1:72 [Inspired by] The Sky Crawlers - "Fafnir Ausf. B" turboprop fighter

Dizzyfugu · July 09, 2012, 11:57:37 PM

Hmmm, I guess this is the right board to post this "thing". Are you familiar with anime, esp. with the wonderful movie "The Sky Crawlers"? Many retro propeller fighter designs, based on familar WWII things, and those designs inspired THIS Wyvern-like turboprop fighter: the "Fafnir".

Actually, this model was initially inspired by a "what if" illustration of a Westland Wyvern in Russian markings (which looked disturbingly realistic...). I have always been fascinated by this brutal construction on the thin line between the prop and jet age, and building one had been a vague plan for a long time. But instead trying to get my hands on a Trumpeter Wyvern in 1:72 I thought: well, if I was going "what if", then I could also build the plane from scratch.

While browsing sources and older Hobby Japan issues, I came across the Sanka and Skyly fighters from Bandai - and things fell together. Why not build a fighter in the post-WWII look of "The Sky Crawlers"? And this is it - lots of pics, and you might guess what went into it, explanations below:

1:72 [Inspired by] The Sky Crawlers - Stockum Air Force "Fafnir Ausf. B" turboprop fighter (kitbashing/scratch-built) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 [Inspired by] The Sky Crawlers - Stockum Air Force "Fafnir Ausf. B" turboprop fighter (kitbashing/scratch-built) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The construction:
The model was constructed as a kitbashing, with some scratch elements added. Design benchmark was the Westland Wyvern, but the Skyly J2 also had some influence, as well as various turboprop prototype of the US Navy, esp. the Ryan "Darkshark".

What went into this model:

North American F-86 Sabre (1:72, Hobby Boss):
- Fuselage
- Cockpit interior
- Canopy

Vought F4U-5 Corsair (1:72; Revell):
- Wings
- Landing gear & wheels
- Antennae

Mitsubishi A6M Zero (1:72 , Hasegawa)
- Engine cowl

Gloster Meteor NF.11 (1:72, Xtrakit/Matchbox):
- Vertical fin & horizontal stabilizers

Other smaller donations:
- McDonnell Douglas F-18A Hornet (1:72, Italieri): Turboprop spinners (= drop tank halves)
- Martin B-26 Marauder (1x Matchbox, 1x Airfix): Propeller blades
- McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom (1:72, Matchbox): RAF reconnaissance pod
- Grumman F9 Panther: underwing hardpoints
- Kamov Ka-34 "Hokum" (1:72, ESCI): jet exhaust bulges
- WWII pilot figure from an unknown Airfix kit

Building the thing went pretty straightforward. F-86 hull and the Mitsubishi Zero engine cowl were glued together and four coats of NC putty melted them into one. Only a small slit between fuselage and propeller was left open as an air intake for the turboprop engine.

The Corsair wings were taken right out of the box and could be merged with the fuselage with only minor modifications. On the upper side of the wing/body intersection, bulges for the jet exhaust pipes were added on the fuselage flanks (they were intended to end behind the wings' trailing edge). They consist of parts of the engine pods of a Kamov Ka-34 "Hokum" kit from ESCI. Later, the fuselage was drilled open at the bulges' ends and a sunk exhaust funnel was added on both sides - simple polystyrene pipes of 6mm diameter.
A similar pipe was vertically fitted into the fuselage at the plane's CG, for in-flight display (photography purposes

).

The cruciform tail comes from an Xtrakit Gloster Meteor NF.11. Originally I planned just to replace the Sabre tail with the complete Meteor tail cone, but the latter turned out to be too slim! As an emergency remedy, I only used the the Meteor's fin and cut away the original jet exhaust of the Sabre - replacing it with a new, fatter tail cone which was built with parts from an RAF F-4 reconnaissance pod from a Matchbox kit (and lots of putty, though). The result is a rather massive tail which reminds of a Mitsubishi Zero's shape, but overall the lines blend well.

The contraprops were built from scratch, and for photography purposes I built two specimen: one with propeller blades for static display, and the second one with two clear plastic discs, as if the propellers were running full speed.
The basis for both is a drop tank from an Italieri F-18 Hornet kit. For the static contraprop, this base was cut in two pieces and an axis fitted inside, the propeller is actually fully functional! Its propeller blades come from B-26 Marauder kits and were fitted with reversed pitches, so that the contra-rotating construction would be realistic. Inside of the fuselage a plastic pipe was used as an adapter for both propellers, making them easily interchangeable.

Even though weapon hardpoints were added, they remained empty - even though my construction looks rather like an attack plane, I wanted to keep a clean air-to-air look and leave a clear view onto the very good Corsair landing gear. The latter was taken 1:1 from the donation kit, just the rear wheel was modified (w/o arresting hook) and a respective compartment cut out of the tail cone.

Livery and markings:
Another subject which was rather difficult. With "whif" planes, you easily end up with prominent markings and camouflage schemes - many such kits bear a Luft'46 look. While this would have been a nice option, I also considered Russian markings (on a pure Aluminum livery or a simple green/light blue cammo scheme). Even painting the whole thing dark blue and adding some white stars would have been a plausible option.

