well supplied with blood vessels. Some fishes breathe in part through the skin, by the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between the surrounding water and numerous small blood vessels near the skin surface.

 

Skin serves as protection through the control of coloration. Fishes exhibit an almost limitless range of colours. The colours often blend closely with the surroundings, effectively hiding the animal. Many fishes use bright colours for territorial advertisement or as recognition marks for other members of their own species, or sometimes for members of other species. Many fishes can change their colour to a greater or lesser degree, by movement of pigment within the pigment cells (chromatophores). Black pigment cells (melanophores), of almost universal occurrence in fishes, are often juxtaposed with other pigment cells. When placed beneath iridocytes or leucophores (bearing the silvery or white pigment guanine), melanophores produce structural colours of blue and green. These colours are often extremely intense, because they are formed by refraction of light through the needlelike crystals of guanine. The blue and green refracted colours are often relatively pure, lacking the red and yellow rays, which have been absorbed by the black pigment (melanin) of the melanophores. Yellow, orange, and red colours are produced by erythrophores, cells containing the appropriate carotenoid pigments. Other colours are produced by combinations of melanophores, erythrophores, and iridocytes.

 

The major portion of the body of most fishes consists of muscles. Most of the mass is trunk musculature, the fin muscles usually being relatively small. The caudal fin is usually the most powerful fin, being moved by the trunk musculature. The body musculature is usually arranged in rows of chevron-shaped segments on each side. Contractions of these segments, each attached to adjacent vertebrae and vertebral processes, bends the body on the vertebral joint, producing successive undulations of the body, passing from the head to the tail, and producing driving strokes of the tail. It is the latter that provides the strong forward movement for most fishes.

 

The digestive system, in a functional sense, starts at the mouth, with the teeth used to capture prey or collect plant foods. Mouth shape and tooth structure vary greatly in fishes, depending on the kind of food normally eaten. Most fishes are predacious, feeding on small invertebrates or other fishes and have simple conical teeth on the jaws, on at least some of the bones of the roof of the mouth, and on special gill arch structures just in front of the esophagus. The latter are throat teeth. Most predacious fishes swallow their prey whole, and the teeth are used for grasping and holding prey, for orienting prey to be swallowed (head first) and for working the prey toward the esophagus. There are a variety of tooth types in fishes. Some fishes, such as sharks and piranhas, have cutting teeth for biting chunks out of their victims. A shark’s tooth, although superficially like that of a piranha, appears in many respects to be a modified scale, while that of the piranha is like that of other bony fishes, consisting of dentine and enamel. Parrot fishes have beaklike mouths with short incisor-like teeth for breaking off coral and have heavy pavementlike throat teeth for crushing the coral. Some catfishes have small brushlike teeth, arranged in rows on the jaws, for scraping plant and animal growth from rocks. Many fishes (such as the Cyprinidae or minnows) have no jaw teeth at all but have very strong throat teeth.

 

Some fishes gather planktonic food by straining it from their gill cavities with numerous elongate stiff rods (gill rakers) anchored by one end to the gill bars. The food collected on these rods is passed to the throat, where it is swallowed. Most fishes have only short gill rakers that help keep food particles from escaping out the mouth cavity into the gill chamber.

 

Once reaching the throat, food enters a short, often greatly distensible esophagus, a simple tube with a muscular wall leading into a stomach. The stomach varies greatly in fishes, depending upon the diet. In most predacious fishes it is a simple straight or curved tube or pouch with a muscular wall and a glandular lining. Food is largely digested there and leaves the stomach in liquid form.

 

Between the stomach and the intestine, ducts enter the digestive tube from the liver and pancreas. The liver is a large, clearly defined organ. The pancreas may be embedded in it, diffused through it, or broken into small parts spread along some of the intestine. The junction between the stomach and the intestine is marked by a muscular valve. Pyloric ceca (blind sacs) occur in some fishes at this junction and have a digestive or absorptive function or both.

 

The intestine itself is quite variable in length, depending upon the fish’s diet. It is short in predacious forms, sometimes no longer than the body cavity, but long in herbivorous forms, being coiled and several times longer than the entire length of the fish in some species of South American catfishes. The intestine is primarily an organ for absorbing nutrients into the bloodstream. The larger its internal surface, the greater its absorptive efficiency, and a spiral valve is one method of increasing its absorption surface.

 

Sharks, rays, chimaeras, lungfishes, surviving chondrosteans, holosteans, and even a few of the more primitive teleosts have a spiral valve or at least traces of it in the intestine. Most modern teleosts have increased the area of the intestinal walls by having numerous folds and villi (fingerlike projections) somewhat like those in humans. Undigested substances are passed to the exterior through the anus in most teleost fishes. In lungfishes, sharks, and rays, it is first passed through the cloaca, a common cavity receiving the intestinal opening and the ducts from the urogenital system.

 

Oxygen and carbon dioxide dissolve in water, and most fishes exchange dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide in water by means of the gills. The gills lie behind and to the side of the mouth cavity and consist of fleshy filaments supported by the gill arches and filled with blood vessels, which give gills a bright red colour. Water taken in continuously through the mouth passes backward between the gill bars and over the gill filaments, where the exchange of gases takes place. The gills are protected by a gill cover in teleosts and many other fishes but by flaps of skin in sharks, rays, and some of the older fossil fish groups. The blood capillaries in the gill filaments are close to the gill surface to take up oxygen from the water and to give up excess carbon dioxide to the water.

 

Most modern fishes have a hydrostatic (ballast) organ, called the swim bladder, that lies in the body cavity just below the kidney and above the stomach and intestine. It originated as a diverticulum of the digestive canal. In advanced teleosts, especially the acanthopterygians, the bladder has lost its connection with the digestive tract, a condition called physoclistic. The connection has been retained (physostomous) by many relatively primitive teleosts. In several unrelated lines of fishes, the bladder has become specialized as a lung or, at least, as a highly vascularized accessory breathing organ. Some fishes with such accessory organs are obligate air breathers and will drown if denied access to the surface, even in well-oxygenated water. Fishes with a hydrostatic form of swim bladder can control their depth by regulating the amount of gas in the bladder. The gas, mostly oxygen, is secreted into the bladder by special glands, rendering the fish more buoyant; the gas is absorbed into the bloodstream by another special organ, reducing the overall buoyancy and allowing the fish to sink. Some deep-sea fishes may have oils, rather than gas, in the bladder. Other deep-sea and some bottom-living forms have much-reduced swim bladders or have lost the organ entirely.

