Gloster Goblin

[Weaver]

Done for the Secret Santa Group Build. build thread here: http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,26991.0.html

6. Gloster's Wobblin' Goblin

As the war inevitable turned against Britain, the criminal Churchill regime became ever more desperate to stave off the long overdue accounting, and turned to Britain's "Boffins" for increasingly bizarre "wonder weapons" to counter the overwhelming superiority of the Third Reich's forces. With the four-engined bombers of the Luftwaffe roaming freely over their islands, escorted by decisively superior jet fighters, it became a matter of urgency to come up with new methods of attacking them, given that the overrated Spitfire was now hopelessly outclassed and constant jabo (fighter-bomber) patrols were making what airfields remained virtually unusable.



The only surviving Goblin in Britain is on display in the Reich Victory Museum in London. The aircraft was captured on the ground during the liberation of Glasgow.

One solution was offered by Prof. Walter Vernon Brown, Britain's leading expert on rocket propulsion, who was responsible for the motors powering the infamous "V-Weapon" ballistic missiles (named after Churchill's famously obscene gesture). Brown conceived a small fighter which would use a rocket to match the jet fighter's speed, a rocket battery to achieve massive firepower despite it's small size, and rocket-boosted vertical take off to dispense with the need for airfields. There was not time to develop an airframe from scratch, so ingeniously, Brown proposed to use the Gloster E.28/39 airframe.



The aircraft is displayed on a partially complete launch tower, together with a Liquid Oxygen tanker lorry, one of the protective suits worn by the refuelling crews, and a 3" rocket.


The E.28/39 had been designed by Gloster as a testbed for Britain's abortive and hopelessly backwards jet engine program. Brown realised that it's barrel-shaped fuselage, designed for Whittle's inefficient centrifugal turbojet engines, would be ideal to house the liquid oxygen tank of his rocket motor, and the rocket battery could be fitted into the now redundant air intake space in the nose, and thus was the Gloster Goblin Mk.1 born.



Top left: the Goblin prototype performs a low-level pass.
Bottom left: the E.28/39 on which the Goblin was based.
Right: a Goblin launch. The aircraft appears to be veering to one side already!


The Goblin's proposed operational technique was extraordinary. Launched vertically from a tower made from existing bridging components, which could be quickly dismantled and moved from place to place, the Goblin would accelerate straight upwards using the power of it's rocket motor and four strap-on booster rockets. Once speed and altitude had been gained, the pilot would then dive his craft at the attacking bomber formation and fire his battery of 76.2mm (3") rockets at the nearest target. His fuel now nearly expended, he would then fly to a pre-arranged landing site, and once over it, deploy a large parachute which would bring the aircraft down, relatively gently, to land on airbags deployed from under it's wings. The aircraft would then be recovered and re-equipped for a further mission. RAF experts expressed profound misgivings about this plan, but they were overruled by Churchill, who ordered the aircraft into production on his personal authority.



A 3" rocket and the 19-round launcher in the aircraft's nose. In practice, aircraft often flew without the frangible plastic nose dome.


Although it must be admitted that the Goblin's tactics did cause a degree of consternation to Luftwaffe bomber crews until they became accustomed to them, the RAF's misgivings proved all too justified. Both rocket motor and launching/recovery system were under-developed and had many potentially flaws, not least a distressing tendency to explode on the launch pad! What's more any imbalance in the booster rockets (which were notoriously badly made) would send the aircraft cartwheeling out of control, a tendency which inspired the aircraft's sarcastic nickname of "Wobblin' Goblin".



The four booster rockets clustered around the tail. Although the Goblin and the Bedford were genuinely recovered in the field and are displayed in original condition, the tower was reconstructed by museum staff who found the parts in a scrap yard. It thus shows none of the weathering visible on the vehicles, and is missing the boarding/maintenence platforms and the aircraft support frame found on operational towers.


If it did manage to launch safely, the short range of the Goblin meant that it had to be deployed near to bombing targets, thus making it's location and the timing of it's attacks predictable, but perhaps it's most significant failing was that it was extremely vulnerable on the ground both immediately before take-off when any camouflage had to be removed, and after landing. On the Fuhrer's brilliant personal orders, formations of jabos began to sweep ahead of the bomber formations, pouncing on any launch tower discovered and also responding to reports of Goblin attacks by seeking out the landed aircraft and strafing them. Thus the Goblin menace was contained: the losses among RAF pilots caused by both accidents with the aircraft's propulsion system and by the jabos far exceeded any advantage gained, but it was typical of Churchill to throw away lives in this reckless fashion to save his own neck.



The aircraft were originally to be supplied entirely unpainted, but following complaints from field units about their conspicuity, they were grudgingly supplied with a plain coat of green paint. Squadrons often augmented this with camouflage stripes of whatever paint they could find, and although the museum's example has mostly brown, it has been repaired at some point with parts from another aircraft which used a blue-grey colour. All the paint was of poor quality by this point in the war, and being applied without an undercoat, it weathered heavily and quickly, leading to a very shabby appearance.



On this side of the forward fuselage, the name "Stray Tupp" has been applied with the brown camouflage paint. Presumably, the pun implies that the pilot's surname was Tupp. Unfortunately, the wholesale destruction of British records at the end of the war makes it impossible to identify him precisely, but the tentative consensus is that he was Captain J.W.Tupp DFC, who was one of the men who died in the Aldershot internment camp in the winter of 1948, when the actions of the terrorist "resistance" caused the supply of heating oil to the camp to be cut off.


After the war, there were those who felt that professor Brown should have been put on trial for war crimes following the murderous V-Weapon attacks on the Channel invasion ports which cost so many civilian lives, but the Fuhrer in his infinite wisdom and compassion realised that there was a better way for the professor to atone to mankind for his actions, and decreed that he be taken into the Reich's own, entirely civilian rocketry programme. This decision once again demonstrated the Fuhrer's great foresight and vision, as Brown was instrumental in the triumphant programme which resulted in mankind's first landing on the Moon in 1972.



