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Hi all, Here is another candidate of my "Never ending projects" collection, a whatif conversion based on Testors F-117A model with 3D printed parts. I found this kit in my kit junkyard while I was looking for some parts. I decided to convert it to F-117N which looks to me nicer than the original F-117A. Although some parts are missing the main parts are there to launch this conversion: As usual I started with the drawings: The conversion looks not so complicated as I will not modify the lower side shape. Next step is to start the butchery... Serkan

Once I decided to build The Trident and bought old Airfix kit on eBay, but it happened to be incomplete. After I contacted the seller he sent me another, this time complete kit so I ended up with 1.1/2 kits of Trident. I have started building it as per https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235016958-1144-airfix-hawker-siddley-trident-hs-dh but it ended on the shelf of doom. Recently I rediscovered the box with parts, sanding here, rescribing there and all of a sudden I found myself in full steam ahead Trident building mode again, so the pictures will soon follow in the thread mentioned. I thought 'what could I do with remaining half of the kit, I have a body but no wings, engines or stabiliser. So the idea came up that immediately started to being realised. The legend so far, I will polish it later: during the development of Trident 3 there was an attempt to avoid installing of boost engine, one of possible ways to solve the problem was forward swept wing configuration that allowed higher takeoff angles of attack. One of Trident 1Cs was modified and took to the sky. The results of trials were very promising until 12th flight when the test article crashed during landing (no fatalities). The investigation has shown that the reason of the crash was torsional fatigue of the wing roots. the problem that was not solvable that time. Eventually 4th 'boost' engine was installed to what eventually become Trident 3.

By the end of WW2 Britain was heavily involved in U.S. weaponry research, including the Manhattan Project, therefore "The British Bomb" seemed just a matter of time. However it is not enough just to have the bomb, there must be means of delivery that Britain lacked; Lancasters and Lincolns did not have the range and imminent death of piston propulsion for strategic bombers seemed obvious. Americans suggested a share in Convair B-36 development that was rejected because there was already a programme in Britain that eventually resolved into civilized Bristol Brabazon airliner. Flying Wing scheme was the area of particular interest for British aircraft designers however all proposals of cooperation with Jack Northrop had been rejected. The only outcome from these talk was his reluctant agreement to transfer all the documentation for German Arado E.555 project obtained when its design bureau was captured by the allies in the spring of 1945. These documents were not of particular interest for Northrop, who thought that his studies of Flying Wing scheme were far more advanced, but the British have obtained a practical design that had satisfied most of the requirements for future strategic bomber. Short Brothers were awarded a contract to adopt the design to British Rolls Royce Stour engine - a derivative of Nene that was developed in parallel with Avon. Stours had much better characteristics than German BMW 018, therefore the number of engines were reduced from six to four. Engines were moved from pylons above the centre section inside the lifting body that seriously reduced the drag and improved mass balance. As a result the design promised the speed exceeding 600 MPh and range over 4500 miles - outstanding characteristics that exceeded all existing aircraft of its time. The defense armament included two remotely controlled cannons in nacelles under each of wide spread fins. The bomb bay was large enough to accommodate "The Deep Purple" - early British plutonium bomb design which name became wide known only after an unknown guy Ritchie Blackmore had found a rock band in 1968. The first prototype of Short Vanguard, as the new plane was named, had competed its maiden flight in January 1946 when it become evident that with capitulation of Japan and the end of WW2 the "special" relationship between U.S. and U.K, are no longer that "special" and the Americans were not eager to share nuclear secrets with British. "Deep Purple" programme had morphed into "Blue Danube" - much larger weapon that no longer fitted into Vanguard's bomb bay. One year later in January 1947 B.35/46 specification was issued by the Air Ministry that had effectively marked the end of Short Vanguard as a strategic weapon platform, after the first flight of Valiant in 1951 the order for 25 Vanguards was cancelled with only five airframes delivered. There were attempts to reassign Vanguard to the roles of front line bomber or maritime reconnaissance and patrol however these niches were already taken by Canberra and Shackleton respectively. The built airplanes were offered to Australia and ferried to Fiji with their upper sides repainted from 'atomic' white to camouflage, however by 1957 all the remaining planes were scrapped. Despite its outstanding performance characteristics the Vanguard was a failure, although many researchers agree that the main cause of its demise was its German roots, as many in Air ministry believed that 'the British bomb must be dropped from the British bomber'.

