1:34 scale 3-yard dumpster with "metal" lids built out of styrene plastic. Done up with old burgundy Waste Management of Kennewick decals

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

In September 1952, the United States Navy announced a requirement for a new fighter. It was to have a top speed of Mach 1.2 at 30,000 ft (9,144.0 m) with a climb rate of 25,000 ft/min (127.0 m/s), and a landing speed of no more than 100 mph (160 km/h). Korean War experience had demonstrated that 0.50 inch (12.7 mm) machine guns were no longer sufficient, and as the result the new fighter was to carry a 20 mm (0.79 in) cannon. In response, the Vought team led by John Russell Clark, created the V-383. Unusual for a fighter, the aircraft had a high-mounted wing which necessitated the use of a fuselage-mounted short and light landing gear.

From this point on, the F-8Qs lost their raison d’être, since the Argentinian air force already had, with the Mirage III and IAI Nesher/Dagger, capable and less costly land-based interceptors available. Due to lack of spares and funds, the remaining Argentinian Crusaders (after several accidents, only eight F-8Qs were still in service and only five of them actually operational) were in 1988 transferred to Villa Reynolds air base in Western Central Argentina, grounded and stored in the open, where they quickly deteriorated. Eventually, all F-8Qs were scrapped in the early Nineties. Only one specimen survived and has been preserved in its original Gull Grey/White livery as a gate guard at the Naval Aviation Command headquarters at Comandante Espora Airport, Bahía Blanca.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 54 ft 3 in (16.54 m)

Wingspan: 35 ft 8 in (10.87 m)

Height: 15 ft 9 in (4.80 m)

Wing area: 375 sq ft (34.8 m²)

Aspect ratio: 3.4

Airfoil: root: NACA 65A006 mod;

tip: NACA 65A005 mod

Zero-lift drag coefficient: CD0.0133

Drag area: 5.0 sq ft (0.46 m²)

Empty weight: 17,541 lb (7,956 kg)

Gross weight: 29,000 lb (13,154 kg)

Max takeoff weight: 34,000 lb (15,422 kg)

Fuel capacity: 1,325 US gal (1,103.3 imp gal; 5,015.7 L)

Powerplant:

1× Pratt & Whitney J57-P-20A afterburning turbojet engine

with 10,700 lbf (48 kN) dry thrust and 18,000 lbf (80 kN) with afterburner

Performance:

Maximum speed: 1,066 kn (1,227 mph, 1,974 km/h) at 36,000 ft (10,973 m)

Maximum speed: Mach 1.86

Cruise speed: 495 kn (570 mph, 917 km/h)

Combat range: 394 nmi (453 mi, 730 km)

Ferry range: 1,507 nmi (1,734 mi, 2,791 km) with external fuel

Service ceiling: 58,000 ft (18,000 m)

Rate of climb: 19,000 ft/min (97 m/s)

Lift-to-drag: 12.8

Wing loading: 77.3 lb/sq ft (377 kg/m²)

Thrust/weight: 0.62

Armament:

4× 20 mm (0.79 in) Colt Mk 12 cannons in lower fuselage, 125 RPG

2× side fuselage mounted Y-pylons for up to four AIM-9 Sidewinders and/or Zuni rockets

2× underwing pylon stations with a capacity of 4,000 lb (2,000 kg)

The kit and its assembly:

This relatively simple build was triggered by the “In the navy” group build at whatifmodelers.com in April/May 2020, even though I started it too late for the deadline.

After having recently read a lot of stuff about the Falklands/Malvinas conflict, I wondered if Argentina could not have procured a dedicated fighter for its single carrier – and the F-8 from US surplus stocks was a perfect candidate for the potential timeframe of the Seventies, when the type was retired from USN/USMC service or, in part, modernized and/or put up for sale, like the machines for the Philippines. The only real-world problem would have been the weight: the F-8E weighed up to 15 tons, while the Super Étendard, which was reportedly already hard to launch from Veinticinco de Mayo, had a MTOW of “only” 12 tons. Not certain if the F-8’s afterburner engine and the wings’ raised angle of incidence would have been enough to launch a Crusader? Well, it’s whifworld, after all. 😉

The basis is the Hasegawa F-8E, a kit that I had originally stashed away as a donor for a different project.

The model was built mostly OOB, I just sanded the dorsal avionics hump away and gave the machine a pair of drop tanks under the wings (from an A-4) – a rather unusual sight on a Crusader, and it looks even more weird with the wings in the raised position! The Sidewinders, relatively simple pieces, too, were taken OOB, since they look very much like early AIM-9Bs.

The kit goes together well, but it is a simple affair and you see the mold’s age. You get raised (though fine) panel lines, a rather simple cockpit tub with flat dashboards (for decals), a clumsy seat and no cockpit back wall at all. Fit is basically O.K., but the windscreen refused to fit well, and the hatch turned out to be somewhat too narrow for the rear bulkhead you are supposed to glue into it. Furthermore, the fuselage halves, especially on the underside, have shallow shrink areas close to the seams, so that PSR is mandatory. I would, not call the kit my first choice for the F-8 (which would rather be the Academy kit), but you get the Hasegawa kit at reasonable prices, and I originally purchased it as a body donor bank.

Since the kit lacks a proper air intake duct, sanding the fuselage halves inside of the respective orifice is not easy - I used a soft acrylic putty and left the radome away until the job was done. Furthermore, I added a visual blocker inside of the intake, a piece of black foamed styrene under the cockpit tub - otherwise you have direct sight down the empty interior in a head-on view.

Further small additions are some blade antennae on the hull and on the fin, inspired by the Argentinian Skyhawks.

Painting and markings:

Again, I wanted a rather subtle, semi-authentic look. The most natural choice would certainly have been a Light Gull Grey/White livery like the A-4Qs, but for a twist and because I like the late French F-8Ps in their all-over dark grey livery, I settled upon something that resembles the French/Argentinian Super Étendards: a dark, bluish-grey upper surface with white undersides and the upper colors well wrapped around the wings’ leading edges.

Concerning the French grey tone there are many different opinions and recommendations – ranging from Dark Gull Grey (FS 36231, which is IMHO much too light) over Gunship Grey (FS 36118) to dark blue.

I settled for Humbrol 79 (Blue Grey) as basic tone, which is AFAIK Humbrol’s interpretation of the German RAL 7012 (Basaltgrau), a tone that is very close to the British Dark Sea Grey. The undersides, including the landing gear, were painted with acrylic semi-gloss white from a rattle can. This was done as the first step, with a masked low waterline. Then the grey was applied by brush, and also wrapped around the wings’ leading edges. In order to improve the camouflage effect from above, the pylons as well as the outer sides of the stabilizers under the tail were painted in blue grey, too.

The flags on the rudder as well as the on the stabilizers were painted with white and Humbrol 48 (Mediterranean Blue), too, just the sun emblems on the fin are decals. Since the F-8 has, unlike the A-4 or the Sue, all-mowing stabilizers, I decided to paint the whole tail surface in white and blue and not just the trailing edge. This looks quite bright, but it is IMHO a great detail that sets this whif really apart and shows some pride.

The afterburner fairing was painted with a mix of Humbrol 27002 and 27003 (Polished Aluminum and Steel Metallizer) and later treated with graphite for a burnt look.

After an overall black ink wash the upper surfaces were treated with dry-brushed post shading (Humbrol 106 and 156). The decals come primarily from an Academy Super Étendard, augmented by markings from various decals from an Airfix Falklands War kit set sheet (e.g. the sun icons for the fin flash).

The silver leading edges of the wings, stabilizers and the fin were created with decal sheet material. the same material in black was used for walkway markings.

Decals come primarily from an Acedemy Super Étendard sheet, the tactical code was modified. Only the sun icons on the fin flash had to be procured from a different source (an Airfix A-4 Skyhawk sheet). The stencils come from the Hasegawa OOB sheet.

Finally, the kit received an all-over coat of matt acrlyic varnish.

This fantastic electronic JAZ clock is pure 70s Mod. JAZ was a french clock maker with a tradition of plastic designs beginning as early as the 1920s. This beauty is made of ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) plastic with face made of painted aluminum. It was intended for export as the calendar is in portuguese. Sadly, it is not working and it misses its face lens.

32 cm in diameter.

An Art Deco JAZ design can be seen here:

www.flickr.com/photos/galessa/604851987

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

In September 1939, the US Army was ill-prepared as far as armored vehicles, training and tactics went. Soon, it became clear that a new model, which could be favorably compared to the European models, had to be studied for mass production. The very early M1 Combat Car was nothing more than a very small tank with two machine guns. Its main purpose was scouting and as such ordered for “cavalry” units. This was in 1937, and became the forerunner of all light tanks to come.

In 1935, a new model, the M2 Light Tank, was designed. At first, it was an immediate upgrade of the M1, but with the heavier .50 (12.7 mm) caliber machine gun, immediately followed by the M2A2 with twin turrets equipped with .30 (7.62 mm) caliber M1919 machine guns. The “Mae West” gave way in 1938 to a small series of M2A3 37 mm (1.45 in) single turret tanks, and then to the final M2A4 in 1940, with improved armor, motorization and equipment. These fought at Guadalcanal with the US Marine Corps, and with the British Army through Lend-Lease, performing well in Burma and India against the Japanese, despite being obsolete.

After the Africa campaign, British Stuarts and Parsival took successfully part in the liberation of Italy. About 500 were produced, 160 of them were delivered to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease, the rest was exclusively operated by the British Army in Europe. Parsivals, M3s, M3A3s, and M5s continued in British service until the end of the war.

Specifications:

Crew: Three (commander, driver, radio operator)

Weight: 10.8 tons

Length: 14ft 2in (4.33 m)

Width: 7ft 4in (2.33 m)

Height: 2.49 metres (8 ft 1 1/2 in)

Suspension: Christie system

Ground clearance: 16.5" (419 mm)

Fuel capacity: 54 US gal (200 l)

Armor:

0.52 - 2 in (13 - 51 mm)

Performance:

Speed:

- Maximum, road: 40 mph (65 km/h)

- Cross country: 22 mph (36 km/h)

Climbing capability:

- 40% side slope and 60% max grade

- Vertical obstacle of 24 inches (61 cm)

- 72 inches (1,8 m) trench crossing

Fording depth: 36 inches (91 cm)

Operational range: 100 ml (160 km) on road with internal fuel

Power/weight: 23.1 hp/t

Engine:

1× Guiberson T-1020 9-cylinder radial diesel engine with a 1,021 cu in (16.73 l) displacement,

delivering 250 hp (190 kW)

Transmission:

Hydramatic, 4 speeds forward, 1 reverse

Armament:

1× 0.5” (12.7) mm M2 machine gun with 900 rounds

3× 0.303” (7,62 mm) M1919A4 machine guns

(co-axial in the turret, in the front bow and as an AA weapon on top of the turret)

with a total of 6,750 rounds

2× smoke dischargers on the turret’s right side

The kit and its assembly:

This M3 conversion was spawned by the idea of a dedicated recce variant of the popular Stuart tank. Originally, I just planned to use the chassis from a Hasegawa 1:72 kit and replace the turret with a smaller option (including lighter armament), I already had organized a resin turret for/from an American T17 “Staghound” WWII recce car. But, as always, you can drive a simple idea easily further, so that I also thought about a different suspension and other modifications that would improve the tank’s agility. This led to a Christie-style running gear and the deletion of the M3’s machine gun sponsons, which were in practice used as storage space after the machine guns had been deleted.

The Staghound turret came from a ModelTrans/Silesian Models conversion set, which also includes a nice commander figure as well as two fuel drums. The sponsons were simply cut away and the gaps filled with 0.5 mm styrene sheet – a small modification, and thanks to the M3’s boxy hull design a simple affair. Only some small PSR on the side wall implants as well as on the mudguards (which are segmented) was necessary, and this modification changes the M3’s look considerably!

The running gear was scratched and more complicated, in particular because assembly and painting had to go hand in hand. The eight road wheels actually come from a 1:72 T-72 tank from ModelCollect, their width perfectly matched the track’s and they had the same size as the M3’s large idler wheel at the rear. The road wheels’ depth just looks a little disturbing, but not implausible. The trailing idler wheel (using the original suspension arm) defined the stance and the other wheels were mounted on plastic rods to the hull, with simulated suspensions arms (styrene profile) behind them. Since the drive and idler wheels’ position effectively remained unchanged, I was able to use the OOB vinyl tracks, which are really smooth and easy to handle. However, this move necessitated to retain the return wheels – I wanted to omit them, for an even more Christie-esque look, but without them the track would have been too long and slacked through, with a lot of space between the tracks and the mudguards. Nevertheless, the return wheels’ position was slightly changed, in order to reflect the modified road wheels’ position. And the whole affair simply looks different from the original, so I am fine with it.

In order to liven the small tank up, I added the fuel drums from the Staghound set to the rear fenders and added some more boxes and folded tarpaulins (made from paper tissue drenched in thinned white glue) on the mudguards, somewhat masking the new side walls from sight. I also mounted the M3’s OOB AA machine gun to the turret.

Painting and markings:

I wanted a Northern Africa paint scheme and at first considered the iconic Caunter scheme, but then I thought that, since this livery was also used on the real British Stuarts, I rather wanted something different.

I eventually settled for a simple two-tone scheme, used on British cruiser tanks like the Crusader as well as on M3 Lee medium tanks of American origin. The basic colors I used are Humbrol 168 (Hemp) for the Light Stone tone, and Humbrol 98 (Chocolate) for the dull, dark brown.

As common practice, the basic colors were separated with thin, white lines in order to emphasize the contrast between them. Sometimes in practice, an additional black line was added, too, but due to the model’s small size I just painted a white line.

Another common practice of the British army, esp. on cruiser tanks with large wheels, was to paint the front and rear road wheels in a uniform, light color, while the wheels between them became dark – an attempt to mimic a lorry, esp. when a light “Sunshield” canopy was mounted over the hull that resembled a truck’s outline.

The model received a light wash with a mix of black, grey and brown, the decals (taken from the OOB sheet) were applied next. Over this came some dry-brushing with light grey and ochre and the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (from the rattle can). Once the tracks were mounted, the lower areas of the tank were finally dusted with a mix of sand and light grey pigments.

Even though the Hasegawa M3 was a simple basis to start with, the conversions, esp. the running gear, were quite challenging. But I like the result a lot: the Parsival looks like a slimmed-down race variant of the M3, just what I wanted to achieve, and the British camouflage suits the small tank well, too – the white contrast line adds an exotic touch.

Some background:

The VF-1 was developed by Stonewell/Bellcom/Shinnakasu for the U.N. Spacy by using alien Overtechnology obtained from the SDF-1 Macross alien spaceship. Its production was preceded by an aerodynamic proving version of its airframe, the VF-X. Unlike all later VF vehicles, the VF-X (sometimes referred to as VF-X1) was strictly a conventional/non-transformable jet aircraft, even though it incorporated many structural components and several key technologies that were vital for the transformable VF-1’s successful development that ran in parallel. Therefore, the VF-X was never intended as an air superiority fighter, but rather a flight-capable analogue test bed and proof of concept for the VF-1’s basic layout and major components. In this role, however, the VF-X made vital contributions to systems’ development that were later incorporated into the VF-1’s serial production and sped the program up considerably.

The fighter remained active in many second line units and continued to show its worthiness years later, e. g. through Milia Jenius who would use her old VF-1 fighter in defense of the colonization fleet - 35 years after the type's service introduction.

General characteristics:

Accommodation: One pilot in a Marty & Beck Mk-7 zero/zero ejection seat

Length 14.23 meters

Wingspan 14.78 meters (at 20° minimum sweep)

Height 3.84 meters

Empty weight: 13.25 metric tons

Standard T-O mass: 18.5 metric tons

Power Plant:

2x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry/P&W/Roice FF-2001 thermonuclear reaction turbine engines, output 650 MW each, rated at 11,500 kg in standard or in overboost (225.63 kN x 2)

4 x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry NBS-1 high-thrust vernier thrusters (1 x counter reverse vernier thruster nozzle mounted on the side of each leg nacelle/air intake, 1 x wing thruster roll control system on each wingtip);

Performance:

Top speed: Mach 2.71 at 10,000 m; Mach 3.87 at 30,000+ m

Thrust-to-weight ratio: empty 3.47; standard T-O 2.49; maximum T-O 1.24

Armament:

None installed, but the VF-X had 4x underwing hard points for a wide variety of ordnance, plus a ventral hardpoint for a Howard GU-11 55 mm three-barrel Gatling gun pod with 200 RPG, fired at 1,200 rds/min or other stores like test instruments

The model and its assembly:

Another submission to the “Prototypes” group build at whatifmodelers.com in July 2020. Being a VF-1 fan (and have built maybe twenty o these simple Arii kits), adding a VF-X was, more or less, a must – even more so because I had a suitable Valkyrie Fighter kit at hand for the conversion. As a side note, I have actually built something quite similar from a VF-1D many years ago: a fictional, non-transformable advanced trainer, without knowing about the VF-X at all.

Thanks to the “Macross - Perfect Memory” source book, the differences between the transformable VF-1 and its early testbed were easy to identify:

- Fixed legs with faired ducts from the intakes on (thighs)

- Ankle recesses disappeared

- Less and slightly different panel lines on the back and on the nose

- ventral head unit deleted and a respective fairing installed instead

- Levelled underside (shoulder fairings of the folded arms were cut down)

- Leg attachment points on the nose deleted

- No small, circular vernier thrusters all around the hull

- Some new/different venting grills (created mostly with 0.5mm black decal stripes)

Beyond the changes, the VF-1A was basically built OOB. Thankfully, the VF-X already features the later VF-1’s vectored thrust nozzles/feet, so that no changes had to be made in this respect. A pilot figure was added to the cockpit for the beauty pics, and after the flight scenes had been shot, the canopy remained open on a swing arm for static display. For the same reason, the model was built with the landing gear extended.

As a test aircraft, the underwing pylons and their AMM-1 ordnance were left away and the attachment points hidden with putty. I also omitted the ventral gun pod and left the aircraft clean. However, for the flight scene pictures, I implanted an adapter for a display holder made from wire.

In order to emphasize the test vehicle character of the VF-X, I gave the model a scratched spin recovery parachute installation between the fins, using a real world F-22 testbed as benchmark. It consists of styrene profiles, quite a delicate construction. For the same reason I gave the VF-X a long sensor boom on the nose, which changes the Valkyrie’s look, too. Finally, some small blade antennae were added to the nose and to the spine behind the cockpit.

Painting and markings:

To be honest, I have no idea if there was only a single VF-X prototype in the Macross universe, or more. Just one appears in the TV series in episode #33, and lack of suitable information and my personal lack of Japanese language proficiency prevents any deeper research. However, this would not keep me from inventing a personal interpretation of the canonical VF-X, especially because I do not really like the original livery from the TV series: an overall light grey with some simple black trim and “TEST” written on the (fixed) legs. Yamato did an 1:60 scale toy of the VF-X, but it was/is just a VF-1 with a ventral fairing; they added some shading to the basic grey – but this does not make the aircraft more attractive, IMHO.

When I looked at the original conceptual drawing of the VF-X in the “Macross - Perfect Memory” source book, however, I was immediately reminded of the F-15 prototypes from the Seventies (and this program used a total of twelve machines!). These featured originally a light grey (FS 36375?) overall base, to which bright dayglo orange markings on wings, fins and fuselage were soon added – in a very similar pattern to the VF-X. I think the VF-X livery was actually inspired by this, the time frame matches well with the production of the Macross TV series, too, and that’s what I adapted for my model.

In order to come close to the F-15 prototype livery, I gave “my” VF-X an overall basic coat of RAL 7047 “Telegrau 4”, one of German Telekom’s corporate colors and a very pale grey that can easily be mistaken for white when you do not have a contrast reference.

The cockpit received a medium grey finish, the ejection seat became black with brown cushions; the pilot figure is a 1:100 seated passenger from an architecture supplies, painted like an early VF-1 pilot in a white/blue suit. The jet nozzles/feet were painted with Revell 91 (Iron) and later treated with grinded graphite for a more metallic finish. The landing gear became classic white (I used Revell 301, which is a very pure tone, as contrast to the RAL 7047 on the hull), the air intake ducts and the internal sections of the VG wings were painted with dark grey (Revell 77).

For some diversity I took inspiration from the Yamato VF-X toy and added slightly darker (Humbrol 166, RAF Light Aircraft Grey) areas to the hull and the legs. Next, the panel lines were emphasized through a thinned black ink wash, but I did no panel post shading so that the VF-X would not look too dirty or worn.

Onto this basis I applied the orange dayglo markings. On the wings and fins, these were painted – they were applied with spray paint from a rattle can, involving lots of masking. The leading edges on wings and fins were created with grey decal sheet material, too. At this stage, some surface details and more fake panel lines were added with a soft pencil.

The orange cheatline under the cockpit is a personal addition; I found that some more orange had to be added to the nose for visual balance, and I eventually went for the simple, trimmed stripe (TL Modellbau material) instead of trying to apply decal sheet material around the jagged air intakes (F-15 prototype style). The black “TEST”, “VFX” and “U.N. Spacy” markings were designed at the computer and printed on clear inkjet decal paper. Even though the “real” VF-X does not feature the UNS “kite” insignia, I decided to add them to the model. These come from the OOB sheet, which also provided most (slightly yellowed) stencils.

Finally, the model was sealed with a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).

A rather different VF-1 project (and it is – to my astonishment – #28 in my 1:100 VF-1 Fighter mode collection!!!), with more changes to the basic model kit than one might expect at first sight. VF-X and VF-1 differ considerably from each other, despite identical outlines! However, I like the outcome, and I think that going a different route from the canonical grey/black livery paid out, the bright orange markings really make this VF-X stand out, and it looks IMHO more like a testbed than the “real” aircraft from the TV series.

DISCLAIMER

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

.

Some background:

The mighty Suchoj SuCh-1 started its life in early March 1943, when the Sukhoi OKB finished work on the design of a high-speed fighter with a unique powerplant arrangement. The aircraft was an all-metal low-wing mono­plane with conventional tail surfaces. The three-section wings had constant dihedral and basically trapezoidal planform; the sta­bilizers had zero dihedral.

All in all only 120 of these powerful machines were built until the end of hostilities, as the feared mass attacks of German long range bombers did not materialize. as the Su-7 was complicated to operate and jet engines promised a far more efficient way of propulsion for high speeds, the type was already retired in 1947 and replaced by 1st generation jet fighters like the Yak-15 and MiG-9, which carried a similar armament, attained a better performance (except for the range) but weighed only half of the large and heavy SuCh-1.

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General characteristics

Crew: One

Length: 11.75 m (38 ft 5 3/4 in)

Wingspan: 13.85 m (45 ft 3 1/4 in)

Height: 5.30 m (17 ft 4 in)

Empty weight: 5.250 kg (11.565 lb)

Max. take-off weight: 8.100 kg (17.840 lb)

Powerplant:

2× Klimov VK-107A liquid-cooled V12 engines with an output of 1.650 hp (1.210 kW) each at sea level and 900 hp (650 kW) at 8.300m (27.220 ft)

Performance:

Maximum speed: 720 km/h (447 mph) at height, clean configuration

Range: 750 km (465 mi)

Service ceiling: 11.700 m (38.400 ft)

Rate of climb: 876 m/mim (2.850 ft/min)

Armament:

1× Nudelman-Richter NR-37 37mm cannon with 60 RPG, firing through the propeller hub

2× Nudelman N-23 23mm cannons with 120 RPG in the wings

Many different cannon and machine gun arrangements coulod be found, though.

*Information about the conceptual Suchoj I-2M107 was primarily gathered from the book 'OKB Suchoj', written by Yefim Gordon & Dmitriy Komissarov; Hersham (UK), 2010.

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The kit and its assembly (a long story!):

This abomination of an aircraft is/was real, even though the I-2M107 was never built – the fictional name Suchoj-Chizhevskiy SuCh-1 was actually chosen because I could not find any plausible Su-X code for a WWII fighter. Vladimir A. Chizhevskiy actually joined the Suchoj OKB in mid WWII, so I deemed this alternative to be plausible.

I had this on the agenda for a long time, but the horrors of kitbashing kept me from building it - until now. The current Anthony P memorial Group Build (for the deceased fellow member at whatifmodelers.com, RIP) was a good motivation to tackle this brute thing. Fortunately, I already had some major ingredients in store, so work could start asap.

From that, anything else was improvised from the scrap box, and with only a three side view of the I-2M107 as guidance. It became a true Frankenstein creation with...

● Fuselage and inner wings from the (horrible) NOVO Attacker

● Wings from an Italeri Fw 190 D-9 attached to them

● Nose is a resin Griffon from an Avro Lincoln conversion set from OzMods

● Tail cone is a radar nose from an F-4J Phantom II

● Tail fin is a horizontal stabilizer from a Matchbox SB2C Helldiver

● Vertical stabilizers come from a Matchbox Me 410

● Oil coolers are modified front landing gear wells from two Revell G.91 kits

● Cockpit hood comes from a Revell P-39 Airacobra

● Landing gear comes from an Italeri Fw 190 D-9, covers were modified/improvised

● Main wheels belong to a MPM Ryan Dark Shark

● Tail wheel belongs to a Matchbox Harrier

● The propeller was scratched, IIRC from a Grumman Hellcat drop tank front and blades from an Airfix A-1 Skyraider. Inside, a metal axis was mounted.

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Work started with the fuselage and the wings as separate segments.

The Attacker fuselage lost its fin and the cockpit and air intakes were simply cut away, just as the tail pipe. The resin Griffon was slightly shortened at the front, but more or less directly attached to the fuselage, after I had cut out openings for the four rows of exhaust nozzles.

Then, the new tail cone was glued onto the end and the original fairings for the Attacker's stabilizer cut away and sanded even - anything had to be made new.

The wings were a bit tricky. I had hoped to use the Attacker's OOB wings, but these were not only much too small and did not have the proper shape, they also lacked landing gear wells!

Finding a solution was not easy, and I had to improvise. After some trials I decided to cut the Attacker wing span at about the width where the guns are located, and then add Fw 190 wings.

The depth would be fine, even though the Fw 190 wings were a bit thicker, and they offered a leading edge kink which was good for the original and characteristic I-2M107's wing root extensions. The latter were sculpted from a 6mm thick core or styrene sheet, added to the Attacker parts' leading edge, and the rest, as well as the lacking Attacker wing's thickness, sculpted with 2C and later NC putty.

Furthermore I cut out and sculpted landing gear wells, another challenging, since these had to cover the Attacker/Fw 190 parts' intersection! LOTS of putty work, sanding and shaving, but as a benefit I was able to use the Attacker kit's original wing/fuselage joints. Effectively, my placement turned out to be a bit far outside, so the track appears too wide - the price to pay when you work on single parts. Anyway, I left it was it turned out, as a major correction at a late working stage would mean to tear anything apart again...

Back to the nose: adding the propeller and the cockpit into the massive nose was the next working station. The propeller had to be huge, and also needed a rather big spinner. A contraprop was ruled out, even though it would have looked great here. But eventually I settled for a scratch-built thing, made from a teardrop-shaped drop tank front onto which the four blades from a A-1 Skyraider were glued. Probably the biggest prop I have ever put onto a 1:72 scale model! Since the resin nose was massive, drilling a hole and adding a metal axis to the propeller was enough.

With that in place I started carving out a cockpit opening - it worked better and easier than expected with a mini drill and a coarse shaving head! The opening is still rather small, a seat and a pilot hardly fit, but it works - I found a rather smallish pilot figure, and added a seat and some other small details from the scrap box, just to have something inside.

