Late Start Republic of Texas Battle Flyer No. 2

[Brian da Basher]

Squadron.com is your friend. They have Microscale decal film in stock. Heck they're just down (or up) the road in Carrolton, Texas. You could be neighborly and just drop by.

Brian da Basher

[sotoolslinger]

Perri's Planes of Pittsburg had made their reputation by designing and producing excellent agricultural and survey aircraft since almost as soon as the Wright flyer had made its debut. In early 1917 they were approached by a consortium of South American businessmen to create a high altitude photo recon plane with the ability to carry two widely spaced automatic cameras up to at least 30,000 ft so that they could do photographic survey work of the highest mountain ranges in their countries.
The brilliant designer Brian Perri knew he would need two major innovations to create a successful design ;a pressurized cockpit and a supercharged engine. Perri gave the task of building the cockpit to his chief of new engineering Johnny Shabazz and contracted the Texican firm of Toolslinger Engine Works for the supercharger .He proceeded to design a radical V-tailed monoplane  with underwing hardpoints to carry fairings with the underwing cameras. Already experienced in in building mapping and surveying craft he incorporated the just emerging wireless sets into his design from the start so it would be simple for a single pilot to fly the aircraft, communicate with ground personnel and take photos without the need for a second crewman.
Knowing that the aircraft would be operating from rough ,unimproved (or non existent) airfields he incorporated a tough ,armored and spatted fixed landing gear and designed the aircraft to be extremely lightweight but very tough so that it would have great range and withstand the rigors of the work it would be assigned.
The powerplant, a modified Jupiter ,was encased in easily removeable panels and non shrouded to make maintenance simple and close cooperation between the Yankee and Texican design crews resulted in a simple ,modular design that was simple to repair in the field.

[sotoolslinger]

Thanks B, I found out at that IMPS show I went to that Squadron is mail order only.... they have open house once a year but I will definitely get on their website.

[sotoolslinger]

The PPP design ,known as the High Altitude Lightweight (pronounced Halo) was an instant success garnering many orders from various countries. Wishing to cash in on his success,and wishing for a government contract , Perri immediately redsigned the basic plane as a fighter, arming it with two Browning .30 caliber machine guns faired into the fuselage and his own design of interrupter gearing to fire through the propeller arc.
He submitted this design to the US govt and was summarily rebuffed as monoplanes were distrusted and besides everyone knew you didn't need all that excessive pressurized cockpit hoohaw to fight biplanes in the air. They considered obtaining a few for recon duties but the decision was made that photos of an ever changing battlefield would be useless.
The Texicans however, were desperately casting about for a fighter to suppliment the extremely difficult to fly BF-1 and immediately ordered 50 fighters and 20 photo recon models .While negotiating with the Republic of Texas for these aircraft the US government discovered the upcoming sale and arrested Perri and his design team and seized the company as the Texicans were German allies.The charges against the PPP team for conspiring with the enemy were eventually dropped as the ROT had never declared war and had only sent mercenaries to fight in the conflict.PPP however was ruined and Brian himself was quietly spirited away to the hill county.

[Brian da Basher]

Yee-hawww! The hill country! Now all I need is a copper kettle and a nice full moon.

Your backstory had me chuckling Toolslinger! I wish I was brilliant enough to come up with such a wonderful V tailed design!

Brian da Basher

P.S.Squadron has an open house only once a year? Doesn't sound very neighborly...

[John Howling Mouse]

Are you speaking of running the paper through the printer several times or just applying several decals on top of each other? Also where might I get the microscale decal film on the net as LHS dosen't carry it. I learned the hard  way not to spray the decal bonder on the paper and then try to print again and as I can only print 1 image at a time sometimes the first decal smears going through the printer the second time.

Oh, your poor printer.  Yes, only one print per decal sheet.  As I'm rather cheap, I bunch my graphics together so tight I can barely cut out the individual images later.  Always making multiples of the required images, especially on original graphic designs.  Yeah, if you need more opacity, you can cut out two or three of the same image (same size) and apply them subsequently over the first.  Have to let each "layer" dry sufficiently, though.  It's not like you're strapped for time in a one-week build or anything, are you?

I gots ta go read yer fancy backstories now, hear?

Edit:  Heh, heh, I like the backstory.  But, Texicans fighting with Nazis?    Say it ain't so, Joe! 

[sotoolslinger]

Yeah well that's one of my major problems.... I don't have Photoshop I have one program that  will allow me to print multiple images, but not resize The one that lets me make any size image is kinda sucko and only lets me have one image per sheet

[cthulhu77]

send me your address...I will send you a copy of a photo/print program on cd.

[sotoolslinger]

Really bad day yesterday .Here is a quick update.





I still have canopy work and antenna wire to install.

[Ed S]

Looking good!!



Ed

[John Howling Mouse]

That camo could be surprisingly effective over the right terrain.     Looking good, STS!  Very good.   

[BlackOps]

I like this one, looks like something you could hide in your barn and roll out pretty quick when needed.

[sotoolslinger]

Thanks ya'll I'm installing antennas now and then I will take some more pics and finish out the backstory.

[sotoolslinger]

When Brian Perri walked into the construction plant near Fredricksburg Texas he was stunned. Ten Halo photorecon planes sat fully assembled but he could tell they were somewhat different than his original design. They were armed for one thing and the exhaust system was different. The director of Toolslinger Engine Works approached him and handed him a 3 foot length of weird colored tubing. "It's 20 percent lighter than wood, it's an aluminum magnesium alloy. You have the run of the plant. Redesign the aircraft to have the frame made of this .The engine is somewhat lighter as we've bored it out so it has 560 horsepower now.Keep that in mind when you do the redesign.Oh and the fighter version will have the cameras replaced with gun pods so make sure you talk to the weapons team ." Perri goggled "But how.... where..... who built this plant ? We were going to build these planes in Pittsburg." "Yeah," said his new boss, "But we new you didn't have the capacity to keep up with demand and besides you gave us the plans when you had us build the supercharger." He grinned ,"Oh by the way we built in cutouts in the exhausts so you can fly without the turbo to save gas. That will extend the range to nearly 900 miles."
Perri stood stunned for nearly 5 minutes staring at the fully equipped manufacturing plant, nearly 4 times bigger than his facility in Pittsburg and set up with machine tools he had never dreamed of being able to afford. He had wanted a govt contract..... he grinned.... well it wasn't quite the contact he had expected, or the government but you couldn't argue with the perks. He went to find the weapons team.

[Brian da Basher]

That's some excellent progress, Toolslinger! You really made those decals look sharp! The camo scheme is wonderful too. I especially like how you carried it over onto the canopy framing. That canopy looks just right for this Battle Flyer!

Brian da Basher