1/72 Hobbycraft Caribou RMAF

by Simon Beck

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  Malaysia National Day 2004 

 

BACKGROUND

307 Caribou transport aircraft were built by DeHavilland of Canada between 1957 and 1973, with the protoype first flying on the 30th July, 1958.  Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia (TUDM) or the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) ordered 18 aircraft starting in 1966 with c/n: 245 and deliveries ending in 1973 with c/n: 307 - the last Caribou built.  Serial numbers were initially FM100 / FM1117, these were changed in the mid seventies to FM1401 / FM1416 with two aircraft having been lost due to accidents.  The numbering system was again changed in the mid eighties to M21-01 / M21-18 with already written off airframes also counted to preserve consistency.  
The RMAF Caribou was retired in September 2000 with around nine or ten of the remaining aircraft put up for sale.  One of the Caribou's, M21-04 is however preserved and can be seen at the RMAF Museum in Kuala Lumpur. The picture below was taken by me in July, 2003.

KITSET

The model is a Hobbycraft 1:72 scale kitset that I originally painted in an RCAF s/n: 320 United Nations livery. After obtaining some RMAF Caribou decals however, and being a big fan of the Malaysian Air Force I decided to repaint the same kit.  Matt Olive Drab was the colour used overall with the exhaust pipes being an off silver and the trailing edge flaps being Flat Black.  A clear gloss coat was applied over the matt drab and the decals applied without any hassles. Very little weathering was required except for around the engines.
The nose has a counter balanced weight as most tricycle undercarriaged models seem to require.
This kitset is based on the RMAF Caribou M21-04 preseved in Kuala Lumpur.

For more information on the DHC-4 Caribou please visit my website at www.uswarplanes.net

Simon

Click on images below to see larger images

Photos and text © by Simon Beck