As a result of posting my Telford pics I've been asked if I can post the build and backstory about my Skysearcher, so here it is. I had intended it to be part of the 'Project Cancelled SIG's display of UK AEW projects but that was apparently only for models of those projects that had been proposed in the RW as described in two recent books on the subject. Accordingly I placed my Skysearcher right up against the division between the two SIG displays.
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Soon after the first few cruises carried out by the new large Royal Navy carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, previously entitled CVA-01, it became apparent that the then standard FAA AEW aircraft, the Gannet AWE3, was over-stretched in its tasks and could do with much more range and endurance. Being a propellor driven aircraft fitting a refuelling probe would be no small matter, without considering the difficulties caused by the large speed difference between the Gannet and the FAA tanker Scimitars then in service.
Requests for proposals for a jet powered AEW aircraft met with little enthusiasm from the British aircraft industry due to the small number of airframes likely to be ordered, a maximum of twelve being considered to re-equip the FAA's specialst AEW squadron, 849 NAS. However assistance came from an unexpected direction as the US Navy was winding down its own ECM-cum-tanker fleet of EKA-3B Skywarriors amd a number were offered to the MoD at an attractive price. The EKA-3Bs could be fitted with the existing AN/APS-20 radar taken from the Gannets without lessening any of their existing capabilities and would add to the ability of the FAA giving them an ECM sensing task which was not previously available. As the Skywarriors already had probes fitted as well as hose-reels, drogues and overload fuel tanks, they could fulfill both tanker, ECM and AWE roles in a single aircraft.
To operate such a large and heavy aircraft the steam catapults then installed on the 'HMS Queen Elizabeth' and her newly launched sister ship, the 'HMS Duke of Edinburgh', were uprated and stronger arrestor systems fitted as well. With the existing deck lifts there was no possibility that the EKA-3Bs could be struck down below decks on the CVA-01 class carriers but due to the aircraft's long potential range, as well as their IFR capability, it was thought that major servicing could be carried ashore by 'hot swapping' 839 NAS's four flights between shore stations and the carriers.
Accordingly the US's offer was accepted and some fifteen standard EKA-3Bs were flown across the Atlantic to Marshall Aerospace's base at cambridge airport where they were fitted with the Gannet's radar systems in batches of four. This kept 849 NAS with an operational capability while their much augmented crews worked up on the new American aircraft. It was not lost on the squadron's historian that the unit had changed over from a Douglas aircraft to the Gannets originally as the same AN/APS-20 sets had been carried by Douglas Skyraiders almost since the end of WWII!
The first flight of Skysearchers, as the new type was known in FAA service, took post at RNAS Yeovilton in June 1978, and the number of available Skysearchers steadily increased until the whole squadron had been re-equipped by the Spring of the following year. Of the three spare airframes, one was held at Yeovilton as a local test and trials aircraft, one was allocated to RAE Boscombe Down for clearance tests and later test work, where it recieved the usual Raspberry Ripple scheme during the mid 80s and the third airframe vanished into the FAA's fleet of 'Special Tasking' aircraft, then based at RNAS Brawdy.
Suffering from a number of engine issues with the then un-familiar Pratt & Whitney J-57s the Skysearchers had a relatively short MTBF rate, but this was aleviated by the transfer of some RAF ground staff from RAF Wyton who had been specially trained on the foibles of the J-57 while working on 13 Sqdn's early Mark Meteor PR19s.
The capabilities of the 'Whales', as the Skysearchers became known in the FAA, following the lead of the aircraft's nicknaming by the USN, soon became very much appreciated by their associated squadrons, both aboard the carriers and shore based. Being able to refuel their CAP colleagues while at the same time being able to supply target information and control, not to mention being able to warn of potential enemy radar, SAM and AAA threats was a huge increase in capability.
The later activities of 849's second Douglas manufactured aircraft in the South Atlantic are well known of course, the Whales' capabilities being one of the primary reasons why both Argentinian attempts to invade the Falklands failed ignominiously. Until replaced by the BAe 197 Joint Service Support Aircraft in 2008, the Skysearchers gave long and reliable service to their user squadrons and some examples may still be seen in various aviation museums in the UK and abroad.