 

The swim bladder of fishes follows the same developmental pattern as the lungs of land vertebrates. There is no doubt that the two structures have the same historical origin in primitive fishes. More or less intermediate forms still survive among the more primitive types of fishes, such as the lungfishes Lepidosiren and Protopterus.

 

The circulatory, or blood vascular, system consists of the heart, the arteries, the capillaries, and the veins. It is in the capillaries that the interchange of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nutrients, and other substances such as hormones and waste products takes place. The capillaries lead to the veins, which return the venous blood with its waste products to the heart, kidneys, and gills. There are two kinds of capillary beds: those in the gills and those in the rest of the body. The heart, a folded continuous muscular tube with three or four saclike enlargements, undergoes rhythmic contractions and receives venous blood in a sinus venosus. It passes the blood to an auricle and then into a thick muscular pump, the ventricle. From the ventricle the blood goes to a bulbous structure at the base of a ventral aorta just below the gills. The blood passes to the afferent (receiving) arteries of the gill arches and then to the gill capillaries. There waste gases are given off to the environment, and oxygen is absorbed. The oxygenated blood enters efferent (exuant) arteries of the gill arches and then flows into the dorsal aorta. From there blood is distributed to the tissues and organs of the body. One-way valves prevent backflow. The circulation of fishes thus differs from that of the reptiles, birds, and mammals in that oxygenated blood is not returned to the heart prior to distribution to the other parts of the body.

 

The primary excretory organ in fishes, as in other vertebrates, is the kidney. In fishes some excretion also takes place in the digestive tract, skin, and especially the gills (where ammonia is given off). Compared with land vertebrates, fishes have a special problem in maintaining their internal environment at a constant concentration of water and dissolved substances, such as salts. Proper balance of the internal environment (homeostasis) of a fish is in a great part maintained by the excretory system, especially the kidney.

 

The kidney, gills, and skin play an important role in maintaining a fish’s internal environment and checking the effects of osmosis. Marine fishes live in an environment in which the water around them has a greater concentration of salts than they can have inside their body and still maintain life. Freshwater fishes, on the other hand, live in water with a much lower concentration of salts than they require inside their bodies. Osmosis tends to promote the loss of water from the body of a marine fish and absorption of water by that of a freshwater fish. Mucus in the skin tends to slow the process but is not a sufficient barrier to prevent the movement of fluids through the permeable skin. When solutions on two sides of a permeable membrane have different concentrations of dissolved substances, water will pass through the membrane into the more concentrated solution, while the dissolved chemicals move into the area of lower concentration (diffusion).

 

The kidney of freshwater fishes is often larger in relation to body weight than that of marine fishes. In both groups the kidney excretes wastes from the body, but the kidney of freshwater fishes also excretes large amounts of water, counteracting the water absorbed through the skin. Freshwater fishes tend to lose salt to the environment and must replace it. They get some salt from their food, but the gills and skin inside the mouth actively absorb salt from water passed through the mouth. This absorption is performed by special cells capable of moving salts against the diffusion gradient. Freshwater fishes drink very little water and take in little water with their food.

 

Marine fishes must conserve water, and therefore their kidneys excrete little water. To maintain their water balance, marine fishes drink large quantities of seawater, retaining most of the water and excreting the salt. Most nitrogenous waste in marine fishes appears to be secreted by the gills as ammonia. Marine fishes can excrete salt by clusters of special cells (chloride cells) in the gills.

 

There are several teleosts—for example, the salmon—that travel between fresh water and seawater and must adjust to the reversal of osmotic gradients. They adjust their physiological processes by spending time (often surprisingly little time) in the intermediate brackish environment.

 

Marine hagfishes, sharks, and rays have osmotic concentrations in their blood about equal to that of seawater and so do not have to drink water nor perform much physiological work to maintain their osmotic balance. In sharks and rays the osmotic concentration is kept high by retention of urea in the blood. Freshwater sharks have a lowered concentration of urea in the blood.

 

Endocrine glands secrete their products into the bloodstream and body tissues and, along with the central nervous system, control and regulate many kinds of body functions. Cyclostomes have a well-developed endocrine system, and presumably it was well developed in the early Agnatha, ancestral to modern fishes. Although the endocrine system in fishes is similar to that of higher vertebrates, there are numerous differences in detail. The pituitary, the thyroid, the suprarenals, the adrenals, the pancreatic islets, the sex glands (ovaries and testes), the inner wall of the intestine, and the bodies of the ultimobranchial gland make up the endocrine system in fishes. There are some others whose function is not well understood. These organs regulate sexual activity and reproduction, growth, osmotic pressure, general metabolic activities such as the storage of fat and the utilization of foodstuffs, blood pressure, and certain aspects of skin colour. Many of these activities are also controlled in part by the central nervous system, which works with the endocrine system in maintaining the life of a fish. Some parts of the endocrine system are developmentally, and undoubtedly evolutionarily, derived from the nervous system.

 

As in all vertebrates, the nervous system of fishes is the primary mechanism coordinating body activities, as well as integrating these activities in the appropriate manner with stimuli from the environment. The central nervous system, consisting of the brain and spinal cord, is the primary integrating mechanism. The peripheral nervous system, consisting of nerves that connect the brain and spinal cord to various body organs, carries sensory information from special receptor organs such as the eyes, internal ears, nares (sense of smell), taste glands, and others to the integrating centres of the brain and spinal cord. The peripheral nervous system also carries information via different nerve cells from the integrating centres of the brain and spinal cord. This coded information is carried to the various organs and body systems, such as the skeletal muscular system, for appropriate action in response to the original external or internal stimulus. Another branch of the nervous system, the autonomic nervous system, helps to coordinate the activities of many glands and organs and is itself closely connected to the integrating centres of the brain.

 

The brain of the fish is divided into several anatomical and functional parts, all closely interconnected but each serving as the primary centre of integrating particular kinds of responses and activities. Several of these centres or parts are primarily associated with one type of sensory perception, such as sight, hearing, or smell (olfaction).

