What's on Howard of Effingham's 1/72 modelling bench..... and not?!

[Howard of Effingham]

just glued the nose and cockpit on to the 4 engined extended fuselage dominie.

as for the transparencies on this model because there has been so much 'cut and shut' i've decided that they
can be painted over in the cabin and the anti-flash screens are down in the cockpit. it is going to take huge
quantities of plastic card and milliput to fill the holes. a spare section from a lightning belly fuel tank is handy for
the underfuselage radome. 

[Howard of Effingham]

hmm, not much here but the lightly alternate RAF fleet i'm building is now being joined by a 12 sqn marked F-111
which will go nicely with the 89 sqn marked one i did some years ago [and is somewhere at 'ome].

this 12 sqn one is pinching their recent-ish disbandment scheme on a  [available on the xtradecal 12 sqn
history sheet] and moving it over to a F-111. for the aardvark i'm using the hasegawa RAAF F-111C/G boxing and
giving it a few updates and revisions [such as TIALD and LRMTS] with durandal replacing JP233 as the principal
anti runway weapon.

[Howard of Effingham]

whilst i'm here and still sober as new year's eve approaches.... 

your advice and help is needed. if the blue streak MRBM had entered service with the RAF in about say 1970, would they have used
helicopters for missile site support duties for blue streak? and if they did, would a modified westland sea king be a good choice or could
the RAF have gone for a variant of the westland wessex?

the cheapo 1/72 2nd hand astro kits [Italian re-pop of fujimi] seaking I picked up at the driffield show this year which has a small amount of resin bits within to do an Italian SH-3D, will do nicely for a sea king based option.  the Wessex option can be done with an
old matchbox Wessex kit I have somewhere in the stash.

[PR19_Kit]

your advice and help is needed. if the blue streak MRBM had entered service with the RAF in about say 1970, would they have used
helicopters for missile site support duties for blue streak? and if they did, would a modified westland sea king be a good choice or could
the RAF have gone for a variant of the westland wessex?

ROTODYNES! 

[Thorvic]

whilst i'm here and still sober as new year's eve approaches.... 

your advice and help is needed. if the blue streak MRBM had entered service with the RAF in about say 1970, would they have used
helicopters for missile site support duties for blue streak? and if they did, would a modified westland sea king be a good choice or could
the RAF have gone for a variant of the westland wessex?

the cheapo 1/72 2nd hand astro kits [Italian re-pop of fujimi] seaking I picked up at the driffield show this year which has a small amount of resin bits within to do an Italian SH-3D, will do nicely for a sea king based option.  the Wessex option can be done with an
old matchbox Wessex kit I have somewhere in the stash.

Possibly Chinook, the original order was in the 60s, so would have been in service about 1970, and would have been much more practical for the role

[Rheged]

How about the WESTLAND WESTMINSTER??

[Mossie]

For aircraft that entered service, Sea King is a little late for that time period Trev, it would have been available toward the end of the seventies. Whirlwind is being retired by that time, Wessex is well established.  Puma is coming online right around '71/'72 so would be available.

[kitnut617]

I'd say you want a Sikorski Mohave   

[PR19_Kit]

I'd say you want a Sikorski Mohave   

Hehe, I've got the Special Hobby kit of that thing, and it's GINORMOUS! 

[Mossie]

Then there's always this:

[Thorvic]

For aircraft that entered service, Sea King is a little late for that time period Trev, it would have been available toward the end of the seventies. Whirlwind is being retired by that time, Wessex is well established.  Puma is coming online right around '71/'72 so would be available.

Cobblers! The Westland Sea King HAS1 entered service in 1969 and went to sea with the FAA in 1970, so it was available for use if so required, just because the RAF didn't put it into service as a SAR aircraft to replace the Whirlwinds & Wessex shouldn't exclude it.

[Mossie]

Alright Geoff, calm down.  Since it's the RAF who would be operating it, it's a fair enough comment to make.

[Howard of Effingham]

steppin' in to round two of this bout...... 

many years ago I did scheme an idea for a RAF SF helo that got as far being built from the airfix sea king HAR3 boxing but it died in a
house move. the idea of using a seaking for missile site support arose from this old un' of an idea and that FAA seakings often worked
very closely with both RN SSN's and SSBN's. it looked like an obivious choice [as did a modified Wessex as they had entered service
with the RAF in the late 60's with 18 sqn] to tack a few more on to the early RN production run but for the RAF with all of the ASW gear
removed, and well before the seaking commando HC4 entered service without the floats and retractable u/c.

rotodynes  and westminsters were considered by myself but rejected on grounds of size.

the puma as entered service with the RAF in 1971 with 33 sqn would equally do the job of missile site support quite well I guess.
especially as it has cabin doors on both sides of the fuselage to allow easy access and exit unlike the seaking or Wessex.

however, the types that I was looking at had to be similar to those used by the USAF to support titan II and minuteman ICBM sites
especially for missile crew transport and airlifting in emergency response and security forces teams.

hmm, i'd not realised i'd opened such a can of worms. 

[PR19_Kit]

however, the types that I was looking at had to be similar to those used by the USAF to support titan II and minuteman ICBM sites
especially for missile crew transport and airlifting in emergency response and security forces teams.

They were the twin engine UH-1Ns weren't they? I've got a Hasegawa kit of one of them somewhere, and it looks mega-smart compared to the rather utilitarian standard US Army Huey.

[kitnut617]

I'd say you want a Sikorski Mohave   

Hehe, I've got the Special Hobby kit of that thing, and it's GINORMOUS! 

I've read that the Westland Westminster used the rotor and gearbox from one ---