THE EMPIRES TWILIGHT

[Taiidantomcat]

She looks happy!  That Foxbat is awesome!! Lots of great pics as well 

[thedarkmaster]

Well it happens everyone whom does a what if based upon the UK in the 50's, 60's and 70's has to have one so here it is

Westland Sea Clydsdale HCT5

I will not bore you all with the well known story of the Fairey, later Westland Rotodyne or the Clysdale as it became.

Below we have a Clysdale operating off HMS Ocean in the Pacific in 1968 working off the coast of Vietnam waiting to withdraw New Commonwealth Citizens as US bombing intensified and Viet Cong advances continued following the TET offensive.

















had a few problems with the varnish and paint on this one, for some reason paint that had had over 73 hours to dry bled when the varnish touched it !

decals fuel tanks etc are all from spares and paint is Tamiya.

[sotoolslinger]

Nifty.

[pyro-manic]

Cool! They say grey is boring, but with full-colour roundels it can be quite fetching.

[Mossie]

Can't have enough Rotodynes!  Airfix kit?

[thedarkmaster]

Yeah the old Airfix kit, had it about 15 years so thought it was time to buid it !!

[Brian da Basher]

It's always a great treat to see a Rotodyne, but this one is especially pleasing. I really like the color chosen for the windows which works well with the gray grey and nicely compliments the markings.

Brian da Basher

[Taiidantomcat]

 Excellent work!  Can't wait to see whats next 

[thedarkmaster]

At the moment i have some more from the "Union Aircraft Works", a couple of Royal Navy aircraft and an old Belvadere  on the work bench.

I am also, due to popular demand, trying to work out a detailed timeline. I'm heading in the first instance for about 1966 as that would be about 10-15 years but it's much more work than i imaganed !! 

Finally i have more work to do for the Pink Princess  , I'm looking at being a stay at home Dad since i lost my job so things a looking up . 

TIM

[Captain Canada]

For the love of COD, that's really nice ! It does looks great in grey with those big colourful roundels. Nice one !

[thedarkmaster]

British Aircraft Corperation Spirit FR3

The hours of the 1st of May 1991 where misty at ground level, Sqd leader Paterson had never had mission orders like this before and she had never carried live Thermonuclear warheads in her plane but she was confident in her training and she could see the use of the orders. With the conflict between India and China escalating and the severe unrest in the USA following the contested election 3 years ago continuing there was just the need to be up there in the sky defending the country.

Sqd leader Paterson sat through the briefing, she was amazed at how much the world situation had changed in just over 24hours and amazed that the entire New Commonwealth was going onto an imediate war footing. Intelligence had come in that a cliche of American generals where about to launch a coup. If this happened then imediate reinforcements where to be sent to Canada and all patrols where to be steped up.

The Mission was of vital importance, the new stealth craft was to probe American defences and make sure that whatever happened the Uk was seen as strong and not a push over for this possibly newly militralistic USA.

She had converted to the Spirit 2 years ago now and was conversant with it's abilities and looked forward to the day it became public and she could tell people of the craft she flew and not spin the story of the " Airbus " she soposingly flew for the RAF ! The Spirit was the cutting edge of RAF weapons systems and nothing in the world could touch it. It was virtually untraceable on radar with a return less than a Sparrow and an infa red signature smaller than any aircraft active in the world at the time. She loved her aircraft and she loved her job.

After the briefing Sqd leader Paterson walked out to her aircraft and completed her walk around, signed off with her ground crew and climbed aboard. She piloted the plane down the runway and commenced her mission, this was her last peacefull mission as two days later the 91 diaster commenced. It is known that Sqd Leader Paterson completed 4 missions during the disaster and that she survived the conflict, it is also known that she was the pilot of the aircraft that escorted the Princess Royal back to the UK from Norway so she could take up her Regency and that she had a prominent part in the reconstituted post conflict RAF.



















You will notice that contrey to standard New Commonwealth practice the Spirit does not carry the full colour roundels but has the white omitted, this did cause some consternation with the older commanders whom considered it un-honorable not to fly with full colours.



The model is the old Italeri Mig37 kit, paint is Wilco's black and the decals are from the spare box.

Had a real bad case of silvering on the decals on this one.

[kitbasher]

Perfect COD beastie, although I guess the main rotors would need to be folded PDQ to make way for other flight deck users. 

[sotoolslinger]

Love the Ferret One of the best fake planes ever

[Taiidantomcat]

That Ferret looks great 

[thedarkmaster]

Skyray FR2

Not much of a back story on this one.

Aquired from the USA as a stop gap fighter for the Royal Navy, this example serving aboard HMS Victorius in 1963 has the experimental white canopy to try to reduce cockpit temprature.




















next post will be longer, bit pushed for time right now.

Sorry to all whom wanted a little more.

TIM