Hi folks, After what has been a very protracted build, I present my attempt at the whatif He277B-1. The backstory was going to involve the DB610 engine being made to work, followed by German aspirations for something that could carry a heavier payload further than a He177. During the course of the build, I realised that the Airfix '177 cowlings were significantly smaller than those of the Revell kit. I therefore now think this was merely an attempt to reengine the '177 with smaller engines that actually worked. Backstory aside, here is my cut n shut, comprised of 2 Airfix He 177s, a butchered Revell He 177A-6 rear section of considerably reduced height and 2 upside down E-2C fins. Both fuse and wings have been extended and the armament system has been upgraded. Hope you like it: regards, Martin

Surprise surprise I have decided to do a second build for this GB….as if the first one won’t be big enough! This is sort of going to be an out of the box build….maybe, so I wanted something simple and fun and quick to build. Well it’s simple if you call 300+ bit simple, but I have just been dying to build this one ever since I got it. So today while busy on my now enormous list of projects the idea for this build just hit and of cause I couldn’t resist. So the story basically…. In 2020 the Australian government issued a defence department white paper on the future of the Australian Defence Forces and their future defence role in South East Asia and the South Pacific. This paper outlines the forces new structures and future procurements for all three services. This paper also took into account the disastrous Air Force procurement of the F-35 Lightning II of which only 5 were delivered before the whole project collapsed nearly taking with it the US defence Industry! Along with the introduction and delivery of the first of the new Sorya class submarines, which were a joint venture between Australia and Japanese companies Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation. With the F-35 program now in freefall the first Squadron of the interim Eurofighter Typhoon’s was about to enter service, these being loan aircraft for the RAF & Luftwaffe until production aircraft arrived. The big success story for the government was the submarine joint venture that produced a revolutionary Diesel Electric submarine that was on time and budget. With the success of this venture new military joint projects were looked into with these Japanese partners for the army and air force as well. One of these was for the replacement of the army’s fleet of Recon/Cavalry ASLAV’s, which were coming to the end of their life spans. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries proposed another revolutionary design, which was just about to go into service with the Japanese Defence Forces. This vehicle was the first of a series of Hybrid AVF designs that combined Typical AFV design with advanced Robotics, resulting in an AFV that was half tank and half robot! This new vehicle, the MTU3804 – Gunhed was a completely unique design with state or the art components, a Hydrogen Fuel Cell engine, Nano Crystal Ceramic armour, Electro Pulse 20mm Case-less cannon just to name a few. Contracts were signed for the MTU3804 late 2022 with production starting in Australia under license the following year. With the success and completion of trails in October 2024, full production was entered into with an initial run of 100 Gunheds planned. This was all to change with the fall of the Indonesian Government late 2024 to radical ethnic groups within the archipelago which was bring the whole region to the brink of war. To help secure its northern boarders the Australia government rushed advanced units of the Army and Navy to Papua New Guinea and Timor. With these advance units was 2 Cavalry which was the first unit in the Australia Army to be out fitted with the new MTU3804 Gunheds. So I have the model, I have the story (plenty of room to add so many more Whiff’s…if only I had the time), let the fun begin!

