The little Charger that could - The Convair Charger - Part II

[Ed S]

cool little birds, though : "Permits the carriage of 8 combat troops".... Where?

I assume that all the LARA proposals were like the OV-10 in that the fuselage aft of the rear seat was basically an open cargo area and the aft end of the fuselage was a large door that offered direct access to this cargo area.  The OV-10 could even carry 6 paratroopers back there.  Only, the door had to be left off so they could jump out, since it couldn't be opened in flight.  And from personal experience, I can tell you that there were times when that cargo area was quite handy for hauling stuff back from visits to other bases and other countries.

Ed

[Rafael]

Thanks, guys!!!
The LARA program is, in my opinion, one of those projects full of very interesting and innovative models. Of course, we'll find cavernous crew/cargo compartments and little wings, because those were requirements asked from every proponent.

Here's the progress for today:

Added sponsons to the fuselage:


Then, fashioned two gun blisters from wood and paperclips


Glued on the horizontal stabilator, and made the exhausts for the engines








Here, in profile, is an error I have already corrected, which is the exaggerated upward tilt of the rear of the engine booms


Very interesting media, and very fun to build
Saludos,

Rafa

[sotoolslinger]

Beauty of a build Rafa dang you either got huge hands or that's a little bitty model.  Super detail

[BlackOps]

Rafa, this is looking incredible!

It looks like you've got the hang of using pine, very cool model and very well done, really looking forward to seeing more progress on this one.

[Brian da Basher]

Looking super-cool, Rafa! I'm eagerly awaiting final roll-out!

Brian da Basher

[jcf]

cool little birds, though : "Permits the carriage of 8 combat troops".... Where?

Like this, centreline cutaway along with other CL760 images.

Jon

[fallenphoenix]

thanks for clearing that up, it isnt quite as small as I first thought

Craig

[noxioux]

Hmmm. . . I have a soft spot for the Bronco, but the charger is definitely a much prettier bird.  Is the finished product going to be wood, or is this going to lead to a vac-form or casting?

[Rafael]

Hmmm. . . I have a soft spot for the Bronco, but the charger is definitely a much prettier bird.  Is the finished product going to be wood, or is this going to lead to a vac-form or casting?

Tempt me not

Rafa

[Joe C-P]

That's a menacing-looking bird. It's amazing it can carry all those troops! Also cool it was designed for carrier ops; maybe someday I'll make some in 1/700 and put them on a carrier model.

Looking forward to the finished model. 

[Tophe]

(belated) congratulations... What a marvel!

[Rafael]

Thanks, my friends!!!

This one is coming along very nicely, for my first wooden model. Now she's primered, filled and sanded. The canopy frames are electrician's tape cut finely, and left there under the black canopy. I still have to make the propeller circle weapons stations and the hubs.







Rafa

[Rafael]

A little more progress tonight. Painted and with propeller blur. Still missing weapons and canopy frame painting. And who knows? Maybe I will decal it







Rafa

[sotoolslinger]

Man that is seriously very cool Mr. Rafa. You are a wonderful artist

[Rafael]

The Northern Caribbean, in the approaches of Florida, March 2019.

They were haulin' a$$. Tree hours ago, the OTH-BC (Over The Horizon – Backscatter, Configurable) Radar located at the border with Canada had detected the suspects over southeastern Venezuela, comfortably flying at what looked like medium altitude, in sight of every land-based installation.

And so far, no one moved a finger to interrogate, verify and much less intercept them.

When they reached the Goajira region, at the northern tip of Venezuela's border with Colombia and the Caribbean Sea, they descended to almost wavetop height and started to appear intermittently in the controller's screens, which immediately red-flagged the contacts.

The profile and route was consistent with a series of previous flights suspected of overflying a newly identified drug-drop zone in the open sea in fron of the coasts of Florida. The cartels were massively slipping loads and loads of "superspeed" an addictive and dangerous new designer drug which had already more than a hundred teenagers and adults dead for its unpredictable side-effects. The gang wars related to this drug were slowly decimating neighborhoods and making it harder for the law-enforcement agencies to keep track of the business.

While the intruders were being tracked, now with the aid of some satellites and AEW planes, a group of USCG cutters were dispatched towards the most probable drop-zone, were sensors also detected an unusual number of small boats apparently at anchor. USCG choppers and Ospreys were also dispatched while the cutters converged from different points.

The USS Intrepid, a new US Marine Corps Sea-Control vessel, converted from an enormous container ship was also in the area, and was asked to provide support with more AEW, Ospreys and a couple of fighters. The fighters were dispatched, fully armed, in armed patrol mode, the usual for the long patrols on the pirates-infested Caribbean.

These were a couple of Northrop-Grumman Chargers, direct descendants of an ancient Convair design. They carried a load of RF Hellfire missiles, 127mm Zuni rockets, a pod containing a mix of unguided 70mm rockets and guided APKWS missiles, a pair of conformal pods with .50 cal. and 7,65 mm machine guns and a couple of AGM-214 Stormbringer missiles on the wingtips, a late field-improvement to provide the Chargers with self-protection air-to-air missiles.

The Marine Chargers were ordered to follow and intercept the aircraft when close to the drop-zone. Guided by their intercept officers aboard the intrepid, the Chargers, "Lucky 13" and "Lucky 02" closed in for the intercept, using their shared aperture sensors to record and transmit images of the procedure.

Closing in, the group imagery resolved not into two, but three Shorts Skyvans without doors, completely open to the air. Hailing them was of no use. They simply refused to obey or acknowledge any radio call.

When the two Marine birds joined the formation for close inspection, machine-gun mounts emerged from side and rear doors of the Skyvans, opening fire on the intercepting Chargers.

Breaking hard out of the deadly streams of mutually supporting fire from the cargo planes, the Chargers repositioned to follow, until the Skyvans descended almost to the wavetops and started dropping square foam canisters rigged with floaters on top of the awaiting boats.

The boats stationed in the drop zone started to pick up canisters and run away. One of the boats, a Cigarette VII Turbo, parked just in the middle of the gaggle of boats was suddenly enveloped in a twin cloud of smoke, announcing the release of Manpads munitions toward the Chargers.

That was too much. The Chargers immediately activated their active and passive countermeasures, dodged and maneuvered to counter the missiles and dispatched the offender with a carefully placed RF-Hellfire.

Meanwhile, the Chargers kept track of the now evading Skyvans, setting course to return to South America.

Still not responding to hails and messages from the authorities, they were finally downed with Stormbringer missiles from the Marines before leaving US territorial waters. The survivors would be rescued later by USCG Ospreys, and put in the hands of the corresponding agencies.

The rest of the fleet, already running away, was left to be intercepted by the USCG, which made the bust of the year, by intercepting the scapees in the sea, or by following some of them and their precious cargo to their offload ports with UAVs and satellites, where Police and FBI continued to make arrests and continued with the investigation which ultimately would finish the network.

This is my rendition of the Convair Model 48 Charger. It's my first wooden model, and was a real fun adventure from beginning to end.

I hope you enjoy her as much as I did while making her.

Saludos,

Rafa