What If III Gallery and Poll - New and Improved!

[tc2324]

TSR.2 GR.1(?)
40 Squadron RAF
Circa 1974

Edited November 10, 2015 by tc2324

[Hockeyboy76]

In 1965 TSR2 was scrapped.......... Or that's what they want you to believe.
Some of the airframes at Boscombe Down were hidden and over time converted into a highly classified Wild Weasel variant. Taking advantage of Stealth Technology, towed decoys and new cammo these TSR2s have remained in service but completely classified & hidden from public view.
In 1991 during the first gulf war, the RAF had a few operating out of Cyprus only flying during the dark hours. The noise of their take offs & landings being explained away as the American U2 which is as we all know, is definitely not based or flying from Akrotiri.

[Mottlemaster]

Me 262 HG 111 Kick Arsch Nachtjager , Predannack , Cornwall September 1946

Build thred http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234989335-trimaster-me-262-hg-111-nachtjager/

[Erwin]

WW-2 Red Baron

1:32 nd Hasegawa Me 262.

Edited November 21, 2015 by Erwin

[Mitch K]

Special Hobby 1/72 Scale Regianne Re.2000 in the markings of 80 Squadron, RAF. Airframe built largely out of the box, just some wing gun ports and doors, plus gun port patches and seat harness. Paints are Tamiya mixes (Dark Green, Light Earth and "Iraq Blue") and the markings are from Xtradecals Gloster Gladiator set.

[S5 modeller]

Hydra triebflügel.

1/72nd huma kit.

Custom decals, and oversize brass cannons.

Build thread here.....

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234987085-hydra-triebflugel/page-1

[Hockeyboy76]

Hockeyboy's Quickie.

Disgusted by the F-22 being chosen, the lead designer & the Chief test pilot of the F-23 program "acquired an airframe & defected. They landed at BAE Warton & handed themselves to the British authorities. When asked the Brits denied all knowledge of this ever taking place & have always claimed they bought the rights to the aircraft.

Displayed whilst trialing digital camo.

[Tim Moff]

Kit: 1/72 Trumpeter F105G Thunderchief 'Wild Weasel'

Subject: F105G Thunderchief 'Wild Weasel' XZ107 'H' (ex USAF S/N 63-8320, known as 'Bam Bam' with 3 MiG kills), 41Sqn, RAF, RAF Coltishall, Exercise Red Flag 77, during August, at Nellis AFB, Nevada USA.

Details: Modelled as per phase II of its Exercise at at Nellis AFB, playing OPFOR.

Misc: Mr Color and Humbrol Paints, Klear floor polish, Floreys dark dirt wash, Windsor and Newton artists oils, decals a mix of kit and spare decals from a Italeri Jaguar along with the AN/ALQ101 pod

WIP Link: WIP Here

Edited November 25, 2015 by Tim Moff

[Tim Moff]

Kit: 1/72 Airfix RAF Red Arrows Gnat

Subject: Gnat T1 'Aggressor' XR977 '51', 74 Sqn, RAF, RAF Alconbury, 1979

Details: Modelled as per initial stand up of the squadron

Misc: Mr Color, Vallejo, Humbrol Paints, Klear floor polish, Floreys dark dirt wash, Windsor and Newton artists oils, decals a mix of kit and spare decals 1/144 MiG Eduard kits 1/72 Sword Lightning T5, and Revell 1/48 F4D (Mig Kills!)

WIP Link: WIP Here

[Speedman]

1/72 North American A-11A Courser. Build thread.

[Fatboydim]

Fleet Air Arm A-1H Skyraider Tamiya 1/48th scale.

This is the link to the WIP and back story.

Thank you for looking Joe.

[Pin]

On March 14 1960 SAS Boeing 707 en route from New York to Stockholm with refueling stop in London Gatwick was struck by lightning and lost power in three of four engines. The pilots issued "MayDay" and attempted successful emergency water landing in Baltic Sea in proximity of USSR territorial waters, all passengers and crew were eventually picked up by Soviet coast guard and emergency vessels but the plane sunk and was written off as a hull loss.