YEEEEEHAAAA it’s finally here, though it seems to have taken forever!! At one stage I was going to build the Arado Ar-234 P5 “Turbo-Prop” Nightfighter for this build but after seeing some of the parts I didn’t think I would be able to complete it in the time available (even though the build seems to be just falling together). Then I happened to see some amazing profiles by the artist Logan Hartke and I just fell in love with the ones of the B-51 Panther, which are based on the Martin XB-51. So after a couple of e-mails to him I had his blessing to use one of the photos as the basis for the build. Actually he was very excited to see someone actually try to bring this design to life. So the base of the build will be Anigrands XB-51! I had hoped to have had Collect-Aires 1/48th version (I will build one as soon as I can get one) as trust me it would have been an easier build than the Anigrand one….more later. The new nose and canopy(?) will be from an Italeri B-57G along with a couple of other bits supplied from it as well. Plus just to give myself a little bit more work a 1/72nd Master M61 Vulcan rotary cannon will be fitted to the weapons bay as per the Pave Gat program originally fitted to a couple B-57G’s in Vietnam in 1968. Finally she’ll be finished in RAAF colours for SEA operations around 1971. Work required; · Ok the Anigrand base model is horrible! All four sections of the fuselage were and still are warped, even a nice warm bath didn’t work, I think it made it worse! So lots of work there. · Main wheel well bays need to be rebuilt, are warped. · Completely new cockpit to be built. · Canopy will either be from the B-57 donor or a F-4E · Modernise the XB-51 airframe · Get carried away with any additional mods I always end up doing!!! Well I have my work cut out for this one……but am so excited I can’t wait!!! Oh the aircrafts full title is Martin B-51G Panther Tropic Moon III wt Pave Gat. The actual Tropic Moon III program started in 1967 as a result of operational requirements in Vietnam. Have managed to get the original de-classified documents for the program which is really cool and very helpful!

Ok I’m the first to admit I am totally mad and this build will prove it! My work pattern has changed so I will have more time for models!!! So rather than signing up for more GB’s…or actually completing the ones I’ve signed up for on time I decided I needed a new long-term project. The Heinkel He-177Z was a long term project which I loved so instead of building the bigger one I have gone for this project which I had mentioned a few times. I love the look and it’s super cool, plus a nightfighter as well! I had received all the bits sometime ago but after a quick look at them I got very scared!! The reason for this is the add on bits from Unicraft!!! The parts may be a little bit basic which is to say they are basically lumps of resin and not much else! So the basis for the build will be Hasegawa’s 1/48th Arado Ar-234C-3 which will provide the body, interior and undercarriage, though it will probably end up providing a of other bits as well! The wings from Antares are nice and need little work to fit my build. The engines or turbo-props are barely recognisable as engine parts and as can be seen I have had to add sheet plastic to help build them up so they at least may be round in shape! They even come with an internal engine sections if I wanted to leave the engine covers open…or should I say a blob to match the rest of the engine blob! The new nose is….well more or less useless, as can be seen from the photo is much smaller than the canopy section. The mod kit is for the Hobby Craft Arado Ar-234 which is completely the wrong in the nose section compared to the Hasegawa model, it’s way too narrow! So I can either modify the clear section which is pretty well impossible or completely build a new nose section! Plus all the other bits in this mod kit are pretty well useless as well, I will have to use most of the kit parts for this build! I will either have to modify the resin bits I have or make a completely nose section, which at the moment looks to be the easiest path! So I have pretty well given myself a not so easy task for this build. Whether I complete this build or if it is destine for the box of doom is something to be decided as the build progresses. For a start I need to get these engines at least round in profile, hence the addition of card to the engine bodies and spinners. If I can get these sorted there may be a possibility this project will get going. Once the main bodies are round in profile I can work on the nose cones and props. Once these are done I can then start to work on how they will mount to the swept back wings, custom mounts will be needed for this. So this is going to be a crazily big project, nothing that will be completed in a couple of months for sure! Again I must be completely crazy to attempt this build, I had planned it for the WhatIf III GB, but given the work required it’s not possible in the time given. So this Christmas or next I’m not sure when it will be finished so welcome aboard on this crazy adventure. So welcome along for the ride, it will be bumpy and the driver will curse at regular intervals....oh and regular updates are not included!

