Pellsons Perceivings

[NARSES2]

Yup have a good time and relax   

[Pellson]

Having enjoyed a rather slow weekend, we sorted those last few boards yesterday, and as I had to pop back home for some missing tools, I took the opportunity to bring a bit more hobby gear. Among these, the kitbash bases for both the jet derivative of the SAAB B18 and the two-engined alternative to the SAAB A32 Lansen.

The former will be based on an almost 40 year old Airfix Il-28 Beagle, and having started some dryfitting of fuselage halves, I think this can be good! The plan is to steal the entire tail off a He-219 for the twin-fin setup, but some further decisions still have to be made. Whether to go for a radar nose, f.i, in the process getting rid of the glazing instead using a tandem cockpit for the navigator/WSO, or to keep the glass/bombardier position and accordingly stick with the underbelly nav radar radome instead. If the latter, I think I should probably go for an offside cockpit solution for the pilot, partly due to original SAAB B18 heritage, but also to get away from the original Beagle setup.
Annoyingly, it seems the He-219 I thought I had has been used for something else, or - quite possibly - given away as I don't build pre-cold war any longer, but there is an old Frog He-219 on Evilbay, due tomorrow. I will have to make an effort for that one, it seems.

The other project, the twin-engined Lansen alternative, will be based on an Azur Vautour IIN. A rather nice kit, by the look of it, and it is probably a shame to cut it up as I plan to do. Then again - it's for a good cause.. 
As the IIN variant already come with a nice radar nose, there's no need to rebuild just that, but as I really would like to get the shapes less Vautour and more SAAB, I think I'll try to do something about the wings, stabilators and tailfin. The wings, being solid onepiece from Azur, seem easiest to fix by reshaping somewhat with a file at the wing tips, and then add SAAB wing fences from the Heller Lansen, but the empennage will be a bit more complicated. One solution could be to do something T-tailish, as on the original SAAB P.1119 Lansen study (below), but then again, it would be even more fun to introduce something more definitely SAAB-ish, such as a proper Lansen tail. But the top fuselage curvatures behind the wing of the Lansen and the Vautour does differ considerably. It's not going to be easy..

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On the other hand - if it had been easy, then someone would already have made an attempt.. 
That said - Dizzy's J31 is reasonably close, if having the engines embedded in the lower fuselage rather than podded under the wings. Plus it has side-by-side seating. I will keep the tandem seating from the Vautour, but cover it up under that distinctive and remarkably well fitting Lansen canopy.

Well - it'll likely be a rather protracted development, as usual. But dryfitting and trying out thoughts is almost as nice as actually getting to it physically. And now, the kids want to get som icecream, and so be it. Itäs summer, after all!