LET THE JUDGING BEGIN!

[The Rat]

Over a month since this GB ended, so it's 'past due' on the verdict of the masses. This post is intended to give everyone who entered a chance to post a couple of pics of their finished entry, and after a brief interval a poll post will be up in which members can vote on their favourite. If, after about a week, I find that not every entrant has posted I will go through the topic and post links before voting begins. I've never done this before, please be kind.

[puddingwrestler]

Black Scarab Fighter type III
From the world of the Scarlett Sloth, Sentinel of the Skyways, and Albertto, Wonder Boy Aviator!


Build thread

[Brian da Basher]

Here's my Canadian Clipper :






Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

Here's my Canadian Car & Foundry 'Carling':






Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

Lastly, here's my Walloped Walrus, the Bayleen:





All my entries are 1/144 scale or thereabouts...

Brian da Basher

[Ed S]

Major Bernardo Alvarez stood watching the setting sun silhouette his OS4U-2N.  So what if it was over 20 years old; tonight it would be going into battle again.  This time against pirates in the South China Sea.  Recently acquired from the USN where they had been in storage in the southwest desert of the USA, two squadrons of the Buccaneers had been refurbished and updated.  Not being tied to runways, they could be stationed at various locations in the South China Sea.   The pirates have been getting brazen lately.  Hiding in a number of small islands in the area, they were virtually invulnerable to intercept by the normal ground based fighters and bombers of the Philippine AF.  The land bases were too far away and by the time they arrived, the pirates were gone into hiding.  Recently getting their hands on some PT boats and heavy machine guns, the pirates were becoming a formidable force of destruction.  It was also suspected that they had at least one  37mm cannon  mounted on one of their boats.  But tonight, Major Alvarez would be leading a hunter/killer team to patrol the area and hopefully intercept the pirates away from their hidden base.  As the hunter part of the team, Major Alvarez's plane was the -2N version with radar to find the pirate ships.  Loaded with a flare dispenser and marking rocket pod, his mission was to find and identify the pirates and mark the target for the killer part of the team to attack.  The killer part of the team were also flying the OS4U, but loaded with bombs and high explosive rockets.

Historical note

During WWII, the US Navy decided they needed a fighter type a/c the could be launched and recovered by battleships and cruisers.  Two aircraft were in completion, the Vought Buccaneer and the Curtis Seahawk.  However, Curtis was heavily involved in designing and building a new fighter for the Army Air Corp and dropped out of the competition.  The Vought Buccaneer was a modified F4U-4 Corsair, fitted with floats and redesignated the OS4U Buccaneer.  It proved a useful a/c during the war.  It had the performance necessary to intercept and engage enemy torpedo planes and dive bombers as well as land based patrol and bomber a/c.  It could provide the necessary air cover for battleship and cruiser task forces that were operating without a/c carriers.  They could also perform scouting and recce mission.  They could carry bombs and rockets for use in attacking enemy shipping and land targets.  Used extensively during convoy escort in the North Atlantic, they were able to keep the long ranged Condors well away from the shipping lanes.  The radar equipped OS4U-2N version was developed to provide for night and all weather defense and also proved capable of finding U-boats tracking the convoys.

Buccaneers  were used throughout WWII in both the Pacific and Atlantic.  Still in use during the Korean War, they  were often seen providing airborne gun direction for the battleships and cruisers along the coast.  They were also used for CAS missions supplementing the new jets, Skyraiders and Corsairs from the a/c carriers.  By 1953, the USN was on its way to becoming a Carrier based navy and the Buccaneers were withdrawn from service and sent to storage in the desert.  







The build thread is http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,22798.0.html

Ed

[sequoiaranger]

First Picture is one taken by a friend at an IPMS Quarterly contest, nicely showing off the second seat of this "Hellcat" predecessor. In the upper box is the unique, M.C. Escher-inspired "Birds and Worms" camouflage:


Next is an overall front quarter view:


And lastly is a photoshopped "flying" view of wheels and floats up:

[PACOPEPE]

Fokker D-XXIII W (Watervliegtuig). Dutch East Indies. December of 1941.

[PACOPEPE]

Westland Seawind. Coastal Command of the RAF; South of England, Summer of 1946.

[sandiego89]

Cleaner picture of the Sea Dart.