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DAP Beaufighter of No. 100 Sqn RAAF. While going through the routine of applying, sanding, re-applying, sanding again, of filler on the Hudson, I have decided to relieve the boredom by starting a new project. This will be a DAP built Beaufort, flown by No. 100 Sqn RAAF, armed with an American Mk.13 torpedo, used to attack Japanese shipping from Milne Bay in late 1942 / early 1943. The kit will be the ICM 1/48 Beaufort Mk.I. Some conversion work will be required to modify it to fit P&W engines. This will be done using the Hamilton Hobbies conversion kit. The torpedo will be a Brengun item and the mods to the weapons bay will have to be done by winging it with plasticard. Background No. 100 Squadron RAAF had an interesting birth. It was formed from No. 100 Squadron RAF. The latter was originally established on February 1917 as a night bomber squadron and equipped with F.E.2b aircraft. After WWI, it operated several different types of bomber aircraft until, in 1932, it was re-designated as a torpedo bomber squadron and re-equipped with Vickers Vildebeeste. The squadron was then posted to Singapore in 1934. In the late 1930s the RAAF was looking for a bomber to complement its Hudsons. Co-incidentally, the UK was looking for overseas manufacture of the aircraft it needed. The decision was taken to manufacture the Beaufort in Australia for both the RAF and the RAAF. Due to a shortage of engines, these aircraft would be powered by Pratt & Whitney R-1830 engines, also to be manufactured in Australia. This would be quite an undertaking for a fledgling aircraft industry that had little experience in building modern aircraft. Two production line were set up under the control of the newly formed Department of Aircraft Production. There were to be two factories, one at Fishermens bend in Melbourne and another at Mascot, Sydney. A large number of sub-contractors in NSW, Victoria and South Australia were also to be engaged in the program. Engines would be produced by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation at Lidcombe, Sydney. The first RAF squadrons earmarked to receive the Beaufort were Nos 36 and 100 Squadrons, flying Vildebeeste from Singapore. There were many delays in getting production started and it was not until 6 December 1941 that six aircraft, with largely RAF crews, were flown to Singapore to be attached to 100 Sqn. These aircraft were not fully operational and could only be used for reconnaissance work. The British were not impressed! Six days later four of the Beauforts left to return to Australia to be fully fitted out; only two arrived. These two, now fully fitted out, supplemented by a few more were due to fly back to Singapore in February 1942 but, due to the Japanese advance this was cancelled. Personnel of 100 Sqn who were training on the Beaufort remained in Australia. At this time the RAAF brought the the squadron under RAAF control to facilitate management in the return to the UK of many of the British personnel. On 15 February, the RAAF redesignated No. 100 Sqn as an RAAF unit. A new CO, Wing Commander Balmer RAAF took command. The squadron moved to Cairns where it undertook its first operations over New Guinea. Then, in August, they were sent Nowra on a torpedo training course. In early September a flight of six torpedo armed aircraft left for Milne Bay. The torpedoes carried by these aircraft were US made Mk.13 torpedoes. To fit these to the Beaufort had required some modifications to the aircraft. The American torpedoes were shorter but heavier, greater in diameter, and had a larger air tail. From September to February 1943, several attacks were made on Japanese shipping but with negative results. The crews were certain that they had dropped their torpedoes within the correct parameters but no hits were recorded. The reason for the failures was unknown. The lack of results was demoralizing and torpedo operations were stopped. Earlier, USN submarines had been reporting a lack of success with the same torpedoes. Tests had been carried out back in June, and it was found that the torpedoes were running at least ten feet deeper than they had been set to run. There was a problem with the depth control unit. The USN was able to correct the problem but, nobody thought to tell the RAAF that they had faulty torpedoes. The RAAF had been dudded!

To keep the balance level with the Kitty III, I had to build something RAAF. Here we go with this nice P-38 conversion from Red Roo based on the Academy P-38. I have this conversion since about fifteen years and at the time, my choice of 1/48 P-38 was restricted to different variants from Academy and Hasegawa. Tamiya was not then in the game. Red Roo's choice for Academy is fine with me, as I think the kit is simpler and easier to build than the one from Hasegawa. Yet I've to admit its also a bit less detailled. Now lets have a quick look at the conversion before we start. The historic side: There were only three of those P-38, giving us four options. Two options for the first of them, one NMF , being camouflaged later. Two camouflaged FG-OD/SB I'll go for one of the later, with one of its wingleading edge panel painted in the original USAAF Colours. Resin parts, just three of them, looks very nice. And so are the decals I started yesterday, and I hope to be able to show you some pix during the weekend.

