TSR2: Hell-For-Leather

[Skyraider3D]

Hell-For-Leather

After their nuclear attack against a Soviet industrial target, the crew of this TSR2 dive back to the relative safety of supersonic low-level flight. With the bomber's cover now broken, a "Shilka" self-propelled anti-aircraft gun is the first enemy unit to respond. As they speed away from the target, hopes are high for a safe return to their forward air base in West Germany... if it is still there. This is the doomsday scenario that could have unfolded, had the Cold War turned hot and had the TSR2 not been cancelled in 1965.


Around the height of the Cold War, the British government released a specification for a nuclear-capable strike and reconnaissance aircraft. The result was the British Aircraft Corporation TSR2. Sadly Britain was in a poor financial position at that time and simply couldn't afford this state-of-the-art machine. The cancellation that followed in 1965 nearly wiped out military aircraft production in the UK.

This image was created for Damien Burke's superlative book TSR2, Britain's Lost Bomber, published by Crowood. If you have any interest in the TSR2 at all, this is the one book to get. Freshly researched, it debunks all the misinformation and myths that surrounds it and adds lots of new insight, information and fantastic technical detail that has been hidden in archives for over four decades. An absolute must for anyone interested in Cold War aviation. More information about this book can be found on http://www.tsr2.info

Prints of the cover art are available through my web store at http://www.digitalaviationart.com


Merry Christmas everyone!

Ronnie


PS. Below a few close-ups:

[Gondor]

Love the cockpit close-up, that's some serious detail there.

Gondor

[AXU]

  great work

Among other things I like so much Romanian Me P 1070 on your website!
Merry Christmas Ronnie

[Nick]

I like the tailcode you chose - XS666

The number of the beast, taken to excess.

Great artwork, if I have enough money in the New Year I might just buy a copy.

[Cliffy B]

Good Golly Miss Molly!!!!!!!!!!!  Man that is one FINE piece of artwork sir    May I ask what program(s) you used to create it?



Nick - Nice catch with the ail number, I didn't even notice, hehe.   If I was the pilot of that particular bird you'd better believe I'd a have a painting of Eddie and "The Number of The Beast" below the cockpit 

[lenny100]

well i have just placed my order, loved the cover and this will be the perfect acoipment to my old apvro tsr2 picture


i should arrange for some signatures i think

[DamienB]

I like the tailcode you chose - XS666

The number of the beast, taken to excess.

Ronnie was under strict orders for that With my name, what other number could I possibly have gone for? XS666, incidentally, was a genuine TSR2 serial allocation and was aircraft 16, destined to be the 2nd aircraft delivered to the RAF.

[Skyraider3D]

Thanks a lot for your replies, guys!


Lenny, ah the old Ronald Wong TSR2 print! Really nice. That's one reason I like Wong's artwork a lot: he is not afraid of the occasional what-ifs, unlike almost all other aviation painters (there's only so many Battle of Britain Spitfire paintings I can stomach!). Thank you for your custom, it helps compensate a little for the countless hours I neglected my family! 

Nick, yep, triple-six was Damien's wicked idea. The print is entirely customisable (size, paper/canvas). Smaller prints on paper can be had at a very reasonable price. Three-foot canvas prints of course are a different story (but bloody nice!).

Gondor, glad you like the cockpit close-up. There's some silly detail is in the anti-collision lights, as they have the light bulbs inclusive wiring! No wonder it took me so long to complete! 

Cliff, I use 3DSMax and Photoshop.

AXU, glad you like the Me P.1070. I should revisit that model one day. It's a fantastic airplane design, in some ways even more attractive than the Me 262 for which it was a light-weight and eventually unneeded backup proposal.

[Army of One]

Stunning peice of artwork there.....truly stunning!!!!

[James]

Stunning peice of artwork there.....truly stunning!!!!

Could not have put in better! Amazing work.

[Skyraider3D]

Thanks guys!

[Captain Canada]

Wow....is that ever nice ! I too love that detailed cockpit shot.....evocotive all on it's own. Great stuff !

Thanks for sharing.

[lenny100]

recived the art yesterday and one word sums it up fantastic.
look realy nice and even more alive than the book cover a real work of art once it mounted it will be up in my front room along side the other print

[Skyraider3D]

recived the art yesterday and one word sums it up fantastic.
look realy nice and even more alive than the book cover a real work of art once it mounted it will be up in my front room along side the other print

That's great to hear! I am really pleased you like it.
If you can, please post a photo of it once it's up.

On book covers usually a lot of the finer detail I put in my work gets lost. On the Japanese Secret Projects cover I had hand-placed all the rivets on the lead aircraft, which took many hours. Sure enough nothing of it could be seen on the book cover! But as you say it does make the prints look more alive, which is a nice bonus if you liked the cover art in the first place!

[Mossie]

It's good to see those close up shots, as I would never have noticed a lot of that extra detail.  There's the aircaft itself, but the the buildings disintergrating in the mushroom cloud, the way the tracer is arcing up (it might get a little hairier for the crew in the seconds after the pic).  The nuke just reminds us exactly what the TSR.2 was intended to be.