Bungled

It's a Whif (modern day Coast Guard decals) As for the MPM Lodestar I believe I've got one in the stash..... somewhere...... among 700 collecting dust. Ho hum.

Another little one I forgot to post. This is the Italeri Hudson kit which I intended to make OOB Coastal Command. Then I noticed the blanking plate and solid nose options (for something planned in the future by Italeri ?) Any way I put them to good use with the decals from a Cosat Guard Blackhawk.....

It's been a few years since I posted anything here but I was clearing a few shelves and found this Eduard weekend kit of the Bf-110C/D which I'd had a little play about with. I noticed I'd never 'published' it on any of the forums so here it is my three engined bf-110.

I have many thoughts, most of the clean ones are 'What if....' and quite a few of them are putting non British aircraft into British guise. Checking back through the mirad of completed kits, yes I did a Navalised FAA A-10.... Would be nice to see an RAF version as well ! Andy

PM sent about the Draken book.

And there's more ! Still on the Sci-Fi theme what if Gerry Anderson's Angel interceptor sprouted wheels and a tail-hook ? What If #10 The Supermarine Spectrum F.1 Kit is obviously the Airfix 'Captain Scarlet' Angel Interceptor. Undercarriage and wheels from the spares box, wing fold courtesy of a sharp knife.

My ramblings continue..... One of the very good things about What if is there is no line between What If and Science Fiction. I rarely stray from modelling in 1/72ns scale mainly as I don't have the space to display anything bigger. I did dabble for a short time in 1/144 but found that my fat fingers meant that the Carpet Monster saw more of the parts than I did. One year I was given a kit with no scale. If it had been 1/72nd I'd probably be needing a bigger room (!). It's an instantly recogniseable shape but some how I thought it needed to get out of green and into something more snazzy. What If #9 Armstrong-Whitworth Anderson C.1 'Tracey' Kit was the Imai Thunderbird 2, the 'trucks' are converted from the 'Mole' and other Thunderbird vehilces and the missiles are from the LS 1/144th ordnance set,

I've never really been interested in Civil 'stuff' in the past. Never liked all those windows with nothing to see through them. However, certain kits lend themselves to be de-militarised (if there is such a word) The Bloch in my 'Part 5' thread had enough windows to make it workable. Fill in a few turrets and Bob's your Mum's brother you never see because he lives in Canada, you have an airliner. This next one is even simpler though the basic model itself is certainly not. What If #8 The Vickers VC.11 Valet, the civil version of the Valetta. Kit is the Airmodel vacuform with the Merlin nacels from the Modelcraft Wellington mk.II

Previous comments on my other posts have mentioned imagination, well sometimes you look at a 'nothing' kit and then inspiration. What-if #7 British European Airways Bloch MB-200 short haul airliner. Ok I know the British European Airways colours are the 1960's style but then this is a What-if. So what-if BEA had formed in the mid-1930's and what-if the BEA colours had been the Red/White/Black rather than the earlier Silver/Red and What-if the Bloch MB-200 was the best inter-war twelve seater airliner around. Kit is the KP Aero MB-200 (1/72nd scale) suitably 'civilised' Ladder and steps scratch built, the cart came from the Japanese re-fueller set. Decals are inkjet printed on decal paper and a nightmare ! Living near Gatwick, I spent a lot of my youth 'plane spotting' in the days when you could get within touching distance of the aircraft. The BEA colours are still my favourte closely followed by Dan Air which may be making an appearance tomorrow.

Looking forward to this, the skyshark is one of my favourite aircraft never to see service (and the Anigrand kit is very good indeed).

Rummaging in my old photo files I found another Japanese jet that I did built many years ago. 1946.... America still did not have the A bomb and Japan had not quite been forced back to the home islands. The skies were full of the me262 inspired Kikka and the me163 like Shusui. The Imperial Japanese Navy need their own jet powered reconnaissance seaplane and thanks to a bit of espionage and help from the still non-belligerent Soviets they got it, the Kawanishi E17K1 Navy Experimental 21-Shi 'Takumi'.(Open Sky) Kit is a 1/72nd PM Yak-15 from the spares box with the floats from a 1/75th Hasegawa Mitsubishi F1M2 'Pete'. Canopy also from the spares box. Cannot take credit for the idea - saw a 1/48th version somewhere on the 'net and to the maker of which I give my veneration.

