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History
The Alouette III entered service
with the Royal Malaysian Air Force in 1963 and today they are operated by No 3
& 5 Squadrons. The Alouette III was also the first rotary wing craft to be
operated by the RMAF. The Alouettes of the RMAF were utilized alongside the S-61
Sea king or Nuri as it’s know here in Malaysia for communication, medivac,
transportation, forward air control and etc flights within the RMAF. The
Alouettes of the RMAF also flew actual combat missions in FAC and scout roles in
the late sixties and seventies over the jungles of Malaysia to flush out and
neutralize communist bandits. The
Alouette III is still in service with the RMAF and the RMA or the Royal
Malaysian Army today.
The
Model
| This model is made by the Fujimi
company of Japan and it is classified as 1/48 scale. In my opinion I feel that
is a bit smaller then 1/48 scale. The kit is a basic kit and it is out of
production today. As I recall Fujimi had 3 or 4 version of this Alouette mould
and one of them had decals and markings (old) for a Malaysian Alouette as
standard. The version I obtained is the version for the Danish Navy. |
| The kit as
mentioned is quite basic. There is an interior present with 5 seats, control
sticks, and a basic panel. I added two collectives and anti torque pedals to try
and spruce it up a bit. Fit is average but there is a lot of clear plastic which
should join with normal plastic and fit here is not that good. External detail
was good in my opinion and I added a radio antenna on the side of the copter as
Malaysian Alouettes have this. Construction was fairly straight forward and
instructions are easily understood. Model was finished using majority of Revell
& Model Master paints. Model was weathered slightly emphasizing on the tail
rotors and main blades and engine using water based paints. Overall an easy
build with limited problems and shortcomings. National Insignias markings were
custom made by me. The white identification markings are not the actual numbers
belonging to the Alouettes of the RMAF. It is in fact taken from the Malaysian
Air Force section of the FREMS Aermacchi MB 339 A kit. (Thanks Patrick Spitaels
whom so kindly gave me his unused section). I had to make do with this because,
it is hard to print custom decals in white from my current setup and there is no
after market set with RMAF Alouette III decals.
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S.B. (Brian)
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