61
Upgrades and Life Extensions GB / Re: Playing with Polikarpovs
« Last post by raafif on June 21, 2026, 08:57:19 AM »Love the Polikarpovs - there was 2-seater but what about a stretched twin-fuselage one - tailess ! 
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62
Profiles and Pixels / Re: Profile Requests
« Last post by raafif on June 21, 2026, 08:54:18 AM »I always thought that the Pink-Panther car would make a good NewYork Checker Cab 
{tried all the A.I. artists with no luck
}
{tried all the A.I. artists with no luck
}63
Tips, Tools & Techniques / Re: Heat-Shrink" Tubing Material
« Last post by Jeffry Fontaine on June 21, 2026, 07:51:35 AM »Hi Frank.
It appears that my great idea was not such a great idea. I suppose the thickness of the heat-shrink material has much to do with it not working out. Worth the effort to find out though. Thank you for making that happen.
Using the Tamiya Tape as you suggested may well be the solution. Or just wait patiently for the actual gun barrel to be "in stock" at the usual suspects.
How much trouble/effort was required to remove that heat-shrink material after you applied it to the T-72/T-90 barrel section?
It appears that my great idea was not such a great idea. I suppose the thickness of the heat-shrink material has much to do with it not working out. Worth the effort to find out though. Thank you for making that happen.
Using the Tamiya Tape as you suggested may well be the solution. Or just wait patiently for the actual gun barrel to be "in stock" at the usual suspects.
How much trouble/effort was required to remove that heat-shrink material after you applied it to the T-72/T-90 barrel section?
64
Upgrades and Life Extensions GB / Playing with Polikarpovs
« Last post by apophenia on June 21, 2026, 04:55:32 AM »I think this one fits within the rules of the Upgrades and Life Extensions GB ...
For ages I had been playing with the idea of Polikarpov I-16s upgraded by the French on behalf of the Spanish Republic. Then, recently, I was fiddling about with Arsenal VG series fighters ... which provided me with a fresh idea for replacement parts for the accidentally wingless I-16s that I had envisioned arriving by sea at Bordeaux.
The one-piece wooden wings from the VG 33 made far more sense than my original ideas - which I'll save in case we ever have a 'Dumb Idea' GB! (BTW, the images shown here were modified from a V-VS I-16 Type 10 profile by the great Ronnie Olsthoorn.)
So, here I present the Arsenal-winged Polikarpov I-16R and I-16F.
Top An Arsenal/Polikarpov I-16 Mosca R (for Raffinés) as issued to 4ª Escuadrilla de Moscas - a Fuerzas Aéreas de la República Española (FARE) fighter squadron - in the late Winter of 1939.
Prior to arriving at the hybrid Arsenal/Polikarpov solution, some of the wingless I-16 tipo 17 airframes in France had been robbed of their 750 hp Shvetsov M-25B engines to provide spares for the FARE. Later, civilian Wright Cyclone engines were substituted.
The 770 hp R-1820-F53s had been chosen to circumvent US sanctions on Spanish Civil War participants. However, since civilian R-1820-F53 engines lacked synchronisation gear, the machine gun armament of Wright-powered Arsenal/Polikarpov I-16s would consist of 4 x wing-mounted Darnes.
Bottom Completed too late to help the Republicans, small numbers of I-161F (Français) were taken into Armée de l'Air service to act as fighter lead-in trainers for Bloch MB 151 squadrons. This aircraft has a three-bladed, 2-pitch Ratier propeller.
Never intended for operational use as fighters, in Armée de l'Air service, these aircraft were designated Arsenal 161E.1 (for Entraînement single-seater), sometimes given as 161 Ent.1.
For ages I had been playing with the idea of Polikarpov I-16s upgraded by the French on behalf of the Spanish Republic. Then, recently, I was fiddling about with Arsenal VG series fighters ... which provided me with a fresh idea for replacement parts for the accidentally wingless I-16s that I had envisioned arriving by sea at Bordeaux.
