Falklands War GB feeler.

Hmmm?

I dragged a Sheffield type 42 destroyer out of my stash and was first surprised to see it had been boxed by Dragon as 'Falklands 25th anniversary" issue. But then I noticed it was a 2-in-1 model and the represented "other version" was the ARA Hercules. Of which WikiPedia writes:

The ship was ordered on May 18, 1970 and completed on May 10, 1976 at the Vickers Shipbuilding yard in Barrow-in-Furness, United Kingdom. She was delivered to Argentina and entered service on September 19, 1977. As built, she was identical to the initial Type 42 units being commissioned by the Royal Navy. The Argentine Navy upgraded the warship by enhancing her offensive capabilities with MM-38 Exocet missiles. The original boat decks by the funnel were modified in order to mount the launchers.^[1][2]

In 1982, along with her newly built sister ship, ARA Santisima Trinidad , she was part of the escort of the aircraft carrier ARA Veinticinco de Mayo during the Falklands War.^[3]

I think I'll be building this kit in 1/700th scale. But now I'm torn to pay homage to the loss of HMS Sheffield or represent the Armada de la República Argentina? I kind of think the ARA might otherwise be under represented? But I do have a "Batch 2", HMS Liverpool as well. Maybe I can backdate it and use the Sheffield decals? I might get to do both and that could be an interesting comparison!

Bish

Helo H-34  I've not had any experiance with High Planes kits. Thats looks very nice. Someone is going to be busy.

bondo Now that would be a nice find. I have seen the 25th annerversary Vulcan kit, think it was on E-bay, but not that one. That SLR on the first figure does look a bit off, but apart from that looks like a nice figure.

Seeing as this is just a feeler and the GB is a long way off, i think we already have enough interest and a good variety. Figures, ships and aircraft and stuff from both sides. And i am sure we will get the odd post war build as well. So i think this will be a go.

 Heres a few pics from my tour down South last year. Due to it being Winter we didn't get out and about that much. And when we did, i forgot the bloody camrea, Typical. But seeing as this will likely be my last stint down there, i am going to make sure i make the most of it.

These first pics were taken on Sealion Island.

The locals

As you can see below, its pretty bleak. The only trees are those planted by settelers, and these are small and all bent to one side due to the hight winds all year round.

And the next were taken at MPA at the helicopter end of the base.

 Finally, the British War memorial in Stanley.

Helo H-34  I've not had any experiance with High Planes kits. Thats looks very nice. Someone is going to be busy.

bondo Now that would be a nice find. I have seen the 25th annerversary Vulcan kit, think it was on E-bay, but not that one. That SLR on the first figure does look a bit off, but apart from that looks like a nice figure.

Seeing as this is just a feeler and the GB is a long way off, i think we already have enough interest and a good variety. Figures, ships and aircraft and stuff from both sides. And i am sure we will get the odd post war build as well. So i think this will be a go.

jrb53 Thanks for confirmation on that. I still need to finish the equipment list on page 1. I ain't going to leave the Argies out. I did think about running the build over that period, but its just to short. When you take into account life getting in the way of things, and it would be nice to get the ship guys on board and those kits can take a while. So it was thought about, but just to short a time line.

I know what you mean though. Seems amazing that we can organize somthing, move 8,000 miles by sea and then re take the Islands all in 73 days. After being in the British Army for 20 years, i am amazed how we ever get anything done.

bondoman I have some pics from my second time there last year. That wasMay till August so middle of Winter. We are lucky in that we can get out and about with the job we do. This time i am hopeing to get to some of the battle Fields. There are alot of mine fields along side the round coming up to Stanley. From what i was told, even though the UK signed the treaty to get ride of mines, the locals are in no rush. You can't grow crops on the Falklands and the mine fields are on hill sides and areas of little use. The locals argue that why spend money clearing them when you can clear mines in countries that need the land for crops. Also, the mines tend to shift because of the boggy ground.

