Daryl J.'s Rather Random Thought Repository

[Daryl J.]

Monogram's F-20 Tigershark:  enlarge main wing by about 15%.   Convert to 2-seater using Monogram's F-5F and armor plate the cockpit.   Add sensors/jamming equipment for battlefield communication detection and interruption.   Adequate chaff/flares, etc.   

[Daryl J.]

Sticking with the Northrop Tiger II series:

Take Kinetic's F-5A (or, should there be sufficient room, the newly released F-5B) and add Monogram's extra recce nose.  Dutch markings for a change.   It's a subtle What If that might be awfully sly.  

Or, if not adding that small wedge-shaped recce nose, convert the nose to a duckbill similar to that of the late F-5E/F and F-20 and add some LERX's.    It would be a relatively simple conversion and quite subtle.   But the duckbill nose makes the later series aircaft look d'bidness.   

Another plausible option for either the -5A or -5B would be to add the dog-toothed big wing Northrop had drawn up that also included a slightly larger vertical fin and rear horizontal stabs that were significantly increased in size.      It would look great, IMHO, on the later variants and right on through the F-20 series.

[Daryl J.]

Action: yesterday the Tritool rescriber hit the plastic of the RoG F-5F and it works brilliantly.   Plastics used in the kit are a tad softer than Monogram's original issues making work easier to futz up.  Mould damage is readily apparent in the cockpit section but should be a straight-forward fix if not time consuming.   The plan is to build it with the little wedge recce nose.    Markings/schemes are yet to be determined but US Army, Dutch, and Norwegian AF are high on the list.    And yes it is being built at hobby speed.

3 hours got about 50% of the planned rescribing done.   Then it was time to go home and enjoy the family.  

[Daryl J.]

Continuing with F-5 Tiger derivatives:

As a pre-EF-18 Growler/pre-EA-6B Intruder take the AFV Club F-5F, put jamming pods on the wing tips, underwing.  Fuel on Centerline.   The pods likely would need to be smaller than the Prowler/Growler stores.  Two varieties of pods and the planes would fly in pairs escorting whatever NATO mission required them.  

Would that then change name from Skoshi Tiger to Shocking Tiger?  

RF-5E:  US Army.   Fixed wing argument for the Army presumed to be decided in their favor.   Apart from paint, it could be an OOB build simplifying things and increasing the chance of an actual completion.  

[Daryl J.]

Regarding the F/A-18D:
ATARS conversion.  Wing fold removed.  Inboard wing tanks enlarged. Extra wing pylon each side.

Further elaboration on the big wing F-5 proposed for the F-5B:
AFV Club F-5F with Northrop's enlarged, dog tooth wing.  Sharknose.  Marketed to F-5E using nations.

Edit:  MiG-29, Poland and a pair of Swedish RBS-15s underwing.

[Daryl J.]

There is now a functional corner in the basement storage room after a decade-long hiatus.   Much work is still needed to continue extracting space but things can once again get under way.   Painting space still needed for the airbrush.

The story is long and very boring as to why there was no building space available.   Suffice to say other necessities came first.


But:


Finally!

Now to get down to business.

[Daryl J.]

Dornier Do-215B series:  Vietnam era FAC aircraft, armored cockpit, American engines.   Why not?  It was a recce aircraft.

[Daryl J.]

Monogram C-47 built into an  EC-47: S-2 Tracker props, Super Dakota tail and wings.  Receiving and sending antennae to suit.   Serves 1960's to early 2000's, upgrades over time.  Avoid the flying dish cliche if possible.

[Captain Canada]

That would look nice ! I love turbo Daks.

[Daryl J.]

Cool!   And thanks.


Regarding Revell's EA-6A Wild Weasel:  Norway, either in its box stock form or with long range anti-shipping missiles coordinated by the aircraft's electronics suite.  Penguins, perhaps long range harpoons.

[Daryl J.]

Regarding the F-16:  extend the main wing some & place  a dogtooth on the leading edge as an Agile Falcon concept.  Adversary/Aggressor markings.

Ogival main wing leading edge, wing tips.

Mitsubishi F-2B set up as a "mini-Prowler/Growler"

[Daryl J.]

Real world:  the Yugoslav F-84G plank winged Thunderjet had, on occasion, tip tanks where the front of each tank had been converted to photo reconnaissance duties.  The view for the cameras was forward and matching lateral.

Regarding the new H-B F-84F swept wing kit since it is quite good:  do the same for the long inner wing tanks.  Swedish Splinter, bright red or orange tanks to draw attention to the conversion.   Hmmmm....this may need to be done.

[Daryl J.]

Regarding the early-release, pre-retool Kinetic F-16's:

One thing taken away from the 'it is such a screwed up kit' from the F-16 Stazi was that the nose should lend itself more readily to modification into an attack aircraft with a small, sloped nose akin to the first F-16 proposals than some of the other 1/48 F-16 kits on the market.    Tweaking the LERX, nose, and a few details here and there and one might have a very handsome, utterly fake, and completely believable F-16 variant.  

As a general rule, I find the F-16 hard to Whiff apart from paint/markings/loadout modifications.  I like it as-is and very much so.   But opening up the only Kinetic F-16 I have which was purchased almost immediately upon the brand's introduction the other day got me thinking.     The exact service for it, loadout, ECM suite, targeting pods, etc has yet to be thought through, but trimming up and slimming down the nose and LERX came to mind.   Perhaps it should be a US Army successor to the A-4.............

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In the completely non-modeling world, the Mother of Pearl guitar tri picks ordered are anxiously awaited!   

[Daryl J.]

Regarding the Kinetic Sea Harrier FA.2:  Greek anti shipping duties. 

[Daryl J.]

Now that the Do-215 is available in 1/48 scale, modify it to a 1950's-1960's Recce variant with extended wings and a proper pair of turboprops.  Lenses by Leitz Camera perhaps?