December 30, 1968.
The smiles were somewhat forced, and tears were not far from welling up, as the
members of 209 Squadron RAF assembled on this warm Malaysian night for what was
to be their final dinner together. The disbandment ceremony would be held
tomorrow, and it would bring the end of service by a group which had a link to
the downing of the Red Baron fifty years ago during the Great War. The
Commanding Officer took a final glance through his prepared address, a single
sheet which seemed to weigh more than any book he had ever read. He was about to
stand when a piece of paper appeared over his right shoulder. “New orders
Sir!” came an excited whisper, and by its very tone he knew that this dinner
was about to take on a different place in squadron history. They were to
re-equip with the new Transall flying boat, which the Aeronavale called the
Calais and the RAF had christened the Dover. With the possible continuance of
communist insurgency in South-east Asia there might be a pressing need for
patrol aircraft, and this one was ably suited to the task of protecting British
interests in the region.
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In
the 1960s it was becoming plain to the RAF and Aeronavale that they sorely
missed the Short Sunderland flying boat
that had been retired a few years previous. Not just a patrol aircraft, the
Sunderland, by nature of its ability to land on water, was well suited to
air-sea rescue tasks, evacuation, and resupply missions. Its performance in the
Berlin Airlift had not been forgotten, nor had its safe rescue of the entire 34
man crew of the torpedoed merchant vessel Kensington Court in 1939.
The
MoD issued a request for proposals for a new flying boat with a preference for a
European design as befitted the emerging spirit of co-operation on the
continent. Lockheed had recently shelved their amphibious C-130 derivative, and
Soviet designs were out of the question. The Shin Meiwa PS-1 was also
considered, as was a proposal to convert Armstrong Whitworth Argosys to a flying
boat configuration.
In
the end the winning bid came from Transall with a hulled variant of the C-160.
Built under license by Shorts, it featured engines on top of the wings in order
to better clear the spray, and floats positioned near the wing tips. These were
rather large as they also were used to carry electronic equipment and flares.
Initial
trials showed no undesirable tendencies, and outfitting with operational gear
proceeded immediately. The first operators were 209 Squadron, and older members
with long memories saw this powerful new mount as a measure of compensation for
being briefly saddled with the Saro Lerwick during the Second World War.
209
had a traditional relationship with the far east, and their first tour of duty
relived that history, with two aircraft being despatched to Hong Kong to monitor
shipping in that densely travelled area, with stops at many old bases. After
picking up the aircraft in Plymouth, Kasfareet on the Nile River was the first
layover, then on to Bahrain on the Persian Gulf. Iraq was next, with a stop at
Lake Al Habbaniyah, then on to Karachi where the Pakistani authorities welcomed
them back, with many former base workers gleefully turning out. The next leg
took them to Koggala in Sri Lanka, then to Korangi Creek in Burma. From there
they took a wider circuit than their predecessors in order to avoid the ongoing
unpleasantness in Viet Nam, and finished their trip in Hong Kong harbour.
As
their service wore on and the global situation changed, France’s Aeronavale
took to showing the flag with goodwill flights to many nations, and Canada was a
favourite stopover for both crews and airshow spectators. Appearances at the CNE
Airshow were a perennial event, never failing to impress those watching the huge
aircraft operate from the Lake Ontario waterfront. Current plans for a refit of
the Calais are still being discussed, and we may see even better versions in the
future.
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The
Model
When
I saw this model at a local shop I just had to have it. The teensy scale
appealed to me as did the subject, yet another plane which has been among those
neglected by manufacturers of nauseatingly unending BF-109 and FW-190 variants.
I realised that such a small model was; 1. Not easy to detail (translation; I
needn’t feel guilty about not
detailing it), and 2. Quite easy to have some fun with. Can you say ‘What
if”? Sure, I knew you could!