 

The sense of smell is important in almost all fishes. Certain eels with tiny eyes depend mostly on smell for location of food. The olfactory, or nasal, organ of fishes is located on the dorsal surface of the snout. The lining of the nasal organ has special sensory cells that perceive chemicals dissolved in the water, such as substances from food material, and send sensory information to the brain by way of the first cranial nerve. Odour also serves as an alarm system. Many fishes, especially various species of freshwater minnows, react with alarm to a chemical released from the skin of an injured member of their own species.

 

Many fishes have a well-developed sense of taste, and tiny pitlike taste buds or organs are located not only within their mouth cavities but also over their heads and parts of their body. Catfishes, which often have poor vision, have barbels (“whiskers”) that serve as supplementary taste organs, those around the mouth being actively used to search out food on the bottom. Some species of naturally blind cave fishes are especially well supplied with taste buds, which often cover most of their body surface.

 

Sight is extremely important in most fishes. The eye of a fish is basically like that of all other vertebrates, but the eyes of fishes are extremely varied in structure and adaptation. In general, fishes living in dark and dim water habitats have large eyes, unless they have specialized in some compensatory way so that another sense (such as smell) is dominant, in which case the eyes will often be reduced. Fishes living in brightly lighted shallow waters often will have relatively small but efficient eyes. Cyclostomes have somewhat less elaborate eyes than other fishes, with skin stretched over the eyeball perhaps making their vision somewhat less effective. Most fishes have a spherical lens and accommodate their vision to far or near subjects by moving the lens within the eyeball. A few sharks accommodate by changing the shape of the lens, as in land vertebrates. Those fishes that are heavily dependent upon the eyes have especially strong muscles for accommodation. Most fishes see well, despite the restrictions imposed by frequent turbidity of the water and by light refraction.

 

Fossil evidence suggests that colour vision evolved in fishes more than 300 million years ago, but not all living fishes have retained this ability. Experimental evidence indicates that many shallow-water fishes, if not all, have colour vision and see some colours especially well, but some bottom-dwelling shore fishes live in areas where the water is sufficiently deep to filter out most if not all colours, and these fishes apparently never see colours. When tested in shallow water, they apparently are unable to respond to colour differences.

 

Sound perception and balance are intimately associated senses in a fish. The organs of hearing are entirely internal, located within the skull, on each side of the brain and somewhat behind the eyes. Sound waves, especially those of low frequencies, travel readily through water and impinge directly upon the bones and fluids of the head and body, to be transmitted to the hearing organs. Fishes readily respond to sound; for example, a trout conditioned to escape by the approach of fishermen will take flight upon perceiving footsteps on a stream bank even if it cannot see a fisherman. Compared with humans, however, the range of sound frequencies heard by fishes is greatly restricted. Many fishes communicate with each other by producing sounds in their swim bladders, in their throats by rasping their teeth, and in other ways.

 

A fish or other vertebrate seldom has to rely on a single type of sensory information to determine the nature of the environment around it. A catfish uses taste and touch when examining a food object with its oral barbels. Like most other animals, fishes have many touch receptors over their body surface. Pain and temperature receptors also are present in fishes and presumably produce the same kind of information to a fish as to humans. Fishes react in a negative fashion to stimuli that would be painful to human beings, suggesting that they feel a sensation of pain.

 

An important sensory system in fishes that is absent in other vertebrates (except some amphibians) is the lateral line system. This consists of a series of heavily innervated small canals located in the skin and bone around the eyes, along the lower jaw, over the head, and down the mid-side of the body, where it is associated with the scales. Intermittently along these canals are located tiny sensory organs (pit organs) that apparently detect changes in pressure. The system allows a fish to sense changes in water currents and pressure, thereby helping the fish to orient itself to the various changes that occur in the physical environment.

 

Although a great many fossil fishes have been found and described, they represent a tiny portion of the long and complex evolution of fishes, and knowledge of fish evolution remains relatively fragmentary. In the classification presented in this article, fishlike vertebrates are divided into seven categories, the members of each having a different basic structural organization and different physical and physiological adaptations for the problems presented by the environment. The broad basic pattern has been one of successive replacement of older groups by newer, better-adapted groups. One or a few members of a group evolved a basically more efficient means of feeding, breathing, or swimming or several better ways of living. These better-adapted groups then forced the extinction of members of the older group with which they competed for available food, breeding places, or other necessities of life. As the new fishes became well established, some of them evolved further and adapted to other habitats, where they continued to replace members of the old group already there. The process was repeated until all or almost all members of the old group in a variety of habitats had been replaced by members of the newer evolutionary line.

 

The earliest vertebrate fossils of certain relationships are fragments of dermal armour of jawless fishes (superclass Agnatha, order Heterostraci) from the Upper Ordovician Period in North America, about 450 million years in age. Early Ordovician toothlike fragments from the former Soviet Union are less certainly remains of agnathans. It is uncertain whether the North American jawless fishes inhabited shallow coastal marine waters, where their remains became fossilized, or were freshwater vertebrates washed into coastal deposits by stream action.

 

Jawless fishes probably arose from ancient, small, soft-bodied filter-feeding organisms much like and probably also ancestral to the modern sand-dwelling filter feeders, the Cephalochordata (Amphioxus and its relatives). The body in the ancestral animals was probably stiffened by a notochord. Although a vertebrate origin in fresh water is much debated by paleontologists, it is possible that mobility of the body and protection provided by dermal armour arose in response to streamflow in the freshwater environment and to the need to escape from and resist the clawed invertebrate eurypterids that lived in the same waters. Because of the marine distribution of the surviving primitive chordates, however, many paleontologists doubt that the vertebrates arose in fresh water.

 

Heterostracan remains are next found in what appear to be delta deposits in two North American localities of Silurian age. By the close of the Silurian, about 416 million years ago, European heterostracan remains are found in what appear to be delta or coastal deposits. In the Late Silurian of the Baltic area, lagoon or freshwater deposits yield jawless fishes of the order Osteostraci. Somewhat later in the Silurian from the same region, layers contain fragments of jawed acanthodians, the earliest group of jawed vertebrates, and of jawless fishes. These layers lie between marine beds but appear to be washed out from fresh waters of a coastal region.