Camouflage was also applied to the Bedford QL LOX tanker. The crew have fitted it with fake side panels made from canvas stretched over wood, and tilt hoops made from scaffold pole. When not actually doing it's job, a canvas cover would be thrown over these hoops to give the vehicle the superficial appearance of a regular Army truck and thus hopefully avoid the attention of the prowling Jabos. Note that the crew have removed the "LOX" marking applied at the factory, presumably for the same reason.



Left: The fireproof suit worn by the refuelling crews seems to have scared this little visitor!
Right: Childish RAF humour.

It has become fashionable in recent years for revisionist historians to lionise the Boffin's last-ditch "wonder weapons" like the Goblin and speculate on what might have happened if they had had a chance to be properly developed and deployed. They even have a term for such speculations: RAF'46. Such attempts to re-write history must, however, stumble and fall against the simple fact of the Third Reich's victory, which was due to the development, under the Fuhrer's guidance, of the correct weapons and technologies for the future, rather than these dead-end ideas. After all, as the Fuhrer himself has said, "history is written by the victorious".

From Secret Weapons of the Boffins - Britain's Hopeless Wonder Weapons of World War 2, by Dr. G.Bunston, Senior Lecturer in Aviation History at Adolf Galland Aviation College, Cranwell.

They flutter behind you, your Possible Pasts
Some bright-eyed and crazy, some frightened and lost
-Pink Floyd-

[Brian da Basher]

That's a whiffing tour d'force, Weaver! I tip my hat to your brilliance!

Brian da Basher

[Ed S]

Great model.  Superb backstory.   

Ed

[NARSES2]

Stupendous 

[sideshowbob9]

Have to agree with the gents above. Simply amazing! 

[thedarkmaster]

         

[Caveman]

Brilliant concept

[sequoiaranger]

Bachem if they can't take a joke! But it doesn't Natter. Hardly worth making a Komet on it!

Good Job.

[chrisonord]

Absolutely marvellous H, the whole package is absolutely amazing. If that doesn't give a JMN a coronary, I don't know what will 
Chris.

[Sisko]

Great model and very clever backstory!

[Weaver]

Thanks for your comments and encouragement guys: they're much appreciated.


Okay, roll credits......

This has been a

Last Minute Productions

production for

Plan B Enterprises Inc.

in glorious

SeventySecond-o-Scope

featuring:

The Leading Lady:

Kit: Pavla Gloster G.40 Pioneer
Boosters: Airfix Bloodhound, cut down and de-finned. Painted Tamiya Tape straps
RP launcher: FFAR pod front from Italeri UH-1
Nose glazing: XF5U-1, unknown make
Ventral fin and RP plate spacer: Evergreen

The Sidekick:

Kit: Airfix Bedford QL tanker from RAF Refuelling set
Side panels: Evergreen
Tilt Hoops: brass rod
Windscreen: blister pack
Steering wheel: Revellobox M16 half-track
Masks to make "LOX" shadows in varnish coat: 5mm vinyl lettering from BICC

Best Supporting Actor:

Tower and platform: Airfix Pontoon Bridge
Base girders and launch rails: Evergreen

The Von Crap Family:

Modelscene OO/HO Passengers Set A and School Party
Two schoolboys spliced into one to make the "saluter"

The Butler:

Figure: Airfix firefighter from RAF Emergency Set
Base: railway balast barrel insert from LHS bits box (how many LHS actually have a bits box huh? )
Support: brass rod and painted Tamiya Tape

The Murder Weapon:

Scratched from Evergreen

The Set:

Walls and floor: drawn using standard textures and shapes in MS Word
Banner, painting and photos: from Internet with mods in MS Paint
Railings: Plastruct ladders
Banner poles: two round-headed pins
Placards: drawn in MS Paint
Printing: Inkjet printed on 160 g/sq.m card, except banner printed on 80 g/sq.m paper
Structure: all pieces stuck to cardboard boxes and each other with double-sided tape



Makeup:
Humbrol enamels and Windsor and Newton ink washes



Worst bits: building the plane, realising that the original diorama base was FUBAR'd beyond all hope...

Best bits: painting the plane, having the idea for the alternative diorama and realising that the more I thought about it, the more I could do it.

Worst Airfix Moment: going to considerable trouble to make the boosters out of Bloodhoud bits and then realising that they were so rough that I could have made better ones out of snot...

Best Airfix Moment: building the Bedford, all of it. With the exception of the mysterious lack of a steering wheel, what a lovely and well-engineered little kit! 


Firsts:

First vac-form canopy (not too traumatic)
First figure conversion: Nigel Quisling-Joyce, the little **** throwing a big one to Uncle Adolf....


Thanks to:

Army of One for the firefighter figures
Bungle for the Bloodhounds and the freebie Refuelling Set that gave me the idea for the diorama
Black Knight for the G.40 in the SSGB
Aircav for the huge box of bits that turned up the XF5U-1 nose cone
Puddingwrestler for organising the SSGB

Stars, the lot of you....... 

And lastly, the producers would like to thank the packaging and publishing industries, without whose support this wouldn't have been possible:

ThThThThThat's All folks!

[Ed S]

Love the closing credits....


Ed

[PR19_Kit]

MAGIC!

All it needs is the music now........ 

[Weaver]

MAGIC!

All it needs is the music now........  

Funny you should say that: I had this going round and round my head while I was doing it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUwpLyIDIJw&feature=related

Although I had the images from the Spitting Image version.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReIAna459sg

[sotoolslinger]

Absolutlely Outstanding.