In the mid-70s a mate of mine Graham and his friend Peter - both teenagers in Australia - bought the mortal remains of VH-BEX, a DH.82a Tiger Moth that had served with the RAAF as A17-712. After a few years of work they had her flying in her old warpaint and in the mid-2000s she was sold to New Zealand where a syndicate operates her to this day. Graham's still part of that syndicate and Peter has been over to visit a few times.
In 2007 I lived for a few months in Blenheim, where the Tiger is based as ZK-BER on our civil register. Another friend, Adam, was a couple of years older than me and also part of the Tiger syndicate. I was a bit of a hangar rat and he took me under his wing, letting me help out cleaning and even starting her. She was the first Tiger Moth I ever sat in, the first I ever taxied in
ZacTiger by
Zac Yates, on Flickr
And the first I ever flew in...or flew (don't tell anyone as Adam didn't have an instructor rating
). We three had
some adventures.
DSC04934 by
Zac Yates, on Flickr
So obviously I'd build a model at some point. Cue the modern Airfix 1/72 kit, of which I bought two copies. You saw the Blue Max build last week and the other was combined with some DK Decals and Humbrol trainer Yellow to produce this:
Untitled by
Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by
Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by
Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by
Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by
Zac Yates, on Flickr
After I took these photos I realised I hadn't installed the aerials on the spine, which I've now done with rigging elastic and will share a pic once the weather is better. I hope you like it.
And no, I can't remember the exact sequence to start a Tiger anymore!
