1/48th Special Hobby Wirraway- Finished

[Troy Smith]

in this thread

 

It's  been noted that Tamiya XF-52 is too red for Dark Earth,  but maybe of use for Earth Brown?

Quote

    

 

 

 

A is Tamiya XF-52 Flat Earth

B is Gunzie H72 Dark Earth

C is Tamiya custom mix that appeared in Hyperscale, of 1:XF-72, 1:XF-49, 1:XF-55

D is my mix of Tamiya 4:XF-49 Khaki and 1:XF-52 Flat Earth

 

 

 

The blue tint to the Foliage Green makes me wonder if that might be a use for Humbrol  30... or maybe not...anyway..

(PS edit) from http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/foliagegreenrefgb_1.htm

Quote

This brings to mind a heated discussion that took place with noted Melbourne modeller Fred Harris and others, way back in the early 1980s during a club meeting. The discussion had centered on Foliage Green and Fred produced a piece of Wirraway fairing known to be finished in Foliage Green, which he took into the front of the shop. He popped the lid on a tin of Humbrol RAF Dark Green and painted some onto the fairing - it matched perfectly! 

from

neat work as always Tony

 

cheers

T

 

Edited April 20, 2017 by Troy Smith
add details and links

[mhaselden]

Good suggestion to use Tamiya XF-52 for RAAF Earth Brown.  Certainly has the red component and appears slightly darker which would reduce the contrast with the green shade (whatever paint we decide is a good match for Foliage Green...and, yes, I know that's a can o' worms almost as wriggly as the Olive Drab one!).

[tonyot]

Hiya Folks,

                 Right on with the Wirraway,...... I`ve applied a coat of Humbrol 35 Gloss Varnish, plus the black wing walks.....it has been left overnight to dry but is still rather tacky,....so another day should do it;

 

And now my black underwing code decals have arrived from Fantasy Printshop which include the correct style number 2,..... to join my Modeldecal, Ventura and spares box decals,...... now to choose an option,.... with the help of my newly arrived Wirraway and Boomerang book;

 

Cheers

            Tony

Edited April 22, 2017 by tonyot

[tonyot]

Hiya Folks,

                 A bit more progress on the Wirraway,......I`ve been reading up on the subject and I decided to replicate one of the 24 Sqn aircraft which helped defend Rabaul against the Japanese early in 1942. Looking for photos of aircraft involved in this action was hard but I found one of A20-128 when it was still in service with 23 Sqn RAAF and this was used as a basis;

Thanks to the excellent ADF Serials website and other sources including the book `Whispering Death- Australian Airmen in the Pacific War' by Mark Johnston I was able to find out that this Wirraway originally served with 23 Sqn RAAF, moved to 24 Sqn where the unit code `U' was applied and in early December 1941 it was one of the units twelve Wirraways and a handful of Hudson`s which flew from Townsville in Australia to Vunakanau  and Lakunai airstrips at Rabaul, the Wirraway`s flying via a refuelling stop at a small airstrip at Gasmata on the coast of New Britain.

Upon arrival the unit (with only a skeleton staff of 115 from its full 650 at Townsville) formed part of the small 1,400 man strong Australian garrison awaiting the arrival of the Japanese juggernaut which was sweeping across the Pacific and the first Japanese air raids took place on the 4th January 1942. Apart from two old AA guns the twelve Wirraway`s were the only air defence available but at first they were not able to scramble in time to reach the height of the attacking bombers and in the preceding days a number of Australian aircraft were destroyed on the ground and only a few reinforcements were sent to replace them while requests for more modern fighters were refused, despite a number of US P-40`s staging through en route to the Dutch East Indies It is known that A20-128 (the subject of this model) took off  from Vunakanau at 0607hrs on the 6th January 1941 crewed by F/O Bruce Anderson (OC of one of the Wirraway Flights) and P/O Butterworth to intercept a raid by nine Japanese flying boats from Truk island but the engine was damaged while straining to climb to 12,000 feet in order to reach the raiders and it was later destroyed on the ground by bombing.

