Pellsons Perceivings

[Pellson]

That butterfly caught in the 3rd picture is odd/cool. Or is it Mothra's Swedish cousin? 

Looks lovely, though, and makes me a little jealous - sitting in the home office under grey German skies... 

It's a butterfly, all right, and a rather big one for Swedish conditions as well. My somewhat uneducated guess is that it's a Poplar Admiral, but a rather late one as usually they only live for a few weeks earlier in the summer.
It contributed nicely to the picture, though.

I have been following the development in Germany, or tbh in most of western Central Europe. It seems flooding problems are still ongoing albeit hopefully not as acutely as earlier. I find that sad as so many people has been so severely hit, but also because so many old historic towns and villages has been badly hit. And those have always been my favourite tourist sights. You know, just entirely without stress cruising the landscape in a car with a good view and comfy seats. Stopping by whenever you find an extra nice view, a lovely cafe or a good restaurant.
I hope we'll get back to that, both from a reconstruction perspective and a post-pandemic perspective.

[zenrat]

Jealous.  Wish I could go somewhere, anywhere...

[NARSES2]

Great photos of a lovely part of the world 

[Pellson]

Inspired by Rickshaws awesome Canberra project, as well as the ongoing recce GB, I actually got an hour or two by the table today, trundling on with my Canberra PR.10. As it's been started already last year, it's definitely out of the GB, but if there was a parallell category of "shelf of doomers revived by an ongoing GB", this would fit right in. 

The Mach2 RB-57F is an appropriate dog of a kit, but mated to the old Matchbox PR.9 nose, the result is quite satisfactory. Most construction is done, the main thing remaining is the sensor pallet fitted in the previous bomb bay. I'm not quite sure what to do with it, having looked at lots of RB-57 and Canberra PR.9 photos, but I'm sure I'll think of something in the end. 



And then there's obviously the obligatory range of smaller antennae and such. But that's not until the remaining PSR is done. I'm world champion in breaking off stuff when handling.. 



For paint scheme, I'm currently thinking a fictional late Cold War (as usual) scheme, combining a hemp top cover to mask against satellite imaging, and a black under side to conceal against outer space, as per the American high flyers. But the jury's still out here. I might go all black (but isn't that hideously boring?) or the standard hemp over light aircraft grey as per the RW PR.9:s. Barley grey over LAG is another option, but I think I would prefer to stay with hemp. The pure cheekiness of being able to conceal an aircraft against any airbase apron is very appealing, as is staying with the theme from the tankers I already have.

We'll see. But it's nice to be creating again.

[kitbasher]

Good stuff Mr P!  Good to see the GB is inspiring folk to press on with recce 'shelf queens'.

Love the holiday pics, by the way.  Have been in similar but on the west of the country, as you may recall from a past PM exchange I have family in that part of the world.

[Pellson]

Yesterday, all the family was away doing other stuff so I became left to my own devices. Or models, as we might have expected. In all honesty, I spent some time reading, resting and dog walking as well, but I like to think that the Canberra PR.10 is all but paint ready and being on the recce track, I just couldn't resist building my Airfix Meteor F.8 as an FR.9. Or more likely an FR.9A, as I'm looking to get an IR linescanner onboard as well.

My thought is based on the fact that in opposition to axial flow jet engines, centrifugal flow ones are all but untroubled by FOD from such as dust and minor debris from rough fire operations. Hence, flying Derwent, Nene or Tay-engined combat aircraft for COIN/CAS and associated reconnaissance in conflicts such as Oman/Dhofar, Afghanistan and currently Yemen would mean easier maintenance and operability from anything straight, long and level enough to take off and land from. That would form a pretty good reason to keep fighters such as the DH Venom and Gloster Meteor in service as they are fast and agile enough to survive in a theatre with limited air-to-air threat and not too advanced ground-to-air threat, while at the same time simplistic enough to be kept flying with oil, fuel and a rudimentary tool kit. Obviously, a little bit more push never hurts, but generally, the dimensions of the above mentioned engines, as well as the DH Ghost, actually are rather similar, allowing for easy upgrades.

