FD scale Alternate Universe Designs

Those AU tanks look wicked, Nighthunter's M6 looks the part too. Some very interesting stuff on this thread.

_________________
Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

In 1940, the Pallamaran Luchtmacht was primarily influenced by the Regia Aeronautica Italiana, as many pilots had trained with the Italians, and the most recent combat aircraft were of Italian design, with the main front line fighter being the Macchi MC.200. In that year, however, the Netherlands was conquered by Germany, leaving the NEI cut off. Queen Wilhemina made an appeal to Grand Duke Valarian IV which resulted in Pallamara becoming the caretaker of the Netherlands East Indies, and inheriting the considerable problems of defending it, should japan attack.

One of the primary deficiencies of the Luchtmacht was its lack of the required numbers of modern fighters. The Macchi MC.200 was the standard fighter, but not available in sufficient amounts. Plans for production of the superior Macchi MC.202 had been made, but without the DB engine, the project was dead, and the war had cut off any prospect of those being procured. An attempt was being made to redesign the aircraft to use a Merlin engine, (available via the Dracen Commonwealth) though there was a question regarding supply of these, and even so, production wouldn't be able to supply the required numbers in time. There was only a single aircraft factory in the Grand Duchy, with another still under construction, able to supply perhaps 24 airframes a month, but rather less in the way of engines.

At the time, the United States was the only viable supplier of aircraft, though the UK was soaking up much of the extra production available, resulting in few choices of aircraft being offered, the best of which was the Curtiss Hawk-75, the option chosen. An order for 200 aircraft was placed, armed with 4x Browning .50 caliber machine guns, two firing through the propeller hub, and two in the wings. Additional aircraft were procured through Great Britain, who'd inherited some of the earlier machines destined for France, though these would have to be rearmed, and in some cases, re-engined to bring them up to standards with the aircraft being procured.

Although the RAI trained pilots initially turned their noses up at the American machines, some came to actually prefer them, performance being very close to their MC.200s, with each aircraft having its pros and cons.

The RAI influence is evident in this early war paint scheme, with the brightly colored cowling, the white crosses, painted wingtips and theatre bands being copied, though in Luchtmacht, they were used to denote different squadrons, with different colored wingtips, fuselage bands, and cowling colors belonging to each unit. The bright colors were intended to make identification easier, especially for anti-aircraft gunners. The early war would see these colors subdued, though by the end of the conflict, they'd make their return. The white crosses were a reference to the Pallamaran ensign.

Commonwealth pilots who flew alongside the Luchtmacht were quick to note the color schemes, having recently flown against Axis aircraft, leading some wag to nickname them "the Regia Aeronautica/Luftwaffe, Pacific Branch".

_________________
We can't stop here--this is Bat country!

If it's close enough to cast a shadow, I think the flying house wins initiative.

Bronies are like the Forsworn. Everyone agrees that they are a problem but nobody wants to expend the energy rooting them out.

"That is a very graphic analogy which aids understanding wonderfully while being, strictly speaking, wrong in every possible way."

While eventually several hundred Hawks allowed Pallamara to hold against the Japanese tide, though losing most of the NEI except Java, it was at best a temporary solution, despite the good qualities of the aircraft, which made it liked by both pilots and ground crew. The P-40 proved somewhat less popular, and supplies of it were still limited, leading the Luchtmacht to see what sort of possible upgrade options were available for it, pending the arrival of the Merlin engined Macchi aircraft the next year. The best option was found to be mating the P-36 airframe with the engine from the P-43 Lancer, though several other promising engines were coming into production.
A P-36 with this configuration had already been tested, and rejected by the USAAF, so it was a simple matter of sharing this information. The United States did, however, allow the Luchtmacht to procure the needed engines, but a switch was made at the last minute to a two stage Pratt and Whitney R-1830-76 such as that used on the F-4F4 Wildcat. The resulting fighter was a dramatic improvement over the basic Hawk-75, especially at higher altitudes, and allowed Luchtmacht units to outperform their Japanese rivals until other aircraft came on the scene. In hindsight, some historians have questioned the decision, pointing out that more useful fighters would have soon arrived anyway, and the "Rooivalk" diverted engines needed elsewhere, but some of these engines were also used to upgrade the Macchi MC.200s, also allowing that type to remain competitive until its successor was ready.

Wow, Van, well done!

