Civilian Aircraft and Military Training Aircraft Converted to COIN Missions

[The Rat]

As an FAC the Cessna 150/152 comes to mind, as does the 172. But the cat's donkey would be a 177RG! Don't think it's been kitted though.

[Jennings]

I learned to fly on the feared Cessna F-172 Chickenhawk.  Seagulls ran in fear of us

J

[dy031101]

My wildest imagination involved jet kitplanes tricked out with surveillance equipment, Hellfire AGMs, and R-60 AAMs. 

[NARSES2]

My wildest imagination involved jet kitplanes tricked out with surveillance equipment, Hellfire AGMs, and R-60 AAMs. 

In the 50/60's the Dandy or Beano (UK Comics) had a strip about a young lad who had radio controlled armed forces at his disposal all controlled from a wrist controler - air force, navy and army, not just the equipment but the men as well. That do you ? 

[dy031101]

In the 50/60's the Dandy or Beano (UK Comics) had a strip about a young lad who had radio controlled armed forces at his disposal all controlled from a wrist controler - air force, navy and army, not just the equipment but the men as well. That do you ? 

I wasn't that wild.  But it can definitely lead to a whole new flight of imagination.

What I meant by "kitplanes" include the likes of Viperjet and Maverick series.

[NARSES2]

Ooops, showed my age there. I honestly thought you were taling about r/c planes 

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

Love CoIn & 'Trainers with Teeth' - a huge source of inspiration and good clean fun !

A couple of years back I posted an Airfix Strikemaster as a Jet Provost T7A (Armed FAC trainer for the RAF) in wraparound camo and yellow trainer bands..... no idea where that kit is now, but if I find it, I'll take some new pics and post them into this thread.

For props, I dont believe that you can go far wrong with the Tucano, sexy looking and widely available for very few pennies in an Airfix box. Another 'natural' is the SF260, I know it's been kitted but I think it was either short-run IM or resin. The T-6/SNJ Texan has already been mentioned, I have the old 1:72 Carpena sheet for it which has about 25 schemes, not just trainers but a couple of CoIn birds too. The Heller T-28D was/is a cracking wee kit and another 'natural' for CoIn work.

Not so obvious would be the Matchbox (piston) Provost and their T-2 Buckeye, the Airfix Piper Cherokee & SA Bulldog. Heller T-33 - already used by almost everybody in Central & Sth America, but there's nothing to say they weren't considered for use, for example, by Sth Africa in Namibia & Angola.

Ian

[Jeffry Fontaine]

'Trainers with Teeth'

Ian,

I do believe that you have come up with a title for another group build!

Trainers With Teeth

[Weaver]

Or another approach which has been discussed on various threads recently is the Cavalier Turbo-Mustang concept, i.e. take a surplus piston-engined fighter and turboprop it for use as a COIN aircraft, preferably getting as close to an F&W 3605 nose profile as you can manage before being strung up by the local Aesthetics Society.

I'm already liking the idea of an ugly-as-sin turbo Spitfire........

[upnorth]

Ian:
The SF260 has been kitted in both 1/72 and 1/48 by Planet Models. Very expensive for what you get, even by resin kit standards.

I recall one of my very first CoIn "whiffs" (sadly no pics) It was airfix's 1/72 Jetstream with the long, thin Aztazou (sp.) engines. So I guess that would have qualified for a "Trainer With Teeth" as that's what the RAF used them for was training.

Anyway, I gave it a semi Euro 1 wrap around scheme, SNEB pods from a Harrier kit under the wings and left the side cargo door on the fuselage left side between the wing and tail off and put a manned gunner station in there.

As I think about it, I can't remember if the RAF Jetstream had the side door or if I had to take the fuselage from their USAF Jetstream kit to get the door. Anyway, that's what it got.

I may also have put a gun pack under the fuselage where you usually see the cargo pod on civie Jetstreams, but I don't recall for sure.

As for other "Trainers With Teeth"...
The Zlin 42 and 142 series are quite well known for their real world FAC and CoIn work and injection molded kits of them can be had.

The Beech Bonanza has some potential too. I seem to recall seeing at least one picture of an IDF V35 Bonanza rigged out with some small bombs. I think in its single tailed variation it was used as a trainer, I know the Canadian Forces used them and I think they were called Musketeers. Of course the Bonanza also evolved into the   T-34 mentor, which truly did get used by several air forces as a FAC and CoIn bird.

Might be interesting to try to find the old ARII Aero Subaru and rig it out as some kind of JASDF FAC or CoIn bird.

[GTX]

nd their T-2 Buckeye

Now there's an idea - a COIN/CAS Buckeye - not exactly small though.

Regards,

Greg

[philp]

Now we are cooking.

Some great ideas and the Trainers with Teeth GB is an excellant idea (after we finally do the LSR one).

Don't think the T-2 is too big for this and several other Jet trainers have already been armed up (L-29, L-39, Alpha Jet, Hawk, T-38 aka F-5B, etc).

Mav did a couple of munk profiles for me over in his thread.  Maybe some of the other profilers can join the bandwagon.

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

The Beech Bonanza has some potential too. I seem to recall seeing at least one picture of an IDF V35 Bonanza rigged out with some small bombs. I think in its single tailed variation it was used as a trainer, I know the Canadian Forces used them and I think they were called Musketeers. Of course the Bonanza also evolved into the   T-34 mentor, which truly did get used by several air forces as a FAC and CoIn bird.

Might be interesting to try to find the old ARII Aero Subaru and rig it out as some kind of JASDF FAC or CoIn bird.

I have a Minicraft 1:48 Beech V35 in the stash...... was thinking about the multi-toned blue-lagoon scheme that our own Richard 'Gekko 1' Chafer depicted in one of his profiles "Republic of Tropicana Police Air Wing" markings and a couple of HVAR's under the wings, maybe ?

Ian

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

'Trainers with Teeth'

Ian,

I do believe that you have come up with a title for another group build!

Trainers With Teeth

Well Mr. F, you already know I'd be up for it !

Ian

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Well Mr. F, you already know I'd be up for it !

Good to hear.  Now get over to the GB forum and submit it so you can get credit for the idea. 

On another note, what is the little 1/48th scale model of a trainer aircraft that was manufactured by a company in Turkey?  It was a low wing propeller aircraft with tricycle landing gear and it had a side by side seating arrangement.  I have the kit hidden away in storage and the only reason for the original purchase was the hidden potential I saw in the aircraft for an armed (albeit very lightly armed) COIN/FAC aircraft.  It was a shoe-in for adding some FM antennas and some pods for smoke rockets and machine guns.  Kind of toy like on the details but nothing that could not be fixed by parts from other kits.