WWII Conversion

[Sisko]

Fantastic!!!!!!!!!    

[Ollie]

Whoa, wonderful job Barry!

I'm so honoured...

           

[John Howling Mouse]

Here's the backstory:

In 1945 the war in Europe had concluded, but the conflict with Japan dragged on. The failure of the Manhattan Project meant that the war in the Pacific would continue into 1946 and possibly 1947. The Japanese used this time to increase their balloon bomb attacks upon North America and also started large-scale bombing raids launched by submarine-carried aircraft. After three such attacks caused much damage upon the Canadian province of British Columbia, it was obvious that something had to be done to beef up air defense against these fearsome new weapons. Unfortunately, all current interceptor aircraft were spoken for in the Pacific so a solution had to be found, and found fast. Fortunately, Ollie Aviation stepped in at a critical moment with a wickedly fast and maneuverable interceptor they had in development since the Deckles Incident in 1943 and the Lacombe Interceptor was born. While this amazing aircraft lacked spats, it did have a very powerful 12 cylinder Toque engine rated for high-altitude performance and rapid-fire 37 m.m. cannon mounted in the wings as well as two cowl mounted .50 machine guns. With the addition of drop tanks, it had a very long loiter time which enabled the Lacombe to finally blunt the Japanese raids over British Columbia and the U.S. Pacific N.W. The example shown here was part of the famous Red Flight which saved Vancouver, B.C. from a potentially brutal 15 plane raid launched from submarine borne bombers in June 1946. The Lacombe went on to provide support in the invasion of Honshu in late 1947 by escorting Lincoln bombers and participating in ground support missions by blasting Japanese entrenchments with their 37 m.m. wing cannons. The Lacombe also provided valuable service in the Korean conflict, helping cover the retreat of the Canadian infantry during the Battle of the Chosen Reservoir in late 1950. Lacombes can still be seen today flying on the Canadian Air Show circuit.

Brian da Basher

Thanks, guys!  And, Brian, that has to be one of your best!  Much appreciated.
"powerful 12 cylinder Toque engine" ?!?  I very nearly popped a 'nad with that one!

Even I have forgotten much of what went into this build.  It was one of my first in-progress What If's on this Forum.  In fact, the first comment was by Ollie himself, back in 2003!

About 60 % of it is a 1:48 Tamiya Nakajima KI84IA Hayate (WW2 Japanese "Frank").
Entire tail empennage is scratchbuilt, from the tailfin and tailplanes right down to the tiny elevator actuators.
Canopy is from a reworked Gloster Meteor canopy (blending that sucker into the dissimiliar fuselage took MONTHS!)
Prop is from a P-47 (I think).
Scratchbuilt pylons are holding P-51 "paper" fueltanks.  I think the tailwheel might have been from a Mustang as well.  The original Japanese one was way too flimsy-looking.