1964, and Australia is feeling threatened. A tense stand-off with its populous neighbour Indonesia and the likelihood of escalating involvement in Vietnam makes the acquisition of long-range, high-performance strike aircraft a pressing defence need. Although the RAAF has been considering the promising BAC TSR.2 for some time to replace its Canberra fleet, negotiations went cold in 1962, mainly because the UK’s Chief of Defence Staff, Lord Louis Mountbatten, is an ardent critic of the programme.

However, following a sudden illness related to his years in the tropics, Mountbatten is forced to resign and BAC and the RAF use all their combined clout to pressure the highest levels of the UK government to renew attempts to bring Australia on as a partner in the TSR.2 programme. Although in the process of currying favour with the USA by offering open military support for the Vietnam conflict, Australia’s Prime Minister Robert Menzies remains an staunch supporter of the British Empire and is swayed to add his approval to the negotiations. In March 1964 a research and manufacturing agreement is signed between the two nations to complete the construction and flight testing of the TSR.2 prototypes, with longer-term plans for significant Australian involvement in production of 22 combat and two training airframes for the RAAF.

Saved from cancellation, the TSR.2 – now unofficially dubbed the “Phoenix” in light of its last-minute reprieve – completes a very successful flight test programme, confirming it as the most potent low-level strategic strike aircraft in the world. Unfortunately, problems with the Olympus engines and the undercarriage are not sorted out until 1966, but in early 1967 Australia’s Government Aircraft Factories (GAF) begin tooling up for production of certain structural components of the Phoenix (now adopted as the official name). The first BAC/GAF Phoenix, A8-125, is handed over to the RAAF at an official ceremony on 1 December 1967, with several among the top brass thanking their lucky stars they had not opted for the American F-111, now running into enormous and costly development problems.

Entering a relatively new field of high-speed, low-level attack aircraft, the RAAF takes great care to train its aircrews in these demanding mission profiles. No. 1 Squadron is the first to convert from their Canberras, to be followed by 2 Squadron who are currently on a very successful tour of duty in Vietnam. In February 1969 the first 1 Squadron Phoenix arrives at Phan Rang and combat missions begin the following month.

Laden with heavy internal and external loads of conventional ordinance, plus additional fuel, the Phoenixes of No. 1 Squadron soon establish an astounding reputation for pinpoint bombing of high-value strategic targets in North Vietnam. In many instances the aircraft remain undetected and unopposed owing to their ability to approach below radar were and too fast for anti-aircraft guns or SAMs to be successfully employed. Only one Phoenix is lost on operations, A8-133, and this is believed to have been not a result of enemy action but collision with the terrain following a multi-system failure in the navigation computers. Despite this impressive record, the Phoenix fleet did not serve for long in Vietnam; this was partly on account of the limited number call for precision deep-penetration attacks for which the aircraft was best suited, and also due to some embarrassment in Washington over the outstanding results obtained with this non-US aircraft, which led to repercussions in Canberra.

After several upgrades undertaken conjointly with the RAF’s fleet of 100 Phoenixes, the RAAF’s aircraft are finally grounded in the late 1990s owing to fatigue problems associated with the stresses of low-level flying.

Building the Contrail 1:72 vacform TSR.2

This is probably the worst kit I have ever attempted to build. To be fair, I was warned and advised to buy the reputedly excellent Aardvark resin TSR.2, but I wasn’t willing to hand over in excess of A$100 in order to satisfy my whim of modelling an RAAF TSR.2. I found a kit via HyperScale’s trading pages, and when it arrived I realised all the warnings were, if anything, understated. Even by the standards of the day, the vacform mouldings were sloppy and ill-defined, the ‘panel lines’ were wide, blurry marks on the major components, the canopy was discoloured and translucent at best, and to top it off, the Aeroclub undercarriage and ejection seat set which was once available for this kit was no longer available. (I believe there is a second, revised issue of this kit which includes a useable canopy plus the white metal parts, which may go some of the way to redeeming this model.)

On the bright side, I did have an excellent set of 1:72 plans from Scale Models International, February 1985, plus a range of good reference shots obtained from my library, the web, and friends who had photographed the essentially intact prototype at the RAF museum in Duxford. Consultation with the plans showed that the fuselage of the kit was too wide, the nose profile was wrong and the panel lines were often incorrectly placed. In addition, the kit engine intakes were a completely fictitious shape and were basically abandoned. Rather than go into ponderous detail for a kit I hope nobody else is silly enough to attempt building, I will summarise the main points of construction:

• filled and sanded all panel lines on the fuselage components, then cut off and repositioned nosecone and rescribed all parts according to the SMI plans
• created cockpits using relevant-era ejection seats and plastic rod and strip
• boxed in and detailed undercarriage bays
• made a master shape in balsa and created a new canopy via plug-moulding of clear acetate sheet
• discarded the kit parts and created the mainplanes, tailplanes and vertical tail from plastic card, cut according to the SMI plans and sanded to aerofoil shape; all panel lines were scribed and actuator ‘bumps’ made from layers of Gunze Mr Surfacer sanded to shape
• used Bic biro lids as the jetpipe replacements
• cut up a spare 1:32 P-47 drop tank to create correctly-shaped intakes and used lots of filler to fair these in to the fuselage sides
• undercarriage created from rod, strip and the spares box
• weapons pylons sanded out of plastic card and attached to modified A-5 drop tanks and spares box raided for a pair of MERs and 12 Mk. 82 bombs.
  

Lots of fun, as you can imagine! However, I persevered with the project mainly out of bloody-mindedness and the knowledge that this was all improving my modelling skills. When construction was basically complete, I noticed that the forward fuselage had a decided twist in it when viewed from head on; I corrected what I could with judicious sanding, but eventually decided to live with it – I had to make so many of these compromises along the way that I couldn’t stop now.

I reasoned that like the F-111s that were delivered in USAF SEA camouflage, RAAF TSR.2s would have been delivered in an RAF scheme. The model was thus painted with Gunze acrylics in RAF colours of the era – dark green and dark sea grey (which differs noticeably from the extra dark sea grey used on Vietnam-era RAAF Canberras). I then chose roundels from the spares box and a stray Aussie Decals F-111 set to add various serials, stencils and the walkway lines on the upper wings and fuselage – I felt that the latter added some nice visual interest to otherwise bare upper wing surface. Finally, another spare decal allowed me to create a red lightning flash as used by No. 2 Squadron, and the model was complete. Sadly, all my hours of rescribing were in vain as the marks were too shallow and basically disappeared under the paint and varnish. Chalk up another one to experience!

In conclusion, I can’t say I’m proud of the construction and finish of this model, which is very sub-standard despite my best efforts. However, I learned a lot while trying to correct the woefully basic kit, and I’ve really enjoyed being one of the few (but definitely not the only) modellers to have a RAAF TSR.2 on the shelf. I’d like to close by thanking fellow modellers Gary Marshall, Nigel Bunker and Simon Woolf for their inspiration, support and reference material that were all so essential to bringing this project to completion.