RN Scooters

[Doug K]

In my fevered Imagination, when not playing with V/STOL or seaplanes on ships I was thinking about an alternative Admiralty strategy after the Defence Reviews of the 1960s. The CVA-01 is cancelled, but Eagle and Ark Royal are allowed to soldier on. As always though, only 2 carriers pretty much means one at sea and the other in refit. This worried their Lordships when considering air cover for the LPDs and LPH converted carriers so they decided to compromise; LPH focussed but still CTOL equipped ships.

It was too late for Albion, but Bulwark and Hermes survived the process retain catapult and wires, however the problem then was deciding what fixed wing aircraft could fit into a hangar already crowded with Helicopters? Initially Wessex then Sea Kings? Buccaneers were too large, Scimitars were gone, and Hunters weren't suitable. So where to turn?

Eric "Winkle" Brown had helped ensure the adoption of the F4 Phantom by the Royal Navy (to the detriment of the VSTOL Hawker P1154) so he went back to the same source and recommended a 2-seat version of the famous A4 Skyhawk. Small enough to coexist with the Helos, 2 seater, as was always the RN preference, able to operate independently and with a significant war-load. Perfect.

This is the background to my alternative Falklands Campaign. The dates are the same as the real world, however the taskforce Carriers are Ark Royal (Eagle in refit), Bulwark & Hermes. The rest of the naval contingent remains the same.

Of course in this occasion CAPs are flown by Phantoms, and the strike on the Stanley Airfield is completely successful when undertaken much closer to the target by the Ark's Buccs. With strategic attacks on the 25 de Mayo by the Buccaneers using Sea Eagles, support of ground forces came primarily from the assault carriers' organic air-groups of Skyhawk GR2s (A4K). There was no room to take RAF Harriers in this scenario.

The images show an 899 Squadron Skyhawk with 2 of the newly acquired LGBs ready for a sortie over Goose Green.
The Overal ESDG is the same as the Buccaneers and retained the tactical roundels (no need for painting out to the odd proportions seen in real life), squadron insignia removed of course.

I've always liked the Skyhawk and wondered what it would look like in overall ESDG! A few other wee Anglicisations and thrown together from the old Italieri Kit

[Old Wombat]

Um, what images?

[sandiego89]

Doug, no images here either, you may have not linked your images to your image hosting site properly.  Sounds promising!

-Dave

[Doug K]

Um, what images?

Darn it, I can see them on the Mac but not my own iPad, will try again

[Doug K]

OK, no idea what is going wrong with the images, the link here should work.... should!

https://goo.gl/photos/4wqDQfU7ESfS4rQs9
https://goo.gl/photos/c7gRb1fZTJzR3u339
https://goo.gl/photos/4ggwF2KwQCX31peg7

I'll need to figure out why the images aren't showing in the original...

[scooter]

I think the problem is with image URLs.  Google can be flaky like that sometimes.  Imgur and Photobucket have handy dandy prescripted URLs for you to use. 

[DogfighterZen]

Looks very good, nice work!

[Doug K]

I think the problem is with image URLs.  Google can be flaky like that sometimes.  Imgur and Photobucket have handy dandy prescripted URLs for you to use. 

Thanks, I'll set up an account with one of these two.

[NARSES2]

Oh does look good 

[Gondor]

OK, no idea what is going wrong with the images, the link here should work.... should!

https://goo.gl/photos/4wqDQfU7ESfS4rQs9
https://goo.gl/photos/c7gRb1fZTJzR3u339
https://goo.gl/photos/4ggwF2KwQCX31peg7

I'll need to figure out why the images aren't showing in the original...

I think that in part its the site you are using to upload pictures from and partly how you are trying to insert them into the thread.

If you use the [ img][/img ] without the extra spaces, then nothing shows at all.

However if you use [ url][/url ] then you would at least get the link to the image or page if the information is wrong for an image such as below.

https://goo.gl/photos/4wqDQfU7ESfS4rQs9

Hope that helps.

Gondor

[Thorvic]

OK i opened the links and then opened the image then used right click and copy image location. I then used the add image and pasted the saved image location which appears to work.

Nice scooters BTW

Cheers

Geoff B

[sandiego89]

Looks good, like the RWR bumps and bits. 

-Dave

[Captain Canada]

Love it. Looks perfect in that colour and markings combo. Always loved the A-4, and especially the look of the two-seater.

[Dizzyfugu]

However if you use [ url][/url ] then you would at least get the link to the image or page if the information is wrong for an image such as below.

You should be able to post a pic from elsewhere if you use [ img]XXX[/img ] (again, without the blanks) and insert the picture's URL for XXX. Some browsers like Firefox even have the convenient function that you can directly copy the URL of an online object through the context menu under the right mouse button. But that does not work everywhere, only with objects that are directly online.

Besides, XXX is not necessarily what a picture hosting site suggests as a link. I host my stuff on FlickR, and this site offers various link/embed options, one of them actually works here, a "BBCode" format link.

You might need to experiment and find just the right code format.

[Gondor]

Doug K, one way to make sure that what you enter in your post works or not is to use the "Preview" tab at the bottom next to "Post", this will show you if the site likes what you have put in the post.
You can also look at how Thorvic edited your original post by clicking "Quote" in the top right of the posting and will show the information for the image as well as the text.
A word of advice about using the Quote function. Type outside/below the [/quote] command so that what you write is clearly different from the actual quote. It makes it easier to read and understand what you are replying to. Again I recommend using the "Preview" option so that you can edit and play around with the layout and the like to your hearts content prior to committing your posting to electronic paper.

Gondor