Special Hobby 1/72nd CAC CA12 Boomerang finished.

[Mr T]

After the Wirraway, it makes sense to build its more aggressive descendant, the Boomerang. The tubby little fighter was born out of a sense of desperation that struck Australia in the realisation  that thee would be war in the Pacific and the subsequent sweeping Japanese victories at the beginning of the Pacific war. There were also concerns that  UK and  US could deliver sufficient fighters to  Australia  in time to meeting further Japanese expansion.  Wing Commander Wackett of the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation suggested using as much as possible of the Wirraway, that they were building, and combining it with the most powerful engine available in the shape of the P&W Twin Wasp engine being fitted to CAC built Beaufort's. The resulting design owed nothing to the North American built NA 68 apart from a visual similarity. Design was started in late December 1941 and the first 105 were ordered by the Australian Government in February 1942 'off the drawing broad'. The first prototype flew in May 1942 and the aircraft entered service  with 2OTU in October 1942.

Although not as fast as most fighters and with good supplies of faster fighters available, the main use of the Boomerang in combat was in tactical reconnaissance, army cooperation and close air support. The rugged construction, cannon and machine armament and good manoeuvrability of the Boomerang appeared to be well suited to operations over New Guinea and elsewhere and the type was well regarded by its pilots and the Army units it supported.

The Special Hobby kit is a more recent production than the Wirraway. The details parts seem to be finer, and it is an all injection mould kit with no resin or PE. Surface detail appears good and the major components have locating pins and holes to aid assembly. The kit represents the first production series of the Boomerang  and has no alternative parts that I can see for the latter variants, although further boxings of the kt exist. Decals look good with plenty of stencil detail, but no placement details for them. Apparently they were forgotten on the instruction sheet, but at one time were available online. At first sight looks to be an OK build, but we shall see.

The first job will be adding 14 small push rods from plastic rodding to the front of the engine that SH feels is a DIY job. Not difficult, but fiddly.

 

Edited July 4, 2021 by Mr T

[JOCKNEY]

Got to love a Boomerang, good luck with this one.

 

Cheers Pat 

[Mr T]

Started on the build. First off was the push roods for the engines that did not take me too long to do. The interior was then built up. This took me a bit longer than I thought as some location points on the instructions were a bit vague and needed some thought. The instrument panel is probably a bit too low, but I think once the canopy is on, this will be less noticeable as the canopy is fairly heavily framed.

Fuselage and wings are going together, I plan on having a complete airframe by the weekend, it seems to be a pretty straightforward kit.

[RidgeRunner]

A great start! The Boomerang was a great little machine and I look forward to seeing how yours turns out :).

 

Martin

 

[Mr T]

Thanks, fuselage together and wings an tail on. Has a bit of filler on it, it all went together reasonably well. I hope it continues to go well as I have a couple of other builds in progress for another GB. Photos probably Monday depending on veg planting etc. 

[Mr T]

As promised, photos of the Boomerang. Major bits together now and not far from some primer to see what else needs doing. Canopy next stop.

the filler around the bottom of the wing is largely down to me.

 

[Wez]

Welcome to the GB with this one MrT, great work so far.

[Mr T]

Canopy on and unsurprisingly a little oversized in places. I have done a lot of work on it, and it still isn't quite right, but I have reached the stage where I am afraid if I do any more, it will be damaged. Ready for a coat of Blue on the underside from Lifecolor.

There will be a short break in the proceedings as we are away this weekend, but it will hopefully include a diversion via Coningsby on the way back on Monday as well as a drive by Cranwell

 

[Mr T]

A spurt of activity on the paint front and the Boomerang is finished ! The main issue with the finishing was that the decals had a habit of disintegrating and  some spares from the Wirraway kit were used. Here it is with the Wirraway.

[Derek_B]

Lovely work Mr. T! My two favourite aircraft!