Strength is Victory: भारतीय ईगल of भारतीय वायु सेना

[Gondor]

Perfect !

PS-Everytime I see the thread title I see " Strength through Victory" and it doesn't make any sense 

The title is either the Squadron motto or the Indian Air Force motto, probably the latter. The script is Hindi but I cant remember what I wrote. The Aircraft is called after the Indian Eagle which is probably the first part of the Hindi with the second part more than likely Hindi for Indian Air Force. I wonder if my printer will print Hindi for it's display label?

Gondor

EDIT: I got that wrong. Strength is Victory is the Squadron Motto of 5 Squadron Indian Air Force

[Gondor]

A little update to say that I am still hoping to get this finished for the end of the Group Build. Just painted the black RF transparent material and the RAM on the intakes, all by hand with no masking   

Overall shot of the model first



The intakes, painted freehand



and the aerials on the inner wing leading edge which were also painted freehand



Quite pleased with the way the black has turned out, at least as far as making the edges neat.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Well it's getting there although I have just encountered a problem 

The brass rod I bought to be replacement pins for the undercarriage has proved to be too small 

The aircraft is at the moment sat on a tin of Humbrol paint to provide the correct hight at the rear, the nose leg has its wheels on, and tin's of paint are stopping the bogies from splaying outwards while some Araldite is curing. Hopefully once that dries it will take the weight of the model which has been glossed ready for its decals. This stage with the wheels though is the real crunch stage though as everything hinges on the bogie 



Fortunately the joints appear to be quite sturdy although the bogies are splayed out a little which could well be due to the angle that I ended up getting the axles at







So this evening I will be adding decals to this build.

Gondor

[Gondor]

So as promised, decals 





Yes I know the roundels on the tops of the wings are a little on the small size for this aircraft but its what I though would go better with a tactical aircraft that would operate at low level which did not want to draw attention to itself with large areas of white.

I also realise that some people will think that the elephant's are pointing the wrong way. It's the same direction as on the squadrons Canberra, or at least on the decal sheet where I got the pachyderm's from so I feel quite safe about that detail.

Gondor

[NARSES2]

Transfers really bring it all together 

[DogfighterZen]

Those markings looks great on that camo, nice combination!

[Gondor]

Realised that I have the fuselage serial in the wrong place so they need painted over and fresh ones put in the correct place 

Not such a great problem as I still need to do a little bit of touching up as far as the paint is concerned mainly on the wing trailing edges which are almost thick enough to be barn doors 

Gondor

[Gondor]

Sorted out the touching up and covering the serials which were put in the standard UK position rather than Indian Air Force position. Once the paint has dried it will be time for the Matte coat, gloss was applied prior to going to bed last night, then its on with the wing pylons which include the weapons and that should be the model finished 

Gondor

[Gondor]

One day to go and that has a Grand Prix to slow things down a bit by eating into my time. Only the stores on their pylons to be added and the nose probe and that will be that 

Gondor

[Gondor]

Finished the build 

Just letting some varnish dry then its time for the beauty shots to be taken and posted to both this thread and the Finished thread in the Group Build.

Gondor

[Gondor]

OK, finished my second build for this Group build, in fact it's also the second model I have finished for a group build as well as far as I can remember, which is a bit dodgy at the moment 

Anyway, picture time 

To start off some "Dead Parrot" pictures as it was easier to take the pictures before I fitted the fin and it allowed a nice clear view of the underside too.









Now several pictures of it up on its legs and showing off its plumage   

















And lastly a shot of it on its intended display base which shows off the load in the weapons bay



The build was mostly straight out of the box. The colour scheme for both the interior and exterior were updated to represent an aircraft from the 1970's and the operator was picked to be a little bit different but a probable uses as the Indian Air Force flew Canberra's.
The weapons came from a multitude of sources. The majority were from the 1980's version of the Jaguar by Airfix which also provided the under wing pylons and bomb beams. Some of the bombs in the weapons bay were also from the old Airfix Jaguar kit, the rest of the bombs in the weapons bay were from the Airfix Hawk kit of the save vintage as the Jaguar kit. The bombs under the wings were from Freightdog and were used as they were more streamlined than the older looking bombs I put inside the weapons bay. The Rocket pods are from a Dragon weapons set and are Soviet UB-16-57's with the decals from Model Alliance set MA-72143.

Back story

Bought to replace the ageing Canberra Interdiction aircraft it had been flying for nearly twenty years, the भारतीय वायु सेना or Indian Air Force initially purchased twenty refurbished early production TSR2 aircraft. These aircraft were followed by another twenty aircraft being assembled from components supplied by British Aircraft Corporation as part of a package that included local manufacture by हिंदुस्तान एरोनॉटिक्स लिमिटेड, otherwise known as Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, located in Bangalore.
As production of the contracted seventy five aircraft progressed, an ever increasing proportion of the aircraft and its systems were locally manufactured until the final aircraft were almost totally produced within India.
One of the most famous squadron to be formed on what was locally know as the भारतीय ईगल or Indian Eagle was number 5 Squadron based at Ambala Air Force Station where it had reformed after converting to the Indian Eagle in the late 1970's. This squadron was formed after India was given Independence as up to that point the Royal Air Force had their own 5 Squadron operating within the country and to avoid confusion the Indian Air Force did not form it's own 5 Squadron until the Royal Air Force had left India.

The aircraft depicted in this build is from the locally manufactured aircraft and is loaded for a typical interdiction mission, the threat of which has helped keep the peace in the region for some time with the Indian Eagle only ever using live weapons on the ranges and practice grounds.


Enjoy 

Gondor

[DogfighterZen]

Great work, looks very good!

[zenrat]

Ooooh yeah.  Very good.

[NARSES2]

Come out well 

[Snowtrooper]

The TSR.2 is such a big bird that the SNEB pods look a little bit... undewhelming all alone in those pylons. Now, maybe if they were mounted in triplets on a TER (or whatever the British equivalent was called)...

Nice work though, especially with the bomb bay.