what should i call it?

[retro_seventies]

2 seater (probably) tandem, with flat plate cockpits...from midships back she'll be almost standard gazelle, from miships forwards she'll be mainly scratchbuilt.

roughly comparable to an early model us marines seacobra, this will be a gusnhip version of the westland/aerospatiale gazelle, with beefed up engines and transmission, armoured tanks and cockpit, and a variety of anti-tank/anti all kinds of stuff weapons, including possibly a chin mounted weapon.

i've got a little history planned, and i don't think that the royal marines/navy/army would have said no if westland had aggresively marketed it to them, all for a decent price.

now, the question is (as i lie on my sickbed, having called in sick this morning because of a nasty respiratory infection that makes me sound like darth vader), what would the designation be?

ah.mk.1 i assume, but what NAME?

will it be a gazelle "themed" name (ie some antelope or other), or will it be a typically off the wall westland name? something stirring and naval?

will the army/marines/navy versions all have different names?

help me out here chaps...creative juices are running a bit low right now...i'm sketching the "gazelle gunship" at the moment...will post "concept" ideas when they look decent enough!

thanks guys,

ben  

[Geoff_B]

The one which imeediately comes to mind is of course "Blue Thunder" !!!!! as that what the conversions sounds like , as to a suitable name it would have to be a hunting cat of some description to represent it's attack role. As the resentident zoo dood you will probably have a better idea for a smaller hunting big cat than we do but Wildcat might not be a bad idea.

Hope your feeling better

Geoff B B)  

[Aircav]

ah.mk.1 i assume, but what NAME?

'AH' is army helicopters only Ben, great idea otherwise  

Steve

[retro_seventies]

i know that steve - but if you look, i did say that army/navy/marines would all be offered the plane (he said trying to cover his infantile mistake...lol)

i know, it does sound like "blue thunder" but quite honestly, when i was thinking about it the "cheese filter" in my head was turned off...it was only when i was sketching the bugger that i thought "argh...blue thunder"

rest assured though, its not going to be too similar....that would be a little too cheeseworthy - besides, i was going to make a gunship out of the scout i have lying around too, but i wanted that to be a borneo brush war number at some point later on, so the gazelle pile got raided...

small hunting cats...

civet? ocelot? bobcat? cougar? panther (bit big)? serval? caracal? any other small wildcat?

sheesh i dunno - that's why i left it up to you guys...!!!

there's always different antelopes too - kudu, bongo, impala, wildebeest, hartebeest, dik-dik (no laughing back there), reedbuck, bushbuck, sable?

help!

seriously, any suggestions welcome - i'm more than happy to do this thing by commitee!! (must be the communist in me).

thanks guys,

ben (still feeling like poo-poo, but in a good mood because being in bed watching 633 sqdn is much better than being at work).

[Aircav]

Bongo sounds to much like Pongo and the marines would never go for that, what about the Bobcat or Ocelot

http://www.cathouse-fcc.org/catsinfo.html

[Geoff_B]

Ocelot

Would go down well with the Royal Marines as the Navy had an O class sub with that name.

Ever thought of doing an SBS version with a Black scheme and additional Image devices.

BTW Aircav Revell are doing another EC helo in 1/72 the EC145 so perhaps you could consider some military versions of them.

Cheers

Geoff B

[retro_seventies]

this one was going to have lltv or IR...and as far as the chin weapon goes, i might skip it i think - leave it for a later version maybe....athough....

think we could rig an aden there? the 30mm would be ok at popping tanks as long as it had the right shell, right?

if the aden in a turret wouldn.t work, maybe it could be a fixed one (or two) in the stub wings....or maybe i should have 7.62's there, like the bronco?

aghhh....just when i thought i have decided what i wanted to do tomorrow!!!

are we with ocelot or bobcat then?

[retro_seventies]

bobcat...






or ocelot?




c'mon kids...help a mate out here....

[retro_seventies]

oh, and just for the record, the bongo is quite a biffer as far as girly antelopes go (UNGLATE!).



but yes, still quite a silly name.



the kudu's no ladyboy either, but does, again, have rather a silly name, and the partnership of bongo and kudu, could easily become pongo and poopoo.

ah well.

[Geoff_B]

Ocelot i think Ben as it looks like a big cat, the Bobcat looks more like Tiddles with PMT !!!!.

As foe Armament, just see how construction goes then decide how to fit it out, once you have the airframe done you can see what takes your fancy in terms of equipment and what can fit where !!!!.

Cheers

Geoff B

[retro_seventies]

geoff, (and joe, wooks,evan etc etc)

you know if anybody does a "secret projects" buttler style book about helicopters?

and ocelot it is then - the Westland Ocelot...um...HGA.mk.1 ?

great!

i'm really quite excited about this...will post details of the actual model tomorrow/wednesday...thanks!

just out of interest...what do YOU think about cannon fit? (bearing in mind that this is late 60's britain, and we are using uk produced aircraft cannon except the suu pods that the phantoms carry).

cheers mate,

ben  

[Captain Canada]

Even tho I missed the punch......I was going to say Ocelot as well, as pound for pound, nothing is tougher than a cat !

Well, except for maybe the weasel family..........

Looking forward to seeing her, Ben !

Cheers !

[Ollie]

Ben, isn't your Bobcat a Lynx?  A Bobcat is a puma/lion king, no?

[retro_seventies]

here we go - i get to play zookeeper again!

a bobcat is indeed a member of the lynx family - and although it doesn't bear the lynx name like many others (canadian lynx, eurasian/spanish lynx, etc), it has many similarities.  nonetheless, it is a distinct and seperate species in the Lynx genus.

main differences between a bobcat and other lynx? the bobcat is smaller, has less pronounced ear tufts and cheek ruffs, a dark tip covering only the top of its 'stumpy' tail, much smaller feet, and a generally more patterned and varied coat coloration.

you see, if the gunship i'm was based on the lynx helicopter running gear, then as a smaller "lynx" if you will, bobcat would have been a great name...(now there's an idea).

now what else did you ask me, mate?

A Bobcat is a puma/lion king, no?

no.  

let me allow a picture to tell a thousand words...

bobcat

puma

lion king

unless you meant puma/mountain lion/cougar which are pretty much the same cat, with slight regional differences in coat colour and habitat.

thank you one and all, i will now proceed to my hidey hole to work on the westland ocelot hga.mk1, watch pirates of the caribbean, and drink some vimto.

ta-ta...

ben

[Captain Canada]

..and the snow leopard, you forgot the snow leopard !

Isn't that another 'Lynx' type ? I also thought that lynx was larger and more spotted than a Bob.........

Cats rule !

Well, except for that Cougar that was eating people in Seattle last week.......that was pretty scary.