Litvyak's profiles

[GTX_Admin]

Lovin' those Boxcars!  Any chance of a RAF or RAAF one?

[apophenia]

Love the electric Boxcar but pink for the photo-recce Archer was brilliant  :)

[Litvyak]

Lovin' those Boxcars!  Any chance of a RAF or RAAF one?

How's this?



I loosely based the scheme on one I found of an RAAF Bristol Freighter. Hope you like it! :)

Love the electric Boxcar but pink for the photo-recce Archer was brilliant  :)

Thanks! I rather like that one, too. To the point that I'm actually thinking of building it in plastic, getting AltCan decals made, etc...

There will be some more new stuff in a little bit. And I have 6 days off now, so probably there will be quite a few coming (if the weather stays as ugly as it is right now...)

[Litvyak]

So, the existing new stuff I haven't yet shown.

May I present the Canadair CA-114 Attacker?

A COIN/light-strike variant of the CT-114 Tutor - similar to the CL-41G that Canadair made for the RMAF in the real world, this has built-in cannon and two hardpoints for rocket pods (which I think I may have drawn too small on the profiles, but oh well...


The Attackers entered RCAF service in 1967 - right in time for use in Vietnam, where they saw extensive action. This is an Attacker of 424 Sqn in the SEA camo.


After the withdrawal from Vietnam, most Attackers (those of 424, 427, 443, 447 and 450 Sqns) returned to Canada, where they were repainted into the standard CAS scheme.


432 Sqn, however, was redeployed to RCAF Baden-Soellingen, and their Attackers received the standard 1CAD camo.


Three squadrons - 424, 427 and 450 - continued to operate the CA-114 beyond 1988, and these were repainted into the loviz grey scheme. The last CA-114 was retired in 1989.

[Litvyak]

The CA-114 was also popular on the export market, primarily amongst third-world air forces.


Ireland isn't third world, but the Irish Air Corps opted for the CA-114 in the light-strike role.


The Honduran Air Force bought 26 Attackers new, and in 1988 bought a further dozen second-hand from the RCAF.


The Lebanese Air Force bought 14 Attackers in 1969.


The largest customer of the CA-114, apart from the RCAF, was the Philippine Air Force, who bought 66 between 1968 and 1971.


The Royal Ceylon Air Force bought 24 Attackers in 1967-68. These remained in service for many years and saw action (with the Sri Lankan Air Force) against Tamil separatists.

[GTX_Admin]

Outstanding RAAF Boxcar!  Thanks.  I am actually tempted to get a 1/48 RCM Fairchild C-119 Boxcar Vacuform kit to model that one.

I agree re the small rocket pods...maybe say they are training pods...

[Litvyak]

The Royal Malaysian Air Force operated 40 Attackers between 1969 and 1993.


The first export customer was the Royal Rhodesian Air Force, who received 22 CA-114s in 1967 and 1968.


The Air Force of Senegal purchased 16 refurbished and upgraded Attackers in 1987 from the RCAF.


The Republic of Vietnam Air Force operated a total of 127 Attackers, though the bulk of these were technically owned by the RCAF and "lent" to the VNAF. After the war, there were enough Attackers left in Vietnam that the Vietnamese People's Air Force was able to operate 30 of them into the mid 1980s.

[arc3371]

I do like the attackers and an excellent selection of schemes, perhaps some South African or Omani?

[Litvyak]

Outstanding RAAF Boxcar!  Thanks.  I am actually tempted to get a 1/48 RCM Fairchild C-119 Boxcar Vacuform kit to model that one.

Oooh! Oooh! Do it! Do it!

I'm planning on getting a 1/72 Boxcar to build as an RW EWU "electric" Boxcar, but I wonder: is there a 1/144 C-119 kit? I'd do the RAAF one too, if there's a 1/144 kit available.

[Empty Handed]

The CA-114s are great!!!

[Litvyak]

Thanks for the compliments! :)

So moving on, here's the first batch of Clunks - the Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck Mk. III!


The Canuck Mk. III had only a very limited period of service with the RCAF, being used by three squadrons between 1952 and 1955. This is a "Clunk" of 409 Sqn.


419 Sqn also operated Canuck Mk. IIIs. The 1950s was an interesting time from the point of view of schemes used on fighters - although the basic scheme was unpainted, natural metal, and standardised schemes for placement of insignia and ID marks were used, each squadron decorated its aircraft differently.


The third squadron to operate the Mk. III was 445 Sqn. In 1955, the Mk. IIIs were withdrawn, and the bulk of them were passed on to Latin American air forces.

[Litvyak]

The Mk. IIIs were only three years old when supplanted by the Mk. IV in RCAF service, and the Chilean Air Force happily purchased 30 ex-RCAF Mk. IIIs in 1955, ushering them into the jet age. The Canucks remained in service in Chile until 1969.


Another Latin American country to buy second-hand Mk. IIIs was the Dominican Air Force who took 22, also in 1955. This was the island nation's first fighter jet, and the FAD operated them until 1972.