The one-piece wooden wings from the VG 33 made far more sense than my original ideas - which I'll save in case we ever have a 'Dumb Idea' GB! (BTW, the images shown here were modified from a V-VS I-16 Type 10 profile by the great Ronnie Olsthoorn.)
So, here I present the Arsenal-winged Polikarpov I-16R and I-16F.
Top An Arsenal/Polikarpov I-16 Mosca R (for Raffinés) as issued to 4ª Escuadrilla de Moscas - a Fuerzas Aéreas de la República Española (FARE) fighter squadron - in the late Winter of 1939.
Prior to arriving at the hybrid Arsenal/Polikarpov solution, some of the wingless I-16 tipo 17 airframes in France had been robbed of their 750 hp Shvetsov M-25B engines to provide spares for the FARE. Later, civilian Wright Cyclone engines were substituted.
The 770 hp R-1820-F53s had been chosen to circumvent US sanctions on Spanish Civil War participants. However, since civilian R-1820-F53 engines lacked synchronisation gear, the machine gun armament of Wright-powered Arsenal/Polikarpov I-16s would consist of 4 x wing-mounted Darnes.
Bottom Completed too late to help the Republicans, small numbers of I-161F (Français) were taken into Armée de l'Air service to act as fighter lead-in trainers for Bloch MB 151 squadrons. This aircraft has a three-bladed, 2-pitch Ratier propeller.
Never intended for operational use as fighters, in Armée de l'Air service, these aircraft were designated Arsenal 161E.1 (for Entraînement single-seater), sometimes given as 161 Ent.1.
65
Profiles and Pixels / Re: Apophenia's Offerings
« Last post by apophenia on June 21, 2026, 04:52:53 AM »(Continuing ...)
'Vee-Gee': Canadian Arsenal VG 32s into Production
To accommodate Canadian commerce rules, the Compagnie d'avions en bois moulé d'Acadie was majority-owned by Montréal-area businessmen (49%) including Wilfrid Reid himself (10%), leaving the French government with a minority 41% share. However, Paris - through the government's Arsenal de l'aéronautique - retained ownership of the basic VG 32 design. The production 'Vidal-Arsenal' VG 32C1 was identical in most respects to the VG 32 N°02 prototype.
Top: VG 32C1 N°04 served as an armament testbed for CABMA prior to its delivery to the French. It was fitted with the full intended armament of 2 x 13.2 mm FN Browning lower cowl guns and 4 x 7.5 mm MAC 34 machine guns in its wings. VG 32C1 N°04 was finally delivered to France in June 1940 but was still awaiting assembly at a Base de Stockage outside Saint-Nazaire when that Armée de l'Air facility was over-run by the Wehrmacht.
Only the first half dozen CABMA-built VG 32s were armed as originally intended. The AdA preferred to fit six 7.5 mm guns - generally 4 x MAC 34s in the wings and a pair of small-bore FN Brownings in the nose. [1] Weight of fire was reduced as a result but, the AdA reasoned, ammunition supply at the squadron level would be simplified.
Dans la mêlée - the Arsenal VG 32C1 in Service
On 13 May 1940, GC II/7 began re-equipping from MS 406 fighters to VG 32s. By 01 June, the Groupe had completed its transition to Arsenal fighters - but with some French-built VG 33C1s mixed in with the Canadian-made VG 32C1s. Blanc 3 was the personal mount of Sergent-Chef René Panhard - a pilote expert transferred from the VG 33-equipped 3ème to 4ème escadrille on VG 32C1s.
Bottom S/C Panhard's Allison-engined fighter received a red spinner and 'bouche de requin' personal marking. The individual aircraft number was blanc 3. The '4' on the vertical fin's disque noir denoted SPA 78 - the 4ème escadrille of Groupe de Chasse II/7. During the Battle of France, S/C Panhard had scored 5 x confirmed kills and 1 x probable.
After retreating to Algeria with GC II/7, S/C Panhard was demobilized on 15 Aug 1940 and returned to la métropole. His mount - VG 32C1 N° 26 - was eventually reissued to CG II/3 which then deployed to the Levant. In May 1941, an unserviceable VG 32C1 N° 26 was destroyed on the ground during an RAF strafing attack on the Vichy airfield at Alep (Aleppo).