 

It is evident, therefore, that by the end of the Silurian both jawed and jawless vertebrates were well established and already must have had a long history of development. Yet paleontologists have remains only of specialized forms that cannot have been the ancestors of the placoderms and bony fishes that appear in the next period, the Devonian. No fossils are known of the more primitive ancestors of the agnathans and acanthodians. The extensive marine beds of the Silurian and those of the Ordovician are essentially void of vertebrate history. It is believed that the ancestors of fishlike vertebrates evolved in upland fresh waters, where whatever few and relatively small fossil beds were made probably have been long since eroded away. Remains of the earliest vertebrates may never be found.

 

By the close of the Silurian, all known orders of jawless vertebrates had evolved, except perhaps the modern cyclostomes, which are without the hard parts that ordinarily are preserved as fossils. Cyclostomes were unknown as fossils until 1968, when a lamprey of modern body structure was reported from the Middle Pennsylvanian of Illinois, in deposits more than 300 million years old. Fossil evidence of the four orders of armoured jawless vertebrates is absent from deposits later than the Devonian. Presumably, these vertebrates became extinct at that time, being replaced by the more efficient and probably more aggressive placoderms, acanthodians, selachians (sharks and relatives), and by early bony fishes. Cyclostomes survived probably because early on they evolved from anaspid agnathans and developed a rasping tonguelike structure and a sucking mouth, enabling them to prey on other fishes. With this way of life they apparently had no competition from other fish groups. Cyclostomes, the hagfishes and lampreys, were once thought to be closely related because of the similarity in their suctorial mouths, but it is now understood that the hagfishes, order Myxiniformes, are the most primitive living chordates, and they are classified separately from the lampreys, order Petromyzontiformes.

 

Early jawless vertebrates probably fed on tiny organisms by filter feeding, as do the larvae of their descendants, the modern lampreys. The gill cavity of the early agnathans was large. It is thought that small organisms taken from the bottom by a nibbling action of the mouth, or more certainly by a sucking action through the mouth, were passed into the gill cavity along with water for breathing. Small organisms then were strained out by the gill apparatus and directed to the food canal. The gill apparatus thus evolved as a feeding, as well as a breathing, structure. The head and gills in the agnathans were protected by a heavy dermal armour; the tail region was free, allowing motion for swimming.

 

Most important for the evolution of fishes and vertebrates in general was the early appearance of bone, cartilage, and enamel-like substance. These materials became modified in later fishes, enabling them to adapt to many aquatic environments and finally even to land. Other basic organs and tissues of the vertebrates—such as the central nervous system, heart, liver, digestive tract, kidney, and circulatory system— undoubtedly were present in the ancestors of the agnathans. In many ways, bone, both external and internal, was the key to vertebrate evolution.

 

The next class of fishes to appear was the Acanthodii, containing the earliest known jawed vertebrates, which arose in the Late Silurian, more than 416 million years ago. The acanthodians declined after the Devonian but lasted into the Early Permian, a little less than 280 million years ago. The first complete specimens appear in Lower Devonian freshwater deposits, but later in the Devonian and Permian some members appear to have been marine. Most were small fishes, not more than 75 cm (approximately 30 inches) in length.

 

We know nothing of the ancestors of the acanthodians. They must have arisen from some jawless vertebrate, probably in fresh water. They appear to have been active swimmers with almost no head armour but with large eyes, indicating that they depended heavily on vision. Perhaps they preyed on invertebrates. The rows of spines and spinelike fins between the pectoral and pelvic fins give some credence to the idea that paired fins arose from “fin folds” along the body sides.

 

The relationships of the acanthodians to other jawed vertebrates are obscure. They possess features found in both sharks and bony fishes. They are like early bony fishes in possessing ganoidlike scales and a partially ossified internal skeleton. Certain aspects of the jaw appear to be more like those of bony fishes than sharks, but the bony fin spines and certain aspects of the gill apparatus would seem to favour relationships with early sharks. Acanthodians do not seem particularly close to the Placodermi, although, like the placoderms, they apparently possessed less efficient tooth replacement and tooth structure than the sharks and the bony fishes, possibly one reason for their subsequent extinction.

At first sight this streamlined trailer looks like a 1950s caravan, but it is not a vintage one, it is total new.

 

See also: www.retrosellers.com/features405.htm

 

A1 Motorway, near Amersfoort, July 24, 2012.

Rare Streamlined version of Stella Austria Electric Atomic coffee maker model 110E (1953-1956). Manufactured by the Stella Company in Austria. This variant of the design may actually have an alternate product code number. This machine has an element of Danish/German minimalism and a adds a northern touch to the Atomic design. Truly a superb piece of timeless design.

 

Document courtesy of the Stern family in Austria.

youtu.be/tirkqTCcbjc

 

Building guide for my own Lego creation - 139 parts, size 24.6 x 3.2 x 3.8 in studs.

 

The model is available here: www.bricklink.com/v3/studio/design.page?idModel=815496.

 

The inspiration was the American steam locomotive 4-6-2 2906, but I believe that you will see another steam engine in my model :)

The modern looking streamlined Peugeot 402 series was presented at the 1935 Paris Motor Show. In the early 1930s revolutionary aerodynamic theories were applied for the first time to mass produced cars. Avant-garde cars like 1934 Tatra 77 and the 1934 Chrysler Airflow gained a lot of positive attention. The 402 was Peugeot's answer to its direct competitor the streamlined 1934 Citroën TA.

The 402 was developed by the Département Études Carrosseries, under supervision of Henri Thomas.

The Peugeot 02-series was also called Fuseau-Sochaux.

 

The 402 series replaced the predecessors 401 and 601 (from 1934-1935).

Many body variants were available.

The 402 B with an increased engine, followed in Summer 1938.

Note the lack of a running board, and this convex boot lid. It appeared with the renewed 402 B, and it covers the spare wheel.

 

Besides several Art Deco details, the headlamps placed behind the grille were very remarkable.

See also: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peugeot_402

 

2142 cc L4 petrol engine.

Performance: 60 bhp.

C. 1200 kg.

Production Peugeot 402 series: Sept. 1935-July 1942.

Production Peugeot 402 B Berline this version: Oct. 1938-June 1940.

Original first reg. number: June 30, 1936 (according to RDW, but that's not correct).

New Dutch pseudo-historical reg. number: April 20, 2009.

With current owner since June 22, 2024.

 

Seen in car museum Visscher Classique. It's a new car museum originated from a large car collection of director Henk Visscher, mixed with a lot of passion and ambition.

The collection focuses on the French brands that fall under the Stellantis group (formerly PSA).

