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Fairey Gannet AS4(COD)


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Hi All

I found this model for sale at a model show last year.  All the parts had been removed from the sprue and the tailplanes glued up but everything appeared to be in the box so I bought it.

I wanted a Gannet to build because I remember seeing them at Lossiemouth in the early 1970s.  I can't actually recall if it was the AS/COD version I saw, or the AEW3.  Although not the most attractive aircraft ever built I personally prefer the AS styling to the AEW.  I seem to recall the approach to landing where the Double Mamba engines seemed to be working very hard and fast but the fuselage was just plodding along.  This was probably an illusion created from a combination of the sound of the contra-rotating propellers and the sheer bulk of the body.

The model is built OOB with a slight modification to remove the AS radome to make the model as an AS4(COD).  The only problem encountered was the pre-glued tailplane.  Whoever had the model previously managed to glue one of the finlets onto the horizontal stabiliser the wrong way up.  Maybe that's why the model was for sale.  The kit is very basic and pretty devoid of detail and moulded crew heads in flat cockpits, but it brings back memories of building similar kits in the 60's and 70's.

I have used Revell and Vallejo paints and Xtradecal sheet X72070 to represent XA466 as she appeared in the 1976/77 period.  While the standard COD scheme was Dark Blue Grey overall, XA466 wore the standard naval scheme of Extra Dark Sea Grey and Sky, an unusual scheme for a COD aircraft ,for about a year. 

The following link to the ABPic site shows an image of the Gannet I am trying to represent.  https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1384837

 

The images, hope you enjoy:-

 

PI5o8Sk.jpg

 

ILECNcc.jpg

 

T3mKNgJ.jpg

 

Fjt3cLR.jpg

 

3BWxpgE.jpg

 

Thanks for looking.

Graeme

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53 minutes ago, John Masters said:

Very neat build.  Nicely done.

 

Thanks John

50 minutes ago, Brigbeale said:

There’s something about the Gannet. Looks odd but I like it. 
Excellent work

Thanks Brigbeale.  Yes very odd shape and the pilot seems to be in a sit up and beg position.  Odd, but somehow appealing.

28 minutes ago, Wulfman said:

Lovely job on the ancient Frog !

 

Wulfman

Thanks Wulfman

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COD means Carrier Onboard Delivery. It's a parts, personnel and mail delivery aircraft, at least in the US Navy. On approach to US Navy aircraft carriers at sea, the C-2 Greyhound pilots used to announced, "10,000 lbs of mail on the ball." Very nice work on an old kit. I have to ask, on the COD Gannet, where did they carry the mail and cargo?

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1 hour ago, TonyOD said:

Lovely job. Forgive my ignorance but what does COD mean?

 

Thanks Tony.  As SAT69 states Carrier Onboard Delivery.

 

15 minutes ago, SAT69 said:

COD means Carrier Onboard Delivery. It's a parts, personnel and mail delivery aircraft, at least in the US Navy. On approach to US Navy aircraft carriers at sea, the C-2 Greyhound pilots used to announced, "10,000 lbs of mail on the ball." Very nice work on an old kit. I have to ask, on the COD Gannet, where did they carry the mail and cargo?

Thanks. 

The COD version of the Gannet was a conversion of the AS4 (Anti Submarine) version, with the retractable radome and all the related gubbins (equipment) removed.  The radar was located behind and below the rear cockpit.   I presume that the weapons bay was also repurposed to carry cargo.  The weapons load on the AS Gannet was about 2000 lbs, plus the weight of the displaced radar would have given a cargo payload of maybe 3000 lbs.  Nothing like the payload of the Greyhound.

According to Wikipedia there were only 6 examples of the COD version. 

Cheers

Graeme

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Nice job on that Graeme, for all its simplicity, the old Frog kit builds up into a very convincing Gannet, something yours shows off nicely. I've a couple in stock, one to be as AS.4 having missed out on modern kits, the other a COD.4 or T.5, not sure which yet.

