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
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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
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