1/72 Kitech C-45

Gallery Article by Wally Civitico on Jan 6 2010

Silly Week 2010

 

The RAAF C-45.

For a brief moment in history in an almost unknown and forgotten incident the RAAF (82 Sqn) was unofficially the owner of a Beech C-45.

In late 1947 the squadron operated from Kisarazu USAF base in Japan as part of BCAIR (itself part of BCOF British Commonwealth Occupation Forces). A US Navy unit FASRON 11 equipped with F4U Corsairs shared this facility with the USAF. The model subject was a notorious hangar queen nicknamed The Seagull (because seemingly one had to throw stones at it to make it fly) that had lost favour with its operating squadron and had been returned to the FASRON for repair or preferably disposal. The Commanding Officer of the FASRON fancied the aircraft as a personal mount and had charged the maintenance chief to get it airworthy.
Alas for the poor chief, the Seagull refused to fly, 3 times it had made it to the run up bay for checks, once it even lined up ready for takeoff when the tyre blew. It comes as no surprise then that in a two up game with some RAAF groundcrew the frustrated chief wagered the seagull against a number of dollars, several cases of Fosters, a Nambu pistol, a mint Kamakaze issue bandana (used ones were much rarer) and a Samarai sword. At the last flip of the kip, the pennies saw the C-45 pass into 82 Sqn service (albeit unconventionally and unofficially).

The next day, the groundcrew claimed their prize and with feverish and indecent haste redecorated the seagull. The most interesting thing about the RAAF C-45 was the application of a roo roundel on the fuselage sides and may have been inspired by the kangaroos on the two up pennies.

For a week the RAAF ground crew, hidden in a hangar, polished and worked on their prize until, not unexpectedly, the FASRON CO discovered the Seagull had gone AWOL and a demand was made to the completely unaware 82 Sqn CO for its return.

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Under instructions from the boss, the Seagull was returned to the FASRON (but not without a trade of a Deuce full of Bourbon and other booty). The Seagull was rapidly re-USNed and test run. Amazingly, much to the USNs chagrin, she was serviceable and successfully test flown by the FASRON CO. 82 Squadron disbanded not long after. What happened to the Seagull? After its first successful test flight, it was renamed Prodigal Son of a Beech but on its second flight, the oil cut off lever was pulled instead of the tail wheel lock, after a wobbly takeoff the port engine seized, with the pilot unable to feather the prop, the aircraft was ditched in the Obitsu river and finally written off charge.

Reminiscing on the modelling of my youth I thought I'd "throw together" a model with the same bull at gate mentality as I did then.

I bought this kitech kit on ebay for 99 cents as the subject of this endeavour (after all I didn't want to waste a good kit on this) I think I spent more time researching the "history" and making the decals than I did building this!

Wally Civitico

Photos and text © by Wally Civitico