First to Attack

[Magpie22]

THE STORY

At about 2230 hours on 7 December 1941 the Indian Brigade manning the coastal defences at Kota Bharu, on the East coast of Malaya, just South of the Thailand border, sent a message to the airfield, (located about a kilometre inland), that ships had been sighted moving towards the beach. There appeared to be signalling by lamp from the beach to the ships. Earlier, reconnaissance patrols by RAF Catalinas and RAAF Hudsons had detected Japanese Navy vessels in the Gulf of Siam to the North, so there was little doubt that this was a Japanese invasion.

 

At this time the UK and the British Empire were not at war with the Japanese. Failing advice from ‘the top’, a local decision was taken. It was decided they had to attack the Japanese vessels after they started shelling the beach early on the 8th.

There was a problem. Heavy rain had fallen the day before and, technically, the airstrip was unserviceable. This would not stop the Aussies. Six aircraft were placed on standby, armed with two 250 lb G.P. bombs and two 250 lb S.A.P. bombs. All bombs were fused with 11 sec time delay and distance between bombs on each stick set at six yards.

 

At 0208, on 8 December, the first attack sortie by the RAAF in the South East Asian war took off from the water-logged strip. This aircraft, A16-21 was captained by F/L Johnny Lockwood with crew of F/O Tony Jay and Sergeants Munday and Thompson. It was followed seven minutes later by A16-19, captained by F/L Ramshaw with crew of F/O Dowie and Sergeants Coldrey and White. By 0300,all available,(ten), Hudsons had taken off to attack the Japanese ships.

 

In the meantime, F/L Ramshaw had returned to base, re-armed and was in the air at 0320, again flying A16-19 with the same crew. He attacked a cruiser at extremely low level, dropping his bombs so they bounced across the water towards the ship. Then there was an explosion in the aircraft. Whether it was caused by the accurate Japanese AA or by its own bomb is unknown. Ramshaw managed to pull up over the cruiser but crashed into the sea beyond it. There was only one survivor, F/O Downie. He drifted for some time before eventually being pulled out of the sea by the Japanese and spending the rest of the war as a POW.

 

The taking of the Northern Malayan airstrips was crucial to the Japanese invasion and, although the Australians, Indians and British put up a stout resistance they were overwhelmed and the Kota Bharu airfield was taken by the Japanese in less than three days.

My first intention was to model A16-21 but I am unsure of its identity which could have been either US-D or US-E. Also, I had no photos of this machine. However, the second aircraft to take-off is another case. Its codes are known to be US-B and I have a number of photos of it, albeit at an earlier time, but I doubt that it changed much in peacetime. It was also the first RAAF loss in action in the theatre and also probably had the first RAAF member to become a POW of the Japanese.

 

THE KIT

Not much choice here. The only kit in 1/48 is the venerable Classic Airframes kit first produced some 25 years ago. I picked up a couple of samples but, generally, after examining them, put them back in the box. I think their main claim to fame was their inaccuracy. Now many years later I have pulled them out again. No RAAF collection is complete without at least one Hudson. Research has helped me identify many of the kit's failings and led to thinking about how I may be able to remedy some of them. More details to come.

 

Edited May 30 by Magpie22
corrected error spotted by eagle-eyed Peter R.

[Rabbit Leader]

A very nice choice and back story Peter. You are quite correct, the Hudson played such a significant part in the history of the RAAF, so it deserves a a special place in most modellers collections. I built the old Airfix kit as a kid (quite badly), have another, plus the Special Hobby / Italeri kit stashed. Funnily enough and like you I always seem to baulk at building them. The world really needs a new tooled Hudson kit, but am sure your CA model will turn out a treat. I’m looking forward to this build. 
 

Cheers and all the best.. Dave 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Welcome to the build Peter, outside of the U.S. the Hudsons are better known. Sadly they're just not as popular or as well documented here. 

[Magpie22]

Having thought about this project for some time, I became well aware of the kits many failings and put together a rough list of corrections I should consider. 

 

Some kit faults

Fuselage

·         Too shallow in depth.

·         In plan, max width not enough. Too wide at nose. Max breadth line not enough curvature.

·         No slope up in front of windscreen.

·         Windows will need to be corrected in spacing and position.

·         Door appears to be too far forward.

·         Bomb bay slightly too far aft.

