Ed Russell

The picture above is at Pembroke Dock, as is this one...........

Many pictures show them being manhandled by ground crew pushing the rear dolly. According to a ground crew guy's account once you got them moving there was a degree of inertia that kept them going. He recalled a Fordson tractor in use at the Rose Bay terminal. However if it was available this would do the trick...........

Nice work so far on a pretty good, but still a bit challenging' kit. You still have a "Beaumont" in Post 1.

Well, that is how I would have done it so it must be right.😃 Nicely done. Substitute B for F, change the serial and you have Sherborne's Wildcat at that time.

A nice result can be obtained but it's not an easy build. Maybe they have addressed the strut problem...... or maybe not.

and maybe a Caproni?

Red band for Operation Dragoon. Hellcats of 800 Sqn (Emperor) and VOF-1 (Tulagi) carried the same marking.

Here's a photo of an 882 Wildcat in August 1944. It's a bit later than what you want. Our feeling was that the anomalous 6 and S marked a transition phase where the codes changed from 6 to S but your alternative explanation is interesting. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235111168-grumman-wildcat-jv368-an-accidental-australian-in-the-faa-arma-hobby-f4f-4-to-fm-1/ I do have some others collected while studying Sherborne's Wildcat.

They are able to be made, by any half-decent modeller who is prepared to put the work in, into excellent models.

1. Revell 2. Italeri

Listed here https://www.scalemates.com/kits/engines-and-things-72064-jacobs-r-755-7-cyl-radial-engine--976990 Caveat - the few Engines'n'things items I have seen look like blobs. Apparently some are quite okay. Aeroclub E037 comes with a suitable prop if you can find one. It's an L-5 rather than L-4.

There has to be a plus side to those space-hogging boxes of unmade kits, many of which I will never make.......... I imagine I have a couple each of Frog, Fly and Airfix Whitleys in there somewhere! Incompetence? Nah, I don't think you were incompetent not to buy one when they came out - you can't have everything!

I think I would rather do that than tackle another Unicrap kit! Edit - useful article on Mk V conversion here https://modelingmadness.com/review/allies/gb/bombers/caw5.htm

If you want to build it as you say (inferred to be in the present) then the incorrect (for the WW2 period) colours and markings are what you need to copy. Pavla included N1671 in their kit but the decals are probably accurate. Printscale included a different Polish Defiant (EW-K) but (!!!) they seem to be accurate grey too! There is a misconception amongst some people that museums are always able to produce a corrrect result. Clued up museums ask modellers! There are plenty of other Defiant decals around......... https://www.hyperscale.com/2017/reviews/decals/owlds72072reviewer_1.htm

That will be useful if they get aound to the 1/72 version.

Yes indeed https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/forum/110-decals/ where your query may end up as it is only peripherally WW2

The 1955 expedition seems to have been after the transition from yellow to orange so to portray WE600 in the Antarctic it needs to be orange. It looks like you need the auxiliary fuel tank as well - they are easy to make, see link above. If you want a yellow RAF Auster in the Antarctic it has to be VX126 or VX127, although see edit below. The Airfix blog paragraph on colours does not make sense. According to it In 1968, she was repainted in 'trainer yellow' replacing the Antarctic Expedition high visibility orange previously worn then in February 1989, where she would undergo a significant period of renovation and refurbishment, during which time she was returned to her original yellow paint scheme So they are saying the sequence was Orange, Yellow, Yellow. I think the last yellow in their para may be a typo for orange. but only two (T.7) would be modified specifically for Antarctic expedition support duties. Technically correct I suppose as VX126 and VX127 were modified AOP.6 Austers. Edit - There was some debate about the colour of VX126/7 in the Antarctic. Paul Lucas' article is pretty convincing about orange. However they were assessed before being taken on RAAF charge. The Airflite survey and DHA notes (information from FG Harris) said they were repainted in "correct colour..... International Orange" without specifying what colour they were before. It seems odd they were repainted from orange to orange, specifically the "correct colour".

The international 'standard' Antarctic colour was originally yellow but over time, orange became the new 'standard'. Not only UK but Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. On examples I have seen, the yellow appears a bit different to MAP Yellow ("Trainer Yellow") but repainting occurred often.

Russian AA "triumph" https://www.dagens.com/news/huge-blunder-by-Russia-claims-to-have-shot-down-a-storm-shadow-missile-with-a-british-crew-inside

Does anyone have a contact in this society or do they know if it is defunct? I have from the net a PDF of a SAHS document on the Hansa S.5 in Swedish. I would like to translate it into English using a machine translator and clean up the language. Unfortunately the documnt is locked. I have tried every email address os the SAHS sire without a response. I would be surprised if none of them speak English as good as my own if not better. More likely they are all deceased! Any help welcome.

Great story and model! The VFR kits are very nice. We have some RAN Austers on the way.

It's good to see that Australia is slowly rebuilding its aviation 'manufacturing' capacity, even if it is only repair and maintenance of foreign equipment and the odd Airbus or Boeing flap. Unfortunately all other manufacturing and much intellectual input is now in China. The problems of procurement are mainly to be laid at the doors of politicians and senior ADF bureaucrats and generals who are not in touch with what's actually needed. That's better than the original statement.

That's a nice job of the old kit. The most obvious failings are the skis and the flaps. I built one as VX127 using some of the parts we have for the AZ kit and it looks okay. I will do another as a floatplane and see if i can improve the look of the flaps. Well done! https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235119390-austers-out-in-the-cold-raf-and-raaf-antarctic-support-flights/

I am sure they figure it was cheap research and it is good enough for ignorant gweilos - what do they know. Spitfires sell!😝

Yes indeed, there was a number of them https://www.hyperscale.com/2015/reviews/accessories/redroorrr7257reviewmd_1.htm https://www.scalemates.com/kits/red-roo-models-rrr72149-martin-pbm-3r-mariner-raaf-conversion-and-correction-set--960879 https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234962544-red-roo-models-172-martin-mariner-updates-sets/ https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234965057-conversion-to-martin-mariner-gr1-for-minicraft-172/ They have been OOP for years. Would we do them again? Maybe but it is a lot of work.