Shipbucket

You've out done yourself eswube, very well done and informative.

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Projects:
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References and feedback is always welcome!

Wow. I never thought you'd get these done that quickly! Another excellent post that's a good mix of art and info. Trying to match these against the FD-scale Vulcan B.2 should offer some surprising results given the size of these beasts.

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

Percival P.68 Gazelle was a project of a small liaison and observation (AOP) aircraft designed around 1953 by Jerzy Dąbrowski (designer of PZL-37 Łoś, who remained in Great Britain after the WW2), loosely based on his pre-war PZL-55 fighter design and war-time trainer Gazela (seen here: http://www.shipbucket.com/forums/viewto ... 25#p111525 ). Further development was marred by disagreements between Dąbrowski and other members of design team, leading to Dąbrowski's departure to Folland Aircraft. Ultimately the project lost the bid to late model of Auster AOP.

Design: twin-seat, low-wing monoplane of all-metal construction, engine: De Havilland Gipsy Major 30, wingspan - 8m (26ft 3in), length - 6,6m (21ft 8in), TO weight - 1000kg, maximum speed - 250km/h.

Great Britain, Percival P.68 Gazelle

Thanks for drawing the P.48 eswube! It's great, though I do have a little nitpick over the colour scheme. At the moment you have an RAF trainer scheme, but the Army Air Corps AOP aircraft had camouflage, though I think a few may have had dayglo panels for training duties etc. I can check that for you. But other than that, its nice to see this in FD.

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

Thanks Hood.
It looks somewhat simplistic, but I had only one simple drawing too.
I actually based the colours on a/c's from Communication Squadrons. Initially I tried to apply camouflage like on Auster, but because of their different configurations that attempt didn't went well.

I think its looks ok, being a small drawing you won't get too many details on there anyway. I may tinker with a colour scheme over the weekend.

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

Finally got around to re-colouring this. In the colours of the Army Air Corps circa August 1964.



Just a note Eswube, I note your high-vis dayglo for the RAF aircraft is pretty pinkish. The finish is hard to determine from period photos, it seems to be a vibrant red but also seems to fade to orangey shades. Sometimes it looks pinkish. Your attempt is about the best done in FD so far and dayglo seems hard to replicate in paint. Here is looks pretty pinky, but of course other folks on different monitors and screens might see a different shade.

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

Very nice colors.
Re: the high-vis dayglo - I copied it from a scanned color drawings of Anson from a Warpaint publication.

Got distracted while supposedly doing proper work, so time for a burst of wartime What-If. Maybe it's just me, but I always thought that the Miles M.20 deserved a better chance than it actually got, so...

Miles Sea Merlin

After being developed as an emergency fighter in case of Spitfire and Hurricane production being disrupted, the Miles M.20 sat around doing nothing very much in the early part of 1941. When the FW-200 Condor began launching long-range attacks on merchant shipping out of the range of land-based fighters, the Royal Navy realised that it needed something that could intercept long-range aircraft and protect merchant shipping. Miles proposed using the M.20 as a disposable fighter in place of the Hurricane, since it was largely made of non-essential materials. The proposal was approved and rocket catapults were fitted to merchant ships...

...when someone at Miles decided to put floats on the plane so it could be winched back aboard. If the sea was calm enough for a landing, the plane could be reused; if not, then just ditch it as was the original plan. The lack of agility wasn't a problem as the fighter was never intended to go head to head with German fighters. And so, the Sea Merlin was born:



Basically just the standard M.20 prototype with a pair of modified Swordfish floats under the fuselage, the Sea Merlin was a useful stop-gap until MAC ships and escort carriers entered service. However, this being wartime the FAA was impressed enough with the aircraft's performance to order a dedicated carrierborne version, the Mark II:



The Mark II added an arrestor hook on the port side of the rear fuselage, some strengthening spars around this and a retractable main undercarriage. The Admiralty ordered it in preference to the Seafire, preferring the wider wheel track, longer range and better visibility for naval operations.

The Mark II was inevitably quickly superceded by the Mark III. This newer version of the Sea Merlin added a Rolls Royce Merlin 46 engine with an extra 300hp and replaced four of the .303 Browning guns with 20mm Hispano cannon:



The Mark III saw a significant performance improvement over the Mark II as its engine incorporated Bendix-Stromberg carburettors that allowed for negative-g to be pulled, in addition to the extra power and firepower.

The second generation quickly arrived in the shape of the Mark IV, which introduced the Griffon engine, a retractable tailwheel and other more minor improvements:



The Mark IV became the basis for the ultimate version of the Sea Merlin, the Mark V. All surviving Mark IV aircraft were brought up to the new standard by 1945:



The Mark V was armed with four 20mm cannon, equipped with a 1860hp Griffon VI engine and underwing hardpoints for 250lb of 500lb bombs. Although rather rapidly replaced in front-line units post-war by the Hawker Sea Fury and Supermarine Seafang, the Sea Merlin remained in service with the RNVR until the early 50s:



Sea Merlins saw action in all theatres of war that the Royal Navy fought in, going up against the best the Italian, German and Japanese forces could throw at it and proving especially deadly at low and medium altitudes. The last were replaced in service with Reserve squadrons by the Supermarine Attacker in 1952, not bad for a stop-gap fighter.

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Oh good, my dog found the chainsaw!

Nice! really good ideas!

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