THE EMPIRES TWILIGHT

[John Howling Mouse]

That Bombcorde sure does look completely believable and natural done up your way. 
And, as for the Arrow, I'm a Canuck so the  goes without saying.  I wouldn't worry too much about the refueling probe and high-g supersonic maneuvers with an Arrow anyhow.  From everything I've read, the Arrow was never intended to do any sort of ACM at any decent speed, anyhow.

Great job on both!

[thedarkmaster]

just finished my Arrow and my Canberra to go with this thread, I'm developing an entire timeline based upon these aircraft that starts at a differant Suez outcome in 56 and ends darkly in 91, but more of that later.




CANBERRA AEW1

After the purchase of the Avro Arrow by the RAF in the late 1960's it was found that the radar coverage of the uk was frankly not good enough and when Soviet and American bombers came too close to the uk it was finally realised more must be done.
As a stop gap Shakletons where depolyed with the Arrow patrols but these venerable oold birds just cruised to slow for their counterparts and another solution was looked for. The ever hungry eyes of her Majestys govenment fell upon the Hawkeye, but, the United States refused to sell them to a UK which was no longer it's closest ally.
The RAF looked inwards at the airframes it possesed and made a decision to convert some of it's now surplus Canberra fleet, using ideas and technology sourced legally and otherwise from around the world a patchup job was put together, not the best of systems and not one that was kind to the operator but an effective one in it's own way.
The Canberra AEW1 was not destined to last long in its role and the advent of the specialised Airbus airframes saw them put to other uses, they were now routinly seen deployed with Concorde detachments within the New Commonwealth, they also accompined Arrow detachments to Cyprus , Singapore and New Zealand giving a much improved radar coverage in these far flung British Bases.




The kit is a Novo copy of the Frog mould, the extra bits on the tail are from a Harrier and the Radar comes from a Sangar IL76 kit, humps and bumps come from the spares box as do the decals.
She is painted in Wilcinson's appliance white, a lot of the RAF aircraft in this timeline are, as this United Kingdom places a high reliance on it's atomic arms !





















As for the Avro Arrow, its been on before but I cant resist putting it on again   







I will be putting more aircraft from this timeline on as i do them and i hope you all enjoy them as much as i am         

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

How the poo did I miss this one. Just great work. Luvvit !

Ian

[HOG]

What a really great group of builds.
I always knew that the most fun came in 3`s
Please tell how you did those detail lines etc?
Cheers
G

[deathjester]

my fondest congratulations on these fabulous builds! Your imagination stands you in good stead, that Concorde bomber just seems so natural I am truly surprised that no one thought of it. Could have happened too,thanks to MP Tony Benn's 'no get out' clause in the Concorde contract! Keep up the good work! (btw, how about a TSR 2 interceptor? They're in anti flash white too....!)

[thedarkmaster]

thanks


currently i have the following to do

tsr 2
Avro tutor
upgraded Bristol superfreighter
Mirage iii bz
Jaguar
Vulcan
Twin Otter
bristol belvadere
Fairy Rotodyne
hunter
lightning
puma

also

Mig 21 varient
Mig 23


as someone asked the panels are picked out in 0.3/5 draughting pens

tim

[Weaver]

Excellent builds - well done! 

Be interested to see how you get on with the Belvedere: I've got one on stock for my own sketchy alt.RAF scenario. The kit's a bit of an old dinosaur from what I can see and find out......

[Sisko]

That Canberra and Arrow are bloody awesome!!!!

[Mossie]

I'd missed these somehow, very nice!

[ysi_maniac]

High quality indeed!!!!

[Taiidantomcat]

Here i am trying to build and plan models trying to avoid the same schemes, when i should have been using your method: Uniform gorgeous 

[thedarkmaster]

This is the latest aircraft from this timeline, it is an Avro Tutor of the New Commonwealth air training schools, based in Canada ( a New Commonwealth member state ) to take advantage of the less crowded skies than the uk.




















Just the basic kit with a differant RAF training colour scheme, no other mods on this one.

More to follow, I'm working on an RAF aggressor aircraft, a couple of transports, an eastern bloc purchase and a couple of old faithfuls, as well as the complete timeline for all the aircraft involved.

all the best 

[thedarkmaster]

In the imediate postwat period the scientific comunity in Britain was infused with a couple of notable defections from the Eastern Block, one of thosw a Major General of Kgb came with some notable aircraft plans.
These plans where pased on to Fairy aviation which upengined the design and secretly produced 25 copies of the aircraft renamed the Fairy Firestorm, and there it stoped for nearly 20 years.
Until one fatefull day when a hard pressed RAF found itself with a need to "show the flag" over the territorries of the New Commonwealth in Antartica, the aircraft hastily repainted and upgraded where possible found themselves shipped south to the Uk's main base in the continent.
This venerable design found itself in service until the 1st of may 1966 flying along the territories border, providing logistic support when required and harrasing US personal and aircraft whereever they could be reached.


I have painted her up as on her last day of service before her withdrawl to the Imperial War Museum for full restoration.




















The actual Model is something Russian but I could not read the cyrillic script, I picked it up in Prague in a shop called Bankrot, which is i believe an equivellant of the uk's £ shop. We got a few bits and it all came to less than £2.50 so God knows how much it was, alas no others where in store 

[Macal]

What an interesting project You have here! I see You like to built these planes! Nice builds, interesting and rare theme Cool 

[thedarkmaster]

The New Commonwealth had a defence procurement policy of 66% sourced from member states and the rest from the best the world had to offer. This in practice ment that the RAF, RCAF, RAAF, RSAAF etc generally bought British, Canadian or American the two notable exceptions to this rule entered Commonwealth service in 1983, they where sourced with the access to spares, cheapness of initial buy and ease of use in unforgiving circumstances.

The RAF warey of the chinease PLA-Airforce build up within striking range of Hong kong and Singapore needed a short range interceptor to protect it's bases. With little in the pot and no new build interceptor to be spared from other more important sectors the idea of leasing warcraft emerged.

Initially the USA was aproached for the lease of F16's but this was not possible as the Anglo/us tensions where again on the rise. With this rebuke in mind the British govenment approached the USA's bitter rival the USSR, and after a series of high level meetings they agreed to lease 112 SU15's to the UK as well as 34 SU25's, at a knock down price and on the stipulation that they must not be used against a supplied list of client states.

The SU15 in RAF service aquired the name Cossack ( original and pleasing to the crews ) and was extensivly modified to entre service in its F1 guise, the aircraft ran through three further marks before bowing out of RAF service like so many others in 1991.

The aircraft illustrated is the upgraded F3 with the extra weapons pylons but without the full British weapons fit of the F4, she has the anti flash white strip beloved of RAF units defending bases containing nuclear weapons and carries the Sukhoi factory logo as well as a Soviet style Bort number using the last two digits of her serial. This particular Aircraft was based at Hong Kong and flew defence patrols for Concorde units when they depolyed to the base as well as border patrols to restrict chinease incursions into the Crown colony.




















I'm not sure of the manufacture of this one as i've had it that long, neither am i sure why i made it with the wheels up !! Anyway all the extra bits are from the spares box and she is painted as before.

Next one will be either a desert Cammo Phantom FG2 or a similar SU25