This is a limited run, plastic, resin, vacuform canopy and cast metal kit from High Planes. It is recommended for experienced builders as there is a lot of flash clean-up, no locator pins and some scratch building required. Decals are adequate but, not spectacular. The panel lines are so subtle that they soon disappear under a coat of
paint in 1/72 scale, that is not necessarily a bad quality. That being said, I really enjoyed building this RAAF Wirraway! I think the details are superior to the Special Hobby release in
1/72, so if you are building a display of RAAF aircraft, High Planes is really a good way to go.
I built this as CAC Wirraway A20-103, a historic aircraft because it actually shot down a Japanese Zero. The Wirraway, a license built derivative of the AT-6 Texan, was considered easy meat by Japanese fighter pilots and
it's use was primarily as a close air support and light attack aircraft.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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“4 SQN RAAF, Dododura, Papua New Guinea, December 1942.
On 26 December 1942, FO John S. Archer and SGT J.L. “Les” Coulson were on a reconnaissance mission near Gona. Archer spotted a Japanese Zero below and engaged, shooting the enemy aircraft down. This was the only air-to-air victory…”
“A20-103 survives at the Australian War Memorial where it is displayed with sky grey undersides.”
Thanks for looking and happy modeling!
Brian Pruitt
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