Post Mission Reports

1805 – CMSS Expo Event Report

16 September 2018 Craig Taylor 0

Event Sitrep No. 1805 – TF72 Canberra Model Shipwrights Society Expo Report Date of Event: 15th and 16th September 2018 Location of Event: Mount […]

Fleet Base Perth 1806 – TF72 July Mission Report

15 July 2018 Craig Taylor 0

Mission Sitrep No. FBP-1806 July Mission Report Date of Mission: 15th July 2018 Location of Mission: Jackadder lake Reserve, Woodlands, WA Weather: The day started […]

1804 – Steam Museum Military Vehicles Day Event Report

15 July 2018 Craig Taylor 0

Mission Sitrep No: 1803 Event Report Date of Mission: 15th July 2018 Location of Mission: Campbelltown Steam & Machinery Museum Military Vehicles Day, Menangle Rd, […]

1803 – Port Macquarie Hobby Show 2018

9 July 2018 Craig Taylor 0

Event Sitrep No. No. 1803 – Port Macquarie Model Boat Show Date of Event: 7th and 8th July 2018 Location of Event: Panthers Club, […]

Fleet Base Hunter Central 1802 – TF72 June Mission Report

23 June 2018 Craig Taylor 0

Date of Mission: 23 June 2018 Location of Mission: Australian Motor Homes Tourist Park, 12 Mile Creek, North of Newcastle. Weather: Clear Sky, calm […]

1802 – St George Model Boat Club Annual Regatta Event Report

17 June 2018 Craig Taylor 0

Mission Sitrep No: 1802 Event Report – St George Model Boat Club Annual Regatta Date of Mission: 17th June 2018 Location of Mission: Scarborough Park, […]

Fleet Base Wagga Wagga 1801 – Carriers and Escorts Regatta 2018

11 June 2018 Craig Taylor 0

Mission Sitrep No. FBWW-1801 Carriers & Escorts Mission Report. Date of Mission: 9th and 10th June 2018. Location of Mission: Oasis Regional Aquatic Centre, Wagga […]

Fleet Base Perth 1805 – TF72 June Mission Report

4 June 2018 Craig Taylor 0

Mission Sitrep No: FBP-1805 June Mission Report Date of Mission: 4th June 2018 Location of Mission: Jackadder lake Reserve, Woodlands, WA Weather: The weather gods were shining on us […]

1801 – Fleet Base Perth WASMEX modelling exhibition

29 April 2018 Craig Taylor 0

Event Sitrep – 1801 WASMEX modelling exhibition Date of Event – Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th April Venue – Cannington Exhibition Hall – Cannington Ships in […]

Fleet Base Perth 1804 – TF72 February Mission Report

18 February 2018 Craig Taylor 0

Mission Sitrep No. FBP-1804 February Mission Report Date of Mission: 18th February 2018 Location of Mission: Jackadder lake Reserve, Woodlands, WA Weather: The day started […]

Task Force 72 shared a group.

1 day ago

Task Force 72 has an active roster of Fleet Bases around Australia, including the ACT, Victoria, SA and WA, on top of Fleet Bases in Sydney, Wagga and the Hunter.

Fleet Base Gulf Waters in South Australia is particularly active, not only sailing and in static displays, but online as well.

They recently held a running day and plenty of images and videos areup on their Facebook age at Model Boats Adelaide.

www.facebook.com/groups/562771913887709/

Fleet Base Gulf Waters will be hosting the Task Force 72 2018 Annual Regatta at the town of Naracoorte in South Australia,
approximately 336 kilometres south-east of Adelaide and 100 kilometres north of Mount Gambier on the Riddoch Highway.

The Regatta will be held over the weekend of Sat 24th & Sun 25th November 2018, and we'd love to have visitors. ...

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Task Force 72 added 8 new photos.

2 days ago

Post WW2 the Royal Australian Navy sought to update it's destroyer force.

The Navy had lost a number of older destroyers during the war to enemy action, and the remaining destoyers were either pre-war or wartime designs unsuitable for modern warfare (the Tribal, N and Q classes)

While some passing consideration was given to acquiring Sumner or Gearing class destroyers from the United States, the still strong ties with the Royal Navy saw a UK design chosen, the Daring class, of which eight were being buiilt for the RN.

Three ships, Vampire, Vendetta and Voyager were built in Australia, commissiing in the period 1957-59. A fourth was proposed but not funded or built. All three have proven popular with the members of Task Force 72.

One ship of the class was lost. On the night of 10 February 1964, Voyager crossed the bows of the aircraft carrier Melbourne and was rammed and sunk with the loss of 81 RAN personnel and one civilian contractor.

To make up for the loss the Royal Navy Daring HMS Duchess was loaned to the RAN as a replacement for four years while replacements (two modified River class destroyer escorts) were constructed, but was then sold to the RAN, commissiong as HMAS Duchess.

The RAN ships were modernised in the early 1970s at a cost of A$20 million, although modifications to Duchess were fewer than to her sister ships. Duchess and Vendetta remained in commission until the late 1970s, and Vampire was retained until 1986 as a training ship.

The Australian Darings were replaced with the Perth-class destroyers, an American-built derivative of the Charles F. Adams-class guided missile destroyer.

Vampire and Vendetta were involved in the Indonesian Confrontation. Vendetta also operated during the Vietnam War, the only Daring class deployment to that war zone.