Steve.

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10 hours ago, stevehnz said:

Nice job on that Graeme, for all its simplicity, the old Frog kit builds up into a very convincing Gannet, something yours shows off nicely. I've a couple in stock, one to be as AS.4 having missed out on modern kits, the other a COD.4 or T.5, not sure which yet.

Steve.

Thanks Steve.  Yes there is not much to the kit ,but it comes out really nice.  A lot of the fun in this one is getting a colour scheme that you like.  I thought of making this as a T5, but liked the connection to Lossiemouth in the COD version.  One word of warning, this is a definite tail-sitter and needs a lot of ballast, the completed kit weighs in at 85g, so there must be about 50g of ballast and you just need to touch the tail for it to sit down.

Cheers

Graeme

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4 minutes ago, AliGauld said:

Hi Graeme,

 

Nice job on your Gannet.

Who can't love a Gannet, I'm waiting for my Alley Cat Resin one to arrive.

 

Sterling work, Sir.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

Thanks Alistair.

Just like a parent and their ugly child, they still love them.

Cheers

Graeme

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Lovely rendering of the old Frog kit,if I remember right this was the last ECM 6 Gannet they used at LM for training went back to this scheme after overall RAF Blue Gray then returned to the RAFBG towards the end. 

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1 hour ago, canberraman said:

A fabulous rendition of a very basic kit. Hard to believe its the old Frog offering - well done!

 

Mark

Thanks Mark.

 

47 minutes ago, Grizzly said:

Lovely rendering of the old Frog kit,if I remember right this was the last ECM 6 Gannet they used at LM for training went back to this scheme after overall RAF Blue Gray then returned to the RAFBG towards the end. 

Thanks Grizzly.  The detail I have found have XA466 as a COD 4.  I don't know when it went in to the Sky/EDSG scheme, but the pic referenced above shows it in this scheme in June '76.  It was resprayed at RNAY Fleetlands in June 1978.  As it was struck off in December '78, I would presume that this was when it returned to RAFBG..  It must have been in the Sky/EDSG scheme for at least a couple of years.  It is still in the RAFBG scheme at the FAAM Yeovilton.

Cheers

Graeme

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1 hour ago, stevej60 said:

That's a cracking job on the old Frog kit Graeme!

 

22 minutes ago, Ron Pearcy said:

Good job.

 

Thanks guys

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10 hours ago, BristolBlue said:

Fantastic - really not happy when you take a basic frog kit and make it look 10 times better than my effort with later revell and sword examples.  Fabulous. 

Thanks.  I think that the images make it look better than it really is.  I like doing the older kits, it's a little bit more of a challenge  and I think that they are a bit more forgiving with the finish than the fine detail in newer kits.  At the end of the day if you are happy with your end result, that is all that matters. 

Cheers

Graeme

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It’s really nice to see one of these again. When I was a kid of about 10 I was given a built model of one that had been made up to a very high standard. I don’t know what happened to it but I wish I still had it. I remember it being full of split shot to hold the nose down. 
 

Lovely job on this one. 

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14 minutes ago, jackroadkill said:

It’s really nice to see one of these again. When I was a kid of about 10 I was given a built model of one that had been made up to a very high standard. I don’t know what happened to it but I wish I still had it. I remember it being full of split shot to hold the nose down. 
 

Lovely job on this one. 

Thanks.  I think this is part of the reason that I build these old kits; it takes me back to being a kid making models in my bedroom.  Your recollection on the split shot is right;  I have so many nuts, bolts, shot and liquid gravity in the nose and it still only just sits on its nose.

Cheers

Graeme

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Hi Graeme,

 

your Gannet came out really well 👍 Good to see that you rescued this kit and made someting out of it, otherwise it may have ended in the bin eventually. As simple as older kits are, they are often still a good base for a nice build.

 

Cheers

Markus

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