·         Turret is too small and wrong shape. Replace with early open position.

·         If fit open gun position, will need to add internal floors and bulkheads.

Wings

·         Planform OK.

·         Too thin at root – should be 18% thickness.

·         Exits for LE slots in wrong position.

·         No wheel wells!

·         Correct panel lines – spar in wrong position. (Wing in wrong position on fuselage??).

U/C

·         Mains OK but need some work.

·         Tail wheel – replace

Interior

·         No WOP position.

·         R11 bulkhead does not exist on actual A/C.

Cockpit

·         What is R21?

·         Pilot’s seat should be taller.

·         Jump seat?

·         Should be open area under floor of cockpit.

·         Add walkway steps down to obs pos’n.

·         Ins panel is fair. Could do with more quadrant levers on console. Lower inst panel is wrong. No compass.

Observer’s Position

·         No bulkhead at rear.

·         Seat brace wrong.

·         Bomb sight wrong. Should be British course correcting sight.

·         No compass or drift sight.

·         No couch.

·         No chart rack.

·         Chute for smoke floats?

·         No bomb sight stowage.

·         What is R18?

Empennage

·         Basic planforms OK.

·         Elevator should be one piece.

·         Rudders need to be cut out to clear tailplane.

 

Of these, the wildly misshapen fuselage, caricature of a gun turret, and lack of wheel wells seem to be the ones requiring the most work. 

 

A visit to the 'spares box' revealed a set of resin wheel wells from an old Koster Ventura kit, and a Boulton Paul turret left from a Revell B-34 Ventura to Lodestar conversion I did. "Waste not, want not". 

Mods, cutting and filing required but, doable.

      

 

The fuselage, however, will require major surgery. 

First step was find drawings. These are rather scarce and comparison showed them to be inaccurate. Fall back position - prepare own sketches. (Note pics below are not reproduced at noted scales).

 

   

 

   

 

Apart from the LE slots, the wings are passable but, as stated above, major surgery required for the fuselage. Watch this space!!

 

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Well this is thorough isn't it ?  Going to follow along to watch this one take shape. 

[Rabbit Leader]

Gulp!! that’s some list of corrections to take care of! This thread will be quite interesting to watch. Good luck Pete. 
Cheers.. Dave 

[LDSModeller]

2 hours ago, Magpie22 said:

Apart from the LE slots, the wings are passable but, as stated above, major surgery required for the fuselage. Watch this space!!

 

Wow Peter,

 

This is going to be an epic build

 

Looking forward to it coming to fruition.

 

Regards

 

Alan

[Magpie22]

The kit's fuselage is grossly incorrect in shape, both in planform and in elevation. It lacks that lovely convex shape in planform and is somewhat undernourished in elevation. To try and correct both is beyond my skill level. I could scrathbuild, by making a pattern and then forming new fuselage halves. I could mould them in clear plastic which would solve a few problems with the nose transparencies and the side windows. This entails far more work than I am willing to undertake.

 

On the other hand, if I ignore the plan view and concentrate on modifying the kit to get that portly look of the Hudson in elevation, I can do that. Let's lay the kit fuselage half over the elevation drawing.

 

Lack of fuselage depth is obvious. However, what is interesting is that the depth, where the nose transparencies attach to the fuselage, is very close to the correct depth.

I will be able to use the kit nose transparencies and save quite a bit of work there. The transparency over the flight deck also looks as though it will fit OK.

The side windows will need to be replaced but that will be a simple task.

Another problem, although not apparent in the above shot, is that the wing will also need to be moved aft roughly 5 or 6 mm.

 

I figure that if I cut down the length of the fuselage, roughly where I've marked, I can lift the top up to get the correct fuselage depth. I'll also chop out the section

with the side windows and replace them with a section of clear plastic, that I can mark up later with the correct window positions. I'll also have to remove the stub of

the wing root and fill the hole that will be left. This will allow me to fit a wing spar and correctly position the wings on the fuselage.

 

Time to get out the saw!

 

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

8 hours ago, Magpie22 said:

The kit's fuselage is grossly incorrect in shape, both in planform and in elevation. It lacks that lovely convex shape in planform and is somewhat undernourished in elevation. To try and correct both is beyond my skill level. I could scrathbuild, by making a pattern and then forming new fuselage halves. I could mould them in clear plastic which would solve a few problems with the nose transparencies and the side windows. This entails far more work than I am willing to undertake.

