A little work in progress

[scooter]

.  The design used had the benefits Martin mentioned, but also the flat paneled design was quick, easy and cheap.

And NBC and Paramount were notoriously cheap at times when it came to TOS.

[Martin H]

Back to aircraft...........some would say at long last!


A Hs Hawk T-1 of 738 NAS Fleet Air Arm based at HMS Goldcrest (Brawdy) around 1979. Used in the same role as the co-located RAF 2TWU. Ie, introducing newly minted pilots to the use of weaponry.
This is a Revell kit built OOB with decals robbed from various FAA Hunter sets, and the kit it self. Paint work is a mix of Halfords and Gunze for the most part.

And now for they one that was in part my gateway drug into the what if? / Project Cancelled world.
Any one remember this book? Publised in 1985 by Salamanda, writen and edited by Bill Gunston.

I got my copy just after it was published via one of the many postal aviation book clubs that did the rounds in the 70's & 80's
Well, take a good look at the fancy bird in the middle of the art work................I have wanted one of these since the first day I saw the cover and the large full color 3 view on page 14/15.
It was Bill Gunston's own take on what he described as an ASTOVL fighter that "the author would be willing to pay his taxes for" (ASTOVL, thats Advanced Short Take Off Vertical Landing for those wondering)

Many moons later our very own TSRjoe introduced me to a master he was making, low and behold it was what has always been my holy grail aircraft wise. I badgered him incesantly to get it molded but he kept stalling saying he wasnt happy with this or that about it yet. Finaly last year he started working on it again. and this summer he cast a small number up. three of them found their way to me via Geoff B (Thorvic) who also got at least one example for himself. Two of the three sent to me had issues, but nothing I couldnt handle. the 3rd example was for me to pass on to the Accidental Loggie whos late father had also seen the master many moons ago and wished to add one to his own collection.


My first build of the type had large airbubbles in the rear of the airframe and the trailing eges, I could have left them be and be done with it but they would have been weak spots. So I drilled into them and flooded them with vallejo putty. then let it cure for several weeks. I used around half a tube of putty, as the cavity in the rear of the model was quite large.

Now to start adding on the rest of the parts.......not that there is much to add.
Photo taken at the Small space sci fi show at Hanslope village hall. I usualy put on a small sci fi/whiff display.

The undercarrage was robbed from an old esci Harrier kit, the wheels were scraps that Joe had sent with the model in case they were usefull. The landing gear and weapons bay doors were all to be cut from plasticard. Thanks to Thorvic for mine, He did me a set at the same time he Did some for his own example he was cleaning up at the time.

I took my example to the Avon show along with Dominc's example to hand over. que much brain storming mainly between Kit, Dominic and myself as to a name for the type. Using the loggic that the two previous VTOL types had bird of prey names, Kestral & Harrier. We came up with calling it the Buzzard.

A few weeks later I started throwing paint at it (after adding a bang seat from the spares box (no idea where it came from) and attaching the smash molded canopy Joe had also provided, along with resin plugs to do my own if needed.

First off, primed in rattlecan Medium Sea Grey. This showed up a good many pin hols to fill. Once that was sorted, anoth coat of MSG, then onto the final colors


I decided to veer off from going all the greys as per the books art work. This to my mind is an air to air bird, but would still likely be forward deployed along side ground pounding Harriers and the like. SO considering the time frame it would likely enter service (had it exsisted) NATO green over Litchin green it was. The nose cone got a quick splash of Dark Sea grey as well. Tamiya rattle can for the NATO Green, CJ Aerosols for the Litchen green, Gunze for the DSG.
Decals came for the most part from an Xtradecal Harrier GR1/3 sheet with an example of a GR3 that flew a test version of this scheme. The rest came from the remains of a Revell Harrier GR7/9 sheet (serial number and cockpit markings etc, and Model decal for the underwing serials. Which were only added to break up the bare sea of litchen geen.


After a couple coats of satin varnish........the end result



and with the book that started it all.


And finaly a few size comparison shots

[PR19_Kit]

Oh yeah!   