_________________
"It is better to type nothing and be assumed an ass, than to type something and remove all doubt." - Me

A little kick-about idea that came from Brockpaine. Over at Wesworld we were talking about tanks and he's fond of the AMX-13 turret and we both wondered what it would look like on a Cromwell chassis.

Credits: Dartpanda for the Cromwell hull & AMX-13 turret. All I did was recolour the turret. It's not in a template as it was a quick pixelbash to see if it works. I post it here in case anyone wants to take it further or just for inspiration.

_________________
Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

Postwar, given a choice of fighters, the Pallamaran Luchtmacht decided on the Hawker Hunter, their first jets being British made Gloster Meteors. For much of the 1950s, the British were preferred aircraft suppliers, that relationship changing after the switch in emphasis to guided missiles later on
Standard postwar paint scheme was a two tone blue one that still sees use to this day, with a few WWII era legacy markings, such as the White identification band. The brightly painted cowlings, meant to denote different squadrons, were replaced with a diagonal stripe, bordered by national colors. Originally, it had been intended to replace the white crosses on the vertical stabilizer with a smaller, less visible bar in red, white, and blue, but it was decided since the appearance of the white cross against the blue was particularly aesthetic, they were kept.
The other postwar change were the unit shields. This actually started as a practice of former Luftwaffe instructors brought over soon after WWII. With India gaining its independence, and the Soviet Union the new enemy, there were concerns about the eventuality of having to intercept heavy bombers, something the Luchtmacht, with its emphasis on mainly low level combat in the Pacific, had no experience with. With Germany having no air force immediately after the Second World War, many of these former Luftwaffe pilots were brought over to act as instructors. Some of these pilots, mostly as a matter of pride or nostalgia painted their old Jagdgerschwader badges on their new mounts. So long as these symbols contained no direct Nazi iconography, they were permitted, and other squadrons started adopting their own versions.

The Hunter was mainly an interceptor in Pallamaran service, transitioning to ground attack only rather late in its life. During the 50s and early 60s, it served alongside the Buccaneer and Canberra. Most Hunter F.5s were brought to F.6 standards, and both were modified to carry up to 4x AIM-9 Sidewinders. While the Luchtmacht later operated such advanced aircraft as the F-14 and F-111, these were too expensive to acquire in numbers required to completely replace all the older aircraft, so many had long service lives indeed, with the last ground attack Hunters, flying with reserve units being replaced only in the early 1990s. Many upgraded Hunters were passed on to either South Africa, or Rhodesia. Some of these Hunters were also flown by former, or even currently serving Luchtmacht pilots, as Pallamara became more involved in the affairs of those nations. Pallamaran Hunters also saw service in Vietnam, where they are credited with an 12-3 kill ratio against MiG-17s, the heavy gun armament of the Hunter giving its pilots and advantage over more modern aircraft like the F-4 Phantom. The aircraft suffered from short range, though an inflight refueling probe was added to extend operating range.
A respectable number of Hunters were either donated to museums, refurbished and sold to private owners, or at least in one case, donated to an aerial demonstration team.

Not sure if this will ever actually get built for Pallamara in numbers, but my idea was by the late 1970s, there were numbers of unused spare airframes in storage, that government was debating on either selling abroad, or upgrading for reserve units, since the type was well liked. As a demo of what could be done, PAI (Pallamara Aeronautical Industries) fielded a single specimen with (non-afterburning) F404 engines, Blue Fox Radar, RWR, added pylons, and other upgrades, such as a dorsal spine for increased fuel or additional avionics.

It was also hoped that some of the upgrades might be marketed to other Hunter users, such as Singapore, though the UK wasn't going to allow for Blue Fox to be fitted for export versions, meaning the ability to use other radars systems, such as Agave, would have to be added.

oooo I like this very much indeed.
Really nice idea, you can also fit radars such as the one used on the F-20 Tiger and the Anemone of the Etendard maybe.

_________________
Projects:
Zealandia AU
John Company AU
References and feedback is always welcome!

Thanks, and you're right about radars. Blue Fox was largely for the Luchtmacht. I chose it, because a Hunter was actually used as a testbed for that system. You can see the changes between the pair of drawings I made to the tail and intakes to accept the different engines, and to account for the "hump".

Very nice, but there's a big grey box around the tail.

_________________
“Close” only counts with horseshoes, hand grenades, and tactical nuclear weapons.
That which does not kill me has made a grave tactical error

Worklist

Source Materiel is always welcome.

Shipbucket

Who is online