 

On the other hand, if I ignore the plan view and concentrate on modifying the kit to get that portly look of the Hudson in elevation, I can do that. Let's lay the kit fuselage half over the elevation drawing.

 

Lack of fuselage depth is obvious. However, what is interesting is that the depth, where the nose transparencies attach to the fuselage, is very close to the correct depth.

I will be able to use the kit nose transparencies and save quite a bit of work there. The transparency over the flight deck also looks as though it will fit OK.

The side windows will need to be replaced but that will be a simple task.

Another problem, although not apparent in the above shot, is that the wing will also need to be moved aft roughly 5 or 6 mm.

 

I figure that if I cut down the length of the fuselage, roughly where I've marked, I can lift the top up to get the correct fuselage depth. I'll also chop out the section

with the side windows and replace them with a section of clear plastic, that I can mark up later with the correct window positions. I'll also have to remove the stub of

the wing root and fill the hole that will be left. This will allow me to fit a wing spar and correctly position the wings on the fuselage.

 

Time to get out the saw!

 

 

Never mind I goofed

 

 

Edited April 21 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[Rabbit Leader]

I've never realised how different the CA kit matches up to a decent set of plans! 

Just wondering if you've ever taken up the challenge to do the same on either the old 1/72 Airfix kit or newer SH / Italeri Hudson's? 

Cheers .. Dave  

 

 

 

[Magpie22]

First up, I cut out a centerline elevation, based on my drawing, to serve as a pattern for the fuselage shape, and several bulkheads,

modified to allow for the thickness of plastic of the fuselage bits, from plasticard. That's the bit in the middle. 

The bulkheads were glued to the elevation pattern at the appropriate stations.

 

The plan is to use these to hold the fuselage parts in place while I add the extension parts and the windows. Before doing this, I cut off

the wing root stubs and filled the resultant hole to make it easier to reposition the wings. A quick coat of paint shows that it worked out OK.

 

Then I cut the fuselage longitudinally into upper and lower halves. That's the top and bottom bits in the photo.

I also cut a section of clear plastic that will become the side windows.

 

 

 

With the elevation pattern held firmly in place to the ground board, I offered up the two fuselage sections. Looks like I will be able

to get quite close to a reasonably accurate shape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Magpie22]

6 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

I've never realised how different the CA kit matches up to a decent set of plans! 

Just wondering if you've ever taken up the challenge to do the same on either the old 1/72 Airfix kit or newer SH / Italeri Hudson's? 

Cheers .. Dave  

 

 

 

Dave,

I don't do 1/72. I can let you have a copy of my drawings so that you can do your own comparison, if you wish.

Peter

[Rabbit Leader]

41 minutes ago, Magpie22 said:

I can let you have a copy of my drawings so that you can do your own comparison, if you wish.

That’s awfully kind of you Peter. I’ll send you a PM shortly. 
Cheers and thanks.. Dave 

[Magpie22]

MEN IN GREEN

Oh, there were fifteen men in green,

  Each with a tommy-gun,

Who leapt into my plane at dawn;

  We rose to meet the sun.

 

We set our course towards the east

  And climbed into the day

Till the ribbed jungle underneath

  Like a giant fossil lay.

 

We climbed towards the distant range,

  Where two white paws of cloud

Clutched at the shoulders of the pass;

  The green men laughed aloud.

 

They did not fear the ape-like cloud

  That climbed the mountain crest

And hung from ropes invisible

  With lightning in its breast.

 

They did not fear the summer’s sun

  In whose hot center lie

A hundred hissing cannon shells

  For the unwatchful eye.

 

And when on Dobadura’s field

  We landed, each man raised

His thumb towards the open sky;

  But, to their right I gazed.

 

For fifteen men in jungle green

  Rose from the kunai grass

And came towards the plane. My men

  In silence watched them pass;

It seemed they looked upon themselves

  In Time’s prophetic glass.

 

Oh, there were some leaned on a stick

  And some on stretchers lay,

But few walked on their own two feet

  In the early green of day.

 

(They did not heed the ape-like cloud

  That climbed the mountain’s crest;

They did not fear the summer’s sun

  With bullets for their breast.)