A notable interception took place on the 17th January 1941 when the CO of 24 Sqn, Sqn Ldr Lerew took off in a Wirraway from a dispersed strip at Kavieng in a hurry wearing only his shorts, with no parachute, goggles etc in pursuit of a Kawanishi `Mavis' flying boat which had just bombed the strip,.....he reached 16,000 feet where his teeth were chattering due to the cold but he located the Mavis 8,000 feet below and dived to make a head on attack,.....damaging the flying boat and killing two crew but the enemy aircraft was too fast for him and managed to pull away and head back to Truk.

On the 20th January 1941 the first Japanese naval `Zero' fighters appeared over Rabaul as part of a strike force of 109 carrier aircraft flying from the approaching invasion fleet and during a pitched battle that day most of the surviving Wirraway`s were destroyed. The standing patrol of two Wirraway`s were swiftly shot down when they were overwhelmed by Zeroes while those available on the ground scrambled, One crashed upon take off and within seven minutes there were no Wirraway`s left in the sky,......three had been shot down, one was strafed on the ground and two had crash landed with serious damage,..... the heroism displayed in these circumstances by the Australian`s in the face of such overwhelming odds was amazing and six of the airmen were killed, with five wounded. 24 Sqn had only one Hudson and two Wirraway`s left and the former was loaded with wounded for evacuation while the Wirraway`s took off for Lae in New Guinea (this airfield was overrun by the Japanese in February 1942!). The majority of the remaining RAAF personnel were evacuated by Catalina flying boat`s of 11 Sqn RAAF and the Japanese invasion force landed on Rabaul on the 23rd January. Although the small Australian garrison put up a heroic fight the whole area was soon under Japanese control and the signal sent in latin "Morituri vos salutamus" meaning "We who are about to die salute you" has gone down in ANZAC folklore.

      .   

Back to the model, her it is after the decals were applied,.....the roundels came from the spares box and represent the original bright colours;

Cheers for now,

                         Tony

 

Edited April 28, 2017 by tonyot

[cngaero]

That's a great story there Tony. Sqd Ldr Lerew seems to be a bit of a character, only shorts and no parachute? What a man.

The Wirraway is coming on very nicely indeed.

[Rabbit Leader]

Just excellent Tony... the accompanying text and the WIP.

Hat's off to the very neat & straight application of underwing and rear fuselage seials - not something that's easy to pull off successfully.

 

Cheers.. Dave.

[heloman1]

Another cracker there Tony...

 

Colin

[mhaselden]

On ‎4‎/‎22‎/‎2017 at 6:16 AM, tonyot said:

And now my black underwing code decals have arrived from Fantasy Printshop which include the correct style number 2,..... to join my Modeldecal, Ventura and spares box decals,...... now to choose an option,.... with the help of my newly arrived Wirraway and Boomerang book;

 

Cheers

            Tony

 

Nice find, Tony.  May have to get a set of those for my Wirraway.  They certainly look the part, although perhaps just a tad too skinny.  Anyhoo...certainly closer than any other options that I've seen.  Do you, perchance, have a sheet reference number so I know I'm buying the right thing?

 

Many thanks,
Mark

[tonyot]

Cheers Mark,

                    Yes I agree that they are a tad too skinny but they are the best I could find, especially for the correct stroke of number `2'. I`m not able to move today to check the decal sheet (back playing up!) but I`m pretty sure that it is this one;

http://www.fantasyprintshop.co.uk/_A6LS1.aspx?nh=55322

£4.95 from Fantasy Printshop.- Post War black serials 30in,....FP897

 

Today I have matt varnished the model, run over the panel lines and added a black wash,....but I`ve not been able to take photos,....I`ll add some asap,

 

Cheers

            Tony 

[tonyot]

Some quick piccies,.....I had a disaster with the watercolour wash when it got underneath the serial under the wing, turning the decals black from underneath! I carefully peeled off what I could and cleaned them before putting them back but there needs to be some touch up paintwork and I`m a bit peeved with the result,...the matt varnish wasn`t all that good either,.....oh well,....it continues to fight me!

