A 'different' Airbus A-400M Atlas - FINISHED!

[McColm]

Thanks for the progress reports, I might replace the wing completely with something from  one of the V bombers.

[PR19_Kit]

To quote a now notorious Australian 'Do you know what it is yet?' 



It's going to be a  modern day version of the famous Hercules W2 'Snoopy', and my Atlas will become 'Snoopy 2' in a very similar colour scheme to the original.



I've now got all four engines installed, and I've cleaned up all 32 blades of the four props!  They'll be fitted later in the build of course, they're far too fragile for now.

I sawed off the nose to match the angles of the Snoopy conversion kit, and amazingly it fits almost perfectly. It'll need a little PSR but not that much. I've glued the massive tail in place (the tailplanes are larger than Hunter wings!) and I've done the port para door as well. You'll see I've added a styrene wedge over the cockpit and the glazing fits reasonably well, it'll need just a little PSR on the starboard side.



If you want to know where the door itself is, it opens up inside, see the real Atlas pic below.

[sandiego89]

Great idea!  IIRC the real Snoopy was converted to test the A-400 engine- so a great link there! 

[PR19_Kit]

Great idea!  IIRC the real Snoopy was converted to test the A-400 engine- so a great link there!

Indeed it was, there's loads of pics about with the A400 engine in the #2 position on XV208, and very strange it looks too.

[rickshaw]

Great idea!  IIRC the real Snoopy was converted to test the A-400 engine- so a great link there!

Indeed it was, there's loads of pics about with the A400 engine in the #2 position on XV208, and very strange it looks too.

Looks like it could cruise on that one engine alone...   

[PR19_Kit]

It probably could, that one engine had almost 2.5 times the power of one of the normal Allisons! 

[kitnut617]

Brilliant idea Kit, one of those 'why didn't I think of that' ones.

Saw my first real A400 yesterday at YYC too --- parked next to the Voyager it didn't look as big as I thought it would though. Which is surprising as matching up the 1/72 kit to the 1/72 A310 I have there's not a lot of difference between them. 

You mention the huge tail plane (which it is), but it's the same size as the A310 tail plane 

[ChernayaAkula]

It probably could, that one engine had almost 2.5 times the power of one of the normal Allisons! 

Okay, so who's going to build a twin-engined Herkybird with A400M engines?

[Hobbes]

Brilliant idea Kit, one of those 'why didn't I think of that' ones.

Saw my first real A400 yesterday at YYC too --- parked next to the Voyager it didn't look as big as I thought it would though. Which is surprising as matching up the 1/72 kit to the 1/72 A310 I have there's not a lot of difference between them. 

You mention the huge tail plane (which it is), but it's the same size as the A310 tail plane

A330 is rather larger than A310 though.

[TheChronicOne]

This is glorious!!! Nice decision making all around. Love me some t-tail!

[Martin H]

Im likeing the look of this one. 

Does this mean we will need a third set of tables for next years Avon show? Just for the Spackman collection.......................

[PR19_Kit]

Im likeing the look of this one. 

Does this mean we will need a third set of tables for next years Avon show? Just for the Spackman collection.......................

Yes.................... 

[PR19_Kit]

After spending the whole day doing model railway stuff (N gauge stuff, equals 1/144 scale in the aircraft world) I did some more work on the Atlas this evening.

The main undercarriage is MIND boggling in its complexity, well over engineered with far too many parts, and I fear it will be VERY fragile too. There's no need for this, half or a third of the parts would do an equally good job and be a lot stronger too. I'm fully expecting these legs to sag like Airfix 1/72 scale TSR2's do. I hope SMC will have done a while metal version by the time mine collapses.



The red ring circles the 'axle' which the wheel mounts on, it's 1mm in diameter! The green ring circles some sort of ECM aerial, one by each door. The outer ring is moulded into the fuselage, and Revell make a tiny conical piece that fills in the  conical shape of the outer ring. Why not mould the whole thing in one piece? 



Here's four of the eight props you get in the kit, four feathered and four in flight mode. The real aircraft always has its props fully feathered on the ground, thus the two options. For reasons best known to themselves Revell feed the styrene into the prop moulds about half way up each blade.......

Oh yes, they're meant to be handed like that, the real aircraft has both props on each side handed, rather than #1 & #2 handed one way, and #3 & #4 the other.

That makes it the very devil of a job filing off the sprue gates without bending or snapping the very fragile blades. All 32 of them......



Here's some of the resin bits in the conversion kit. The big radome sits above the cockpit, and with a bit of filing works quite well on the Atlas. The tank on the left was mounted outboard on the Herk and held some air sampling pods and other sensors, and I'll probably fit some Herk tanks inboard to match Snoopy 1's configuration. The two blomple thingies on the rear cargo door eject sensors into the atmosphere apparently.

There's maybe 20-25 other 'fitments' supplied in the conversion, and I have NO idea where most of them go, so I'll just scatter them around the airframe randomly. If anyone agues the toss about it in the SIG stand at some show I'll suggest they supply me with some photos to prove they're right. 

[kitnut617]

I hope SMC will have done a while metal version by the time mine collapses.

Don't know about SMC but SAC (Scale Aircraft Conversions) does Kit, got a couple of sets for the two A400's I have.  I'd post a pic but --- you know the story ---

http://www.scaleaircraftconversions.com/moreinfo.cfm?FROM=search&KIT=323

[TheChronicOne]

For reasons best known to themselves Revell feed the styrene into the prop moulds about half way up each blade....... 

We were just recently discussing GOOD design w/ regard to props........ now we are on the other end of the spectrum. I've never encountered such a thing, thankfully!  Break out the mini files. .. ..

There's maybe 20-25 other 'fitments' supplied in the conversion, and I have NO idea where most of them go, so I'll just scatter them around the airframe randomly. If anyone agues the toss about it in the SIG stand at some show I'll suggest they supply me with some photos to prove they're right.