As for a social life, the camp we are on, MPA, is huge. They call the accomodation area the Death Star. We got all the usual stuff, bars, cinema, bowling and so on. But it can be pretty boring in the Winter when we got no work on. The nearest town, Stanley, is about an hours drive over a small gravel track. In the UK it wouldn't even be classed as a village, and thats the biggest town. I will get a few pics up of my last stint in a bit. Its not a place many people get to go or now anything about.

I had woundered if there was some dispute between the two countries over that area. That explains alot.

Bish -- I don't see how I couldn't be in this one! Not long ago Iread the marvelous book Harrier -- Ski Jump to Victory, and it gave me a lot of feeling and respect for the whole situation. Sea Harrier or Harrier GR.3, possibly both -- not sure of the brands and scales at this point. I'll see what else comes along too.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Here's a kit that I'd like to find;

Here's one I'm also interested in...

I don't much fancy his SLR though.

or this...

Anyone experienced with either?

High Planes Models here in Australia , manufactuer a very nice 1/72 Falklands Dagger .

included are a resin tub and instrument panel , nose cone and engine exhaust , with metal cockpit seat and landing gear struts , also so PE ;

I'll throw the Dagger in along side my two Wessex helicopters .

                                              John .

jrb53

Bish,

Since this is to be an anniversary GB, is there a reason it can't go from April 2 til June 14?  You Brits mobilized and fought the entire war during those 73 days;  don't you think we can throw a model together in the same length of time.

Jack

I sure as hell cant. im a very slow builder. i like o treasure my builds. and usually it takes me a few days between building sessions to cool down enough so i dont throw things lol.

Bish,

Since this is to be an anniversary GB, is there a reason it can't go from April 2 til June 14?  You Brits mobilized and fought the entire war during those 73 days;  don't you think we can throw a model together in the same length of time.

Jack

Bish

Ye, i bet the harrier pilot must have had a moment of thought. Especially as the RAF Canberras were flying from Chile, almost the same direction as Argentina. I am not sure what the score is with Chile. I get the impression they are not best friends with Argentina. Even now, RAF aircraft fly from the Falklands to Chile.

Bish

Thats some plan. I can imagine the scene, Wideawke isn't a very big airport, and takes up a chunk of the Island. The 8 hour flight from acension to Falklands is bad enough. Never mind a return flight without landing.

Macchi 339s were there.  One crashed on May 3 and the pilot, Lt. Benitez, was killed.  On May 28 another M339 went down due to a Royal Marine and a Blowpipe.  The pilot, Lt. Miguel, was also killed.  At the end of the conflict, three M339s were captured at Port Stanley.

Courtesy of "Air War South Atlantic" by Ethell and Price.  Great reference for anyone contemplating this GB.

Thats some plan. I can imagine the scene, Wideawke isn't a very big airport, and takes up a chunk of the Island. The 8 hour flight from acension to Falklands is bad enough. Never mind a return flight without landing.

Elizabeth Jane

Didn't the Vulcan bomber break all the records at the time for distance travailed during a conflict? A chain of refuelling aircraft were refuelling other refuelling aircraft so they could refuel the Vulcan's to get to the Falklands and back non-stop in something like 17 hours? It was possibly the biggest game of hop-scotch ever played. I can just imagine the Argentinians watching a Vulcan Bomber flying over Port Stanley and trying to work out where it came from.

Thanks for that link. I am mainly useing Wiki, but we all now not to trust that to much.

Ye, i bet the harrier pilot must have had a moment of thought. Especially as the RAF Canberras were flying from Chile, almost the same direction as Argentina. I am not sure what the score is with Chile. I get the impression they are not best friends with Argentina. Even now, RAF aircraft fly from the Falklands to Chile.

I would love to see some figures like that.

Check here:

http://www.naval-history.net/F64argaircraftlost.htm

There must have been a weird moment when the Harrier shot down the Canberra.

The Vulcan attacks on radar used AGM's mounted on external rails. I'm not sure and will need to look it up, but I think those were left from some experiment at carrying Hound Dog standoff nukes in the 1970's.

I might look into a figgie of a Royal Marine carrying 150 lbs of kit on South Georgia.

Can't find MB-339's on the wiki sites i am useing, so will look into that further.