 

I`ve applied Clear floor polish to the model by brush and polished it up a bit,.....I`ll decide what to do with it tommorrow,

Cheers

             Tony

[mhaselden]

Sheesh Tony...even your "disasters" look great to my eyes.  We mere mortals are left stumbling in your wake!

[mhaselden]

6 hours ago, tonyot said:

Cheers Mark,

                    Yes I agree that they are a tad too skinny but they are the best I could find, especially for the correct stroke of number `2'. I`m not able to move today to check the decal sheet (back playing up!) but I`m pretty sure that it is this one;

http://www.fantasyprintshop.co.uk/_A6LS1.aspx?nh=55322

£4.95 from Fantasy Printshop.- Post War black serials 30in,....FP897

 

Today I have matt varnished the model, run over the panel lines and added a black wash,....but I`ve not been able to take photos,....I`ll add some asap,

 

Cheers

            Tony 

 

Thanks Tony.  Appreciate the steer - they're certainly in the "close enough for government work" category. 

[tonyot]

10 minutes ago, mhaselden said:

Sheesh Tony...even your "disasters" look great to my eyes.  We mere mortals are left stumbling in your wake!

Oh I don`t know Mark,.....you should have seen the state of it,...... minging wasn`t the half of it!!! I took the pics after I`d cleaned it up and I`m now trying to give it a semi gloss `ish' finish by bulling up the matt coat which just isn`t working!  

 

I`ve started on the 1/72nd scale kit to make the Malaya option too! I spoke to a friend at Special Hobby and he said that if they had known about the dive siren they would have included it in resin in the kit when it was re released! I hinted towards a re release in Malaya markings in 48th but there were no plans,..... hopefully the dive siren may change their minds? I found pics on line which I sent over,.....  can add those you sent too if you like? 

 

All the best mate,

                          Tony

[mhaselden]

Happy to add my voice to the call for a 1/48 re-release.  I think the siren in 1/72 will be somewhat on the tiddly side...but it would be much more noticeable in 1/48.  Having markings for A20-86 GA-O would be a great bonus! 

Only problem is I'd have to decide what to do with my existing Wirraway and which kit would get the Red Roo updates...actually the latter's a no-brainer, it would be the Malaya option.

[georgeusa]

Okay, so what was all that fuss about not being able to get the green right, chunk the kit away, blah,blah, blah?  Seems as though you have instead, a little gem of a build that most of us, me included, wish they could pull off!  And you added your excellent research and behind the scenes story to complete this pretty bird. All in all, it seems you have a winner on your hands.   As mentioned above, your messups are the equivalent of what normal people like me wish could be their standard build level. 

Now, I do hope your back is better than from Monday, the spasms have died down, and you are a bit more mobile. Really enjoying this build. I hope you will post your Malaysian build. 

[Max Headroom]

I wish my modelling efforts were as 'minging' as yours 

 

Seriously good stuff going on here.

 

Trevor

[fharris]

A comment or two regarding the " quote" attached to the link to "RAAF Foliage Green" a brief discussion. on Friday 14 (?).  It refers to matching the colour on a piece of Wirraway to Humbrol 30. The discussion took place some 35 years ago and I am now a little hazy about the outcome but the conclusion that Humbrol 30 was the choice surprises me.

In fact there were four items from Beaufort aircraft, probably more than one, recovered from the graveyard at Laverton,  Victoria,  circa 1950. They comprise of two 'stalks' and two caps from the oil tank vent pipe fairing. 

The discussion in the article referred to agrees that Foliage Green is close to Medium Green 42, the question being exactly what colour was 42 and its nearest equivalent in the FS595 range. At some time I carried out a simple comparison on the dark green patches of the items by placing dabs of paint of three colours, Testers 34079, xtracolor RAF Dark Green and Humbrol 30. 34079 was (,is) an excellent match followed  by xtracolor with Humbrol close but not as good as the previous two. However, it was (is) a reasonable match for the green on one of the vent caps.

