Chronic's Research and Aeronautics Project (C.R.A.P.)

[NARSES2]

A lot of Airforces didn't use official names, the French for instance didn't use them for a long time, but some aircraft acquired nicknames. It tends to change over time. The R.A.F. have always tended to use names and indeed there were official naming committees, but then you get exceptions like the BE 2 and RE 8 (shudders at the mention of it  ) and yes I know they were R.F.C.. Others leave it up to the manufacturer.

The Red Air Force used nicknames, which became semi-official in WWII and may well have continued that during the Cold War although I'm not sure.

It's almost a fashion thing.

[PR19_Kit]

Sometimes the modern RAF inexplicably didn't name particular aircraft, usually transports for some reason. The big stand-outs here were the VC10 and the BAe 146, crazy.

[TheChronicOne]

That is indeed strange...  Both of those are such cool planes it's odd that they wouldn't have names. I could almost "understand" with some boring, mundane, forgettable, or just plane crappy airplane but these?! 

I was familiar with the VC10 (I want one to put right next to my IL-62!)  but I had to look the other one up. Once I did, I recognized it instantly though! "That's the plage that is itty bitty but LOOKS huge!!"!    If not for windows and doors giving it away, it just looks like about the size of a C-17.  Four engines on something that size is so weird and cool.

[zenrat]

I suspect we don't know the Russian names for their aircraft because they are "funny sounding" foreign words.
Like Grach for example, the Su 25.  It means Rook.
MiG 21 was apparently nicknamed Balalaika due to its shape.
MiG 27 was nicknamed Utkonos (platypus) due to the shape of its nose.

Same with the Japanese ww2 aircraft.  Did they call the Mitsubishi A6M the Zero?

[scooter]

Same with the Japanese ww2 aircraft.  Did they call the Mitsubishi A6M the Zero?

Actually, they did, since it was called the Mitsubishi Navy Type 0 carrier fighter (零式艦上戦闘機 rei-shiki-kanjō-sentōki), or the Mitsubishi A6M Rei-sen.  The Allies initially called it the Zeke before just calling it a Zero.

[TheChronicOne]

Fascinating stuff!!  The rest of the Japanese names were mainly arbitrary and originated from the U.S. military, with no influence or inspiration from the official Japanese designations, right?? Frank, Kate, Nell, and all that....   these were the precursor to the NATO names for Soviet stuff and were just meant to be easy to remember (and pronounce and be heard clearly over radio) so I can understand them making up their own names.  It's just.... it would be neat if a "Frank" wasn't just a bunch of numbers and official stuff and had a cool name like "Dragon" or something, know what I mean? 

I swear I seem to recall something about syllables or something, too?? Like... one word, one sylable stuff for fighters and two word names or multiple syllables for heavier equipment, etc...  I seem to recall this applying to the NATO cold war names though........ I have terribad memory sometimes but I recall SOMETHING along those lines.


ANYWAY....  I'm trying to do update here so let's see....  I puttied and sanded all the sink marks on the Fokker D.21 Mighty Mouse. There were 4 or 5 lil sink marks and I also puttied the gaps between the tail planes and the fuselage (sans the elevators, I left that gap there, naturally!). I then re-primed it. Here's a picture of the filler stuff, though...


Wasn't a whole lot, Thank Yeebus. 

At this point I stopped to think of anything I may have missed before I start painting. This brought me back around to the ridiculous post that is the front of the propellers. So, I'm trying to reasonably, not necessarily PERFECTLY duplicate the stuff on the front that you can see in this photo.



So, there's the three, what I'm assuming are weights, and then the very tip of it has a lip ring and a nub in the middle.  I eventually found some wire at the proper size gauge and cut off three pieces to be the "weights."




Next comes the lip and nub on the tip of the shaft. I got to thinking, and I KNEW I had seen this shape somewhere before.... then I remembered; I saw this in the guts of a disposable ligther!!!  So I found a spent one and smashed it with a hammer and extracted this wee diaphragm thingy:



Man, but it is SMALL!      GET THIS, I actually DROPPED that little black thing on the floor... onto a very dark colored green carpet... and still managed to find it!  HA!! SUCK IT, CARPET MONSTER!

Turns out, it's the perfect size and shape, though, so I glued it and the three wire pieces on:



Glorious!!! All said and done, after brainstorming, finding it all, and getting it glued, it took about 45 minutes. I'm very happy with the way it turned out because I didn't know what to use to make the missing parts! I got lucky, I guess.

