Marconi Avionics' other FASS concepts

[kitnut617]

Many years ago I saw a Marconi Avionics advert in the 1984 RAF Year Book, that's the one which had the Nimrod AEW painting on the front, and the ad' had a number of concepts of using the Forward, Aft, Scanner System. And I made up my mind back then to build a few of them  ---- how I was going to do that I didn't know at the time. And I would build them in 1/72 scale.

But a number of things happened since then, first I got a computer, then went on the internet. From there and over the years, I've collected quite a few kits and conversions that some of the FASS concepts can be seriously looked at.

This was the advert the set the scene.



The first kit I got to try and make one of these was a Nimrod, a Aircraft in Miniature vacuform. Another AiM kit I got was an Airbus A310 because delving around the internet, I found out that the big aircraft at the bottom was based on the A310, it was called the BAe 844. In the middle of the advert is a small business jet, which I have to admit I miss-identified as a DH.125 but now realize is a Canadair Challenger. And I have a couple of Execuform vacuforms of the Challenger in the stash.

But then things progressed, Airfix released their Nimrod --- I pre-ordered four of them as soon as they made the announcement. Then a short while after the Nimrods release, Cammett made an AEW conversion for it -- and I bought one of those right away.

But then real life got in the way, and the projects were left on the back-burner to smolder for a few years (which turned into decades), but recently, something jolted the whole thing back to the front. Harro (forum user Hobbes), introduced his 3D printed Nimrod domes in 1/144 scale. I contacted him to see if they could be scaled up which he said wasn't a problem. I asked him if he could scale the domes to fit the Challenger and the A310. These were scaled to 1/120 and 1/55. I bought two sets at 1/120 and one set at 1/55

Here's a pic of the three front domes with the Cammett conversion in the middle.



One of the two 1/120 sets will actually go on a Welsh Models 1/72 CRJ-200 multi-media kit, the CRJ being a stretched Challenger but in my opinion, a better candidate for the smaller FASS AEW

I decided I would build the big one first, the BAe 844  --- and over the last week or so I've made a start on it.

I've been working out how to go about it by scanning profiles, inserting them into AutoCad then scaling the scan to 1/72, and matching then to the kits I'm going to use.

This is one of the scans



And this is where I've overlaid the A310 fuselage half over it. You can see that there's quite a bit of rework to do to the nose.



However, I've decided to use a different forward fuselage for a few reasons. One, the windshield is different, two, the fuselage appears to be quite a bit wider across the cockpit area, three, the fuselage stays fairly round at the bottom all the way to the dome.

What appears to be better to use is the A400 forward fuselage. And as I had a spare forward fuselage in the spares box, that is what I'm using.



More later --

[PR19_Kit]

And as I had a spare forward fuselage in the spares box, that is what I'm using.

As you do......................... 

[kitnut617]

Well, I had used the wings and other bits on this

[chrisonord]

Very interesting Robert 
Chris

[kitnut617]

Using the A400 nose has it's pros & cons, I can use all the cockpit detail because I decided I would use the cabin side door in the lower position. My thinking there is there might not always be airfield equipment around for the crew to disembark -----

But I have to make the fuselage completely round where I cut it off. Fortunately, the A310 and A400 fuselage are close to being the same, where the fuselages are round, however, the bottom of the A400 is flattened off some as you see here.



I've added a keel to help guide how I have to install a bunch of frames/ribs, now these photo shows that these frames/ribs will have to transition drastically from where the fuselage is round to where the rear of the dome is elliptical. Top pic is a top view of the dome and fuselage to show what I'm up against. For this aircraft the dome won't pinch in as much at the rear of it, because the dome shape is usually for an aircraft which has a smaller diameter fuselage than what the dome is wide. Not a problem when the dome is attached to an A310.



This photo shows what the frames/ribs cross-section starts as, as it will transition to a round cross-section. And you can see the reason I'm using a keel too.

[kitnut617]

Very interesting Robert 
Chris

Cheers Chris

[kitnut617]

The systems in the advert for the Puma and Sherpa, influenced my EV-22 concept, something else I'll probably get on with.

[Hobbes]

Looking forward to this 

[kitnut617]

Thanks, and I hope the end result will be up to your outstanding standard Harro.

There's a good chance I will build a few of these concepts at the same time, the priority being the BAe 844 of course but the Nimrod build would be straight forward I think.

I bought a few tins of Barley Grey and Hemp last week too --- 

[kitnut617]

It might entice me to get the decals on the E-3D I've had hanging around for quite a long time.



I've got a Hawkeye in the stash too, and I've got an under-the-fuselage dome for a Jetstream (one of Alastair's [or was it Jim's]} It will be interesting posing all the AEW's together at sometime.

Just remembered --- I've an 767 AEW conversion to do, and I picked up a Hawkeye dish to make one of my Vickers Vanguards into an AEW --- all of these projects will be in 1/72 scale.

[Rheged]

The AWACS/AEW aircraft I'd like to see modelled (by someone better than me) is Vickers Wellington R1629 based at Defford/Pershore in 1944.

[McColm]

I wonder if this would work on a 1/72 Heller Boeing E-3A/C?

[NARSES2]

I remember that advert, but didn't think it was nearly 40 years ago ! Must have been in Air Enthusiast ?

[rickshaw]

I remember that advert, but didn't think it was nearly 40 years ago ! Must have been in Air Enthusiast ?

It did the rounds.  I remember it from Military Technology, International Defence Review and one or two others at the time.

[McColm]

The Cammett set fits the 1/72 Revell Dassault Breguet Br1150 Atlantic,  the old Airfix Avro Vulcan,  the Matchbox/Revell HP Victor but you will need to substitute a new cockpit canopy for the Victor. The same applies to the Airfix Lockheed Constellation and the Boeing B-29.