72nd Scale Vampire and Sea Venom - Air 2 Air Missiles and Drop Tanks

[The Big Gimper]

I just picked up the Airfix FB5 and the Frog FAW21. I think both of these A/C deserved to be retro-fitted with Air 2 Air missiles.   

So given what is available via pilfering existing kits or after market, what would you recommend? Firestreak, Red Top, AIM-4A to D, AIM-9B?

Also are there any after market drop tanks? if not, what would be a reasonable substitute?

Carl

[elmayerle]

It depends, are you building for UK usage or usage by other nations?  For RAF/FAA usage, I could see Red Top or Firestreak missiles (depending on time period) while usage by other nations would very likely see AIM-9Bs as I don't remember the early AIM-4 variants being exported (only non-nuclear version of the later AIM-26).  I wonder if Douglas could have been persuaded to mate the AIM-9B seeker to the Sparrow I airframe and motor to give a longer reach than a Sidewinder would have?  It would also have the advantage of being "fire and forget" rather than requiring the constant target illumination of the Sparrow I or Sparrow III.

[The Big Gimper]

Good points. I'm okay with either RAF/FAA or US supplied AIM based.

What I build will depend on what missiles I can source. AIM-4Ds and AIM-9Bs (Hasegawa Weapons III kit) are plentiful but I would have to buy or trade for the Firestreak or Red Top.

BTW, here a great resource for an inventory of what each weapon's kit has: http://www.andysmodels.me.uk/models/HS_Weapons_72.htm

[elmayerle]

A couple more thoughts, the Vampire FB.5 being more oriented toward daylight operations would be more likely to have a simple fit, i.e. Sidewinders.  The Sea Venom FAW.21 as an "all weather" fighter would be more likely to carry a mix.  If you can source several Red Top or Firestreak missiles, you might splice a Sparrow II seeker and radome on them to produce a "Blue Dolphin" (see http://www.skomer.u-net.com/projects/start.htm for further details) and use a pair of them and a pair of Firestreaks or Red Tops much as the Soviets paired IR- and radar-guided variants of the same missile.