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.

[M.A.D]

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.

Unfortunately elmayerle, I can't seem to open this link.
At the risk of duplicating, via your link, this:

MAD

[apophenia]

Unfortunately elmayerle, I can't seem to open this link...

I don't think Chris Gibson ever updated his UK Aerospace and Weapons site after the end of 2014.

-- https://web.archive.org/web/20141103162356/http://www.skomer.u-net.com/projects/start.htm

The Blue Dolphin proposal was listed under the 'parent' Red Top AAM.

"Proposed variants included Blue Dolphin, which was also called Blue Jay MkV. This was to have an active continuous wave radar seeker and was intended for Sea Vixen and TSR.2. Blue Jay MkV was similar in capability to the US AIM-7 Sparrow."

-- https://web.archive.org/web/20120415005237fw_/http://www.skomer.u-net.com/projects/redtop.htm