What's on the workbench!

[McColm]

Thursday 7th November 2019

The jet powered 'Argosy C.4' now has a new radome/nose cone which came from a An-72. I think this was a 'spares or repair ' as there's loads of parts missing.
As for the Group Build I'm sticking to the Airfix BAe Nimrod MR.1/2 which will become a civil airliner/transport  Nimrod C.1. I do have a few Alleycat upgrade sets that I might use and the Sud Caravelle decals which include the windows. I know that they are a different shape but there might have been a French connection.
I couldn't get to sleep last night and played around with the Academy 1/72 KC-97G, what was I thinking about when I cut the fuselage to add the wings from the Heller Lockheed L-749 Constellation. They fit, sort of but will need a bit of putty/filler to fill in the gaps. The nose wheel landing gear and cockpit interior have been assembled. Glazing is in place as well.
In my quest to get some sleep I stumbled on the app HD 2019 free movies and watched 'Solo ', from the Star Wars franchise.  It's a film about how Hans Solo met Chewbacker and got his hands on the Millennium Falcon,  the second film was 'The Dirty Dozen,  The Fatal Mission '. That close up shot of Shorty being dead but breathing at the same time,  yes there were a few continuity mistakes but none the less one of Kojac's better films.
The Academy 1/72 KC-97G is becoming a kitbash as it now has the twin tail fins from the Airfix Avro Shackleton MR.2. The fuselage halves have been glued together and the nose wheel landing gear reglued as it snapped off.

[McColm]

Friday 8th November 2019

Know wonder the Mach2 Argosy was so cheap there's no landing gear with it, either floats or scratch build something that fits on to the fuselage. He says with the Revell 1/72 Mil Mi-26 Halo kit starring at him.
I'm still surprised on how many started builds I have,  the former 1/72 Frog Avro Shackleton MR.3,  has undergone some changes and looks more like the Beechcraft Starship than a Shackleton. The new scratch built nose and canard really works with the tailless rear with six turbofaned engines. A change of name to the Avro Starship AEW. 1 which now has the rotodome of the Grumman E-2 on top of the rotor stack of the Rotodyne.
Then there's the Hasegawa 1/72 Boeing B-47E which just happens to fit the Airfix Avro Vulcan B.Mk2, as I will be needing the Vulcan landing gear for the Celestial.
Meanwhile I have been playing around with the landing gear from the Airfix Short Stirling to fit the Mach2 Argosy,  it could work 

[McColm]

Sunday 10th November 2019

The Avro Yorktown now has a Avro Lancaster B.Mk.1/111 from the Revell 1/72 04300 kit plus the engines and landing gear. The tail is from the Matchbox Privateer kit,  not a perfect fit but will be with some puty/filler.

[McColm]

Tuesday 12th November 2019

My nephew is taking part in the 'Junior Bake Off' on Channel 4 at 5 pm. He's the one they call Tom W as there's two Toms at this stage.  He won't tell me how he got on, so I have to keep watching.
On the bench is the Supermodel BV-138 and Italeri Do 24T both in 1/72 scale,  there's a third in the guise of a Frog Whiteley MkV or MkVII which will become the transport version.
The 'Clog' is having it's turrets filled in and a new nose scratch built,  the parts do fit although they don't have any numbers. The cockpit canopy isn't a great fit and there's a bit of detailing but you can't see much of it.
Tomorrow I will break out the filler/puty,  it's long overdue. This time I will try and use a little at a time. Famous last words...

[McColm]

Wednesday 13th November 2019

The Mach2 Argosy now has the six J47-GE-25 taken from the Hasegawa
B-47E kit. Still waiting for that to dry.
The main wheels have been glued to the Boeing Bootleg-Vulcan and the upper wings superglued to the upper fuselage of the Airfix Avro Vulcan.

[McColm]

Thursday 14th November 2019

Work continues on the Boeing  Bootleg-Vulcane,  both wings have been glued in place and the underside of the fuselage cut. I didn't use a ruler to measure the clearance of the B-47E fuselage,  so I was dumbfounded when it is a snug fit and the lack of filler/puty so far. The bottom part of the engine air intakes have also been glued in to position awaiting painting. As I am using the B-47's vertical tail fin filler/puty will be used on the upper fuselage to plug the gap.
On the Avro Yorktown the two Nene engines have been glued to the outer engine position,  with the Merlin engines on the inner position.

[McColm]

Sunday 17th November 2019

So my two weeks leave is almost gone. Did I finish any builds? Well no not as such. Yes the 1/72 Grumman Tracker AEW.1 just needs the decals changing and a few touch ups and then it will be finished.
The South Star KC-121M inflight refuelling tanker , still needs painting; propellers added and a little filler before it's ready.
Whereas the C-97 is undergoing a major change in it's wings,  gone has the wings from a Heller Lockheed L-749 Constellation and now the new ones from the Airfix BAe Nimrod MR.1 with a weapons bay as well!
The Clog and Do 24T are in the build process along with the Frog AW Whitley transport version.
Been reading the American Secret Projects US Airlifters 1941 to 1961 and the Bell Model D-45 is very similar in appearance to the AW Argosy. On my build the six jet engines don't look out of place,  as though they were meant to be there.
On the An-12 Cub AEW.1 one of the wheels from the main landing gear taken from an Airfix BAe Nimrod MR.1 has broken off. This will need replacing when I fit the nose wheel landing gear.
The Avro Starship,  what was I thinking!  You'll need a stiff drink when you see this,  it's like marmite love it or hate it 🤔.
Still needs a lot of work to get to the painting stage.
The Mighty Thor is PSR,  mostly sanding it's a reminder of not to use too much puty/filler at one time. Likewise the Celestial. As for the Mystic this is a miracle that it hasn't broken,  yes it still lacks a landing gear but still looks great on dry surfaces. Maybe a rig similar to the Martin SeaMaster,  which I have to say with it's white soft metal landing gear from the Sanger
An-10/12 vacform kit does look good.
The Super Lincoln is still looking great,  no damages since it's last bombing mission to sink the Japanese battleship Yamato. Well in my head it did,  still history will prove me wrong.
The Playfix Tristar is still awaiting the next step,  alongside the Lockheed Martin SC-130J and the Bootleg-Vulcane still astonishes me in its simplicity. The Rotodyne Gunship is undergoing rotor testing.
I've probably missed out a few as they are in storage.
Back to work on Tuesday.
Oh yes Telford looks good on YouTube,  I haven't found the Whiffers stand yet.

