ORION SPACECRAFT (paper)

This is a folded paper model of the proposed Lockheed-Martin/Airbus ORION spacecraft. The Orion is a joint USA (NASA)-European (ESA) crew space vehicle first launched in 2016. It is supposed to carry a crew of up to four within earth or low-earth orbit.

It is poorly designed and ill-fitting, but was an interesting introduction to folded paper models. The model is a propaganda handout from L-M from before 2010, and comes printed on four glossy pages of thin card stock.

Orion crews transport spacecraft

Orion crews transport spacecraft

Orion crews transport spacecraft

Orion crews transport spacecraft

Orion crews transport spacecraft

Orion crews transport spacecraft

The real one...

Orion crews transport spacecraft

KRUPP K5(E) HEAVY RAILWAY ARTILLERY (Dragon)

This is the 1:144 scale model from Dragon of the Nazi scum's Krupp K5(E) Tiefzug 7mm groove ultra-heavy ultra-long range artillery. In German this is an Eisenbahngeschütz (railway gun).

Those of you who know me well know that I do not build models of Nazi scum weapons. However, I am a fan of very large guns and this subject caught my attention, so I built it despite my feelings that the plastic model industry far and away glorifies Naz scum.

It fired a 283 mm, quarter tonne projectile, a maximum of 150 km from the 25.5 m long barrel. In reality the range was closer to 80 km. 

Germany built 25 of these somewhat inefficient railway guns. That said, they were probably the most effective railway gun of WWII and the Great Patriotic War, being relatively portable and much faster than towed artillery. Krupp began research in the 1920, and by 1934 was testing a smaller version. The final version was produced in 1936 despite the problem of the barrel splitting. This was solved by making the rifling grooves only 7 mm deep instead of 10 mm deep. This is the K5(E) Tiefzug 7 version, and was the standard form of this gun. The main gun and carriage weighs about 200 tonnes. If everything worked properly, the gunners could fire up to 15 rounds per hour (one every four minutes), but this rarely happened. Aiming required a curved track, or a switch, or a turntable, as the gun itself had only 1 degree of traverse.

Each battery consisted of two guns on three trains with four locomotives (one steam and one diesel) with a crew of 42 officers and men per gun. Then there were additional staff such as cooks, security teams, and railway personnel for the guns and three trains. The diesels were used to hide battlefield movement as the steam locomotives gave off too much smoke.

Two K5(E) guns (one battery) were sent to the siege of Sevastopol in late 1941-early 1942.

Note that the main carriage bears a large label stating "Deutsche Reichsbahn Berlin", or German State Railway (Berlin). These rail cars officially belonged to the railway - not to the army. Of course this was the same for the cattle cars used to transport jews to death camps, so that is the Nazi mentality for you. It is interesting that as the USSR withdrew most rolling stock during the Nazi invasion of the USSR, the Nazis had to use their own trains in Russia, but could not due to the size of the tracks. Deutsche Reichsbahn and the army had to lay over 16 000 km of German trackage to accommodate the Nazi army inside Russia, including the two K5(E) railway guns moved to Sevastopol, in roughly four months during the Nazi invasion named Operation Unternemen Barbarossa.

The model took three days to make, and is painted with Vallejo acrylics and powders. Painting and detailing the trackbed took two days.

Nazi Krupp K5(E) 283 mm heavy railway gun (eisenbahngeschütz) 

Nazi Krupp K5(E) 283 mm heavy railway gun (eisenbahngeschütz)

This is the real gun in the rail yard on newly-laid German gauge tracks near Sevastopol, USSR, in 1942-1942

This is the real gun in the rail yard on newly-laid German gauge tracks near Sevastopol, USSR, in 1942-1942

Nazi Krupp K5(E) 283 mm heavy railway gun (eisenbahngeschütz)

Nazi Krupp K5(E) 283 mm heavy railway gun (eisenbahngeschütz)

Nazi Krupp K5(E) 283 mm heavy railway gun (eisenbahngeschütz)

Nazi Krupp K5(E) 283 mm heavy railway gun (eisenbahngeschütz)

Nazi Krupp K5(E) 283 mm heavy railway gun (eisenbahngeschütz)

Nazi Krupp K5(E) 283 mm heavy railway gun (eisenbahngeschütz)

Nazi Krupp K5(E) 283 mm heavy railway gun (eisenbahngeschütz)

Nazi Krupp K5(E) 283 mm heavy railway gun (eisenbahngeschütz)

Nazi Krupp K5(E) 283 mm heavy railway gun (eisenbahngeschütz)

Nazi Krupp K5(E) 283 mm heavy railway gun (eisenbahngeschütz)

Nazi Krupp K5(E) 283 mm heavy railway gun (eisenbahngeschütz)

