Lockheed FV-3 Alouette; Diên Biên Phu, Indochine Française

[zenrat]

Lockheed FV-3 Alouette; Rouge 4, Escadrille Belette Sauvage. Diên Biên Phu, Indochine Française. May 1969.

Lockheed FV-3 Alouette 002 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
Developed from the XFV-1 prototype for the US Navy the Lockheed FV-2 Skylark project was showing promise when it was shelved in 1958 following budget cuts.
In 1963, the war in Indochine Française showing no sign of ending, the Armée de l'air identified an urgent need for a strike aircraft.  Seeing an opportunity to recover development costs twice, Lockheed proposed an updated and Gallicised Skylark.

Lockheed FV-3 Alouette 004 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Looking like it was designed by Gerry Andersons model making team the FV-3 Alouette was powered by an Allison T55 Turboprop making considerably more power than the XT-40 in the XFV-1 giving a higher maximum speed, greater payload and quicker takeoff.  Weapons were carried on six wing mounted pylons, wingtip pylons and a ventral pylon. 

Lockheed FV-3 Alouette 006 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

The contra-rotating propellers precluded mounting a gun in the fuselage so it was usual practice to mount gun pods on either the wing tips or the outer pylons.
The bug bear of the XFV-1, the difficulty pilots experienced judging height from the ground when landing, was removed by the addition of an infra red beam based short range altimeter in the tail of the aircraft.  This, once pilots stopped trying to look over their shoulders and learned to trust it, made landing as easy as in a conventional aircraft.
The four tail mounted castor wheels retracted on take off into streamlined pods.

Lockheed FV-3 Alouette 013 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

The aircraft shown is from Escadrille Belette Sauvage which was based in Diên Biên Phu from Xmas 1968 to February 1970.  Their mission was to take out Viet Cong SAM sites using a combination of anti radar missiles, clusterbombs and 20mm cannon.
This squadron was one of the last to switch from natural metal finish to IF camouflage claiming the increased visibility of sunlight reflecting from the polished metal surfaces taunted the SAM sites into switching on their radar so that they could be targeted.
Unfortunately it also made them more visible to everyone else on the ground and Rouge 4 was lost to small arms fire in June 1969.

Lockheed FV-3 Alouette 010 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
Lockheed FV-3 Alouette 012 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

The model:  Valom 1/72 Lockheed XFV-1 with Tamiya (ne Italeri) Mig 29 wings.  I cut back the pronounced hump on which the canopy sits as I didn't like the look.  It's also a lot more pronounced on the model than on the real thing (although that's not the reason I did it).  The castor pods on the tails are bombs from a 1/72 Academy Catalina and the weapons are all from Hasegawa Weapons packs apart form the drop tanks which are Academy 1/72 F104G.
Paint is automotive touch up paint, rattle can enamels (the spinners) and Vallejo acrylics and decals are from an Ark models Dewoitine D-520.

Lockheed FV-3 Alouette 009 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Despite this fighting me (I still despise vac formed canopies) it's turned out better than I expected.  The NMF French scheme was a last minute decision as when I started it was going to be a PDRV aircraft in either some sort of SEA inspired scheme or urban camo.  It was only this morning when I went to take the pics and saw it on the stand that I got the Supermarionation vibe and something clicked in my head telling me to build another one with similar mods but in either Spectrum or WASP markings.  Maybe second time around I could get the props to spin concentrically and not have to be glued in place.

Lockheed FV-3 Alouette 011 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

[Dizzyfugu]

OMG, THAT looks sick...! 

[NARSES2]

Flippin' marvellous mate 

[Flyer]

WOW!

[ericr]

 

[PR19_Kit]

SACRE BLEU! C'est MAGNIFIQUE! 

That looks SO much better than an RW XFV-1, and the French scheme is a work of genius, especially the Tri-colour spinner!

[rickshaw]

SACRE BLEU! C'est MAGNIFIQUE! 

Le Ditto!  It has a nice looking Gerry Anderson-like feel about it...   

[su27rules]

 

Very nice, I like it a lot!!

[sandiego89]

Really, really great.  The MiG wing is perfect and the NMF turned out great.  Matra pods would look nice as well.  Superb job.  

[kerick]

SACRE BLEU! C'est MAGNIFIQUE! 

Le Ditto!  It has a nice looking Gerry Anderson-like feel about it...   

Double ditto!!!

[Librarian]

Beautiful. Very well done. Just watched a documentary on the Pogo and Salmon, really took me.

[James]

Wow.   

[KiwiZac]

Speechless. Wonderfully executed and a case of "should have"., not "what if". I love the IR beam idea for landing.

[Jesse220]

How beautiful 

[Hman]

Bravo