Modelling > Allies '46 GB
Martin Baker MB6 Long Ranger
kitnut617:
OK, I was having thoughts about joining this GB, but I've already hit a snag. I've been looking at the MB6 I have and already see that some of it will have to be changed. I like the night fighter idea the boxing has but then the cockpit is so cramped I don't think it would have been like that (been looking at Meteor Mk.11 night fighters to see what was used back then). Also I think it needs to have an engine upgrade to a Sabre and then those wing tip tanks --- the paint schemes on the box sort of show something different to what you find in the box so they will get changed.
I plan on making some castings of an engine I already been putting together for a Sabre VII powered Hawker Fury plus some castings of the radar panel from out of the Meteor box (I intend to build the Meteor OOB someday) and some different wing tip tanks (it will get underwing tanks too). So my snag is ----- the catalyst for adding to the RTV rubber I have is caput ----- and I can't find any more in town at the moment. I'll see how long it takes to find a new bottle of the catalyst before I go any further with this project.
kitnut617:
Made a decision, because I'm not able to get a bottle of catalyst for sometime apparently, I'm going to use the parts I had made for the other projects on this one without making a copy of them. I'll start afresh on those other projects later as I know how to do it.
Anyway, here's a couple of pics of the previously made parts which I hope doesn't contravene the rules. This will be the Napier Sabre VIII which was tested with a contra-prop according to the noted aviation author, Phil Butler. He told me he had seen a photo of it when he was researching other stuff at Kew.
The idea here is this MB6 Long Ranger was more a interdictor than a night fighter. When I first looked at the kit my thoughts were it has to haul a lot more weight around, what with the two crew and all the radar gear and extra fuel tanks so needed a much more powerful engine. And seeing as the MB5 was a development of the MB3 which was powered by a Napier Sabre, it seemed to me an obvious choice to make this one Sabre powered. I've read that the Sabre VII and VIII were 3000+hp engines and that Napier had bench tested some Sabre VII's to 5500hp, so I'm thinking a production variant could have been around 4000hp. So that's what I'm going with here.
This is what I have made so far a few years ago, the new engine nacelle. It was intended for the Hawker Fury prototype LA610. There's photos on the internet showing the real one flying with the Sabre VII. I also started on a contra-prop with two 4-blade propellers, I figure if the Wyvern got the same with an engine of about the same power, that's what I'll go with for this one. I have to finish the contra-prop as I had only trial fitted the parts to see if the idea on making would work.
kitnut617:
Pics of the AZ Models kit, top ones of the front and back of the box, last one of the bits. The box art sort of show the wing tanks as being quite large, but what you get in the box are two really skinny tanks which look odd. I'm going to use some Shackleton wing tip tanks and you can see in the parts pic I've tested it on the wing tip.
kitnut617:
In my stash I have four Falcon vacuform MB5's, the Falcon kit is reputed to be a good representation of the MB5 so I did some comparing with the one to the AZ Models kit. The AZ kit is practically the same ----
Interestingly, I found the cross section of the MB5 fuselage at the engine bulkhead/engine mounting point, is almost the same as the Hawker Fury so what I made for the Fury works quite well for this project.
Here's a pic of the Fury LA610 with the engine nacelle. I should point out that the MB5 is a large aircraft, about the same size as a Tempest/Fury or a P-47. Bottom pic shows a comparison of the three
Tophe:
Interesting...
I did not know this MB6 kit, nor the "true" MB6 (scale 1 project), thanks!
(Google seems to fail finding a site talking of the MB6, even if Google pictures finds many profiles of it)
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