All items showed over painting of the Earth Brown. At the base of one of the stalks there is a number of patches of a lighter brown, almost certainly Dark Earth that has escaped the painter's spray gun, twice, once when  overpainted Earth Brown and again when it too was overpainted Foliage Green. The paint on the items is still in reasonable condition since it was retrieved fairly soon after the war's  end

 Fred H..

 p.s Any strange words or ones that appear our of context should be blamed on predictive text despite proof reading.

 

[heloman1]

Great save there Tony, sorry to hear your back is playing you up mate.

 

Colin

[tonyot]

Hiya Folks,

               Thanks for the advice and kind words fella`s,.....after a bad day yesterday the back is feeling a bit better today so thanks and I`ve got a bit more of the model done. For some reason it reminds me of a Fairey Battle,..... same sort of markings and scenario I suppose? I`ve added the engine with the Harvard cowling, the propeller, undercarriage with after market resin treaded wheels (I`m not sure if they actually had tread in the early days of the war) and the seats and stuff have been re fitted in the cockpit;

 

I`ve added a few coats of Klear floor polish and polished this up to try to replicate a semi gloss finish and I`ve also had an attempt at repainting some of the missing bits of under wing serial.

 

Cheers

          Tony

[georgeusa]

Glad to hear you are feeling better. Top marks for the above progress. It really looks good!

[mhaselden]

Looking really great, Tony.  One has to admire the courage of the crews that flew the Wirra in combat knowing that, often, they could end up face-to-face with far more capable enemy aircraft.

 

One more dumb question about the decals...did the fuselage serials come from a generic decal set?  If so, can I beg another pointer from you please?

 

Many thanks,

Mark

[rob85]

Hope your back stays in an ok state Tony, can't imagine how frustrating and painful it must be to have such back issues.

 

she looks excellent and very close to the finish line, for all your woes she's turning out great! 

 

Rob

[tonyot]

Thanks everybody,...... time to start adding the final details now and yes, those blokes must have had balls like steel to go up against Japanese Zero`s in these things,..... but that is what military training does for you, you do as you are told and when you are defending your country you`ll use anything to hand. 

2 hours ago, mhaselden said:

One more dumb question about the decals...did the fuselage serials come from a generic decal set?  If so, can I beg another pointer from you please?

 

Many thanks,

Mark

Mark,.....the decals are from Ventura,...... here is a link for the Hannants website;

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/VA4853

 

Cheers

          Tony

 

 

[mhaselden]

Bless you, Tony.  With the Fantasy Printshop underwing serials, and the Ventura fuselage serials all I need are the code letters and the squadron badge for my A20-86...and I think I know how to do the latter.  Your Wirraway builds are really motivating me to start my kit (if I could figure out how to make the siren). 

[tonyot]

1 hour ago, mhaselden said:

Bless you, Tony.  With the Fantasy Printshop underwing serials, and the Ventura fuselage serials all I need are the code letters and the squadron badge for my A20-86...and I think I know how to do the latter.  Your Wirraway builds are really motivating me to start my kit (if I could figure out how to make the siren). 

No worries Mark,......the thing is,.....Richard Caruana did a side view of 21 Sqn Wirraway A20-47, GA-B 36 of the March 2010 issue of Model Airplane International magazine and the artwork is to 1/48th scale too,... however the top of the `G' is still perfect, but almost there. The magazine did make its artwork available in decal form to print off yourself from the website around this time but nor sure whether this was ever included nor if it is available now? However,....it might be worth asking whether.Mr. Caruana might be willing to send you the codes by e mail to print yourself? Might be worth a try?

Cheers

           Tony

Edit,....here is their website and it does mention artwork,....but my computer doesn`t seem to want to open it!

http://modelairplaneinternational.com/?s=wirraway  

 

Edit,..edit;

The link does iopen but it says to contact Richard Caruana on his website!

His facebook page is;

https://www.facebook.com/richard.j.caruana

Website appears to be;

https://sites.google.com/site/rjcaviationart/

 

Edit,....edit,...edit;

I have found his decal artwork page,.....but there is nothing for the Wirraway!

https://sites.google.com/site/rjcaviationart/decalarchive

 

Edited April 26, 2017 by tonyot