Hi All, With the Christmas festivities out the way it's time for a new project. Although I do have some odds & ends to sort out on a couple of other builds, I do enjoy starting a large build at this time of year, much like the breadbin-swapping modelling machine that is @AliGauld. At this time last year my employment status (or lack thereof) precluded such an extravagance, so it's nice to be able to kick off another 'heavy'. This time around I've been lucky enough to get my hands on Revell's Halifax B Mk.III, which was kindly transported to these parts by my parents. Now many of you may know that this kit is currently OOP, but the large-scale legend @tomprobert kindly agreed to part with his kit (he likes them bigger these days, he said 🤣). Anyhoo this rather large end-opening box is now in my possession: It's a BIG box! Tom very generously threw in a few extras - a set of Freightdog wheels: And an Eduard interior set, along with a rather obligatory mask set: Now there is a LOT of plastic in that box. Here's the sprues: The transparencies: A rather nice set of decals: The kit allows for 2 marking schemes, an RCAF aircraft 'Oscar' (which seems to be an oft-modelled option), and an RAF aircraft. I've decided to model a 100 Group RAAF aircraft, probably one of these two: (Both images copyright Australian War Memorial - for discussion only and will be removed on request). I am led to understand that the kit is a little deficient in the bomb department, so it might finally be time to add this to the pot: Now that's a festive mix! I might be a little slow getting this going, but it should be a hoot! Thanks for looking, Roger

Even though I profiled an Monogram (Aurora)1/48 F-111 that had the 30th Anniversary livery, it wasn't a true Pig(wings too short among other things) It has since been sent to the restoration shed to become an Navy F-111B. So I need to do a replacement. What better then than a Hobby Boss' 1/48 F-111C. Here's whats we gots... This is one BIG kit. Hopefully I can do a fair dinkum representation of "The Pig" and not something not even fit for a Dunny door. Let the "Waltzing" begin.

B-24J Liberator of 7 OTU RAAF Station Tocumwal NSW 1945. 1/72 Hasagawa kit OOB except the 100gm of lead weight. Built this for a good mate who has moved into a retirement place, in Liberator Cresent, NSW and whose dad worked in the RAAF Wagga. Happy with the metal finish - Xtreme Metal by AK

Hi All, I'm straight into my next project (making the most of gardening leave before I start a new job next week!) I'm going to build Eduard's 1:48 Airacobra. Here's the box artwork: Here's the sprue shots: And a nice PE fret: The kit contains markings for 5 US aircraft (including no less than 3 with sharkmouths - @corsaircorp take note!!)🦈 However I've decided to complete this as an RAAF machine, so I've sourced a set of the excellent Red Roo transfers: I'm going to complete as the machine shown, A53-6 of 82 Sqn RAAF, based at RAAF Bankstown NSW in 1943. This is the only picture I could find of the aircraft, which crashed due to engine failure in August 1943. The aircraft was subsequently repaired and returned to the US 5th Air Force. A quick check of the aircraft serial revealed that this was a P39F: http://www.adf-serials.com.au/2a53.htm This meant that the aircraft had a 3-bladed Aeroproducts constant-speed propeller and 12-stack exhausts, both of which are provided in the kit. There has been some discussion on this forum regarding the colours of RAAF aircraft: The scheme as presented by Red Roo shows the aircraft in US Olive Drab and Extra Dark Sea Grey over RAAF Sky Blue. I have no reason to doubt this combination, and it will make for an unusual colour scheme, so I'm going to go with it, dammit!! Anyway, on with the build! Thanks for looking, Roger

I am currently building four Avon Sabres. Since I had already started them I checked with the Mod and have been allowed to enter two in this group build since I have only completed the fuselages on those two. I still intend to complete all four and there may be some mixing of them as I get further down the track - it will be difficult to keep the two builds separated. 😕 Basic kit is Hasegawa F-86F. The Avon Sabre fuselages come from RedRoo / High Planes. To these I am adding RedRoo 166 gall and 100 gall drop tanks and Aires cockpit sets, suitably modified to suit the Australian aircraft. Winders and other stores will come from the spares box. I have decals from High Planes, RedRoo, Dekl's, Ventura, and Model Alliance. This should be enough to allow me to find the markings I want.