For a canopy I found a very old (30 years, I guess...) clear part from a Revell P-39 Airacobra in the scrap box, which was almost perfect in shape and width. It was a bit blind and stained with ancient enamel paint, but some wet sanding and serious polishing almost got it back to translucent status. Since I would not open the cockpit, this was a sufficient solution.

The asymmetrical cockpit opening was, in an initial step, faired with styrene strips, for a rough outline, and then sculpted with 2C and later NC putty, blending it into the rest of the fuselage.

For the tail surfaces, the SB2C stabilizer was cut away at its base - it is not a bad donation piece, its shape and rudder come pretty close to the I-2M107's original design!

The stabilizers I used on my kitbash come from a Me 410, and their leading edge was a cut away so that the sweep angle would be a bit larger. They lack depth, compared to the I-2M107's original design, but since the wings have become more slender, too, I think it's a good compromise, and the best what I had at hand in the spares stash.

Finally, and before detail work could start, the wings were attached to the fuselage. I eventually set them back by ~6mm, so that the new, extended leading edge would match the respective fairing on the fuselage. The resulting gap at the trailing edge was, again, filled with 2C and NC putty.

A personal change was a different oil cooler arrangement. The original location was to be in the wings' leading edge, just in front of the landing gear wells - but that appeared a bit doubtful, as I could not find a plausible solution where the exit for the air would be? Consequently, and in order to avoid even more messy putty sculpting on the wings, I decided to re-locate the oil coolers completely, into shallow, tunnel-like fairings under the wing roots, not unlike the radiator arrangement on a Spitfire or Bf 109.

In order to check the surface quality I decided to add a coat of grey primer, once the fuselage/wing segments had been connected. This showed only minor flaws, but made another turn with NC putty and wet sanding necessary.

Now it was time for finishing touches, e .g. mounting the landing gear, completing the cockpit and adding exhaust stubs - cut individually from HO scale model railroad roof tiles and inserted into the four fuselage fairings.

The canopy was fixed into place with white glue, which also helped closing some small gaps.

.

Painting and markings:

While the I-2M107 looks odd, to say the least, I wanted to keep the paint scheme rather simple and quasi-authentic. I went for a pale grey/green camouflage, used e. g. on late war Yakovlev Yak-3 fighters.

Basic colors are Humbrol 31 (Slate Grey, it has a very greenish, even teal, hue), ModelMaster 1740 (Dark Gull Grey, FS 36231) and Humbrol 167 (Barley Grey) for the lower sides with a wavy waterline. Since only marginal surface details were left over, I decided to fake panels and panel lines with paint.

Panels were simulated with lighter shades of the basic tones (RLM 62 from ModelMaster, Humbrol 140 and 127 below), panel lines were painted with highly thinned grey acrylic paint and a special brush - in German it's called a 'Schlepppinsel', it's got very long hairs and is also used to paint scallops on car models, and similar things are used for real car tuning/custom paintwork, too.

Sure, the painted panel lines are a bit rough, but I did not want to risk any damage through manual engraving on the rather delicate mixed-media surface of the kitbashed model. For an overall look or first impression it's very good, though.

As 'highlights' I added a white spinner and half of the fin was painted white, too.

The decals were puzzled together. The flashes and the tactical code number come from a Hobby Boss La-7, the Red Stars, IIRC, belong to a vintage MiG-21F from Hasegawa. The "Rodinu" slogan actually belongs to a 1:35 Soviet Tank decals set.

Finally, after some additional dry painting with light grey, some oil stains around the engines and coolers and soot stains at the exhaust stubs and guns (painted, plus some grinded graphite, as it yields a nice, metallic shimmer that looks like oil or burnt metal), everything was sealed under a coat of matt acrylic varnish.

If it had been built, the Suchoj I-2M107 must have been an impressive aircraft - it was bigger than a P-47 Thunderbolt or an A-1 Skyraider, and one can only wonder how its field performance would have been?

Similar concepts had been underway in UK, too, e. g. for a heavy naval attack aircraft, but the I-2M107 with its asymmetrical cockpit and engine arrangement were unique. A worthy whif, even if some details like the landing gear or the borrowed nose section are not 100% 'correct'.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

The Westland Whirlwind was a British heavy fighter developed by Westland Aircraft. It was the Royal Air Force's first single-seat, twin-engine, cannon-armed fighter, and a contemporary of the Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane.

The radial-powered Whirlwind Mk. Ic remained operational with No. 73 Squadron until June 1943, when the squadron converted to the Spitfire and moved from Northern Africa to Italy in October. Until then, only six Whirlwinds had remained airworthy.

General characteristics:

Crew: One pilot

Length: 31 ft 7 1/4 in (9,65 m)

Wingspan: 45 ft 0 in (13.72 m)

Height: 11 ft 0 in (3.35 m)

Wing area: 250 ft² (23.2 m²)

Airfoil: NACA 23017-08

Empty weight: 9,400 lb (4,267 kg)

Loaded weight: 12,158 lb (5,520 kg)

Max. take-off weight: 13,120 lb (5,946 kg)

Powerplant:

2× Bristol Taurus II 14-Cylinder sleeve valve radial engines, 1,015 hp (760 kW) each

Performance:

Maximum speed: 400 mph (644 km/h) at 15.000 ft (4.570 m)

Stall speed: 95 mph (83 knots, 153 km/h) with flaps down

Range: 800 mi (696 nmi, 1.288 km)

Service ceiling: 33.500 ft (10.970 m)

Armament:

2x belt-fed two pounder (1.57 in/40 mm) Vickers S cannon, 20 RPG each

2x 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns, 500 RPG (typically armed with tracer rounds)

Option for 2x 250 lbs (115 kg) or 500 lbs (230 kg) bombs under the outer wings

The kit and its assembly

My third whiffed Westland Whirlwind - I must say that this rather obscure aircraft type has some serious potential for mods and fictional uses. The inspiration for this radial-powered variant originally came from a profile drawing of fellow modeler and illustrator FrancLab at flickr.com, who had drawn more than twenty(!) fictional Whirlwinds (check this: www.flickr.com/photos/franclab/16724098644/in/faves-14802...), including one with radial engines and in RAF Tropical Scheme colors.

The kit is, again, the vintage Airfix offering. Modifications center around the engines and the nose section, the rest remained basically OOB.

I already had to learn with my first Whirlwind conversion that mounting bigger engines on this compact aircraft is not easy, and radials, with their bigger diameter and consequentially more voluminous nacelles, would be a challenge from the design perspective.

Figuring out a solution that would be feasible and not make the sleek Whirlwind look like Popeye was not easy. I considered the transplantation of complete engine nacelles from a Matchbox Bristol Beaufighter, but eventually refrained from this idea because everything would be at least one size too big... a mistake I had done before, with very mixed results.

After several trials, I settled on a compromise, because I could not find a satisfactory 'British' solution, at least in my spares vault: the implantation of "foreign" material in the form of cowlings and nacelles from an Airfix Mitsubishi Ki-46.

The transplantation started with the removal of the original Peregrine engine nacelles from the lower wing section and gluing these to the upper half, which remained intact. Then the Ki-46’s lower nacelle half, cut away from the model’s wing in a similar fashion, was grafted onto the Whirlwind’s lower wing, ensuring that the landing gear attachment points would match with the new openings. This stunt worked very well!

As a final step, the upper Ki-46 engine nacelle half was placed on top of the Whirlwind wings’ upper side, and the radial engines were used as a ruler for the overall fit. In the end, the modified nacelles sit perfectly in place, and the original distance between the propellers as well as the landing gear’s track width could be maintained, so that the change is rather subtle.

Propellers and spinners were taken from the Airfix Whirlwind, and in order to mount them into the deep and "hollow" Ki-46 cowlings I inserted a styrene tube as a simple adapter, which would also hold the added metal axis' behind the propellers. The parts fit snuggly together.

Details like the exhaust pipes and the carburetor intakes were scratched from sprue material. The landing gear is OOB, but I had to re-create the covers from sheet material since I could only find a single pair of doors from the Ki-46 kit. On the other side, this had the benefit that the material is much thinner.

The original radiator intake slits were closed with putty and blended into the wing’s leading edge.The respective outlets on the trailing edge were sanded away.

For the guns in the nose I added two long, shallow fairings (actually drop tank halves from an Airfix G.91) and re-located the original oils cooler and gun camera fairings under the wing roots.

The original gun mounts were covered with putty, and new openings for the modified armament drilled into the re-sculpted nose section. The 2-pounders' and machine gun barrels are hollow steel needles of different diameters.

Painting and markings:

Staying somewhat true to FrancLab's profile and the North Africa theatre of operations, the paint scheme was more or less pre-defined. The Tropical scheme is a rather unusual look on this sleek aircraft, but works very well!

The standard RAF camouflage pattern for the Whirlwind was retained, but the European colors replaced with Dark Earth (Humbrol 29) and Middle Stone (ModelMaster 2052, the best representation of the tone I could find so far). The undersides were painted with ModelMaster 2055 (US Navy Blue Grey) as an alternative to RAF Azure and Mediterranean Blue.

Interior surfaces were painted with Cockpit Green (Humbrol 78) and slightly dry-brushed with light grey.

The red spinners are typical Desert Force markings, and I added yellow ID markings to the outer wings’ leading edges (created from generic decal sheet). Not certain how authentic this is for Northern Africa, since the Hurricanes did not carry these markings – but the Spitfires did, as well as the few leftover Whirlwinds over Continental Europe? At least, it’s a colorful detail.

Even though many Hurricanes of 73 Squadron in Northern Africa carried the squadron’s colorful pre-war marking on the flanks instead of a two-letter code, I eventually rejected this option. IMHO it might have been simply too much for this whiffy aircraft?

Roundels and markings were puzzled together from the scrap box, the code letters are single digits from Xtradecal aftermarket sheets. I mixed medium sea grey and dull red letters – a practice frequently seen on Northern Africa aircraft (which also frequently did not carry squadron codes at all) in order to improve readability. The serial was puzzled together, too, using a free serial slot according to ukserials.com.

As another individual touch I added a small nose art motif under the cockpit: a Bugs Bunny cartoon toting a shotgun (actually from a P-51 from the late war Pacific TO), as an interpretation of the “Buck teeth” nickname for the aircraft.

Finally, the model was weathered, esp. on the upper surfaces in order to mimic sun bleaching, and some soot stains were added around the guns and the exhaust outlets. The cooling flaps were emphasized through a treatment with Tamiya “Smoke”, which is perfect for oil stains. Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish and finishing touches like the wire antenna and position lights applied.

Another subtle whif, the desert paint scheme is probably distracting enough that, at a casual glance, the radials and the modified nose are not obvious at all. Actually, the Japanese engines look pretty British after some cosmetics, and they are small enough to keep overall proportions in reasonable limits – the sleek Whirlwind quickly turns head-heavy and unbalanced with bigger engines grafted to the airframe! Actually, the converted aircraft looks now, when looked at it head-on, almost like a baby Beaufighter!

Some background:

With more and more experience through military mecha in Japan during the late Nineties, Schaft Enterprise’s Europe branch started the development of civil Labors for public use. These models included the Type-8FF firefighting Labor, which was originally created for the Japanese market but eventually only sold and operated in the European market, and the Type-10P, a dedicated police duty Labor and a direct competitor to Shinohara Industry’s highly successful AV-98 Ingram.

The Type-10P was also promoted abroad, esp. in Japan, but it was rejected there due to its size and the strong (and established) competition from Shinohara Industry, namely the MPL-97S “Python” and the AV-98 “Ingram”. However, eight Type-10Ps were sold to the Austrian Bundespolizei and an undisclosed small number was bought by a private security service company in Northern America.

Technical Data:

Code name: Type-10P "Michael"

Unit type: police labor

Manufacturer: SEE (Schaft Enterprises Europe)

Operator: German Federal Police (Bundespolizei) and several major German federal state

police departments (Berlin, Northrhine-Westphalia, Bavaria), Austria, USA

Number built: 33

Accommodation: pilot only, in heat- and ABC-insulated cockpit in front torso

Dimensions:

Overall height 9.42 meters

Overall width 5.95 meters

Minimum revolving radius: 6.0 meters

Weight:

Standard 6.55 metric tons

Full 8.1 metric tons

Armor materials:

Light composite armor, effective against fire and small caliber rounds of up to 12.7 mm

Powerplant:

unknown

Maximum weight lifting capacity:

2.50 metric tons

Equipment and design features:

Visual and acoustic sensors, range unknown, with suitable recording and data transfer equipment

Retractable visor cover

Highly articulated manipulator hands

Searchlights

Flashlights and four claxons/loudspeakers on the shoulders

Armaments:

No internal weapons installed;

The Type-10P can operate a wide range of handheld equipment like an extendable baton,

anti-terror shields, and weapons like a 42 mm revolver handgun, a taser or a 90 mm pellet shotgun.

Two hardpoints on the lower arms to attach equipment/weapons, plus a single hardpoint on the

back with the option to carry a wide range of equipment packages.

The kit and its assembly:

Traditions can be nice to keep up, and this build is actually a kind of serial project: in 2015, a group build under the motto "De-/Militarize it" ran at whatifmodellers.com, and I submitted a thorough conversion of a 1:60 "SEE Type-7 Brocken" Labor it from Bandai – a pure military Labor turned into a firefighting mecha.

Now, in early 2021, the “Blue Lights” group build ran, and Patlabor – an anime near-SF universe circling around robot-assisted police work – lent itself for another mecha submission. I had an AV-X0 prototype as well as two Ingram kits in store, but I wanted “something different” and also not a Japanese police Labor, since I had just built a fictional Daihatsu Move police car of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. So, the choice fell on the “Phantom” kit as basis, what called for considerable modifications. The “Phantom” is actually an unmanned robot, but I found its stature quite intimidating and more plausible for a non-Japanese police Labor than e. g. a re-badged AV-X0.

At an early stage I already settled for a German police Labor, and took inspiration in some heavier vehicles that are operated by special units of the Bundespolizei, e.g. armored cars or water throwers. This also defined the Labor’s paint scheme (see below). However, the new police Labor’s design was far from certain, it gradually evolved while building the separate OOB elements. Thankfully, this 3rd generation mecha kit allows such a gradual progress, and step by step the details that had to be changed or scratched became clearer.

This primarily included:

A completely new head section; the Phantom has a kind of fixed "hood" with a relatively small and fixed "face unit" in its front. This would be changed into a free-standing head unit, like the standard Labors. I was lucky to find a leftover head unit from a “Helldiver”, an airborne military Labor from the same model universe – its pilot helmet added a tough look to my build, and I added some sensor booms from an Ingram, too. Some PSR went into the head’s re-design, too, and, in the end, it adds to the “riot control” look of my build.

The completely new head necessitated the complete removal of the original “hood” of the “Phantom” and its fixed, small head, and this gap had to be filled/framed with a scratched collar and a new attachment point for the new head. Later, the OOB “neck” element was integrated into the opening, and scratched hydraulic pistons filled void space.

In the same wake, a cockpit fairing was added to the chest, since this would become a manned vehicle, not a robot. This, as well as the collar, were sculpted with 2C putty.

In order to change the Labor’s hull shape a little more, I added a pair of headlights to the flanks of the breast – these are 1:24 car parts, left over from my recent Daihatsu Move build. The parts were fitted into holes, received a shiny backing with chrome foil (hard to tell through the protective grates, though) and were blended into the hull via PSR.

The pack with retractable boosters in the back as well as the extentable upper body (with the visible innards and the spinning blades hidden there) were omitted. Instead, I implanted a donor piece to the back (a back pack from an 1:144 Yha-Giga mecha from Megaro Zamac), which looks very mechanical (a heat exchanger, maybe?) and natural.

Furthermore, the openings for the “Phantom”’s original optical sensors in the chest were faired over.

New hands were deemed necessary; the OOB hands are much too slender and claw-like, and I was able to use the hands from an 1:24 PA-36HD (from Dorvack).

While raiding the donor banks I also came across suitable new shoulder guards, from an 1:144 “Serpent Custom” (Gundam). They replaced the OOB parts, they are taller and more edgy, which is against the “Phantom”’s rather organic design – but they were too good to be rejected, with consoles that would later carry flashlights (scratched) and louvres that could easily hide (and protect) sirens inside.

However, in order to integrate the new shoulder parts better into an overall look, I decided to modify the knee and elbow guards into a more squarish shape – with the help of styrene sheet and some (more) PSR. This stunt worked surprisingly well.

During this modification I also added hardpoints to the lower arms for equipment. I did not want a gun but rather fancied a riot shield and a baton. The right hand was modified to carry a stun baton, sourced from an Ingram kit, and the transparent shield was scratched from a mouth wash bottle.

Lots of work, but it was necessary to move the build away from its “Phantom” basis.

Painting and markings:

Basically very simple: all-blue. The current ID color of German police vehicles is RAL 5017 (Verkehrsblau/Traffic Blue), and before 2006 it was RAL 6029 (Pfefferminzgrün/Peppermint Green), both combined on standard vehicles with white - normally, these are leased white or, more recently, silver vehicles with foil. For the Labor's time frame around 2000, the classic green would have been appropriate, but I eventually voted for the later blue because it looks IMHO less militaristic.

Further design background: German special police vehicles like water throwers or armored cars rather carry a uniform livery, contrasted with very dark grey around the lower areas, and that's what I adopted for the Michael I police Labor, too, using the “Phantom”’s original livery as benchmark.

In Gunze Sangyo’s Mr. Hobby H15 (Bright Blue) I found a pretty good guesstimate for the characteristic German police blue, and it was contrasted with Revell 06 (Tar Black; RAL 9021). The backpack became medium grey, a similar tone to the silicone covers (which were left unpainted, just treated with a washing with thinned dark grey acrylic artist paint), and this medium grey was also used for some detail contrasts around the hull. This looks rather dry, but it reflects the sobriety of German police items, and the uniform blue is also a good contrast to the Japanese police Labors in white and black in my collection, and the others, too. A few highlights in white and cream are the only distractions.

Even though I did not want to weather the model, I did some dry-brushing/post shading (Humbrol 25, Revell 09, 77 and 75 in some areas) to emphasize the shapes/edges and to make the large areas, esp. on the legs, less uniform.

The markings come from two aftermarket sheets for German police cars: one is a 1:43 scale sheet from IDC Decals, the other a 1:87 scale sheet from TL Modellbau. The provided not only suitably-sized “Polizei” letterings and emblems, the IDC set also came with the characteristic dotted trim lines (reflective material in real life) that decorate many typical German police cars and which help to visually structure the Labor’s lines – even though their application to the bulbous surface of the model was not easy, and I rather used them sparsely.

After some more detail painting (e. g. some fake black panel lines, created with a fine felt tip pen) the model’s sections were sealed with a mix of matt and some semi-gloss acrylic varnish on the blue areas for a sheen finish, while the dark grey areas were painted with pure matt varnish.

The build of the “Michael I” police Labor was quite a challenge – mostly because it was not easy to get away from the model’s “Phantom” basis. But with the completely new head/shoulder section and the slight mods on arms and legs it looks quite unrelated – but still intimidating. The all-blue livery is not spectacular, but true to German standards, and it works surprisingly well and convincingly.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

During the interwar period, the U.S. Navy Command had placed considerable emphasis upon the role of armed aerial reconnaissance aircraft. To meet this interest, during 1931, the young Great Lakes Aircraft Company (founded in 1929 in Cleveland, Ohio) decided to embark on the development of a new naval combat aircraft to meet this role. The new aircraft, which was designated as the SBG, was a relatively modern all-metal design, even though some conservative traits like a fixed landing gear were kept.

In prewar use, SBG units were engaged in training and other operational activities and were gradually approaching the end of their useful service life with at least one aircraft being converted to target tug duty. By 1940, the US Navy was aware that the SBG had become outclassed by the fighters and bombers of other nations and a replacement was in the works, but it was not yet in service when the US entered World War II. By then, attrition had reduced their numbers to just over 60 aircraft, and with the arrival of the Curtiss SB2C “Helldiver” in December 1942, the obsolete SBGs were retired.

General characteristics:

Crew: 3

Length: 31 ft 9 in (9.682 m)

Wingspan: 45 ft 9 in (13.95 m)

Height: 10 ft 10 in (3.3 m)

Wing area: 288 sq ft (26.8 m²)

Empty weight: 4,251 lb. (1,928 kg)

Gross weight: 6,378 - 6,918 lb. (2,893 - 3,138 kg) for reconnaissance missions

7,705 - 7,773 lb (3,495 - 3,526 kg) for bombing missions

Fuel capacity: 200 US gal (740 l; 160 imp gal) in six wing tanks plus

7.9 US gal (30 l; 6.6 imp gal) in a gravity feed collector tank in the fuselage

18 US gal (70 l; 15 imp gal) of engine oil was also carried in a forward fuselage tank

Powerplant:

1 × Pratt & Whitney R-2180-A Twin Hornet 14 cylinder radial engine with 1,200 hp (865 kW),

driving a 3-bladed Hamilton-Standard Hydromatic, 11 ft 3 in (3.43 m) diameter constant-speed

fully-feathering propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 245 mph (395 km/h, 213 kn) at 3,650 m (11,980 ft)

210 mph (338 km/h, 183 kn) at sea level

Stall speed: 110 km/h (68 mph, 59 kn)

Range: 1,260 km (780 mi, 680 nmi)

Service ceiling: 7,300 m (24,000 ft)

Time to altitude: 2,000 m (6,600 ft) in 4 minutes

4,000 m (13,000 ft) in 11 minutes 10 seconds

Wing loading: 116 kg/m² (24 lb/sq ft) to 130 kg/m2 (27 lb/sq ft)

Power/mass: 6.3–6.8 kg/kW (10.4–11.2 lb/hp)

Armament:

2x fixed forward firing 0.30 “ (7.62 mm) Browning machine guns in the spats, firing forward,

plus 2x flexibly mounted 0.30 “ (7.62 mm) Browning machine guns in ventral and dorsal positions

A total of up to 1,500 lb (700 kg) of bombs on hardpoints under the fuselage (max. 1.000 lb; the SCG-2

could carry a single Mk. XIII torpedo) and under the wings (max. 325 lb per hardpoint, SCG-2 only 200 lb)

The kit and its assembly:

I had the idea to convert a PZL.23 into a carrier-borne light bomber on the agenda for a long time and also already a Heller kit stashed away – but it took the “In the Navy” group build at whatifmodelers.com in early 2020 to dig everything out from the stash and start the hardware phase.

Originally, this was inspired by a picture of a Ju 87D with USN “Yellow wings” markings which I came across while doing online research. This looked really good, but since the USN would never have accepted a liquid-cooled engine on one of its pre-WWII aircraft, the concept had IMHO some flaws. When I came across the PZL.23 in another context, I found that the aircraft, with its cockpit placed well forward and the generous window area, could also be a good carrier-based recce/light bomber/torpedo aircraft? This was the conceptual birth of the SBG.

The basis is the vintage, original Heller kit of the PZL.23: a VERY nice kit. It has been crisply molded, fit is very good, and even the interior detail is decent, e.g. with a nice fuselage structure and dashboard. Surface details are raised but very fine, and the styrene is also easy to handle.

Basically the PZL.23 was built OOB. The only changes I made are a crew of three figures (all Matchbox WWII pilots, two of them with their heads in different directions), a tail wheel instead of the original skid, an opening for an arrester hook under the fin (there’s even plausible space available!) and a new engine: the PZL.23’s bulky 9 cylinder Jupiter radial engine with its generous cowling and the two-blade propeller was completely replaced. The engine dummy is actually a matching R-2600 and comes from a Matchbox SB2C, even though its rear bulkhead was trimmed away so that it would fit into the new cowling. The latter came from an Italeri La-5FN, cut off long time ago from another conversion project, and I added a carburetor/oil cooler fairing underneath. Inside of the new engine I implanted a styrene tube which attaches the engine to the fuselage and also takes the metal axis of the new propeller, a (rather clumsy) donor from a Matchbox Douglas A-20G. The whole package works well, though, and gives the PZL.23 a more modern and different look.

A late modification is the glasshouse for the rear gunner. Since the PZL.23 offered considerable comfort for its crew, at least for pilot and observer, I thought that a closed rear position would make sense. I found an old rear gunner station glaizing from a vintage Airfix B-17G in the stash, and with some tailoring (including an opening for the OOB manual machine gun) the piece could be inserted into the fuselage opening. Small gaps were left, but these were simply filled with white glue. I think this was a good move, since it changes the PZL.23’s profile a little.

Other small cosmetic changes include the machine guns instead of the original large landing lights on the spats, an additional antenna mast and a cranked pitot, made from brass wire. Furthermore, I added small underwing bomb pylons and a ventral hardpoint with a scratched swing arm and a 500 lb iron bomb from an Academy kit.

Painting and markings:

For proper anachronism and some color in the shelf, I wanted the SBG to be a pre-WWII aircraft in the USN’s bright “Yellow Wings” markings, just like the Ju 87 mentioned above. As a slight twist, the fuselage was finished in all-over Light Gull Grey (FS 36440, Humbrol 40) instead of a NMF – some aircraft like F4Bs were finished this way, even though some fabric-covered parts were still painted with alu dope. In 1940, however, the bright colors would be replaced by a uniform light grey livery with subdued markings, anyway.

The aircraft’s individual markings were a bit tricky, because the USN has a very complicated color code system to identify not only the carrier to which an aircraft would belong, color markings would also identify the individual aircraft within a full squadron of 18 aircraft and its six sections. I won’t go into details, but I chose to depict the lead aircraft of section two of the scout bomber squadron on board of USS Enterprise.

For this carrier, the tail surfaces became blue (I used Modelmaster French Blue for the authentic “True Blue”), while the 2nd section had white aircraft markings on fuselage and wings. The lead aircraft (connected with the individual aircraft code “4”) had a full ring marking around the cowling. The fuselage band seems to be rather optional on bomber aircraft (more frequent on fighters?), but I eventually decided to add it - pictures suggest that probably only lead aircraft of a Section in the scout or torpedo squadrons carried this marking?

Like the cowling ring, it was painted with white and then black borders were added with decal strips. The wings were painted with Revell 310 (Lufthansa Yellow, RAL 1028), which is a pretty rich tone, and the section markings on top of them were fully created with decal material, a white 5mm stripe over a black 6mm stripe on each wing.

The aircraft’s tactical code was created from single US 45° numbers; the “S” had to be scratched from an “8”, since the decal sheet did not contain letters… Other decals were gathered from the scrap box and improvised.

After the free-standing exhaust pipes had been fixed, the kit received a light weathering treatment and was finally sealed with a coat of semi-matt acrylic varnish (Italeri semi-gloss with some matt varnish added).

A colorful aircraft model, and the transformation from a Polish light bomber into an American armed scout aircraft worked well – for an interesting result with that anachronistic touch that many interwar designs carried. However, even though the conversion has been conceptually successful, I am not happy with the finish. The glossy Humbrol paints I used refused to cure properly, and the decals were also not without problems (e.g. when you realize that the roundels you wanted to use had a poor opacity, so that the yellow underneath shines blatantly through). But despite a lot of improvisation, the outcome is quite O.K.

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The_Slushey_One 2010

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Destiny Gjallarhorn exotic rocket launcher.

This project took three weeks to complete from start to finish. Final length is 48", true to the game. Made from MDF, styrene, sintra, apoxie sculpt, and cast resin pieces,

Huge thanks to Melodywise Cosplay for sculpting some of the ornaments on the side.