 

Their eyes were bright, their looks were dull;

  Their skin had turned to clay.

Nature had met them in the night

  And stalked them in the day.

 

And I still think of men in green

  On the Soputa track,

With fifteen spitting tommy-guns

  To keep the jungle back.

 

 

Written by David Campbell, then a F/L Hudson pilot

from No.1 OTU, which had sent twelve Hudsons

with their crews to form a transport flight to support

Australian and USA soldiers in their attempt to take

Buna on the Northeast coast of New Guinea in December 1942.

They flew into Dobadura, an airstrip cut from the kunai grass,

situated just some 15 miles from Buna.

 

LEST WE FORGET!

 

 

Edited April 24 by Magpie22

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

5 hours ago, Magpie22 said:

MEN IN GREEN

Oh, there were fifteen men in green,

  Each with a tommy-gun,

Who leapt into my plane at dawn;

  We rose to meet the sun.

 

We set our course towards the east

  And climbed into the day

Till the ribbed jungle underneath

  Like a giant fossil lay.

 

We climbed towards the distant range,

  Where two white paws of cloud

Clutched at the shoulders of the pass;

  The green men laughed aloud.

 

They did not fear the ape-like cloud

  That climbed the mountain crest

And hung from ropes invisible

  With lightning in its breast.

 

They did not fear the summer’s sun

  In whose hot center lie

A hundred hissing cannon shells

  For the unwatchful eye.

 

And when on Dobadura’s field

  We landed, each man raised

His thumb towards the open sky;

  But, to their right I gazed.

 

For fifteen men in jungle green

  Rose from the kunai grass

And came towards the plane. My men

  In silence watched them pass;

It seemed they looked upon themselves

  In Time’s prophetic glass.

 

Oh, there were some leaned on a stick

  And some on stretchers lay,

But few walked on their own two feet

  In the early green of day.

 

(They did not heed the ape-like cloud

  That climbed the mountain’s crest;

They did not fear the summer’s sun

  With bullets for their breast.)

 

Their eyes were bright, their looks were dull;

  Their skin had turned to clay.

Nature had met them in the night

  And stalked them in the day.

 

And I still think of men in green

  On the Soputa track,

With fifteen spitting tommy-guns

  To keep the jungle back.

 

 

Written by David Campbell, then a F/L Hudson pilot

from No.1 OTU, which had sent twelve Hudsons

with their crews to form a transport flight to support

Australian and USA soldiers in their attempt to take

Buna on the Northeast coast of New Guinea in December 1942.

They flew into Dobadura, an airstrip cut from the kunai grass,

situated just some 15 miles from Buna.

 

LEST WE FORGET!

 

 

Wonderful but sad poem. I have read some of the hard fighting on the ground in New Guinea. Particularly about a long march over the central mountain range to recapture locations on the Northern coast. It is definitely some eye opening reading. 

[Magpie22]

Left fuselage bits assembled. Looks rather rough but I think it will come up OK.

 

 

I also decided to make things even harder and decided to have an open bomb bay, which I ordered from Ozmods. While I was working on the right fuselage half

I cut the left fuselage half and fitted the bomb bay. This helped give me the level of the floor in the main fuselage and acted as guide for getting the different floor levels in the forward fuselage.

The kit is rather deficient in this area. I corrected the level of the floor in the pilot's area and added the w/ops area behind. I then added a rough representation of the steps down into the nose compartment.

CA have totally misinterpreted this area and have a strange arrangement where the area under the pilot's cockpit is completely closed off.

Much of this will not be readily visible when the fuselage halves are closed up but, I thought it worthwhile trying to get something closer to the actual aircraft. I will add the front compartment detail later after

I join up the fuselage halves and when I fit the nose transparencies.

 

                 

 

 

[LDSModeller]

50 minutes ago, Magpie22 said:

Left fuselage bits assembled. Looks rather rough but I think it will come up OK.

Hi Peter,

 

I wouldn't call that rough - more WOW

 

Looking nice

 

Regards

 

 Alan

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

11 hours ago, Magpie22 said:

Left fuselage bits assembled. Looks rather rough but I think it will come up OK.

 

 

I also decided to make things even harder and decided to have an open bomb bay, which I ordered from Ozmods. While I was working on the right fuselage half

Quick question if I may. By cutting and lifting the overall height of the fuselage like you have and dropping the rear section. Will this have an effect on your kits main landing gear clearance ? 