(Fin)
_____________________________________
[1] This mix of machine gun types was dictated by the French MAC 34s lacking propeller synchronisation gears which the FN guns did have.
'Vee-Gee': Canadian Arsenal VG 32s into Production
To accommodate Canadian commerce rules, the Compagnie d'avions en bois moulé d'Acadie was majority-owned by Montréal-area businessmen (49%) including Wilfrid Reid himself (10%), leaving the French government with a minority 41% share. However, Paris - through the government's Arsenal de l'aéronautique - retained ownership of the basic VG 32 design. The production 'Vidal-Arsenal' VG 32C1 was identical in most respects to the VG 32 N°02 prototype.
Top: VG 32C1 N°04 served as an armament testbed for CABMA prior to its delivery to the French. It was fitted with the full intended armament of 2 x 13.2 mm FN Browning lower cowl guns and 4 x 7.5 mm MAC 34 machine guns in its wings. VG 32C1 N°04 was finally delivered to France in June 1940 but was still awaiting assembly at a Base de Stockage outside Saint-Nazaire when that Armée de l'Air facility was over-run by the Wehrmacht.
Only the first half dozen CABMA-built VG 32s were armed as originally intended. The AdA preferred to fit six 7.5 mm guns - generally 4 x MAC 34s in the wings and a pair of small-bore FN Brownings in the nose. [1] Weight of fire was reduced as a result but, the AdA reasoned, ammunition supply at the squadron level would be simplified.
Dans la mêlée - the Arsenal VG 32C1 in Service
On 13 May 1940, GC II/7 began re-equipping from MS 406 fighters to VG 32s. By 01 June, the Groupe had completed its transition to Arsenal fighters - but with some French-built VG 33C1s mixed in with the Canadian-made VG 32C1s. Blanc 3 was the personal mount of Sergent-Chef René Panhard - a pilote expert transferred from the VG 33-equipped 3ème to 4ème escadrille on VG 32C1s.
Bottom S/C Panhard's Allison-engined fighter received a red spinner and 'bouche de requin' personal marking. The individual aircraft number was blanc 3. The '4' on the vertical fin's disque noir denoted SPA 78 - the 4ème escadrille of Groupe de Chasse II/7. During the Battle of France, S/C Panhard had scored 5 x confirmed kills and 1 x probable.
After retreating to Algeria with GC II/7, S/C Panhard was demobilized on 15 Aug 1940 and returned to la métropole. His mount - VG 32C1 N° 26 - was eventually reissued to CG II/3 which then deployed to the Levant. In May 1941, an unserviceable VG 32C1 N° 26 was destroyed on the ground during an RAF strafing attack on the Vichy airfield at Alep (Aleppo).
(Fin)
_____________________________________
[1] This mix of machine gun types was dictated by the French MAC 34s lacking propeller synchronisation gears which the FN guns did have.
66
Profiles and Pixels / Re: Apophenia's Offerings
« Last post by apophenia on June 21, 2026, 04:51:27 AM »(Continuing ...)
Whif: The Arsenal VG 32 was Constructed in Canada?
To head the effort to build VG 32 fighters in Canada, representatives of the Anglo-French Purchasing Board sought out experienced British engineer Wilfrid Reid. [1] Reid was to become head designer at CABMA - the Compagnie d'avions en bois moulé d'Acadie (or Moulded Wooden Aircraft Company of Acadia). With production space at a premium around Montréal-area airfields, the Moncton area in Acadia - the French-speaking region of New Brunswick - was chose as the location for VG 32 production in Canada. [2]
Top: A view of what the unarmed Arsenal VG 32C1 N°1 might have looked like had it been completed. (This image is based upon a Arsenal VG 30 profile by Ed Jackson.) No main undercarriage fairings are shown (as none seemed ever to be fitted to production VG 33 airframes).
