Author Topic: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937  (Read 23776 times)

Offline arctic warrior

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #25 on: November 04, 2017, 04:19:50 PM »
Cheers.  :D
My idea was that EE faced with an upgrade would turn to Saab for help in making the Lightning into a "real" delta wing and of course the Swedes costefficeint as any Scandinavian would suggest using Viggen parts including canards if only to get done in time to stun the opposition and used tried and working parts.
Wings and canards on putty applied as is the bang-seat and awaiting topside darkgreen



Its not visible in the shot but I grafted out a cannon-trench on the starbord side of the nose. Will be made visible when paintings done.

Undersides having had a go of Pollyscale flat aluminium (did I spell this correct Brian?)  ;D



I've begun making masurements for the main gear legs; don't know if I'll use Viggen or Lightning parts or some leftover Phantom ones. :icon_meditation:

Offline Tophe

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #26 on: November 05, 2017, 01:24:16 AM »
Congratulations: the new wing fits like perfectly the fuselage, which amount of hard work provided this result?

Offline ysi_maniac

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #27 on: November 05, 2017, 12:33:08 PM »
Quite interesting project!
 :smiley: :smiley: 8)

Offline arctic warrior

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #28 on: November 05, 2017, 09:46:14 PM »
Congratulations: the new wing fits like perfectly the fuselage, which amount of hard work provided this result?

Getting out the drills and razorsaw is just fun.
Took about two days work of getting strips of styrene aligned with the upperwing. Scored to size by use of a metal ruler and hobby-knife; then filling the gaps with bits of flash and more strips of styrene to make a strong bond and finally a go of putty to fill in small gaps and flatten the surface.
Wings undersides were pretty much the same deal though easier as this part is wider than the top wing-parts. I had to fit the inner main gear doors which took a major part of wing lenght only having to saw/cut them to size at the fuselage side to make the wing fit.
Really not hard work more of finding the right thickness of styrene and then start cutting and glueing parts in place.
Canards were even easier.
The real deal was drilling holes for the location of the wing pegs to enter the fuselage and then cut away plastic to make a decent fit.

Offline Tophe

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #29 on: November 06, 2017, 02:10:10 AM »
Your work is more than "decent", it is GREAT! :smiley:

Offline arctic warrior

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #30 on: November 06, 2017, 02:34:06 AM »
Cheers Tophe; its main ingredient is patience - loads of it. Of course at times I just don't have the mojo for it and it becomes somewhat sloppy.. we can't be on top all of the time!  ;)

Offline Dr. YoKai

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #31 on: November 08, 2017, 01:16:17 AM »
Nice work on all of it - Like the Heinkel best so far, but I expect the Lighggen( ;) ) will be smashing.

Offline ChernayaAkula

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #32 on: November 09, 2017, 09:12:20 AM »
Fan-freakin'-tastic!  >:D Two of the most awesome aircraft bashed together! What's not to love?  :-*
Cheers,
Moritz

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Offline arctic warrior

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #33 on: November 12, 2017, 10:45:48 PM »
The Liggen/Vightning/whatever is still in the works though the clock still turns and other models reach the finish; so lets jump back in time to Ronald Reagan taking office in the White House!

The military build-up besides encompassing the 600-ship Navy and revival of the B-1 also made room for more exotic projects. Ever since the maiden flight of Concorde during 1969 and most especially the 1973 Solar Eclipse Mission the USAF had a wet dream of a SuperSonicReconaissance aircraft that with in-flight refuelling capability and room for various mission types also should be capable of accommodating a double crew for very long extended flights around the Globe at high speed. More or less instant recce where We want it - when We want it!
With Reagan ready to open the coffers the USAF handed in their projects among a lot other and got the go as had been the case of the B-1 revival.
In years to come following delivery of the first USAF SSR-001 in 1983 from the assembly line that had been moved to Seattle on March 23, coinciding with the on-TV launching of the Strategic Defence Initiative didn't fail to name the aircraft Star Wars 1 by those on the inside of the USAF!
The first hot mission occured on April 18, following the bombing of the US Embassy in Beiruth, Lebanon supplementing other sources of intel gathered.
Actually knowledge of the aircraft was kept limited for a number of years and even if rumours of its operations did get out the information was very small with no pictures of the aircraft existing; that is not until the Libyan-Chad war broke out in January 1987 when the French foreign minister managed to disclose that part of the intelligence gathered that made Chadian army able to defeat the Libyan tank brigade had been provided by USAF overflights of SSR-001 aircraft.
This led to a mad scramble of any air-nerd worldwide to produce pics of the aircraft. It wasn't till late 1987 when a British journalist on a trip across the Indian Ocean managed to get a blurred image from high altitude of one on the runway of Diego Garcia base. It didn't exactly mirror you ordinary Concorde - if a Concorde ever could be labelled ordinary - with the twin rudders and antennae panels behind the cockpit.
It took some years before the USAF itself disclosed the SSR-001 which then happened at a US airshow. In an instant the aircraft was the most photographed of the world. It was speculated that the tail/rudders lay-out was in response to the not uncommon problems that had been encountered on Concorde but could also be part of Radar profile reduction that would help to make it near radar-invisible! This of course was not commented on by US defense department officials.
Here's a few pictures:




It was apparent that USAF aircrews still would uphold the great tradition of nose-art  8)


The aircraft registration did pose some queries from air-plane spotters - would this be the new Airforce II?

