The Commonwealth Aircraft
Corporation Wackett Trainer was the first Australian design to enter mass
production, and was the first in-house design of CAC following its formation to
build the Wirraway.
Designed to meet a RAAF pre-war
specification for a 2 seat monoplane elementary trainer, the Wackett was the
only indigenous design to see production during World War 2.
The creation of the Empire Air
Training Scheme and standardisation on the Tigermoth resulted in an order for
only 200 production aircraft and many served as Wireless trainers in the RAAF.
Servicing with the RAAF from 1941
to 1945, over 40 aircraft entered the civil register, and a further 30 served
with the NEIAF prior to Indonesea’s independence, the first Australian design
and made aircraft to serve in a foreign Airforce.
This model is the High Planes
kit. Typical of limited run models, it is pretty basic with a lot of parts
clean-up, trimming/sanding and dry-fitting required. The cockpit tub was
scratchbuilt from thin wire, some tape seatbelts added and a few levers from
stretched sprue. Also added some hydraulic lines to wheels and engine
wiring from fuse wire. Pitot was also scratched.
The kit wheels were the worst
feature, so I replaced them with some Airfix Spitfire spares. The Canopy
is vac-formed and I cut it to display in an open position. Steel tubing
exhaust stubs were also added.
Paints were Model Master pouch
paint acrylics and the kit decals were used, except for the 00 on the front
which is from an A-letters set. The only weathering applied was a dark
enamel wash in the few panel lines/control surface joints.
A3-200 crashed at Hervey Bay in Queensland on 24/2/1943 and was converted to
components.
David
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
|
|