Lodela
is a Mexican company with a small range of products, and this one is a repop of
a Heller kit. All detail is raised lines, there are no transparencies, and
identification markings are represented on the surface. There were no decals
with my example, but whether there were any originally I can’t tell. I doubt
there were because the colours are written on the instruction sheet with a
little arrow pointing toward the roundel. So perhaps Mexican children are taught
hand-detailing early? Good, start ‘em young I always say!
Modifying
the fuselage for a planing hull was made easier by the fact that the main
undercarriage blisters are separate components, so they didn’t need to be
carved off.
WARNING;
PURISTS MAY WISH TO SKIP THIS SECTION! I did NOT carve a hull from virgin
basswood, check the shape with an electron microscope, micrometer, and contour
gauge, make a female mold out of resin, then construct a customized vacuum
forming machine capable of replicating a full size Volkswagen body, and produce
the hull. No siree. I simply carved the hull out of balsa and attached it with
Squadron putty. (‘Rivet Counters’ who failed to heed the above warning may
now be identified by their patchy, bleeding scalps) Another warning is in order
for any who may try this on other projects; Squadron putty seriously softens and
pits the plastic, so don’t use it on very thin sections or near small parts.
Okay,
I lied, it was not that simple. My sculpting skills are on a par with a drunken
Chimpanzee, and balsa that has not been treated with dope is an acute rectal
discomfort. I avoided dope because if it touched the plastic it would eat it
like breakfast, so until I could treat it somehow I was stuck with a surface
which insisted on staying rough in a few spots, with those annoying hairy areas
that often arise on balsa. I tried a 50/50 solution of white glue and water
which I brushed on. This seems to be a good, plastic-safe substitute for dope,
and I was finally able to both work on the hull and maintain a friendly
relationship with my family. Float tops were made from a couple of teardrop
shaped lumps from who-knows-where with balsa attached and shaped for the
bottoms. The refuelling probe came from an ESCI A-4. I toyed with the idea of
opening up the windows, but laziness took hold.
The
engines were moved to the top of the wings directly over the mounting marks on
the bottom, and the intakes and exhaust drilled out. A wingtip tank from an
ancient Aurora RB-66 was called to duty, and placed on top of the fin as an
Electronic Surveillance Measures antennae. The searchlight was next. Poking
through some really old boxes looking for bits I happened upon a chunk of clear
sprue that seemed just the right size and was already nice and rounded, so I
actually have a clear nose on it, polished with Future. A section of sprue was
used for the nose radome. The MAD boom was donated by a Heller 1/200th
scale Breguet Atlantic. The kit’s leftover landing gear and some scrap bits
were cobbled together to make the beaching gear, and the tires were flattened a
bit.
The
major paints were Model Master Flat White, MM Flat Black, and Humbrol matt #27
grey, all hand brushed. I didn’t want to over-accentuate details on such a
small subject, so panel line pre-shading was done with Tamiya clear varnish.
Marker pens help enormously on these tiny projects. I used a Sharpie to blacken
the flight deck windows, and then scraped the raised frames with a #10 blade to
expose the silver plastic underneath. The Sharpie was also used to add the
de-icing boots at the base of each prop blade, and to make portholes. A
Staedtler marker was used to draw the red propeller warning line on the
fuselage.
The
4 Aeronavale roundels were provided courtesy of Todd ‘Captain Canada’
Pomerleau, supplemented with numbers and MARINE markings from the Heller
Atlantic (I had hoped to use the roundels from that but the yellow ring was
seriously off-register). Due to the fuselage curvature I decided not to place
the MARINE decals under the roundels, but in a more prominent place along the
side.
The
scenic shot of Toronto was courtesy of Olivier ‘Ollie’ Lacombe, with the
model picture inserted using MS Paint and MS Photo Editor. (And man, was that
ever a laborious process!)
The
initial RAF trip in the story is basically a replay of the flight my father did
as First Officer on Sunderland WQ-N of 209 Squadron in 1945.
Now,
that Argosy I mentioned, anybody ever kit one of those? I’ve got some balsa
left over.
Dave
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