Shorts Seal MR.1 amphibious flying boat with photos

[McColm]

This is based on the two fuselage halves of a 1/144 A-90 Orlyonok Ekranoplane,it now has a new front radome which I think came off a 1/72 Hasegawa Lockheed Martin P-3 Orion. It's been turned around and plugged the gap. Behind the cockpit is a gun turret with twin barrels, it has the wings from a1/72 Lockheed S-3A Viking and I have created a T-tail. Where the turboprop engine should have been fitted there's now a turbofan from a different S-3A Viking kit. I've glued two of the turbofan engines from the wooden BAe 142 desktop model above the wings.  A cut in halfish C-130 drop fuel tank has been glued to where the original wings would have been giving the impression of the main landing gear. It does have a large weapons bay with watertight doors.
 I'm thinking along the lines of the BAe Nimrod MR.2P replacement, stopgap privately funded by SJMcColm Engineering Ltd with a 25 year lease with the Royal Air Force. Internally it would have had the glass cockpit from the Nimrod 2000, fly-by-wire control system upgraded avionics from the BAe Nimrod MR.2P. Talks with France,Germany, Australia and India with interest from the commercial airliners. SJMcColm Engineering Ltd would provide the maintenance and had already built seven preproduction examples, customer changes and requirements.
At the time the boffins had predicted that the RAF only needed nine. 13 -15 for training and development.  France and Germany would also sign up for 15 aircraft each, India seven but dropping down to five, an unlikely customer being China who not only wanted the maritime surveillance aircraft but SAR and the water bomber variants.
 It would seem that the water bomber became very popular in Europe, Australia, Canada and the USA. New materials and constant upgrades would keep the Shorts Seal flying well past the 25 year lease with each government securing the lease when in power.

Back to the build, a few more tweaks plus the PSR process  will be needed. Another rummage might result in more parts.

[McColm]

A slight design change to the landing gear, I'm using the Airfix 1/72 Ka-25 Hormone B floatation gear which seems to work. All the other components are clearly visible just lacking PSR. Got to add the flaps.

[McColm]

I've attached the small  scale F-117 to the nose and given it a coat of light grey.
The new nose needs a little bit more work but a few more spare parts makes it look convincing. More PSR to follow.

[McColm]

The Shorts Seal MR.1 now has a stand and new tail fins.