Fifer54 Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Some time ago, for a group build elsewhere, I built this: It's the De Havilland Dagenham (2 stops past Barking!) emergency heavy bomber, developed from their new Mosquito as a makeshift aircraft following the destruction by the Luftwaffe of all of Britain's bomber-producing aircraft manufacturers. The design obviously had potential, and by the time that the invasion of Japan (Operation Scorched Earth) was being planned in 1946 after the failure of the American atomic bomb project, the development of a long-range, mixed-power strategic fighter was well under way. Use was made of German gas turbine research, which was combined with the superior Allied metallurgical technology to produce reliable and long-lasting axial-flow turbojets for use in this aircraft and others. The fighter version was officially named "Bisquito" after the Dagenham's nickname, place names being reserved for bombers. The De Havilland Dagenham can be found at http://www.britmodel...topic=234913952 Kits:2x Airfix Mosquitos, 1x SMER Me262. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Ohhhh, Wicked!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 What a great idea - and brilliantly executed Gaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Well the bomber version captures the right look about it so the fighter is promises to be a cracking bit of equipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 That's superb! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 3 kits for one build? It's crazy and I like it! Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fifer54 Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 (edited) The GPO has today delivered the 3 victims subjects for this build, all bought secondhand from KingKit (other pre-owned kit dealers are available!) Here is the box shot: The kits were actually chosen for their cheap availability, rather than their quality! The 262 will donate its engine nacelles for the jet power units, and the Mossies will create the airframe. Because the fighter (actually more of a a Strike aircraft than a fighter) will want the capability to loiter near targets and will need to cruise economically for long distances, I think it will need 2 Merlins, mounted in a central nacelle, either geared together to drive contra-rotating propellors, or in a tractor/pusher arrangement. The latter design would probably require a tricycle undercarriage . . . It will also need to carry lots and lots of weapons, and lots and lots of fuel . . .( , wingtip tanks?) Sprue shots: Yes, those are both of the Mossie kits! No, not really, it's one pic of one kit, repeated! Roll on tomorrow, and a start to this project! Edited October 6, 2012 by MadNurseGaz 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 A jet-propelled twin Mossie!?! Fantastic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pte1643 Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 It's the De Havilland Dagenham (2 stops past Barking!) Strictly speaking Becontree is 2 stops past Barking. I know, I know... TAXI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fifer54 Posted October 6, 2012 Author Share Posted October 6, 2012 Well, the red lights have gone out, and we're under way! I opened the box of the second Mossie kit and found these . . . Yes, some previous owner has started the kit. Luckily it doesn't make much difference to my plans, Muuaaaaahahahahaha! There aren't many occasions in plastic modelling when one needs a Dremel-type tool but for rapid removal of large amounts of plastic, they're hard to beat! I had a 1-and-a-half-hour modelling session this morning and was able to carry out most of the major surgery involved in this project. That includes amputating two wings to create the stub centre section that carries the piston engines . . . and removing the piston engine nacelles from the other wings to make way for the turbojets from the Messerschmitt 262. Treated wing on the left! These nacelles will be mounted backwards, although the engines inside them are the right way round! (Anything else would be silly!!!) This is purely for ease of fitting, as the leading edge taper on the 'Schmitt wing is a good match for the trailing edge taper on the Mossie! Finally, the stub wings and a Merlin nacelle were assembled to create the core of the Bisquito airframe, this . . . And that's it for the moment! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 I'm disappointed by the box shots - I was hoping you were doing this in 1/24.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fifer54 Posted October 6, 2012 Author Share Posted October 6, 2012 I'm disappointed by the box shots - I was hoping you were doing this in 1/24.... If I'd been thinking that way, I'd probably end up building it full size "for real"- It'd be cheaper, and no more difficult to store! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 I'm disappointed by the box shots - I was hoping you were doing this in 1/24.... If I'd been thinking that way, I'd probably end up building it full size "for real"- It'd be cheaper, and no more difficult to store! Wasn't there some loon who was planning a Zwilling using the Revell 1/32 Heinkel? Whatever happened to that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wbk666 Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 i'll be watching this with interest. i'd be happy just to build the kits LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fifer54 Posted October 6, 2012 Author Share Posted October 6, 2012 (edited) i'll be watching this with interest. i'd be happy just to build the kits LOL I understand what you're saying. The Bisquito is a bit mad, innit? To tell the truth, I'd like to see someone else's take on the same concept. Will anyone take up the gauntlet and build Bisquito F.Mk.2,, with the same airframe concept, 3 Merlins (or other suitable piston engines of your choosing?), for use in the European Theatre (or North Africa/Middle