I had written quite a long back story for this one, but in the end I just threw it away. It became too elaborate anyway.
In short, it went as follows:
Frank Whittle gets turned down by Gloster. It is interesting and all that, but those jet engines will never catch on, they tell him. Whittle turns to De Havilland who actually are interested. They manufacture the first airworthy test jet engines and place two of them into one of their sleekest, light and slender airframes, the DH.88 Comet Racer. They need to modify the main gear and the wings a little and the cockpit gets a Malcolm hood makeover. The RAF attends the trials and gets interested. The DH.88 is enlisted in a secret government test program and is in time to take an active role in the Battle of Britain.
Well, long story short, 1940, Nazi planes fly over Channel, like screeching swifts Comets engage, bad guys shot out of sky, no match, Britain saves day, blah blah and yada yada, 1942, Mosquito jets, Hornet jets, 1944 even Venom twin boom jets all over place. Something like that.
(https://www.whatifmodellers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FkXv5VTn.jpg&hash=350d07314caf5944554cea6574b971cbf97a213a)
(https://www.whatifmodellers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F0s9sx0W.jpg&hash=d8ff7c7ccf15c49382984d888fbff13cf6fa58bf)
(https://www.whatifmodellers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FcJv0INT.jpg&hash=af22e037aec8d8940d64580202adebd55e5ffaf6)
(https://www.whatifmodellers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F9qOhT4B.jpg&hash=ab092a5944a5976c267e61d7c4b6b848c5ca233a)
(https://www.whatifmodellers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F8HiIaZy.jpg&hash=557a2ba1da04db4d074a086b2eaa9f606a77a51f)
(https://www.whatifmodellers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F7ytPFJp.jpg&hash=3cd9d8843c6fcec7e5bd2da9108ca9efb254dcb0)
In reality, I love the shape of the Comet and I just wanted to see how a DH.88 with jets would look. This is a paper kitbash, the base model is an 1.48 paper kit by Lad'n'Dad and available on Ecardmodels.com. In the kit are the Grosvenor House, Black Magic and the green version and also an uncoloured version one can fill in oneself. I used this version to create the prototype scheme on this Comet. I used a Malcolm hood from a Spitfire model and the nacelles of a 1/50 Gloster Meteor model which I reduced to about 1/72 of this model's scale. The landing gear came from yet another paper model, this time a Macchi 202 Folgore, which I shaped a little to match the belly of the Comet. I wanted to have the engines blended in the wing, like the Meteor had, not the under-wing pods like the Me-262. This was a little tricky since the Comet wings were thinner than the Meteor. And this is paper, so no putty here...
A year ago, before I made this model, I already did a more or less aesthetic study of the aircraft's shape by printing the colourless version onto grey paper and fold it inside out to get rid of all the lines. I kept the engine nacelles off, because to me, the Comet is one of the most gracious shapes in aerospace history. I wanted to have an airframe as pure as possible. So this is what I ended up with as a study:
(https://www.whatifmodellers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FOBQ8lUn.jpg&hash=917b5bb1b59b6a77b6722e4132cc819b96d39843)
(https://www.whatifmodellers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FGVfjfh9.jpg&hash=5802591fd778721b893e0b16c9877f8dc6c22545)
Well, lots of big pictures, I hope you like it. Keep in mind, I did this just for a little fun inbetweenie, and a meticulous finish wasn't my goal.
(I keep forgetting I better resize them to 1000 px. Sorry!)
Great idea! I am always amazed at what you can do with your paper projects!
Blimey, colour me gobsmacked! :o :o :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
That is very good, love the model and backstory! :thumbsup:
Fan freakin tastic. That is one fine bird!
Paper modellers amaze me and you are no exception... great work in what I consider to be one heck of a mystifying medium.
Wow! Wonderful! :wub: :thumbsup:
May I photopaint it into a Zwilling?
(-: Thanks for the nice comments, friends. Tophe, be my guest. I'm curious what you come up with.
Quote from: sandiego89 on July 23, 2017, 01:17:09 PM
Great idea! I am always amazed at what you can do with your paper projects!
Me as well, great work :thumbsup:
Awesome.
:thumbsup:
Quote from: Paper Kosmonaut on July 24, 2017, 12:07:53 AM
Tophe, be my guest. I'm curious what you come up with.
Thanks! Here is the Twin-Jet-Comet!
(https://www.whatifmodellers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kristofmeunier.fr%2FTwin-Jet-Comet.jpg&hash=858f80d2e8e966484b442dec44699b3dd35ff746)
Awesome, Tophe! That looks very nice indeed.Twin Comet triple Jet.
I guess i this case De Havilland really thought well, let's go totally over the top. Not just a first jet, let's double her up and use three jets instead! (-; A well done photosoup!