More info: visscherclassique.nl/museum/

 

Buren, Visscher Classique Car Museum, Schuilheuvelstraat, Aug. 5, 2023.

 

© 2023 Sander Toonen Halfweg | All Rights Reserved

Just a fun little poster for the New York Central streamlined Hudson I'm working on. I've reworked the entire engine except for the tender since I last showed it. It is also now two studs shorter in length, and is going to have BBB Xtra-small wheels for the leading and trailing bogies. (the wheels you see in the picture are just stand-in's) New pistons and a redesigned fin were added on as well. It's a digital only MOC right now, but the loco will be built in real life soon. (engine inspired by Anthony Sava and his models)

 

Thoughts?

East and West Coast rivals are pictured on display in the National Railway Museum in York. On the right in the blue livery is the fastest steam locomotive in the World; London & North Eastern Railway 4-6-2 A4 Class 4468 'Mallard' which worked the East Coast Main Line between London & Scotland whilst on the left in red is streamlined 'Coronation' class 4-6-2 steam locomotive 6229 'Duchess of Hamilton' which operated for the rival London, Midland & Scottish Railway between London & Scotland via the West Coast Main Line.

This was taken on a bike, going reasonably fast. One hand on the handlebars, one hand holding the camera. Thank God for autofocus and wide angle lenses!

Playa Juan 23

Streamlined like a Ferrari!

Streamlined C&O Hudson 490 sits outside the North Car Shop at the B&O Museum in Baltimore, MD.

Bugatti 1934 streamlined railcar at the Citi du Train (National Railway Museum) in Mulhouse, France. Famed for their speed records (one reached 196 km/h in 1937) a total of 88 were built in a variety of configurations, this being one of the luxury "Presidential" type. The car has a total of 16 wheels (see photo later in this group). This is the only Bugatti railcar preserved, having been converted to an inspection vehicle after retirement in 1958, and used in its new role until 1970.

 

More on the history of the Bugatti railcars can be found here: retours.eu/en/23-autorail-bugatti/#

April 2009 in Tulare, CA at the California Antique Farm Equipment Show.

 

A relatively rare John Deere model 'AOS' streamlined orchard tractor. Specially equipped with low seating and air intake, muffler and other items tucked in to prevent snagging and tearing tree branches during operation within groves and orchards.

Gallaher's Cigarettes "Trains of the World" (set of 48 issued in 1937)

No27 Streamlined Locomotive ~ Canadian National Railways

This Art Deco-styled 4-6-4 steam loco is to be numbered 5447 and is sort-of modeled after a real, long-scrapped New York Central engine. The tender really should say the railroad's full name instead of its initials, but I don't want to shell out the money for all those 1 x 1 tiles, so I'm using fewer 2x2 tiles instead to spell out NYC, as it's much cheaper that way!

 

You may have also noticed I've also placed older 9v-era couplers on the loco and tender, as my dad has the 20-year old Santa Fe Super Chief car that (I'm hoping!) he'll let me eventually display with my loco at Gateway LUG shows. If that doesn't work out, I'll build a bunch of coal hoppers and have it placed about to demolish my Iron Giant, like in the animated film!

 

Note: As some of you might be able to guess, this loco was inspired by pictures of Anthony Sava's original streamlined Hudson locomotive from 2007... no instructions were used to build this engine. See it here: www.flickr.com/photos/savatheaggie/1338258406/in/album-72...

DRG Class 03 4-6-2 No.03 001 (would have been DR Class 03 2001-0 from 1970 if still in service at that time) at Dresden Hbf. Station, 9 October 2021.

 

No.03 001 is the very first Class 03 Pacific, built in 1930 (withdrawn 1966), and largely in original condition with elephant ears smoke deflectors. It was positioned here (with Saxon No.19 017) apparently to promote the Dresden Steam Festival although why place this here, rather than one of the numerous Class 50 or 52 locos, I find odd. If you pay money to attend the Steam Festival itself, you want to see this loco there – not somewhere where people can see it for free and where most people would have no idea of the significance of this loco. Very strange.

 

The DRG wanted an express engine with a lighter axle load than the Class 01 Pacifics for some main lines and the result was the Class 03; 298 were built in 1930-38, essentially an 01 with lighter frame, smaller boiler and smaller cylinders. One was streamlined and two semi-streamlined. After WWII, 148 were in West Germany, 78 in East Germany, 1 in Austria, 36 in Poland and 29 in Russia. However, after war-damaged 03’s or 03’s in very poor condition were scrapped and after East Germany recovered some from Russia, it left 144 for service by the DB, 86 for the DR and 35 for the PKP.

 

The DB planned to rebuild 50 of their examples with new all-welded boilers as they did with the Class 03.10’s but in the event did not do so as the existing boilers were considered in good condition. In contrast, the DR rebuilt 52 into Rekoloks with new 39E all welded boilers (and de Witte smoke deflectors) in 1969-72, although still kept the unrebuilt 03’s in service, many being fitted with Heinl feedwater heaters and de Witte smoke deflectors.

 

The last DB loco was withdrawn in 1972 and the last DR Rekolok in 1980, although a few survived as stationary depot heating boilers for another year. The PKP withdrew their last 03 in 1978.

Jalan Asia Africa | Savoy Homann Bidakara Hotel 04/036/2011 08h42

Not our hotel but an art deco landmark of the city of Bandung.

 

Savoy Homann Bidakara Hotel

The Savoy Homann Bidakara Hotel is a historic luxury four stars hotel located on Asia Afrika Street, Bandung, Indonesia. It was built in 1939 replacing the 19th century Homann Hotel. Designed by the Dutch architect Albert Aalbers, the hotel features art deco exterior and interior, and historic furniture. It is an architectural heritage and a fine example of art deco colonial architecture of the East Indies.

After the opening of the Great Post Road in 1810, many colonial cash-crop plantations were established in the Preanger area. During the 19th to early 20th century Bandung has become a popular business, shopping and leisure destination for wealthy plantation owners, in particular in the weekends. As a result the hotel business was blooming in the city. The predecessor of the present hotel, the Homann Hotel was built in 1871–72, owned and managed by the Homann family. It was famous for its delicious Mrs. Homann's Rijsttafel. This first small building was designed in Gothic-Romantic style. In 1939, the hotel was rebuilt in a curved streamlined art deco style, designed by the architect Albert Aalbers. To emphasize its grandeur and luxury the name "Savoy" was added in the 1940s, which remained unchanged until the 1980s. Some of its celebrity guests during the Dutch East Indies era were Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford.