To aid Canadian production, Reid has contracted the services of US-based Aircraft Research Corp. to help redesign the VG 33's complicated, double-skinned fuselage structure for Gene Vidal's technique of using heat-activated phenol formaldehyde (PF) resins to bond wooden aircraft skins and stiffeners at the same time. [3] For its part, Arsenal de l'aéronautique provided a sample airframe - the engineless VG 33 N°03 - along with drawing for the planned Allison installation in the VG 32C1.
Meanwhile, a new manufacturing facility with its own airstrip was being created a few miles to the east of Moncton in Scoudouc, NB. Besides offices, this plant was comprised of two woodworking shops, a dedicated fuselage moulding facility, and an assembly hall. As the moulding hall was completed, work had already begun on wing components. These wings were based directly on the sample airframe. But this presented a problem - the resulting wings held only 4 x machine guns.
Once informed that insufficient HS 404 cannons were available to arm Canadian made VG 32s, CABMA began devising an alternative armament (with W. T. Reid calculating stressing). Upper cowl guns were rejected as, even in the absense of a cannon breech, there was inadequate space directly in front of the cockpit. The CABMA drawing office's solution was to mount a pair of synchronised guns in the lower cowling. To approximate the HS 404's weight of fire, twin 13.2 mm FN Browning guns were recommended.
Bottom The prototype 'Vidal-Arsenal' fighter - CABMA's VG 32 N°02. Removed cowling sections reveal the Allison V-1710-C15 engine and portside 0.50-inch Browning heavy machine gun (standing in for the planned 13.2 mm FN gun) with its spent casing collector box to the rear. Note also revised tail fin, refined tail cone, and great clearance provided by the new tailwheel.
The revised Vidal-Weldwood fuselage featured a structural join in the transverse plane. This approach greatly simplified fuselage construction but the fasteners joining the upper and lower segments (which connected level with the horizontal tail) reduced the overall weight savings of the Vidal-Weldwood Process.
(To be continued ...)
_____________________________________________
[1] In 1928, Wilfred Reid had left his chief aircraft designer's position at Canadian Vickers to form W T Reid Aircraft Co. in Montréal. By 1931, that firm had, in part, been acquired by the US-based Curtiss Company - becoming Curtiss-Reid. When the Depression killed Curtiss-Reid, W. T. Reid had turned his attention to diesel engines.
[2] Locating CABMA near Moncton also provided easy access to New Brunswick timbers - including aircraft-quality red spruce. However, some wood components required the use of sitka spruce which was shipped east from British Columbia.
[3] Anticipating, a need for wooden aircraft structures in wartime, W. T. Reid had licensed the Vidal-Weldwood Process from Aircraft Research Corp. in late 1938. Reid's initial plans to design a new, wooden training aircraft for the RCAF would be eclipsed by the French VG 32 contract. Similarly, CABMA absorbed a recently reformed W T Reid Aircraft Co. Ltd.
Whif: The Arsenal VG 32 was Constructed in Canada?
To head the effort to build VG 32 fighters in Canada, representatives of the Anglo-French Purchasing Board sought out experienced British engineer Wilfrid Reid. [1] Reid was to become head designer at CABMA - the Compagnie d'avions en bois moulé d'Acadie (or Moulded Wooden Aircraft Company of Acadia). With production space at a premium around Montréal-area airfields, the Moncton area in Acadia - the French-speaking region of New Brunswick - was chose as the location for VG 32 production in Canada. [2]
Top: A view of what the unarmed Arsenal VG 32C1 N°1 might have looked like had it been completed. (This image is based upon a Arsenal VG 30 profile by Ed Jackson.) No main undercarriage fairings are shown (as none seemed ever to be fitted to production VG 33 airframes).
To aid Canadian production, Reid has contracted the services of US-based Aircraft Research Corp. to help redesign the VG 33's complicated, double-skinned fuselage structure for Gene Vidal's technique of using heat-activated phenol formaldehyde (PF) resins to bond wooden aircraft skins and stiffeners at the same time. [3] For its part, Arsenal de l'aéronautique provided a sample airframe - the engineless VG 33 N°03 - along with drawing for the planned Allison installation in the VG 32C1.