So - I'm thinking of using the very service friendly indeed Venom for day COIN/CAS, a two seat all weather kitted Meteor for night ops and a single seat FR Meteor for dedicated recce. The reason for not using the Venom for recce is pure space. Basically that airframe is overloaded spatially with a pilot and an engine. The Meteor, however, is much bigger and has ample room for growth.
In whif-world, at least. 

We'll see where things get. Yesterday I painted the inside stuff, cobbled up the cockpit, closed the fuselage and got wings, stabilisators and the recce nose on, but I didn't think of any pre-assembly photos, so I might be out of the GB anyway. Which is ok. I'm still inspired, right? 

[zenrat]

 

[Old Wombat]

 

[Pellson]

Redid the demarcations anyway. Yes, I'm boring.

Another Valiant question:
On various paint guides etc, I can see three black fields under the belly of a B(K).1. Two circular between the bomb bay and the nose gear, and one oblong field to the rear of the bomb bay, on the hatch that can be drawn in to give free way for the falling bombs. See below



What are these? Antennae? It's in particular the rear one that interests me.

Remember this? I've finally figured out what they are. Antennae, that's what they are. The  twin circles are radar altimeter antennae and the rear, oblong one is the Green Satin navaid system antenna. Well - I won't be needing the latter, luckily, as my time frame will allow for later and better systems, and because I need that space for other equipment. I think.

Looking at decalling the Valiant tanker today, if I get time enough between kid logistics and other, according to more prominent family members, more pressing tasks.. 

[Pellson]

On a related note - someone here said something about the serials of the cancelled Valiant B.2's being reused as reordered B.1's, if I remember correctly. Now - which serials was that again, really?

[TallEng]

You can probably find out by using this site. http://www.ukserials.com/
But be warned you'll be browsing it for a long time, lots of info
and plenty of unused serals to be found for your RAF projects.

Regards
Keith

[The Wooksta!]

If you're doing the B.2 as an in service variant, there were serials allocated for 17 aircraft, only to be reallocated to more new build B.1s when the B.2 was cancelled.

WZ389-WZ405 inclusive.  Allocated under contract 6/Acft/7376/CB.6(B).  Order changed to B.1 later. Serials allocated 1st October 1951.

Scheme?  I'd suggest Dark Green over Dark Sea Grey with PRU Blue undersides.  That's what I'll be doing with mine when I eventually do it.

Well, no Hemp Valiant tanker for me now that someone else is doing it.

It was me and in the above post from earlier in the thread. Info from the Aerofax book on the Valiant by Eric Morgan.

[Pellson]

Thanks a lot! Greatly appreciated!

About two minutes after writing the previous post, SWMBO intervened, and the Valiant is still less it's markings. Also, we've relocated back to the cottage, so no work bench etc etc. 
On the other hand, while the kids were out swimming and the lovely mrs P was enjoying the late summer sun, I got a little time to almost finish the glue work on the recce Meteor. Some interior touch-up before closing up the cockpit and then I need to decide on that linescanner. I might have to extend the belly tank a bit to make one fit.

Finally, I haven't quite decided whether to keep the cannons or not. On one hand, most tactical reconnaissance aircraft seem to have at least some offensive capability, but on the other - four 20 mm Hispanos plus ammo is equivalent to real weight.

[NARSES2]

You've probably thought of it, but how about giving the Recce Meteor just two 20mm guns. Fairly simple change, but one which would stand out quite well I think as the Meteor's guns were so prevalent ?

[DogfighterZen]

I'd say only defensive weapons for recce birds. For example, the RF-5E only has one of the 20mm nose cannons of the normal F-5E. It's still able to carry a pair of Aim-9 missiles on the wing tips for defense purposes.