During the World War II Japanese occupation (1942–45), the hotel functioned as luxurious barracks for Japanese soldiers. In 1955, when the first Asian–African Conference was held in Bandung, Savoy Homann hosted VVIP guests and became a part of the Historical Walk. Some of the guests were Soekarno, Ho Chi Minh, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, U Nu, Zhou Enlai, Gamal Abdul Nasser, and Tito.

 

In the 1990s the hotel was renovated and a new wing was added. Today the hotel was bought under the management of Bidakara Group, thus the name changed to Savoy Homann Bidakara Hotel.

[ Source and more information: Wikipedia - Savoy Hormann Bidakara Hotel ]

     

1930's Micheline streamlined railcar at the Citi du Train (National Railway Museum) in Mulhouse, France. These cars utilized a set of special flanged rubber tires with aluminum safety rings inside.(see the 3rd and 4th photos in this set). This view peaks into the engine compartment, at right is the doorway leading to the elevated driver's compartment (the engineer had a "bubble" above the roof line).

 

The rubber-tired railcar concept was also trialed in America, see this interesting page on the Classic Streamliners website:https://www.classicstreamliners.com/rpc-budd-michelin.html

 

A very interesting film from the Micheline archives about their rubber-tired railcars can be found here: www.michelin.com/eng/innovation/fields-of-innovation/tire...

This final WIP picture is just to show how everything looks on my New York Central streamlined 4-6-4 before I receive my two orders from the 13th. (This should happen next week I hope)

 

Thoughts?

Measurements 33.25 inches wide x 19 inches deep x 32 inches tall.

Streamlined R3 heads the north bound Boat Train. D G Wherrett photo

American Freedom Train steam locomotive # X4449, Southern Pacific semi-streamlined oil burning GS-4 class LIMA built 4-8-4 Northern, is seen at the Uceta Railroad Yard & Shop Complex on a foggy night in Tampa, Florida, 1976. The locomotive recently arrived in the yard with it's display train and will shortly continue on is display tour. The train is operating on Seaboard Coast Line rails throughout most of Florida.

60007 'Sir Nigel Gresley' waits to take the 1440 from Grosmont to Pickering

Yas Island Yacht Club’s streamlined curvilinear form was conceived as an iconic landmark on the brand new Yas Marina and F1 Track and makes an emphatic contribution to the leisure and hospitality facilities already within the precinct.

 

The complex incorporates various 5-star club uses within high quality contemporary interiors including restaurants, bars, lounges, function rooms, outdoor deck areas and associated administration, retail and car parking components.

 

A composition of dynamic and fluid forms link the buildings to the nautical theme, the heritage of the locale and the new F1 character of Yas Island. Yas Island Yacht Club is designed to excite, inspire and strengthen the concept that is Yas.

 

Distinguished by its sparkling white exterior shells against the backdrop of the Yas Marina and F1 Track, the sculpted forms of the two main buildings are reflected in a series of surrounding water features set into a lush garden landscape. A matrix of crystal LED façade lights integrated into the exterior shells enable their transformation into giant pixelated viewing screens against the night sky.

See the set for a later streamlined version of this sketch.

 

Here first a Dutch text. After that: a story about this cartoon in English and humoristic comments.

 

4. DE HIGH TECH VUINISBAK MAAKTE PER ONGELUK EEN GEVANGENE. DIE ZIT NU KLEM IN HET SYSTEEM.

 

Hoe kunnen mensen zo DWAAS zijn? Klem raken in hun vuilnisbak?

Maar het kan gebeuren als hun ketting met vuilniskaart onder het deksel raakt bij het bukken.

De pas zit dan onder het gesloten deksel en dat deksel gaat niet open zonder pas.

 

Gebruikers hebben wat opmerkingen:

 

Ondergrondse berging kan prima zijn. Ingenieus! Maar niet als mensen het vuilnis en klein grof vuil naast de stortkoker zetten. Wegens OBSTRUCTIES. Naar gezicht..vies..stank. Het is weer wel leuk als er iets bruikbaars bij staat, een vaasje of zo.

 

Waarom geen gewoon deksel zonder pas?

Dit is toch duur, kwetsbaar en lastig?

Moeten we later per zak gaan betalen? Is dat de reden?

Mensen in mijn buurt vertellen elkaar: er is nog een gewone container, een straat verderop. Die gebruiken we liever. Dan lopen we maar een straatje om. De inwerpzuil bevordert zo "afvaltoerisme" hoewel het voorkomen daarvan een reden voor het chipkaart systeem zou zijn. En als een bedrijf extra afval kwijt wil - dat heet ook afvaltoerisme - organiseert het wel even een vuilnispasje.

Sommige gemeentes noemen het pasje: milieupas. Wat doet die pas voor het milieu? Mensen hebben toch huisvuil, al wordt het lastiger gemaakt het weg te gooien.

Dus waarom die pas? DIE REGISTREERT WIE HET DEKSEL KLEM ZET MET EEN GEHEEL GEVULDE (TE VOLLE?) ZAK. DE LAATSTE GEBRUIKER...Is dat de reden?

 

Waarom geen ruime stortkoker?

Mensen gooien nu maar kleine boodschappentasjes of pedaalemmerzakjes in de inwerpzuil. Ze willen geen dure vuilniszakken verspillen. Dat is lastig.

En een oud mandje of matje, dat past er niet in.

Dat is geen grof vuil, toch..Dat leggen mensen dan naast de stortzuil. Dus rommel op straat.

Mensen moeten eerst de dingen in mootjes hakken? Of platstampen? Zagen? Dat kunnen sommigen niet eens. En..waarom? De afvalservice heeft daar machinale pletters voor.

Of..via internet moeten mensen nu een formulier invullen of bellen: ik heb hier een kapotte pan. Grof vuil nu. Graag afspraak over twee? - vier? - weken. Voor ophalen. Dan zet ik die pan wel volgens de regels om 7.00 in de ochtend buiten voor mijn huis? Dat is lastig en rommelig. En..de vuilnisophaaldienst moet al dat kleinvuil - nu grofvuil - apart ophalen. Deze hoog te waarderen dienst wordt al zo zwaar belast met het verzamelen van plastic, papier, groenteafval op allerlei data in de straten. Dus waarom geen gewone ruime stortkoker?