Meanwhile, a new manufacturing facility with its own airstrip was being created a few miles to the east of Moncton in Scoudouc, NB. Besides offices, this plant was comprised of two woodworking shops, a dedicated fuselage moulding facility, and an assembly hall. As the moulding hall was completed, work had already begun on wing components. These wings were based directly on the sample airframe. But this presented a problem - the resulting wings held only 4 x machine guns.
Once informed that insufficient HS 404 cannons were available to arm Canadian made VG 32s, CABMA began devising an alternative armament (with W. T. Reid calculating stressing). Upper cowl guns were rejected as, even in the absense of a cannon breech, there was inadequate space directly in front of the cockpit. The CABMA drawing office's solution was to mount a pair of synchronised guns in the lower cowling. To approximate the HS 404's weight of fire, twin 13.2 mm FN Browning guns were recommended.
Bottom The prototype 'Vidal-Arsenal' fighter - CABMA's VG 32 N°02. Removed cowling sections reveal the Allison V-1710-C15 engine and portside 0.50-inch Browning heavy machine gun (standing in for the planned 13.2 mm FN gun) with its spent casing collector box to the rear. Note also revised tail fin, refined tail cone, and great clearance provided by the new tailwheel.
The revised Vidal-Weldwood fuselage featured a structural join in the transverse plane. This approach greatly simplified fuselage construction but the fasteners joining the upper and lower segments (which connected level with the horizontal tail) reduced the overall weight savings of the Vidal-Weldwood Process.
(To be continued ...)
_____________________________________________
[1] In 1928, Wilfred Reid had left his chief aircraft designer's position at Canadian Vickers to form W T Reid Aircraft Co. in Montréal. By 1931, that firm had, in part, been acquired by the US-based Curtiss Company - becoming Curtiss-Reid. When the Depression killed Curtiss-Reid, W. T. Reid had turned his attention to diesel engines.
[2] Locating CABMA near Moncton also provided easy access to New Brunswick timbers - including aircraft-quality red spruce. However, some wood components required the use of sitka spruce which was shipped east from British Columbia.
[3] Anticipating, a need for wooden aircraft structures in wartime, W. T. Reid had licensed the Vidal-Weldwood Process from Aircraft Research Corp. in late 1938. Reid's initial plans to design a new, wooden training aircraft for the RCAF would be eclipsed by the French VG 32 contract. Similarly, CABMA absorbed a recently reformed W T Reid Aircraft Co. Ltd.
67
Profiles and Pixels / Re: Apophenia's Offerings
« Last post by apophenia on June 21, 2026, 04:50:33 AM »That Arsenal Fighter ... Again
I have been obsessed with the wooden Arsenal VG 33 fighter dating back to my teens. As a result, every once in a while, I compulsively return to the subject. This time, I decided to focus on a VG 32 variant made in Canada under contract to the French Armeé de l'Air. First some background and blather ...
The RW VG 32 was to be powered by a 1,150 hp Allison V-1710-C15 V12 - the result of a sensible French policy that all combat aircraft should have foreign engine alternatives to prepare for potential wartime shortages of their original French powerplants. As such, the VG 32 sounds like a fairly straightforward adaptation of the VG 33 airframe. But that was not the case.
The V-1710 engine had no facility for a moteur canon. As a result, in the original Programme technique A.23, the STAé called for a wing-mounted armament of 2 x 7.5 mm MAC 34 machine guns plus 2 x 20 mm HS 404 cannons. But all that is moot since the Allison engine never arrived in France - meaning that the RW planned conversion of the VG 33C1 N°5 airframe to VG 32 standards was never completed.
The key advantage of the Arsenal design - its largely wooden structure - would also prove to be its Achilles heel. Although metals were viewed as strategic materials, supplies of aircraft-quality spruce was even rarer in France. Securing adequate stocks of wood (mainly from Algeria's Atlas Mountains) created an insoluable bottleneck for French production. An alternative source of wood was required ... and that is where the what-if comes in.
Épinette rouge et Arsenal au Canada
Oddly, the only aircraft type that the French government seem to have considered building in Canada was the all-metal Bréguet 691. [1] A more natural fit for Canadian production would seem to have been the wooden VG series fighters constructed primarily from red spruce. After all, Canada was the source of most of the world's aircraft-quality spruce. However, in this whif, there was no such oversight.