But for a special twist, I wanted to "catch" the retro but subtly colourful spirit of The Sky Crawlers, avoiding a retro-Luftwaffe look. First idea was something that would have looked like an USAF Mustang in late WWII: lower side bare metal, upper sides olive drab and some flashy colours on the spinner, wings and tail. But then I remembered "something different".

The final paint scheme was heavily derived from a rather weird livery which the P-47M "Thunderbolts" from the 63rd fighter squadron, 56th fighter group, 8th Air Force, based in the UK wore in the final WWII months. Those machines were painted in a bluish-grey two-tone camouflage on the upper sides, with bare metal undersides. The wings leading edges would be bare metal, too, the engine adorned with a red band and the vertical rudder would be blue. Pretty unique - and AFAIK there's even an airworthy P-47 in this guise around in the USA, flown/kept up by the Confederate Air Force historic flight. This specific machine was actually the benchmark for my paint scheme, because its colours are rather bright.

I more or less sticked to the P-47 paint scheme, just raised the bare metal undersides on the flanks and used brighter colors. These are:
- Testors #1562 "Flat Light Blue"
- Testors #2074 "RLM24 Dunkelblau"
- Testors #1401 "Aluminum Plate" Metallizer

All interior surfaces were painted with RLM02 from Testors, the spinner is plain Testors #1103 "Red". The white stripes were cut from a plain white decal sheet from TL Modellbau, the red insignia are actually French WWII squadron markings in 1:48 scale - also aftermarket pieces from Peddinghaus Decals. Stencelling and bort numbers come from the scrap box.

With the overall exotic shape and cammo scheme, I decided to leave other markings simple and rather neutral – no shark mouth or nose art, even though there would have been plenty of space for such a detail. But I think it would distract too much, and AFAIK no plane in The Sky Crawlers bears such flashy decoration.

The kit was lightly weathered with thinned black paint and some dry painting with shades of grey, plus gun smoke and exhaust fumes with dry-painted black. Everything was sealed under a thin coat of semi-matte varnish.

Final words:
This thing looks disturbingly realistic and plausible, even in its bright livery! While the finish is not perfect (hey, it is scratchbuilt!), the Fafnir (named after a German mythical dragon) really looks like a project from the late 40ies, one of the final high end fighters with a propeller. I am rather surprised how good the result became, and it is exciting to see how such a project evolves step by step, only with a vague idea as a basis. Won't be the last kitbashing!

andrewj · July 10, 2012, 12:13:47 AM

Very nice indeed , excellent scratch building, it looks very plausible for the period. Could easily be the lovechild of a Firecrest and a Wyvern.

Andrew

Cobra · July 10, 2012, 12:45:04 AM

Awesome Job

You gave a TOP GUN feel with your Model! Keep up the Great Work

Dan

Dizzyfugu · July 10, 2012, 12:51:50 AM

Thanks a lot!

NARSES2 · July 10, 2012, 01:24:00 AM

Fantastic creation

PR19_Kit · July 10, 2012, 02:01:37 AM

Outstanding work there!

Weaver · July 10, 2012, 04:19:52 AM

That's awesomely good, with photography to match - well done!

Dizzyfugu · July 10, 2012, 05:14:52 AM

Thank you all, too!

chrisonord · July 10, 2012, 05:27:37 AM

This is right up my street

I have a soft spot for all things turbo prop, and this is an excellent build for sure, keep up the good work, as you are inspiring me to make some more stuff myself
Chris.

Cliffy B · July 10, 2012, 07:14:28 AM

That's one badass kitbash man!!!!

Dizzyfugu · July 10, 2012, 08:15:50 AM

Quote from: chrisonord on July 10, 2012, 05:27:37 AM
This is right up my street
I have a soft spot for all things turbo prop, and this is an excellent build for sure, keep up the good work, as you are inspiring me to make some more stuff myself
Chris.

Sooner or later I'll post pics and story for a Luft '46 turboprop bomber. Mean thing, basis is/was an Il-28 from Trumpeter...

Again, many thanks to all!

chrisonord · July 11, 2012, 10:07:28 AM

looking forward to seeing that one, i have converted a few ww2 and post war aircraft into turbo props too. I have done 2 F-84's 2 Skyraiders, 2 Tigercats, 1 TA-154, 1 A-26 counter invader, a P-47, and a T-28. There are a fair few more waiting in the stash to be done too, when I get round to it.
Cheers,
Chris

kitbasher · July 11, 2012, 12:20:23 PM

As Siobhan Sharpe from the BBC's 'Twenty Twelve' might say 'Holyshet, totally amazeballs'!

Dizzyfugu · July 13, 2012, 12:35:27 AM

Just as a teaser...

More next week!

PR19_Kit · July 13, 2012, 01:43:14 AM

Your 'thing' for contra-props found a good home there.

Looking forward the to second instalment.