Hi all, Here is my latest build, the 1/48 Bristol Bulldog kit from Lindberg. This kit traces its lineage right back to 1968, which makes the moulds 52 years old…! Extensive modifications were made to the kit, including reworking all of the external surfaces (the kit comes with horrible textured fabric surfaces all over and raised panel lines), scratchbuilding the cockpit (the kit cockpit is non-existent), correcting the underside of the nose, correcting all of the nose panels, adding the chin radiator, adding the under-belly panel and circular under-fuselage fairing, replacing and detailing the engine cylinders, pushrods, sparkplugs and other details, scratchbuilding the windscreen, adding gun sights, bomb racks, navigation lights, and a whole bunch of other changes too numerous to list here. I painted the machine in the (rather boring) markings of a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) machine, using Red Roo decals for serial numbers. The national markings were spray painted. RAAF machines did not appear to be fitted with radio equipment. No photographic evidence found to show that RAAF Bulldogs sported antenna wires, nor do any photos show that RAAF machines sport lower starboard wing mounted air-driven generators (though the fittings for said generators remained). RAAF machines could be seen with various combinations of bomb racks, upper wing navigation lights and lower wing flare racks. Any combination can be seen. The combination I chose was bomb racks and upper wing navigation lights. The build took me just under four months all up. It was a fun build, but it fought me most of the way. It’s good to finally have something off the bench for the year… Anyway, here are some pics: Build progress and more detail shots are here - All comments, criticism and feedback welcomed. Cheers, BC

