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Post by flyjoe180 on Aug 7, 2007 2:19:11 GMT 12
Yes, brilliant work Bruce, very accurate and detailed. A model worthy of museum display I would say!
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Post by kiwi on Aug 7, 2007 13:04:20 GMT 12
Excellent . Well done .
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 7, 2007 13:39:14 GMT 12
Hey Bruce, would you consider taking the model down to Karapiro where we could get some photos of it on the slipway with the blue water behind? I have a camera that does good macro photography. Just a thought.
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Post by mumbles on Aug 7, 2007 22:52:20 GMT 12
Wow Nice work!
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Post by Peter Lewis on Aug 8, 2007 8:36:28 GMT 12
Superb. I'm full of admiration for those who have the skills and patience to create a work of art like this.
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Post by smithy on Aug 8, 2007 10:51:49 GMT 12
Corker of a model Bruce and a subject you virtually never see built.
Top job!
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Post by corsair67 on Aug 8, 2007 16:03:02 GMT 12
Very nice work, Bruce: you've made a very ugly looking aeroplane look almost beautiful! ;D
I prefer Short Bros' later work personally, but you have done a wonderful job here commemorating an aircraft that many peope don't even know existed in RNZAF service.
I dare say you are going to have that airbrush pay for itself several times over in the next 6 months or so.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 8, 2007 20:58:59 GMT 12
Personally I think the Singapore is very regal and elegant, and hark back to more gentle days before the war. It's also extremely important, being the first RNZAF aircraft to go into actual operations against the Japs in the Pacific war. I'd love to have a ride in one.
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Post by flyjoe180 on Aug 8, 2007 21:04:57 GMT 12
What did the Singapore do in the first action against the Japanese? Was it used as a recce / ASW aircraft?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 8, 2007 22:34:40 GMT 12
Patrolling from Seletar in defensive searches for the Jap fleet. One of ours was airborne at the time the Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk.
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Post by Bruce on Aug 8, 2007 22:41:06 GMT 12
The aircraft were ferried between Singapore and Fiji in 2 batches of 2 each. The ferry crews were working up in Singapore ready to move the second batch when the Japanese attacked Pearl harbour. As the unit the were lodging with (207sqn RAF) was still converting to Catalinas, the ferry crews flew a number of ASW patrols out of Singapore. The day after Pearl Harbour the British Battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk north of Singapore, and an RNZAF 'boat was sent out to determine the extant of the hostilities. during the course of this flight it located the Walrus aircraft from Repulse, which was airborne at the time of attack and without a mother ship had force landed out of fuel. Its position was confirmed by the Singapore crew, who dispatched a rescue launch. Shortly after the 2 Singpores departed on thier ferry flight, getting out just in time as it turns out. The servicing unit who prepared the aircraft for the ferry flights stayed behind with 207 sqn, 488 (NZ) and other Singapore based units, not all returned to to NZ.
Craig, working on the model you actually find that it has some very nice curves in the hull, and its not too bad a looker. in the early RAF silver scheme they would be really nice. The detracting features to me are the multiple tail fins and all the tailplane bracing struts, and that funny cockpit enclosure, which wasnt really in the original design. Its actually a very clean design with nice smooth wing root fairings and beautifully streamlined nacelles. Making the model has really given me an appreciation of the design and I think they're really cool, although unfortunately nearly forgotten.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 8, 2007 23:25:25 GMT 12
Um, it was No. 205 Squadron that the RNZAF unit was attached to at Seletar. The squadron was by then operating their Catalinas and the Singapores were all out of service (five of them remained) but 205 Sqn's maintenance crews were working on the reconditioning of the Singapores for the RNZAF when our team arrived. Our 28 ground staff joined them and became part of No. 151 Maintenance Unit.
The Singapores were not sent out to assess damage to the battleships. Only one was airborne and the ships were sunk at the time they were airborne. The crew sited the ships before they were sunk during their patrol. They thought it was good some big muscle was arriving to defend Singapore, however thought it odd they were unescorted. During the partol they, as you say, found the lost Walrus and diverted a launch to pick the crew up. They only conversed briefly by lamp and did not know the ships had by then been sunk. They also saw destroyers with lots of men in dark uniforms and assumed they were pulling troops back from forward islands. They only found out after they landed back at Seletar and had gone to the Mess that the ships were sunk and the men they saw in dark uniforms were oil-soaked rescued sailors.
I believe 488 Sqn had been involved with escorting the ships too at one point.
Of the groundcrew who were left after the Singapores departed, Frank Edwards of Cambridge was killed by a strafing Jap aircraft which sunk the Catalina he was inside, guarding. They injured another man too. The rest were attached to the RAF till they met up with the NZ'ers of the No. 1 Aerodrome Construction Squadron and 488 Sqn and escaped with them to Australia.
When they got back to NZ they were totally silenced about their ordeal so as not to cause panic in NZ.
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Post by corsair67 on Aug 9, 2007 11:26:38 GMT 12
Bruce, I have to agree with you about the hull lines being very nice, but like you said, it's the bolt-on look of the cockpit enclosure and the multiple tails that ruin the look of the whole aircraft.
So, apart from your real aeroplane, what's the next kit you have planned to complete?
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Post by Bruce on Aug 9, 2007 11:45:08 GMT 12
Bit of a tough call really. I've got some other vacforms - Baffin, Gordon, DH9 and a "conversion" for an Anson 12, Some resin kits - fox moth, Airtourer etc, but I'd probably prefer a "simple" injected kit after a model of this nature. I'd really like to do my KMC Boeing 727 but I dont really have room for it at the moment! I've also got a DH4, and another I am going to convert to a DH50, and a very poor Hawker Tomtit, or maybe a Beech Kansan or Monospar in NZ aerial mapping colours. What do you reckon?
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Post by corsair67 on Aug 9, 2007 12:00:46 GMT 12
I reckon a DH-4 would be nice.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 9, 2007 12:41:11 GMT 12
Baffin, do the Baffin!
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Post by kiwichappers on Aug 10, 2007 5:29:36 GMT 12
And you say its 1/72? Hats of to you Bruce what grand model I don't know how you manage all those wings and wires in such a small model.
If the Fox Moth is the Aeroclub kit that would be my next pick for an 'easier' model. I have heard good reports of that kit over here and seen a couple of beauties at shows.
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Post by kiwi on Aug 10, 2007 7:28:01 GMT 12
You wanted something easier to build so do the Aerial Mapping Kansas . It is really only a decal change and is an injection moulded kit .
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Post by Bruce on Aug 10, 2007 14:51:20 GMT 12
It'll probably be the 727, I've just rearranged some of my shelves and there is now room - I'll start another thread for that one.....
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 10, 2007 14:59:27 GMT 12
Which scheme? The later light blue or the more classy dark blue?
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