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My Blitz Build for Telford, to sit alongside JayBee's AEW Jetstream on the WhatIf side of the Project Cancelled AEW theme, is this pretty well standard Hasegawa EKA-3B but with an Delta Bits Gannet AEW3 resin radome added below its forward section. I can't ever remember buying this kit (!) but found it lurking in The Loft while looking for a suitable 'carrier' for the radome which I'd found earlier. It's not all THAT good, suffering from pretty dire panel fits in places, and one or two large gaps that'll need to be filled, but it sure looks IMPRESSIVE when it's put together! I have a RW ERB-66 Destroyer built up and always thought an A3D would make a good partner for it, so soon it'll have one.
As you can see from the piccies the radome has been grafted onto the forward end of the 'canoe' carried underneath the EKA-3B and faired in with some Milliput that seems to have worked quite well. I'm going to add all the bits that Hasegawa suggest are 'surplus', just because I can
and we'll see how it goes on.
I'm building this in a caravan on the N Devon coast at the moment so facilities are a tad limited, the nearest LHS would seem to be around 50-60 miles away, and around here that may as well be on Mars, but I'll be home late Friday to do serious work on it.
I have two ideas for the colour scheme, one in ESDG and Sky, just like the Gannet AEW3s, and the other in Navy Blue/Grey with white undersides, like 892 NAS's Phantoms. In both cases it'll have the wonderful black and yellow sunburst with a bumble bee on the fin, as carried by 849's Gannets.
What do you guys think would look best on this Whale?
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Finished the main assembly of the Skysearcher, which went OK except the engines don't fit all that well at the front. A bit of PSR and some heavy filing sorted that out and then I added the canopy with acrylic glue and added a small radar warning aerial on the fin. It already has one on the trailing edge but I added a Brit Standard one to the leading edge (see RAF Harriers, Phantoms, Jaguars etc etc....)
Then I masked up the canopy totally and put the first coat of primer on. There won't be a second one, not in this colour anyway, as I ran out on the very last pass over the model! As it's going to be a mostly Sky colour coat I'll do the 2nd primer coat in that odd yellowish shade Halfords have as I have a can of that in stock.
That tail bumper things doesn't really fit at all well, there's a 1/8" gap at the forward edge of it as built, but that succumbed to some PSR as well. :thumbsup:
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Not much different from the previous piccie, but it's also available in green.....
After two coats of airbrushed Xtracolor Sky and one coat of hand brushed Klear it's looking pretty darn smart, to my mind anyway. Next is masking off the entire bottom of the airframe :banghead: and then apply the EDSG upper colour. Looking at USN EKA-3Bs it looks like the engines will need a fair amount of natural metal, white and red as well, although I may dispense with the red as I can't find evidence of the FAA using such warnings.
I've also done lots of work for the decals tonight and a paper print of them looks great taped on to the airframe.
I found a THIRTY NINE serial number 'dead band' just in the right place, so it's going to be XV997 and Squadron code 045.
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I've spent all DAY masking up the Whale for the upper EDSG colour. The two engines and all the lumps and bumps made it a REAL pain, and I had hoped to get some paint on it tonight but not now. :banghead:
I got through miles of Tamiya tape so a few rolls of that are going to be on my Telford shopping list!
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I just stripped off a veritable MOUNTAIN of masking tape with the result below.
I'm pretty pleased with it, that awful curve in the demarcation just forward of the fin worked pretty well and there's only a few places need touching up. Some metallic areas on the engines need doing now and after that it's time for the decals, one of my favourite bits.
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At last the darn thing's finished, but it really DIDN'T want to get built! So many things went wrong once I'd got past the initial build steps it wasn't true, and the landing gear was a NIGHTMARE! The instruction sheet is total rubbish and it's very difficult to figure out where the various bits go.
As sandiego suggested I modified the nosegear to use a catapult bar and a reinforcing strut forward of the leg, there's no space to put it behind, and I used every one of the optional aerials that they provide in the kit, so it's got lumps and bumps everywhere.
After I'd sorted out the paint scheme, airbrush failure notwithstanding, I used a mixture of home printed and the kit decals, but the latter were USELESS! They just fell apart into thousands of tiny pixel sized blobs so I sprayed the whole sheet with the same varnish I use to make my own and that recovered some of them.