By that time the only Soviet long range civil type was turboprop Tu-114 derived from Tu-95 bomber. Although being comfortable and reliable the type cruise speed was about Mach 0.71. The development of faster Il-62 was in its early stages therefore the opportunity to study one of the most advanced western types to speed up development was too good to miss. The plane was quickly and secretly salvaged from the bed of relatively shallow Baltic Sea and transferred to Yakovlev design bureau for studying. In September 1960 during the meeting in the Ministry of Aviation Industry Yakovlev mentioned that his bureau could deliver long range jet ariliner prototype based on reverse engineered 707 quicker and cheaper than Ilyushin that had given a green light for copying of 707 as Yak-62 as Il-62 competitor. Indeed, Yak-62 has made its first flight in July 1961 and after completion of state trials was recommended for mass production that begun in late 1962.
Although based on 707 design Yak-62 was not its 100% copy - it was redesigned to comply with Soviet standards, dimensions and manufacturing process that made it 8% heavier than original 707. Soviets decided not to copy RR Convays but use four Kuznetsov NK-9 engines that had similar characteristics but were slightly more fuel hungry. Visually Yak-62 had different nose (early versions even had glass navigator cabin instead of radar), fuselage length, wing profile, cabin window layout, engine pylons and nacelles.
Yak-62 was intended solely for internal use and served long haul routes such as Moscow-Khabarovsk and Moscow-Vladivostok. Unlike Tu-114 and later Il-62 Yak-62 was not considered as "achievement of Socialism" and therefore was not offered for export on international exhibitions. Its western ancestry was the reason of its quick withdrawal from service - although appreciated by passengers and crews alike all 34 of produced machines were replaced by Il-62 in just 15 years.

I once bought a lot on e-bay that contained three airliners I truly wanted to build one day but the fourth was 1/144 Airfix 707. I'm not a big fan of the type and this "WhatIf GB" is perhaps the only chance for it to be built

Thumbs are clickable

WIP:
http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234987859-yakovlev-yak-62-1144/

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Nieuport-Delage NiD-622

EC 4/32, 1940

Kit: Heller

Build Thread: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234990858-wartime-nieuport-delage/

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Hawker Typhoon 1b

79 Sqn, RAAF, February 1945

Kit: Hobby Boss

Build Thread: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234992446-australian-typhoon/

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Supermarine Sea Swift T.8a

Kit: Xtrakit

Build Thread: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234986858-supermarine-sea-swift-t8a/

[Max Headroom]

Canadair Sabre GA.7 Fleet Air Arm Circa 1981

Kit - Academy

Scale - 1/48

Build thread here

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?s=ae07589b4ee9312e1c99427c5e582c9c&app=forums&module=post&section=post&do=edit_post&f=527&t=234986416&p=2062176&st=0&_from=quickedit

Trevor

[raptormodeller]

Spitfire GR.13-A (2011)

Operated by SNAO (Special Naval Air Operations)

Wip thread: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234986719-2011-spitfire-gr13a-update-5-151115/

Kit used: Airfix Spitfire FR.46/47 1:48

'Extras': Bits cut off the tail of the spit. itself, leftover hardpoints, bombs and the cannon from my 1:72 Harrier; 3 scratch built sensors.

Armement: ADEN mk.4 cannon, 3 250 pound POST GPB bombs, 4 AGM-163 'Mother', 1 laser designator, 1 dumb bomb aimer and 1 underwater vibration detector (on the fuselage)

Back story:

At the end of WW2, the big cheeses at the FAA and RAF were suitably impressed by the Hawker Typhoon in its CAS/ground attack role.
This got the FAA and RAF thinking:
- a future war was predictable
- with the advent of the jet-age would these fast jets be adequate at CAS
- CAS would be crucial in a future campaign.
In late 1947 a paper titled "CAS, what is it?" Was published, the MOD thought long and hard; and in 1950 they issued a GOR to Hawker and Supermarine stating: An adequate aircraft highly capable of CAS, ground attack,SEAD, low level penetration, no faster than 500mph, preferably a piston engined aircraft/turboprop and finally would have a very large range of available weapons.
After reading a pretty vague yet direct GOR, Hawker and Supermarine decided to collaberate on the project, they decided to modify the Spitfire and make a naval and airforce version. Supermarine worked on the aerodynamics and general flight charactaristics while Hawker worked on the attack characteristics.
In 1953 the Spitfire FGA.1 along with the Seafire FR.50 took to the skies for te first time together.
The plane was loved by the crews because it flew well, looked good and obliterated anything that was deamed a threat. It was praised so much by the RAF and FAA, that the USA bought 2 squadrons worth of FR.50's, but on a strict contract not to modify nor export the plane.
Thousands (literally) of the type were sold to export.
In 1980 however a new, bigger,badder version of the spitfire was created by BAC: the GR.1. There no longer was a dedicated naval/air force version, the new plane could even be embarked on HMS Invincible. Highly upgraded during its life, it served valiantly in the Falklands,first Gulf war and the Kosovo war. However in 2001 the whole Spitfire force was abruptly disbanded and decommissioned. No grounds for this early retirement was given to the FAA and RAF by the MOD.
Because of this, during op Telic the RAF and FAA screamed at the MOD for a replacement,none came. It took the Afhganistan conflict for the MOD to turn its head and issue a UOR. 1 year later, in 2007 the Spitfire was reborn rather publically at Le Bourget airshow, in the form of GR.13.A. It was another succes, export wise and troop wise. The USAF, rather envious of the new plane upgraded the A10C to A10D, an unofficial arms race is on between the Warthog and the Spitfire.

