PZL 25 Szakal

[zenrat]

My Sky the Free Winds – A Dieselpunk Anime from Studio Zenrat.

As the final sirens blew on the first third of the Twentieth Century, steam, clockwork and solid fuels gave way to diesel, electricity and liquid propellants.
In Far West Asia the destroyer squadrons of the great air fleets of the Polish Mechtocratic Empiricum strove to keep the skies free of plunderers, buccaneers and freebooters from the numerous nun-aligned, non-agnostic and rebel-allied minor states of the so called Free Anarchies which had sprung up at the fall of the Iberio-Hungarian Hegemony, proliferating around the Mediterrorean rim and the fringes of the Septoribean Dominion like cold sores on a Frankish Whore.
Babs 001 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
The mainstay of the Szwadrony Niszczyciel was the PZL 25 Szakal.  Designed by Zygmunt Puławski this low wing radial engined monoplane carried two Oddech Smoka (Dragon's Breath) long range air to air missiles.  Guided by a Rejewski electrotronic brain (made possible by the then new developments in micro-valve switching relays) these tracked by sound locking onto the target's individual sonic signature.
Babs 004 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
The Szakal carried no other weapons – their mission from the start had been to get within missile range, launch and return and thus Pulawski had designed them from the outset without guns.  This was acceptable while their lumbering targets were relatively undefended but proved a serious disadvantage when the Anarchies let contracts for long-range heavy fighter escorts that could intercept before they got within missile range.
Babs 008 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
As an interim measure one of the Oddech Smoka was replaced with a gun pack containing a pair of Lewandowski 23mm cannons but the resulting 50% reduction in long range strike capacity was not acceptable and ultimately the Empiricum phased out the Szakals replacing them with their own heavy fighters capable of both launching the missiles and tangling with the escorts.
Babs 014 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
Ironically, following their sale as surplus a large number of Szakals ended up in the hands of the Gibraltarian Spackmanites who by rewinging them with longer span canon armed wings produced exactly the high altitude fighter the Szwadrony Niszczyciel had needed all along.
Babs 015 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
It's a 1/72 (is there another scale?) Arii Mitsubishi Ki-15.  A nice little kit, not too crude although the engraved detail is maybe a little too soft for my painting techniques.  A very simple Whiff I just filled the front cockpit, cut down the canopy and added Alamo missiles from a Tamiya (nee Italeri) Mig 29 (which interestingly are about 5mm shorter than the same missiles as included in an ICM Soviet Air to Air missiles set).
Paint is IIRC Light Sea Grey from Vallejo and decals are a combination of Airfix and Pioneer 2.
I expect to build more aircraft from the world of My Sky the Free Winds.

[Hotte]

Nice and Creative   

Hotte

[Tophe]

Ki-15/MiG-29 mix??!!
So crazy so nice!!!

[PR19_Kit]

I dunno what you're on Fred, but it sure is POWERFUL stuff! 

That's terrific, and such an amazing and all-encompassing backstory too.

[NARSES2]

Lovely build 

[zenrat]

Thanks folks.

[tc2324]

Like that. 

[wacek85]

That's a beast

[zenrat]

Thanks guys.

[DogfighterZen]

  Very nice indeed! 

[zenrat]

Thanks DFZ.

I forgot to say.  I used an Academy P39 prop & spinner.

[Captain Canada]

Not the Spackmanites ! lol. Great build and read. I really like the look of this one, very colourful as well !

[Dizzyfugu]

...Alamo missiles from a Tamiya (nee Italeri) Mig 29 (which interestingly are about 5mm shorter than the same missiles as included in an ICM Soviet Air to Air missiles set).

IIRC, the ICM kit contains the long range versions of the Alamo. These are not only a tad longer, the diameter of the missile body is also a bit wider. There's a visible "step" behind the seeker head/steering vanes:


Linked from http://www.geocities.ws/dbenavidez/misiles_varios2.htm

[zenrat]

Thanks Cap'n.
And Thanks Dizz.  I'll inspect them tomorrow.