Saur's big bunch o' Stuff - now featuring more than ships! Black Eagle/Harrier!

[Sauragnmon]

Alright, You wanted to see it, now you see it - the Franken-Flanker.  One of the guys on the What-If board, Chrisonord, shipped me a chunk of his boneyard - aircraft he hasn't had any use for, any need for, or any care to repair that have been salvaged for parts - most of it's airframes or pieces.  I got the first shipment today, and what was in there - a dead Fulcrum, a MiG-21 with missing stuff, a Flanker missing the engines, vertical stabilizers, canopy, gears and ordnance, and an Su-24 Fencer, minus the cockpit, the gears, and the ordnance.  I was sitting there, when the thought smacked into my forehead like my bashing hammer hits plastic - Why not VG a Flanker?  I looked through the bits again, sorting around, and couldn't find any vertical tails - I have ONE on my Su-34 Scrap, and there was the single tail from the Fencer, but I found two nice Su-34 Horizontal Stabilizers, and I looked it over before I said "You know what? Let's V-Tail this puppy!"  So, I carved out the engine casing - yeah, those extensions are the Fencer Engines - I have extra nozzles I'm going to add that will give it a cool look at the end of it.  The Wings of the Fencer met my Hacksaw - a handy little investment, I carved the wing gloves out, I carved off the internal sweep gear so they sat flush, and I fixed them in at a nice angle for display.  There's no gears kicking around, so I said to hell with it, this puppy's going to be Gears up.  I haven't got a canopy, Yet, and I don't know how I'm going to get around to one, but I'll think of SOMETHING.

Anyways, here's the pics - Yes, I started this Today.  Behold, my Bash-chi is strong, Grasshoppers.

[Weaver]

That looks good Saur! 

You know what would look good? Fit blended-in targeting/sensor pods where those notches are between the LERX and the Fencer wings.....

[Sauragnmon]

Hmm, not a bad idea, Weaver.  Not a bad idea at all.  I'll consider it, though I'll have to scratch up the targetting pods from nothing though.  Sprue bashing seems to be the order for those, and they'll help to clean up the profile before I start the putty-fu.

[pyro-manic]

Small bombs or drop tanks would work as well. Looks good.

[Weaver]

Hmm, not a bad idea, Weaver.  Not a bad idea at all.  I'll consider it, though I'll have to scratch up the targetting pods from nothing though.  Sprue bashing seems to be the order for those, and they'll help to clean up the profile before I start the putty-fu.

Well if you were stuck for hemispherical targeting pod shapes you could substitute "pointy" drop tank or bomb noses, and make them ECM/RWR fairings, like the the ones on the leading edge of the Viggen's wings.

I had a mental image of what I meant, but I couldn't place where I'd seen it. It's just clicked now: the AFTI F-16. At one point it had LANTIRN pods carried directly under the LERX/wing joint without a pylon, rather than on the sides of the intake. It almost looked like they were faired into the leading edge....

[Sauragnmon]

Yeah, I could pointy them, but they aren't excessively big gap sections - I could also carve up some FAB-500's I have kicking around to fill the task and round them out into the role.  I'll see what comes to mind - I just got in from work so I'm a little blargh feeling right now.  Once I'm sorted, I'll see what's in my mind.

[chrisonord]

Mmmmmm, me likey the look of this, I will have to have a look and see what other dead stuff I have for you to resurrect.
Can't wait to see what you do with the hueys 
Chris. 

[Sauragnmon]

The Hueys are the question - I'm not entirely sure what I have in mind for those myself.  The Cobras I have one thought brewing of Counter-blading it and putting on some wings off an Alligator or a Hind and doing something that way.  That's why I asked for the extra blades, Chris.

[chrisonord]

The Hueys are the question - I'm not entirely sure what I have in mind for those myself.  The Cobras I have one thought brewing of Counter-blading it and putting on some wings off an Alligator or a Hind and doing something that way.  That's why I asked for the extra blades, Chris.

D you have any wings off a hind? if not I might be able to help you out there, did I not put 2 sets of blades in? if not I will you some more.
I have a dead whatiff italeri mil mi-28 that has some nice wings on it too.
Chris.

[sotoolslinger]

That's just extremely slick Saur Weird minds think alike. Just a few days ago I was discussing doing a similar thing with Tomcat shoulders and wings on a Flanker.

[Sauragnmon]

I have a rotorless (oops) Hind that I can salvage wings off of - I also have a Ka-52 I can abuse the ever loving hell out of for stuff too.  Tempting thoughts there.

It is pretty slick, Ron, and your concept was part of what inspired my madness.  VG Flankers just look freaking sweet.  You might want to consider a V Tail as well - I was having a right bugger of a time trying to figure out how to get conventional tails on it otherwise, short of bulking out the shoulders to a -33 style shoulder minus the canards.

Anybody know where I can get a Flanker's transparencies in 1/72?  This Interdiction Flanker is gonna have a sunroof if I can't find a source.

Chris - you did send me extra rotors - I think...  I'm sure they're in there - I boxed all the whirleybird bits in one section so I could get to them when the insanity struck.  Beating the Air into Submission!

[sotoolslinger]

I was wondering what to do with the tail, yours looks pretty nifty.

[Sauragnmon]

Yeah - the only other options are to do something to the tail to get the fins to fit under the wings, potentially alter the design so you have the nature you want, or go for broke and T-Tail it.

Did I hear somebody cheer at the thought of a T-Tailed Flanker/Crane?  Must have been the wind.

[Sauragnmon]

Alright, here's a little update that does not fit into the normal threads:  One ship updated, one ship new construction.

First up, the Koya - yes, she's off the shelf and swinging again.  I got some styrene sheet, and thought I'd take a whack at taming it into the idea of building the barbettes - took me a little, they aren't 100% even, but I'm not telling anybody.  I put in strengthening bands on the turrets so they had a little more character to them, and mounted the two 16" turrets.  Yes, I repainted the whole damn hull - I had enough of the Shadow Grey elsewhere, so I decided to say to hell with it, and the Japanese builds are now being done in a new colour for the heavy ships - German Field Grey, which has a dark green look to it.  Yeah, it's not Kure, oh well, I like it, it's Dark like Kure, but a slightly different tint - maybe late war they decided to give a dark shade to the ships under refit or under repairs, and instead of using the bluegrays of Kure et al, they went for a dark green like on the Carriers.  The turret AA platforms are scratchbuilt, I put in a little putty-fu to try and even up the divot in the center of them from the fact they were a pair of circular platforms flipped, shaped to fit on, and they had a little indentation instead of the D-shape look that should have been there.  I'm entertaining thoughts of putting four shielded 25mm positions on the broadsides, one set either side of the 10cm shielded turrets.  A little extra AA might not be unwelcome.






Now, for the new blood - the IJN Bufu - some of you might recall the concept I had, some of you might not know it, but if you look at the torpedo racks, you'll have a good idea what the original destroyer model is.  The gun battery is being reworked, into something more suitable for defending the fleet.  Five inch guns really don't have benefit for shooting at aircraft when it comes to the IJN, and as a fleet escort, really, there are bigger hitters in the mix so the 5's are redundant.  The 10cm mounts would do more effective for defensive fire, something the IJN was Seriously lacking.  This I got today, started today, and this is the progress.  It's a DD, should be quick and dirty.  For those of you not in the know, Bufu is the correctly morphed version of the original concept name that a Japanese friend of mine cringed at - Bushikaze - or, translated, Warrior Wind.  As a warrior should be flexible, so is Bufu.







There we go - Questions, Comments, Queries and Rude Remarks are welcome.

[Taiidantomcat]

Sweet