After decommissioning, Vampire became a museum ship at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney, the only Daring class destroyer to be preserved, as none of the RN vessels survived the scrapyard.

The ships were renowned for their firepower, with the automatic ramming of shells allowing a burst rate of 18 rounds per barrel per minute for short durations, a Daring could fire 108 rounds per minute at a target. A more sustained rate of 12 rounds per minute per barrel (72 rpm) could be carried out until the ship ran out of ammunition. ...

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Task Force 72 added 14 new photos.

3 days ago

Battleships exert a fascination not only for modelers but the members of the public, including many who could not otherwise identify the difference between a guided missile cruiser and a WW2 destroyer.

Names like Bismark, Missouri, Yamato and Hood seem to transcend the decades and continue to have a resonance even today.

While they are fascinating subjects to research and build, their sheer size in 1:72 scale means thay are not every modelers choice.

A typical WW2 battleship in 1:72 could be three or four metres long, weigh 10 or 15 kilos out of water and in the water may need an additional 20+ kilos of ballast to get down to the waterline. Not a project for everyone.

When undertaken however they dominate the anchorage and attract attention like little else. Only operating submarines seem to attract as much attention from members of the public.

We present here a small number of Task Force 72 battleships in various stages of build. ...

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Task Force 72 added 11 new photos.

5 days ago

HMAS Moresby, named for the explorer Captain John Moresby, was a hydrographic survey ship of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Serving in the RAN from 1964 to 1997.

Moresby was launched at the State Dockyard, Newcastle on 7 September 1963 by the wife of Rear Admiral Gatacre, the Flag Office In Charge, East Australia Area. She was commissioned into the RAN on 6 March 1964 and was the only ship of her class to be constructed.

Part of the 'White Navy' of RAN survey vessels, she replaced a number af ad hoc survey ships, mostly converted warships, as the RAN's first purpose-built hydrographic vessel.

Moresby carried several survey craft on davits and was equipped with a flight deck and hangar for a small utility helicopter. Her armament consisted of two 40mm bofors cannon.

Throughout her career in the RAN, Moresby sailed over 1 million miles, and carried out surveys of Torres Strait, the D'Entrecasteaux Channel in Tasmania, Exmouth Gulf, Wilsons Promontory and the Gulf of Papua.

Paying off in 1997 Moresby was sold into civilian service and modified into a mixed cargo / passenger configuration. Today her role is undertaken by the specialist survey ships HMAS Leeuwin and Melville. ...

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Task Force 72 added 12 new photos.

6 days ago

Task Force 72 isn't just military or civilian ships that have or are serving under various flags.

Members have also buiilt models of vessels that were proposed but never built. An example is this model of the Royal Australian Navy's proposed Light Destroyer or DDL.

The Australian Light Destroyer project aimed to build a class of small destroyers for the Royal Australian Navy. The project began in 1966 with the goal of developing simple light destroyers (DDL) to support patrol boat operations.

In the late 1960s, the RAN was starting to anticipate the retirement of the Battle and Daring class destroyers and their replacement with new ships. The RAN had the Perth class DDGs, with their area SAM capability, and the Destroyer Escorts were expected to be able to handle the submarine threat and defend the carrier Melbourne, but a light destroyer was thought to be needed to undertake patrol duties and ‘show the flag’ work throughout the region.

The idea was a small destroyer that would have proved useful in the Confrontation against Indonesia, enforcing maritime blockades against gun runners, terrorists and insurgents who might attack critical maritime infrastructure. The original plan was for an austere warship armed with a medium gun, the Seacat SAM system, ASW torpedoes and some 40mm guns. While Ikara was considered useful, the watchword was keeping it small and cheap.

There is an old adage that an elephant is a mouse built to Government specifications, and so it was here. New technology was being introduced into Western navies at the time and the RAN felt that some of this technology would be a marvellous improvement to the original design.

Thus the RAN sat down with the UK’s Yarrow Design (YARD) to modify the design to incorporate this new technology. Good ideas like a helicopter or two, an area SAM system, decent electronic fit, Mulloka sonar and other new capabilities.

Pretty soon the ‘light destroyer’ was anything but. The RAN tried to cram in everything they could, but couldn’t quite shoehorn in Ikara as well, though they tried, along with the kitchen sink.

What the RAN ended up with was a 4,500 tonne destroyer capable of 35 knots, some 450 feet long and armed with a 5 inch gun forward, a Mk 13 launcher mounted on top of the twin helicopter hangar, ASW torpedoes, twin light cannon mounts and a comprehensive electronics fit, with a compliment of around 210.

The size and the cost of the DDL kept rising, not helped by the desire to build them in Australia at Williamtown Dockyard. With the election of a new Commonwealth government on a platform of increased social spending, the likelihood of the DDL ever seeing the light of day receded rapidly.

In the end, to no one’s surprise, the DDL was cancelled and the RAN ended up buying into the US Navy’s FFG 7 program, buying four off the US production line and building two more here.

This model of the DDL, named HMAS Kokoda, is armed with a conjectural armament that the ship might have carried in the later stages of her career, with 1 x 5 inch gun forward, a single arm Mk 13 missile launcher, twin Phalanx, ASW torpedo tubes and Nulka missile defence system, plus two helicopters.

In this case the helicopter is one of three A109 helicopters the RAN operated in a pilot training role, one painted white with blue trim (Summer Dress Uniform), the second grey and black (Working Dress) and the third black with gold trim (Winter Dress Uniform). ...

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