Saunders Roe Robin F3. Point Defence in the 60/70's

[NARSES2]

Box and bits

So here's what you get for your money. Basically the Freightdog kit with a set of What If transfers. It goes together without any great travail's and quickly, as long as you don't get yourself stuck in the same rut that I did. Yes there's a requirement for some putty but not much and after all it is a classic "limited run" kit so that's to be expected. My posts in the Blog section of the site will have some more detailed pointers as to my progress with the build, but I do have to say that nearly all the problems I had during the build were self-inflicted. It was intended to be my Cold War GB build, but my head just wasn't in the right place I'm afraid. I do have another on order though and have plans for a third, so for a confirmed "prop job" builder that must show that it's a thoroughly enjoyable kit.

[NARSES2]

With the publication of the Defence White Paper of 1957 the British Aerospace industry, or at least that part of it which was involved heavily in the defence sector, faced a crisis. The paper basically cancelled most of the projects then on hand and said that Britain's future air defence would principally rest on guided missiles, which were then being seen as the "wonder weapons" of the future and perhaps more importantly for a cash strapped Government would also be substantially cheaper. (We live and learn, hopefully).

However this missile technology would not come on stream for a good few years, therefore there was a need for what was seen at the time as an interim solution. Both English Electric, with the P.1 and its siblings, and Saunders Roe, with its SR.53,  had been working to develop and demonstrate various new technologies and equipment, including engines. English Electric had started to look at developing, what was to become the Lightning, into an interceptor quite early in its career and thus was ideally placed to step into the breach.

Saunders Roe also sensed an opportunity and approached the M.O.D. with a proposal to develop its mixed power demonstrator, the SR.53, into an interim short range interceptor. The 53's main selling points were the fact that it had basically already been flown and tested, it was relatively inexpensive and could be delivered to the R.A.F. quickly. Thus the SR.53 was transformed into the Saunders Roe Robin F.1

So whilst the Lightning became the R.A.F.'s principle daytime interceptor, with the Javelin taking care of the nightfighter duties, the S.R. Robins were used to supplement this force.

Only 3 squadrons and a training, operational conversion unit were formed and these squadrons never served as cohesive units. Instead they were dispersed around the country to what were regarded as "targets of strategic importance" in order to fill the role of Point Defence Flights (officially) or "The last ditch boys" (unofficially). Latter as the idea of what was considered to be of strategic importance was revisited the squadrons were rotated through R.A.F. Germany and dispersed to defend airfields there. Wherever they served these flights were known as The Orphans, having no home of their own. Perversely the pilots and ground crew took this as a badge of honour and wore it proudly.

The Robin saw continued development, or "tweaking" by Saunders Roe and the final version to see service was the SR Robin F.4. These developments mainly had to do with improvements to the engines, both of them, the navigation and communications equipment and pilot safety, and the Robin's never really changed outwardly. The final version, the F.4, which introduced the Redtop missile, had some minor changes to its airframe but these were minimal and indeed mostly the introduction of a new version was met by the upgrading of older airframes. In the end the Robin's gave good service for a far longer period of time then originally foreseen and were well liked by all those involved with them. They were also favourites with many an airshow crowd in both the U.K. and Europe during the 60's and 70's. Incidentally the name Robin was allegedly chosen after an enthusiastic ornithologist amongst the Saunders Roe design team suggested that as the Robin was a small native British bird whose male aggressively defended its territory then it would be apt. In reality, who knows how these things happen, but it suited the aircraft and they became as popular with the public as their avian namesakes.

So here we have a SR.Robin F.3 as preserved in the Cold War hall at the R.A.F. Museum Cosford. She is finished in the camouflage scheme she wore at the very end of her career with 92 Squadron in 1985 just before her retirement. In a classic case of "right hand, left hand" the Robins were stood down just a couple of months after the same M.O.D. had ordered their repainting in this new camouflage scheme. However it has to be said the scheme suits it and in my view is one of the more attractive ones worn by R.A.F aircraft. She carries two dummy Firestreak missiles, indeed they are almost dummy, dummy missiles, but as every schoolboy of the time knew, anti-aircraft missiles are white with red "pointed ends" so they meet the criteria. Paints used were my usual mixture, with Xtracrylic Medium Sea Grey and Camouflage (Barley) grey being used for the main scheme. The transfers in the main came from an old Cutting Edge Lightning sheet for national markings and serials etc with just the Squadron markings coming from an Xtradecal Hunter sheet.

So there she is, an enjoyable project which unfortunately suffered from "real world'itus".

[zenrat]

Good job Chris.  Both on the model and the back story.

[NARSES2]

Cheers mate

[Dizzyfugu]

The grey scheme looks very good on the SR.53! 

[The Big Gimper]

Very nice. Mine is still in the box.  This is inspiration to open it.

[PR19_Kit]

That looks TERRIFIC Chris, a super job. 

And the backstory's brilliant too, and so very plausible as well.

I'll be looking at mine soon as well. 

[AeroplaneDriver]

Well that's just lovely!!   

[The Rat]

Looking good!

[Glenn Gilbertson]

That looks very smart - and I liked the backstory!

[sandiego89]

Sharp!  Nice job. 

[rickshaw]

Nice, mate.  Looks the part and the story is well written too. 

[NARSES2]

Cheers gents

[kitbasher]

Very pretty indeed Chris.  Great build, great backstory.  Did you enjoy the build?

[NARSES2]

Did you enjoy the build?

Yes I did Dave. It goes together well and I've already got another on order.