MRB-57 CANBERRA Maritime patrol aircraft.

[chrisonord]

OK then, I have committed to this build now.  After all the help and inspiration from fellow members, the ideas are coming to life.
The aircraft will belong to the Honduras Airforce, and will be involved in coastal as well as open water patrols. Its job will be to monitor shipping bound for Cartel territory over the border, Police an exclusion zone, and intercept Cartel drug running boats, and gun boats.
The aircraft has a secondary role of sub hunter, but is not as well equipped for this role, and also if need be can shoot down Cartel drug running aircraft over the water it is patrolling.
This aircraft like the other older aircraft is one that has been dragged out of Davis Monthan  AFB, and given a complete re fit and upgrade to the Honduras AF spec. Upgrades include;
Strengthened wings, for additional hardpoints
Retractable MAD boom.
FLIR ball in chin.
Modified tail for greater manoeuvrability.
Sideways looking sensor arrays.
Bigger auxiliary fuel tanks on wing tips.
Ability to carry a wide variation of ordnance.
The ordnance to be carried on this aircraft will be;
2 GAU-25 gun pods.
2 sidewinders
2 Zuni rocket pods.
2 sea eagle ASM's.
2 ALARM's.
The aircraft can also carry an all US built weapons inventory, as well as European sourced weapons.
Cheers,
Chris. 

[lenny100]

insted of 2 sidewinders how about fitting 4  AIM-92 Stinger as here
http://www.raytheon.com/capabilities/rtnwcm/groups/rms/documents/content/rtn_rms_ps_atastinger_datashee.pdf

[chrisonord]

The few stinger missiles I have are allocated to my Helicopters, and I have LOTS and LOTS of sidewinders.
Its a supply and demand thing really, the helicopters demand Stingers, and the supply of sidewinders is good, and so is the Sparrow and AMRAAM supply, but it ain't getting any of those either.
Todays update includes all the hard points installed, FLIR pod installed, weapons built and painted, rescue pod made, underside of wings painted in base sky grey. Looks like I will have to find some gloss paint from somewhere to paint the rescue pod with.....eeeeyuckkkk
Cheers,
Chris.

[chrisonord]

Here is some pics of the build so far, I have given it some paint just to see how it looks, but there is plenty more PSR to do especially round the engine intakes.




Cheers,
Chris.

[ChernayaAkula]

The new vertical stabilizers look fantastic!  Very elegant.

The backstory also sounds promising.

[Sauragnmon]

The H-Tail looks really cool, man.

[John Howling Mouse]

Clever....verrrrry clever.  Love the tail.

[chrisonord]

Cheers,
I am actually enjoying building this thing, it has been pretty straight forward....which is nice
Plus I like Canberra's so I didn't want to be too nasty to it....ish
Chris.

[Daryl J.]

 

[chrisonord]

I should hopefully be putting some decals on this thing tonight, the wheels and stuff are on and a coat of gloss clear coat is on and ready for decals.
I think I had better go and see my doctor as I am starting to like how it looks in gloss finish .I will have to hurry up and get it decalled and matt varnished, then hopefully I will feel better. The new tip tanks are ready to go on, and I have made an auxiliary FLIR pod to go on the outside pylon on one of the wings, this will be involved with thermal and infa-red work on suspect Cartel shipping. Despite filling the nose full of lead airgun pellets, the thing still sits on its tail/MAD boom, but never mind you can't have everything can you!!
It should be finished reasonably soon and I will add another back story that will include how all the other aircraft and the Cartel operate.
Cheers,
Chris.

[upnorth]

Nice to see it underway. That tail does look awesome.

[chrisonord]

Here are some more in progress pics,
The canopy has been a nightmare to fit as the instrument panel in the rear fouls the canopy fit big time, I might put a completely different panel in with more stuff on it as the co pilot has more to do now. I have put some of the decals on I want to use, I don't want it to have a lot of decals on it so there wont be much else going on it.There is a bit of paint to be touched up here and there, and I am going to give it a lot of weathering before I arm it.







Cheers,
Chris.

[BlackOps]

Chris, it's coming along reather nicely indeed! 

[GTX]

What's in the background there?

regards,

Greg

[pyro-manic]

Second that - it sort of looks like a Backfire, but I'm not sure.

The Canberra is looking great - the new tail is perfect! I'm assuming that you're going to weather the bejeezus out of that grey scheme?