Tugan LJW7 Gannet, RAAF, 2 AAU, 1942-4, resin kit by Lift Here & Red Roo, 1/72

JWM · October 30, 2024

Hi,

The second my this year RAAF machine, next to CA 6 Wackett. It s Tugan LJW7 Gannet, sometime called Wackett Gannet, after the name of the designer Sir Lawrence Wackett. The whole store of this machine with operational record of all 7 of them produced ever you may find here http://www.adf-serials.com.au/2a14.htm

The kit is the resin set boxed by Australian Red Roo Models https://www.scalemates.com/pl/kits/red-roo-models-lhm037-tugan-ljw7-gannet--1525807. It is a re-box of Lift Here (a Serbian company) with new set of decals. I appreciate very much our trade with @Ed Russell during his stay in Krakow, what allow me to have this extremely rare bird...

The kit contained decals for different machine, Among them for the ambulance A14-6, I have just learnt somwhere that A 14-6 was in very short service in WW2, converted to ambulance in April and lost shortly after it in May 1942. The story following the lost is very special, let me cite it from the adf-serial web page quoted above:

"19May42 Aircraft departed Batchelor for Groot Eylandt to collect an ill airman. The crew became lost over Arnhem Land and, running short of fuel, attempted a forced landing. However, the apparent flat grassed area they picked out as a landing area turned out to be a swamp and when the wheels touched down the aircraft pitched nose-over and landed on its back. The crew suffered no serious injuries but their radio calls and gone unanswered and their location was therefore unknown to the outside world.

After 10 days survival in the hostile terrain the crew constructed a make-shift raft from aircraft parts and set off drifting down the Cato River. After several days they were located by Aborigines who took them to Elcho Island Mission then on to the RAAF Station on Millingimbi Island, where they arrived 33 days after the crash. The crew: pilot FSGT Francis Smallhorn; W/T Operator AC1 George Booth; and, Nursing Orderly CPL Phillip Bronk were flown by Anson from Millingimbi to Batchelor Strip then by USAAC B-17 to Sydney for one month’s survivors leave."

Despite the moving story I wanted to do a model of machine having longer service, my choice was A14-3, since I found a nice shot of it:

However I was not able to find in my spare decals a light grey "3' of proper height, so instead of it I did A14-7 using a "7" trimmed from 1/48 Techmod set of Wellington.

I added landing light, spinners, made props able to rotate and re-designed the main undercarriage. The last is the most important to general look of the model.

When you look at the Gannet from front

https://c8.alamy.com/comp/2RGD5DK/tugan-ljw7-gannet-vh-uxe-msn-ta56-also-known-later-as-the-wackett-gannet-after-its-designer-lawrence-wackett-was-a-small-twin-engined-airliner-built-by-tugan-aircraft-in-australia-in-the-1930s-destroyed-by-japanese-strafing-at-wau-new-guinea-on-1-february-1942-2RGD5DK.jpg

Please note, that the main legs match the outsides of engines. In Lift Here kit they line-up withe the center of engines. Moreover, the suspension arms are that short, that main legs goes vertically whereas on above photo you may see, that they don't.

Here is my Tugan: