I was really impressed with the flyovers of a Rockwell B-1B at the recent Thunder over Louisville Airshow, which were carried out both with wings extended and swept. So much that I just ordered the Revell B-1B 1/48 along with some aftermarket goodies to spruce it up. Now I gotta clean off the work bench to accommodate this monster.
I also did some quick searches on the development of variable geometry aircraft and it seems that the precursor to variable wing geometry was a Messerschmidt, the P-1101, which was discovered by Allied forces at the Oberammergau complex 65 years ago on April 29, 1945. Never completed and tested as far as I know, and not a true active variable geometry design, it started a developmental process that led to the Bell X-5 and ultimately to the more familiar aircraft like the F-14, Mig-23 and the B-1.
Since I’ve got the B-1B coming and that it's reported to be a real bear of a kit, I thought that I’d find some company during the build and organize a Swing Wing Group Build. There seems to be a good number of kits available in various scales, and of various types of aircraft, so there's no shortage of interesting topics. For example, possible subjects and kit manufacturers are listed below and there may be more that I've not included:
Messerschmidt P-1101 - Dragon 1/72
Bell X-5 - Revell 1/40(?), Mach 1/72
F-111 - various manufacturers and scales available
B-1 - Revell, Dragon in various scales
F-14 - numerous choices including the new Trumpeter kit
Tupelev Tu-22M - Esci, Italeri 1/72
MiG-23 - various kits and scales available
MiG-27 - various kits and scales available
Su-17 - Kopro 1/48; Italeri 1/72
Su-22 - Kopro 1/48, Italeri 1/72
Su-24 - various kits and scales available
Panavia Tornado - Revell, Italeri, AirFix in various scales
Dassault Mirage G - not sure if available in scale?
Tupelev Tu-160 - Trumpeter, Italeri, Zvezda 1/144 and 1/72
Rules of the GB:
1) any variable geometry aircraft is eligible, any scale; OOB or as much aftermarket/scratch build as you like
2) GB will start June 1, 2010 and end on April 29, 2011, the 66th anniversary of the discovery of the Messerschmidt P-1101, the swing wing prototype.
3) WIP photos are a must. I also encourage participants to do some research into their selected aircraft and to pass interesting info along to the group. We can all learn something new.
4) most importantly: have fun
5) The GB Badge that can be downloaded after competion of a build is below. Please grab a copy and host it on your personal photo page. Thanks.
As of Monday Nov. 22, the participants and their chosen kits are as follows:
Bish - Dragon Messerschmidt P-1101 1/72; Hasegawa 1/72 MiG-23
Wingman_KZ - Revell Germany 1/72 Tornado in lizard camo (completed); and possibly other Tornados as well
morefirejules08 - Hobbyboss 1/48 F-111D/E built as a F-111F
medicman71 - 1/48 Revel F-14A Tomcat with VF-1 Wolfpack High-Vis markings
Aggieman - DML 1/144 Panavia Tornado (completed); Revell 1/48 B-1B Lancer (completed)
Konigwolf13 - HobbyBoss 1/48 F-111C Pig, Aussie AF
Vetteman42 - Revell F-14A 1/48 (modeled after the Tomcat from VF-41 on the USS Nimitz that is now on display at the Ronald Reagan Library) (completed)
the real thing:
the model:
Pordoi - Revell B-1B Lancer 1/48 (completed)
STFD637 - AMT EF-111 Raven 1/72 (completed)
macattack80 - Revell 1/48 B-1B Lancer (completed) and 1/48 Revell F-14D in VX-9 markings
raptordriver - Revell F-14A 1/48 (completed)
eatthis - Revell F-14 Tomcat 1/48 (completed)
Italeri 1/48 Tornado (completed)
Revell 1/48 B-1B
grimmo - Hobby Boss 1/48 RAAF F-111C Pig in tricolor camo
oddmanrush - Italeri 1/72 Tornado IDS Black Panther
harshman II - Academy 1/72 MiG-27 Flogger (completed... in 2 days)
Flyhigh - Revell 1/48 F-14D
If anyone else is interested, please respond to this post and I'll add you to the list.
Have fun everyone; look forward to seeing things start in a couple of weeks.
Don