AN-12BKM Civilian Gunship ***FINISHED***

[Weaver]

Excellent stuff - the livery looks really good!

Those huge cutouts in the fuselage would need some serious bracing frames around them, but they do it for airliner freighter conversions so it should be feasible (with LOTS of care and double-checking of maths...).

See I'd be perfectly willing to build a civilian gunship designed to do good and make peoples' lives better... but then I'd feel obliged to write a backstory where it got hijacked by terrorists who used it to drop the education minister and a party of disadvantaged school kids a couple of thousand feet onto a hospital and a puppy sanctuary in the valley below...

Noooooooo, not on the puppies...

Nice to see that I was correct in my assumption that the deaths of kids, doctors and a government minister were just fine with some people...

[Scotaidh]

I've heard that the AC-130 has some kind of baffle at the leading edge of its 105mm cannon port to manage the airflow so's not freeze the crew and over-pressurize the fuselage. 

[TheChronicOne]

Excellent stuff - the livery looks really good!

Those huge cutouts in the fuselage would need some serious bracing frames around them, but they do it for airliner freighter conversions so it should be feasible (with LOTS of care and double-checking of maths...).

See I'd be perfectly willing to build a civilian gunship designed to do good and make peoples' lives better... but then I'd feel obliged to write a backstory where it got hijacked by terrorists who used it to drop the education minister and a party of disadvantaged school kids a couple of thousand feet onto a hospital and a puppy sanctuary in the valley below...

Ha!!!!!

Thanks!!!  I made sure to "brace" the openings in the back ground story at least... the plastic in the kit itself provided plenty thick enough to represent this around the edges without me having to add anything thankfully.  I also did a bit of looking around at/for aircraft with holes cut in the side and while I can't remember the specific details of what I found, the conclusion was the main part, and that conclusion was that there was precedent for it and that it would be perfectly fine. I was pretty worried about it early and didn't want people all like, "Wow, that thing would fold in half the first time any stress was put on it!!!!1111 "   


AND YEAH YOU LEAVE THE PUPPIES ALONE DAMMIT.   

[Air21]

Well... now look what you've done 

[TheChronicOne]

Well... now look what you've done 

lmao...


Ahhhh hell naaaaaah, they better start giving me my Rubles!!!!!!!   


See, I'm not that nutty after all. 

[Rick Lowe]

See, I'm not that nutty after all. 

...Yeah, you are!


Which is, of course, why you fit in so well here...



And about honkin' great holes in the sides of airliners, well - check this:

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/SOFIA/overview/index.html

[JayBee]

See, I'm not that nutty after all. 

So why are you on this forum then?   

[TheChronicOne]

Fair points, all.     


That NASA SP.... could you imagine if that thing was... like... something weird like a huge mortar?    

[Rick Lowe]

Fair points, all.     


That NASA SP.... could you imagine if that thing was... like... something weird like a huge mortar?    

I'm of the opinion the telescope would be great camouflage for their Death Ray Device ^(tm)