(To be continued ...)
_____________________________________________
[1] Negotiations between the Ministère de l’Air and Canada's National Steel Car (NSC) to build 144 x Bré 691s were still under way when France fell to the Nazis. NSC's original connection to France was the 5,300 freight cars that the firm built for CF du Nord and PLM during (and just after) WW1.
During WW2, NSC's aircraft division in Malton, ON, built Westland Lysander IIIs and components for Canadian-licensed Handley-Page Hampden bombers. In 1942, took control of NSC and renamed it Victory Aircraft Limited.
I have been obsessed with the wooden Arsenal VG 33 fighter dating back to my teens. As a result, every once in a while, I compulsively return to the subject. This time, I decided to focus on a VG 32 variant made in Canada under contract to the French Armeé de l'Air. First some background and blather ...
The RW VG 32 was to be powered by a 1,150 hp Allison V-1710-C15 V12 - the result of a sensible French policy that all combat aircraft should have foreign engine alternatives to prepare for potential wartime shortages of their original French powerplants. As such, the VG 32 sounds like a fairly straightforward adaptation of the VG 33 airframe. But that was not the case.
The V-1710 engine had no facility for a moteur canon. As a result, in the original Programme technique A.23, the STAé called for a wing-mounted armament of 2 x 7.5 mm MAC 34 machine guns plus 2 x 20 mm HS 404 cannons. But all that is moot since the Allison engine never arrived in France - meaning that the RW planned conversion of the VG 33C1 N°5 airframe to VG 32 standards was never completed.
The key advantage of the Arsenal design - its largely wooden structure - would also prove to be its Achilles heel. Although metals were viewed as strategic materials, supplies of aircraft-quality spruce was even rarer in France. Securing adequate stocks of wood (mainly from Algeria's Atlas Mountains) created an insoluable bottleneck for French production. An alternative source of wood was required ... and that is where the what-if comes in.
Épinette rouge et Arsenal au Canada
Oddly, the only aircraft type that the French government seem to have considered building in Canada was the all-metal Bréguet 691. [1] A more natural fit for Canadian production would seem to have been the wooden VG series fighters constructed primarily from red spruce. After all, Canada was the source of most of the world's aircraft-quality spruce. However, in this whif, there was no such oversight.
(To be continued ...)
_____________________________________________
[1] Negotiations between the Ministère de l’Air and Canada's National Steel Car (NSC) to build 144 x Bré 691s were still under way when France fell to the Nazis. NSC's original connection to France was the 5,300 freight cars that the firm built for CF du Nord and PLM during (and just after) WW1.
During WW2, NSC's aircraft division in Malton, ON, built Westland Lysander IIIs and components for Canadian-licensed Handley-Page Hampden bombers. In 1942, took control of NSC and renamed it Victory Aircraft Limited.
68
Stories / Re: Swiss Stilettos
« Last post by apophenia on June 21, 2026, 04:49:07 AM »Weirdly, RCAF pilots regarded the CF-104 as highly manoeuvrable ... and they were coming off Sabre 6s.
BTW, the silver and grey F-104Ss were based on a blank created from a CF-104 profile by Lieuwe de Vries.
BTW, the silver and grey F-104Ss were based on a blank created from a CF-104 profile by Lieuwe de Vries.
69
Stories / Re: Swiss Stilettos
« Last post by GTX_Admin on June 21, 2026, 03:51:55 AM »BTW, this was all inspired by the following real world Italian F-104S images:
70
Stories / Re: Swiss Stilettos
« Last post by GTX_Admin on June 21, 2026, 03:46:42 AM »
I started wondering about the less than stellar sustained turn rate and turning radius. Working between the Swiss mountains might be different from doing it with more agile fighters.
I doubt anyone would claim that the Mirage III was that much more impressive in terms of turning ability. Yes, the Mirage was butternut just not that much more significantly. Nor would anyone claim that this was the determining factor in selecting the Mirage III.