Gully Gu-48 Godwit, Tyabb, December 1952

[zenrat]

Here we go.  Last one completed for 2014.  Another PDRV patrol plane from the secret seaplane bases of the Mornington Archipelago.

Gully Gu-48 Godwit
Gully Gu-48 Godwit 021 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
The Gully Gu-48 Godwit was an all-metal, high wing, twin engine flying boat produced by the People's Democratic Republic of Victoria and used by the military and revenue protection forces of that state as well as being exported to South Australia, Tasmania, the Micronesian Workers Federation and the West Chiltington Popular Front.
Gully Gu-48 Godwit 013 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
The Godwit had a difficult childhood.  Promised the good stuff it saw it's toys dandled in front of it only to be snatched away and given to it's siblings.
Conceived by the Gully Design Bureau towards the end of WW2 as a medium range coastal patrol flying boat it was planned to use contra-rotating propellers and a quad 20mm autocannon mount.  However, the PDRV military deprioritized the mission as the threat of invasion from the West diminished and allocated the props and Berezin B-20s to other aircraft with more fashionable profiles.
The Gu-48 didn't lose all the good stuff as it got to keep it's engines, although that wasn't surprising given that the Edwards JP-04 Propjets and the Godwit were designed concurrently, each dictating the others requirements.  Indeed, every time an installation was cobbled together to use JP-04 power in an existing aircraft it promptly caught fire.
The first prototype with it's six bladed (two sets of three) contraprops was described as spritely with a climb rate and maximum speed equivalent to the frontline piston engine interceptors of the day.  For the initial production machines, with a single set of three paddle blades on the front of each engine the performance figures merely became average.  Medium to low altitude cruising speed remained the same however, even if it did take longer to get there, and given that it's design mission was the patrol of coastal archipelagos this wasn't a bad compromise...

...Unlike that made with the armament.   As designed the Godwit was intended to strafe landing beaches or small craft with four Berezin B-20 20mm autocannons carried in an enclosed, powered turret mounted between the rear fuselage and the flotation hull.  This turret would have been operated by one crewman and would have had an almost 100 degree arc of fire on either side of the aircraft.  To replace this, the overseeing committee* in its wisdom allocated use of the M1939 (61-K) 37mm Anti Aircraft gun.  A gun which not only packed a much lighter punch and a much slower rate of fire but one which was operated manually, required two crewmen to do so and did not physically fit into the space available.  Despite being hampered by dictates that they were not allowed to modify the guns (they were only on loan from The Artillery) The Gully Bureau engineers made the 61-K fit the Gu-48 but it was a compromised fit.  The barrel would not clear the rear flotation brace limiting the arc of fire to the Port side of the aircraft only.  More importantly for the crew, who would be expected to fly 6 hour patrols, was the fact that this limited traverse, combined with restricted space around the gun mount, meant that the Left Hand gunner could only access his seat via a boarding ladder and was thus stuck there outside in the slipstream for the duration of the flight.
Gully Gu-48 Godwit 019 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
After WW2 the Godwit got the intended quad 20mm turret and over the many years it saw service was equipped with everything from a 6' diameter arc light to ultimately a pair of 12.7mm rotary cannons in a powered turret (it never got it's contra-rotating propellers though).  In addition to the guns up to six hardpoints could be fitted under each wing along with torpedo cradles on the ends of the sponsons.
Designed to be radar equipped from the outset many different types and models were fitted over the years seeing Gu-48s sporting all sorts of lumps, bumps, wires, masts and aerials.
Gully Gu-48 Godwit 007 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
The aircraft pictured is from the Patrol Flight of Revenue Protection Squadron #5, Peoples Democratic Republic of Victoria Air Force, Tyabb Naval Air Station December 1952.  Revenue Protection aircraft carried the 61-K right through until they were the last Godwits to be withdrawn from service in 1960, being replaced in the patrol role by the Vought Kookaburra.  Four target marking smudge bombs are carried under the wings and this is one of the aircraft that retained the dated but efficient, if short ranged Hills Mk iv "washing line" search radar.
Gully Gu-48 Godwit 003 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
*A committee is a creature with more than six legs and no brains – Robert A Heinlein

The model.
I won this in a raffle.  Well, I say 'won' but that implies it was a prize...
It's the ex PM models Ta-154 which Airfix boxed up as a Mistel with an FW-190 and it's not a very nice kit.  So I chopped it up, added some styrene sheet and about 1 ½ lb of filler and glued it back together.  It's hard to believe that there is only one kit in there.  The exhausts are the ends of ball point pens and the gun is a Zvezda kit which I think is intended for wargaming.
The pilots are thanks to Sandiego89.
Paint is PDRV Archepelago Camouflage hand brushed in Vallejo acrylics and the decals are a mix of home made and my decal folder.
Gully Gu-48 Godwit 004 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

[zenrat]

Oh, and if anyone was wondering, this is a Godwit.

[Modelling_Mushi]

Whoa! 10/10 for the colour scheme alone, that is pure nuts   

Completely over the top ... superb 

[The Rat]

Bartender, I'll have whatever he's drinking. Superb! 

[PR19_Kit]

That's a HOOT! 

Love the 37 mm stuck out the back there, the mind boggles at how the aircraft would respond when it fired a broadside! 

[TallEng]

I find it hard to believe that it started out as a Ta154
and as for the Camouflage, it looks like its just flown through Thomas Magnum's washing line
well done!

Regards
Keith

[NARSES2]

Wonderfull sir 

[Librarian]

Whoa! 10/10 for the colour scheme alone, that is pure nuts   

Completely over the top ... superb 

Couldn't have put it better. Reminds me of Lister's sandwich in Red Dwarf...ingredients, wrong but put them together .

[ericr]

beautiful

[Weaver]

That's excellent. The paint job certainly breaks up it's outline...

It looks like something the pirates from Porco Rosso would be flying 20 years later.

[rickshaw]

You're right, it is hard to believe that started as a Ta154!  My goodness, that would have taken a lot of carving to arrive at that shape!  Are you sure you didn't start with a lump of balsa?   Excellent work there!   

[zenrat]

Thanks folks.
The colours in Archipelago camouflage were carefully selected by PDRV scientists following a drive down to Mount Martha beach on a sunny day when they observed the way the deep water was dark blue but became aqua as it got shallower over the yellow sand.  Between the shallow water and the sand was white surf and beyond the beach green foliage.  Painted this way the aircraft will vanish as they fly over the Mornington Archipelago.

Originally it was going to be a single float sea plane.  The float is scratchbuilt from styrene sheet and milliput.

But then somewhere along the way I decided to make it a flying boat and filled in the gaps betwixt fuselage and hull with more sheet and putty.

[Tophe]

The float version was wonderful also...

[PR19_Kit]

Imagineering at its best. 

[Captain Canada]

Oh my. That's like the perfect whif. Love the colour and scheme. Also a big fan of the gunners position ! And that nose....perfect.