Some background:

The VF-1 was developed by Stonewell/Bellcom/Shinnakasu for the U.N. Spacy by using alien Overtechnology obtained from the SDF-1 Macross alien spaceship. Its production was preceded by an aerodynamic proving version of its airframe, the VF-X. Unlike all later VF vehicles, the VF-X (sometimes referred to as VF-X1) was strictly a conventional/non-transformable jet aircraft, even though it incorporated many structural components and several key technologies that were vital for the transformable VF-1’s successful development that ran in parallel. Therefore, the VF-X was never intended as an air superiority fighter, but rather a flight-capable analogue test bed and proof of concept for the VF-1’s basic layout and major components. In this role, however, the VF-X made vital contributions to systems’ development that were later incorporated into the VF-1’s serial production and sped the program up considerably.

The fighter remained active in many second line units and continued to show its worthiness years later, e. g. through Milia Jenius who would use her old VF-1 fighter in defense of the colonization fleet - 35 years after the type's service introduction.

General characteristics:

Accommodation: One pilot in a Marty & Beck Mk-7 zero/zero ejection seat

Length 14.23 meters

Wingspan 14.78 meters (at 20° minimum sweep)

Height 3.84 meters

Empty weight: 13.25 metric tons

Standard T-O mass: 18.5 metric tons

Power Plant:

2x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry/P&W/Roice FF-2001 thermonuclear reaction turbine engines, output 650 MW each, rated at 11,500 kg in standard or in overboost (225.63 kN x 2)

4 x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry NBS-1 high-thrust vernier thrusters (1 x counter reverse vernier thruster nozzle mounted on the side of each leg nacelle/air intake, 1 x wing thruster roll control system on each wingtip);

Performance:

Top speed: Mach 2.71 at 10,000 m; Mach 3.87 at 30,000+ m

Thrust-to-weight ratio: empty 3.47; standard T-O 2.49; maximum T-O 1.24

Armament:

None installed, but the VF-X had 4x underwing hard points for a wide variety of ordnance, plus a ventral hardpoint for a Howard GU-11 55 mm three-barrel Gatling gun pod with 200 RPG, fired at 1,200 rds/min or other stores like test instruments

The model and its assembly:

Another submission to the “Prototypes” group build at whatifmodelers.com in July 2020. Being a VF-1 fan (and have built maybe twenty o these simple Arii kits), adding a VF-X was, more or less, a must – even more so because I had a suitable Valkyrie Fighter kit at hand for the conversion. As a side note, I have actually built something quite similar from a VF-1D many years ago: a fictional, non-transformable advanced trainer, without knowing about the VF-X at all.

Thanks to the “Macross - Perfect Memory” source book, the differences between the transformable VF-1 and its early testbed were easy to identify:

- Fixed legs with faired ducts from the intakes on (thighs)

- Ankle recesses disappeared

- Less and slightly different panel lines on the back and on the nose

- ventral head unit deleted and a respective fairing installed instead

- Levelled underside (shoulder fairings of the folded arms were cut down)

- Leg attachment points on the nose deleted

- No small, circular vernier thrusters all around the hull

- Some new/different venting grills (created mostly with 0.5mm black decal stripes)

Beyond the changes, the VF-1A was basically built OOB. Thankfully, the VF-X already features the later VF-1’s vectored thrust nozzles/feet, so that no changes had to be made in this respect. A pilot figure was added to the cockpit for the beauty pics, and after the flight scenes had been shot, the canopy remained open on a swing arm for static display. For the same reason, the model was built with the landing gear extended.

As a test aircraft, the underwing pylons and their AMM-1 ordnance were left away and the attachment points hidden with putty. I also omitted the ventral gun pod and left the aircraft clean. However, for the flight scene pictures, I implanted an adapter for a display holder made from wire.

In order to emphasize the test vehicle character of the VF-X, I gave the model a scratched spin recovery parachute installation between the fins, using a real world F-22 testbed as benchmark. It consists of styrene profiles, quite a delicate construction. For the same reason I gave the VF-X a long sensor boom on the nose, which changes the Valkyrie’s look, too. Finally, some small blade antennae were added to the nose and to the spine behind the cockpit.

Painting and markings:

To be honest, I have no idea if there was only a single VF-X prototype in the Macross universe, or more. Just one appears in the TV series in episode #33, and lack of suitable information and my personal lack of Japanese language proficiency prevents any deeper research. However, this would not keep me from inventing a personal interpretation of the canonical VF-X, especially because I do not really like the original livery from the TV series: an overall light grey with some simple black trim and “TEST” written on the (fixed) legs. Yamato did an 1:60 scale toy of the VF-X, but it was/is just a VF-1 with a ventral fairing; they added some shading to the basic grey – but this does not make the aircraft more attractive, IMHO.

When I looked at the original conceptual drawing of the VF-X in the “Macross - Perfect Memory” source book, however, I was immediately reminded of the F-15 prototypes from the Seventies (and this program used a total of twelve machines!). These featured originally a light grey (FS 36375?) overall base, to which bright dayglo orange markings on wings, fins and fuselage were soon added – in a very similar pattern to the VF-X. I think the VF-X livery was actually inspired by this, the time frame matches well with the production of the Macross TV series, too, and that’s what I adapted for my model.

In order to come close to the F-15 prototype livery, I gave “my” VF-X an overall basic coat of RAL 7047 “Telegrau 4”, one of German Telekom’s corporate colors and a very pale grey that can easily be mistaken for white when you do not have a contrast reference.

The cockpit received a medium grey finish, the ejection seat became black with brown cushions; the pilot figure is a 1:100 seated passenger from an architecture supplies, painted like an early VF-1 pilot in a white/blue suit. The jet nozzles/feet were painted with Revell 91 (Iron) and later treated with grinded graphite for a more metallic finish. The landing gear became classic white (I used Revell 301, which is a very pure tone, as contrast to the RAL 7047 on the hull), the air intake ducts and the internal sections of the VG wings were painted with dark grey (Revell 77).

For some diversity I took inspiration from the Yamato VF-X toy and added slightly darker (Humbrol 166, RAF Light Aircraft Grey) areas to the hull and the legs. Next, the panel lines were emphasized through a thinned black ink wash, but I did no panel post shading so that the VF-X would not look too dirty or worn.

Onto this basis I applied the orange dayglo markings. On the wings and fins, these were painted – they were applied with spray paint from a rattle can, involving lots of masking. The leading edges on wings and fins were created with grey decal sheet material, too. At this stage, some surface details and more fake panel lines were added with a soft pencil.

The orange cheatline under the cockpit is a personal addition; I found that some more orange had to be added to the nose for visual balance, and I eventually went for the simple, trimmed stripe (TL Modellbau material) instead of trying to apply decal sheet material around the jagged air intakes (F-15 prototype style). The black “TEST”, “VFX” and “U.N. Spacy” markings were designed at the computer and printed on clear inkjet decal paper. Even though the “real” VF-X does not feature the UNS “kite” insignia, I decided to add them to the model. These come from the OOB sheet, which also provided most (slightly yellowed) stencils.

Finally, the model was sealed with a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).

A rather different VF-1 project (and it is – to my astonishment – #28 in my 1:100 VF-1 Fighter mode collection!!!), with more changes to the basic model kit than one might expect at first sight. VF-X and VF-1 differ considerably from each other, despite identical outlines! However, I like the outcome, and I think that going a different route from the canonical grey/black livery paid out, the bright orange markings really make this VF-X stand out, and it looks IMHO more like a testbed than the “real” aircraft from the TV series.

Category: Model Kit.

Name: Musai.

Scale: 1/1700 scale.

Origin: Gundam.

Brand: Bandai.

Series: EX Model.

Material: Styrene Plastic.

Release Date: Dec 2004.

Condition: Unassembled.

*Note: This is a Model Kit collected by my BB.

More in My Collection Corner.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

In March 1941 Saab was given the task to design a better fighter than the Seversky Republic P-35s and Reggiane 2000s, at that time the only fighter aircraft Sweden was able or allowed to buy and the air force’s most modern fighters. Several other foreign designs, including the German Bf 109 or even the Japanese Mitsubishi Zero had also been considered.

Further J 23B production was not resumed, instead the J 26 and J 27 were procured. Anyway, the age of the piston-engine fighter came soon to a close and the Swedish Air Force entered the jet age. Consequently, the J 23B was already phased out, together with the J 21, after 1954.

General characteristics:

Crew: one

Length: 9.58 m (31 ft 4 in)

Wingspan: 11.3 m (37 ft 8 in)

Height: 3.96 (13 ft 0 in)

Wing area: 20.00 m² (215.28 ft²)

Empty weight: 2,535 kg (5,583 lb)

Loaded weight: 3,445 kg (7,588 lb)

Max. take-off weight: 3,663 kg (8,068 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Daimler-Benz liquid-cooled, supercharged, 60° inverted V12 DB 605B engine,

rated at 1,085 kW (1,455 hp / 1,475 PS) and license-built by SFA.

Performance:

Maximum speed: 680 km/h (367 knots, 422 mph)

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

Range: 750 km (466 mi)

Service ceiling: 11,200 m (36,685 ft)

Rate of climb: 17 m/s (3,340 ft/min)

Armament:

1× engine-mounted 20 mm Hispano-Suiza HS.404 or Bofors cannon,

firing through the propeller hub

4× 13 mm Bofors-built Colt machine guns in the outer wings nose

Underwing hardpoints for various bombs, drop tanks and unguided rockets

The kit and its assembly:

The “Swedish Season” continues! The Saab 23 is another “phantom of the past”, a real world design that never left the drawing board. The J 23 actually started as an alternative to the J 21, but was discarded in late 1941 in favor of the more promising, yet bigger and heavier, pusher design. But that would not stop modelers from trying to build one, even though I have never seen a model of this aircraft? Having recently tried to build a Saab 27 fighter caught me in the right mood for another whiffy Swedish design, so I took a chance on the J 23, too.

At first glance you can mistake the J 23 for a P-51B with an engine from a late Bf 109, some sources describe it as “a Swedish Messerschmitt”. But that’s only superficial, much like the later Griffon-powered J 27 project which can be described as a “Super Spitfire”, but this does not do justice to the aircraft’s construction.

Both were independent developments, even though the P-51 (some early specimen were forced to land in Sweden and closely examined) certainly had a massive impact on both designs.

Anyway, the information basis surrounding the J 23 is worse than the J 27’s, and I only had rather vague profile drawings/sketches at hand for reference. A basis model was also hard to find: the rear section from a P-51B (in this case an Intech kit from Poland) was settled, since the Mustang’s cockpit shape, dorsal section and fin come really close to the J 23. But you cannot simply mate a P-51 with a Bf 109 nose, it would result in a rather wacky Mustang-thing because the proportions are not right.

Finding a good solution was not easy, and I was lucky to find a Hasegawa Ki-61 in the stash – it has a German engine (an earlier DB 601, though) and an overall layout similar to the P-51B. But the Ki-61 is considerably larger than a Bf 109, more in the P-51’s size class. Despite many detail modifications I decided to mate these unlikely aircraft for the J 23s basis – engraved panel lines on both kits made the combination less obvious, too.

The InTech P-51B gave its tail and the cockpit section (excluding the radiator tunnel and the wing roots), cut away from the rest of the Mustang fuselage with a Z-shaped cut. With a matching cut on the Ki-61’s fuselage, the engine and the whole wing/fuselage intersection were used. Styrene strips held the fuselage sections in place, on the outside the seams were later blended with nitrous compound putty. One benefit of this solution is that the OOB P-51 canopy could be used (even though the rear end fit necessitated some body work), and the resulting cockpit position was just as far forward as on the J 23, right above the wings. As a consequence the rear fuselage behind the cockpit appears to be rather long, but that is AFAIK correct, the J 23 had these slightly odd proportions!

For the J 23’s DB 605 engine a different, bigger spinner had to be mounted – scratched from a massive PZL 23 spinner and single blades (from the Hasegawa Ki-61), together with a metal axis and a styrene tube adapter inside of the nose. Some putty work was necessary to fair over the Ki-61 guns on the cowling, the typical DB 601 front bulge and blend the bigger, new spinner to the rest of the fuselage, but the result looks O.K.

The Ki-61’s original wings and landing gear could, thanks to the original fuselage section from the Hasegawa kit, be carried over and easily mounted, even though the wing tips were clipped for a square, Mustang-esque shape (the J 23’s look in all illustrations I’ve seen like upscaled Bf 109E wings).

The InTech P-51’s horizontal stabilizers were used, but for a J 23 they had to be placed in a different position: further back (so that wedges for the vertical rudder had to be cut out) and considerably lower, necessitating some (more) body work to hide the original attachment points. The new position adds to the impression of an extended fuselage section behind the cockpit, even though the P-51 donor fuselage section is only a little longer than the Ki-61’s. All tail surface outlines were slightly modified, too.

The J 23’s typical, shallow radiator tunnel had to be scratched, the semi-buried construction sits far behind the wings’ training edge. In an initial step, the removed Ki-61 radiator’s gap as well as the P-51 tail wheel well were faired over with styrene sheet and new intake/outlet ramps integrated into the lower rear fuselage. The tunnel itself is the narrow, aerodynamic fairing of a Boulton Paul Defiant’s machine guns behind the turret (raised when not in use), left over from a Pavla kit, opened at both ends.

As a consequence of the new and long radiator tunnel, the P-51 tail wheel well was moved about 5mm further back and the fuselage profile under the tail fin re-shaped.

One of the final steps was the cockpit interior, because I was not sure concerning the relative position of the P-51’s canopy (cut into three pieces for open display) and dashboard and the Ki-61’s cockpit floor panel and seat. But both turned out to match relatively well, and I added a tank and radio dummy behind the seat in order to prevent a clear view into the rear fuselage.

The landing gear was taken OOB from the Ki-61 – it looks similar to the real J 23 arrangement, so I stuck with it. The tail wheel comes from the InTech P-51, just the covers were scratched for the re-located well.

All gun barrels on spinner and wings are hollow steel needles, no ordnance was hung under the wings, even though the Ki-61 hardpoints were retained. After all, it’s a fighter aircraft.

Painting and markings:

Once more a classic, if not conservative, livery for a fictional aircraft – and in this case I chose the simple olivgrön/ljust blågrå camouflage of the late Fourties, coupled with contemporary color-coded letters identifying the individual aircraft and its squadron within the Flygflöttilj group.

The uniform upper surfaces were painted with RAF Dark Green (Humbrol 163). This tone has an olive drab touch and comes IMHO pretty close to the original Swedish color, the frequently recommended FS 34079 is IMHO too blue-ish. For the underside I used Humbrol 87 (Steel Gray), which is a blue-greenish gray. The authentic tone would be FS 36270, but on a model it appears much too dark, so that the lighter Steel Gray is a handy and individual alternative.

A light black ink was applied in order to emphasize the panel lines, some more depth was added through dry-painted panels with lighter shades of the basic colors (in this case, Humbrol 155 and 128).

The cockpit interior was painted in dark gray (Humbrol 32), while the landing gear and the wells became Aluminum (Humbrol 56).

As an aircraft of the air staff flight, this J 23 received a white spinner and a white code letter on the tail. These and other markings came from various sources and spare decal sheets. Some extra color was added with red warning markings on the wings above the flaps, plus some visual markings - all made with generic decal stripes. The cock nose art is a personal addition - taken from a Spanish Bf 109D, but AFAIK such personal markings were not uncommon on Swedish Air Force aircraft in the post WWII era.

An eye-catcher and some variety on the otherwise simple green/gray livery are white high-viz markings on the wing tips and a wide fuselage band. Such additional markings were frequently used in the post WWII-era during exercises, training or public displays. Styles varied considerably, though, between “color blocks” and wide single bands which I used (seen on a J 21) and even dense, thin zebra stripes on wings and fuselage. In this case, the white markings were painted onto wings and fuselage (Humbrol 34).

Since most panel lines on the fuselage were lost I painted some new ones with a soft pencil. Finally, after some gun soot and exhaust stains made with grinded graphite as well as some dry-brushed silver on the wings’ leading edges and around the cockpit were added, the kit received a coating with matt acrylic varnish.

Another scratch build of an obscure Swedish aircraft that never reached the hardware stage – and pretty successful, IMHO. This sleek J 23 model looks just as harmless and innocent, but involved massive construction work in almost every area as the kitbashed J 27 before. It’s actually the first model rendition of the J 23 I have seen so far – and another funny fact is that this “Swedish Messerschmitt” was built without any Bf 109 part at all!

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Canadair’s impressive CF-151 ‘Kodiak’ interceptor had a long development story, and the fact that Canada developed an indigenous high-end fighter after the demise of Avro Canada’s CF-105 ‘Arrow’ in the late 50ies was an amazing achievement.

The CF-151 was quickly becoming outdated and an aircraft of very limited use, despite its formidable capabilities as a heavy interceptor. But potential war scenarios had changed, and economical as well as political developments could not justify the expensive (and small) Kodiak fleet anymore. Consequently, the last CAF CF-151 flight took place on August 18th 2000, when the last indigenous Canadian fighter type was replaced by CF-18s, too.

Canadair CF-151A general characteristics

Crew: 2

Length: 21.2 m (69 ft 10 in)

Wingspan: spread (20° sweep): 17.14 m (66 ft 3 in); swept (65° sweep): 11,65 m (38 ft 3 in)

Height: 5.55 m (18 ft 2 in)

Empty weight: 47,200 lb (21,400 kg)

Loaded weight: 82,800 lb (37,600 kg)

Max. takeoff weight: 100,000 lb (45,300 kg)

Powerplant:

2× GE TF30-P-3 turbofan jet engines, rated at 12,000 lbf (53 kN) dry and 18,500 lbf (82 kN) at full afterburner

Performance:

Maximum speed: Mach 2.5 (1,650 mph, 2,655 km/h) at altitude and in clean configuration

Combat radius: 1,330 mi (1,160 nmi, 2,140 km)

Ferry range: 4,200 mi (3,700 nmi, 6,760 km)

Service ceiling: 66,000 ft (20,100 m)

Rate of climb: 25,890 ft/min (131.5 m/s)

Armament:

4× AIM-7E3 'Sparrow' medium-/long-range AAMs, semi-recessed under the fuselage

4× AIM-9M 'Sidewinder' short range AAMs on wing hardpoints

2× drop tanks under the outer fixed wings

Theoretical external ordnance of up to 15.200lb (6.900kg)

The kit and its assembly

A bold and weird project. It all started when I was pondering the idea of a whiffy, large VG fighter in the class of a F-4 or MiG-25. While reading book about OKB Tupolev, when I realized that the Tu-22M had pretty fighter-like lines, even for a bomber. Some math revealed that reducing the aircraft by 50% in any dimension would yield a proper airframe, and so I started out searching for a 1:144 kit which would be turned into a fine 1:72 interceptor!

Strangely, respective kits are rare and expensive. The Dragon kit is 1st choice, but I found a re-boxed Dragon kit from 1985 under the obscure “New Craft” label (supposed to come from Japan) in North Carolina, only for US$12.

Its fuselage and wings would be taken 1:1. Three areas needed modification/donations, though. One issue is the tail fin. The Tu-22M’s fin, with its broad root section and the tail barbette, would not look good on a 1:72 kit, so it was completely replaced with a fin from a Panavia Tornado (Italeri). On the other end of the kit, I decided to implant a new front with a tandem cockpit. At first I just wanted to cut open the fuselage’s upper side, implant some seats and cover it with a TF-104 canopy, but I discarded it as impractical. Additionally, too much of the Tu-22M’s silhouette would be left.

As a surprising solution I found that the forward fuselage from a Su-15 (I had fuselage parts from a PM single-seated version still in the scrap box from my Ha-410 project) could be easily transplanted onto the Tu-22M fuselage, just in front of the air intakes! Dimensions and shape fit VERY well, and since the PM kit is cheap and widely available I ordered a NiB Su-15UM (a two-seater) from PM as a donation kit, for just US$8, instead of fighting with the single-seater.

The rest were rather minor modifications: the cockpit interior was built from scratch, with dashboards from a Tornado IDS, two IAI Kfir ejection seats and side consoles made from styrene strips. Nothing fancy, but the PM kit is totally bleak... Externally, the fairing for the 1:144 AS-6 ‘Kingfisher’ missile was closed (with a piece of styrene, cut to size), jet nozzles from a Tornado IDS added (drilled open and simply glued onto the Tu-22M nozzles), and a spine implanted between the canopy and the fin.

The landing gear is also completely new: the front wheel comes from a F-18 (reversed, though), the tandem bogies for the main landing gear are leftover pieces from a VEB Plasticart Tu-20/95 bomber kit, placed on struts from a F-117 kit and fitted with wheels which actually belong to the dolly in a Amodel X-20M missile kit.

The missiles are leftover pieces from a wrecked Italeri Tornado F.3. The drop tanks belong to a Revell F-16 - I originally wanted to use even bigger ones, from a vintage "box-scale" F-100 from Revell, but these proved to be to bulbous: they'd contact the landing gear.

Painting and markings

While a lot of Soviet design went into this aircraft, the idea of a Canadian alternative/successor to the F-101 and CF-105 prevailed. Additionally, I also organized a complete marking set for CAF CF-101s (from Wintervalley in Canada), so that authentic markings could be applied. While it sounds a bit boring, the simple, all-grey livery of CAF interceptors suits the Kodiak’s elegant lines well. Hence, the whole aircraft was painted in glossy FS16515 (Testors 2039), with a black radome and a blue fin rudder with three black stripes (a 409 Squadron marking) – very simple.

In order to emphasize details and pint out panel lines the model received a wash with thin black ink, as well as some dry-painting with lighter shades of grey on the upper surfaces. Canadian aircraft look rather tidy, so a thorough weathering or true worn look was not intended.

Cockpit interior was painted in medium grey (Humbrol 140), the landing gear as well as the air intakes in white (Humbrol 130). The landing gear interior was painted white, too, everything was kept rather simple. Additionally, some weathering and stains were added with dry-brushed shades of grey.

As mentioned before, all markings come from an aftermarket decal sheet from Wintervalley Model Products from Canada (now Canuck Models). Great stuff - if you search for authentic and high quality markings for ‘something Canadian’, look there!

Finally, everything was sealed under a coat of Tamiya Semi Gloss acryllic varnish, just the glare shield in front of the cockpit became totally matt.

What should I say? An idea that lingered for months finally became hardware, and it is a big and impressive bird. Surely, with the real CF-105 background, this model has a melancholic touch... Who knows what might have been if the CF-105 had not been axed in the late 50ies...? Maybe the Kodiak! ^^

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

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

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

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

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length: 13.28 m (43 ft 6 in)

Wingspan: 10.39 m (34 ft)

Height: 3.9 m (12 ft 10 in)

Wing area: 22.6 m² (242.5 ft²)

Empty weight: 5.172 kg (11,392 lb)

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

Powerplant:

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

Performance:

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

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

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

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

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

Thrust/weight: 0.86

Armament:

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

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

The kit and its assembly:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Painting and markings:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

The APS-4 was a light-weight, pod-mounted airborne search Radar which was suitable for either Airborne Interception (AI) or Air-to-Surface-Vessel (ASV) applications. It was a member of a series of early air-borne radar equipment and was initially designated as AS-H (“Air-to Surface, version H”). This very advanced equipment for its time was first used by the US Navy on board of carrier-borne night fighter aircraft like respective F6F Hellcat and F4U-2 Corsair variants. The Royal Air Force was impressed enough with the system's performance that it was adopted in 1943 for domestic airframes, too, as an alternative to the British AI radars used on board of early Mosquito, Beaufighter and Defiant night fighters.

The operational use of the machines was hampered by localized skin wrinkling on the wings and fuselage at load attachment points, a problem the type shared with the Mk. XIV day fighter. Even though Supermarine advised that the machines had not been seriously weakened, nor were they on the point of failure, the RAF nevertheless issued instructions in early 1945 that all F and FR Mk XIVs were to be retrospectively fitted with clipped wings to counter the threat. The NF.XX kept their elongated wing tips, however, and were simply limited to a top speed of 370 mph (600 km/h) and not allowed to dive anymore.

General characteristics:

Crew: 2 (pilot, radar operator)

Length: 32 ft 8 in (9.96 m)

Wingspan: 40 ft 2 in (12.2 m)

Height: 10 ft 0 in (3.05 m)

Wing area: 249.7 sq.ft (23.2 m²)

Airfoil: NACA 2213 (root), NACA 2209.4 (tip)

Empty weight: 8,680 lb (3,937 kg)

Gross weight: 10,700 lb (4,853 kg)

Max takeoff weight: 12,530 lb (5,683 kg)

Powerplant:

1× Rolls-Royce Griffon 65 supercharged V12, 2,050 hp (1,530 kW) at 8,000 ft (2,438 m),

driving a 5-bladed Jablo-Rotol propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 400 mph (640 km/h; 353 kn) in FS supercharger gear at 29,500 ft.

Combat range: 460 mi (741 km/400 nmi) with internal fuel only

850 mi (1,370 km/757 nmi)

Ferry range: 1,093 mi (1,759 km/950 nmi)

Service ceiling: 43,500 ft (13,259 m)

Rate of climb: 4,300 ft/min (21.8 m/s) in MS supercharger gear at 2,100 ft.

3,100 ft/min (15.8 m/s) in FS supercharger gear at 22,100 ft.

Time to altitude: 8 mins to 22,000 ft (at max weight)

Wing loading: 32.72 lb/sq ft (159.8 kg/m²)

Power/mass: 0.24

Armament:

4× 20 mm (0.787-in) Hispano Mk II cannon with 120 RPG in the wings

Provision for an auxiliary underfuselage tank, either a fixed conformal 90 gal tank or a

100 gal drop tank.

The kit and its assembly:

Well, Spitfire fans might call it crude to create a whiffy variant that incorporates so many ugly details. But this fever creation came into being through the simple thought: "What would a dedicated Spitfire night fighter with a radar look like?" From this initial creative spark I tried to build this fictional NF.XX variant with available late WWII technology from a Griffon-powered Spitfire.

The basis is the Airfix Spitfire PR.XIX kit, a nice and clean offering, even though the use of this photo recce variant meant some additional work. The radar pod comes wholesale from an F4U night fighter (Fujimi), since the wing installation appeared to me to be the only plausible (and proven) option.

The second cockpit and the "double bubble" canopy come from an RS Models Spitfire Mk.IX UTI trainer, which is/was a domestic conversion made in the Soviet Union. The kit comes with an extra two seater fuselage, so that, despite body donors, almost a complete Spitfire remains (just the cockpit missing, but this can be taken from the Airfix kit).

I also considered the Spitfire TR.IX arrangement, with a stepped bubble canopy, but found that the risen rear cockpit for the instructor would not make sense in a night fighter, so the UTI arrangement with separate canopies on the same level appeared to me to be the most suitable solution for this aircraft and its task.

Surgery was not easy, though: The whole cockpit area was dissected from the RS Models trainer and – together with the internal parts like the bulkheads, dashboards and seats – transplanted into an appropriate gap, cut into the Airfix kit fuselage. The windscreen position on both airframes was used as orientation benchmark.

Basically a simple idea, but, even though you have two Spitfire kits at hand, both models differ slightly from each other in many ways. Material thickness is different, as well as panel lines, which are all there on both models but simply do not fall in line. Internal width and available space is also different, esp. the rear bulkhead was not easy to integrate into the Airfix fuselage. It worked, somehow, but it consequently took some PSR effort and rescribing (at least, both donor kits have engraved details) in order to create this Griffon-powered two-seater.

