North American P-52A Charger

[SimonR]

RAF Tangmere, Kent June 1944

Under the bright sun of an English summer Wing Commander Tantivy Muffer-Maffick, DSO, DFC and bar stroked the head of his labrador Nelson and then packed a generous plug of Wedgewood-Benn's Old Shag into his pipe. He smoked contentedly for a few moments and watched as a sleek fighter plane roared over the aerodrome and dropped gracefully onto the grass landing strip. The fighter taxied over to the Wing Commander where the propwash from its enormous contra-rotating propellors extinguished his pipe and caused Nelson's ears to flap.

The aircraft came to halt and the canopy slid back. A young man jumped down from the cockpit and begain to comb his heavily greased hair using the canopy as a mirror. He paused to light a Lucky Strike and then approached the Wing Commander

"Lieutenant Tyrone Slothrop. 163rd Test Squadron. Damned pleased to meet ya and I gotta tell ya! That goddammed bucket flies like a goddammed P-51 with a goddammed V-2 strapped to it!"


"Muffer-Maffick of the Dorset Muffer-Mafficks." The Wing Commander and the Lieutenant shook hands and then strolled around the aircraft admiring it.

"Damn fine aircaft, built by those clever coves at Martin Baker. Good chaps, very clever. Not strictly of the first class but good chaps  considering they're in trade." opined the Wing Commander. At that moment Lt. Slothrop was distracted by an attractive young WAAF.

"Hey, buddy! Get a slant at the pins on that twist!" Lt. Slothrop ignored the Wing Commander and began to trot after the young woman.  "Hey doll-face, wait up. Whaddaya say me and you go grab a drink?"

What if, the USAAF had test flown the Martin Baker MB.5, realised that it outperformed the Mustang and had North American put it into production as the P-52. This is the legendary limited edition (only 1,000 made!) 1/48 Silver Cloud mixed media kit. The challenge in building this kit cannot be overstated and that fact is reflected in the rather indifferent result. But rather than complaining we should be celebrating the fact that it exists at all! Tamiya paint, as usual, with Cutting Edge Mustang Mania decals.

[Martin H]

Very nice.

Maybe ill have to dig my part built one out and try to finish the bloody thing. Its no easy build.

[SimonR]

Very nice.

Maybe ill have to dig my part built one out and try to finish the bloody thing. Its no easy build.

You're not kidding! It took the utmost perseverance to finish it. The next project will have to be 1/48 Hasegawa or Tamiya to try and soothe some of the emotional trauma caused by building this kit.

[Captain Canada]

Beauty, Simon ! Looks great in those colours.........but I have to admit, I'm still scratching my head over that story !

 

[SimonR]

Beauty, Simon ! Looks great in those colours.........but I have to admit, I'm still scratching my head over that story !

Heh. It's a mild pastiche featuring characters from Gravity's Rainbow by Pynchon. In the real book Lt. Slothrop is able to predict V2 strikes on London by becoming sexually aroused. Highly recommended read!

[The Rat]

 One of my favourite aircraft, and done beautifully!    

[cthulhu77]

 Fantastic build...simply great.

            greg

[Ollie]

Good show buddy!

 

[Tophe]

Beautiful model, congratulations...
Two questions:
- is this P-52 model coming from a MB.5 kit? or is it scratch-built and even more what-if?
- was the twin-boom Bell XP-52 a cancelled project when the P-52 was ordered (like the twin-boom Bell XP-59 project was cancelled when the jet P-59 prototype was ordered)?  

[SimonR]

Beautiful model, congratulations...
Two questions:
- is this P-52 model coming from a MB.5 kit? or is it scratch-built and even more what-if?
- was the twin-boom Bell XP-52 a cancelled project when the P-52 was ordered (like the twin-boom Bell XP-59 project was cancelled when the jet P-59 prototype was ordered)?

Thanks for the kind words...

The P-52 is made from the MB.5 kit. But at times I honestly thought it would be quicker to have scratch built one.

I have to confess I had never heard of the XP-52. But I will say that it was redesignated the XP-52bis!    

[NARSES2]

Terrific build Simon and I love the "tone" of the back story

My planet MB5 should be here this week  

Chris

[Jschmus]

I have to confess I had never heard of the XP-52. But I will say that it was redesignated the XP-52bis!  

This is the one Tophe is talking about:

Bell X-Planes

[AeroplaneDriver]

Great loooking model!  At first glance it looks like a -51, then it clicks that it isn't.  Very nice in those colors.
 

[elmayerle]

I'd suggest it'd be better to call this a P-78A since the original two WP-78s were NAA products.  *smile8 It'd save some face for NAA, too.

[retro_seventies]

it's a real second look generator!  

stunning in that blue (that incidentally looks the spitting image of the blue used on the world famous thundersley invacar) and nmf.