 

De reaktie van een van mijn lezers - de heer Blunder - op de Handleiding: dat kan ik allemaal niet onthouden. Ik ga mijn vuilnis wel in de tuin van de buurvrouw begraven..Wat een trutmutsig, betuttelend systeem.... De vele reakties die ik kreeg van lezers: er staan steeds bergen vuilnis naast die zuilen...ze gaan niet open en ze zijn te klein. En..hiervoor ook al een pasje? Voor mijn vuilnisbak ook al?

Kortom; Waarom een te nauwe inwerpzuil met een overbodig, duur, hinderlijk deksel met pasje? Is ooit echt onderzocht wat gebruikers hiervan vinden?

 

Hoe is het mogelijk klem te raken in een vuilnissysteem? Hoe is het mogelijk dat gemeentes al een aantal jaren deze high tech inwerpzuilen met OBS (Ondergronds Inbreng Systeem) in de straten neerzetten? Met al deze overbodige nadelen en kosten? Het is toch geen klemmend probleem iets beters te bedenken? Genoeg andere ontwerpen. Zie bv. bij de commentaren hier (onder de Engelse tekst): mijn link naar een prima ontwerp voor een handige en goedkopere inwerpzuil (ook nog met bloemperkje) 30-11-03 gepubliceerd door TU. Delft student Tim Janssen. Een ruime buis met simpel deksel zou overigens ook kunnen en kost het minste geld.

Einde.

 

Later nog informatie: zie Wikipedia.nl: het Diftarsysteem. Men wil per huishouden het afval registreren en laten betalen: gedifferentieerd tarief per huishouden.

In sommige gemeentes ook minicontainers met een chip die registreert hoe vaak de minicontainer van een huishouden wordt geleegd.

4. THE HIGH TECH GARBAGECONTAINER MADE A PRISONER. ACCIDENTALLY OFCOURSE.

 

How can people be so FOOLISH? To become prisoner of their garbage container?

It is such a clever new high tech system.

But they manage to bow over the container while it closes..The container closes on their garbage bag and - with bad luck - also on the chip card that hangs on this chain around their neck.

So they can not open their container.

They have no chip card to open the container anymore. This card is inside the container.

With bad luck their head is too big to escape. They need help of course.

A perfect system that functions with fools...

But..why not a container with a simple lid that you can open with one hand?

Is there a logical reason for this complex and expensive HIGH TECH garbage chip card system?

Who knows? During some years it is placed in the streets of several cities now. See in the comments below a link to a better design - with flowers - published in 2011 by a Dutch student (Tim Janssen) of the Technological University, Delft, Holland. A more simple design is also possible.

 

Drawing 2012.

In 1939, as part of the New York World's Fair, the London Midland & Scottish Railway undertook the mammoth task of releasing one of their streamlined locomotives and matching train sets and shipping them across the Atlantic for display as part of the Transportation exhibits in New York. This was not the first time the LMSR had shown such panache as in 1933 they had sent the Royal Scot train to the United States on a tour.

 

The locomotive seen 'here' and that was displayed at the Fair following a journey around the US was badged up as 6220 'Coronation' and carried the streamlined crimson livery; it was in fact locomotive 6229 Duchess of Hamilton disguised and the original 6220, one of the first five of the larger class, originally carried the streamlined 'Caledonian Blue' livery. The whole Fair was overshadowed by the outbreak of war in 1939 and the train was effectively stranded in the US. The locomotive returned to the UK in 1942 and regained its original identity the following year. The carriages had to wait until 1946 until being repatriated.

 

The leaflet opens to describe the importance of the LMS and its services along with descriptions of the territory it served. There was a similar leaflet, printed in red, that was issued during the Exhibition in New York City.

youtu.be/tirkqTCcbjc

 

Building guide for my own Lego creation - 139 parts, size 24.6 x 3.2 x 3.8 in studs.

 

The model is available here: www.bricklink.com/v3/studio/design.page?idModel=815496.

 

The inspiration was the American steam locomotive 4-6-2 2906, but I believe that you will see another steam engine in my model :)

4000 S-4-A was rebuilt from 3002 in 1937. With increased operation of streamlined trains The "Q"convert one of rebuilt hudson the 4000 into a streamlined shroud and name the engine after a Greek God Aeolus keeper of the winds. Today 4000 on display @ LaCross Wis.

sign

Tram Blackpool English Electic Railcoach 680

 

Wikipedia description

 

The English Electric Railcoach cars were 45 streamlined enclosed single deck trams built by English Electric between 1933-1935. They were numbered 200-224 and 264-283. None of these remained in their original form, with 10 cars (272-281) rebuilt as towing cars for the Progress Twin Set cars in the 1950s and 1960s, 2 cars rebuilt as illuminated cars in the 1960s (209 as the Western Train Locomotive and 222 as the Hovertram), No. 264 rebuilt in 1964 with flat cab-ends and rounded corners, No. 618 (271) rebuilt in 1968 with tapered cab-ends and the last 11 surviving cars as well as Nos. 264 and 618 (220-221, 224, 264-271 and 282-283) rebuilt as the One-Man Operated (OMO) cars in the 1970s. The other 20 cars were scrapped.

 

English Electric Railcoach car No. 264 was rebuilt in 1964 with flat cab-ends and rounded corners, resembling the Coronation cars and the Twin Set cars. No. 264 was also given exterior plastic panelling to reduce its weight, but was returned to aluminium panelling due the plastic warping and becoming discoloured. No. 264 became No. 611 in 1968. English Electric Railcoach car No. 618 was rebuilt in 1968 with tapered cab-ends, increasing its capacity from 48 to 56. Prior to being rebuilt as the OMO cars, the last 11 cars remaining in their original form, as well as Nos. 264 and 618 (271) were renumbered in 1968: 220-221 became 608-609, 224 became 610, 264-271 became 611-618 and 282-283 became 619-620.