..or did this signal VIP-transport too with of course a most prestitious mile-high-club following??  :-*

Anyway the upper fuselage "windows" as well as the under fuselage "windows" were the focus of much air-nerd debate usually attributing the lower ones to cameras though the upper ones would remain a mystery. At some point it was reported that a Tu-144 had been spotted at Schönefeld Airport East Berlin with like "windows"!  ???


This Airfix 1/144 Concorde was handed me by my brother-in-law; partially built with one main landing gear broken I decided to go for a kit-bash. The tail was sawed off and replaced  with ones from Heller 1/72 Viggen's. The antennae panel's are pieces of plastic card glued to the fuselage. Decals from stash. Brush painted in Light and Dark Ghost Gray.
Enjoy.  ;D

Offline Tophe

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #34 on: November 12, 2017, 11:13:44 PM »
VERY wonderful Concorde-Viggen scaleorama mix! :-* :-*

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #35 on: November 13, 2017, 02:35:04 AM »
Great mashup.  Maybe a Concodiggen?  ;)
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Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #36 on: November 13, 2017, 06:22:54 PM »
I really like the V tail conversion.

That's some inspired thinking!

Brian da Basher

Offline elmayerle

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #37 on: November 14, 2017, 02:47:10 AM »
Beautiful!!  It looks like it could come directly from a Dale Brown novel.

Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #38 on: November 14, 2017, 04:47:38 AM »
The  He 70 Floatplane / HM-III reminded me of a British WWII bomber... just remembered the name: The Vickers Wellesley:





The Wellesley was actually tested for torpedo dropping.




Chris
"What young man could possibly be bored
with a uniform to wear,
a fast aeroplane to fly,
and something to shoot at?"

Offline arctic warrior

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #39 on: November 14, 2017, 03:40:06 PM »
Glad you all like the Rec-corde!  :D
@dogsbody: serves to open up possibilities.  ;D

Online finsrin

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #40 on: November 14, 2017, 04:40:31 PM »
Like that SSR-001 and background story.  Every picture says "speed"  8)

Offline arctic warrior

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #41 on: November 19, 2017, 03:04:10 AM »
1973 the USA was abandoning South Vietnam which was televised worldwide as was the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East and following this the main topic of the day would be the Arab Oil Embargo on the west with rising oil prices and private car running prohibited in places. The days of unrestricted speeding had gone.

One thing that escaped public attention was the transfer of one English Electric Lightning from no. 11 Sqn at RAF Binbrook to Saab works at Linköping southwest of Stockholm. For some years English Electric had been aware that something would have to be done if the Lightning should remain in production and service. The Sea Lightning with the variable geometry wing had proven a non-starter a cheaper solution had to be found and English Electric though they had found that in Sweden.
Saab was a world leader in combat aviation with the J-35 Draken and J-37 Viggen both of groundbreaking deltawing design and top avionics. A cooperation seemed the right thing to enter.
The Swedes weren't exactly enthusiastic about the prospect as they were busy building Viggens for the Swedish Airforce; however to maintain good relations with Britain they agreed to refurbish a single Lightning with a delta wing and upgraded avionics. The latter on condition that it be returned should the future cooperation fall out. Which the Swedes coolly expected to happen.
Receiving the Lightning the Saab engineers quickly removed the wings and avionics and then began pondering what to do next. Various configurations were suggested among these something resembling the Project J-36 wing but that was abandoned due to cost. Instead some junior engineer suggested modifying the Viggen wing and canards and bolt them onto the airframe. That would necessiate another main landing gear but taking measurements it was found to be possible to keep the Viggen gear by mounting the wing lower than the original Lightning wing. The canards was mounted ahead of the wing - Viggen fashion.
Avionics were cut down too; retaining the Red Top missiles on the fuselage hardpoints and keep the wiring for the Sidewinders and Sparrows in the wings. A 30mm cannon was mounted in the nose on the starbord side of the fuselage. Refuelling probe was place under the port canard - and very carefully recorded with provision added to Viggens for eventually adding such in a crisis. Nothing was of course disclosed of this arrangement though the Airforce staff and ministry of Defence were briefed.

The aircraft was given a new lick of paint and then flown back to Britain for a promotions bash at the RAF and MoD. Sadly the RAF was elated by the prospect of a upgraded Lightning which actually flew well and had more hardpoints for missiles as well as a cannon but the MoD simply didn't have money and already other options were considered.

