RAAF Meteor F.3 - completed

[comrade harps]

Yes, more Operation Downfall orange and yellow invasion stripes. They're pretty. It looked like this yesterday morning



and this morning like this:




It's going to be one bright bird.

The pilot will be Lance Hancook. Aussies, just do some free association on that name and you'll figure out where I'm going with the back story. Clue: he's from Western Australia.

I'm so glad about the question marks in the Aussierama WW2 dates, because this is from March, 1946.

[NARSES2]

Yup I did keep the WWII end date loose to allow for the invasion of Japan or even continued fighting in Manchuria perhaps.

Looking good by the way 

[PR19_Kit]

Blimey, you painted the bits BEFORE you cut them off the sprues! I've never seen that done before...... 

[rickshaw]

Lance Hancock?  He wouldn't have a daughter by the name of Gina, by chance?

[comrade harps]

Blimey, you painted the bits BEFORE you cut them off the sprues! I've never seen that done before......

I use a brush and usually paint on a first coat on the sprue. Then I assemble and do a second coat. I usually do that except where the camo is too complex to line everything up.

I've done the second coat, put on the undercarriage (the weight got stuck at the rear of the fuselage and for a few minutes it was a tail sitter before I shaked it forward). The paint needs a few touch-ups and then I'm up to canopy stage and after that the decals.

Lance Hancock?  He wouldn't have a daughter by the name of Gina, by chance?

Tina, maybe.

[comrade harps]

Gloster Meteor F.3
107 Squadron RAAF, Pohang, southern Korea, 23 May, 1946~
Personal mount of Flight Lieutenant Lance Hancook

By early 1944 it was apparent to the Australian Government that if an invasion of Japan would be necessary, that the Americans saw no combat role in it for Australia. Since this would be seen as a hit to national pride, the Australians looked for ways to be included. With this in mind, the RAAF looked at making an early purchase of jets. Following the Separate Peace of August 1944 and the growing British commitment to the invasion plans, the Australians also quickly aligned their would-be invasion forces with the Commonwealth forces being prepared for the task.

107 Squadron RAAF had operated Kittyhawks and Mustangs in the Mediterranean Theatre since 1943 and returned to Australia in late 1944 to re-equip. Their new mount was the Gloster Meteor F.3, which they took to Pohang in January 1946. With the H-Day invasion of Honshu on 1 March 1946, 107 Sqdn was heavily involved in providing fleet and beach head air defence. With the decline in enemy air activity, they were released to mount armed reconnaissance missions from the end of April until VJ-Day, 23 May, 1946.

On the understanding that friendly fire was going to be more dangerous than the enemy, the Australian jets were by order brightly coloured and highly decorated. Their visibility was enhanced by the addition of invasion stripes on the eve H-Day.



Lance Hancook was from Western Australia. His parents owned a cattle station in the Kimberley Region and had a major share in the Wittenoom blue asbestos mine; his brother also ran the only car dealership in Broome. He joined 107 Sqdn in early 1944 and was soon recognised as a good wingman. He was the wingman of Leonard Percival, the next Squadron Leader of 107 and future Vice Air Chief Marshall. In his memoirs, Percival described Hancook as a "solid, loyal and dependable wingman"; however, a draft manuscript held at the National Library of Australia reveals an earlier wording: "... Hancook was a predictable and unimaginative wingman - I always knew where ion the sky he would be." Whichever the case, Hancook was posted to 107 Sqdn as it converted to jets on the recommendation of Percival, who again selected him to be his wingman.



Flying beside his Squadron Leader, Hancook earned 11.5 confirmed victories during the hectic first fortnight of the invasion, ranging from the slow Nakajima Ki.115 Tsurugi to the fast Kawanishi Baika kamikaze jet. The half-kill was a slippery Yokosuka P1Y Ginga "Frances" shared with Percival.



Demobilised post-war, Hancook returned the Western Australia and the family businesses. He took control of the family's interest in the Wittenoon blue asbestos mine following his father's death in 1947 but was soon in dispute with the mine's corporate backers and sold his interest in 1949. It was whilst flying between the family cattle station and Perth that Hancook found a way back into mining. His story of events is that rain forced him to fly low low through the Turner River gorge and it was there that he realised the iron ore potential of the area. Unofficial biographer Kealy Kelly disputes this, noting that no rain was forecast or recorded in the vicinity of the Turner River on the month in question. Hancook subsequently staked out huge claims in the region and by the mid 1950s was establishing what would be the world's richest iron ore mine.

Hancook campaigned for small government, called environmentalists traitors, promoted the succession of Wetern Australia and at one point said that Aborigines should be poisoned. It was ironic then that most of his children came from extra-marital relations with Aboriginal women, although it was his only child within wedlock, Tina, who inherited both his business and the bulk of his personal assets. His third wife, the erstwhile Pilipino maid Rose de Rossi, raised eyebrows and much gossip, but not just because of her out-going personality and the fact that they married less than a year after the death of Hancook's second wife. When Lance died seven years into the marriage, Tina accused her step-mother of being a gold-digger, of nearly bankrupting her father and of nagging him to death. Tina's own management of the family fortune has recently been called into question through a series of legal disputes with her own children over inheritance and family trust fund entitlements.



Unofficial Hancook biographer Kealy Kelly has pointed out the significance of this aircraft's name. According to Kelly, "Hancook had a preference for women with big bottoms... something that Tina appears to have inherited from her mother". Kelly also notes that Hancook's fist combat plane, a Mustang Mk.III, was called Drive The Big Bus.

[NARSES2]

really nice build mate, good backstory as well 

Especially love the candy stripes combined with the white leading edges 

[PR19_Kit]

Nice one. 

I can't help feeling there's more to that backstory than meets a non-Australian's eye though........ 

[rickshaw]

The back story is spot on.  Old Lance was a bit of a bugger and Tina has inherited much of her personality from him it seems.  

Lovely model.  Love the invasion stripes.  

[comrade harps]

I can't help feeling there's more to that backstory than meets a non-Australian's eye though........   

I suggest plugging the name Lang Hancock into Google.

I'm really trying to give the back stories for these Aussierama builds an unmistakably Australian flavour, mixing fact and fiction and real and imagined people into them.

I'm happy that people are liking it.

[PR19_Kit]

I can't help feeling there's more to that backstory than meets a non-Australian's eye though........   

I suggest plugging the name Lang Hancock into Google.

Ahah! 

Only the names have been changed to protect the 'innocent' of course. 

[manytanks]

well done mate