The extended wings were created through the simple implantation of high altitude wing tips from an AZ Model Spitfire I/II/V/VI kit. They match very well with the Airfix PR.XIX wings, which were simply clipped at the correct position outside of the ailerons. Since the recce Spitfire comes without any weapons I added four brass barrels (Pavla) to the wings, plus respective bulges for the magazines (scratched from sprue) and casing ejector fairings under the wings.

I also changed the vertical rudder. Instead of the separate OOB part from the Spitfire PR.XIX I used a deeper and higher rudder from a late Seafire mark (left over from a Special Hobby kit, IIRC). The part lost its hook and the notch for its deployment mechanism, replaced by a piece of styrene that was PSRed into the rest of the rudder. It’s not an obvious change, but the bigger fin area is a good counterpart to the enlarged wings and the bulkier rear fuselage.

The conformal belly tank was scratched from the upper half of a Matchbox A-10 inner wing. There are aftermarket solutions available, but I simply did not want to spend as much money on a single resin part that no one will clearly see and that’s just as expensive as the whole Airfix basis kit. Some things are just ridiculous.

Painting and markings:

Very simple: classic late war RAF night fighter colors, with Medium Sea Grey and Dark Green (Humbrol 165 and 163, respectively) on the uppers surfaces, plus Night (I used Revell Acrylics 06, Tar Black, which is actually a very dark grey tone) underneath, with a high waterline and a black fin. Looks weird on a Spitfire, but also somewhat cool!? The model received a light black ink wash and some panel post-shading, using a blue-ish hue for the Night undersurfaces.

The interior is classic RAF Cockpit Green (Humbrol 78), the only catchy marking is the red propeller spinner – originally I just wanted to keep the spinner black, too, but found that to be too dull overall.

The markings come from different sources; the codes were created with single Dull Red letters from Xtradecal, roundels and other markings come from various other sheets. The added “G” to the serial number is, BTW, an indication that the aircraft had to be guarded all the time. A nice and appropriate detail for this high tech aircraft of its time. The roundels/fin flashes were taken from another Xtradecal sheet, IIRC they belong to an FAA SB2C Helldiver.

Finally, some wear marks were added with dry-brushed light grey and silver. Exhaust stains were added with dry-brushed dark and light grey, as well as some grinded graphite. A coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri) sealed the kit.

I feel a bit guilty of creating the probably ugliest Spitfire possible, with all the add-ons and the weird proportions through the second cockpit and the belly tank. Very massive, at least for this sleek aircraft. The night fighter paint scheme suits the Spitfire surprisingly well, though. Anyway, it’s whifworld, after all, and I tried to go through with the night fighter idea as good and consequential as possible – the fictional NF.XX is just my personal interpretation of the theme.

Just got my M10 in. Finally.

Shooting camera: Fujifilm GFX-50s on Cambo Actus Mini

Shooting lens: Sinaron 80mm F/4 Digital

Trigger: Profoto Air

Light: single D1 with reflector overhead behind styrene, with small reflectors on either side of product. Power: 1/2

Nothing too interest to update, all I've been doing is panel work. As you can see, my process is to map out the panelling as a template, cut each individual panel and then transfer those shapes into styrene. There's probably a faster method, but this seems to be reliable enough for me to not screw up.

Custom 1:34 scale dumpster, handmade out of styrene for use with the First Gear Diecast 1:34 scale front-load garbage truck. This one is a 4-yard recycling dumpster, done up with Waste Management decals.

Some background

Today's Israel Aerospace Industries was founded in 1953 as Bedek Aviation Company under the initiative of Shimon Peres, then Director general of the Ministry of Defense, in order to maintain Israel Defense Forces (IDF) aircraft'. The company originally had 70 employees and recruited American born aviation expert Al Schwimmer as the company's founder and first president.

Consequentially, Bedek began in 1959 manufacturing its first aircraft, a V-tailed twinjet trainer of French design, the Fouga Magister, locally called Tzukit (Monticola). The first aircraft to be fully designed and built by IAI, the IAI Arava STOL (short take-off and landing) transport aircraft, first flew in 1969 after three years of development.

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length: 34 ft 11 in (10.66 m)

Wingspan: 41 ft 0 in (12.49 m)

Height: 16 ft 1 in (4.90 m) (w. tail down)

Wing area: 302 ft² (28 m²)

Empty weight: 9,250 lb (4,195 kg)

Loaded weight: 11,400 lb (5,176 kg)

Max. takeoff weight: 13,640 lb (6,190 kg)

Powerplant:

1× P&W R-2800-32(E) 18 cylinder radial engine with a two-stage supercharger

and a maximum output of 2,500 hp (1,865 kW), driving a four-bladed Rotol propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 435 mph at 19,000 ft (700 km/h at 5,791 m)

Range: 740 mi (1,190 km) with internal fuel only,

1,530 mi (2,462 km) with 90 gal (409 l) drop tanks

Service ceiling: 36,500 ft (11,125 m)

Rate of climb: 4,700 ft/min (23.9 m/s)

Wing loading: 37.75 lb/ft² (184.86 kg/m²)

Power/mass: 0.21 hp/lb (0.31 kW/kg)

Armament:

4× 20 mm (.79 in) Mark V Hispano cannons, 200 rpg.

2× underwing hardpoints for 500 lb (227 kg) or 1,000 lb (454 kg) bombs

or 2× 45 gal (205 l) or 2× 90 gal (409 l) drop tanks

Alternatively up to 8× unguided 3 in (76.2 mm) RP-3 rockets

The kit and its assembly:

This converted Hawker Tempest was original inspired by a CG artwork from a flight simulation game, where someone had copied the skin from a D-Day P-47, in US olive drab/neutral grey livery with invasion stripes and some colorful cowling trim, onto a Tempest Mk. II. This looked very good and natural, but I found the overall concept to be fishy. The Tempest belongs to a later war period, and I could hardly imagine that the US forces, with potent fighters like the P-47 or the P-51 at hand, would operate the Tempest, too?

But the idea kept haunting me, and resulted in the idea of an engine switch to an R-2800 radial. Another unlikely move, at least during WWII, and so I kept searching for a post-war niche for this conversion. After ruling out some option (India, Myanmar) I eventually settled for the young state of Israel during the nascent period of its air force in the early Fifties – and about the time when Tempest airframes would become available. Still not a 100% bulletproof story, but I liked the idea.

Technically, this is just the (actually very good) Matchbox kit of the Hawker Tempest, which comes with an optional Sabre and a Centaurus nose section, with an engine transplant from an Italeri F4U-5 and some minor cosmetic changes.

The engine switch was easier than expected, both the Centaurus and the R-2800 have almost the same diameter – even though the Corsair cowling is a bit wider and more massive. But the stunt works pretty well, without major PSR work.

Another feature that changes IMHO the Tempest’s look considerably is the new, spinner-less propeller. It suits the “new” aircraft well, and makes the Tempest look much more American, and somewhat menacing?

In order to blend the engine into the fuselage lines I added a shallow air scoop under the cowling, and an additional oil cooler was, scratched with styrene sheet and putty, added to the port wing, for a more or less symmetrical arrangement.

In the cockpit, I just added a dashboard and the canopy was cut into two pieces for display. The landing gear was taken OOB.

In order to tell the fighter bomber story I added ordnance under the wings in the form of two US style 500 lb bombs (from a Smer F4U) plus a pair of scratched pylons, plus two pairs of resin RP-3 rockets and launch rails (Pavla) on the outermost positions.

Painting and markings:

This was a bit tricky. The classic brown/blue IDF livery of the Suez crisis would have been a natural choice, but I wanted something different – and eventually found a P-51 of that era (“19”) which became the inspiration for the S'erh.

The Mustang carried a relatively simple scheme in sand and green, with light blue undersides – but interpretations of the tones vary greatly. Furthermore I was only able to dig up side views of the machine, and apparently it had a symmetrical pattern on the fuselage, with large blotches instead of color bands.

I used Tamiya XF-57 “Buff” and “Olive Green” (XF-58) as basic tones for the upper surfaces and Humbrol 247 (RLM 76) for the undersides - kind of a "sand & spinach" livery. Later, the model received a black ink wash and post shading with lighter tones (Humbrol 167 "Hemp" as well as RAL 6003 and RLM 76 from Modelmaster). Cockpit and landing gear wells became Tamiya XF-67 (Field Grey), an slightly darker alternative to the classic RAF Interior Green.

The decals were puzzled together - the national markings and the Suez ID stripes came from a Heller Ouragan, the tactical code "57" came from an Italeri La-5FN (and is actually a "75"...) and the unit badge was lent from an Italeri A-4M, depicting a VMA-331 "Bumble Bees" machine.

Finally, the model received some soot stains around the exhausts and the gun ports, and it was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).

I was a little scpetical whether the fictional Israeli origin of this what-if was sound or not, but when I look at the finished model I think it's a good story - and the Tempest with the massive R-2800 engine does actually not look that bad or unbalanced, despite the wider cowling and the lack of a propeller spinner. Esp. the latter detail males the aircraft look really different. The sleek Tempest is still there, but you immediately wonder "Well, there's something wrong with it...?".

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

With the end of the conflict in Africa in early 1974, the Portuguese Armed Forces went through a reorganization and shifted their focus back from counter-insurgency to honoring Portugal's commitments to NATO and preparing for a possible conflict in Europe against the Warsaw Pact. The Portuguese Air Force's F-86F Sabre and G.91 fighters were considered to be outdated in both the air defense and ground attack roles to face Soviet forces in the European operations theater. Furthermore, only a few Sabre fighters were actually in service due to problems with the engines and lack of spare parts.

The last Saab 35 in Swedish service was retired in 1999, the last Saab 35 Draken was withdrawn from military use in Austria in 2005 – 50 years after the type first flew. However, several aircraft still fly today in private operators’ service.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 15.35 m (50 ft 4 in)

Wingspan: 9.42 m (30 ft 11 in)

Height: 3.89 m (12 ft 9 in)

Wing area: 49.2 m2 (530 ft²)

Airfoil: 5%

Empty weight: 7,865 kg (17,339 lb)

Gross weight: 11,000 kg (24,251 lb)

Max takeoff weight: 11,914 kg (26,266 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Svenska Flygmotor RM6C (license-built Rolls Royce Avon with Swedish afterburner)

turbojet engine, 56.5 kN (12,700 lbf) thrust dry, 78.4 kN (17,600 lbf) with afterburner

Performance:

Maximum speed: 2,450 km/h (1,520 mph, 1,320 kn) at 11,000 m (36,089 ft)

Maximum speed: Mach 2

Range: 1.120 km (605 nmi; 696 mi); clean, internal fuel only

Ferry range: 2,750 km (1,480 nmi; 1,710 mi) with four external 500 l drop tanks

Service ceiling: 20,000 m (66,000 ft)

Rate of climb: 199 m/s (39,200 ft/min)

Wing loading: 231.6 kg/m² (47.4 lb/ft²)

Thrust/weight: 0.7

Takeoff roll: 800 m (2,625 ft)

Armament:

2× 30 mm AKAN M/55 ADEN cannon with 100 rounds per gun

4× hardpoints with a capacity of 2,900 kg (6,393 lb); typical interceptor ordnance:

2× 500 l ventral drop tanks and 2× AIM-9 Sidewinder under the wings

The kit and its assembly:

This what-if model came as a spontaneous idea when I browsed through the WWW for inspiration. I stumbled upon the history of the Portuguese Air Force and the fact that it did not operate any dedicated interceptor for 15 years – this task was taken over by the PAF’s A-7s(!) until the F-16 arrived in the Nineties This gap offered a lot of whiffing potential, and I had actually considered to build a whiffy FAP Mirage III for some time, since I knew that this was, together with the F-5, the favored type. However, there was also serious consideration of the Saab 35 as potential fighter alternative, too!

I found this idea so weird/exotic that I decided to build a Draken in FAP colors. The kit is the Hasegawa model, in a Revell re-boxing. I also considered the vintage Revell Saab 35 (a mold from 1957!), but after I saw the kit in a current re-boxing from Polish company Akkura, I took the chance of a reasonably priced Hasegawa kit instead. While the Akkura kit is crisply molded, it would take a lot of work to create a satisfactory “modern” Draken from it. I also had a Heller kit in store (my personal favorite), but I did not want to “sacrifice” it for this project.

The Hasegawa/Revell kit was basically built OOB. The kit is a simple, straightforward affair, with fine recessed engravings and good fit, but it’s IMHO far from extraordinary. It also has its flaws: the dashboard is totally blank, any instruments have to be created by yourself or taken from the decal sheet. There are ejection marks on the wheels and the landing gear covers, and the fit quality of some areas (e .g. the seam between the fuselage and the afterburner section) calls for PSR. The two-piece canopy is thin, very clear and fits well, the landing gear is sufficiently detailed – including the interior of the main landing gear wells.

For the FAP version I did not change much; I just replaced the seat (which OOB looks fine, I just wanted “something else”), added a radar warning antenna to the fin’s tip and chaff dispensers around the tail section, all carved from styrene profiles.

Unfortunately, the Revell re-boxing just comes with a pair of launch rails and underwing pylons, but no AA weapons at all. That’s acceptable for the anniversary machine that you can build from the kit, but leaves the other option, a grey, Swedish J35 H, without any ordnance.

The drop tanks on my build are OOB, together with their ventral hardpoints, and I added a pair of decent AIM-9J Sidewinders from a Hasegawa air-to-air weapon set for a suitable interceptor ordnance. The launch rails were recycled from the kit: they are actually missile rails with attachment points to mount them under the air intakes. The rails were separated and then attached to the OOB underwing pylons, this worked very well.

Painting and markings:

The livery was not an easy choice. Initially I favored a uniform pale grey livery with blue squadron markings, inspired by the late F-86s of FAP 51 squadron, but found this, despite being a plausible look for an interceptor, to look quite boring. For the same reason I rejected an Austria-style “Hill II” scheme or a light-grey USN-inspired “Compass Ghost” livery. The Hellenic “Ghost” wraparound scheme was another potential option, but I recently used something similar on another whif build (the Catalonian L-159 ALCA), and it would not have a typically Portuguese Cold War look.

Keeping in style with the FAP’s livery fashion during the Eighties, I rather settled upon a USAF SEA scheme, which was carried by many PAF aircraft during the Eighties, e .g. the A-7P, the G.91, and their replacement from 1993 onwards, the Alpha Jet. Instead of a wraparound version for ground attack aircraft, I rather gave the Draken light grey undersides.

The camouflage pattern itself was improvised, since I did not want to copy an existing delta wing aircraft (e.g. the USAF’s F-102 or F-106 SEA pattern, or the Belgian Mirage Vs). The basic colors are Humbrol 75 (Bronze Green; the authentic tone is FS 34079, but this lacks IMHO contrast to the lighter green), 117 (FS 34102) and 118 (FS 30219) from above, and Humbrol 28 (FS 36622) underneath.

A large ventral section was, typical for the J 35, left in bare metal, since leaking fuel and oil would frequently eat away any paint there. The section was painted with Steel Metallizer (ModelMaster) and later treated with Matt Aluminum Metallizer (Humbrol).

Internal details like the cockpit and the landing gear were painted with the help of Swedish and Austrian Saab 35 reference pictures. The cockpit tub was painted in a dark, bluish green (Humbrol 76) with grey-green (Revell 67) side walls. A piece of paper tissue covers the cockpit’s back wall, since the kit leaves a visible and rather ugly seam there, which is only partly hidden behind the seat.

The landing gear and its respective wells were painted with Humbrol 56 (Aluminum Dope), parts of the struts were painted in a bright turquoise (a mix of Humbrol 89 and 80; looks quite weird, but I like such details!). The front wheel received a dark green mudguard (Humbrol 30), the same color was also partially used on the extended emergency current generator. Missiles and launch rails were painted in gloss white (Humbrol 22).

As per usual, the model received a light black ink wash and some post-shading in order to emphasize the panels and dramatize the surface. Some extra weathering was done around the gun ports and the jet nozzle with graphite.

For markings I used the contemporary A-7Ps as benchmark: they were minimal, there were even no squadron markings or other decorations, and I think they even lacked roundels on their wings!

I gave the Draken slightly more markings: The small FAP roundels come from a PrintScale A/T-37 sheet, the fin flashes are from a TL Modellbai sheet and the tactical codes belong to a Japanese T-4 trainer. Most stencils were taken from the Revell OOB sheet, which also includes decals for the reddish sealer around the cockpit windows.

I didn’t want to leave the Draken without any squadron marking, though, so I gave it a blue band on top of the fin, as a reminiscence of the FAP 51 squadron’s markings, the former final F-86 operator which became 201 squadron in the early Eighties. These were simply done with layered white and blue decal stripes.

Finally, the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri), except for the black radome, which received a sheen varnish coat.

A relatively simple whif project, since the model was mostly built OOB with just minor cosmetic changes. However, despite its exotic operator, the USAF South East Asia scheme suits the Draken well, the whole thing looks disturbingly convincing!?

It’s also a kind of tribute build for “Sport16ing”, apparently a great fan of my what-if builds who frequently re-posts pictures and background stories (with kind permission to do so!) at deviantart.com.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

The Messerschmitt Me 262 F was a series of multi-purpose jet planes designed by Messerschmitt for the Luftwaffe that entered service during the final phase of the Second World War in Europe. The aircraft’s design was begun in the summer of 1943 under the project handle P.1099, intended as an improvement to the successful Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter and also as a replacement for the Arado Ar 234 bomber/reconnaissance aircraft. The primary focus was on more payload, being either usable for more fuel (since early jet engines had poor mileage and therefore range and endurance) or for weapons, including bombs in an internal bomb bay that would enable the aircraft to fulfil a similar tactical role as the British de Havilland Mosquito. Beyond this high-speed bomber (Schnellbomber) variant, the P.1099 would also be a suitable basis for a fast reconnaissance plane, interceptors and night fighters, and trainer versions were also planned.

Only a handful Me 262 F-2a Pulkzerstörer were eventually fielded and operated before the end of hostilities – beyond the low production numbers the lack of fuel and loss of suitable airfields highly limited the aircraft’s potential. Probably less than ten were used by operational units, including JG 53 “Pik As”, in which they served alongside other interceptors, including other Me 262 variants. Typically, bomber formations were approached from the side of a bomber formation, where their silhouettes were widest, and while still out of range of the bombers' machine guns. This broadside-attack tactic was very effective, and the aircraft’s high speed allowed the interceptors to turn around 180° and make at least a second attack run from the opposite side, before the machines dashed off and returned to their bases.

General characteristics

Crew: One

Length: 14,32 m (46 ft 11 in) overall

12,00 m (39 ft 3¾ in) fuselage only, w/o brake parachute housing

Wingspan: 12,61 m (41 ft 3¾ in)

Height: 4,43 m (14 ft 6 in)

Wing area: 24,2 m² (236 sq ft)

Empty weight: 5.061 kg (11,148 lb)

Loaded weight: 8.762 kg (19,300 lb)

Max. take-off weight: 10.062 kg (22,163 lb)

Powerplant:

2× Junkers Jumo 004 C turbojets with 12 kN (2,697 lb st) each

Performance

Maximum speed: 930 km/h (577 mph, 505 kn)

Cruising speed: 805 km/h (500 mph, 438 kn) at 6.500 m (21,290 ft)

Range: 1.340 km (830 ml, 728 nm) at 6000 m with internal fuel only

Service ceiling: 11,450 m (37,570 ft)

Rate of climb: 18 m/s (3,540 ft/min) at max. weight

Armament:

1× 55 mm (1.96 in) MK 112 machine cannon with 60 rounds

1× 30 mm (1.18 in) MK 108 machine cannon with 100 rounds

Hardpoints under the outer wings for racks with twelve 55mm R4M unguided air-to-air missiles

The kit and its assembly:

This became a submission to the late 2021 “Gunships” group build at whatifmodellers.com – what would such a competition be without at least one gun-toting German Luft ’46 interceptor? The Messerschmitt P.1099 lent itself for such a build. Since 1996 Revell offers a 1:72 IP model kit of this paper aircraft, depicting more or less the two planned versions: a basic single-seat day fighter and a heavy two-seater Zerstörer, both based on the same basis.

This what-if model was based on Revell’s interpretation of the P.1099A, and the kit goes together well. Fit is very good, even though some designs are IMHO a bit dubious. The kit’s weakest point: Revell unfortunately missed the important detail of the modified engine nacelles: the kit comes with standard Me 262 wings and engines, but due to CoG reasons the P.1099 would have had its engines moved back by about 900 mm, as mentioned in the background. I corrected this on this build with some PSR – sounds simple, but since the nacelles are not expected to be stuck to the wings in their new position roughly 1 cm further back, some serious bodywork had to be done.

Otherwise the kit was basically built OOB. I just left away the inner wheels from the main landing gear because I found the twin wheels to be “too much” for this upgraded Me 262. The P.1099 might have been heavier than the Me 262, but…? And the wheels’ tractor-like tread design looks IMHO out of place, too, so that I replaced them with a pair of MiG-21 wheels, left over from a KP kit.

The cockpit was taken OOB, even though I have doubts concerning the canopy. And when you look at mockup pictures of the P.1099 you realize that cockpit access had been facilitated through a side door at starboard, similar to the D. H. Mosquito. The cockpit tub does not consider this hatch at all, and the engraved door on the fuselage (it’s actually there!) is so tiny that only a Halfling might use it?

Well, I stuck with it “as is” and just added a pilot figure (specifically from a Matchbox Hawker tempest, because it is one of the rare cases that you get a WWII pilot wearing an oxygen mask) and a “barrel” behind the bulbous pilot seat because there’s a lot of free space in this single seat variant that is otherwise occupied by a rear gunner in Revell’s P.1099B kit. I also have doubts concerning the kit’s canopy, since the original P.1099 had a cockpit for two seated side-by-side, with a canopy that resembled the D.H. Mosquito’s a lot. I am also not certain about the stabilizers – the kit comes with standard Me 262 parts, but trustworthy sources I consulted suggest that not only the fin had been enlarged (depicted well in Revell’s kit), but also the stabilizers? To improve this, I implanted a pair of modified stabilizers that came from a Heller PZL P.23 light bomber. Sounds odd, but they were a very good match in size, shape and thickness!

The only major modification concerns the armament, even though it became just a “graft-on” solution. On the lower left side, the upper gun port was PSRed away. On the right side I added a bulged fairing for the MK 112. It was sculpted from a Matchbox Saab J29 drop tank and blended into the hull with PSR. Protruding spent cases fairings were added for both guns. The MK 112 gun barrel is a resin piece, left over from a ModelTrans tank conversion set and actually depicts a German 55 mm gun, so that this became a perfect donor piece.

Since the airframe still looked rather clean and boring I finally added a pair of JATO bottle racks to the rear fuselage (scratched from styrene profile but left empty) and a brake parachute fairing under the fin, carved from a piece of sprue.

Furthermore, a display adapter was installed into the fuselage for in-flight pictures.

Painting and markings:

This became a challenge, because I wanted a rather unusual livery, neither a standard RLM 81/82/76 late-war combo nor an improvised-cammo-over-bare-metal finish. After some research I settled upon something that was actually carried by some He 177 bombers around 1944: a uniform RLM 74 (Graugrün, Humbrol 245) upper surface with “cloudy” mottles in RLM 76 (Humbrol 247). This appears like a winter camouflage, but it’s actually quite effective at medium altitude, esp. over a cloudy landscape. The original bombers had light blue (RLM 65) undersides, but for the P.1099 from a later period and as a fighter I rather used a darker shade of RLM76 in the form of Tamiya XF-23 (Light Blue). The model received a black ink washing and some post-panel-shading.

The cockpit interior became RLM 66 (Schwarzgrau, Humbrol 67) while the landing gear and the well were painted in uniform RLM 02 (I used Revell 45, a slightly more greenish tone), with wheel discs in RLM 66, too.

Unit markings became minimal and quite sober. I gave the aircraft a typical late-war “Reichsverteidigung” fuselage band, and in JG 53’s case it is plain black. The black band was deliberately chosen because it is a good, much darker contrast to the murky RLM 74, so that the latter appears lighter than it actually is, lowering the contrast to the RLM 76 spots.

The decals were puzzled together from various sources. As an aircraft of the 3rd group the unit’s ID color would be yellow, reflected in the tactical code and the fin tip. For some contrast and to emphasize the long gun barrel I gave it white and black stripes – as a security measure for ground handling. For some more variety I painted one air intake in very dark grey (Revell 06, Anthracite) and the other one in steel Metallizer, simulating replacement parts. The Balkenkreuze come from various sheets – I used simplified “low viz” versions all around. The undulating yellow bar for the 3rd group comes from a TL Modellbau sheet, while the yellow “4” came from a Fw 190 A sheet from Sky Models. A small “4” on the nose was added as a wacky detail, too, the “Pik As” unit markings came IIRC from a Hobby Boss Bf 109 sheet. Since they turned out to have poor contrast/opacity I only used a few stencils from the P.1099A sheet, but due to the disruptive paint scheme this is not apparent.

Finally, the model was sealed with a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri) and a wire antenna, scratched from heated black sprue material, was added between cockpit and fin.

Well, this modified Messerschmitt P.1099A looks simple, but the modified engine nacelles as well as the gun fairing under the nose called for serious PSR. The result looks quite natural, though, and AFAIK this weapon configuration was actually on German drawing boards. However, I am not certain about the cockpit canopy and other details on Revell’s kit, reference information is contradictive.

The paint scheme looks good, even though it was lent from a heavy bomber, and the poor Humbrol enamels did not yield a finish that I had hoped for – the paintwork could certainly have been better, but the overall impression of a late-war Pulkzerstörer is O.K., and this eventually counts.

19 - Dimension Submarine UX-01.

Category: Model Kit.

Name: Dimension Submarine UX-01.

Scale: Non.

Series: Mecha Collection.

Origin: Space Battleship Yamato 2199.

Brand: Bandai.

Material: Styrene plastic.

Release Date: Sept 2015.

Condition: Unassembled.

*Note: This is a Model Kit collected by my BB.

More in My Collection Corner.

This is not a canonical Aliens weapon, it is my own creation. I thought the Colonial Marines were lacking in the PDW/compact carbine department, so I set out to make something that fit the bill yet still maintained the same aesthetic. My smartgunner is off bug hunting, so posing duties have been delegated to my lame Generic Marine.

The M41C Compact Pulse Carbine uses the same 10x24mm explosive-tipped caseless cartridge as its big brother and takes standard M41 magazines, but lacks the integrated grenade launcher, carry handle. Instead the M41C opts for a more lightweight and versatile configuration, with accessory rails on the top of the receiver and underneath the foregrip. The wire stock is fully extendable and fits minifig anatomy perfectly.

Materials used: BA M41A (of course), BA PSR, strip styrene, paper clips.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

During development of the earlier Hawker Typhoon, the design team, under the leadership of Sydney Camm, had already planned out a series of design improvements; these improvements cumulated in the Hawker P. 1012, otherwise known as the Typhoon II or Thin-Wing Typhoon. Although the Typhoon was generally considered to be a good design, Camm and his design team were disappointed with the performance of its wing, which had proved to be too thick in its cross section, and thus created airflow problems which inhibited flight performance, especially at higher altitudes and speeds where it was affected by compressibility. In addition, there had been other issues experienced with the Typhoon, such as engine unreliability, insufficient structural integrity, and the inability to perform high altitude interception duties.