The Indian Air Force purchased 50 new Canuck Mk. IIIs from Avro, along with a licence to manufacture them; they were designated "Kirpan" in IAF service. The 50 Canadian-built aircraft were operated by the IAF until 1964, and were replaced by a HAL-designed derivative.


Canada supplied the Kuomintang government on Taiwan with 58 new Canuck Mk. IIIs in 1953, which the Republic of China Air Force operated as front-line interceptors until 1956, when they began to be replaced by Mk. Vs; the Mk. IIIs remained in service with reserve squadrons until 1972.


The Royal Air Force purchased a small number of new Mk. IIIs from Avro Canada. The only front-line squadron to operate them was 5 Sqn, and they remained in service only 4 years before being withdrawn and returned to Canada. Several of the ex-RAF Clunks found new life with the RCAF as CEF-100s.

[GTX_Admin]

Some damn fine creations there...

[Litvyak]

More Clunks! Now moving on to the Mk. IV...


409 Sqn was one of the original operators of the Mk. III, and transitioned to the Mk. IV in 1955.


419 Sqn was the first of the three Mk. III-operating squadrons to transition to the Mk. IV, starting the process already in 1953 and finishing in 1954. The third operator of the Mk. III was 445 Sqn, but they bypassed the Mk. IV and went directly to the Mk. V.


423 Sqn stood up in 1953 receiving an early batch of Mk. IVs.


425 Sqn stood up in 1954 with Mk. IVs, and was designated a Francophone squadron. This was displayed prominently with the French-language titles on the nose, which was made possible by the relaxed attitude towards decoration of aircraft that was prevalent in the 1950s.


432 Sqn was the second to reform in 1954 with Canuck Mk IVs.

[Litvyak]

433 Sqn was the third of three to be reformed in 1954 as an operator of the Mk. IV.

While the Mk. III had some success in the export market, the Mk. IV did even better, with the air forces of several Commonwealth Realms opting for the Mk. IV.


The Belgian Air Force bought 53 Mk. IVs that were originally ordered by the RCAF, but were diverted while still on the production line. They served from 1954 to 1962.


The Israel Defence Force Air Force bought 60 Mk. IVs. These saw action during the Suez crisis, and this example, number 67 - now on display at the Israeli Air Force Museum - became the first Canuck ever to score an air-to-air kill, when it shot down an Egyptian Spitfire over the Suez Canal. The IDF-AF Canucks were operated until 1970; they saw heavy use during the 1967 war.


The Luftwaffe received 76 Mk. IVs in 1955-56, and remained in service until 1963. This is a Canuck of JG-71 "Richthofen", which is now on display at the Luftwaffenmuseum at Berlin-Gatow.

[Litvyak]

The Mexican Air Force obtained 70 ex-RCAF Mk. IVs in 1956, operating them until 1977.


The Royal Australian Air Force had been interested in the CF-100 from the beginning, and had tested a Mk. III extensively. However, the decision was made to delay a purchase until the Mk. IV was ready. In the end, the RAAF bought ten direct from Avro, while CAC built a further 110. The Canuck was the backbone of the RAAF interceptor force from 1953 until 1960. CAC experimented with several derivative possibilities, but none of those ever reached production.


The Royal New Zealand Air Force ordered 36 Mk. IVs in 1954. The order was originally placed with Avro Canada, but with Avro's production lines being at capacity with construction of CF-100s for the RCAF, Belgium and Israel, as well as with Jetliners for civilian customers, the order was shifted to Australia at Avro's request. The RNZAF operated their CAC-built Mk. IVs until 1971.


The last order for Mk. IVs came in late 1955, when the Royal South African Air Force requested 72. These were delivered in 1956, and the last Mk. IV to roll off the production line was an example for the RSAAF.

[GTX_Admin]

Keep them coming!!!

[arc3371]

Looks great now we wait for the swept wing version

[GTX_Admin]

And the STOVL version!

[Litvyak]

The swept-wing version - CF-103 Super Canuck - is indeed in the works. It's a bit of a ways away yet, though, you may have noticed I'm going alphabetically...

[Litvyak]

Wow, that's brilliant! Was that an RW proposal for serious??

[GTX_Admin]

Wow, that's brilliant! Was that an RW proposal for serious??

As far as I am aware, yes.  I am tempted to build it one day.

[AGRA]

Love the Clunk. Ever thought of drawing some strike versions with bomb loads? Wasn't it offered to USAF as a B-26 replacement up against the Canberra and B-51?

[Litvyak]

Thanks! The Clunk is one of my personal favourites, too.

As for a strike version - the CF-103 with the swept wings - at least, my AltCan version - is primarily a strike fighter; it was used mostly in the SEAD role in Vietnam.

[dy031101]

The ROCAF Clunk just so happens to fit into an Alt.-ROC on Mainland China post-1950 story that I know is being worked on......    :)