Polikarpopin' out all over the place!

[Logan Hartke]

It looks like something out of Talespin (that's a compliment ).

Cheers,

Logan

[Brian da Basher]

You gotta go with the contra-props! They fit like a glove!

This is one really imaginative project!

Brian da Basher

[proditor]

Made a few more changes as I wait for the decals.  This is officially the bird of Manuel Zarauza Clavero, circa 1941.  It's been re-engined, rearmed, and will be in the demonstration scheme it was wearing when Manuel claimed kills 35-52.  

The 2x20mm cannons didn't feel like enough punch once the cowl mounted MGs were gone.  So, I did some figuring.  My figuring was that I needed more guns!  So I did some drilling and replaced the originals with some round stock sprue.  Now, we have 4x20mm, and that makes me much happier.



And here is our valiant Manuel!  Additionally, we can see the reinforced framing used for the high speed canopy on the Super-Poli



Little bugger is coming along nicely, even at 1/72nd.  

[sotoolslinger]

MMMMMMMM More guns love it

[redstar72]

According to the position of the exhausts, the engine looks to be 3- or 4-row radial?

[proditor]

Nah, just really long trunking.  The backstory has the modification done by Brewster, so I figure if they're involved, at least one part of it has to be awful. 

[Taiidantomcat]

You gotta go with the contra-props! They fit like a glove!

Agreed! 

[proditor]

Masking and Painting.  Ugh.  The paint is going to take over a week at this point. 

[Weaver]

I sympathise - I'm struggling with my Hawks.....

[sotoolslinger]

Hate paint club joined ,welcome new members

[proditor]

El Loro de Muerte

The history of the Super-Poli, or as the Spanish named it, El Loro de Muerte, is almost as convoluted as the extensive exhaust system fitted to the highly modified Polikarpov.  In 1937, the Soviet plane was enjoying great success in the skies over Spain.  However as the conflict continued, the Luftwaffe saw it as the ideal location to test their machines and tactics.  As the ME-109 came to the theater, the Poli's found themselves outmatched.  As the war dragged into early 1940, the Republican air force was getting desperate.

The Spanish Republican forces didn't have the unlimited backing of the nationalists, nor did they have access to aircraft construction on their own.  So they sent a delegation to the neutral United States, specifically to the Brewster Aerospace Corporation.  The company was known for the Buffalo, a plane similar in many respects to the Polikarpov, and for its almost crushing financial troubles.  The Spanish were hoping that a little money might enable them to overlook the fine print on the neutrality agreement.

The changes suggested for the Polikarpov were massive; Self-sealing tanks, armor, increased payload, quicker retracting landing gear, higher speed, and increased armament.  All of this meant a bigger engine to even try and maintain the Polikarpov's current agility, so Brewster flaunted the new Double Wasp that they would be installing in their license built Corsairs, and then blithely claimed that they would have the plane in the air in 3 months.

A year later the first plane flew.  Beyond the Double wasp, they had changed the gearing on the landing gear crank so that it retracted in ¼ the time and turned easier, they had upgraded the guns to an unheard of four 20mm cannons, they had installed the armor and self-sealing tanks and while they had created a bit of a mess trunking the exhausts, they had even found space for more gas in the stubby aircraft.

The only problem they couldn't cure was the torque.  Rapidly whipsawing in one direction, or leisurely turning in the other wasn't a viable option, and the Spanish were ready to walk away with their money leaving Brewster destitute now that their Corsair contract was in danger.  They panicked and promised the Spanish that in just three more months, they could solve the problem.

In what can only be called a miracle, they actually managed to do it.  Creating a complex gearbox for counter-rotating propellers, they not only solved the torque and turning issue, they managed to offset the large amount of extra weight that had grown in the aft of the plane.  Now balanced on the head of a pin, the Super-Poli as it had been nicknamed, took to the skies, amazing all who saw it.  Fast as the vaunted Corsair, it broke 400 mph and could still turn quickly.  The airframe had been upgraded beyond even it's original toughness, and it could make turns that would snap the wings off of a lesser plane.  

All of that performance and firepower came at a price however.  The range of the Super-Poli was roughly 500km, only 2/3 that of the standard I-16.  The pilots chafed at the restriction, but inside of that 500km, the plane was a monster.

The Spanish paid for the remaining upgraded planes, and arranged for the prototype to be shipped to the Republican Air Force as quickly as possible.  Even now, they were just barely holding on.  Unfortunately on the way the ship was seized by the nationalist forces and the Super-Poli was initially in service as a aerobatic demonstrator for the Nationalists!  Its vibrant yellow wings and lightning flash flew through the skies, taunting the Republicans who had paid so dearly for its creation.  

The Republicans didn't leave matters as they stood however, and a daring commando style raid secured the airfield long enough for the greatest of the Republican aces, Manuel Zarauza Clavero, to climb into the sleek fighter and steal it.

A hasty job of painting a red band around the fuselage, and the tri-color of the Republican Air Force followed, and the plane was in service the next day.  Never bothering to paint over the aerobatic markings, Clavero used them to taunt the Nationalist forces even as they initially dismissed his plane as "a brightly colored parrot."  Soon he was slashing across the skies at unheard of speeds and downing enemy fighters with ease.  The joking name gained a measure of respect as the name became El Loro de Muerte "The Parrot of Death".  The plane served Clavero well, and he claimed victories 32 through 53 while at the controls of El Loro de Muerte.

Pics next

[proditor]

And done.    I like the little sucker.  1/72 caused some eye strain, but it was fun strafing the cats as I waited for the decals to dry.

[Weaver]

He heeee like it! I saw it on the finished builds thread first and was going to taunt you about painting it for the Air Racing GB by mistake: good job I read the back story first! 

Great job with the paint in particular - nice one! 

[proditor]

Thanks!   

Now here's the funny part.  I got the paint job from Blue Rider, specifically one of their decal sheets.  I modified it a little to work for the Super-Poli, and only after spraying on the yellow and gray, did I look at the tail and go, "Oh wait, that's a black x on white.  Damn it."  I considered respraying the whole thing as the green it "should" be, but then I thought it would be more fun to just have the Repubs steal the sucker and not bother to repaint it. 

Yay laziness!!   

[sotoolslinger]

Beautiful and a brilliant backstory