Only fifty-two Hawker Tempest HF Mk. IIs were eventually built (two prototypes converted from early Mk. II airframes and 50 serial aircraft), because in early 1945 it was foreseeable that Japan was under heavy pressure and retreating to its homeland, so that Tiger Force was never established. Instead, most Tempest HF Mk. IVs were sent to Burma and India, where they served in their intended role as high altitude interceptors against Japanese reconnaissance aircraft until the end of hostilities.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 34 ft 5 in (10,50 m)

Wingspan: 48 ft 4 in (14,76 m)

Height: 16 ft 1 in (4,90 m) (tail down with one propeller blade vertical)

Wing area: 338 sq ft (31,5 m²)

Gross weight: 12,500 lb (5,700 kg)

Maximum takeoff weight: 14,650 lb (6,645 kg)

Fuel capacity: 160 imp gal (190 US gal; 730 l) internal

plus optional undwrwing tanks with 90 imp gal (110 US gal; 410 l)

or 180 imp gal (220 US gal; 820 l)

Oil tank capacity: 16 imp gal (19 US gal; 73 l)

Powerplant:

1× Bristol Centaurus V with two-stage, two-speed superchargers and intercooler,

delivering a maximum output of 2,590 hp/1,932 kW, driving a five-bladed Rotol propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 405 mph (652 km/h, 360 kn) at 17,000 ft (5.200 m)

385 mph (620 km/h, 335 kn) at 26,000 ft (7.900 m)

370 mph (595 km/h, 330 kn) at sea level

Combat range: 420 mi (680 km, 360 nmi) with internal fuel

Service ceiling: 44,000 ft (13,000 m)

Rate of climb: 5,300 ft/min (27 m/s)

Time to altitude: 21,500 ft (7,050 m) in 6 minutes at combat power

30,000 ft (9,000 m) in 12 minutes

Wing loading: 40 lb/sq ft (193,6 kg/m²) at 13,500 lb (6.100 kg)

Power/mass: 0.19 hp/lb (0,32 kW/kg) at 13,500 lb (6.100 kg)

Armament:

4× 20 mm (0.787 in) Mark V Hispano cannon in the outer wings, 200 RPG

Two underwing hardpoints, typically occupied by a pair of 67.5 Igal (81 US gal; 300 l) slipper tanks,

alternatively 2× 45 imp gal (54 US gal; 200 l) or 2× 90 imp gal (110 US gal; 410 l) drop tanks, or 2×

bombs of up to 1.000 lb (4545 kg) caliber

The kit and its assembly:

This fictional high-altitude Hawker Tempest variant was inspired by leftover wing tip extensions from an AZ Models Spitfire kit. I remembered that the late Spitfire variants had a modified wing shape, much like the Tempest’s oval shape, and from this the idea to transplant these tips was born.

The rest of the modifications of the Matchbox kit at the core of the build were logical steps - and I must say that the Matchbox Tempest is not a bad kit. It goes together really well, and while the recessed surface details are somewhat soft, the overall impression is good to me.

For a high-altitude variant I added a leftover five blade propeller from a Pioneer 2 Hawker Sea Fury that was modified with a styrene tube adapter to match the OOB MK. II’s Centaurus engine. A radiator from a Macchi C.205V was added for the intercooler, and a small compressor’s air intake was added in front of the cockpit. The bulges for the compressors and their respective plumbings in front of the cockpit are curved pieces of sprue material - simple, but effective.

Under the wings the post-war attachment points for missile launch rails were PSRed away and the pitot, originally an L-shaped device under the left wing, was relocated to the leading edge – similar to the tropicalized export Tempests. The slipper tanks come from a Hobby Boss MiG-15, but they had to be PSRed to match the Tempest’s very different wing shape. I found that they’d look more elegant than the original drop tanks.

Inside of the cockpit I added a dashboard and a small gunsight behind the windscreen (the canopy had been cut into two pieces for open display) , scratched from styrene sheet – I could not live with the void in front of the pilot, and anything is probably better than nothing in this case, since the Matchbox kit only offers a seat (and a pilot figure, though), but no dashboard, floor or side panels. The kit comes, however, with nice oxygen flasks behind the seat. Weird.

Painting and markings:

I wanted an unusual paint scheme for this high-altitude Tempest, even though something typically British. Inspiration came from a recce Spitfire in SEAC markings, and I liked its combination of Medium Sea Grey upper surfaces and PRU Blue undersides, coupled with a low waterline and the small, all-blue SEAC roundels. The paints I used were Humbrol 165 and 230. On top of that I added white ID bands, what made IMO sense as a fighter, and as an odd color contrast the spinner was painted in Sky (Tamiya XF-23).

The cockpit was painted mostly in almost-black (Revell 06, Anthracite), just with the bucket seat and the floor painted in Cockpit Green (Humbrol 78). This was also used for the landing gear wells.

The decals come mostly from an Xtradecal sheet for SEAC Spitfires, e. g. the roundels and the fin flash. The aircraft's serial number did not exist at all and was puzzled together with material from the same sheet, so that the font matched. The white ID bands were created with generic decal sheet material (from TL Modellbau), and lots of decal softener was used to make the stripes conform to the guns' bulgings on the upper wing surfaces. Woerked well, though. The tactical code was created from separate white 6mm letters, also generic stuff from TL Modellbau. Many SEAC aircraft either did not carry a unit code, or they used smaller, non-regular fonts, so that this solution is quite plausible.

After some final weathering with post-shading as well as oil and soot stains with graphite the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.

A relatively simple build, since there were no structural changes - but I am amazed how different and good the extended Spitfire wing tips look on the Tempest? A very elegant shape, and from certain angles the model looks like a beefed up Mistubishi A5M or reminds (oddly) of a Vickers Wellesley? The grey/blue livery also adds an exotic touch, as well as the small SEAC roundels. However, the hardware combo works very well.

Some background:

After the space-worthy conversion of the CVS-101 Prometheus and the SLV-111 Daedalus carriers, these ships were docked with the SDF-1 Macross and it became clear that this new gigantic vessel required a specialized unit with a heavy armament for medium range defense.

The resulting Space Defense Robot (SDR) Phalanx was tailored to this task. Development of the Phalanx began in a hurry, during the already ongoing Space War I in July 2009. Its systems and structural elements were, to save time and minimize development risks, taken over from a pre-war Destroid standard mass production model. The "Type 04" biped chassis from 2001 was common to several Destroid types, including the Tomahawk medium battle robot and the Defender anti-aircraft robot. The main frame from the waist down included a common module which consolidated the thermonuclear reactor and ambulatory OverTechnology system, and for the Phalanx it was combined with a new, jettisonable torso that was suited to space operations and could also act as a rescue capsule with modest independent propulsion. Thanks to this dedicated mission profile, the Phalanx was the best adapted Destroid to space operations, with the best zero-G maneuverability of any Destroid type during Space War I.

However, Phalanx production only reached limited numbers, due to the type’s high grade of specialization and its inherent vulnerability in close combat - the Phalanx’ combat operation capability decreases substantially once the missile ordnance had been exhausted. Beyond the initial production on Earth, roughly 20 more Phalanx Destroids were also built aboard the SDF-1 Macross shipboard factories, and many of these were later updated from the Mk. XII to the Mk. XIII standard. Post-Space War I, Phalanx Destroids were deployed as part of defense forces on various military bases and used in the ground attack role as long-range infantry support artillery units, fighting from the second line of battle. Nevertheless, the Phalanx remained a stopgap solution and was quickly followed by the more versatile Destroid "Nimrod" SDR-04-Mk. XIV.

Technical Data:

Equipment Type: Space Defense Robot/heavy artillery

Accommodation: One pilot

Government: U.N. Spacy

Manufacturer: Macross Onboard Factories

Introduction: December 2009

Dimensions:

Height 12.05 meters overall (11.27 m w/o searchlight array)

Length 5.1 meters

Width 10.8 meters.

Mass: 47.2 metric tons

Powerplant:

1x Kranss-Maffai MT828 thermonuclear reactor, developing 2800 shp;

Auxillary Shinnakasu Industry CT 03 miniature thermonuclear generator, output rated at 970 kW.

Propulsion:

Biped, with limited zero-G maneuverability through many low-thrust vernier thrusters beneath multipurpose hooks/handles all over the hull.

Armament:

2x Howard SHIN-SHM-10 Derringer short-range high-maneuverability self-guided missile pods, one per arm, with 22 missiles each (missiles stored in two rows behind each other).

Production Notes:

The rather obscure Destroid Phalanx made its media debut in Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Episode 27, and it's actually the only occasion where it appears. Original mecha designer is/was Miyatake Kazutaka.

The kit and its assembly:

I have been pushing this build away from the workbench for a long time. I was – after building two conversions - missing a canonical Destroid Phalanx in my Macross mecha collection, and since I had one stashed away (you never know…) I tackled this project now. The kit is Bandai’s re-issue of Imai’s 1982 1:100 kit, a vintage “Matryoshka” construction (= build one element from two halves, place it between two more halves, etc.) which does not make the assembly process easy.

The kit was basically built OOB, but “under the hood” it received some mechanical mods and improvements. These primarily include scratched joints for the arms/launcher pods and the hip. The pods remained detachable through an internal styrene tube construction. An important improvement for the “04 chassis” is a completely now hip joint arrangement because the Phalanx’ OOB posture is pretty stiff, with the legs and feet facing straight forward. The mecha model is just supposed to just stand upright and with the model’s OOB joint options it is really hard to create a vivid poise at all, so that a 3rd dimension improves the posing options a lot. Furthermore, the bolts that hold the legs are prone to break off, even more so because the kit is from the 1st generation of mecha kits without vinyl caps and just a very tight joint fit to hold the appendages in place. My solution was the implantation of a new hip “bone”, made from plastic-coated steel wire, which is stiff in itself but can be bent in two dimensions. The thighs had to be modified accordingly, since the wire is much thinner than the original bolts, and it needs a rigid attachment point. Resulting gaps around the hip joints were filled with bits of paper tissue drenched in white glue.

Other visual improvements include launch tubes inside of the missile pods. These were made from thin plastic drinking straw material, they fill the (rather ugly and well-visible) blank space between the warheads. Additionally, the hollow “heels” were filled on their insides with putty.

While the kit itself is a pretty simple affair, fit is mediocre, and you have to expect PSR almost everywhere. A direly weak spot area is the shank’s rear: there’s a recession with a seam running right through, and there are side walls missing in the section, too. I tried to mend this through putty and decals.

Painting and markings:

Since I wanted to stick to the authentic OOB livery, I gave the model an overall basic color, a greenish-grey, dull beige (RAL 1019) from the rattle can. The canonical Phalanx also features some dark contrast highlights all over the hull, and these were created with RAL 7013 (Revell 46), an olive drab tone that looks, in contrast to the light beige, almost like a dull brown on the model. The box art suggests a very dark grey, but I found that this would not work too well with the overall light beige tone.

Strangely, the characteristic white trim on the lower legs that many Destroids carry was in this boxing provided with the decal sheet – other Destroid kits require them to be painted manually!

Otherwise there's hardly any other color on the Phalanx’ hull. The missile pod exhausts as well as the launcher interior were painted with steel metallizer (Humbrol 27003) and treated with graphite for a shiny finish, the inside of the launcher covers and the missile tips became bright red (Revell 332). The bellows in the knees became anthracite (Revell 06), later dry-brushed with a reddish brown.

Quite a challenge were the three search lights in the “head unit”, because they consist of massive molded opaque styrene. I simulated glass and depth through a bright silver base, with vertical stripes in thinned white and medium grey and a coat with white translucent paint on top of that. Finally, extra artificial light reflexes were added with opaque white paint and, finally, everything was sealed with glossy varnish, which also adds some visual depth.

The model was thoroughly weathered with a black-and-brown watercolor washing and a generous dry-brushing treatment with Hemp 168 (RAF Hemp). The decals came next, taken from the OOB sheet, the Bugs Bunny artwork on the lower right leg is a typical individual detail of many Destroids, taken from a WWII USAAF P-47D.

After some additional weathering with watercolors and some graphite rubbing around the many edges for a worn and beaten look, the model received an overall coat with acrylic matt varnish. After final assembly of the model’s elements, soot stains were added around the missile launchers’ openings as well as to the small thrusters, again with grinded graphite, and some mineral pigments were dusted onto the model with a soft, big brush, esp. around the lower areas.

A build that took some time because of the mediocre fit of the kit and the mechanical mods it IMHO requires. But I am quite happy with the outcome, “just a Destroid” in its gritty heavy ordnance look, and the dull beige suits the Phalanx well.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

The Panzerkampfwagen E-100, also known as Gerät 383 and TG-01, was a German super-heavy tank design developed towards the end of World War II. It was proposed to be the basis for a heavy artillery system, an anti-aircraft vehicle, and a heavy tank destroyer. The basic design had been ordered by the Waffenamt as a parallel development to Porsche's heavy tank design "Maus" in June 1943, but it was to become an integral part of the new, standardized Entwicklung (E) series of vehicles, consisting of the E-5, E-10, E-25, E-50, E-75 and finally the E-100. The latter was the heaviest and biggest chassis of the family, which was meant to standardize as many components and production processes as possible.

With all this heavy and bulky equipment as well as a total stock of 202 88 mm rounds and a crew of seven the Sd.Kfz. 199/4 weighed – despite the chassis’ reduced armor thickness – more than 100 tons, so that its mobility and tactical value were sharply restricted, even though it was markedly better than the battle tanks with their all-up weight of 140 tons and more. Due to this limited usefulness and lack of resources, only a small number were built. Production numbers vary between 15 and 25 vehicles, some might have been created on the basis of refurbished Sd.Kfz. 193 battle tank hulls. Most of the time, the few Sd.Kfz. 199/4s were used as mobile command posts for anti-aircraft units that defended vital locations like headquarters or production sites around Berlin, so that the vehicle’s short legs did not matter much.

Specifications:

Crew: 7 (Commander, Gunner, Telemeter operator, 2x Loader, Driver, Radio Operator)

Weight: 108 tonnes (119 short tons)

Length: 8.86 m (29 ft), hull only

11.62 m (38 ft 1 in), overall with guns forward

Width: 3.96 m

4.48 m (14 ft 8 in) with armored side skirts mounted

Height: 3.29 m (10 ft 10 in)

3.92 m (12 ft 10 in) with Schwere Waffenlafette 45

Suspension: Belleville washer coil spring

Armor:

Hull front: 80 – 120 mm (3.2 – 4.7 in)

Hull sides and rear: 60 – 90 mm (2.4 – 3.5in)

Hull top: 40 mm (1.6 in)

Hull bottom: 40–80 mm (1.6–3.1 in)

Turret front: 140 mm (5.5 in)

Turret sides & rear: 60 – 90 mm (2.4 – 3.5in)

Turret top: 40 mm (1.6 in)

Engine:

1x turbocharged Maybach HL232 V12 gasoline engine with 1.200 hp

Performance:

Maximum road speed: 40 km/h (25 mph)

Sustained road speed: 36 km/h (22 mph)

Cross country speed: 14 to 20 km/h (8.7 to 12.4 mph)

Power/weight: 8,57 hp/ton

Range: 120 km (74 mi) on road

85 km (53 mi) cross country

Power/weight: 11.1 PS/tonne (10.1 hp/ton)

Armament:

2x 88mm (3.46 in) FlaK 43 L/80 in a Gerät 288 Zwilling mount, with a total of 202 rounds

1x Schwere Waffenlafette 45 with:

1x 30 mm (1.18 in) MK 103 machine cannon (60 RPG) and

1x 7.92 mm (0,312 in) MG 42 machine gun

6x 76 mm Wegmann smoke mortars

The kit and its assembly:

Another fictional German WWII/Heer ’46 SPAAG, and it’s a big one with a lot of SF appeal since it makes IMHO not much sense from a tactical point of view. However, this is whifworld, so it perfectly fits, and such paper project models seem to be very popular – even though I do not understand why many modelers build them in a style that I’d almost call “Steampunk”?

I had the ModelCollect E-100 twin-88 mm gun Flakpanzer kit stashed away since it came out in 2017, but never had the nerve and mojo so far to build it, because it is simply a huge tank with twin gun barrels. This changed, in the wake of other SPAAG builds, and was a quick and straightforward build. ModelCollect‘s E-100 kit is finely molded, but it has IMHO some issues. The biggest problem I found is the hull: you have to take (a lot of) care to make sure that the hull elements are properly aligned due to their sheer size. The problem is: all outer walls are standing free with no alignment reference, and I have the impression that the rear wall is too small, so that the roof does later not properly fit into the opening. An internal engine bay bulkhead that could be used as an alignment reference is missing locator pins, so that you are left to guess where to place it.

On the positive side: the kit comes with brass gun barrels and two small boards with PE parts, e. g. for louvres on the engine cover which hides a complete engine with a detailed motor block, radiators, dust filters, etc. This way, you can easily integrate the E-100 into a workshop diorama or a similar scene. There’s also a delicate PE mount for an infrared sight.

However, building troubles easily outweigh the kit’s hardware highlights. Mounting the wheels was not easy. The sprocket wheels at the front as well as the idler wheels at the rear have complicated and flimsy constructions with very thin and short pins that hold them – any tension on the vinyl track easily bends them! To improve stability, I drilled holes through these wheels’ attachment points and put a continuous metal axis through the hull. The (nicely detailed) vinyl tracks themselves are unfortunately molded in a sandy beige, and they turned out to be too short, so that they had to be carefully stretched to match the running gear before they were painted and mounted. This should really one of the final assembly steps.

But this is not the only problem zone, you stumble upon small bugs and nuisances everywhere, like missing holes on the idler wheels, poor fit on the turret parts that call for PSR or instructions that do not match the parts. And it is not helpful that different kinds of wheel halves on the same sprue are just designated ”Part 1” and “Part 2”. All these hiccups are not fatal, but the whole kit leaves a giddy (if not lousy) impression. It’s nothing for tank kit beginners, and since this is the second time that I have built one of these with several déjà vus, I am quite disappointed by the kit.

The kit was basically built OOB, but for a more science fiction-esque twist I added a close-range defense in the form of a (fictional) remote-controlled weapon mount on the turret roof. This is an aftermarket set from ModelTrans/Silesian Models, a resin-cast gun barbette that reminds of the early German “Marder” IFV’s main weapon. However, it made IMHO perfect sense for this behemoth because it would be very vulnerable to infantry attacks, and the huge turret offered enough space on the roof and inside to mount it.

Since I did not want to depict a vehicle during overhaul, the whole engine bay interior was left away and the space under the bonnet filled with foamed plastic and later painted black. PE grates from the OOB plate were used to block views into the bay further.

Another personal modification is the omittance of the bulky side skirts that cover most of the running gear and the tracks. They make IMHO sense on the heavy battle tank and maybe assault gun versions, but on the SPAAG they just add weight and use up resources. I left them away and replaced them with scratched alternatives, created from 0.5 mm styrene sheet and profiles, slightly dented at the edges for a more natural and worn look.

Because the E-100 kit lacks any equipment on the hull (well, if this heavy vehicle broke it would certainly have been abandoned – who’s salvage it!? Another weak point of thew whole concept), I added some resin storage boxes.

Painting and markings:

It took some time to decide how to paint this huge thing. Inspiration eventually came from the idea that it would probably have only been used to defend very important targets, most probably around or in Berlin, so that an urban environment and a suitable camouflage would make IMHO most sense.

I took some inspiration from the British “Berlin Brigade” urban camouflage (consisting of square fields in bluish grey, dark brown and white) and the German late-war simplified splinter schemes. Since the E-100’s bulk would be hard to conceal, esp. with rather small mottles, I rather concentrated on disrupting its outlines and blending it with buildings in the background. Such an urban/artificial environment calls for angular and horizontal lines and edges, but I did not want to make the paint scheme look too modern, like a pixel scheme. The vehicle would furthermore be painted with only limited resources at hand, or maybe just in the field, so that typical red primer would certainly show through, with camouflage added on top.

This led to an initial overall basis in RAL 3009 Oxidrot. This was applied from a rattle can and shaded with clouds of different similar tones like Humbrol 70 and 160, for an uneven look. On top of that I added a vertically aligned splinter scheme with thinned Panzergrau (RAL 7021, Humbrol 67) and Dunkelgelb (RAL 7028, Humbrol 83), with the primer showing through and leaving the inside of the running gear uncamouflaged. The horizontal surfaces remained Dunkelgelb. The twin gun barrels were painted in a slightly different fashion: their undersides became RAL 7028, for a low contrast against the sky when raised, and onto the upper surfaces in Oxidrot I added (only) Panzergrau mottles. The remote-controlled barbette was, as an “aftermarket piece” and to reduce its contrast against the sky, too, painted uniformly in Dunkelgelb, but in a different shade (Tamiya XF-60).

I considered adding small clusters of Hellgrau (RAL 7035, Humbrol 196) and Olivgrün (RAL 6003, Humbrol 86) here and there to break up the vehicles outlines, but found that this would look too superficial and “forced”, so that the scheme remained rather a splinter scheme.

Once the basic camouflage had been applied, the kit was weathered with a highly thinned wash of dark brown, grey and black acrylic paint. Once dry the major surfaces were lightly wet-sanded, revealing more of the underlying red primer.

Tactical markings are minimal, just with Iron Crosses on the hull and a white tactical code on the turret flanks. As a unit code, the s.Pz.Abt. 505’s emblem, a charging knight on a horse, was added to the turret. The decals were protected with a thin coat of varnish before the next steps.

Details and edges were then highlighted through dry-brushing with Humbrol 70 (Brick Red) and 168 (RAF Hemp). Dust residues and some rust traces were painted with watercolors. These were also used to weather the (rather stiff) vinyl tracks, which were molded in a sand color and had to be totally painted – with an initial overall coat of acrylic black paint from the rattle can and later with grey and red brown acrylic artist paints, and some medium grey dry-brushing.

Matt acrylic varnish (Italeri) was used to seal the kit, and once the tracks had been mounted, the lower hull was dusted with grey/brown mineral pigments.

This one took some time to materialize. The E-100 kit fought my efforts to put it together constantly, and the conversions and add-ons – while not a major surgical intervention – took some time. Finding a credible camouflage concept for this hulk of a tank (a.k.a. rolling bunker with guns) was not easy either. But the idea of using the primer color as base with additional, somewhat digital camouflage on top looks credible and “works”. - e. A relatively quick build, realized in less than a week, and some (minor) challenges. What a huge vehicle the E-100 has been – but what a waste of effort, resources and tactical limitations due to the vehicle’s sheer size and weight. Looks impressive, though, esp. when you place this hulk next to a “normal” tank…

In the end I am not really convinced of my paint scheme idea, but I ran with it since I wanted something different from the obvious German late war standard scheme.

Here you can see the debarker head mounted in its red frame and about to chew the bark off of a Douglas fir log that has been pulled out of the mill pond on the green log conveyor. Actually, I haven’t built a mill pond yet, and this photo is staged in an uncluttered, vacant spot on my layout that serves as a decent photo staging area. I made the debarker frame out of Evergreen Scale Models styrene structural shapes. All together, I used six “L” shaped angle pieces and four short pieces of strip styrene, and I made up the design as I went along. The two truncated cones made from cut up push pins were joined by a little J-B Weld epoxy and painted stainless steel to represent my debarker head. The log conveyor is made from a long “L” angle piece and can handle trees that are a scale three or four feet in diameter.

The sawmill building was heavily modified from a factory kit made by Pola, originally for Atlas over 40 years ago. I replaced the original roof and the brick sheathing with Campbell Scale Models corrugated aluminum back in the ‘80’s or ‘90’s to give it a more American industrial look but only recently decided that I could make a sawmill out of this old, neglected structure.

An HO scale model of Conrail's Philadelphia Division Safety On Rails Theater car.

This car was a staple at events in and around NJ in the 90s. I remember as a kid seeing it at the Hoboken Terminal festival along with its companion N21 Operation Lifesaver caboose. The car still exists today, painted and lettered TOYX 1775 for Operation Toy Train. It currently resides at the Port Jervis Transportation History Center. More info can be found here:

pjthc.org/1775

The model is built from a Tangent Scale Models undecorated PC version X58 kit. The only major modification was cutting out the door and sanding it to the correct thickness so it could be placed in the open position. The hinges also had to be cut and repositioned to match the open appearance. The car had some body panel repairs done and that was replicated with 0.05 styrene sheet. The former grab iron locations were also modified to match prototype photos. Grab Irons and steps were added by the doors along with matching the roof walk support arrangement to match photos. The AC was kit bashed from a Details West part and the brackets and lines are fabbed from brass. The car was painted with Tru-Color rich oxide brown and lettered with a mix of Microscale, CMR, and custom printed decals.

Replication of the interior was easy since the car still retains its original configuration. Unfortunately the only source I had on how it was originally decorated was from a couple of grainy videos I found on Youtube by user AviationMetalSmith. Where I could, the photos and posters are exact copies otherwise they are just a representation that looks close and conveys the original idea of the photo or sign, as one might imagine finding the exact photos is near impossible. I had no clear photos or video of the display on the wall with the open door so I was able to get a general idea by looking at the reflections in the glass from the other side. Again, the photos are just general images that just looked right. All of the interior artwork was done in Inkspace and printed out. The freebies on the countertop are pictures of actual items I have in my collection. The exterior decoration and signage is a mix of the way the car appeared at an event in Whippany NJ and the way its shown in the video at Hoboken NJ.

This model took many hours of research to even get close to looking right and I'd like to give a huge shoutout to Rudy Garbely and the Conrail Historical Society, Bryan at Eastern Seaboard Models, and the Port Jervis Transportation History Center for all the help. I couldn't have done this without your help, so Thanks!!

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

The origins of the Ethiopian Air Force have been traced to (then Ras) Haile Selassie witnessing a show of the British Royal Air Force in November 1922, in Aden. Having never seen an airplane before, he was captivated by this demonstration of their power and abilities, and spontaneously asked if he could go up in one of the biplanes, proclaiming that it was "very fitting that he, as regent of Abyssinia should be the first Abyssinian to take flight in an aeroplane." As a result of this experience, he afterwards advocated the development of the Imperial Ethiopian Air Force. This small air arm began with the delivery of a Potez 25-A2 to the capital Addis Ababa on 18 August 1929. The Ethiopian Air Force was organized by Mishka Babitchef, the first Ethiopian pilot, who was of Russian descent. A Junkers W 33c followed on 5 September.

In 1964, the neighboring Somalis began receiving large quantities of weaponry, ground equipment, and MiG-17 fighters from the Soviet Union. In response, the US started delivering the supersonic F-5A jet fighters in 1965 to counter this new threat. Careful not to escalate the situation further, the USA delivered the F-5As without providing major weapon systems for the aircraft, the ability to use air-to-air missiles. This deal, however, marked the start of the eventual retirement of the IEAF’s remaining early first-line propeller aircraft, even though some Fireflies and Spitfire FR. Mk. 18s soldiered on into the Seventies and were among the last vintage WWII fighters that were still in operation worldwide.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 32 ft 8 in (9,96 m)

Wingspan: 36 ft 10 in (11,23 m) with full span elliptical tips

Height: 10 ft (3,05 m)

Wing area: 242.1 sq ft (22,49 m²)

Airfoil: NACA 2213 (root), NACA 2209.4 (tip)

Empty weight: 6,578 lb (2.984 kg)

Gross weight: 7,923 lb (3.594 kg)

Max takeoff weight: 8,400 lb (3.810 kg)

Powerplant:

1× Rolls-Royce Griffon 65 supercharged V12 with 2,050 hp (1,530 kW) at 8,000 ft (2.438 m),

driving a 5-bladed Jablo-Rotol propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 441 mph (710 km/h, 383 kn) in FS supercharger gear at 29,500 ft.

