1/72 Hobbycraft Caribou

in unique RAAF Colours  

by David Fredericks

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In 1986, I had the opportunity to be onboard a RAAF Caribou involved in a series of photo shoots to support the colour scheme trials taking place on the RAAF’s Caribou fleet.  At the time, the RAAF was experimenting with various schemes to find the ones best suited to the diverse range of landscapes found across our wide nation. Our aircraft flew in formation with these four other aircraft just to the west of RAAF Base Richmond in Sydney, where one of the RAAF’s Caribou squadrons was based at the time. While three of the Caribous were just variations of blacks and greens, one just grabbed my immediate attention – A4-208 and its orange, tan and black scheme! I’ve attached to this article some of my photos taken on the actual flight.

By way of history, A4-208 has seen it all. I won’t list it all here (go to www.adf-serials.com if you are interested in finding out more), but some highlights include:

·        being hit by mortar rounds and shrapnel while serving in Vietnam in 1969;

·        having a landing accident in 1985 and shearing nearly 3 metres of the right wing off on a tree;

·        being painted in this bizarre colour scheme; and

·        by all reports, now sitting at a base in Southern Queensland, devoid of its wings and awaiting being carried by Chinook helicopter off the South Queensland coast where it will become an artificial reef for fish and divers!

From that photo opportunity day, I longed to model a RAAF Caribou in the ‘desert colour scheme’. So in 2001, when I had the luck to be given a copy of the 172nd scale Hobbycraft Caribou kit, well it just had to be done in the bizarre colours of A4-208.

Click on images below to see larger images

I made the kit essentially OOTB, with some minor cockpit detailing given the amount of glass in the cockpit. (And yes, I know the kit’s representation of the engines is wrong as it has an incorrect number of cylinders represented as well as the curvature of the nose, but since I wanted it OOTB, I left it that way !) The major change made was obviously in the colour scheme and decaling with the kit only providing an option for a drab olive green RAAF aircraft of the Vietnam vintage. Thankfully I managed to obtain Aussie Decals decal set No. A72027 that included options for three different camouflaged RAAF Caribous, including A4-208!

The kit went together reasonably well in a short period of time. The major hurdle was getting the paint scheme right, exacerbated as I was experimenting with a new airbrush at the same time. I can’t remember how many weeks it took to finish and how much trial and error I experienced in getting it to a point where I were I was satisfied. In the end of the day, I am happy with the final product and may again one day make another Caribou in one of the other camouflage schemes. Needless to say, having an orange Caribou is a real talking point when I have guests around who aren’t aware that an RAAF operational aircraft once existed in these bizarre colours.

If you want to learn more about the RAAF’s use of the Caribou, it is well worth your while going to Stewart Wilson’s excellent book entitled ‘Dakota, Hercules and Caribou in Australian Service’ or go to the following website www.adf-serials.com. Here you will find information on all the types used by the Australian military, as well as some more photos of Caribou A4-208 as it awaits being turned into a reef.

David

Click on images below to see larger images

Photos and text © by David Fredericks