If you ask me, it looks MUCH better this way! I know, it's not EXACTLY like the one in the picture, but, I have been looking at OTHER pictures of the D.21 that DO have a set up that looks just like mine, so, I'm not going to sweat it.

So that's it for now...  I'm currently looking for the proper colors to paint this thing with and am trying them on my test bed. Paint still wet, flash is on, poor ambient lighting, etc etc etc but I think these three are pretty close?

[scooter]

Fascinating stuff!!  The rest of the Japanese names were mainly arbitrary and originated from the U.S. military, with no influence or inspiration from the official Japanese designations, right?? Frank, Kate, Nell, and all that....   these were the precursor to the NATO names for Soviet stuff and were just meant to be easy to remember (and pronounce and be heard clearly over radio) so I can understand them making up their own names.  It's just.... it would be neat if a "Frank" wasn't just a bunch of numbers and official stuff and had a cool name like "Dragon" or something, know what I mean? 

I swear I seem to recall something about syllables or something, too?? Like... one word, one sylable stuff for fighters and two word names or multiple syllables for heavier equipment, etc...  I seem to recall this applying to the NATO cold war names though........ I have terribad memory sometimes but I recall SOMETHING along those lines.

IIRC, for IJN/IJAAF fighters were male, bombers/attack were female.  And the Ohka was called the Baka (Fool/Idiot/Jerk) by US pilots and gun crews.

[TheChronicOne]

Ahhh, that is cool!! There's more method to the madness than simply giving them names! Makes all the sense.   

[PR19_Kit]

Next comes the lip and nub on the tip of the shaft. I got to thinking, and I KNEW I had seen this shape somewhere before.... then I remembered; I saw this in the guts of a disposable ligther!!!  So I found a spent one and smashed it with a hammer and extracted this wee diaphragm thingy:

LOVE that line. 

[NARSES2]

  Amazing fiddly work on that prop. I couldn't of done that even before my eye problem 

[zenrat]

... and still managed to find it!  HA!! SUCK IT, CARPET MONSTER! ...

You are so going to regret saying that...

[Rheged]

Same with the Japanese ww2 aircraft.  Did they call the Mitsubishi A6M the Zero?

Actually, they did, since it was called the Mitsubishi Navy Type 0 carrier fighter (零式艦上戦闘機 rei-shiki-kanjō-sentōki), or the Mitsubishi A6M Rei-sen.  The Allies initially called it the Zeke before just calling it a Zero.

This may take the story a little further:-

In mid-1942, Captain Frank T. McCoy, a United States Army Air Forces military intelligence officer from the 38th Bombardment Group assigned to the Allied Technical Air Intelligence Unit in Australia, set out to devise a simpler method for identifying Japanese aircraft. Together with Technical Sergeant Francis M. Williams and Corporal Joseph Grattan, McCoy divided the Japanese aircraft into two categories; fighters and everything else. He gave boys' names to the fighters, and the names of girls to the others. Later, training aircraft were named after trees, single engine reconnaissance aircraft were given men's names and multi-engine aircraft of the same type were given women's names. Transports were given girls' names that all began with the letter "T". Gliders were given the names of birds. 

It's lifted from this article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_Allied_names_for_Japanese_aircraft

[Old Wombat]

... and still managed to find it!  HA!! SUCK IT, CARPET MONSTER! ...

You are so going to regret saying that...

Yep, this time tomorrow he'll be bemoaning the disappearance of a complete assembly of no less than 2 cubic inches in volume, possibly an entire kit.

[TheChronicOne]

 

No way, man! I found out how to keep the monster happy. I just "pay tribute" with more regular vacuumings. Clean monster, happy monster!!       

Good stuff about the names!! I like the bit about the tree names especially.  I like trainer craft, too, so that's a neat coincidence. But that gives me some ideas for possible future names for projects.... good ol' "Aspen" or "Maple."  Might not float everyone's boat, but I find them appealing when applied to aircraft!  Fig-21?   I dunno... might not work for ALL trees.     


Thanks fellers.

[NARSES2]

Carpet Monster's can lull you into a false sense of security. They are extremely cunning beasts and can abide their time and wait quietly for months seeking exactly the right time to strike. So beware