391 mph in MS supercharger gear at 5,500 ft.

Combat range: 610 mi (960 km, 520 nmi)

Ferry range: 1,240 mi (2.000 km, 1,085 nmi)

Service ceiling: 43,500 ft (13.300 m)

Rate of climb: 5,040 ft/min (25,6 m/s) in MS supercharger gear at 2,100 ft.

3,550 ft/min in FS supercharger gear at 22,100 ft.

Time to altitude: 7 mins to 22,000 ft (at max weight)

Wing loading: 32.72 lb/sq ft (159,8 kg/m²)

Power/mass: 0.24

Armament:

2× 20 mm (0.787-in) Hispano Mk II cannon, 120 RPG

2× 0.50 in (12,7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns, 250 RPG

Ventral and underwing hardpoints for alternative loads of:

● 2× 250 lb G.P. Mk.IV bombs (500 lb total)

● 3× 250 lb G.P. Mk.IV bombs (750 lb total)

● 1× 500 lb G.P. Mk.IV bomb (500 lb total)

● 1× 500 lb G.P. Mk.IV bomb + 2 x 250 lb G.P. Mk.IV bombs (1,000 lb total)

● 8× RP-3 rockets

● 1x 90 gal. drop tank

The kit and its assembly:

This exotic what-if Spitfire was inspired by a F-5A decal sheet that I had recently bought, which featured – among many others – markings for an Ethiopian aircraft. That made me remember the odd Fairey Fireflies in desert camouflage and I wondered what other aircraft could have been operated by Ethiopia, too? One candidate was the Saab J29 Tunnan (because Sweden provided massive support to build and equip the Ethiopian Air Force), but then stumbled upon an MPM Spitfire Mk. 18 in the Stash™ that had been lingering there for years because I had bought it long ago as a part of a cheap lot, so that I had no concrete ideas for it so far. While I favored the J29 idea (esp. as a recce variant, possible with the Heller kit) I eventually used the opportunity to build the Spitfire, and it would, as an FR. Mk. 18, also become a late submission to the “Reconnaissance and Surveillance” group build at whatifmodellers.com in Sep. 2021.

That said, the simple but nicely detailed MPM kit from 1993 with a vacu canopy (actually two, one as a generous spare part should something go wrong…) and PE parts for cockpit and landing gear was basically built OOB. However, it is a typical short-run kit, so it bears some traps and surprises. What’s positive: very fine (even though somewhat soft) engraved surface details all over hull and wings as well as molded structures on the cockpit walls.

But this is countered by a wide range of weak or at least challenging points. For instance, the kit lacks ANY locator pins, the sprues are very thick, there’s flash and some parts like the machine guns or the propeller (with all five blades molded onto the spinner) are very rough in shape. PE parts are used everywhere: inside of the cockpit (you can build either a simple IP version of an almost fully-photo-etched alternative – I did a mix of both), the landing gear wells or the radiators, which are otherwise massive IP parts with a blurry interior and poor fit under the wings. The PE parts, however, are crisp and rather thick, so that they can be easily cut off from their blank and handled, and they fit surprisingly well, too.

Wings and fin each consist of two complete halves, so that they are quite massive, especially their trailing edges. Confusingly, the stabilizers come with pins - but there are no openings for them in the fuselage to hold or align them. The wheels are similar: there are pins on the legs, but no holes in the wheels themselves… Once the stabilizers are mounted in place you realize that they do not align with the fuselage shape: the visual axis through the rudders is “swept backwards” and needs further adjustments. The carburetor intake is molded into the lower wing section and the fuselage halves, and since it pointlessly consists of three thick-walled sections that do not align well, this calls for some serious PSR or even a total replacement (which I unfortunately did not have at hand). The wing roots on the fuselage do not match the wings well, either: they are much too wide for the assembled wing section, so that they had to be cut down (almost 1mm per side!) and the resulting inconsistencies had to be PSRed, too.

You see, the kit itself bears already a lot of challenges and work, and beyond this basic stuff I made some other amendments. Most importantly, I replaced the original and rather crude single-piece propeller with a leftover alternative from a Special Hobby Griffon-powered Spitfire, which fits well and looks MUCH better. It was mounted with the help of my standard metal-axis-in-a-styrene-tube-adapter construction. This revealed, however, that the front wall behind the spinner is not perfectly aligned with the propeller axis: there’s a noticeable gap that had to be filled with putty during the final assembly stages.

The ventral camera ports as well as the round openings on both flanks were drilled open and later received windows created with Humbrol ClearFix.

Due to the makeshift cockpit opening and the only vaguely fitting vacu canopy I decided to leave the cockpit closed, but added a (Matchbox) pilot figure with chopped-off legs to fit into the seat and vivify the model. The canopy itself was attached with superglue and later PSRed into the spine.

Painting and markings:

The more entertaining part of the build. I wanted to give this Spitfire a mix of desert camouflage, as seen on the Fireflies or the Saab B17 bombers, and, as a recce aircraft of British origin, classic PRU Blue.

The two-tone camouflage on the upper surfaces consists of RAF Dark Earth (Humbrol 29) and Light Stone (Humbrol 121), inspired by color photographs from contemporary Ethiopian aircraft – there’s a very helpful Air Enthusiast magazine article about the IEAF Fireflies (that can be accessed online under issuu.com/mtaye/docs/the_long_life_of_ethiopian_fairey_fi...). The undersides were painted with ModelMaster 2061, and the aircraft received a high waterline just under the cockpit and an all-blue fin – an interesting contrast, esp. with the colorful IEAF roundels and similar to the Royal Navy post-war scheme, just with different colors.

Even though the IEAF apparently added red spinners to the Fireflies, I kept it camouflaged on the model. No distractions.

The cockpit interior was painted with RAF Cockpit Green (Humbrol 78, according to pictures of real Mk. 18 cockpits – the typical RAF post-WWII black interior must have been introduced later?), as well as the landing gear wells. The inside of the main gear covers was painted in Medium Sea Grey (Humbrol 165), as if this ex-RAF aircraft from Iraq had only been re-painted externally. The pilot received – using references from the aforementioned IEAF Firefly article – a pale greyish-beige jumpsuit, a dark skin, and I even tried to add a black beard for more authenticity.

As usual, the model received an overall washing with black ink and some post-panel shading. Some light weathering was done with dry-brushed light grey on the wings’ leading edges – IEAF aircraft seem to have been kept in very good shape during the Fifties. Therefore, only minimal exhaust stains were added to the flanks and no gun soot to the wings.

Decals were kept simple, just the IEAF roundels and three-digit tactical codes on the fin and under the exhaust stubs, all coming from the inspiring F-5 sheet.

The finished IEAF Spitfire FR. Mk. 18 does not look spectacular – but I like the mix of a contrast desert camouflage with the deep PRU Blue and the high waterline, which IMHO also underlines the Spitfire’s elegant lines. The colorful Ethiopian roundels are an interesting contrast, too. Somehow this model almost looks like a creation for/from a Tintin comic, even though unintentionally?

The MPM kit, however, turned out to be a so-so affair. It would be unfair to call it bad, because it is a very good representation of the aircraft it depicts, and it comes with ample detail. It is a typical short-run kit, though, and therefore nothing for beginners or people who are faint at heart. There are certainly better Griffon-Spitfire kits around, but I am quite happy that I eventually found a good use for this rather comatose case from The Stash™. And I like the outcome, despite its flaws and weaknesses.

this is the Grado PS1000, Grado's former flagship dynamic headphone.

It has been superseded by the PS1000e, which retails for 1695$.

More information:

www.gradolabs.com/headphones/professional-series/item/23-...

I've written a little about this headphone here:

ohm-image.net/opinion/audiophile/for-non-rockers-grado-ps...

Camera:

Fujifilm GX680 III

Lens:

100mm F4 for GX680

Back:

Hasselblad CFV-50

Strobist:

One Profoto B above, in grid: 1/4 power

One Profoto B to object right behind styrene: 1/2 power

Trigger:

Flashwaves III

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

The Gloster Gladiator (or Gloster SS.37) was a British-built biplane fighter. It was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA, as the Sea Gladiator variant) and was exported to a number of other air forces during the late 1930s. The Gladiator was the RAF's last biplane fighter aircraft and was rendered obsolete by newer monoplane designs even as it was being introduced. Though often pitted against more formidable foes during the early days of the Second World War, it acquitted itself reasonably well in combat.

These unique machines were primarily used in general observation, weather reconnaissance and 'hack' duties, e. g. as document couriers between the Azores and passing ships. But this episode lasted only for two years: in 1950, the remaining aircraft (a total of seven were still airworthy) were returned to Portugal and served as advanced training aircraft at Tanco.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 27 ft 5 in (8.36 m)

Wingspan: 32 ft 3 in (9.83 m)

Height: 11 ft 9 in (3.58 m)

Wing area: 323 ft2 (30.0 m²)

Empty weight: 3,217 lb (1,462 kg)

Loaded weight: 4,594 lb (2,088 kg)

Powerplant:

1× Bristol Mercury VIIIAS radial engine, rated at 840 hp (619 kW)

Performance:

Maximum speed: 253 mph (220 knots, 407 km/h) at 14,500 ft (4,400 m)

Cruise speed: 210 mph

Stall speed: 53 mph (46 knots, 85 km/h)

Endurance: 2 hours

Service ceiling: 32,800 ft (10,000 m)

Rate of climb: 2,300 ft/min (11.7 m/s)

Climb to 10,000 ft (3,050 m): 4.75 min

Armament:

Four .303 in Vickers machine guns; two synchronized in fuselage sides,

two under the lower wings outside of the propeller arc

The kit and its assembly:

Another entry for the “Old Kit” Group Build at whatfifmodelers.com in late 2016 – no such event would IMHO be complete without a vintage Matchbox kit, and the Gladiator dates back to 1973.

Anyway, despite its age it is a very good rendition of the biplane, even with engraved details. The engine is well detailed, the fabric structure looks very good and not over-emphasized, just the cockpit lacks a dashboard and the clear canopy is only a single piece and utterly thick.

But the Gladiator would not remain an OOB build: inspiration for this literal “Sea Gladiator” dates back to a CG rendition of an FAA Gladiator on twin floats I came across while browsing the web for detail pics of the real aircraft (for a real world Hellenic machine). This looked pretty neat, reminding of a baby Fairey Swordfish, esp. with a typical FAA paint scheme.

A hardware build of this concept had been on my idea list for VERY long, the rigging process just kept me from tackling the project, despite a suitable kit in the stash…

The GB was a good motivator, though – but while starting work, the ultimate question arose: classic twin floats, or a bigger, central float with outriggers? Both would be possible under the Gladiator…

For a twin-float layout, a Hasegawa Heinkel He 51 B as donor bank lay ready in the kit pile. For a central float, I had a single float from a Matchbox Fairey Seafox in the spares box, together with a pair of stabilizer floats from a Matchbox Supermarine Walrus.

I settled for the more unusual single float variant – because it would be different from the inspiring CG layout, and its more exotic look. The Walrus floats were too big, though, so I cut away a lengthwise 2mm “slice” (eliminating formerly drilled holes for toothpick struts; the floats were formerly used under a Mitsubishi Zero turned into a scratched Nakajima A6M2-N Rufe many years ago…) which gave an overall reduction in size that would match the compact Gladiator.

The Seafox float was just perfect in size and shape, it even comes with nice surface details and a rudder, but had to be cleaned from masses of old enamel paint at first with a thorough foam oven cleaner bath (for several weeks…).

The aircraft itself was built OOB, just with an added dashboard in the cockpit and the canopy cut into three pieces for an open position (in fact, the sliding part was totally left away). Under the lower rear fuselage a stabilizer fin was added and the OOB wooden propeller was replaced by a cuffed three-bladed alternative, IIRC from a Hobby Boss Grumman F4F Wildcat.

Mounting the floats was more complicated. The streamlined struts were taken from a donor Eastern Express Blackburn Shark (reboxed vintage NOVO kit) and adapted to the new use. From the Shark I also took the longer exhaust pipes.

Work started with the outriggers, both placed on two struts each, and once these were in place the central float was mounted on four pylons, putting it in a slightly “deeper” position than the outriggers and far enough away from the propeller arc. A lot of dry-fitting and trial & error was necessary to define the float’s and struts’ position under the Gladiator’s fuselage, as well as their relative length.

Since the area in front of the cockpit is hard to reach once the upper wing is in place, some partial early painting was done in this area. The wings themselves are pretty easy to mount if you take time for dry-fitting and thorough drying of the sub-assemblies – but the real horror comes with the (optional) rigging!

I did not want to leave the kit without this detail – it just looks much better with stabilizing wires, and these actually stiffen the kit! There are several methods/materials, including fine yarn, wire or fishing line. I tried all of these, and personally prefer heated and elongated, leftover sprues. The benefit is that the styrene is easy to glue and bonds well with the rest of the kit. Thin threads (which can be torn into individual strength) have innate stability, so that no tension has to be applied while trying to stick the stuff into place. And with the proper color of the styrene (e. g. in silver, black or grey), the wiring even looks pretty realistic in itself without any further paint, which, by tendency, can leave drops and simply makes the wires visibly thicker.

Despite experience with former biplane builds, the rigging process was still a tedious thing - the Gladiator, despite being a relatively modern design, still carried a lot of wires between its wings…

I also scratched a beaching trolley, from styrene profiles, leftover parts from a ship display and wheels from the scrap box. Proper and stable hold of the aircraft model was later achieved through cushions made from paper tissue dipped in thinned white glue.

Painting and markings:

A bit of “carte blanche”. While an FAA Gladiator would have been a nice and plausible option, I rather searched for something exotic – and found the Gladiator’s long career with the Portuguese Air Force well beyond WWII and the engagement of the type in the Azores. The archipelago location made a home-made floatplane conversion even more plausible.

But I did not stick to the original Portuguese paint scheme – the real Gladiators were painted in a uniform dark green on all upper surfaces (and alternatively a RAF Dark Green/Dark Earth scheme, AFAIK), with light grey wing undersides.

I created a fictional mix, with classic FAA colors (Dark Sea Grey/Extra Dark Slate Grey/Sky Grey) and a high waterline, plus counter-shaded, lighter upper surfaces of the lower wings, plus fictional Portuguese markings.

The basic colors I used were Humbrol 224 and 123 on the top sides, plus FS 16473 (ADC Grey) from ModelMaster for the lower surfaces. The counter-shaded lower wings were painted with Faded Olive Drab and Dark Gull Grey (FS 36231) from Modelmaster.

The floats were painted in a NMF – I was not certain whether to paint them with camouflage (either upper or lower scheme?), and in order to underline the conversion aspect of the build I just left them without paint at all. I used Steel and Brushed Aluminum Metallizer (Modelmaster and Humbrol), and the result looks quite good.

Some overall drybrushing was done to emphasize the surface structure, even though the rigging made things rather hazardous.

The markings are conservative and minimal, mostly from a PrintScale aftermarket sheet for the Gloster Gladiator and from a Carpena “Exotic Spitfire” sheet.

AFAIK, 3. Esquadrilha de Caça aircraft did not carry any squadron emblem – hence I invented the nicknames and the respective nose art (from a Revell Dassault Mystère with Patrouille de France markings). Another type in EC3 service, the Spitfires, featured an RAF-style 2-letter-squadron code (“XZ”, AFAIK) an individual letter for the respective aircraft, and a serial number. For the Gladiator I stuck to the original serial numbers, though, added the national markings on the fuselage and used re-arranged code numbers from an Irish Air Corps Spitfire on fuselage and under the wings. From the Spitfire the red fuselage band was used, too, it adds some color to the overall rather dull and simple aircraft.

The rigged kit was carefully sealed with matt acrylic varnish, a delicate affair. The floats received a varnish coat, too, but with a slightly glossy finish, in order to underline the metallic surface.

A relatively simple conversion, but effective and the Gladiator on floats does not look as fictional as I expected – even though the sheer height of the overall arrangement turned the otherwise sleek fighter aircraft into a pug-like utility vehicle, despite the relatively slender, single Fairey Firefox float. The Portuguese markings look good on it, too, adding to the exotic touch of this whif.

Some background:

The VF-1 was developed by Stonewell/Bellcom/Shinnakasu for the U.N. Spacy by using alien Overtechnology obtained from the SDF-1 Macross alien spaceship. Its production was preceded by an aerodynamic proving version of its airframe, the VF-X. Unlike all later VF vehicles, the VF-X was strictly a jet aircraft, built to demonstrate that a jet fighter with the features necessary to convert to Battroid mode was aerodynamically feasible. After the VF-X's testing was finished, an advanced concept atmospheric-only prototype, the VF-0 Phoenix, was flight-tested from 2005 to 2007 and briefly served as an active-duty fighter from 2007 to the VF-1's rollout in late 2008, while the bugs were being worked out of the full-up VF-1 prototype (VF-X-1).

However, the fighter remained active in many second line units and continued to show its worthiness years later, e. g. through Milia Jenius who would use her old VF-1 fighter in defense of the colonization fleet - 35 years after the type's service introduction!

General characteristics:

All-environment variable fighter and tactical combat Battroid,

used by U.N. Spacy, U.N. Navy, U.N. Space Air Force and U.N.S. Marine Corps

Accommodation:

Pilot only in Marty & Beck Mk-7 zero/zero ejection seat

Dimensions:

Fighter Mode:

Length 14.23 meters

Wingspan 14.78 meters (at 20° minimum sweep)

Height 3.84 meters

Battroid Mode:

Height 12.68 meters

Width 7.3 meters

Length 4.0 meters

Empty weight: 13.25 metric tons;

Standard T-O mass: 18.5 metric tons;

MTOW: 37.0 metric tons

Power Plant:

2x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry/P&W/Roice FF-2001 thermonuclear reaction turbine engines, output 650 MW each, rated at 11,500 kg in standard or 225.63 kN in overboost

4x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry NBS-1 high-thrust vernier thrusters (1 x counter reverse vernier thruster nozzle mounted on the side of each leg nacelle/air intake, 1 x wing thruster roll control system on each wingtip)

18x P&W LHP04 low-thrust vernier thrusters beneath multipurpose hook/handles

Performance:

Battroid Mode: maximum walking speed 160 km/h

Fighter Mode: at 10,000 m Mach 2.71; at 30,000+ m Mach 3.87

g limit: in space +7

Thrust-to-weight ratio: empty 3.47; standard T-O 2.49; maximum T-O 1.24

Design Features:

3-mode variable transformation; variable geometry wing; vertical take-off and landing; control-configurable vehicle; single-axis thrust vectoring; three "magic hand" manipulators for maintenance use; retractable canopy shield for Battroid mode and atmospheric reentry; option of GBP-1S system, atmospheric-escape booster, or FAST Pack system

Transformation:

Standard time from Fighter to Battroid (automated): under 5 sec.

Min. time from Fighter to Battroid (manual): 0.9 sec.

Armament:

2x Mauler RÖV-20 anti-aircraft laser cannon, firing 6,000 pulses per minute

1x Howard GU-11 55 mm three-barrel Gatling gun pod with 200 RPG, fired at 1,200 rds/min

4x underwing hard points for a wide variety of ordnance, including…

12x AMM-1 hybrid guided multipurpose missiles (3/point), or

12x MK-82 LDGB conventional bombs (3/point), or

6x RMS-1 large anti-ship reaction missiles (2/outboard point, 1/inboard point), or

4x UUM-7 micro-missile pods (1/point) each carrying 15 x Bifors HMM-01 micro-missiles,

or a combination of above load-outs

2x auxiliary hardpoints on the legs for light loads like a FLIR sensor, laser rangefinder/

target designator or ECM pod (typically not used for offensive ordnance)

The kit and its assembly:

This fictional VF-1 was born from spontaneous inspiration and the question if the USMC could have adopted the Valkyrie within the Macross time frame and applied its rather special grey/green/black paint scheme from the Nineties that was carried by AH-1s, CH-46s and also some OV-10s.

The model is a simple, vintage ARII VF-1 in Fighter mode, in this case a VF-1D two-seater that received the cockpit section and the head unit from a VF-1J Gerwalk model to create a single seater. While the parts are interchangeable, the Gerwalk and the Fighter kit have different molds for the cockpit sections and the canopies, too. This is mostly evident through the lack of a front landing gear well under the Gerwalk's cockpit - I had to "carve" a suitable opening into the bottom of the nose, but that was not a problem.

The kit was otherwiese built OOB, with the landing gear down and (finally, after the scenic flight pictures) with an open canopy for final display among the rest of my VF-1 fleet. However, I added some non-canonical small details like small hardpoints on the upper legs and the FLIR and targeting pods on them, scratched from styrene bits.

The ordnance was changed from twelve AMM-1 missiles under the wings to something better suited for attack missions. Finding suitable material became quite a challenge, though. I eventually settled on a pair of large laser-guided smart bombs and two pairs of small air-to-ground missile clusters. The LGBs are streamlined 1:72 2.000 lb general purpose bombs, IIRC from a Hobby Boss F-5E kit, and the launch tubes were scratched from a pair of Bazooka starters from an Academy 1:72 P-51 kit. The ventral standard GU-11 pod was retained and modified to hold a scratched wire display for in-flight pictures at its rear end.

Some blade antennae were added around the hull as a standard measure to improve the simple kit’s look. The cockpit was taken OOB, I just added a pilot figure for the scenic shots and the thick canopy was later mounted on a small lift arm in open position.

Painting and markings:

Adapting the characteristic USMC three-tone paint scheme for the VF-1 was not easy; I used the symmetric pattern from the AH-1s as starting point for the fuselage and gradually evolved it onto the wings into an asymmetric free-form pattern, making sure that the areas where low-viz roundels and some vital stencils would sit on grey for good contrast and readability. The tones became authentic: USMC Field Green (FS 34095, Humbrol 105), USN Medium Grey (FS 35237, Humbrol 145) and black (using Revell 06 Tar Black, which is a very dark grey and not pure black). For some contrast the wings' leading edges were painted with a sand brown/yellow (Humbrol 94).

The landing gear became standard white (Revell 301), the cockpit interior medium grey (Revell 47) with a black ejection seat with brown cushions, and the air intakes as well as the interior of the VG wings dark grey (Revell 77). To set the camouflaged nose radome apart I gave it a slightly different shade of green. The GU-11 pod became bare metal (Revell 91). The LGBs were painted olive drab overall while the AGMs became light grey.

Roundels as well as the UNSMC and unit tags were printed at home in black on clear decal sheet. The unit markings came from an Academy OV-10. The modex came from an 1:72 Revell F8F sheet. Stencils becvame eitrher black or white to keep the low-viz look, just a few tiny color highlights bereak the camouflage up. Some of the characteristic vernier thrusters around the hull are also self-made decals.

Finally, after some typical details and position lights were added with clear paint over a silver base, the small VF-1 was sealed with a coat of matt acrylic varnish.

A spontaneous interim project - and the UMSC's three-tone paint scheme suits the VF-1 well, which might have been a very suitable aircraft for this service and its mission profiles. I am still a bit uncertain about the camouflage's effectiveness, though - yes, it's disruptive, but the color contrasts are so high that a hiding effect seems very poor, even though I find that the scheme works well over urban terrain? It's fictional, though, and even though there are canonical U.N.S. Marines VF-1s to be found in literature, none I came across so far carried this type of livery.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

Buffalo Airways is a family-run airline based in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, established in 1970. Buffalo Airways was launched by Bob Gauchie and later sold to one of his pilots, Joe McBryan (aka "Buffalo Joe"). It operates charter passenger, charter cargo, firefighting, and fuel services, and formerly operated scheduled passenger service. Its main base is at Yellowknife Airport (CYZF). It has two other bases at Hay River/Merlyn Carter Airport (CYHY) and Red Deer Regional Airport (CYQF). The Red Deer base is the main storage and maintenance facility. The company slogan is “Your passage to the North”.

Buffalo also operates a courier service as Buffalo Air Express which started in 1982-1983. It offers service throughout the Northwest Territories (NWT) and Northern Alberta. In association with Global Interline Network it can ship around the world from bases in Yellowknife, Edmonton and Hay River.

Under contract for the NWT Government, Buffalo Airways also operates and maintains aircraft used in the aerial firefighting program. The waterbombers are assisted by smaller aircraft known as "bird dogs" which are used to help spot wildfires as well as guide waterbombers during operations.

However, with the company’s commitment to aerial firefighting the robust machines were from 1987 on primarily used for aerial fire patrol in the Yellowknife region during summertime, and for postal service in wintertime. Occasionally, the Buffalo Airways Norsemen were used as air ambulance, too. To reflect their new role the machines received a striking and highly visible new livery in deep orange and dark green, which they carried for the rest of their career. In the firefighting role they operated in unison with other Bird Dogs and Buffalo Airways’ Air Tractor 802 Fireboss and specially converted Lockheed L-188 Electra waterbombers. CF-NME was eventually grounded in 1996 after a severe engine damage and sold (but later revived with a replacement engine), while CF-NMD, nicknamed ‘Anna Louise’ by its crews, soldiered on with Buffalo Airways until 2004.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Capacity: up to 10 passengers

Length: 32 ft 4 in (9.86 m)

Wingspan: 51 ft 6 in (15.70 m)

Height: 10 ft 1 in (3.07 m)

Wing area: 325 sq ft (30.2 m²)

Airfoil: NACA 2412

Empty weight: 4,240 lb (1,923 kg)

Max takeoff weight: 7,400 lb (3,357 kg) ;7,540 lb (3,420 kg) with floats

Fuel capacity: 100 imp gal (120 US gal; 450 L) in two wing root tanks,

plus optional 37.4 imp gal (44.9 US gal; 170 L) or 2x 101.6 imp gal

(122.0 US gal; 462 L) auxiliary tanks in the cabin

Powerplant:

1× Pratt & Whitney R-1340-AN1 9 cylinder air cooled radial piston engine, 600 hp (450 kW),

driving a 3-bladed Hamilton Standard, 9 ft 0.75 in (2.7623 m) diameter constant-speed propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 155 mph (249 km/h, 135 kn) as landplane with standard wheels

138 miles per hour (120 kn; 222 km/h) on skis

134 miles per hour (116 kn; 216 km/h) on floats

Cruise speed: 130 mph (210 km/h, 110 kn) KTAS at 10,000 ft (3,000 m)

Stall speed: 68 mph (109 km/h, 59 kn)

Range: 932 mi (1,500 km, 810 nmi) at 10,000 ft (3,000 m)

Service ceiling: 17,000 ft (5,200 m)

Rate of climb: 591 ft/min (3.00 m/s) at 100 miles per hour (87 kn; 161 km/h)

Wing loading: 22.8 lb/sq ft (111 kg/m²)

Power/mass: 0.08 hp/lb (0.13 kW/kg)

Maximum - Flaps extended (Vfe): 108 miles per hour (94 kn; 174 km/h)

The kit and its assembly:

This project was spawned when, some years ago, I came across a picture of PBV-5A Canso/Catalina CF-NJE/ C-FNJE (ex RCAF 11094) during its use with Buffalo Airways between 1996 and 2004, where it AFAIK flew as a tanker/mobile gas station for other firefighting aircraft. The Canso carried a bright and highly attractive livery in deep orange and dark green with high-contrast white trim on wings and fuselage, and I immediately decided to apply this pretty scheme to another aircraft one day. And what could be more Canadian and an epitome of a bush aircraft than the stubby Noorduyn Norseman (well, O.K., an Otter, a Beaver…) which is available as a 1:72 kit from Matchbox (since 1981, re-released by Revell)? An alternative is AFAIK a full resin kit from Choroszy Modelbud, even though it only offers floats.