Happy Birthday Royal Australian Air Force Today is the 100th Anniversary of the formation of the Royal Australian Air Force. I am not going to write much about the history the of the RAAF because I am no expert. Suffice to say that on this day 100 years ago this service was formed as an independent air-arm and it has strong claim to be the second such service formed anywhere in the world. It has been a cornerstone of Australia's security and this region's stability ever since. The RAAF played an active and effective role in the Second World War as well as numerous 'smaller' but still very significant conflicts, including Korea, Vietnam, the two Gulf Wars and Afghanistan. It has assisted in many peacekeeping and security operations around the globe and has played an important humanitarian role in innumerable civil defence emergencies. At one stage, immediately after World War Two, the RAAF gave Australia the fourth largest national air arm (by number of operational aircraft) in the world. We Australians, and our various allies should be most grateful for the service that the RAAF has provided over the last century. Three years ago I started my build of an Avro 504 to mark the occasion of the formation of the Royal Air Force. Now, it would seem wrong of me not to do something similar for the Air Force of my adoptive homeland. I've been planning for this for a while and was hoping to have at least one of my three other threads on Britmodeller closed by now, but that has not happened. Time waits for no-one and if I'm going to do this to mark the anniversary then I have to start today; ready or not. If we are going to 'do' the RAAF - let's pick a good subject. Let's look at something fast... perhaps even supersonic. Hmmmm... how about a swing-wing thing...? 🤔 Nice idea! But do you know how big one of those things is in 1/32 scale? My display cabinet is only so large. What about something American with a big droopy nose, two big burner cans tucked in under a single swept back tail and tailplanes set an an outrageous angle of anhedral..... 😀 Again, Nice! But that's a very complex shape and I want to finish this before the next 100 years passes. What about something French and triangular that I once saw when I was a lad at an airshow at RNZAF Wigram... Yes! Now we are talking... Let's do one of these! If you have seen my work before you know what comes next. Get a bunch of drawings together - in this case downloaded as PDF's from the internet - and get them printed to an exact 1/32 scale. In this case there are three 'master' sheets. Get one of each laminated and half a dozen copies of each printed out. Just use everyday copying paper, no need for anything special. Don't worry about the radar under the chin folks - I know that's not an RAAF thing. Here is the compulsory 'sprue shot after opening the box' photo. A fair bit of plywood will be used but most of the parts are jarrah, the same stuff I used on the Avro 504. Jarrah is grown right here in Western Australia, is beautiful to carve and strong as anything. This will be important since there's a good chance this thing will have gear down and once the forward undercarriage bay is cut and the cockpit hollowed out there will be very little remaining intact wood to hold the nose in place. Now we do some dry fitting. Yep - the major fuselage pieces fit together without any gap at all. Note also how there's no ejector pin marks or other blemishes. Tamiya quality fit - although lacking some detail at this point. 🧐 Now I sat down and had a think. How was I actually going to make this thing? Carve the fuselage out of a single block? Or break it into multiple more manageable components. Overall this shape is a bit more complex than, say the Mig-15 that I built in 2016, and requires a bit more thought. Once some decisions are made we can start marking out the cuts. This is the first cut line marked up for the entire project. This is the moment I consider that work actually began - 8.02 PM 31 March 2021 (WA time)...100 years to the day. 👍 Like I say - initially there's a bit of planning and marking up required. Some of the decisions might be a bit counterintuitive, but I've learned a lot over the course of my last few projects and I think there's method in my madness. Who knows though, maybe there's just madness in my method? I've decided that there will be a separate central 'fuselage and cockpit' section cut out that will nestle between the air intakes and the rest of the fuselage assembly. This component is defined at this point by the red ink. Somehow the wing will also need to be accommodated, but for now it's one thing at a time. Now grab two lumps of wood and cut them longer than the section just marked out. One thing I have learned is that surplus wood is not generally a problem - insufficient wood is. Hold the two pieces of wood in a vice and drill a series of holes (four in this case two on either side) clear of the planned cut area. Drill each hole about 3/4 of the way through the entire thickness. I guess it's harmless to go all the way through but this time I chose not to. Now slip a dowel into each of the holes and cut off the surplus. In this case the dowel fitted into the holes perfectly so no glue was required at all! This is a bonus because, although I want these two bits of wood to stick together and stay nicely aligned, fairly soon I'm going to need to pull them apart splitting the fuselage in two again in preparation for hollowing out the cockpit and UC bay. Now cut out the paper plans and spray some cheap photo adhesive onto one side of the prepared wooden block. (No photos this time sorry, I forgot). Cut out the pattern with the bandsaw. It was now getting late at night and this was after Mrs Bandsaw's 'powertool noise curfew' so I left a full 5mm clear from the pattern and just raced through the cut as quickly as possible to get the noisy bit over and done with. This is the birthday of the RAAF, so noise curfew or not, there has to bandsaw action! This is the result so far. There's a long way to go... I hope that some of you come along for the ride. Per ardua ad astra Bandsaw Steve

Greetings from the beautiful island of Malta, right in the heart of the Mediterranean! I present to you my HobbyBoss 1:48 General Dynamics F-111C Aardvark, which was built using the FB-111A tooling with decals from Hawkeye Models. The kit is painted as Aardvark A8-132, which began flying as a test platform with the RAAF's Aircraft Research & Development Unit (ARDU) from 1979 to 1998. The Pig now sits on public display at the South Australian Aviation Museum in Port Adelaide, Australia. One fun fact about this airplane was that 132 participated in the 2007 Red Flag exercise while wearing the overall grey colour scheme, in which she flew with No.1 Squadron RAAF, the ‘Fighting First’. A website article and build video can be accessed via these links here: https://malcsmodels.wordpress.com/2024/03/30/building-hobbybosss-148-f-111c-aardvark/ In April 2024, I participated in a model exhibition organised by my local IPMS on the island at the Malta Maritime Museum in Birgu with the 111, where I was presented with the Medal for the Highly-Commended Award.