Edited April 28 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[Magpie22]

4 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Quick question if I may. By cutting and lifting the overall height of the fuselage like you have and dropping the rear section. Will this have an effect on your kits main landing gear clearance ? 

No, as the wings go 'down' with the lower fuselage.  However, I am about to add wheel wells to the wings. This will change the way the U/C is attached and I will have to be careful, and make adjustments, when I fit the U/C to the new wheel wells/wing.

Peter M

[Chuck1945]

Wow! Just caught up on this project, quite an undertaking. 

[Magpie22]

One of the kit items I found to be unusable was the turret. Fortunately I had a turret from the Revell B-34 left over when I converted it to a Lodestar.

I've taped the fuselage halves together to see how it and the section of upper fuselage from the B-30 will fit on the CA Hudson.

Below is a photo of a Hudson turret with the kit turret on the left. Below that is a trial fit of the Revell turret and fuselage section.

The Revell turret is infinitely better in shape and, with a bit of filing and some filler, I can make the upper fuselage section fit.

 

 

A couple more shots showing the turret. It nicely captures the bulged look of the original. 

 

   

 

 

OK, looks like it can be done so I've glued up the fuselage halves and added the turret section. Clearly some filler will be required.

 

[Magpie22]

Next step was to fit a resin bomb bay from Ozmods and, mark the position of the wing on the fuselage halves.

I have also cut a hole for a wing spar to give some strength to the model when assembled.

 

 

 

 

 

That done, it was time to look at the fuselage panel lines. I have started marking these up in pencil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scribing panel lines is not one of my favourite pastimes so I diverted my attention to the tail assembly.

The elevator is full span, not two separate pieces as given by CA. Also there is a fixed section of the tailplane outboard

of the elevator giving clearance for the rudders to move over the tailplane.

 

 

Also, the rudders are cut out, so they have clearance to move over the tailplane when deflected. I have not fitted the elevator at this stage as I intend to have it deflected slightly down as it would be when the pilot

pushed the control column forward as he exited his seat. A section of the rear fuselage is attached to the elevator and moves with it, as the elevator moves up or down, so I will attach the elevator after the T/P is fitted.

 

     

 

[TheyJammedKenny!]

There's some serious plastic butchery and model mastery taking place here! Though I am more interested in 1/72, I love the looks of the plane and find your work inspiring.  It does look very precise.  I like how you've even mapped out the proper angle of incidence for the wing.

[Ray_W]

Fascinating. My favourite builds - cutting and shoving. Great job Peter and the usual impeccable research.

 

Ray

[Magpie22]

Ray,

"cutting and shoving" is the part of modelling I enjoy most. It can get a bit boring when I get to painting and weathering. I'm not an ''artistic modeller, more an ''engineering modeller', as the late Fred Harris would have said.

 

Research can also be most rewarding but one can get a bit pedantic and, sometimes, one can get a bit too far down the rabbit hole. One day I'm sure I'll run into @Paul Lucas, @Geoffrey Sinclair and a few other researchers down there. (Don't forget to bring the beer chaps). 

 

On the subject of research, I've recently been taken to task by a reader who does not like me "inflicting your innaccurate crude rough sketches on unsuspecting modelers when there are many good accurate professional drawings available".

 

I couldn't find any of those "accurate professional drawings" so decided to do my own sketches.

OK, I agree that my sketches are rough - they were drawn for one purpose only, building a model. Never intended for publication. These arthritic old fingers are no longer capable of good line work and I am not fully up to speed with CAD.

However, I do dispute that they are inaccurate. Time to declare their provenance. They are based on original engineering drawings from Lockheed. As you can see from the photos below these are well dimensioned. I'm still capable of reading those dimensions and re-plotting them in 1/48 scale. Below are a few of the drawings I used. They are not complete and I particularly lacked any drawings relating to the shape of the engine cowlings and nacelles.

 

 

So, as you can see, I did have some good drawings from which to work my sketches.

Peter M

 

 

  

 

Above are fuselage drawings with station, depth, and max breadth dimensions.

 

   

 

Bulkhead profiles.                                                                                                     Wing stations and chords.                                                                                                                                                                     Empennage

 

 

 

Edited May 11 by Magpie22