Several years after the project’s inception I was able to hunt down a relatively cheap kit (2009 Revell re-boxing), but it rested some more years in The Stash™ until the time was ripe and I collected enough mojo to tackle it. Since this would only be a livery whif and not involve any major conversions, the Norseman kit was basically built OOB, using the optional floats as most suitable landing gear.

The only addition is a scratched semi-elliptic stabilizing fin under the tail, sometimes seen on real world Norsemen with floats. A technical change I made is a metal axis for the propeller with an internal styrene tube adapter behind the engine. Unusual for a Matchbox kit: it comes with separate rudders and flaps, and I mounted the latter in a downward position. For eventual flight scenes I integrated a vertical styrene tube behind the rear cabin bulkhead, as a rigid adapter for a steel rod display holder.

To avoid masking and the danger of losing one or more of the side windows during the assembly or while painting the model, I left them all away and recreated them after painting with Humbrol ClearFix – only the windscreen is an OOB piece. The risk of pushing one of the windows into the hull is IMHO very high, because each pane is a separate piece and none of them have any support to increase the contact area with the hull. This also makes the use of glue to mount and fix them rather hazardous. The ClearFix stunt went better than expected, but I guess that the Norseman’s window might be the limit of what can be created with the gooey stuff.

Overall fit of the kit is good, even though some PSR is needed along seams (esp. at the wing/fuselage intersections) and for some sinkholes along the fuselage seam. A feature Matchbox always did well is the surface structure of fabric-clad areas, and the Norseman is no exception. Mounting the delicate float arrangement was challenging, though, it takes a lot of patience and thorough drying phases to assemble. Because I wanted to paint the floats and the respective struts in aluminum (from a rattle can) I assembled and lacquered them separately, for a final “marriage”.

As additional details I added PE boarding ladders between the floats and the side doors instead of the minimal OOB plastic steps, and some rigging between the fin and the stabilizers as well as between the floats’ struts, created with heated grey styrene material.

Painting and markings:

The real highlight of the model: the bright firefighting livery! I adapted the paint scheme as good as possible from the benchmark Catalina (the same livery was also carried by CL-215 waterbombers) onto the stubby Norseman and used Humbrol 3 (Brunswick Green) and 132 (Red Satin, a rather orange-red tone) as basic colors. A personal addition/deviation is the black belly, and because of the separate cowling I ended the jagged white cheatline behind it and added a white front ring to the cowling.

The wing supports were painted white, similar to the real Canso. Since the floats are an optional landing gear, they were painted (separately) in white aluminum (from a rattle can), with dark gray walkways and black tips. The model did not receive an overall black ink washing, because I wanted to present a clean look, but I did some very subtle post-shading with slightly lightened basic tones along the internal braces. It’s barely noticeable, though.

Most of the white trim was created with generic decal stripe material from TL Modellbau, a very convenient solution, even though a LOT of material (more than 1m in total!) went into the decoration. Aligning all the stripes on the stabilizers and the wings was not as easy as it seems, due to the rib structure of the surfaces. The registration codes on wings and fuselage were created with single white letters (also from TL Modellbau) in different sizes.

The model was sealed with semi-gloss acrylic varnish (Italeri) for a clean and fresh look, the floats received a coat with matt (effectively a bit shiny) varnish from a rattle can, before the model was finally assembled and final struts and the PE boarding ladders were added. The anti-glare panel in front of the windscreen became matt, too.

As one of the final steps, the windowpanes were created with ClearFix (see above) – quite a stunt. Due to their size and square shape, I had to carve some individual tools from chopsticks to apply the thick material properly. Filling the openings this way was quite a challenge, but eventually worked better than expected (or suspected).

A pretty outcome! The firefighting livery suits the Norseman well, it’s a bright spotlight – as intended in real life! :D Building the model took a while, though, mostly because I had to take time for the paint to dry and the extensive use of decal stripes, and I took part in the 2023 “One Week” group build at whatifmodellers.com in the meantime, too. The Matchbox kit is also not to be taken lightly. While things mostly go together well, the delicate floats and the windows are a serious challenge, and I think that replacing the clear parts mostly with Clearfix was not a bad move to avoid other/long-term trouble.

Some background:

The Messerschmitt Me 410 Hornisse (Hornet) is a heavy fighter and Schnellbomber ("Fast Bomber" in English) designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt. It was flown by the Luftwaffe during the latter half of the Second World War.

The Me 410’s origins are closely associated with the preceding Me 210. Development of this aircraft had been projected back in 1937 as a multi-purpose successor to the Bf 110, which had some identified shortcomings even prior to seeing combat service. Early on, confidence in the Me 210 had been high, to the extent that 1,000 aircraft were ordered off the drawing board; however, it would be a troubled program. Flight testing revealed poor longitudinal stability and despite modifications was considered unsatisfactory. While quantity production of the type proceeded, the Me 210 had a relatively high rate of accidents. This heavily contributed to production being halted on 14 April 1942; officials were keen to remedy the Me 210's problems and return it to production to minimize the economic loss incurred.

Various modifications to the design were explored, including the Me 310, a radical high-altitude derivative that incorporated a pressurized cockpit and more powerful engines.[9] This option was not favored by many officials, who sought a less ambitious remediation of the Me 210. It was this preference that led to the Me 410’s emergence, which was visually almost identical to the Me 210. The principal difference was the adoption of the larger (at 44.5 liters, 2,720 cu in displacement) and more powerful Daimler-Benz DB 603A engines. These engines each provided 1,750 metric horsepower (1,730 hp; 1,290 kW) compared to the 1,475 metric horsepower (1,455 hp; 1,085 kW) of the DB 605s used on the Me 210C. The extra power increased the Me 410's maximum speed to 625 kilometers per hour (388 mph), greatly improved rate of climb, service ceiling, and the cruising speed, the latter being raised to 579 km/h (360 mph).

The more powerful engines also improved payload capability to the point where the aircraft could lift a war-load greater than could fit into the bomb bay under the nose. Consequently, shackles were added under the wings for four 50-kilogram (110 lb) bombs. The changes added an extra 680 kg (1,500 lb) to the Me 210 design, but the extra engine power more than made up for the difference. As with the Me 210, the Me 410's rear gunner used the same pair of Ferngerichtete Drehringseitenlafette FDSL 131/1B turrets mounted on each side of the aircraft, each still armed with a 13 mm (.51 in) MG 131 machine gun, retaining the same pivoting handgun-style grip, trigger and gunsight to aim and fire the ordnance as the Me 210 did.

General characteristics:

Crew: two

Length: 12.75 m (41 ft 9 in)

Wingspan: 16.3513 m (53 ft 7.75 in)

Height: 4.280 m (14 ft 0.5 in)

Wing area: 36.2031 m2 (389.687 sq ft)

Airfoil: root: NACA 23018-636.5; tip: NACA 23010-636.5

Empty weight: 7,518 kg (16,574 lb)

Gross weight: 9,651 kg (21,276 lb)

Fuel capacity: 550 imp gal (660 US gal; 2,500 L) in four wing tanks

Powerplant:

2× Daimler-Benz DB 603A-1l/r V-12 inverted liquid-cooled piston engines, each providing:

- 1,290 kW (1,750 hp) for take-off

- 1,360 kW (1,850 PS) at 2,100 m (6,890 ft)

- 1,195 kW (1,625 PS) at 5,700 m (18,700 ft)

Driving handed 4-bladed VDM constant-speed propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 507 km/h (315 mph, 274 kn) at sea level,

624 km/h (388 mph; 337 kn) at 6,700 m (21,980 ft)

Cruise speed: 587 km/h (365 mph, 317 kn)

Range: 1,200 km (750 mi, 650 nmi) at maximum continuous cruise speed,

1,690 km (1,050 mi) at economical cruise speed

Ferry range: 2,300 km (1,400 mi, 1,200 nmi)

Service ceiling: 10,000 m (33,000 ft)

Time to altitude: 6,000 m (20,000 ft) in ten minutes and 42 seconds

Armament:

4× 20 mm (0.79 in) MG 151/20 cannon with 300 rpg in the lower fuselage, firing forward

2× 30 mm (0.79 in) MK 108 cannon with 100 rpg behind the cockpit (“Schräge Musik”),

oriented 65° above horizontal

Up to 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) of disposable external stores, including:

- 2x 300l + 1x 500l drop tanks

- 2x 250 kg or 4x 100kg or 4x 50 kg bombs

- 4× 21 cm (8.3 in) Werfer-Granate 21 rockets

The kit and its assembly:

Well, my Me 410 night fighter is certainly not the first one of its kind, but a personal interpretation of the subject with as much late-WWII hardware on board as possible, for a purposeful look and feel.

The basis of this build became the Italeri Me 410, mostly because it comes with “plugs” for the fuselage flanks where the original Me 410 carried its defensive gun barbettes – IMHO useless on a night fighter. The plugs are, however, quite useless, because they still have to be PSRed into the flanks so that they could be easily omitted anyway...

Another typical ingredient was a Quickboost FuG 240 thimble radome for the system's static dish antenna, originally intended for a Ju 88 G-6 night fighter but in this case mounted to the aircraft’s nose and PSRed into shape, too. The radome’s “flat” underside was also a plausible detail for an open field of fire for ventral guns in the former bomb bay – a conversion that had been done to many Me 410 heavy fighters with field modifications and cannon Rüstsätze.

The cockpit was insofar modified that the former gunner on the back seat now faced forward, and the workstation received some scratched devices like a radar screen and a tilted gun sight. The pilot received an IR sight, mounted through a hole that was drilled into the windscreen, and a separate bulletproof glass panel behind the windscreen. Since I did not want to open the already complex/fiddly three-part canopy I added two crew members.

The former machine gun barbettes were faired over, and instead two hollow steel needles were mounted behind the cockpit on sockets/bulges, plus a clear “sensor some” (all made from sprue material). Hollow steel needles were also used to simulate protruding gun barrels in the ventral cannon compartment and on the back. Under the wings a pair of OOB 300l drop tanks were added, a plausible payload, and to beef up the armament I scratched a Magirus-Bombe gun pod and mounted it on a central hardpoint from a Fw 190.

As an individual detail I lowered the aircraft's flaps, which was quite easy to do. The wing segments were simply cut out and semi-circular styrene profile used to create the hinges.

To make the Me 410 night fighter look a bit more purposeful I furthermore used flame dampers on the exhaust stubs; these were taken from an Italeri Me 110 night fighter, and this worked better then expected. I just had to modify one of the exhaust pipes due to the different position of the carburettor intakes on the Me 410. Furthermore I replaced the original three blade props with four blade alternatives (which had been tested on Me 410 V15 IIRC, but had not been adopted) from a FROG D.H. Hornet. Not a perfect match, because the spinners were slightly too big in diameter (could be trimmed down, though) and the props are handed, but that's only obvious at second glance.

Painting and markings:

I kept the livery conservative, and wanted to keep the aircraft relatively light overall, like a typical German late war night fighter. Therefore, the machine initially received an overall coat with RLM 76 (Humbrol 247), only with a few blurry fields and speckles with RLM 75 (Humbrol 246) on the wings’ upper surfaces and on the spine. Additionally, some mottling with mixed shades of RLM 76 and 75 were added, primarily to the fuselage, engine and fin flanks.

I initially considered additional mottles with lighter RLM 77 (RAL 7035, almost white) on the flanks and the upper surfaces, but when the two basic tones were applied I thought that this was already enough, so I kept the livery rather simple.

An unusual detail is a single black wing underside, though. This is/was not a camouflage measure, rather an identification marking for anti-aircraft artillery on the ground to avoid friendly fire. This was, just as in real life, done with water-soluble paint (acrylic tar black, Revell 06), so that the original light blue-grey paint would shine through here and there and the black paint would easily wear or flake off.

To achieve this effects and to blur the mottling the whole model received, after it had been painted, an overall treatment with fine wet sand paper. A similar method was used to simulate flaked paint on the wooden radome. After a light black ink washing some post-panel-shading was done, too.

The cockpit interior became very dark grey (RAL 7021, I used Revell 09 Anthracite) while the landing gear and its respective wells were painted in RLM 02 (Tamiya XF-22).

The decals were puzzled together from various sources. The code G9+F(red)N is plausible for an aircraft of the Nachtjagdgeschwader 1's 5th squadron. The unit emblem is fictional, though, the gauntlet motif came from an RAF Tornado. The black iron crosses were reduced to a minimum - except for the underwing markings, which were kept more complex even during the final war stages, and in the case of the black wing these markings also offer more contrast for a secure identification from below.

After some soot stains done with graphite around the exhausts and the gun muzzles the model was finally sealed with matt acrylic varnish and the wire antenna made from heated black sprue material was added.

I still need to add some i-beams and find some bridge track, but she's pretty much done besides paint and weathering.

This bridge is a somewhat credible representation of one that still stands, although the bascule portion was damaged and removed after a train wreck in 1976. The prototype is not curved, but sometimes a sacrifice must be made in the model railroading world.

Current owner is the Canadian National Railway, formerly Illinois Central.

Custom 1:34 scale dumpster, handmade out of styrene for use with the First Gear Diecast 1:34 scale front-load garbage truck. This one is a 8-yard dumpster, done up in the old burgundy Waste Management paint and logos.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

The Westland Whirlwind was a British heavy fighter developed by Westland Aircraft. It was the Royal Air Force's first single-seat, twin-engine, cannon-armed fighter, and a contemporary of the Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane.

The radial-powered Whirlwind Mk. Ic remained operational with No. 73 Squadron until June 1943, when the squadron converted to the Spitfire and moved from Northern Africa to Italy in October. Until then, only six Whirlwinds had remained airworthy.

General characteristics:

Crew: One pilot

Length: 31 ft 7 1/4 in (9,65 m)

Wingspan: 45 ft 0 in (13.72 m)

Height: 11 ft 0 in (3.35 m)

Wing area: 250 ft² (23.2 m²)

Airfoil: NACA 23017-08

Empty weight: 9,400 lb (4,267 kg)

Loaded weight: 12,158 lb (5,520 kg)

Max. take-off weight: 13,120 lb (5,946 kg)

Powerplant:

2× Bristol Taurus II 14-Cylinder sleeve valve radial engines, 1,015 hp (760 kW) each

Performance:

Maximum speed: 400 mph (644 km/h) at 15.000 ft (4.570 m)

Stall speed: 95 mph (83 knots, 153 km/h) with flaps down

Range: 800 mi (696 nmi, 1.288 km)

Service ceiling: 33.500 ft (10.970 m)

Armament:

2x belt-fed two pounder (1.57 in/40 mm) Vickers S cannon, 20 RPG each

2x 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns, 500 RPG (typically armed with tracer rounds)

Option for 2x 250 lbs (115 kg) or 500 lbs (230 kg) bombs under the outer wings

The kit and its assembly

My third whiffed Westland Whirlwind - I must say that this rather obscure aircraft type has some serious potential for mods and fictional uses. The inspiration for this radial-powered variant originally came from a profile drawing of fellow modeler and illustrator FrancLab at flickr.com, who had drawn more than twenty(!) fictional Whirlwinds (check this: www.flickr.com/photos/franclab/16724098644/in/faves-14802...), including one with radial engines and in RAF Tropical Scheme colors.

The kit is, again, the vintage Airfix offering. Modifications center around the engines and the nose section, the rest remained basically OOB.

I already had to learn with my first Whirlwind conversion that mounting bigger engines on this compact aircraft is not easy, and radials, with their bigger diameter and consequentially more voluminous nacelles, would be a challenge from the design perspective.

Figuring out a solution that would be feasible and not make the sleek Whirlwind look like Popeye was not easy. I considered the transplantation of complete engine nacelles from a Matchbox Bristol Beaufighter, but eventually refrained from this idea because everything would be at least one size too big... a mistake I had done before, with very mixed results.

After several trials, I settled on a compromise, because I could not find a satisfactory 'British' solution, at least in my spares vault: the implantation of "foreign" material in the form of cowlings and nacelles from an Airfix Mitsubishi Ki-46.

The transplantation started with the removal of the original Peregrine engine nacelles from the lower wing section and gluing these to the upper half, which remained intact. Then the Ki-46’s lower nacelle half, cut away from the model’s wing in a similar fashion, was grafted onto the Whirlwind’s lower wing, ensuring that the landing gear attachment points would match with the new openings. This stunt worked very well!

As a final step, the upper Ki-46 engine nacelle half was placed on top of the Whirlwind wings’ upper side, and the radial engines were used as a ruler for the overall fit. In the end, the modified nacelles sit perfectly in place, and the original distance between the propellers as well as the landing gear’s track width could be maintained, so that the change is rather subtle.

Propellers and spinners were taken from the Airfix Whirlwind, and in order to mount them into the deep and "hollow" Ki-46 cowlings I inserted a styrene tube as a simple adapter, which would also hold the added metal axis' behind the propellers. The parts fit snuggly together.

Details like the exhaust pipes and the carburetor intakes were scratched from sprue material. The landing gear is OOB, but I had to re-create the covers from sheet material since I could only find a single pair of doors from the Ki-46 kit. On the other side, this had the benefit that the material is much thinner.

The original radiator intake slits were closed with putty and blended into the wing’s leading edge.The respective outlets on the trailing edge were sanded away.

For the guns in the nose I added two long, shallow fairings (actually drop tank halves from an Airfix G.91) and re-located the original oils cooler and gun camera fairings under the wing roots.

The original gun mounts were covered with putty, and new openings for the modified armament drilled into the re-sculpted nose section. The 2-pounders' and machine gun barrels are hollow steel needles of different diameters.

Painting and markings:

Staying somewhat true to FrancLab's profile and the North Africa theatre of operations, the paint scheme was more or less pre-defined. The Tropical scheme is a rather unusual look on this sleek aircraft, but works very well!

The standard RAF camouflage pattern for the Whirlwind was retained, but the European colors replaced with Dark Earth (Humbrol 29) and Middle Stone (ModelMaster 2052, the best representation of the tone I could find so far). The undersides were painted with ModelMaster 2055 (US Navy Blue Grey) as an alternative to RAF Azure and Mediterranean Blue.

Interior surfaces were painted with Cockpit Green (Humbrol 78) and slightly dry-brushed with light grey.

The red spinners are typical Desert Force markings, and I added yellow ID markings to the outer wings’ leading edges (created from generic decal sheet). Not certain how authentic this is for Northern Africa, since the Hurricanes did not carry these markings – but the Spitfires did, as well as the few leftover Whirlwinds over Continental Europe? At least, it’s a colorful detail.

Even though many Hurricanes of 73 Squadron in Northern Africa carried the squadron’s colorful pre-war marking on the flanks instead of a two-letter code, I eventually rejected this option. IMHO it might have been simply too much for this whiffy aircraft?

Roundels and markings were puzzled together from the scrap box, the code letters are single digits from Xtradecal aftermarket sheets. I mixed medium sea grey and dull red letters – a practice frequently seen on Northern Africa aircraft (which also frequently did not carry squadron codes at all) in order to improve readability. The serial was puzzled together, too, using a free serial slot according to ukserials.com.

As another individual touch I added a small nose art motif under the cockpit: a Bugs Bunny cartoon toting a shotgun (actually from a P-51 from the late war Pacific TO), as an interpretation of the “Buck teeth” nickname for the aircraft.

Finally, the model was weathered, esp. on the upper surfaces in order to mimic sun bleaching, and some soot stains were added around the guns and the exhaust outlets. The cooling flaps were emphasized through a treatment with Tamiya “Smoke”, which is perfect for oil stains. Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish and finishing touches like the wire antenna and position lights applied.

Another subtle whif, the desert paint scheme is probably distracting enough that, at a casual glance, the radials and the modified nose are not obvious at all. Actually, the Japanese engines look pretty British after some cosmetics, and they are small enough to keep overall proportions in reasonable limits – the sleek Whirlwind quickly turns head-heavy and unbalanced with bigger engines grafted to the airframe! Actually, the converted aircraft looks now, when looked at it head-on, almost like a baby Beaufighter!

"Hôtel de Michelin"

500mm x 500mm x 870mm

19.6" x 19.6" x 34.2"

styrene foam / wood clay /stone clay /copper line /epoxy putty/plastic /aluminium foil /dry flower/ Japanese ash

Available

All images copyright TOKYO GOOD IDEA Development Institute Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

www.tokyogoodidea.com

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

The Focke-Wulf Project VII Flitzer ("streaker" or "dasher", sometimes incorrectly translated as "madcap") was a jet fighter under development in Germany in World War II.

An improved version with new, thinner wings and a slightly increased sweep for even better performance, the A-2, was scheduled to enter production in summer 1946, but the end of hostilities limited overall production to less than 100 Fw 260 A-1.

General characteristics:

Crew: One pilot

Length: 10,30 m (33 ft 8 3/4 in)

Wingspan: 8.00 m (26 ft 2 in)

Wing sweep: 30° at quarter chord

Height: 3,31 m (10 ft 10 in)

Wing area: 17.0 m2 (183 ft2)

Empty weight: 3.396 kg (7.486 lb)

Gross weight: 4.900 kg (10.802 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Daimler-Benz DB 109-021 turboprop, rated at 1,491 kW (2,000 hp)

plus 770 kp (1.697 lb) residual thrust

Performance:

Maximum speed: 900 km/h (559 mph) at 9.000 m (30.00 0ft)

Range: 1.020 km (633 miles) on internal fuel at 7.000 m (23.000 ft)

Endurance: 1 hour 17 min at full load and at 7.000 m (23.000 ft)

Service ceiling: 13,000 m (42,500 ft)

Rate of climb: 39 m/s (128 ft/sec)

Armament:

1× 30 mm (1.18 in) MK 108 cannon (40 RPG), firing through the propeller hub

4× 20 mm MG 213 cannons, one pair in the lower front fuselage and one in each wing,

each with 100 RPG.

Up to 1.000kg (2.202 lb) of external ordnance at two wing hardpoints, including bombs

of up to 500 kg (1.100 lb) caliber, drop tanks, racks with unguided missiles, or podded

cannons

The kit and its assembly:

I had this Luft '46 project on the list for a while, and while waiting for parts for other projects I decided to dig a Revell "Flitzer" kit out of the pile and start a quick conversion.

Yes, this one is based on a real German project: Fact is that this one was a turboprop-powered derivative of the pure jet Flitzer, with swept surfaces and a conventional tail boom. And it was intended as an attack aircraft, not a fighter.

Its designation, be it internally or through the RLM, varies widely, though. Some sources call it "Project VIII" (because the Flitzer was Project VII), but that's doubtful because there were several iterations with twin and single boom arrangements, as well as different wing shapes (ranging from the Flitzer's clipped delta shape to swept, slender wings that remind of the F-86).

Unicraft did a resin kit of this paper project, calling it "P.127" for whatever reason, and they also did a kit of its twin-boom predecessor - the latter being christened Fw 258 by Unicraft, even though this number had not been allocated by the RLM.

I took that idea up and gave my creation the fictional designation Fw 260 - the "260" was never used by the RLM, too, and it is even uncertain which number the Flitzer would have had, had it been built or accepted for Luftwaffe service.

Anyway, changing the Revell Flitzer into its successor was not an easy task. It started with a new nose that would not only carry the scratched propeller, it would also have to blend into the trapezoid diameter of the original "pod" fuselage. The solution was found through a rear drop tank end from a vintage Revell F4U that was cut in two pieces: the rear tip would become the propeller spinner (onto which single, deep blades from a vintage Frog Ta 152 were glued), while the rest replaced the original Flitzer nose and holds a 6x6mm, square styrene tube inside that carries the propeller on a round styrene axis. It's even spinning!

Because this scratched arrangement needed space, the original front landing gear well had to be cut away, as well as parts of the cockpit floor. Lots of putty created some new nose lines, and before the hull was glued together as much lead as possible was hidden behind the cockpit and even inside of the front landing gear well.

The cockpit was taken almost OOB: I just used a deeper seat - the original part looks tiny, but the cockpit is really cramped so that a replacement was not easy to fit in.

At the pod's rear end, a new tail had to be created. First measure was to "reverse" the original exhaust position, flipping it from top to bottom, and adding a tail boom as a spine extension. The boom is actually a tail from a Hobby Boss P-39, which was considerably modified and cut into shape. Again, lots of putty smoothed out the lines.

With the tail in place and the new, longer nose, the wings' position was not right anymore. Consequently, the wings were moved forward by 7mm - an easy task, thanks to the kit's construction. New stabilizers were scratched from the spares box, too.

Speaking of the wings: the Flitzer's toeholds for the twin tail booms had to disappear, too - done through cutting and putty inserts on/in the wings' trailing edges. Worked pretty well.

The landing gear was taken OOB from the original kit. The front wheel wa not inserted as deep as in the Flitzer (there's no space anymore, anyway...) and slightly offset - profile drawings from Focke Wulf suggest such an arrangement, probably due to the power shaft that had to run somewhere under the cockpit floor.

Another issue became the new, forward position of the wings: this would push the tail even more down. So, I added a 3mm console at the main gear struts' bases - just enough to get the tail high enough for a plausible ground position. The real aircraft would have had a high nose, too, so the odd look is not as farfetched as it might seem.

Final touches included additional underwing hardpoints and a pair of 250 kg bombs (IIRC, from an Italeri Ju 188), outfitted with scratched fuze extensions for soggy ground, suitable ordnance for the intended ground attack role.

Painting and markings:

The late WWII canon for German aircraft leaves not much room for paint scheme experiments, but I did not want to repeat myself. So I was lucky to find a real Me 262 in the rather odd night paint scheme that I eventually used - and the result is... interesting.

Top cammo basically consists of RLM 81 and 82 (Braunviolett and Light Green enamels, from Modelmaster's Authentic line) in wavy, but sharply defined fields. On the fuselage flanks, RLM 81 and 82 also feature "counter-blotches" of the respective other tone. The undersides are painted black (RLM 22) - originally, this could also have been dark grey (RLM 66), but I found black more attractive, also as a contrast to the dark grey landing gear.

Markings were minimal on the Me 262 paradigm: all insignia in a simplified version, and even in black on the flanks. The only code was red number (outlined in white) - that's all! On the kit I added the heart emblems and the red spinner with a white spiral as a personal touch, but the aircraft still looks murky and purposeful - for night attack sorties.

The basic tones were shaded with lighter colors, including Humbrol 120, 155 and 32. Since the putty work on the fuselage made almost any engraving disappear, I added painted panel lines (with the help of some Tamiya "Smoke").

The exhaust area was painted with Modelmaster Metallizer and treated with grinded graphite, which was also used to add soot stains around the many gun nozzles.

The decals were puzzled together, stencils were taken over from the Flitzer Sheet - and these many red bits make the dark aircraft a bit more lively. Finally, everything was sealed under a coat of matt Revell Acrylics varnish.

Even if this model does not look like it: it was a major surgery job, especially the nose and the landing gear caused severe headaches. But the result looks pretty cool and sleek, and the unique paint schem adds to the mysterious look of this Luft '46 whif.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

The Gotha 146 was a fast reconnaissance aircraft that was used throughout WWII by the German Luftwaffe, and one of the results of a mutual technology exchange program with Japan. The Go 146 was actually a license-built, but modified variant of the excellent Mitsubishi Ki-46. The latter type's career started in late 1937, when the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force issued a specification to Mitsubishi for a long-range strategic reconnaissance aircraft to replace the Mitsubishi Ki-15. The specification demanded an endurance of six hours and sufficient speed to evade interception by any fighter in existence or development at that time, but otherwise did not constrain the design by a team led by Tomio Kubo.