Ok this wasn't going to be a project but after a few conversations with the person who drew these amazing pictures it's now become the next big project. This thread won't be the build thread but more a place for the idea/plan to mature. It'll either be in the Non-Injected or WhatIf GB........or I won't/can't wait and I'll start it early!! So it was inspired by these amazing profiles, specifically those of the B-51 (XB-51) shown below. I contacted the artist about them and it sort of went from there. He mentioned that there had been a bit of chat about building one but so far I’m the first person to actually take it the next step and attempt to build it. He’s dying to see the finished product......so no pressure on me!!! Well the Israeli version was the one I found the most interesting, but the nose of the second one I liked as well. So the plan was hatched to combine them both and build a precision strike aircraft for the Israeli air force. I also have another project that I’ve shown here for a RAAF Skyshark operating in Vietnam. That really got me thinking these past couple of days and now I finally have a plan!!! I’m chasing a 1/48 Collect-Aire XB-51, so I may get to do both eventually! So a real “WhatIf” scenario..... The Martin XB-51 was given the go ahead over the EE Canberra as the USAF’s new ground attack aircraft. The Australian government at this was also looking at a replacement for the Avro Lincoln bombers, and with strengthening ties to the US chose the B-51 over the Canberra. The contract also allowed for the aircraft to be built locally, with the first aircraft entering service in late 1953, initially seeing action in the Malayan Emergency. In 1967 in response to the request of the US, 2 Sqn sent a detachment of aircraft to Vietnam, primarily for bombing missions over the southern region, where they were commended for their performance. No.2 Sqn were deployed again in 1971 again in bombing support missions as well as a new ground attack role. For this the RAAF were supplied under a lend-lease arrangement 6 new “Tropic Moon III” B-51G’s, which had a modified nose containing FLIR, LLTV and laser designator. Plus one special Pave Gat modified aircraft that was fitted with a single M61 20mm cannon mounted in an Emerson TAT-161 turret fitted to a modified bomb bay. These aircraft were deployed to help combat the movement of enemy troop and supplies along the Ho Chi Min trail and other areas. Though not 100% successful at this task when compared to the AC-130’s, these aircraft served the rest of their time in Vietnam in this role carrying out over 12000 sorties for the loss of only two aircraft. On return to Australia they served with No’s 1 & 6Sqn until the last was retired in 1982, they were ultimately replaced by the North American A-5C & RA-5C Vigilante (can see another project here!). So this one is going to be one of the Tropic Moon B-51G’s, maybe even the Pave Gat one. I’ll be using a Anigrand XB-51 as the base and pinching the nose and other bits off an old B-57G I have, plus whatever else I can find in the spares box or on Evilbay which will suit the build. The scheme will be standard USAF SEA colours, it’s a “lend-lease” aircraft with RAAF 2Sqn markings. The only thing I felt that wasn’t quite right with the nose of the USAF B-51 was the angle of the radome and chin pod, they seem to be facing too far down. So a quick visit in Photoshop and a nose job later...... I have since been talking to the artist and he has mentioned that there is a RAAF version coming up, but it will be the “Avon” version with the side by side cockpit. So now if I can just hold off.............

As if I didn't have enough to do I've decided to do a quick.......sort of, project. This one has been on my mind since I saw a picture of another one in a similar scheme. But for mine it will be done as a RAAF close-air support version. The model is actually quite a simple one and for the most part everything is clean and quite well moulded. The fuselage isn’t warped though there were some minor issues with the tail, some filler and plastic plus elbow grease sorted that out quickly. The wings were ok apart from some bubbles in the tips and the inner leading edge has some moulding issues. Everything else just needed a cleanup....though the ejector seat is for the bin...way too small and dodgy! All the main bits go together quickly and will need only just a wee bit of filler. The cockpit interior is pretty much hidden once the canopy is on so I won’t be spending too much time on that! As much as I said it will be a simple quick build I am thinking of a couple of modes, have found a avionics “hump” from a Skyhawk and am thinking of modifying to fit. Late series avionics upgrade?? Plus the canopy I don’t like much, so any wondering if I can graft something else on?? Plus lots a weapons as well, these things had/were planned to have up 24 weapons stations/pylons!!!!! Anyway will see how the build progresses before I go too far.