The Buzzard really looks the part in that green, magic stuff OGL.

It'd look good standing alongside the S-F Predator once I've finished it too,  a 'Beauty and The Beast' scene, eh?

[NARSES2]

That's come out well Martin    as has the Hawk 

[kitbasher]

 

The Buzzard.  Take an F-16, rotate the fuselage, place the cockpit in front of the intake.  Blend in the intake.  VTOL/CTOL - one can choose and modify as necessary.  Bazinga!

Now then, do I hack away at the ESCI F-16B in the disposal box or the Hasegawa F-16N in the stash?

[zenrat]

Much better looking than an F-35.
 

[McColm]

Impressive on both accounts. 

[Nick]

Excellent work there Martin!

If I'd known you were going to Hanslope I would have come and joined you. It's always a good little show.

[Mossie]

The stealth plane looks a lot like the EDI drone from Stealth.  Nice work on bot of them Martin.

[kerick]

Great job on both!

[Martin H]

A few more finished.

Some more Hawks first.

Revell Hawk with Freightdogs T2 conversion. Set up as a RN FRADU aircraft, the captive winder and the jamming pod are out of a hasegawa weapon set, the inboard light pod and baggage pod are Odds & Ordanance FRADU pods. Paintwork is mainly Gunze dark sea grey, decals from various Hawk and Naval Hunter sets. I also modified the gun pod to be another baggage pod. as was done IRL.

The next one is based of some black and white artwork found in a 1980's book on training aircraft writen by Roy Braybrook.


A De-navalised Goshawk for the USAF. I dont doubt that the hawk/goshawk was looked at by the USAF. The artwork may well have been part of the sales drive for all I know.
Italeri T-45 kit built OOB with the naval parts removed or omitted. Gunze again for the paint work decals robbed from various kits and my decal stash.

Still with trainers but now with more grunt.......

This is a SeaLightning T2. the trainer for the Navy's swing wing FAW1's. These trainers served the shore based type conversion role, sea bourne training was conducted on dual control FAW 1T's at unit level.
Based on the export Lightning T55, these had the full belly pack altough in this case the pack from the F2A rather that the F6 (no gun pack), They retained the inflight refueling equipment as that was all part of the conversion course. Plus extending the range never hurts in a Lightning. The type was unarmed, weapons training would take place again on FAW-1T's
No prizes for guessing its a matchbox kit.
This was some what of a hanger queen, I started building this 7-8 years ago. even got the dayglo paint on it back then. I cut out the front of the belly pack and replaced it with spare F2A parts from an Airfix F2A kit that had been converted into an F1.

Pic of the underside to show the Belly pack.....

Then I kinds lost interest in it and it sat on the shelf of doom till this weekend. I still had the rest of the model easy to hand so I started throwing paint at it once I had masked off the dayglo stripes. rattle can Light aircraft grey over all,  standard RN trainer scheme in the late 60's & 70's. Decals from various Lightning (mainly Airfix) scraps in the decal stash as the kit decals had long since gone awol. not that they would have been much use as most stenciling would have been in arabic.......

And lastly a fighter.
This was also a hanger queen but for no where near as long as the Lightning.

Gannet models English Electric P8 Super Lightning. Build OOB, with paint work mainly via Halfords rattlecans. Decals from the decal stash and the treble one squardon marking from an oldish S&M decals lightning set.This was the 2nd gannet kit I built after the SARO P187. Cant recall why I put it to one side but its done now. The only change I made was replacing the supplied redtops with Odd & Ordanance items, as the supplied missiles were about a 1/3rd to short.

[Rick Lowe]

 

[kitbasher]

Nice 👍

You're right about Gannet's Red Tops, but when you look at the drawings Alastair used to inform his kit design you'll see that the depicted Blue Jays (as they were known during F.155T deliberations) are pretty stumpy.  The resultant Gannet missiles match the drawings.

[NARSES2]

Some neat stuff there Martin    even if there isn't a propeller in sight 

[McColm]

Well done