Glossary:

SNAO: (Special Naval Air Operations) Formed discreetly in 1983 following the Falklands war. This was a highly capable, highly adaptable

special forces squadron operated by pilots from the Fleet Air Arm. Widely considered to have the TOUGHEST selection course in the world.

Usually works behind the scenes, and is always on operations, even in peacetime. It disbanded its GR.13-A Spitfires in 2012 in favour of the specially modified GR.13-B.

POST GPB: (Pure Oxygen Suspended Torpex, General Purpose Bomb) A bomb with pure oxygen bubbles suspended in Torpex to create a larger crater with a smaller bomb. Used solely by special forces (SAOS, SNAO) and can be fitted with a multitude of precision guidance systems.

AGM-163 'Mother': This missile bears an uncanny resemblance to early WW2 rockets. The warhead contains 4 30mm guided rockets, the nose-cone is fired at 2 miles from the target and these rockets ignite and weave their merry way to the target. Allows the pilot to shoot at 4 targets with 1 missile. Used Solely by special forces.

The photos:

Night time operations are frequent within SNAO ranks, see the Spitfire climbing to altitude to drop bombs.

One of the most famous photos of the modern spitfire to date. The spitfire was conducting a show-of-force at night, the event was immortalised by an amateur photogropher.

A Spitfire shortly after take-off at RNAS 'Dale', SNAO's so called secret base due to its relative location in the Yorkshire Dales.

Acknowledgements:

I'd like to say a big thank-you to our lovely hosts Col and Enzo, to Mish for making this possible and to everyone who supported me, helped me for the duration of my first group build! THANKS!!!!

chomp chomp

-raptor

Edited November 29, 2015 by raptormodeller

[Dave_R]

SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE Mk1x (special export)

On November 30th 1939 the Soviet Union invaded Finland. This was seen around the world as an act of aggression and there was general support for the Finnish cause and in particular 8,760 Swedish volunteers went to fight the Soviets. Amongst these volunteers were a group known as the the Swedish Voluntary Air Force. The British government became aware that this unit was being organised at an early stage through Diplomatic and Air Force contacts. As a propaganda and diplomatic gesture the British Government decided to supply this volunteer force with the most advanced fighter then available, the Spitfire.

12 serviceable Spitfires were selected and on the 14th of December they were flown to Malmo via Denmark. RAF support crew and Supermarine and Rolls Royce engineers followed in a Sunderland. Once there the RAF pilots began the conversion training of the Swedish pilots and the ground support crew began training their counterparts.

The engineers began the fitting of skis to the aircraft. As there was no time to develop any kind of retraction mechanism for the skis, engineers simply took the existing skis from Swedish Air Force Gladiators and replaced the Spitfire’s wheels with them, and removed the undercarriage doors. Obviously this adversely affected performance both in terms of drag and the maximum safe G, but this still left the Spitfire with a major performance advantage in speed and firepower over the Gladiator - if not in manoeuvrability.

The necessary work was completed and by January 7th the newly formed Flygflottilj 19 had deployed to Kemi in Finland. The unit returned to Sweden having made a significant contribution to the defence of Finland.

Dave.

[Dave_R]

BOULTON PAUL SEA DEFIANT Mk1

On 31 December 1935, the British Air Ministry issued Specification O.30/35 for a carrier-based turret-armed fighter. Blackburn proposed a derivative of the Skua, to be called the Roc (a large mythical bird - that was probably quite slow flying and relatively harmless - and butt ugly), while Boulton Paul proposed a version of its land-based Defiant turret fighter. As the "Sea Defiant" was clearly the superior aircraft naturally it was chosen. It went on to do useful service combating German Condors and U-boats in the North Atlantic.

Dave.

[Pin]

Royal Navy Rafale
Italeri 1/72

Clicky:



Story and WIP
http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234990928-two-rafales-royal-navy-and-ukrainian-af

Ukrainian AF Rafale

Italeri 1/72

Clicky:


Story and WIP
http://www.britmodel...nd-ukrainian-af

NB: These are two entries, I tried to submit two posts but the forum engine merges them together.

[Dermo245]

Royal Navy Tornado of 892 Naval Air Squadron, HMS Ark Royal, 1980.

Thanks to Col and Enzo for hosting and it's been fun!

To recap:

Kits: 1/72 Airfix Tornado (fuselage/undercarriage) & 1/72 Revell F-18A Hornet (wings, tails and stabilators)

Build and Backstory: Here

Decals: Matchbox F-4 Phantom of 892 NAS donated by Tim Moff (cheers Tim!) and stencils from Airfix kit.
Paints: Revell Acrylics brush painted, White from a rattlecan, Klear, Flory Models Wash.

Extras: Stores from spares box and/or source kits

Edited November 30, 2015 by Dermo245