XV738 kept flying with no. 11 Sqn till funding of maintenance for the odd bird ran out during 1975. It had by that time been visiting Linköping several times to have the Swedish avionics removed and general maintenance carried out as well as drinks in the mess of nearby Malmen Airbase for the pilot in the good company of Swedish pilots of F13 Wing. In late 1975 a group of Saab engineers arrived at RAF Binbrook to remove the wings and canards and XV738 would for more then a decade lie abandoned and rusting in a desolate corner of the base only to be scrapped as no. 11 Sqn had been disbanded on 30. April 1988. The story of XV738 is now only known to a few; even Urbans blog of Cancelled Saab aircraft projects makes no mention of the Lighiggen/Liggen/Vightning as it was affectionately know to those RAF pilots who had the chance to fly it.

XV738 with 11. Sqn flash under cockpit

Rear shot of burner cans

Front shot - Red Top on fuselage rail Sparrow under wing cannon groove in nose

Wings configuration

As intercepted Bears would see the XV738


The construction have been posted; the painting was by brush upper Life Color RAF Dark Green undersides Pollyscale Aluminium missiles Life Color Light Gull Gray. Decals from Lightning kit Airfix old Harrier GR.1 and Airfix Buccaneer in the late edition. The kit decals were prone to disintegrating and had to be touched up with Xtracrylix Trainer Yellow. The old and new Airfix ones worked a treat.
A nice fun build and a really better looking Lightning.  :smiley:

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #42 on: November 19, 2017, 03:08:43 AM »
 :smiley:
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

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But you can make the Bastard work for it.

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #43 on: November 19, 2017, 08:10:00 AM »
Great backstory and built!  :smiley:
« Last Edit: November 19, 2017, 08:33:15 AM by The Big Gimper »
Work in progress ::

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Offline Tophe

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #44 on: November 19, 2017, 02:36:24 PM »
Wonderful result! :-*
I am surprised a little by the backstory: you do not mention that the key of this project was Denmark (with an order for 1,000 copies?) ;)

Offline Kelmola

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #45 on: November 20, 2017, 05:11:41 AM »
Do I see correctly or was even the single-seat Matchbox Viggen re-tooled at some point? I could swear that the two Mboxes in my stash (both single and double seater) have the dogtooth in the wing, but that seems to be the prototype wing without dogtooth (which Airfix and Hasegawa have).

Looks good all the same :smiley:

Offline arctic warrior

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #46 on: November 20, 2017, 04:58:06 PM »
Do I see correctly or was even the single-seat Matchbox Viggen re-tooled at some point? I could swear that the two Mboxes in my stash (both single and double seater) have the dogtooth in the wing, but that seems to be the prototype wing without dogtooth (which Airfix and Hasegawa have).

Looks good all the same :smiley:

I removed the dogtooth from the wing as it was an RWR-probe which would have required more rewiring than EE was ready to pay for..  :-X
And banging myself on head - have a Airfix Viggen lying around would have been much easier to use the wing..  :-\
« Last Edit: November 20, 2017, 05:16:31 PM by arctic warrior »

Offline arctic warrior

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #47 on: January 05, 2019, 05:41:42 PM »
Hi guys; been off for some time but crawling back to the bench.  :o
A just finished Starfix Skyhawk and some from yesterday - here goes:
Back in the days of 1967 the Danish Airforce needed to replace the F-100D. Runners up were the SAAB Draken - Mirage 5 - F-5A - A-4 Skyhawk and the Dark Horse the E.E. Lightning.
I haven't yet stumbled upon a cheapo Mirage 5 or Danish Draken but here's the Dark Horse (Matchbox 1/72 Lightning with added rocket pods):



The Skyhawk (Starfix 1/72 A-4F? with weapons!):



Finally the Norwegian choice the F-5A (PM 1/72 with Viggen spare cockpit):


Offline arctic warrior

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #48 on: January 05, 2019, 06:05:56 PM »
With the end of WWII in 1945 the Danish Government didn't know who to turn to for procuring new military aircraft. Still wanting to uphold neutrality the Danes asked in both West and East but everybody wanted hard cash or hardware in return. The Soviets though in the end decided to get a foothold within bourgeois Denmark and entered an arms deal.
One of the resulting aircraft to take to Danish skies around 1950 was the Yak-15 jet fighter; the pinnacle of construction to Danish eyes and Army Air Corps pilots.





As is visible the AAC were still ready to display Danish ingenuity so when J-74 had had a loss of canopy a Me-262 one was found in a thrashheap at the former Luftwaffe base at Karup and made to fit. Also rockets were experimented with for close airsupport.

The PM kit is one that's really an option for whiffery - cheapo - few parts - whats not to like!  ;D
Trying to give the foggy kit canopy the future treatment I dropped it into the Model Master enamel clear gloss where it melted quickly. A replacement found in the sparesbox and generous amounts of white glue made that fit. Stoppel decals to round it out.
There is an IL-10 and a La-7 somewhere in the stash to round it out.  :smiley:

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Re: Danish Navy project HM-III 1937
« Reply #49 on: January 06, 2019, 03:00:59 AM »
Nice work.  Really like the idea of Danish Lightnings or Skyhawks.
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

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But you can make the Bastard work for it.