East) as a Shturmovik by the Western Allies (or whatever purpose you can think of!). In the Bisquito's world, specially modified Bisquitos equipped with Highball weapons (4 each!) carried out Operation Chastise (the Dams raid) in April 1944, and there's a model waiting to be built . . . My current model will have 2 tandem-mounted Rolls-Royce Merlins driving contra-rotating propellors via a gearbox, and 2 Rolls-Royce Rhein 104 turbojets (developed from the Junkers Jumo 004). The early Rolls-Royce axial flow turbojets, the Rhein, Donau and Moselle, were all developed from the early German turbojets whose reliability and longevity suffered as a result of inadequate metallurgical technology. R-R applied the metallurgical science used in the Whittle centrifugal gas turbines to achieve reliability in the axial engines . . . Edited October 6, 2012 by MadNurseGaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fifer54 Posted October 9, 2012 Author Share Posted October 9, 2012 This is slowly progressing. Work keeps getting in the way! The tandem-Merlin nacelle is under construction, cement drying ready for filler to plug all the gaps. Both engines will drive a contraprop via gearing. That's why I felt I could get away with not aligning them! Speaking of getting away with it, I thought long and hard about the plane's undercarriage-should it be tricycle or taildragger? how could it be constucted. I finally decided that the undercarriage, unlike the DH Dagenham's triple units in the engine nacelles,would be fitted in the fuselages, roughly at the front end of where the bomb bay is in the bomber. I also further decided that I would build my model in flight and sidestep the issue entirely! The design of the jet engine installation is done as well. I abandoned the idea of mounting the nacelles backwards, hanging out of the trailing edge, after I saw how well they fitted the right way round Just needs fairing in with filler now. Ah,well, let the filler-fest begin!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fifer54 Posted October 12, 2012 Author Share Posted October 12, 2012 Just a quick report to say that not much has happened except for a LOT of filling and sanding, and more filling and some wet sanding, and more filling. There should be some progress to report before long . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fifer54 Posted October 13, 2012 Author Share Posted October 13, 2012 Manufacture of the individual sub-assemblies is proceeding. Here are the wings The central "Double-Merlin" nacelle on the new centre-section now looks like this But (I think) the best thing is that the jet engines look as if they really belong there! The wingtip tanks are just an anonymous pair I found in the spares box. Tip tanks seemed appropriate for the Bisquito, and these looked right and fitted well, so on they went! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessica Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 Might I recommend that you reverse that aft carburettor intake? It's not going to get a lot of air when it's pointed aft like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neal Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 Looking good, looks like it was designed for jets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 The jet engine pods and tip tanks certainly look right there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fifer54 Posted October 15, 2012 Author Share Posted October 15, 2012 Crew are ready to board . . . The other fuselage is closed up now, getting ready to stop looking like parts for 2 mosquitos soon. Got to think about finishing. This aircraft was intended for use in the closing stages of the Pacific War and the invasion of Japan, so perhaps it should be finished as a USMC mud mover, or should it have standard SEAC camo, or given that the timescale is delayed from the actual WW2 timeline, how about MSG/PRU blue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 The MSG/PRU Blue sounds good but may be worth checking out the planned schemes for Tiger Force aircraft as some alternatives Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devilfish Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 The early Rolls-Royce axial flow turbojets, the Rhein, Donau and Moselle, were all developed from the early German turbojets whose reliability and longevity suffered as a result of inadequate metallurgical technology. R-R applied the metallurgical science used in the Whittle centrifugal gas turbines to achieve reliability in the axial engines . . . Just a small point, but the reason Whittle went for centrifugal, rather than axial, was that the metallurgical technology didn't exist till after the war.....The centrifugal gas turbine produced less stress on the engine than the axial. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fifer54 Posted October 16, 2012 Author Share Posted October 16, 2012 Just a small point, but the reason Whittle went for centrifugal, rather than axial, was that the metallurgical technology didn't exist till after the war.....The centrifugal gas turbine produced less stress on the engine than the axial. That's interesting, I'd always thought that Whittle went for centrifugal compression because it was easier to make it work than axial, although it was less advanced. I believe the miniature gas turbine that Pabst von Ohain first built had a centrifugal compressor, but after that he was building axial-flow engines for greater efficiency. The Germans were looking to the future with their axial-flow engines, and then found they couldn't make them reliable. Our engines were (more) reliable and longer-lived, so it seemed that the difference must be the metallurgy . . . And as an even better comeback, it's my backstory, in my world, and if I say we Brits had better metallurgy than the Germans, then we did, SO THERE!!! Neh-neh-neh-neh-neh! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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