Belgian Attacker?

[The Rat]

The old Frog/Novo Attacker has been occupying a lot of my bench time lately, can't figure out why. I already have enough on my plate, but something is compelling me to get this done. Picked it up at a show, the previous owner had already started it. The wheel wells had been carved out, but that was the extent of the work:



The tailhook will need to be reworked, Frog had it as a single support, whereas it was actually a V shape. So carving out the troughs has begun, to be filled with whatever I can manage to throw together:

The fuselage and wings are not yet glued, just taped and dry-fitted together for photo purposes. A very rough cockpit has been scratched, seat from a bread-bag tie, belts from masking tape. Belts are obviously a bit too wide, but under the very thick canopy not much will be seen anyway. Headrest from sprue, ejection handle is wire:




The landing gear was a bit frightening at first, but it may be workable. The very thick gear doors will probably be carved away until there is a fully formed strut, and plastic sheet used to construct a new doors:



A new tailwheel will need to be scratched, the original is a single unit instead of a double. The wheels themselves have already been cut from a piece of sprue of the correct diameter, need to construct the leg next. Don't know if I'll construct a well for it, but tail gear doors will have to be constructed. The intakes have been lengthened from the inside with plastic sheet, lessens the see-through effect.

[Spey_Phantom]

ooh Belgian Attacker 
im gonna keep track of this thread, i cant wait to see it finished 

[The Rat]

By the way, Belgian hasn't been fully decided yet. But I have a set of decals left over from the Hobbycraft CF-100, so they are currently the front-runner. Maybe a sort of double green jungle scheme for a Congo deployment?

[Captain Canada]

Nope. You said Belgian in the title so therefore it has to be Belgian. Rules are rules.

[Weaver]

But maybe it's attacking Belgium.....

[Captain Canada]

LOL....

And good idea with the main gear Rat, I think that is a good way to go !

[NARSES2]

Love the idea of a Belgian Attacker, you must go with it 

Got a few Belgian AF ideas myself, mainly for 1939/1940. RAF camo + Belgian roundels looks really good

[The Rat]

Looks like I screwed up the Photobucket links, so the post has been edited to include a picture of the tailhook carving.

And it seems the audience is unanimous, so Belgian it will be. Carving the main gear will not be easy, this is very brittle plastic so it will have to proceed carefully, with a degree of patience that I rarely have. 

[The Rat]

Just realised a simple way of handling the tailhook: remove it! Belgium had no aircraft carriers, so they may have de-navalized it.

[Captain Canada]

If you end up breaking the brittle landing gear, you could always make it into a flying boat 

[The Rat]

If you end up breaking the brittle landing gear, you could always make it into a flying boat 

That was my original plan, even had a rough sketch done:



The fly in the ointment was the air intakes. Thought about having them closed with doors during take-off and landing, with a retractable arrangement on top of the fuselage behind the cockpit. The wings also seemed a bit low, might have rotated the fuselage section 180° like I did with the Nodens. Because of those two major issues the project languished for years. Then I saw the leftover Belgian decals and immediately thought YEAH!

[Dizzyfugu]

My vote for Belgium, too - maybe a dark green/light earth (sand) livery with Light Aircraft Grey undersides (brighter than RAF DG/DE)? I remember having seen BAF HS.748 transporters in such a guise, and it not only looked good, it was/is very effective over the Belgian countryside:

[Captain Canada]

That Andover is gorgeous ! Never seen one like that before....very nice.

I see your point re: the boat version....to remedy the intake/ wing layout would pretty much make a totally different aeroplane !

[The Rat]

Test hacking on some sprue has convinced me that this plastic is far too brittle, and attempting to modify the landing gear would simply be courting disaster. 

[rickshaw]

Test hacking on some sprue has convinced me that this plastic is far too brittle, and attempting to modify the landing gear would simply be courting disaster. 

Make new legs.  Use some brass wire and tube.  Cut the tube to length to represent the wheel leg, pass the wire through it and bend to form a wheel attachment.   Make the gear door from plasticard.  That is what I often do, works a treat!