Hi guys, i've been away for a while but have been busy, finished a few more..
"January, 1976. In the meetings held at Lajes AB in the Azores, the U.S. government and Navy representatives and their recently elected Portuguese counterparts reached an agreement, which stated that the U.S. would maintain it's occupation of the base for at least another 20 years. As part of the payment for the this renewed period, the Portuguese Navy Admirals were finally granted the full cooperation of U.S. nuclear carrier design teams to start working on the first Portuguese supercarrier.
The PoN had been operating the first 2 carriers built by the Portuguese naval industry(INP) since 1963. These were the conventional-powered Vasco da Gama class carriers, displacing around 33.000 tons each, with angled deck and CATOBAR design, similar to the French Clemenceau.
The PoN wanted a nuclear powered aircraft carrier for the XXI century to help maintain the role it had of watching the middle section of the Atlantic Ocean since the Nato conference held in Lisbon, in 1952. Also looking to the future in terms of newer aircraft, the Vasco da Gama class vessels were already starting to show their age and would soon need to be modernized with some up-to-date electronic systems and newer hydraulic catapult systems, and besides that, they should probably be retired around the year 2000.
The new carrier would be called "Infante D. Henrique", the one and only of it's class to be built. It would be very similar to the new USS Nimitz class carriers, and would operate a variety of new aircraft, which, obviously, also had to be acquired.
There wasn't much to worry about in making decisions as the American ships would be a very obvious example to follow by the Portuguese carrier.
After several budget cuts, delays with US tech teams being available to train and supervise the installation process of the main nuclear components and systems, the suspension of the program during 2 years and much debate about Portugal needing such a vessel, funding and technicians finally started coming through, and the keel of the "Infante D.Henrique" was laid down on the 15th of September, 1979. 3 years later, it was christened and launched at the Alcântara INP Docks on the Tejo estuary, in Lisbon.
After several delays in construction due to worker strikes and more budget cuts, after another 6 years for completion, the ship was ready for it's final acceptance trials with it's new air wing.
The new F-18C/D were among the chosen aircraft and, the also new Naval Fleet Squadron 300 "The Barbarians", were chosen to be the first to call the "Infante" their home at sea.
This is the 1/72 F-18B/D hobby boss kit that was started around 2 years ago...? :roll:
Shamelessly stole the kit's decals for the VMFA(AW)-225 Vikings, and the fin flash and serial number from a Santa Cruz F-16A sheet, mixed and transformed into the fictitious NFS300, The Barbarians. :twisted:
The crew is from a Revell U.S./Nato pilots set, drop tanks from the kit, aim-9s from Revell F-16 kit, aim-7s from Hasegawa air to air U.S. missile set, Mk.20 Rockeyes from Italeri F-16 kit and all the antennas were made out of styrene bits cut to shape. Paints and varnish are Tamiya acrylics, main color XF-24 don't know what's the name grey... :-D Nose cone is XF-19 sky grey, nozzles are X-10 gun metal and X-11 silver.
I know, it's not much but, i managed to mess up what was actually a nice paint job, while gluing on the antennas and handling the model with painted fingers... Also managed to put too much glue when i closed up the canopy, but as it was masked, i only saw the excess glue on the inside today after unmasking... :evil:
Oh, well... at least it's another one off the stalled builds pile and bench, and on to my display shelf... The 5th whif finished this year, out of 6 models. :grin:
It's one from a bunch of builds i still want to include in my alternative history for the Portuguese military forces.
Next was one of my all time favorite fighters, the F-16XL, my first build of one of my "holy grail" kits.
7th model of the year, Monogram's 1/72 F-16XL in PoAF Service. :mrgreen:
"In 1986, the General Dynamics F-16XL was entered in the ETF competition against the F-15E from McDonnel-Douglas. The F-15E Strike Eagle was chosen to avoid closing the F-15 production line but the F-16XL would be kept in the backburner as there were several interested countries. Israel and the UAE were the first to chose the F-16XL over the standard F-16A/B.
The number of orders convinced the USAF and the US government to allow the exportation of the advanced fighter. The number of orders would grow over the following years, leading GD to sideline the standard F-16 design and keep producing the XL.
Portugal acquired it's first batch of 20 F-16XLs in 1994 through the "Peace Atlantis II" agreement but a second delivery would take place in the end of 1995, totaling 48 aircraft.
The first PoAF Squadron to transition from the A-7P to the Viper was the 201st FS Falcġes (Falcons), based at Monte Real BA5 air base.
In 2014, the last of the Portuguese XLs was updated with the MLU program, during which, the new radar absorbing "Have Glass V" paint was to be applied to the whole fuselage, including external hardware commonly used like the external fuel tanks and pylons, excluding the radome."
After these, i finished the Revell 1/72 Me-262, which was for my best mate's kid to play with so, no small parts like landing gear and the likes... He'd already tried to build it but couldn't so he asked me to do it. My first Luftwaffe WWII camo, freehand airbrushed mottling.
So, that brings the total of finished models this year, up to 8, already doubling the 4 i've finished last year!
Thanks for dropping by!
Zen