This is one I have been working on bit by bit for about a year now. I found a series of Photos on the Australian War Memorial site showing Australian DUKW's loading and delivering from cargo ships off shore Auster light aircraft to use as artillery spotting aircraft. The beaches of the Pacific Islands would be the landing strips.

Now as there is no 1/35 scale Auster I decided to use Bronco's 1/35 Piper Cub which the RAAF also used on loan from the USA. The other kit is the Italeri DUKW. A few years back I built the Italeri DUKW with the crane boom on it and intended to do a small diorama using the crane DUKW as well as the load carrying one to create a similar situation of the DUKW arrived ashore and being unloaded so crews could reasemble the plane which was stripped down for the trip.

The Bronco Piper Cub has had it's wings and tail horizontal fins removed for transport and these will be crated up as in the ref. photos. Apart from the mods to strip it down it has been built OOB and painted Australian colors and will be marked with Australian Roundals. This posed a few problems as the wings and tail fins have to be completely finished before 'crating'! I stuffed up putting the canopy on so will cover this area with a 'tissue' tarp.

The Italeri DUKW was built OOB with no mods except for things left off to allow the plane and load to sit right.

These are my two AWM reference photos





A couple of the mocked up finished model to see how the crating was made. It was at this stage I realised I had to remove the Tail fins that I had fitted.





And here is the first of 4 crate sides for the wings. Pinned togeather for now as I am making all the crates out of Balsa wood for ease of making.



I will continue this as I go but as I have 4 or 5 on the go at present I do things as I wait for other things to dry or for glue to set.

Comments welcomed on any stage of this

Both kits have basic paint on them and need detailing.

For interest here is a photo of the 'Lifting Boom' on my original DUKW

Well, Cliff, once again you've come up with another intriguing project. Your projects are always interesting and never disappointing. As usual, I'll be following this one closely.
Tom

Excellent, Cliff, nicely done thus far. Very clever diorama you have going. Do keep us posted with lots of photos. Great stuff.
Ironmike

Hi Cliff,

This looks like an excellent project, terrific stuff.

Al

Great idea!
Keep the pics coming.Very original dio.

Tom

I really like the look of this Cliff, nice one mate!

Thanks for the comments guys.

I have finished building the crates for the wings and tail fins & will paint them all once I have made the crates for the struts and propeller.


Once the roundals are added to the wings and the paint is dry on the crates I will finish closing the crates with the items inside. Once they are totally finished I can then start putting the load togeather in the correct places and paint the rest of the balsa frame holding the aircraft.

The Aussie Roundals supplied by a friend who at present (I hope) is going through his aircraft decals looking for the aircraft numbers themselves that I can add to the plane.

All comments welcomed

well the building went well this afternoon and the crates are finished except for painting and their loads. I could not resist seeing what she will look like so here is 3 new pics







Cheers

Hi Cliff,

Very fine work. Looking good.

Al

oh man, that's beautiful ! a nice job of carpentry as well as kit building !

Beautiful project !!!

Love oddballs based in real pics...

Keep going...

Hi Cliff

Great looking project, looking forward to seeing more.
Tom

that is a real cool idea,great what you have done,your pics are nice and clear.
what a great job you are doing,more pics please.

I have done a bit more on this one (or is that two ). Wings are crated and crates weathered a bit. Base coat on the frame the Piper Cub sits on. Tissue Tarp over cockpit area plus a tiny amount of weathering on the DUKW as well.

Crates are just sitting on the frame at present and have not been fixed down which is why they are leaning in.

Any comments welcomed











Another update due soon

VERY unusual and intriguing subject, Cliff. I'll be following this one with interest.

An innovative vehicle with an iconic plane.....doesn't get much better than that!

Any further progress, Cliff?

FYI I did notice that your engine "shrouds" are reversed on the Cub.....

While the DUKW and plane are finished I have gone no further with the planned diorama yet and in fact have done no modelling for some time now. Thanks for the heads up on the engine shouds I'll have a look and see if I can correct them but if not that's how they will have to stay.

Cheers
Cliff

Cliff, just an outstanding idea, one that I've never seen before. The Cub is a personal favorite of mine, since I spent a fair amount of time in one with my brother whose a pilot back in the 70s.

Looking forward to the finished diorama.
Joel

Sorry to hear you haven't been able to get to the bench recently. Let us know when you do. This is shaping up nicely. Your canvas is excellent, and the wood crate is perfect.

Yeah, make every effort to turn those shrouds. As I'm sure you know, they're a pretty prominent feature on the real plane and will look pretty odd backwards. Sorry if you can't tell...I'm kinda partial to this plane.

I am not really a plane man (sic) so I did everything to try and simplify the construction part of it. In fact I only did this because a 1/35th scale Piper Cub was available. Got a great idea for a Dakota (DC3) as well if one is available in 1/35 scale LOL!

How about something different but on a similar topic?

Kentucky Aviation Museum, Bluegrass Field, Lexington, KY

I like that. Have started assembling some more truck kits and will move onto finishing some other projects including this one over time.