Recce and Surveillance GB - General Discussion

[NARSES2]

Gentlemen

Once the Moderators are happy this will be the place for any general chit chat to do with the GB, but for your information The Recce and Surveillance GB will run from 00:01 Thursday 1 July 2021 to 23:59 Thursday 30 September 2021 (all times local)

Chris

[TomZ]

Topic unlocked in preparation of the start of the group build in one month time.

TomZ

[zenrat]

My initial thoughts for this one are both aircraft.
1) Cold war spy plane - a small jet with very long wings.  Inspired by Eric's F111 with B29 wings.
2) WW2 Recce plane - Asymmetric flying wing.

[Pellson]

.  ..Inspired by Eric's F111 with B29 wings..

Yeah, that build does deserve some spin-offs.   

[PR19_Kit]

Plonk some B-36 wings on it? 

This GB is going to end up with a sub-title of 'The Long Wing GB' I know. 

[NARSES2]

Mine will be an Armée de l'Air 1940's Tactical Reconnaissance/FAC type

[Dizzyfugu]

I have two or three aircraft projects in The Stash™ that qualify for this GB, ranging from WWII to (more or less) modern times.

[kerick]

I was going to build an F-5/T-38 with U-2 wings "some day". Looks like I have a reason to build it in July! At least I already have the F-5 kit. I think I will have to make the wings, probably from one long piece of plastic. A U-2 in 1/72nd scale seems to be hard to find.
I would really like to finish the Seahog first if life would just get out of the way!

[Rheged]

I wonder???  I have a very elderly Airfix Heron kit in the deep stash........could it possibly become a Swedish/Finnish/Danish civilian feeder airliner operating around the Baltic with odd hatch covers on the underside?    Or perhaps operating between Calcutta and Bangkok.......or even  in the Levant?

[PR19_Kit]

A U-2 in 1/72nd scale seems to be hard to find.

Yes, they're pretty thin on the ground at the moment, both Airfix and Minicraft versions.

It occurs to me that I may be the cause of that shortage............ 

[kitbasher]

A U-2 in 1/72nd scale seems to be hard to find.

Yes, they're pretty thin on the ground at the moment, both Airfix and Minicraft versions.

It occurs to me that I may be the cause of that shortage............ 

So plenty of fuselages in the spares box but no wings, then?

IIRC Special Hobby did a TR-1/U-2R.

[kerick]

I'll probably just cut and sand one long piece of plastic or even balsa to make both wings out of one piece. Less chance of snapping one off down the road. Plenty of random drop tanks for wing pods.
It would be a poor man's/poor country's U-2. Maybe a two seater with the guy in back with a Polaroid camera and a note pad.
Now is a time to consider paint and markings so I don't get so stuck at paint time. Maybe a Norwegian ac patrolling the long border with those nefarious Swedes.

[PR19_Kit]

So plenty of fuselages in the spares box but no wings, then?

IIRC Special Hobby did a TR-1/U-2R.

Something like that, yes. I have one of those SH ones too, and a wingless Rareplanes vacform TR1, and a High Planes TR1 as well, in BLUE styrene!

[kerick]

What about ground pounder recce?
When Sweden retired the S tank I always thought they should have turned it into some sort of scout vehicle. Driven by a femme fatale.

[Weaver]

Thinking about long-winged-things, a recce Wellesley struck me as a possibility.

Much uprated engine (Sabre? Centaurus? There was a Wellesley-Hercules testbed IRL).

Gunner replaced by a 'slave' engine (Kestrel) driving a huge blower for high-altitude work (IRL suggestion from Avro and maybe Vickers too).

Pressure cabin with a tiny dome for the pilot. (Vickers did a lot of work on pressure cabins).



On S-tanks, I recall seeing a series of pics years ago featuring them being posed on by 'femme fatales', but even if I could find them, they were not for posting on family websites...