New to the site, with pics to share

[NARSES2]

Lovely little model, but must of had an pilot of Irish descent - I swear the spinnach colour is in little shamrock shapes ?

Chris

[Swamphen]

Nice bird, welcome aboard!




But...

upnorth

What If? What's that?

Group: Members
Posts: 0

What the...?!?  

[Davey B]

Thought that myself, Swampie!

And welcome, welcome, bring beer and enjoy!

[Glenn]

Nice to see another modeller who adds panel lines to models. Good-oh, and lovely model to boot.
Lyn

[Glenn]

Nice to see another modeller who adds panel lines to models. Good-oh, and lovely model to boot.
Lyn

[Tophe]

Nice to see another modeller who adds panel lines to models. Good-oh, and lovely model to boot.
Lyn

Thanks Lyn to make us notice this great detail. In the 1980s I tried to do that, admiring the work of my Vietnamese model-shop-keeper in Toulouse, France. I used a Rotring 0.2mm and Chinese black ink, on a Mig 25 model.
Alas the result was not as good as what the masters succeed in doing, and I painted all again, without panel lines...
Congratulations to the best of us able to do so...  

[upnorth]

Thanks for all the replies and good feed back.

As for my location; I'm a Canadian expat in Brno, Czech Republic. Originally I'm from Edmonton, Alberta.

The "Upnorth" is my call sign over on the FSM forums which I joined when I was still in Canada and further north geographically than most other forum members. Its easy to remember so I keep it.

I suppose the RAF guys going from Malta would have gotten a shock from this little critter, but here's the actual history of it:

The Italian Komets flying out of North Africa were most effective at making certain VERY few Lybian based USAAF B-24s got across the Mediteranian to their intended targets, in fact most of the Liberators barely got out over the North African coast before being send down. Today, were it not for tight restrictions on tourism caused by less than amiable political relations between Lybia and  most of the rest of the world, that part of the North African coast, would easily rival Truk Lagoon as an international haven for WWII wreck diving, as there is plenty down there.

To increase the Komet's range and fuel efficiency, the Italians launced them from catapult rails similar to the ones the Germans launced V-1s at England with. These rails were highly mobile and towable via tanks modified as tractors, usually early model, war weary Tigers with the turrets removed, but other tanks were also known to be used for this. Due to this high mobility, there was no way to accurately pin point a Komet launch site, so it could be suppressed.

While the Italian Komet fleet did succeed in neutralising the USAAF Lybian B-24 force and helping secure Lybia as Italian territory, for a while, they could not change Mussolini's fall from favour in the Italian's eyes and his eventual assasination.

They also could not change the strong foothold the British forces had gained in Egypt and the British supplied Royal Egyptian Air Force which had been established. The REAF was equiped with a very large number of Hawker Typhoons and a very large number of skilled pilots to man them. Once Ethiopia was seized by a joint RAF and REAF strike force, significant inroads were made into Lybia and the Italian Komet fleet took heavy losses to the frequent low altitude REAF Typhoon patrols. After those patrols started, the Italian Komet fleet was decimated in six months.

At that time, Italy signed a formal cease fire agreement and agreed to become a protectorate of Britain until the end of the war when a new government could be established there. Under the terms of that cease fire, Lybia became full British held territiory, protected largely by the REAF, who had the additional role of training pilots of the newly formed Royal Lybian Air Force. As the REAF was equipted with increasingly modern aircraft, their Typhoons and Tempests found their way into Lybian hands, mainly for training purposes (The RLAF was not combat ready by the end of WWII so was never an active combatant).

Many things mystified the Allies about the Italian Komet; not least of which was how it could be launched from a catapult without the volatile fuel mixture exploding from the rough launch. There was also the issue of how the Italians hid the Komets so well when they were not in operation.  The answers to these questions became clear with the end of hostilities between Italy and the Allies and free access was granted to the Italian combat aircraft fleet.

The Allies had mistakenly assumed the Italian Komet was nothing more than a standard ME-163 with Italian markings, while in reality it was almost a totally different aircraft with the exception of the airframe itself.

The aircraft was officially designated the Fiat G.163 bis, it ran on an Italian developed rocket engine that was powered by a much more stable fuel mix than the German ones. The Italian fuel was one part liquid and one part solid with a much more predictable chemical reaction than the German combination.

The Italian Komets were so easily hidden due to a superbly engineed wing folding mechanism that showed no evidence of itself when the wings were deployed.

Due to the relentless hammering that the G.163 fleet took at the hands of the REAF, there is not a single complete example of one left today.


O.K. I know that was long winded, but history often is isn't it?

By the way, some Italian Navy veterans swear there was an amphibious Komet bieng developed for deployment from destroyers in the mediteranean. There is, however, no documentation to back this claim. YET!

Thanks again for the warm welcome and the kind words, I'll be posting again in the next couple of days, I'll show you one other "what if" that I've got shots of on the net and tell you about some others I've got going.

[NARSES2]

Like the back story - but still think that Komet had an Irish pilot  

Chris

[Davey B]

Is that before or after the Republic joined the Axis, Chris?  :dum:  :dum:  :dum:  

[John Howling Mouse]

Originally I'm from Edmonton, Alberta.

No freakin' way----me too (Edmonton; not the Czech part    ).

What part of AAAAAdmonton were you from?  How long ago?

I'm in balmy Mill Woods!!!

JHM----The Baz

[upnorth]

Well, if it floors you that I'm from Edmonton at all, John; you'll probably need serious medical atention after I tell you I'm from Mill Woods too!

I came to the Czech Republic last July, but had been living in the Mill Woods section of Edmonton prior to that for about 15 years, before that I had lived in the Capilano area.

I lived on 12 Avenue right near the intersection it has with 66 Street.

[upnorth]

Lovely little model, but must of had an pilot of Irish descent - I swear the spinnach colour is in little shamrock shapes ?

Chris

Well, I hadn't noticed the "shamrock" resemblance of those green spots before you mentioned it.

Maybe its the Irish part of my own family history sneaking through  

[Captain Canada]

Funny...I was working out there in Nov., going from Nisku to Dead Rear to the Lyodminster area, and the Engineer I was working with was a Czech ! Really cool dude, to, and knew all about the boys who flew in RAF squadrons, as well as a/c such as the Iskra ! Tale lots of piccies over ther, eh ?!

 

[upnorth]

Yeah, I take pictures when I get the chance, but I run a pretty busy English teaching schedule and I'm learning the Czech language myself, so picture taking opportunities can be a bit tough to came by.

In September I did attend an airshow, man its a funny feeling when the CF-18s and F-15s are replaced as the main airshow draw by SU-27s and Hind gunships. Got some fair pics there, but the sun was in a terrible position for real good picture taking.

[Aircav]

Nisku to Dead Rear to the Lyodminster area,

I'm sure these Canadian's make up these names just to confuse us Brits