See I knew I should have slung a couple of underwing tanks on it. Still at least it's fuelled the debate

You'll excuse me if I continue with my musings. Not all What-ifs are intended, some come about by accident. A case in point is the A&V resin model of the Tachikawa Ki-94 . Ok so the ki-94 in itself could be called a What-if in so much as the design never left the drawing board. The push pull twin prop arrangement was deemed to complex and the ki-94 development team turned the design into a single engined high altitude fighter coded the ki-94-II. This is my original kit of the ki-94.. Now enter into the mix one large tabby moggie that likes to go where he's not supposed. Least said I'm sure you can work out the scenario for yourself, cat, shelf, model, cat moves, model moves, cat jumps, model falls, cat lands gracefully, model ..... doesn't. Now as a youngster my big brother warned me about the monster under the bed, my mother said there was no such things as monsters and I believed her. I now realise the monster wasn't under the bed it was the carpet. To this day I have yet to find the front prop from the crashed Ki-94. I have searched, I have cleaned up, I've even changed furniture but three bladed prop ? No where to be seen. So what to do ? I had in the spares box the nose of an Academy F-86 and the tail pipe of some unknown yet. A quick bit of surgery so low and behold the ki-94-I What If #5 Tachikawa Ki-94-I Raiju (Thunder Beast) Mind you it wouldn't get very far the jet blast would probably melt the tail plane !

Ok Part three of my (historical) What-ifs. This was my first-ever (other than accidental) what-if and dates from 2001. It is on a plinth because I was displaying it at a local model show, however, it was not received very well. A lot of unimaginative souls pointed out that the seating is where the fuel tank would have been. Also the decals are that of a Ju-86 (well of course did they expect me to hand craft them? er yes they did). So I felt totally deflated and have never 'shown' a model since. The thought behind this What if was from the Robert Harris novel 'Fatherland' - in there it mentions government officials getting a fast flight to Switzerland ..... What-if #4 Dornier do-335P Operated by Lufthansa the do-335P was a specially converted four seater VIP transport. Kit is (was) the Revell Dornier Do-335 A-1 in 1/72

Purely unintentional I'm afraid. Really hate doing bare metal as I'm a brush painter. Should stick to easier paint schemes like as per the Grumman Panthère below Kit is the Revell ex-matchbox Panther (I like suez stripes by the way !)

Following on from the positive response of my initial 'What-if speculations' I'd like to present another little item for your consideration. Unlike the last thread this has not had major surgery - it's an 'out-of-the-box' build with the addition of different underwing toys. What-if #2 Grumman Cougar F.1a As a stop gap to replace the Supermarine Swift and the delayed Hawker Hunter, the RAF turned to the US to supply interceptor aircraft. No.56 Squadron 'The Firebirds' were the first to receive the new Cougar F.1a Kit is the Hasegawa Grumman Cougar in 1/72nd

Unfortunately that's probably my best effort to date, certainly the best photography anyway. I will be posting a few more and thank you all for your comments.

Please, you will have to excuse the following meandering posts they are here for a reason, perhaps not for best of reasons either. I apologise in advance as I am posting basically to get my post count up ! I recently tried to purchase a kit from the Sales thread but not having very many posts I found the thread locked out to me. The seller, obviously suspicious of a lurker, wanted re-assurances but it seems that the best re-assurance is for me to come out of the shadows and post some of my work. I am a lurker, in the true sense of the word. I spend a lot of time looking at the exceptional quality of the work done by members on the forum. It is art, it is craft and it is fantastic and that is also the reason why I never submitted anything in the past - my stuff could never be that good, shameful in fact. I do modelling for my own relaxation devoting a minimum of an hour a day to de-stress myself. Not quite 60 I have made the move from an active sports life to painful arthritis from playing injuries and two major operations. Sitting in front of the TV may not drive me mad but my wife, well that's a different, she'd rather I was active in someway. I am a member of a well known What-if forum so some of these are already 'out-there'. I will keep using BM as my inspiration and hope the following what-ifs are acceptable. What-if #1 Westland / Grumman F7F-5P Bosscat PR.4 Westland had over estimated the Navy's desire for the Wyvern and had a stockpile of Armstrong Siddeley Python engines and initial considered re-launching the cancelled TF.2 converting it to a photo reconnaissance version. But in a bizarre link up with Grumman, Westland were given several airframes from the Tigercat (F7F-3) project that was scaling down. Unfortunately the F7F-3 was a single seater and the RN's specification required a twin seater. Westland got around this by extending the nose and lengthening the wingspan Kit is 1/72 scale (as are all my kits bar a very few) Monogram Tigercat, the extended front fuselage is a balsa wood plug as are the engine cowling extensions. Props are from two old Novo Wyverns. Very rarely do I get the photography right - I wish I could remember how I did this ! Andy (aka Bungle)