1/48 DH Venom & Vampire – Operation Firedog

Gallery Article by Brian Param and Thomas Ng on Aug 31 2009

Malaysia National Day

 

1/48 Classic Airframes Venom FB 1- Royal New Zealand Air Force 14 Sqn by Brian Param

During Malayan Emergency from 1948 to 1960, Commonwealth armed forces fought the guerrilla war in the Malayan Jungle, the Air unit launch "Operation Firedog" engaged in ground attack operations against Communist Terrorists (CTs) insurgency.  These operations lasted for 12 years until the successful conclusion of the war.

The Venom depicted here is the FB 1 variant as served with the RNZAF from Tengah in Singapore during this period.  This build was only possible with the constant reminders by Thomas and Grant and Larry for the decals. The kit I intended to build was actually the Derek Pennington FB 4, however upon inspection Classic Airframes supplied the FB 1 booms which cannot be used on the FB 4. Decent and kind folk in the form of Grant T and Larry E kindly donated me the required decals to build the FB 1.

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For a limited run kit, the kit is not without issues. The wings had problems as well as minor other issues. I actually did a online build journal on the Scale Model Forum site in Malaysia with this link http://z12.invisionfree.com/ScaleModelsMalaysia/index.php?showtopic=5736&st=30&#last. It was completed in time for this update. Finishing was with Gunze and Polly Scale paints.

This is inline with the theme of aircraft of this era during the busy fight to free Malaya and then Malaysia from various negative influences. 

 

1/48 HobbyCraft Vampire FB9 - Royal Air Force 60 Sqn By Thomas Ng

The build was inspire with Brian build above, then Brian sent me this kit to build as part of my this year Commonwealth  air forces in Malaya/Malaysia build.

This is a very basic kit, review around the web said this kit had various shape issue, but I’m treating this as a quick and fun build, all in all it took me about 2 weeks to finish it, definitely not my usual pace.

Overall, the fitting was good, but the alignment of the twin booms was tricky, need some careful alignment when the cement ware still wet.

The whole kit was painted with Gunze 218 Alminume, I choose the marking for the RAF 60 Squadron that based in RAF Tengah during the Malayan Emergency, the decal was taken from various source and the serial and lightning were custom printed.

All in all, putting the shape issues aside, this was a fun build, and I enjoyed it.

Happy Merdeka 2009

Brian Param and Thomas Ng

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Photos and text © by Brian Param and Thomas Ng