Gloster Meteorite Ground Attack Fighter - finished pics page 7

[kitnut617]

Loads of London Planes in Melbourne.  Their pollen causes terrible problems for those susceptible to hay fever and they are being removed.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-24/plane-trees-to-be-culled-in-melbourne-city/11635846

Strangely, I've never heard of London Planes trees, but it could be the reason I suffered from hayfever so badly when I was in the UK for the first 25 years of my life. I don't remember the name ever coming up at home either.

EDIT; I got curious and googled it, it seems this tree isn't native to Britain and it's thought that it was introduced during the 1600's. It's also thought to be a hybrid, being cross pollinated between an North American sycamore and an Oriental sycamore. Probably why it looks similar to those in Australia then ---

[The Rat]

Wife's friend moved in to a new place in Toronto years ago with a lovely sycamore on the front lawn. Unscrupulous landscaper knocked on her door within hours, hoping she didn't know what it was. She didn't. Told her that it was a diseased tree and should be cut down, so arrangements were made. Later that day Monica showed up and was told the story. She set her straight on exactly what it was, and saved her friend megabucks on having it cut down and hauled away. Landscaper got an earful!

[zenrat]

When we moved in to stately zen Manor we had a dying Blue Gum (borers* had gone through it) in the back yard which we got an arborist in to take down.
While quoting for it pointed at a healthy looking Mahogany Gum and said "and you should have that one down as well, its also on the way out".
We declined and it's still there looking just the same 10 or so years later.


* Moth larvae.  About 3" long and 1/2" diameter.  I collected them from the felled timber and fed them to the magpies.  They had a feast of a time.

[zenrat]

Getting there.

Rockets are painted and I cleared them today.
Started on the UC and bay doors today.  Prepped and the first paints done.
Scratch built an Instrument panel fill-in piece to sit in front of the pilot.  The kit has nothing there just a big empty space which will be visible through the surprisingly clear canopy.  Which I cleaned up today removing a large amount of flash.
And I selected a pilot and a seat from the little men stash and started painting them.

[zenrat]

I got it up on its legs today.  Due to the nose weight coming loose it was a tail sitter even with it slid forwards.  I had to add more lead and then pour PVA in the nose intake to fix everything in place.
Gloster G-name WIP 14-01-2020 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
Pilot is from my pilots & crew box and is only a little bloke...

[NARSES2]

Looking good mate

[zenrat]

This is so close I can smell it.

Just needs the gun barrel attaching, a lick of paint and an aerial wire.
Back story is part written.  The words are there just not in the right order yet.

Oh, and the name has changed again...

[Captain Canada]

What a neat looking little machine !

Nice one.

[zenrat]

Gloster Meteorite Ground Attack Fighter.

Gloster Meteorite  - 2 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

In the late 40's Gloster developed, as a private venture, a ground attack fighter from a Meteor F.8.  Known as the Reaper it was fitted for RATO, had tip tanks, carried a 57mm Cannon and first flew in September 1950.
In parallel with the Reaper they also developed a single engined ground attack fighter based on the Gloster E.28/39 Whittle.  Known initially as the Gleaner it was powered by the same Rolls Royce Derwent V engine as the Reaper.

Gloster Meteorite  - 4 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Compared to the Whittle the Gleaner had longer wings.  This was achieved by adding new laminar flow sections outboard of wing fences.  This allowed retention of the original inner wings and main undercarriage bays reducing tooling costs.  The new outer sections contained fuel tanks and carried hardpoints for a variety of munitions.  Provision for slipper tanks was added inboard of the wing fences.

Gloster Meteorite  - 22 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

The initial prototype exhibited pitch up issues under certain flight conditions.  This was surmised to be due to the lengthened wings.  Placing the horizontal stabilisers in clean air by using a T-tail configuration solved the problem.
A rapid firing 37mm cannon was fitted in the aircraft's belly offset to starboard.
The name Gleaner proved to be problematic when the Jamaican newspaper of the same name threatened a law suit should its use be continued.  Gloster, with an eye to potential Caribbean sales renamed it the Griffon after the breed of a small annoying yappy dog which plagued the design office.
The RAF declined the Reaper but ordered 18 Griffons for developmental trials.  These were delivered in 1953 but were immediately retired and put into mothballs in underground storage caves (a double top secret facility excavated post war under Alderley Edge as part of operation Puce Weaver).

Gloster Meteorite  - 16 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Come the Suez crisis of 1956 the RAF needed ground attack aircraft to base in invaded Egyptian territory.  Hawker Hunters of 1 and 34 squadrons were based at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus but had too little time over target and the powers that be would not allow them to be based any closer to the theatre of operations.
The answer was to pull the Griffons out of storage.  Doing so reminded Rolls Royce of their existence and they promptly threatened a law suit against Glosters use of the name Griffon.
Realising it is not wise to upset the supplier of your aircraft's engine over its name Gloster once again renamed it.  This time (following consultation with the RAF pilots who would be flying them) choosing Gnome because it was small and had been living underground.

Gloster Meteorite  - 7 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Sixteen Gnomes were hastily painted in tropical camo and shipped out to Cyprus.  Upon arrival they had Operation Musketeer recognition stripes added to the wings and fuselage.  Due to the small size of the aircraft the rear fuselage stripes had to be painted over the existing national insignia and radio code letters.  There was no time to rectify this by repainting the roundels  so they were left obscured and the aircraft were flown out to Egypt...
...Arriving just in time for the British withdrawal and to be immediately flown back again.  They saw no action although during the return flight one was shot down by HMS Crane which thought it was an Egyptian MiG 15.

Gloster Meteorite  - 14 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

The travelling Gnomes arrived back in the UK to be met by another threatened law suit.  This time from De Havilland who claimed that its engine division owned the use of Gnome in an aviation context.  Although tempted not to cave (sic) this time to a rival manufacturer Glosters management realised it was cheaper just change the name again.  This time they chose what in hindsight seems the obvious one they should have used all along – Meteorite, as it was a small Meteor.  Some objections were raised because the dictionary definition of meteorite is "a rock which falls to earth" (thought not to be too auspicious for an aircraft) but these were over-ridden when consultation of the same dictionary showed that the already in use (and certainly not open for change) meteor means "a rock which burns up in the atmosphere".
At this point, in 1957, with its final name change the Meteorite was once again retired from RAF service and all 18 were tucked back into their cave under Alderley Edge where they remained until 1976 at which point they were scrapped without ever flying again.

Gloster Meteorite  - 20 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

The Model.
MMD (Zvezda) Gloster E.28/39 – Repop of the Frog mould.
Airfix Messerschmitt Me-109G outer wings.
Airfix Firefly Mk V slipper tanks.
Airfix Typhoon Mk 1b 60lb rockets.

Gloster Meteorite  - 21 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

[Knightflyer]

Love It! 

[DogfighterZen]

Another great example of the Zenrat industries'  wonders!
It's like a small and fat Thunderjet... 

[Old Wombat]

Good one, mate!

Two little gems; build & back-story.

[PR19_Kit]

Love it, a veritable tour de force.   

But I'm thinking that RR may have objected to the final name as well, as they called their land based Merlin used in tanks and hefty trucks by the name Meteorite too....... 

[NARSES2]

Come out really well mate. Love the back story 

[kitnut617]

Very nice Fred