Soon after its
introduction into service in 1966 the Breguet Atlantique was being considered
for other roles. Its performance abilities suited it to numerous tasks, and the
most visually different version was the AEW variant which entered service in
1975. In addition to the obvious dish, external changes included replacing the
glass nose with a radar system, and deletion of the MAD boom.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The choice of a name
came from Greek mythology. Atlantic derives from the Titan Atlas, who had a
daughter, the sea-nymph named Calypso, who was a solitary figure who tried to
isolate and protect Odysseus. This ‘daughter’ of the Atlantique, which flew
alone and protected the heroes, was well liked by its crews, but due to the
prominent dish many of them nicknamed it Obelix, after the portly cartoon figure
who delivered menhirs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menhir
in ancient Gaul.
The Aeronavale flies 5 Calypsos, and aircraft are also on
strength with Germany (3), Pakistan (1), and New Zealand (2).
The kit
– The basis for this project was the Heller 1/200th
mold. The outline is not entirely accurate, rather a caricature in
places, but from a distance I think we can tell what it’s meant to be.
I had the idea while playing with a plastic spoon from some coffee shop,
and that’s what was placed on top of some Evergreen sheet to form the
dish. Decals were scrounged begged and borrowed as some of the originals
were used on a previous project and the leftovers were crap. The gear
doors are perhaps the worst part of this kit, redefining the word
‘horrible', but in this scale I wasn’t going to go too far in making
them better, just some chopping and filling. Despite things like that it
was fun and simple, which is about what I look for in this hobby!
Dave
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