Ok it looks like I'm starting... well finishing a project/build I started about 15 years ago. Thanks to Nigel’s inspiration I’ve finally decided to drag this old beast out....was planning the build the Skyshark, but this’ll now have to wait a bit. As said this was started many years ago, but stalled because one of the engines went missing....either the cat eat it or SWMBO Mk. I threw it out! So it went to the rather large box of doom sort of forgotten. So after seeing Nigel’s wonderful build I just had to dig it out and try to finish it. A quick check of the parts showed that there was more than an engine missing, luckily these are all undercarriage doors. So after a bit of thought and half an hour of gluing my fingers together here’s what I’ve got, not much but a good base to proceed, a slap of filler and presto the second engine........well almost. As mentioned in the header this one will be modified, a modified WhatIf.....not sure what you call that! Anyway I will be mounting the engines on the top of the wings, roughly halfway between the centreline the indentation in the trailing edge. Engine layouts like the Horten 229, though not as flush as, a much more sensible layout than having one underneath acting as a giant Hoover! This well be a sort of longer term project, in between other builds, there’s not too much to done so hopefully won’t take too long to complete!

Ok here we go, after much talking and boasting in the WhatIf III GB chat, I’ve finally plastic where my mouth is and started building “The Beast!” As we all know the WhatIf III GB didn’t get up, missed by that much, but I just couldn’t let such a good idea go unbuilt.........ask me latter next year as to how much of a good idea it was! This will be the first of two grand builds using the He-177 as a base, the second WILL be the “Amerika” bomber! For those that hadn’t seen the chat, this was a “Zwilling” version of the Heinkel He-177 Grief, a three (tripe DB-810 or six DB-605’s) engine monster designed for long range anti-shipping duties. Fitted out with advanced attack radars (nose and tail), guided munitions, and for the up close and personnel stuff a pair of 50mm cannons! Due to my very limited free time this will probably be quite a slow build and build updates only once a month, so please be patient. There will be a full story to go with this, as per all WhatIf’s and will be included in the final build photo.......or earlier if I’m too bored on shift. Ok lets go..... 1, do some crazy mock-up drawings so at least we have a plan to work to.... 2, then take two plain ordinary Revell He-177’s 3, measure up and cut (measure multiple times, cut, find unexpected gap, add filler and plastic plug,......figure out latter there was a better way to have done this the required no filler!! ) So the centre section is done but there will be quite a bit more added. I need a radiator for this engine, plus want to add a weapons pylon. So I’ll be adding a section behind the engine where the radiator will be housed, plus a “special weapons” pylon! Possible “mini nuclear carrier killer” missile or a heavier anti-shipping missile.......to be decided on and sourced. Have modified the rudders so I can fit the gun turret and radar radome, plus started putting together the control cockpit, will start the radar/weapons control cockpit once Santa has left! 4, admire handwork....and wonder what have I gotten myself into!! Just a couple of photos to show how big she will be.........rather large I think!!! Oh and there will be a couple of Junkers Jumo 004's to be mounted in the insides on the lower sections on the cockpit area, just for more power!

To all, After finishing the Fouga (still brings a tear!!) and between F-15 Eagle and !/144 Group builds, here is a retro take on a modern Russian fighter. Following the worldwide financial crisis the Russian President adjusts his Defence spending, in order to meet these new targets the Airforce cancel the PAK-FA project before its first flight and it diverts the cut down budget and new technology to help bring the S-37 from Tech Demonstrator to front-line fighter. In doing so the Russian's become the first Airforce to operate a supersonic swept forward fighter in daily frontline operations. This pleases the Russian President and he increases spending again.....The End As always all comments welcome, the scheme is a nod towards the old " Flagon" colour scheme and was painted using a Humbrol 11 rattle can and hairy stick application of various other enamels with a final drizzle of Tamiya Flat varnish to seal the lot. Photobucket is creating snags will post more images soon....sorted