I've had Tamiya's P-38 in my stash for a long time and found plenty of reasons not to build it. Fundamentally, I think it intimidates me a bit, the kit has such a stellar reputation that I'm sure I'll be the one to mess it up 🙂. Another reason for delaying its start is the scheme I've always had in mind for it, the so-called Haze Scheme. Unlike the later version known as Synthetic Haze which weathered practically not at all, the original Haze weathered seemingly in minutes to a blown-out dusty looking, multi-hued dark blue over light blue to white-ish mess of a scheme. Tricky to replicate, a scheme I've always wondered if I could pull off to my own satisfaction. So, fear of failure in that respect keeping the P-38 on the shelf, too. What's that you say? "Put your big boy pants on and just build the damn thing" Ok. My subject is one of the three P-38 Lightning F-4-1-LO used by the RAAF's 75 Squadron between August 1943 and May 1944, specifically s/n 41-2156 "Limping Lizzie" (also known as "Leaping Lizzie" for its ability to get airborne off a beach). Lizzie wore an original Haze Scheme, and was quite battered to boot. There's quite a few images of it and almost all show a very worn airframe indeed. The cockpit is where we begin. To my surprise I found a 3D cockpit decal set in the box, I must have bought it prior to 24 February 2022. The first task therefore was to remove the moulded surface detail the 3D decals would replace. After that, I followed the usual approach of a black base, a base coat of Interior Green followed by some detail painting and a varied dry brushing. The result of a couple of hours at the bench this afternoon: I shall be using the CMK conversion set to build the PR version and will be cribbing into @Dunny's build from a while ago to try not to mess things up. The only parts of the conversion kit used so far are the control steering wheel thing and the centre console between the pilot's legs, neither of which were substantially different to the kit parts. Interestingly, the next steps take me into airframe assembly so it'll start to look aeroplane-like sooner rather than later. Cheers.

Hi All, My latest completion is Airfix lovely little Tiffie, converted to a 'car door' version - I originally started the build using the Brengun kit but it was not a happy experience. The finished result therefore uses a few elements of this kit (canopy, three-bladed propeller, Vokes filter) to build DN323, which was assigned to 451 Sqn RAAF in 1943 for evaluation. Here's a photo of the aircraft: I built this in tandem with a Kittyhawk of 3 Sqn RAAF - here's the WIP if anyone is interested: And here's the photos: Here's a photo with its build buddy (which I shall post separately): And here's a final shot with a recently built Mk.Ib of a later version, from the same kit: All in all a bit of a struggle of a build, but I'm not displeased with the end result. Thanks to all who have offered kind words and encouragement along the way - it has been sincerely appreciated! Thanks for looking, Roger

Hi All, My latest completion is Special Hobby's lovely little Kittyhawk, built as AK581 of 3 Sqn RAAF, based in the Western Desert in 1942. Piloted by Flt Lt Geoff Chinchen, the aircraft made a forced landing after being hit several times by enemy fire. Here's a photo of the aircraft after that event: Of note are the oversize codes, and the serial backed with the original Dark Green, which is catered for by the kit decals. It was a lovely little kit to build, although SH have you fabricate your own machine guns and pitot tube, which is a bit cheeky for a new tool kit. Here's the build thread, which was in tandem with a 'car door' Typhoon: And here's the photos: Here's a final shot with the Tiffie: This was a lovely little kit to build - thanks to all those who have added kind words and encouragement along the way! Thanks for looking, Roger

Hi All, My next build will see the Azure Blue and Mid-Stone get an airing - it has been over a year since my last desert scheme, so it's long overdue! I'm going to make up for it too, as this will be a dual build of Special Hobby's new tool P40D Kittyhawk Mk.I, and Brengun's Typhoon Mk.Ib. Now I did build a Tiffie just a couple of months ago, but this is different; I have not built the Brengun kit before, it's desert camo, and most importantly, it will have the 'car door' canopy! Here's the Kittyhawk boxart: Here's the sprues: Special Hobby have upped their game - the detail looks superb. Here's the decals: There are 4 schemes in the kit, one of which is Neville Duke's oft-modelled mount. I do fancy a shark mouth, but might look for a less-modelled option. Here's the Tiffie box art: I have never built a Brengun kit before, but on the evidence presented the sprues appear well-detailed and crisp: Here's the decals: They look a bit over-bright, and Sky codes? Hmmm - will look into that. 4 schemes are provided for: All the desert camo options are 451 Sqn RAAF aircraft, so it would seem churlish not to build an Aussie bird! I'm looking forward to this one! Thanks for looking, Roger