There were, however, other uses: in 1944 the Go 146 was enlisted as a fast liaison aircraft for the RLM (Ministry of Aviation) in Berlin. Stripped off of any armament and cameras and outfitted with two passenger seats in the rear cabin, at least one Go 146 B (with the confirmed registration “ST+ZA”, others in similar configuration may have existed, too) was operated by the RLM’s Zentralabteilung (central command) from Tempelhof airfield for top brass officials between Luftwaffe locations on German terrain. ST+ZA’s fate after January 1945 is uncertain, though.

Specifications:

Crew: two (pilot and observer)

Length: 11.00 m (36 ft 1 in)

Wingspan: 14.70 m (48 ft 2¾ in)

Height: 3.88 m (12 ft 8¾ in)

Wing area: 32.0 m² (344 ft²)

Empty weight: 3,830 kg (8,436 lb)

Loaded weight: 5,661 kg (12,480 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 6,500 kg (14,317 lb)

Powerplant:

2× Daimler-Benz DB 603A V-12 inverted liquid-cooled piston engines, rated at:

- 1,290 kW (1,750 hp) each for take-off

- 1,360 kW (1,850 PS) at 2,100 m (6,890 ft)

- 1,195 kW (1,625 PS) at 5,700 m (18,700 ft)

- 1,162 kW (1580 PS) combat power at 2500 rpm at sea level

Performance:

Maximum speed: 695 km/h (377 knots, 430 mph) at 5,800 m (19,000 ft)

Cruise speed: 450 km/h (245 knots, 280 mph)

Range: 2,800 km (1,522 nmi, 1,740 mi) with internal fuel

Service ceiling: 11,250 m (36,850 ft)

Wing loading: 157.8 kg/m² (32.3 lb/ft²)

Climb rate: 14.7 m/sec (2,900 feet per minute)

Climb to 8,000 m (26,250 ft): 15 min 20 sec

Armament:

2× 13 mm (0.51 in) defensive MG 131 machine guns with 500 RPG,

each firing rearward from FDSL 131/1B remote-operated turret, one per side

2× underwing hardpoints under the inner wings for 250 kg (550 lb) each,

typically occupied by 300 l drop tanks

The kit and its assembly:

This is a déjà vu build: I already did a “Germanized” Ki-46 in 2015, it was an Airfix Ki-46-II outfitted with DB 601s from a Bf 110 as a pre-series Gotha Go 146 A-0, an aircraft that (naturally) never existed but appeared plausible, since German military hardware including aircraft had been evaluated by Japanese forces. And why should this exchange not have worked the other way around, too? However, as I built this modified Dinah for the first time, I already thought that the basic idea had more potential than just one model, and the streamlined Ki-46-III just lent itself for an updated, later version.

This B-2 variant of the Go 146 was based on the LS Models/ARII Ki-46-III. Like the Airfix kit (its molds are from 1965, and that’s just what the kit feels, looks and builds like…), it’s a rather vintage offering, but it is in many aspects markedly ahead, with fine surfaces, recessed details, 3D engines and clear parts that actually fit into their intended places. The LS Models kit’s 10 years less of age are recognizable, and there are three boxings around with different versions of the aircraft (a Ki-46-II, a -III and a trainer with a raised tutor cockpit), differing in small extra sprues for the respective fuselage parts, but they all share a common sprue with the clear parts for all three versions.

The Ki-46-III kit was taken OOB, with just some minor mods. The most obvious change concerns the engines: they were transplanted from a Bilek Me 210, together with the underwing radiators outside of the nacelles. The Me 210, even though it’s from 1997, is a rather mediocre model with some dubious solutions, therefore earmarked for a conversion and ready to donor some body parts… The engine switch was insofar easy because the Ki-46 kit comes with completely separate parts for the engines and their fairings which also contain the main landing gear wells.

Because of this “clean” basis I decided to cut the nacelles out from the Me 210 and attach them to the Ki-46 wings, so that the DB 603 engines would have perfect attachment points. While this was a bigger overall surgery stunt than on the earlier Airfix Dinah, this was easier than expected and resulted in a cleaner solution that also underlines the Ki-46’s clean and slender shape. The modified nacelles were much smaller than the Dinah’s, though. The main wheels were replaced with slightly smaller and narrower ones from the scrap box.

Inside of the cockpit, I implanted a dashboard. In the rear cabin the seat was reversed and moved further forward. In the cabin’s rear a scratched targeting scope/weapon control column for the FDSL 131 installation was added. Since I left the single-part canopies (which are quite thick but very clear) closed I outfitted the model with a crew. The Ki-46 III kit comes with a pair of figures, but they are very small (H0 scale, at best!) and look goofy, so that I exchanged them with Matchbox WWII pilots, which had their legs bent and their bottoms cut away to make them fit into the tight fuselage and under the canopies.

Unfortunately, the Me 210 kit had already donated its machine gun barbettes (they had gone onto an upgraded Heinkel He 115 floatplane), so that I scratched them for the Go 146. WWII bombs became the fairings, some leftover landing gear struts were used as gun barrels, and round styrene bases were used as mounts that also lift the fairings slightly off the hull. The barbettes as such look a little superficial on the slender Dinah, but they are a nice, typically German detail, über-complicated for this type of fast aircraft that probably would have more benefited from leaving them away altogether to save weight and drag.

The (typically German) 300 l drop tanks come from Hobby Boss Bf 109s and each received four short attachment struts, made from styrene profile material, so that they could be stuck under the inner wings.

Painting and markings:

This was more complicated than expected. I wanted to apply a plausible, late German WWII livery with typical colors, but finding something that would be suited for high-altitude operations and not copy anything I had already done turned out to be challenging.

The paint scheme would be very light, with only low-contrast camouflage added on top. Therefore, the basis became an overall coat with RLM 76 (I used Tamiya XF-23, Light Blue, which is an excellent option). Inspired by He 177 bombers I found in literature, large blotches of a rather obscure and uncommon tone, RLM 77 “Hellgrau” were added to the flanks of fuselage, fin and engine nacelles. RLM 77 is/was a very light grey, and it was primarily used for markings like code letters on night fighters and not for camouflage. AFAIK it would later become the RAL 7035 (Lichtgrau) tone that still exists today. Humbrol 196 would have been an authentic option, but to keep the contrast to the underlying RLM 76 low I rather used XF-19 (Sky Grey) and extended the blotches under the fuselage and the nacelles, for a semi-wraparound scheme.

Then came the upper surfaces, everything was painted with brushes and without masks, with an intentional uneven finish. The wings and stabilizers were to receive a slightly darker camouflage in the form of RLM 02 and 75 splotches (with Tamiya XF-22 and XF-XX as proxies) over the uniform RLM 76 base, so that the aircraft’s outlines would be broken up from above. However, after first tests I found this did not look convincing, the RLM 76 was very prominent and bluish, so that I rather gave the upper wings and the spine a semi-translucent but continuous coat of paint, with the underlying RLM 76 just showing through here and there – much better. At this stage I added the decals (see below), but now found the upper surfaces to look too uniform and somewhat dark, so that, as a final measure, I added a meander pattern with RLM 77 (again XF-19) to the wings. This not only looked good and very “German”, it lightened the cammo and also helped to break the aircraft’s lines up. Some light panel shading to the uniform undersides, black ink and grinded graphite were used for weathering, but the effects are very soft.

Interior surfaces (cockpit and landing gear wells) became late-war style RAL 7021 Schwarzgrau (Humbrol 67), the landing gear struts were painted in RLM 02, this time Revell 45 was used. The propeller blades were painted in a very dark mix of green and black, the spinners became black with simple white spirals – the only detail with a high contrast on this aircraft.

The markings of this aircraft are minimal. Balkenkreuz markings only consisting of outlines were used, another typical late-war practice and for a low-visibility look/effect. They were taken from an Academy Fw 190 D. On the fuselage, the gun barbettes caused some headaches, because they take up a lot of space and made the application of a standard Luftwaffe code almost impossible. Consequently, the fuselage Balkenkreuze were placed ahead of the barbettes, partly disrupted by the observer’s lower side windows, while the tactical code became separated by the guns. At starboard the code even had to be reversed - not correct, but a pragmatic solution.

The model/aircraft belongs to a fictional unit, its code “P3” in front of the fuselage Balkenkreuz has no real-world reference and was executed in small letters, a typical late WWII measure. This part of the code was done with small, black 2 mm letters. A fictional unit badge, depicting a running greyhound, was added under the cockpit. It actually belongs to a German tank unit.

The “KN” part of the code, including the Ks on the nose, came from an Airfix Ju 87 B sheet. As an aircraft belonging to the 5th squadron within the unit’s 2nd group, the 4th letter in the code became “N”, while the 3rd letter “K” denotes the individual aircraft. The color code associated with a 5th squadron was red, incorporated on the aircraft as a thin red outline around the individual aircraft letter (another late-war low-contrast measure). To provide a little visual excitement, small red Ks were added to the nose, too, to make thew aircraft easy to identify when parked at the flight line.

Since this aircraft would operate over the Western front from German home ground, no further ID/theatre markings like fuselage or wing bands or wingtips in yellow or white, etc. were added. This, together with the lack of visible red as squadron code, results in a rather dry look, but that’s intentional.

After some exhaust and oil stains with graphite and Tamiya “Smoke”, a coat of acrylic matt varnish finally sealed the model and a wire antenna, made from heated sprue material, was added.

Well, an exotic what-if idea, but I really like how this conversion turned out, even though the livery evolved in a different way from what I had initially in mind. The Ki-46 was already an elegant aircraft, especially the Ki-46-III with its teardrop-shaped nose section. But, with the smaller, streamlined inline engines instead of the radials, this iteration looks even better and faster. It reminds a little of the D.H. Hornet? The gun barbettes are a nice “German” detail, and the makeshift high-altitude paint scheme adds to the obscure impression of the model. A really nice sister ship for the Go 146 A-0 build from 2015.

This started as an trailer coach that was obviously composed from LaBelle interurban and passenger car parts. I cut out the floor and installed an Halling ÖBB 5090 railcar drive , replaced the wooden doors with ones fabricated from styrene, shaped the roof ends and added all the trolley details . Trucks that had been H0e are set for HOn3 now.

Custom 1:34 scale dumpster, handmade out of styrene for use with the First Gear Diecast 1:34 scale front-load garbage truck. This one is a 8-yard open-top dumpster, done up with Kennewick Disposal logos. Kennewick Disposal was the local division of Waste Management in Kennewick, WA until the early 1990's when they went to just the generic Waste Management name.

This was actually one of my really old, kinda crappy model dumpsters that was falling apart, so I refurbished it and made it a bit more detailed and accurate.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

The TIE/LN starfighter, or TIE/line starfighter, simply known as the TIE Fighter or T/F, was the standard Imperial starfighter seen in massive numbers throughout most of the Galactic Civil War and onward.

The TIE Fighter was manufactured by Sienar Fleet Systems and led to several upgraded TIE models such as TIE/sa bomber, TIE/IN interceptor, TIE/D Defender, TIE/D automated starfighter, and many more.

The TIE/E played a central role in the Empire's campaign against rogue Grand Admiral Demetrius Zaarin, and mixed Defender and Escort units participated in several other battles, including the Battle of Endor. The TIE Escort continued to see limited use by the Imperial Remnant up to at least 44 ABY, and was involved in numerous conflicts, including the Yuuzhan Vong War..

The kit and its assembly:

Another group build contribution, this time to the Science Fiction GB at whatifmodelers.com during summer 2017. Originally, this one started as an attempt to build a vintage MPC TIE Interceptor kit which I had bought and half-heartedly started to build probably 20 years ago. But I did not have the right mojo (probably, The Force was not strong enough…?), so the kit ended up in a dark corner and some parts were donated to other projects.

The sun collectors were still intact, though, and in the meantime I had the idea of reviving the kit’s remains, and convert it into (what I thought was) a fictional TIE Fighter variant with three solar panels. For this plan I got myself another TIE Interceptor kit, and stashed it away, too. Mojo was still missing, though.

Well, then came the SF GB and I took it as an occasion to finally tackle the build. But when I prepared for the build I found out that my intended design (over the years) more or less actually existed in the Star Wars universe: the TIE/D Defender! I could have built it with the parts and hand and some improvisation, but the design similarity bugged me. Well, instead of a poor copy of something that was more or less clearly defined, I rather decided to create something more individual, yet plausible, from the parts at hand.

The model was to stay a TIE design, though, in order to use as much donor material from the MPC kits as possible. Doing some legwork, I settled for a heavy fighter – bigger than the TIE Interceptor and the TIE/D fighter, a two-seater.

Working out the basic concept and layout took some time and evolved gradually. The creative spark for the TIE/E eventually came through a Revell “Obi Wan’s Jedi Starfighter” snap fit kit in my pile – actually a prize from a former GB participation at phoxim.de (Thanks a lot, Wolfgang!), and rather a toy than a true model kit.

The Jedi Fighter was in so far handy as it carries some TIE Fighter design traits, like the pilot capsule and the characteristic spider web windscreen. Anyway, it’s 1:32, much bigger than the TIE Interceptor’s roundabout 1:50 scale – but knowing that I’d never build the Jedi Starfighter OOB I used it as a donor bank, and from this starting point things started to evolve gradually.

Work started with the cockpit section, taken from the Jedi Starfighter kit. The two TIE Interceptor cockpit tubs were then mounted inside, staggered, and the gaps to the walls filled with putty. A pretty messy task, and once the shapes had been carved out some triangular tiles were added to the surfaces – a detail I found depicted in SW screenshots and some TIE Fighter models.

Another issue became the crew – even though I had two MPC TIE Interceptors and, theorectically, two pilot figures, only one of them could be found and the second crewman had to be improvised. I normally do not build 1:48 scale things, but I was lucky (and happy) to find an SF driver figure, left over from a small Dougram hoovercraft kit (from Takara, as a Revell “Robotech” reboxing). This driver is a tad bigger than the 1:50 TIE pilot, but I went with it because I did not want to invest money and time in alternatives. In order to justify the size difference I decided to paint the Dougram driver as a Chiss, based on the expanded SW universe (with blue skin and hair, and glowing red eyes). Not certain if this makes sense during the Battle of Endor timeframe, but it adds some color to the project – and the cockpit would not be visible in much detail since it would be finished fully closed.

Reason behind the closed canopy is basically the poor fit of the clear part. OOB, this is intended as an action toy – but also the canopy’s considerable size in 1:50 would prevent its original opening mechanism.

Additional braces on the rel. large window panels were created with self-adhesive tape and later painted over.

The rear fuselage section and the solar panel pylons were scratched. The reactor behind the cockpit section is actually a plastic adapter for water hoses, found in a local DIY market. It was slightly modified, attached to the cockpit “egg” and both parts blended with putty. The tail opening was closed with a hatch from the OOB TIE Interceptor – an incidental but perfect match in size and style.

The three pylons are also lucky finds: actually, these are SF wargaming/tabletop props and would normally be low walls or barriers, made from resin. For my build, they were more or less halved and trimmed. Tilted by 90°, they are attached to the hull with iron wire stabilizers, and later blended to the hull with putty, too.

Once the cockpit was done, things moved more swiftly. The surface of the hull was decorated with many small bits and pieces, including thin styrene sheet and profiles, steel and iron wire in various strengths, and there are even 1:72 tank tracks hidden somewhere, as well as protective caps from syringes (main guns and under the rear fuselage). It’s amazing how much stuff you can add to such a model – but IMHO it’s vital in order to create some structure and to emulate the (early) Star Wars look.

Painting and markings:

The less spectacular part of the project, even though still a lot of work because of the sheer size of the model’s surface. Since the whole thing is fictional, I tried to stay true to the Imperial designs from Episode IV-VI and gave the TIE/E a simple, all-light grey livery. All basic painting was done with rattle cans.

Work started with a basic coat of grey primer. On top of that, an initial coat of RAL 7036 Platingrau was added, esp. to the lower surfaces and recesses, for a rough shading effect. Then, the actual overall tone, RAL 7047, called “Telegrau 4”, one of Deutsche Telekom’s corporate tones, was added - mostly sprayed from abone and the sides onto the model. Fuselage and panels were painted separately, overall assembly was one of the final steps.

The solar panels were to stand out from the grey rest of the model, and I painted them with Revell Acrylic “Iron Metallic” (91) first, and later applied a rather rich wash with black ink , making sure the color settled well into the many small cells. The effect is pretty good, and the contrast was slightly enhanced through a dry-brushing treatment.

Only a few legible stencils were added all around the hull (most from the scrap box or from mecha sheets), the Galactic Empire Seal were inkjet-printed at home, as well as some tactical markings on the flanks, puzzled together from single digits in "Aurebash", one of the Imperial SW languages/fonts.

For some variety and color highlights, dozens of small, round and colorful markings were die-punched from silver, yellow, orange, red and blue decal sheet and were placed all over the hull - together with the large panels they blur into the the overall appearance, though. The hatches received thin red linings, also made from generic decals strips.

The cockpit interior was a bit challenging, though. Good TIE Fighter cockpit interior pictures are hard to find, but they suggest a dark grey tone. More confusingly, the MPC instructions call for a “Dark Green” cockpit? Well, I did not like the all-grey option, since the spaceship is already monochrome grey on the outside.

As a compromise I eventually used Tamiya XF-65 "Field Grey". The interior recieved a black ink in and dry-brushing treatment, and some instruments ansd screens were created with black decal material and glossy black paint; some neon paint was used for sci-fi-esque conmtraol lamps everywhere - I did not pay too much intention on the interior, since the cockpit would stay closed, and the thick clear material blurs everything inside.

Following this rationale, the crew was also painted in arather minimal fashion - both wear a dark grey uniform, only the Chiss pilot stands aout with his light blue skin and the flourescent red eyes.

After an overall black ink wash the model received a dry brusing treatment with FS 36492 and FS 36495, for a weathered and battle-worn look. After all, the "Vehement" would not survive the Ballte of Endor, but who knows what became of TIE/E "801"'s mixed crew...?

Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish, and some final cosmetic corrections made.

The display is a DIY creation, too, made from a 6x6" piece of wood, it's edges covered with edgebonder, a steel wire as holder, and finally the display was paited with semi-matt black acrylic paint from the rattle can.

A complex build, and the TIE/E more or less evolved along the way, with only the overall layout in mind. Work took a month, but I think it was worth the effort. This fantasy creation looks pretty plausible and blends well into the vast canonical TIE Fighter family - and I am happy that I finally could finish this mummy project, including the surplus Jedi Starfighter kit which now also find a very good use!

An epic one, and far outside my standard comfort zone. But a wothwhile build!

Shell Oil Company

59’5” 31,780gal Styrene Tank Car (DOT Class 111A100W1)

SCMX 6305

Blt. Trinity Rail (TRN), 03/14 (SCMX 6000-6519)

MP15 (CN York Sub), Markham, Ontario, Canada

May 17th, 2017

1600 x 1050

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

The A-14 program originally started in 2005 as a private venture, initiated by Northrop-Grumman together with the Elbit Group as a joint venture through Elbit’s Texas-based aircraft division M7 Aerosystems, an approved supplier to major aerospace clients. The aircraft was intended to replace the USAF’s A-10 attack aircraft as well as early F-16s in the strike role from 2010 onwards. The time slot for the project turned out to be advantageous, because at that time the USAF was contemplating to replace the simple and sturdy A-10 with the much more complex F-35, eventually even with its VTOL variant, and the highly specialized F-117 was retired, too.

The A-14 revived conceptual elements of Grumman’s stillborn A-12 stealth program for the US Navy, which had also been part of the USAF’s plans to replace the supersonic F-111 tactical bomber, but on a less ambitious and expensive level concerning technology, aiming for a more effective compromise between complexity, survivability and costs. The basic idea was an updated LTV A-7D (the A-10’s predecessor from the Vietnam War era), which had far more sophisticated sensor and navigation equipment than the rather simple but sturdy A-10, but with pragmatic stealth features and a high level of survivability in a modern frontline theatre or operations.

Since the A-14’s technology was considered to be too critical to be marketed to export customers (Israel showed early interest in the aircraft, as well as South Korea), the program was cancelled in 2016.

General characteristics:

Crew: 2 (pilot, WSO)

Length: 54 ft 11 1/2 in (16.78 m)

Wingspan: 62 ft 11 1/2 in (19.22 m)

Height: 11 ft 3 3/4 in (3.45 m)

Wing area: 374.9 ft² (117.5 m²)

Empty weight: 24,959 lb (11,321 kg)

Loaded weight: 30,384 lb (13,782 kg)

Max. takeoff weight: 50,000 lb (22,700 kg)

Internal fuel capacity: 11,000 lb (4,990 kg)

Powerplant:

2× General Electric Whitney F412-GE-114 non-afterburning turbofans

with 12,000 lbf (53 kN) thrust each

Performance:

Maximum speed: 630 mph (1,010 km/h, 550 kn) at 40,000 ft altitude /

Mach 0.95 at sea level

Cruise speed: 560 mph (900 km/h, 487 kn) at 40,000 ft altitude

Range: 1,089 nmi (1,253 mi, 2,017 km)

Ferry range: 1,800 nmi (2,100 mi, 3,300 km)

Service ceiling: 50,000 ft (15,200 m)

Rate of climb: 50,000 ft/min (250 m/s)

Wing loading: 133 lb/ft² (193 kg/m²)

Thrust/weight: 0.48 (full internal fuel, no stores)

Take-off run: 1,200 m (3,930 ft) at 42,000 lb (19,000 kg) over a 15 m (30 ft) obstacle

Armament:

1× General Dynamics GAU-12/U Equalizer 25 mm (0.984 in) 5-barreled rotary cannon

with 1,200 rounds (max. capacity 1,350 rounds)

4x internal weapon bays plus 4x external optional hardpoints with a total capacity of

15,000 lb (6,800 kg) and provisions to carry/deploy a wide range of ordnance

The kit and its assembly:

A major kitbashing project which I had on my idea list for a long time and its main ingredients/body donors already stashed away – but, as with many rather intimidating builds, it takes some external motivation to finally tackle the idea and bring it into hardware form. This came in August 2020 with the “Prototypes” group build at whatifmodellers.com, even though is still took some time to find the courage and mojo to start.

The original inspiration was the idea of a stealthy successor for the A-10, or a kind of more modern A-7 as an alternative to the omnipresent (and rather boring, IMHO) F-35. An early “ingredient” became the fuselage of a Zvezda Ka-58 stealth helicopter kit – I liked the edgy shape, the crocodile-like silhouette and the spacious side-by-side cockpit. Adding wings, however, was more challenging, and I remembered a 1:200 B-2A which I had turned into a light Swedish 1:72 attack stealth aircraft. Why not use another B-2 for the wings and the engines, but this time a bigger 1:144 model that would better match the quite bulbous Ka-58 fuselage? This donor became an Italeri kit.

Work started with the fuselage: the Ka-58’s engine and gearbox hump had to go first and a generous, new dorsal section had to be scratched with 1mm styrene sheet and some PSR. The cockpit and its glazing could be retained and were taken OOB. Under the nose, the Ka-58’s gun turret was omitted and a scratched front landing gear well was implanted instead.

The wings consist of the B-2 model; the lower “fuselage half” had its front end cut away, then the upper fuselage half of the Ka-58 was used as benchmark to cut the B-2’s upper wing/body part in two outer wing panels. Once these elements had been glued together, the Ka-58’s lower nose and tail section were tailored to match the B-2 parts. The B-2 engine bays were taken OOB and mounted next, so that the A-14’s basic hull was complete and the first major PSR session could start. Blending the parts into each other turned out to be a tedious process, since some 2-3 mm wide gaps had to be filled.

Once the basic BWP pack had been finished, I added the fins. These were taken from an 1:72 F-117 kit (IIRC from Italeri), which I had bought in a lot many moons ago. The fins were just adapted at their base to match the tail sting slope, and they were mounted in a 45° angle. This looks very F-117ish but was IMHO the most plausible solution.

Now that the overall length of the aircraft was defined, I could work on the final major assembly part: the wing tips. The 1:144 B-2 came with separate wing tip sections, but they proved to be much too long for the Squatina. After some trials I reduced their length by more than half, so that the B-2’s jagged wing trailing edge was kept. The result looks quite natural, even though blending the cut wing tips to the BWB turned out to be a PSR nightmare because their thickness reduces gently towards the tip – since I took out a good part of the inner section, the resulting step had to be sanded away and hidden with more PSR.

Detail work started next, including the cockpit glazing, the bomb bay (the B-2 kit comes with one of its bays open, and I kept this detail and modified the interior) and the landing gear, the latter was taken from the F-117 donor bank and fitted surprisingly well.

Some sensors were added, too, including a flat glass panel on the nose tip and a triangular IRST fairing under the nose, next to the landing gear well.

Painting and markings:

For a stealth aircraft and a prototype I wanted something subdued or murky, but not an all-black or -grey livery. I eventually settled for the rather dark paint scheme that the USAF applied to its late B-52Gs and the B-1Bs, which consists of two tones from above, FS 36081 (Dark Grey, a.k.a. Dark Gunship Grey) and 34086 (Green Drab), and underneath (FS 36081 and 36118 (Gunship Grey). The irregular pattern was adapted (in a rather liberal fashion) from the USAF’s early B-1Bs, using Humbrol 32, 108 and 125 as basic colors. The 108 turned out to be too bright, so I toned it down with an additional coat of thinned Humbrol 66. While this considerably reduced the contrast between the green and the grey, the combination looks much better and B-1B-esque.

The wings’ leading edges were painted for more contrast with a greyish black (Tar Black, Revell 09), while the landing gear, the interior of the air intakes and the open bomb bay became glossy white. The cockpit was painted in medium grey (Humbrol 140) and the clear parts received a thinned inner coating with a mix of transparent yellow and brown, simulating an anti-radar coating – even though the effect turned out to be minimal, now it looks as of the plastic parts had just yellowed from age…

After the initial livery had been finished the model received a black ink washing and some post-panel shading with slightly brightened variations of the basic tones (using Humbrol 79, 144 and 224). Decals were added next, an individual mix from various sources. The “Stars-and-Bars” come from a PrintScale A-7 sheet, most stencils come from an F-16 sheet.

After some more detail painting and a treatment with graphite on the metal areas (exhausts, gun port), the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).

Batman’s next Batwing? Maybe, there’s certainly something fictional about this creation. But the “Squatina” turned out much more conclusive (and even pretty!) than I expected, even though it became a bigger aircraft than intended. And I am positively surprised how good the bodywork became – after all, lots of putty had to be used to fill all the gaps between parts that no one ever expected to be grafted together.

1:34 scale 6-yard recycling dumpster built out of styrene plastic. Done up with Waste Management of Kennewick "Single Stream Recycling" decals

This is a full frontal on Hifiman's Megamini digital audio player.

It's a 250$ USD player. You can find out more about it here: www.hifiman.com/products/detail/269.

It's okay. I've written about it here:

ohm-image.net/data/audio/rmaa-hifiman-megamini-24-bit

And more subjectively about it here:

www.headfonia.com/review-hifiman-megamini-days-gone-by/

Lighting:

single bare Profoto D1 behind a single sheet of white sytrene. Black opaque styrene cards block the strobe in a v-pattern. Single white reflector to object right to get the blurry line. Power: 2/3

Taking camera: Fujifilm GFX-50s

Taking lens: Sinaron 80mm F4 Digital

Focus system: Cambo Actus Mini