I think MB-339's too.

There were also 6 Argentine Aerospatiale Pumas as well - all destroyed during the war.

I seem to recall hearing that about parts being taken from an Argie Chinook. Thanks for confirming they had them down there.

Bish

bondoman  Thanks very much for that list of Argentinian ships and aircraft. I had totally forgotten about the Daggers. I am not sure but they may have also used Chinooks at the time, but can check on that

The Argentinean's had 2 Chinooks down there. One was destroyed on the ground by a harrier and the other was captured and brought back to the UK after the war. It ended up donating its aft pylon and fuselage to a damaged UK Chinook several years later.

in a Group build, participants all gather around a theme (like the Falkland war, or Natural Metal Finish or F-16 Falcons) and build kits that match. The in-progress and finished photos are posted in the thread. Members of the forum can offer suggestions, help, guidance and support to one another. All in all Group builds are pretty fun and can help you get the motivation you need to finish a kit. 

OWL

basically, every post pics of the work as they progress and then pics of the finished item. Usually the host will post a pic of each completed build on the front page. What each person does with the models is their choice. But its a good way of shareing info, getting together for a build over a long distance. If you have a look through some of the other GB's you will get the idea.

There was a cartoon at the time, and i saw it again when i went to the Islands last year. It shows a Vulcan bomber dropping its load on stanley. In the forground are 2 Argie soldiers. One is saying to the other 'If thats the size of their planes, imagine the size of the carrier'. My mate has the book it was in so i am going to try and get hold of it and put a few of the cartoons on here.

If you want to join in with a Vulcan, feel free. I know Airfix had a 25th anneversay kit a few years ago which is still around.

I apologise if this is a daft question or if it has already been answered but could someone please explain what this thread is actually discussion?

I'm not totally stupid so I understand it's about getting people to build anything related to the Falklands War but what happens with the models once they are built?  I can't imagine seeing a few hundred modellers boarding  a plane with there models and flying off to America just for the monthly modelling meeting and then a month later doing the same again but this time off to Australia (I don't have that kind of money) so how do you all manage to show off your models and how do these group builds work?

Forgive me if I have missed something really obvious as I haven't read all the posts but until I found this site a week ago I thought model making was something that we all did late at night in a quiet corner of the house?

BTW - I think the Vulcan Bomber is the second best looking plane ever built. The best looking plane has got to be Concorde.

Didn't the Vulcan bomber break all the records at the time for distance travailed during a conflict? A chain of refuelling aircraft were refuelling other refuelling aircraft so they could refuel the Vulcan's to get to the Falklands and back non-stop in something like 17 hours? It was possibly the biggest game of hop-scotch ever played. I can just imagine the Argentinians watching a Vulcan Bomber flying over Port Stanley and trying to work out where it came from.

Yep, your correct. He was in the Royal navy and flew Sea Kings. Not sure what ship he flew off. There was footage of him flying into the smoke of one of the transport ships, think it was Sir Galahad, rescueing guys from the burning ship.

taxtp

...In the meantime, didn't Prince Andrew fly a helo down there ? That might be an interesting build for someone.

Cheers

Tony

I had forgotten about that Tony - yes, he was working Sea Kings from HMS Invincible.

Hi Bish,
I want to avail of some of the internet reference that is now available, and also, White Ensign Models have released a couple of photo-etched sets that can be used for this kit, which I'm now going to order.

I'll also see if there is anything else of use around.

I'll get back to you when I get my act together a bit more.

In the meantime, didn't Prince Andrew fly a helo down there ? That might be an interesting build for someone.

Cheers

Tony

taxtp - thanks for popping in with some more naval options. This is looking like an interesting collection, there is actually a pretty good variety of subjects, the trick may be in tracking down the actual kits or making modifications to an available kit. Bondoman, are you looking at getting in on this one or just lurking? Always good to see you around either way.

Well seeing as the build don't start for months and you are so far along, just go ahead and finish it. Nothing stopping you posting some pics on here when its done, might inspire a few other.

Which ship are you doing, and is the conversion just the ships Number or is there more to it.