Revell/CH Sea Vixen FAW2 built as FAW1

[Ngantek]

Quick question, I'm sure this has been answered somewhere here before, but can't seem to find any obvious discussions:

 

Basically I'm (sort-of-)building the revell re-release of the cyber hobby Sea Vixen FAW2, and noticed the later mark shoulder booms are just new parts overlaying the FAW1 shape (for obvious reasons given the CH kit history), so the obvious question is what would it take to build a FAW1 out of the Revell kit? At first glance I would guess:

-omit the FAW2 shoulder boom extensions

-sand back the observer cockpit flush

But what else might be needed (not knowing much about this aircraft)? I suspect I'll just build it with wing tanks and empty pylons, but what other armament would be approriate for this mark?

I understand the limitations of the kit, I do have the quickboost replacement nose and some barracuda replacement seats, and I suspect that is enough for me to not really notice or care about other 'departures' from reality; nose aside, it looks plenty Sea Vixeny to my unobservant eye, and the nice buildability of the CH tooling is a big selling point for me.

Since I also have the airfix 1:48 kit, it seems like a nice idea to build both marks, (I actually prefer the lines of the FAW1), and this seems by far the easier conversion given the 'converted' design of the kit.

 

Thanks for any help!

Andy

 

[Mr T]

The FAW1's usual missile load for air to air was Firestreak. I think only the FAW2 could carry Red Top. Other than that, I am pretty sure the weapons available were pretty much the same. 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

The FAW1 also had the microcell unguided rocket system in the two bulges under the nose - see The Baron’s ridiculously good 3D printed FAW1 build for details.  It was deleted for the FAW2 a) because it was useless and b) because they needed the space for cooling stuff to do with Red Top’s better seeker head.  Unless you are planning to show the rocket cells in he dropped position, there is no visible difference in shape.

[Ngantek]

On 10/08/2022 at 07:20, Mr T said:

The FAW1's usual missile load for air to air was Firestreak. I think only the FAW2 could carry Red Top. Other than that, I am pretty sure the weapons available were pretty much the same. 

 

4 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

The FAW1 also had the microcell unguided rocket system in the two bulges under the nose - see The Baron’s ridiculously good 3D printed FAW1 build for details.  It was deleted for the FAW2 a) because it was useless and b) because they needed the space for cooling stuff to do with Red Top’s better seeker head.  Unless you are planning to show the rocket cells in he dropped position, there is no visible difference in shape.

Thanks for the help! Those little microcells are pretty cute! Were they just too wee to do anything useful?

The kit only contains red tops and rockets from what I can see, so I think unloaded might be the better option in this case. Thanks very much, I'll proceed with the sanded down observer blister then!

Andy

 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

On 8/23/2022 at 5:30 PM, Ngantek said:

 

Thanks for the help! Those little microcells are pretty cute! Were they just too wee to do anything useful?

 

I don’t think it was necessarily their wee-ness alone; more the fact that technology was moving on very fast.  Multiple unguided small rockets might have seemed a reasonable idea when the Vixen [D110] was first designed in the late-40s / very early 50s… but by the time it came into service (1959) we were definitely into a proper guided missile world.