Nazi Krupp K5(E) 283 mm heavy railway gun (eisenbahngeschütz)

Nazi Krupp K5(E) 283 mm heavy railway gun (eisenbahngeschütz)

 

VULCAN B.2 & BLUE STEEL (Dragon)

This is the 1:200 scale model from Dragon (#2011) of the Avro VULCAN B.2 strategic bomber armed with the Avro Blue Steel missile and thermonuclear warhead.
Avro delivered 136 Vulcan bombers to the UK's Royal Air Force for deployment between 1956 and 1984. This was part of the UK V- Force, or the Bomber Command Main Force. Since the RAF could arrive at targets in the USSR several hours before the first wave of US strategic bombers, a secret UK/USA (SAC/RAF) agreement assigned the V-Force 106 urgent priority targets, including 69 cities, 17 strategic air bases, and 20 air defence missile sites. The RAF did not have the necessary number of nuclear weapons, but that was the plan.

The Vulcan B.2 bombers carried the Blue Steel stand-off missile. Avro made 53 operational missiles for the RAF, plus many training and flight testing versions. These were deployed between February 1963 and 31 December 1970, and were armed with the megatonne-class Red Snow thermonuclear warhead. The Red Snow warhead was an Anglicized copy of the US W-28 thermonuclear warhead greatly different from the original. The Blue Steel was the primary strategic nuclear weapons system in the UK arsenal until the introduction of the Polaris SLBM system. One big problem with Blue Steel was that it required up to seven hours of launch preparation, and was highly unreliable.
With a maximum range of only 240 km, most Blue Steel missiles would still have to be launched from inside the USSR. With the introduction of the MiG-21 interceptor, the high-level penetration tactic of the V-Force was considered obsolete, and the V-Force was shifted to low-altitude penetration with launch of the Blue Steel at only 300 m.
The RAF estimated a full half would fail to launch and would have to be dropped right on top of the target by the Vulcan, thus negating the whole purpose and value of a stand-off missile, while also assuring destruction of the bomber in a low-altitude mission.

From 1963, three squadrons of Vulcan B.2 were armed with the Blue Steel. The aircraft pictured (XL321) was operated by 617 (Dambuster) Sqdn at RAF Station Scampton in Lincolnshire, and is shown in the anti-flash gloss white colour scheme circa 1965. Both the aircraft and the missile sport the subdued markings and roundels, also meant to reduce heating of the surfaces in the event of a nearby nuclear flash. XL321 was built in 1962 and scrapped in 1987. 
RAF Scampton hosted all three Blue Steel squadrons (27, 83, and 617) until the formal termination of strategic quick reaction alert (QRA) duty on 30 June 1968. Several new buildings were added to Scampton to support Blue Steel nuclear operations, including warhead storage and maintenance; and missile storage and missile fueling.

This kit was bought at the IPMS Ottawa kit swap meet and completed in five days. The white is Tamiya true white spray can paint. The signs on the tarmac read NO LONE ZONE, meaning there are nuclear weapons present and all operations must have at least two qualified personnel present.

UPDATE: This model placed third in the giant CAPCON biennial model contest on 28 September 2019 at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. (Microscale military aircraft - smaller than 1:72)

Vulcan B.2 with Blue Steel nuclear missile

Actual Avro Vulcan B.2 with dummy W100A Blue Steel training shape in 1963

Vulcan B.2 with Blue Steel nuclear missile

Vulcan B.2 with Blue Steel nuclear missile

Vulcan B.2 with Blue Steel nuclear missile

Vulcan B.2 with Blue Steel nuclear missile

Vulcan B.2 with Blue Steel nuclear missile

Vulcan B.2 with Blue Steel nuclear missile

Vulcan B.2 with Blue Steel nuclear missile

Vulcan B.2 with Blue Steel nuclear missile

Vulcan B.2 with Blue Steel nuclear missile

Vulcan B.2 with Blue Steel nuclear missile

Vulcan B.2 with Blue Steel nuclear missile

Vulcan B.2 with Blue Steel nuclear missile

Vulcan B.2 with Blue Steel nuclear missile

Actual Blue Steel missile on dolly beneath the Vulcan bomber at RAF Station Scampton

Vulcan B.2 with Blue Steel nuclear missile

Vulcan B.2 with Blue Steel nuclear missile

Vulcan B.2 with Blue Steel nuclear missile

Vulcan B.2 with Blue Steel nuclear missile

This model placed third in the giant CAPCON biennial model contest on 28 September 2019 at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. (Microscale military aircraft - smaller than 1:72)

Third place in the small jet aircraft category at the Syracuse, USA, SYRCON competition, 20 Oct 2019.