 

The former Twin Set towing cars 678–680 (278-280) were converted back to single trams with cabs at both ends. English Electric Railcoach tram No. 679 was given an all-over advert for Mecca Bingo in 1994, which featured two big fibreglass bears fitted to the roof, with one on each end. The advert and fibreglass bears were removed in 1995. The last of these in the active fleet, No. 680, was withdrawn in 2008. 678 was preserved by Fleetwood Heritage Leisure Trust in 2011. 679 was preserved by the Lancastrian Transport Trust until 2013, when it joined the retained heritage fleet in Blackpool and will eventually be restored into original condition and regain its original pre-1968 number of 279. 680 was preserved at the Heaton Park Tramway in Manchester in 2011. During December 2013, 680 was transferred to Beamish Museum for an operational loan deal and entered service there. In April 2015, No. 680 was transferred to its permanent home at Heaton Park Tramway and entered service there. In August 2015, No. 680 was transferred to Blackpool for an initial 2-year loan and was repainted into 1990s green and cream livery with black window surrounds.

I just can't pass up an airstream.

 

These are a few Streamlined and Semi-streamlined steam locomotives in HO scale. All are brass, except the two British LNER locomotives. ATSF Blue Goose - 4-6-4 Crown Model by PFM.

Some background:

The Kawasaki Ki-78 was originally designated KEN III and was a high-speed research aircraft developed to investigate laminar profile wings with high wing loadings. Early in 1938 a high-speed research program was started at the Aeronautical Research Institute of the University of Tokyo for a small single-seat aircraft.

 

The KEN III, designed at the Aeronautical Research Institute and built at Kawasaki Kokuki Kogyo K.K. to investigate flying behaviour at very high speed. All-metal construction was used in combination with a small thin wing with a laminar flow profile and a sharp leading edge. Furthermore, the research aircraft featured a streamlined minimum cross-section fuselage and was fitted with a licence-built Daimler-Benz DB 601A engine. For short duration power boost methanol/water injection was used, and cooling was improved by a 45 kW (60 hp) turbine driven cooling fan for the radiators in the rear fuselage flanks, leaning the wings as clean as possible.

 

By the outbreak of the war, the whole project was taken over by the Imperial Japanese Army who gave it the military type designation Ki-78. Kawasaki received the order to build two prototypes of the Ki-78, construction of which was started in September 1941. The first was completed more than a year later and was flown for the first time on 26 December 1942.

 

The engineers had ambitious plans: beyond the experimental nature of the aircraft the Ki-78 was earmarked for the absolute flying top speed record and the IJA was highly interested in a fast fighter derivative.

However, the Ki-78 was found to be extremely difficult to fly at low speeds and had poor stall characteristics. The aircraft was heavier than the design estimates, which increased the wing loading. Even with the special flaps and drooping ailerons, takeoff and landing speeds were both high at 127 mph (205 km/h) and 106 mph (170 km/h) respectively. In addition, elevator flutter was experienced at the relatively low speed of 395 mph (635 km/h).

 

High-speed flight tests were started in April 1943, and during the Ki-78’s 31st flight on 27 December, the aircraft achieved its maximum speed of 434.7 mph (699.6 km/h) at 11,572 ft (3,527 m). While this was basically an impressive performance, this was considerably less than the program’s speed goal of 528 mph (850 km/h). A feasibility study to improve the Ki-78 flight performance showed that extensive airframe modifications were needed and consequently the project was officially terminated after the 32nd flight on 11 January 1944. The second Ki-78 was never completed.

 

The single Ki-78 survived the war, but it was crushed by American forces at Gifu Air Field in 1945.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 8.1 m (26 ft 7 in)

Wingspan: 8 m (26 ft 3 in)

Height: 3.07 m (10 ft 1 in)

Wing area: 11 m2 (120 sq ft)

Empty weight: 1,930 kg (4,255 lb)

Gross weight: 2,300 kg (5,071 lb)

 

Powerplant:

1× Daimler-Benz DB 601A V-12 inverted liquid-cooled piston engine

rated at 1,160 kW (1,550 hp) with Water/Methanol injection for short durations

Performance:

Maximum speed: 700 km/h (435 mph; 378 kn) at 3,500 m (11,500 ft)

Range: 600 km (373 mi; 324 nmi)

Service ceiling: 8,000 m (26,000 ft)

Wing loading: 209 kg/m2 (43 lb/sq ft)

Power/mass: 0.373 kW/kg (0.2273 hp/lb)

 

Armament:

None

  

The kit and its assembly:

Another group build contribution, again for the Arawasi Wild Eagles Blog which ran its sixth competitionn in late 2017 under the motto "Prototypes" (no whifs). As a consequence, this is a real-world aircraft, depicting the only Ki-78 prototype late in ist career, when it eventually carried an all-orange livery with photo calibration markings.

 

The kit is of AZ Model’s Ki-78, and this one is actually the leftover sister ship of the early two-kit-boxings that was converted into a fictional Ki-78 Kai fighter that was thought about, but never realized.

 

The kit is simple and a typical short-run offering. You need some experience to get it together and expect rather mediocre fit and some putty work. Even though I built it mostly OOB I did some changes:

- A rear bulkhead was added in the cockpit

- Different main wheels were mounted

- Added struts for the landing gear covers.

- The propeller received a new, longer axis construction

  

Painting and markings:

AZ Models offer the prototype in two liveries, the early NMF Ki-78 and the late scheme of the aircraft in overall orange. While this sounds simple, finding an appropriate tone that resembles the IJA trainer and prototype orange is not easy. Among the choice of six potential tones I eventually settled for Humbrol's 82 (Orange Lining), and for the basic painting I added a bit of 132 (Red Satin). Evyrething was painted with brushed.

After an initial overall coat the kit received a light black ink wash and panels were highlighted through post-shading/dry-brushing, and panel lines enhanced with a thin, very soft pencil.

 

All interior surfaces were painted with Aodake primer - actually a clear blue lacquer. In order to mimic this look, Cockpit and landing gear wells/covers were initially painted with aluminum (Revell 99), and, once dry, overpainted with a turquise, water-based clear window paint - a great contrast to the orange.

 

The decals come from the OOB sheet, and I added small markings at the wing tips - since only BW pics are available from the original Ki-78 I assume that these are white? Another addition are silver heat protection shields behind the exhaust stubs, also created with generic decal sheet.

 

After a little exhaust soot on the flanks with graphite the kit was sealed with acrylic varnish, in this case with a 4:1 mix of matt and gloss varnish, for a light shine.

  

A simple kit, realized relatively quickly, since it posed no major challenges. The result looks good, though, an elegant and beefy, small aircraft, and the orange livery stands out well.