Omaka's RAAF Tiger Moth in 1/72

[ZacYates]

Hi all,
Something I'd wanted to build for some time is DH.82a Tiger Moth A17/ZK-BER, formerly VH-BEX, which a friend of mine recovered from a farm with his mate in their teens and rebuilt in Australia during the 1970s. Eventually '712 followed him to New Zealand and she happily flies with a syndicate at Omaka Aerodrome near Blenheim, home of the biennial Classic Fighters Marlborough airshow.

For a few months in 2007 I lived in Blenheim and got to know the warbird-y folk down there and was fortunate to spend many happy hours as unofficial groundcrew for, and flying in, '712 in her old paint scheme:
DSC04919 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC04898 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC04934 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC04915 by Zac Yates, on Flickr

About three-five years ago she was given a "birthday" and was repainted into a fresh paint scheme without the red in the roundels and finflash, and that's what I replicated with my new-tool Airfix 1/72 Tiger. What a delightful kit, I've built two and cannot wait for the 1/48 version!

Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr

I hope you enjoy it.

[johnnyfalcon]

Very nice, Zac!

[chriss]

My mother learnt to fly and aerobatics in VH-BEX, long before Xavier Herbert crashed it in a cane field outside Innisfail, North Queensland. Mum ripped the underside wingtip of another moth in a crosswind landing and had to see the engineer to have it fixed. That’s how she met Dad. There’s two Gipsy Major engines under the house that Dad secreted there years ago, one of them from BEX. She looks pretty mint now. The plane, not Mum!

VH-BEX Cairns Airport 1960's

Cairns Airport 1960's