[Rheged]

Sunday 17th November 2019

The Super Lincoln is still looking great,  no damages since it's last bombing mission to sink the Japanese battleship Yamato. Well in my head it did,  still history will prove me wrong.

History in Whiffworld will actually prove you right!!

A flight of Super Lincolns with the  cutaway bomb bay and ultra long range fuel tanks was rushed out to the Pacific in March 1945, a Royal Fleet Auxiliary fast support vessel laden with Tallboy and Grand Slam munitions  having been despatched three weeks previously.   These had been requested by Admiral Nimitz as a precision strike force; the admiral had been most impressed by the destruction of the Tirpitz. In April 1945,   IJN Yamato had been badly damaged south of Kyushu by American carrier-based bombers and torpedo bombers  but had managed to make port  and was under repair at Kagoshima. The ship was heavily protected by torpedo nets and  flak batteries, with the Japanese navy anticipating a low level American carrier aircraft attack from the South-East. As C in C Pacific Ocean Areas, the Anglophile Nimitz offered  the RAF a single strike at Yamato by Super Lincolns, if this was unsuccessful the ship would be overwhelmed by a massive multi carrier air strike  . Nimitz reasoned that this policy potentially could save a great many USN aviators lives.  On April 15th 1945, two Lincolns took off from Iwo Jima with Grand Slam bombs. After an uneventful flight, they approached Kagoshima from the North and made precision bomb releases shortly after dawn. Both munitions made extremely close near misses, observers reporting that the two almost simultaneous explosions on the port side seemed to bodily lift the 65,000 ton vessel  before  it was overwhelmed and capsized. The Lincolns returned safely  to Iwo Jima after which a signal was made to Nimitz "Thank you for allowing our hounds to hunt in your coverts".    As both of the Lincolns had been named for the pilots' mothers, the tabloid press throughout the Allied world produced headlines such as " ALICE METCALFE AND ETHEL TODHUNTER DEVASTATE J A P  BATTLEWAGON"


I'd actually been working on this backstory for some days before I came across your Super Lincoln  concept.  I apologise most profusely if I have caused you any inconvenience or offence by annexing your original idea.

[McColm]

None taken,  I was reading the magazine 'Military History ' November edition issue 110 which includes the sinking of the Yamato the world's greatest battleship. I was thinking whilst reading the article what if the Avro Super Lincoln had been in service with the RAF during WWII and had the capacity of carrying two Grand Slam  or Tallboy bombs in it's weapons bay .I might have one from one of the vacform Avro Lincoln conversion sets,  best double check. I haven't glued the bomb bay doors so the option is still viable.
Thanks for the backstory 

[Rheged]

A most generous response. Thank you.

[McColm]

The 1/72 Grumman Tracker AEW.1 now is tailless apart from the vertical fin which the rotodome is attached. This will be followed by a backstory or an amendment to the Alternative History that I wrote earlier.

[McColm]

Monday 18th November 2019

The ex-Airfix Super Constellation known as the South Star now has a few features taken from the An-12 AEW; the rotodome is fitted to the middle tail fin and the twin jet engines are on the wingtips. The flying boom has been removed.
I have another idea for the Cub.
Back to work tomorrow but I have the weekend off as holiday leave.

[McColm]

Friday 22nd November 2019

The Boeing Bootleg-Vulcane has had the vertical tail fin and rear tail cone fitted as the rear tail of the B-47E now resides on my version of a proposed Boeing Model 367(Improved C-97 Stratofreighter) which uses the Airfix BAe Nimrod MR.1 wings and landing gear. I'll fit the rear gun after painting.
Apparently the B-47 wing was meant for high speed and low drag, something the C-97 wasn't built for. However Boeing engineers thickened the wing root, which proved successfully on the B-52.
Another problem discovered using jets on the C-97 was the increase in weight and balance this was solved by moving the nose wheel landing gear to the aft position,  something I will need to do to prevent a tail sitter  (fore and aft!).

[TheChronicOne]

Good stuff!!  Good backstory up there, too.

[McColm]

Friday 22nd  November 2019
Part 2
By using the nose from a 1/72 AMtech (inferior copy of the AMT/ERTL Boeing EC-135 ARIA/ALOTS) aka Snoopy or EC-135N the Bootleg-Vulcane has become an AEW platform. The Snoopy nose fits on the rear under the Airfix Avro Vulcans' vertical tail fin and fills the gap left by the Hasegawa B-47E,  as I removed the tail section for the Boeing C-97 improved Stratofreighter. Got to think of a name for this build,  Boeing Jupiter