1/72 USN/USMC Flying Fish

[Frank3k]

Against my better judgment, I got the Mikro-Mir Caproni B.72 Flying? Whatsit:



I decided to make it a USN or USMC vehicle, so first thing was to swap the inline engines with radials. I got some Eduard Quickboost B-17G Flying Fortress Engines (Wright Cyclone R-1820), outlined the wing cross section and CADed out a cowl and engine pod. I didn't go all out on the details, since the kit itself isn't very detailed.:



I printed a few copies, Here's one pod pressed together with the engine. There's some dust from sanding and some sections still need cleanup:



I also wanted to replace the anemic single machine gun with twin .50 or .303 guns. A search through my spares didn't reveal anything suitable in 1/72, so I looked online and found these free 1/35 twin .303 on Cults3D by Razz Dabat Designs

I rescaled them to 1/72 and the fragile results are outstanding. You can even see the open barrels:



I also opened up the cockpit area to allow room for a third crew member.

The two Wright engines should have allowed this vehicle to fly (albeit poorly) so I'm going to see what it looks like with end plates, similar to the William Horton wingless aircraft

Since US torpedoes weren't good for their intended task, I have to decide what armaments, missions and era to place this in.  Contenders are:

- USN/USMC WWII torpedo attacker
- Replace the torpedoes with a 37mm gun and make it a harassment/recon vehicle. A cross between the missions undertaken by the PT boats and B-25s in the Pacific.
- Pre-war Yellow wings, with torpedoes.

Let's see how far this goes before the Mikro-Mir curse hits.

[Dr. YoKai]

I like the pre-war torpedo...craft better idea than the gunship. I suspect it would have been relatively fast in a straight line, but I can't see this thing being too nimble at low level. Not sure what the Mikro Mir curse is, and since I will be starting on my DB 10 before long, I am a little curious, and a  little anxious...

The MGs and the replacement engines look great.

[raafif]

Very interesting project - I WILL be watching.

May put some floats & torpedos on my Northrop N9M Wing

[Frank3k]

Ray, I saw the N9M in person while it was being restored. It was a pretty small plane! It would look good in floats.

Craig - Mikro-Mir kits look great as 3D CAD images, but there's often a breakdown when it goes from CAD to plastic. They are still using short run injection tech which doesn't help with the details, fit and flash. In some kits, the parts just don't fit without heroic effort... and that's not always because of the molding. The instructions are often just suggestions, if not completely wrong.

[Kerick]

From my understanding the US Mk13 torpedo would work if dropped at a low speed. It was used on PT boats later in WWII. Dropped from higher speed aircraft required the “pickle barrel” wood shield over the nose and the wood stabilizer fins to work properly. Of course it never did match up with other nations torpedoes.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

@Frank.  Another weapon for your consideration might be some kind of naval mine for your craft so it could perform an maritime area denial mission. 

[apophenia]

Looking great so far, Frank! I'm with Doc Yo on the prewar torpedo bomber scheme.

And love your concept of applying 'Horton wingless' details to the Caproni B.72 base 

[Frank3k]

I'm strongly leaning towards a prewar USN plane.

I started to scratch-build the cockpit, including sourcing some instrument panels from my junk bins, when I remembered that I'd downloaded a free 1/72 Hawker Sea Fury cockpit from Muteman on Cults3D I separated the components in the file and printed the seat, instrument panel, control stick and rudder pedals.

Unfortunately, I didn't do a very good job on the supports - they were way too big -  and the very fine parts on the seats broke off while trying to remove them. No big deal; I wasn't going to use those details and the rest of the seat and other components printed well.  I'll have to trim the edges of the instrument panel to fit, though.

My Neanderthal fingers broke off one side of the reflex sight. It's amazing that the foot braces on the rudder pedals printed:



The resin behind the dials is thin enough that some light sanding should open them up. I can then either print dials or paint a piece of white plastic.

Here are the pilot and copilot stations:



I also started working on the floats and the torpedoes.  The flash around the parts is so bad that it's hard to tell what's flash and what's the actual edge of the float. I had to take them apart at least once. The torpedoes are also flashy. I can tell already that the struts between the floats and the wing will have to be replaced or reinforced with metal. The attachment point is 0.5mm deep or less.

I also printed out a template for the Horton endplates.