Usn Arrow

[Archibald]

Second atempt...  


In the early 60's, nuclear submarines were on the way. First SSNs armed with Polaris entered service at the time.
It seemed to be the end of the VAH- squadrons and their nuclear naval bombers (mainly Skywarriors and Vigilantes). The end was prompted not only by the Polaris, but also by the failure of the A-5 as bomber.

The Navy had doubts on the Aircraft carrier... the Enterprise was the first nuclear carrier, but its propulsion sytem was quite heavy and bulky. Conventional carriers reached the limit of seize and weight for steam powered vessels.  

The naval nuclear bomber seemed to be doomed by the Polaris/ SSN combo. But things were to change a sad day of 1963...

This day, the Tresher disapeared during testing, aparently crushed in the deep end of the Atlantic with its crew. This came as a shock for the USN, and revealed how vulnerable the SSN were.

The nuclear naval bomber came back in the race after the disaster. The aim was to keep a limited air deterrent in the case the submarines / Polaris fail.

Admiral Edward Miler pushed the project of a revival of the VAH- squadrons.

As the Vigilante proved totally unuseful as bomber, a bomber variant of the
F-111B was ordered (FB-111B). This ended in a huge failure, and prompted the USN to buy a naval variant of the TSR-2.    

Sadly, the Forrestals were too little to launch and recover a TSR-2. Fortunately, the Nimitz carriers were on the way. Thanks to the Enterprise 10 years of service, nuclear propulsion for  carriers had progressed. Only 2 nuclear core were needed, instead of 8 in the Enterprise.

But even the Nimitz, with their 80 000 tons and 335m were unable to cope with a naval TSR-2.
It was decided to enlarge the project, up to 110 000 tons and 365 m long!
The ships were so big that only 3 were  built. Following carriers switched to the early Nimitz size.

New VAH- squadrons were created with A-8A Eagle.  B)

But the new bomber needed an escort fighter... the Phantom simply could not cope with the range and speed at low level of the British bomber (Phantoms were already behind the A-5s ).
The Tomcat was still some years in the future, so a batch of naval Arrows was build by Vought.  

VF-162 had just change its F-8E for Phantoms. The unit left its F-4s and transitioned to the F-13A Arrow in 1971.  B)

[Rafael]

Nice, Archi. !!!!
My first USN Arrow!

Again, you did it!!!    

Rafa

[Eddie M.]

You knew I couldn't resist anything labelled USN, right? That's a good looking model and I especially like that color of gray. It looks just right for that time period! Great story too. B)
  Eddie

[Archibald]

Thanks guys! The paint was made " a la one again" as we say in French (by random ). I used Humbrol 56 + Humbrol white (can't remember reference).

Astonishingly, the result more or less correspond to the FS 16440 used by the USN (I have access only to Humbrol paints, and sadly there's no FS 16440 equivalent  in their catalogue ).

I improved the model again this morning, so there'll be more pics soon.

Here's a pic I made yesterday...

An USN CF-105 perform the "Arrow roll" in meeting...

[Geoff_B]

Thanks guys! The paint was made " a la one again" as we say in French (by random ). I used Humbrol 56 + Humbrol white (can't remember reference).

Astonishingly, the result more or less correspond to the FS 16440 used by the USN (I have access only to Humbrol paints, and sadly there's no FS 16440 equivalent  in their catalogue ).

I improved the model again this morning, so there'll be more pics soon.

Here's a pic I made yesterday...

An USN CF-105 perform the "Arrow roll" in meeting...

Archie

Humbrol 129 is US Gull Grey FS36440 (The last four digits are the colour code the first FS number is the Finish !!!  - 1 for Gloss, 2 for Satin, 3 for Matt)

Isn't Hu56 Humbrol Aluminium ?  

Geoff

[Archibald]

The pilot retracted the undercarriage, and started a second roll...  

[Brian da Basher]

Wow Archie that's some very nice work on that U.S.N. Arrow! You did an excellent job on that paint scheme! It's a real treat to see your work and it seems you just get better and better with each build! I particularly like how the red and black look against the U.S.N. gray on this bird. Sweet!

Brian da Basher

[Archibald]

[Captain Canada]

Nice work, Archie ! Sure looks the part...love the underside shots.

Great stuff !

 

[Archibald]

I made these photos blocking the model between encyclopedias on the bookshelf...    

I managed to "retract" the undercarriage on the second photo using a simple technic and powerpoint... (a bit of white color, change the photo to "more brighter").

Lot of fun painting this one, the Arrow is my favorite plane... what an aircraft!

A question : is the Hobbycrap kit still available ? (1/72 scale I mean!).
I need more CF-105s in 1/72 scale... (even if Alvis already  explored ALL camos and paint shemes on the subject  ^_^  )

 

[anthonyp]

That's pretty cool!  Was thinking of doing an Arrow up in USN colours should I ever find one again.

Nice job!

[Joe C-P]

Soooo...

Where's the carrier that goes beneath that beauty?



JoeP, ship-lovin' kinda guy

[ysi_maniac]

Very good Archie          
Those old big interceptord look always cool, sure¡

[Archibald]

I browsed Hobbycraft and they say that their 1/72 scale CF-105 is still available...

The ideal Arrow (for me) would be an Iranian machine in the camo worn by the Tomcats.
The backstory is easy to write : the Arrow was the only machine able to fight the MiG-25 from 1965 to 1976, when Tomcats and Eagles were sold to Iran and Israel.

So a Arrow was fitted with the YF-12 weapon system (much less expensive to maintain than the F-12).
And a Tomcat - like canopy...    
The plane could carry four AIM-47s (two on the bay, two others behind the undercarriage boxes) plus two drop tanks.

I compared the YF-12 and Tomcat to my CF-105 and was astonished.
F-14 canopy seem to fit perfectly, and the nose of the YF-12 has more or less the same diameter as the CF-105 one! (I thought it was much larger ).

The ideal Arrow  :

Iranian camo and decals
+
MiG-25 kill marking
+
two AIM-47 underwings
+
F-14 canopy
+
YF-12 nose.

That would be terrific!!! If only...

[Captain Canada]

Mmmm...Iranian camo and decasl, now that sounds good !