Atlantic Conveyor, mainland strike- finished

[sandiego89]

ATLANTIC CONVEYOR, mainland attack, 1982. 1/700 scratch

Brief back story: The Atlantic Conveyor narrowly missed an Exocet attack on May 25th, 1982 and after unloading all the remaining aircraft and stores near San Carols, she was available for other tasking.  One such mission was launching a daring attack on the mainland.

The kit: 1/700 scratch styrene.  Built interior frames and then planked with styrene.  This is a major refresh of a build I did years ago.  She has been stripped bare and begun anew. Primer on.

Maybe this will inspire Kit to break out his monster version!  You know you want to!

Superstructure assembled and repainted.  
 

Sea Harriers being prepped.


Making new container stack supports.

[PR19_Kit]

Maybe this will inspire Kit to break out his monter version!  You know you want to!

Dead right I do! I just need two extra lives to cram everything into. 

Good work on the newer version of the AC, I'll look forward to the finished article. 

[Cliffy B]

This will be good!!!!  Please continue sir 

[Captain Canada]

Beauty ! Sure would have opened a pile of possibilities if she hadn't been sunk eh ? Model looking good so far !

[sandiego89]

OK, got the hull painted and am happy with the color. Original blue was too light.  Was having a real problem with the shade of the deck and hull as the photos from 1982 really are all over the place.  Sometimes the hull looks very dark blue/almost black, sometimes much more bluish.  The flight deck is the same way, in some pictures it looks orange, sometimes gray.  Was going for a darker rusty orange with heavy wear (late in the conflict) but came out too brown.  Reassesing, but need to let it dry.  Will add the gray landing pad forward.  May be a strip off.  

Wheelhouse painted.  Working on containers.

 

[sandiego89]

Completed.  ATLANTIC CONVEYOR launching strike on Rio Grande airbase, 1982.



ATLANTIC CONVEYOR, launching strike on Rio Grande airbase, early June 1982.

The ATLANTIC CONVEYOR narrowly escaped an Exocet Attack on May 25th and on the next day flew the majority of the Chinook and Wessex helicopters off to support the landings at San Carlos.  Over the next few days the majority of supplies were offloaded and brought to the beach head.  

With the majority of stores off loaded, several new uses were proposed for the ship.  She mainly acted as a spare deck positioned off West Falkland and supported Sea Kings conducting SAS insertions and occasionallly as a lily pad for Sea Harriers.

As there was still much uncertainty over the number of air launched Exocets available to the Argentine Super Entendard fleet, so an audacious new use for the ship was concocted.  After some quick planning, modifications were done to the ship and she set sail with a two Sea Kings, three Sea Harriers, a single Wessex and two Harrier GR3s, with the cover story that she was to make best speed back to Ascension Island to pick up another load of vital was supplies and additional aircraft.  The small air wing would provide some protection against air, surface and subsurface threats.

In reality the ship was to launch an attack on Rio Grande Airbase in the hopes of neutralizing the Super Entendard/Exocet threat.  With the daring SAS operation Mikado cancelled, this was deemed the best way to inflict some damage or at least deter operations at Rio Grande.  The Sea Harriers would provide air cover and lead navigation, and each carried twin tanks, two AIM-9L's and a centerline bomb (the 1,000 pounders were deemed too heavy for the short deck run).   The GR3's each carried twin tanks, 2 CBUs and cannon.  The Helicopters were for SAR and could evacuate the entire skeleton crew if required.  One SHAR would act as a spare and provide intercept coverage during the raid.

Modifications included the removal of the forward kingpost, and half of the forward spray shield on the port side.  The rail on the forward port side was also cut away and a few 20 foot containers were repositioned.  A simple runway centerline, canted to port, was painted on the main deck.  This allowed a 300 foot deck run before the Harriers/Sea Harriers would slam their nozzles down to a pre-selected nozzle position and conduct a short take off.  Recovery was conducted vertically.  

The ship left the task force under the cover of darkness with a skeleton crew and set a southerly course to be out of the way of suspected patrol lanes from the mainland.  She sailed well south and on a late afternoon launched 2 Sea Harriers and two GR3s some 180nm from the base.  The aircraft arrived feet dry south of the airfield and actually attacked from due west out of the setting sun.  The attack was timed for minimal interval release and was over in seconds.   The Sea Harrier pair dropped on two hardened shelters, one missing long and one inflicting minor damage on an (empty) shelter.  The GR3s targeted the main runway and an apron area.  

The flight was detected on radar seconds before release, and several AAA batteries responded with undirected fire.  The flight egressed the target without damage.  The flight headed due east and only when well offshore took a dog leg to the south and arrived at the ATLANTIC CONVEYOR after dark.  After recovery the ship again sailed south to avoid detection.  She rejoined the task force 2 days later and conducted some additional special missions.

Although the attack caused minimal damage it was deemed a success.
   
The Kit: 1/700 scratch built.  All from sheet styrene of varying thickness.   Much cutting and shaping.   Weathered deck. Trumpeter Sea Kings, ancient Sky Wave/Pit Road H-34- added chin bulge and folding taill for turbine Wessex.  Sea Harriers/Harriers with scratch tanks on the SHARS. Paintable caulk sculpted for base.







 

[PR19_Kit]

Briliant! 

That goes for the modelling and the backstory. Oh that it had been real!

[Captain Canada]

Briliant! 
That goes for the modelling and the backstory. Oh that it had been real!

Amen to that ! Great job. Love the mods, the model and the story ! So much, in fact, that I don't think you're making it up, it actually happened !

[PR19_Kit]

So much, in fact, that I don't think you're making it up, it actually happened !

I wish, sadly she's at the bottom of the South Atlantic. 

[Alvis 3.14159]

So much, in fact, that I don't think you're making it up, it actually happened !

I wish, sadly she's at the bottom of the South Atlantic. 

Or so the RN would like you to believe! They let the Argentinans think they'd sunk her, and then pulled off said raid, ending the war much earlier than anticipated.

But, the question is...where is she now? Obviously, she didn't return from the South Atlantic, maybe she's still there, acting as a forward carrier base?*
 
Alvis Pi



* Why not? If there are going to people going on aboot how the Invincible was really sunk, then why not start a counter-factual rumour how the AC WASN'T sunk?

[PR19_Kit]

* Why not? If there are going to people going on aboot how the Invincible was really sunk, then why not start a counter-factual rumour how the AC WASN'T sunk?

I like your thinking there! 

That might persuade Madame Presidente to get off her high horse and think about the real problems in Argentina rather than re-inventing 1982.

[NARSES2]

Brilliant stuff 

[Cliffy B]

Love it, LOVE IT!!!!  Wonderful build and a very believable story.  Bravo sir