ADVANCED BUILD
What happens when modellers attempt to re-create aircraft that were never actually built? Mike Grant constructs a proposed AEW project from Airfix’s 1/144 de Havilland Comet 4B and S&M Models’ resin conversion set.
'What-ifs’ or ‘whiffers’ are popular among many modellers, allowing free rein of the imagination and a welcome distraction from the constraints of accuracy.
At its simplest, a what-if might be an aircraft finished in the markings of a country it never served; more extreme interpretations could be fictional prototypes produced by combining several kits. Another sub-genre would be ‘paper projects’ – proposed aircraft which never saw actual production – for example, Luft ’46 subjects imagining German ventures post-World War Two often fall into this category.
The Comet AEW is a case in point, being based on an actual proposal to combine the E3 early-warning system with a Comet 4B airframe, pre-dating any Nimrod AEW by 25 years. The idea was rejected as the type’s airframe was considered too small, but that didn’t prevent UK-based firm S&M Models (www.sandmmodels.co.uk) from producing a resin conversion set for Airfix’s 1/144 kit.
MODEL SPEC
Originally tooled in 1961, this of…
