Model Fleet

You don't know how hard I try to stay away from new projects - when there's so much still to be finished off - but this is one that's been "preying on" me, its siren-song beckoning for a long time now:

It is my (soon-to-be) latest idea for a "3-fer" aircraft casting, in development. And I can tell you this latest drawing is a conclusive result, showing (to the trained eye) that - with one significant, new twist - it is emminently possible to do this!

Now, all you have to tell me, is what three carrier aircraft are incorporated in this design? Hint: One of them was specifically mentioned in recent discussion, here on ModelFleet, and another one, indirectly as well.

Guess at least two out of the three correctly and you'll win a free 4-pak of 'em, when ready for release (should be about 2015 or so

)!

Cheers,

-Matty

Hmmmm...okay, here we go - and there was NO internet peeking done before my guess, so this is all from memory:

F4U Corsair
Westland Wyvern
Blackburn Firebrand

Mike

You got two of 'em - the F4U Corsair and Blackburn FireBrand - good for a free 4-pak, Mikey!

In that overlay-drawing, a Corsair at 1/515 scale fits over a FireBrand at 1/544. The former sized within 5% of the Revell Enterprise, Lindberg Essex or Revell Midways that could use it, and the latter within 10% of a 600-scale RN carrier, if you can come up with one.

The FireBrand, of course you yourself mentioned here recently. The Corsair was not mentioned - though you did come pretty close, when talking about the 1945 night-fighting/training deckload. However you came even closer to mentioning the third one - no, it's not a Wyvern - but you're coming ever closer, still - and if you can name it, I'll put you down for another free 4-pak, buddy!

Meantime, let me go back and see if a Wyvern could possibly be fitted-in there!

Cheers,

-Matty

Matt -

Sir, thank you very much! Now, I'm going to have to figure out how to come up with a 1/540 RN CV...

Now...(cracks knuckles)...once again, without resorting to reference materials...

Douglas Skyshark?

Mike

No, no SkyShark "in there", Mikey - sadly. (You should have said "...Jessie Owens" - then I would've awarded you something just for cracking me up - and reminding me of that movie, "Blazing Saddles"!

) However you did give me an idea which may bring this mold closer to a SkyShark - not to mention something I've been excited about for a long while: the Westland Wyvern!

So, I took a look to see if one would fit:

And yes, indeed she does! A little coaching for the untrained eye: essentially the only feature representing a major challenge is the Wyvern canopy, significantly forward of the general pattern. What I would do for that is to mold in the front windshield only - and let the (Wyvern) builder add a blob of white glue for the canopy (or it could be depicted opened - slid back). That would be a first for Matty's Models - which has never required you to add anything (other than landing gear and prop(s)) up until now.

All other "substantive" discrepancies of the Wyvern present no problem whatsoever. The huge, protruding spinner(s) gets chopped off in any case, to be reattached with the (PE) propeller(s) - now youll simply chop off its tip, first - and, for all but the Wyvern, throw away the base - or throw away all of it, for the F4U. The 'Vern's tail stabilizers are angled, with small fins, but in 1/550 scale, this is definitely in the category of "close enough to not matter". Finally, the landing gear are a bit shorter than (most of) the others' - but again this truly goes into the category of "nobody will even notice, much less care".

The above (heavily reworked) art I filched today directly from the instructions of the Trumpy Wyvern kit that Donny got me - and that's the reason I didn't evaluate this until now: I had trouble finding a good Wyvern 3-view drawing. But now I have - and you just reminded me about it, Mike - thus initiating the possiblity of the first-ever Matty's Models "four-fer" - something I had never dreamed possible - and for that, both you and Donny have won yourselves a(nother) free 4-pak, each!

As to what carriers to put them on, think 600 scale - for which your FireBrand will be only 10% oversized, and the above Wyvern - scaling out to 1/580 - only 4%! I have been thinking about how to come up with a 600-scale Cold War RN carrier for some time. I know at least one guy (Bobby O'Conner) who did, by "expanding" a 700-scale mold - or maybe it was mostly scratchbuilt, after all - and I've also thought it possible to cut down an Airfix Ark Royal into an Implacable-, or even Illustrious-class, postwar carrier. Also, the (1938) Ark Royal was built very much like the little Unicorn, the RN "aviation depot" carrier that in fact served as a light attack carrier, off Korea.

Of course, the Cold War flattop you really want is one of the many Collossus-class CVLs - and I was badgering OzMods (Greg Anderson) in Australia, ever since he announced he was going to copy his 700-scale mold of one, into 600 scale. He never made any (more) progress, however, and the last I heard, he handed it off to some guy(s) in Canada, who may or may not surface with the goods, one day.

If I ever do succeed in chopping up an Airfix Ark Royal - or even possibly a Victorious - and reassembling it into anything(s) useful, between 500- and 600 scale, I will definitely make a mold of it, as this is a (yet another) gaping hole in the selection of molds available.

Which brings us back again very close to the last, still-unnamed aircraft in the above design. Anybody care to guess again...?

Cheers,

-Matty

"Blazing Saddles"= greatest movie comedy of all time!!!!

But back to business - I was on my way to work when it hit me that the Skyshark just wasn't right. Let me make one more stab, again, with no Internet up my sleeve....

Hawker Sea Fury?

Mike

You are correct, sir - third time's a charm - it is indeed the Hawker Sea Fury! (Did my filename "LongNoses" give it away to you? That's how I will forever think of the SeaFury - like the Corsair - which gave me the idea to start comparing all these airframes, in the first place.) In any case, you, sir, are going to be the free-and-clear recipient of 12 of these castings, when available (that's just about one for every year it will take me to accomplish this)!

Seriously though, I do appreciate the feedback - which is still "stirring the pot", as it were - after inclusion of the Wyvern - and specifically, the solution for its canopy - opened up the possibility to include (at least) yet another aircraft, needing similar accommodation - the F8F BearCat:

Without quite so long a nose as the others, note (this best fit of) the BearCat winds up with its canopy - like the 'Vern's - appearing significantly forward of the others'. Its windshield in fact wound up midway between the two. Trying to slide the BearCat rearward - or enlarging it, to push the canopy backward - both create many more problems than they solve.

Especially enlargement, as it's already quite large (for a BearCat, anyway), scaling out to 1:433! This would be good for 400-scale (only 7.6% undersized) - for example, a Heller Collossus- or Illustrious-class carrier (if not the French (Arromanches), then I'm sure somebody flew BearCats from them, somewhere). But too big for all our other ideas - plus, between 400-scale product lines of WEM and L'Arsenal - and the closeness of extensive 350-scale accessories (14% oversized), new versions of these items might simply not be much needed for 1:400.

A better solution is clearly starting to look like shrinking the BearCat - to bring its windshield closer (or entirely) into alignment with the Wyvern's. Which would again offset its landing gear - this time, forward - but that could be acceptable (even the total loss of the landing gear on the BearCat conversions, if required), as it would solve so many other problems.

Likewise, the Sea Fury currently scales out to 1:455 (already 12% undersized for 400-scale while still 21% oversized for 1:550), and I am now considering possibilites for shrinking it. Even in the event that Wyvern, BearCat and SeaFury are destined to be broken out into their own "3-fer", independent of the other 2 - Corsair and FireBrand - which have the "longest-noses" of all.

But, of course the prospect of engineering an actual, workable "FIVE-fer" - all carrier aircraft of interest to modellers, right now (which I know for a fact) - well, that is just too exciting a challenge to let go of without first taking one helluva good run at it!

Cheers,

-Matty