HMY Rana

[Caveman]

Second entry. May end up a bit like Top Gear shenanigans - Ambitious but Rubbish.



Between the wars a company called Rohrbach created a series of flying boats. They were characterised by being all metal, having the engines mounted above the fuselage, being very large (for the time) and importantly all being fitted with masts and sails.



My backstory for this is that: when the RAF was formed and the Royal Navy lost it's independent aviation capability there were some in the admiralty who were glad to be rid of the new fangled rubbish, and some who regretted the loss. Some imaginative bright spark heard about the Rohrbach flying boats thought that there was an opportunity to be had. In a manner to be emulated by the much later "through deck cruisers", which definitely weren't aircraft carriers. A small flotilla of Rohrbach Ro VII's were procured as training yachts. These were operated mostly out of Malta and away from the prying eyes of the government, even though they were clearly just yachts. In order to emphasise their yachtyness one aircraft boat was designated a royal yacht and given the name HMY Rana. It was even entered into a Cowes week race - but ironically one of its engines failed in flight en-route and it was forced to sail the remaining distance and thus arrived too late to compete.

I am going to try to CAD and 3d print one of these, build it under sail and paint it up as a royal yacht. I appreciate that Britannia is anachronistic for my back story but I really like the colour scheme: Dark blue hull, red waterline, white wings and yellow engine nacelles.

[PR19_Kit]

Hehehe, LOVE that idea, but it'll take some designing I'm sure. 

[jcf]

The Beardmore Inflexible trimotor was based on the Rohrbach Ro VI. Beardmore had
licensed Rohrbach's all metal structure technology. Perhaps you could have the training
yachts also constructed by Beardmore.

Beardmore Inflexible

[kerick]

So the pilot and crew had to know how to fly and how to sail. Very talented.
Good luck with this one. It looks challenging. It will be fun to watch it take shape.

[Caveman]

The Beardmore Inflexible trimotor was based on the Rohrbach Ro VI. Beardmore had
licensed Rohrbach's all metal structure technology. Perhaps you could have the training
yachts also constructed by Beardmore.

Oh yes. I like this idea! Will incorporate that into the backstory.

[Caveman]

Does anyone know of a good source of 1/72 RN crew in trops/mediterranean uniforms? I've seen some white metal bits but the aren't the poses I would like and I don't fancy hacking at expensive white metal figures to repose them.

[NARSES2]

Does anyone know of a good source of 1/72 RN crew in trops/mediterranean uniforms? I've seen some white metal bits but the aren't the poses I would like and I don't fancy hacking at expensive white metal figures to repose them.

These might be able to help as being 3D printed they can obviously do different scales. However not sure they do trop/Med uniforms though.

There's some fantastic stuff here.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/3djson

[Caveman]

Progess!


Roughed out the major components. Still to do:
- Wing tips
- Hull foredeck
- engine nacelles
- floats
- struts
- masts
- greeblies

Then Ill split it up for printing

Wingspan (without wing tips) currently 23cm

[Caveman]

Fuselage has been hollowed out and openings cut

Engine nacelles initially roughed out - I may add some more detail to the radiators and exhausts - but this will be an FDM print, so small details will get lost.

Wingtips done on the main wings, still to do the empennage

[Caveman]

Slight retrograde step tonight but necessary. I had forgotten to put a thick trailing edge on the wings. I could have just stuck a fillet on them, but that would have cut into the wing plan too much. So I had to go back and remodel them with a 0.5mm trailing edge. Still small, but big enough to print.



I've also found a nice image which gives good detail of the engine nacelles, which look nothing like the plan that I've been working form. So they will need to get redone too. I'm not going to attempt to reproduce all of the detail visible there - but anything ~>= 1mm at 72nd scale Ill try to include.

[Caveman]

And a little bit of fun "colouring in" the model to get a feel for the royal yacht scheme

[Captain Canada]

Excellent work so far ! I like the idea. Too bad she never made it to the race tho 

And thanks for the link to the Beardmore ! That thing is wild !

[jcf]

The general arrangement drawing,
like the majority of GA drawings it
isn't really a "plan", shows the outline of the engine nacelles with all covers, fairings etc. in place.
The photos show the reality, smooth airflow or a cool engine.
You only get to pick one.
🤣

[kerick]

Ok, while you're wading in the cold water I'll just sit up here with my feet dry and shout encouragement!

[Joe CalPo]

Phwor!