You all made me do it!!!

[Rafael]

Hey Mr. Howlin mouse, i came back to plastic, and made a mess of it!!!. but the white thing i cut and put on top of the tailfin is a clip-on module containing AWACS SET (of course i will make the dish in plastic)

[Rafael]

another angle

[B777LR]

You could use a long box antenna like on the OV-1:

Owwwww, just completed one of those few minutes ago (still bombing my dog with it) following a spectacular 1 day build!

[Rafael]

Hey, 777, send me some pics too, that's a helluva nice lookin' plane.
And your dog emailed mine and they're demostrating in favor of dog's rights all around the house!!!

[Rafael]

Ok. first attempt.  Scratched a plastic tailfin extension/support for rotodome. Added sparse detail. The rotodome itself is a sandwich comprising 2 plastic disks and a thick cardboard core. The edges are plaster.
Sorry. Shitty Picture. Shitty fotographer.

[Rafael]

first attempt to snap on the Radar Tail. Snap works like a charm.  

[Rafael]

other angle

[Rafael]

another one

[Rafael]

Ooops!! Fitting problem on the base of the fin. Back to work. The disk shape still makes me doubt. Been rummaging through the kitchen to find suitable shapes. Wife Banned me from the kitchen.

[matrixone]

Hi Rafael,

I could not help but notice you had a couple He 162s in your last pic, all I can say is you have good taste in aircraft!

I am building a He 162 now (in real markings) and after its done I will be doing another one in what-if Eastern front markings.

Matrixone

[Rafael]

Scales apart, i wish my 162's were as accurate as yours. This ones suffered the loss of their canopies and i resorted to the first thing at hand: Cardboard!!. Now i think i'm the only modeler with bubble canopied He162's

[matrixone]

What scale are those He 162s?

Matrixone

[Rafael]

Almost everything i model is 1/72, matrix1, except for the card models wich always give me a hard time with the ruler, scale calculator, and the graphic software.

I wanted to move to 1/48 but is too big for the space i have available.

[upnorth]

Thanks, Upnorth, do you think  it would be wise to mount a wheel housing  a la breget alizé on the leading edges?

I think, considering how much extra tail weight you're adding, you should put the landing gear pods on the trailing edge of the wing and have the main gear retract backward into them(A la Tupolev "Badger", "Bear", "Blinder" and "Fiddler" aircraft).

That way you can have the landing gear further back to counter the extra tail weight a bit more. I might also suggest (if you go that way) to make the main gear two wheel units, like the P-3 Orion main gear to support the extra weight during landings and on the ground in general.

How about moving the third crew position up to the front, just behind the second crew position? That way you can free up the full back end of the upper fuselage for all sorts of antenna mounting options. Personally, I thing the Gannet would look great with the same sort of radome as the Grumman E-1 Tracer had.

[Rafael]

Do you have mind-reading powers upnorth?
That was EXACTLY what i was thinking last night, i'm looking for an old Rafale fuel pod (The one whith the bulging front) and wanted to try my hand at adapting that shape (backwards so the carriages are farther back, displacing the CG) and try to transplant an scratchbuilt 2 wheel leg.

Moving The Third crew member forward? um, interesting!! that way i could put the antenna arrays i want on top

And the E-1 arrangement is a superb idea!!!. Liike this, more or less....

Thanks a lot, starting to prototype a shape in cardboard before cutting any plastic.