I was checking out my Academy kit of the F-111C tonight just preparing for a start. I looked up the tail number that this kit will make (A8-127) and was a bit shocked to see it belonged to a lost aircraft. Callsign BUCKSHOT 18, this aircraft crashed during a simulated night attack over Guyra, New South Wales in September 1993. Killed were Flight Lieutenant McNess and Flight Lieutenant Cairns-Owen of 1 Squadron. I wonder if the good people at Academy are aware of this. I dont know how long this kit has been in production for. Is it a nice way of remembering the lost aircrew, or is it a tad insensitive ? What do you think ?
I would contact Academy and inform them they could rebox it as a memorial kit.
Air Master
I doubt Academy knew - either that, or they found a reference photo of that aircraft and went with it just for the sake of getting the decals made.
Building aircraft in which people died is nothing new.
In fact it’s quite ordinary in de modeling community: building the aircraft of Manfred von Richthoven, Joachim Marseille or George Preddy is populair.
And the same goes for other modeling subject like the Hindenburg, Titanic, Bismark etc etc.
With modeling we try to recreate a tiny piece of history and this often infolves death.
Wirraway,
What better way to honour the boys who flew The Pig than to make a model of their aircraft?
If anyone were to tell you that it’s objectionable or insensitive to build that specific airframe, they need to get over it.
We should always strive to honor those who have served…in what ever way is meaningful to us. Making a model of the aircraft of a lost crew shouldn’t be a bad thing - rejoice in the fact that they were willing to put it all on the line for millions of Skips that they knew they’d never meet.
There’s something sincerely profound in the call to duty.
[#ditto] I couldnt have said it better.
I actually strive to make models that commemorate the heroic acts of our fallen comrades. I’ve built a model kit of the Vietnam Memorial Statue “Brothers in Arms”. I also built a humvee and gave it the serial numbers to mark it as the company commander of my former unit. He died this past year, and I consider it a great honor to be able to remember him in that model.