Menangle Open Day CANCELLED > No water

3 January 2018 Michael Brown 0

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When:

20 May 2018 @ 08:30 – 15:00

2018-05-20T08:30:00+10:00

2018-05-20T15:00:00+10:00

Where:

Campbelltown Steam Museum
86 Menangle Rd
Menangle Park NSW 2563
Australia

FB Greater Sydney

Task Force 72 added 7 new photos.

11 hours ago

Big ships excite the interest of both the model builder and the onlooker, and few models are as awe-inspiring than one of a battleship in 1:72 scale.

A wide range of battleship models have been started or completed by members, ranging from HMS Hood and KMS Bismark, HIJMS Yamato and USS Missouri, to less well known ships such as USS Arizona and HMS Malaya.

Task Force 72 member Robert of Fleet Base Gulf Waters has chosen a very different subject for the battleship he is building. The inter-war battleship HMS Rodney.

HMS Rodney was one of two Nelson-class battleships built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1920s. The ship was named after Admiral Lord Rodney. The Nelsons were unique in British battleship construction, being the only ships to carry a main armament of 16-inch (406 mm) guns, and the only ones to carry all the main armament forward of the superstructure.

As her superstructure was located aft of midships like RN fleet oilers whose names carried the ...'ol' suffix, she was sometimes derisively referred to as "Rodnol" and her sister "Nelsol".

Commissioned in 1927, Rodney served extensively in the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean during the Second World War.

Rodney played a major role in the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck in May 1941. During and after Operation Torch and the Normandy landings, Rodney participated in several coastal bombardments.

In poor condition from extremely heavy use and lack of refits, she was scrapped in 1948. ...

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Task Force 72 added 10 new photos.

1 day ago

The Balikpapan class was a ship class of eight heavy landing craft (officially Landing Craft, Heavy or LCH) ordered for the Australian Army and operated by the Royal Australian Navy. 🇦🇺️

All eight were originally laid down by Walkers Limited for the Australian Army in the early 1970s however a reorganisation of watercraft responsibilities in the Australian military meant the landing craft were to be operated by the Royal Australian Navy, with seven commissioned directly into RAN service during 1973 and 1974, and lead ship Balikpapan transferred from the army to the navy.

During the leadup to the independence of Papua New Guinea in 1975, two of the vessels (Salamaua and Buna) were transferred to the new Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF). 🇵🇬️

During their careers, the Australian vessels have operated in support of Operation Navy Help Darwin in 1974–75, Operation Bel Isi from 1997 to 2003, INTERFET (International Force East Timor) operations in 1999 and 2000, and the Regional Assisitance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) operations from 2003.

The six remaining RAN vessels were paid off in the 2010s: Balikpapan, Betano, and Wewak in 2012; Brunei, Labuan, and Tarakan in 2014. They are yet to be replaced in RAN service.

The two PNGDF vessels remain active and in 2014, the former HMAS Labuan was transferred to Papua New Guinea as the training ship Lakekamu. HMA Ships Brunei and Tarakan were refitted and donated to the Philippine Navy in 2015, commissioning as Ivatan and Batak. 🇵🇭️

Three additional units of the class - decommissioned units former HMAS Balikpapan, HMAS Wewak and HMAS Betano - were loaded on a transport ship in March 2016 for transport to the Philippine Navy and are now in service.️

The LCH were never fast vessels but were remarkably versatile, carrying out a vast range of activities in Australian waters and throughout the South Pacific region. A number of these vessels, often jokingly referred to as 'shoeboxes' in the RAN, have been modeled by Task Force 72 members as can be seen here. ...

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Task Force 72 shared Eyes of the Fleet's post.

2 days ago

While we are extremely proud of the 1:72 scale models we build, and that they are all in the same scale, that doesn't mean that we don't appreciate models in other scales.

in fact many of our members build in a range of other scales, notably 1:24 amongst others.

We also appreciate the wonderful work of others, which is why we will occaisionally feature work of other builders in other scales.

This superb builders model is of the Royal Navy's Second World War era King George V-class battleship HMS Howe.

Builders models were usually built by the shipyard joiners or professional model makers that constructed the actual vessel and were either kept by the shipyard as display pieces to document their yard's work or were alternatively obtained by the new ship's owner to display in their office.

These images were first displayed on the facebook page Eyes of the Fleet, a page well worth a look.HMS HOWE Builders model....un known scale but BIG !! ...

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Task Force 72 updated their cover photo.

4 days ago

The container ship Cape York, pictured at a Task Force 72 Annual Regatta in Naracoorte in South Australia ...

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Task Force 72 added 11 new photos.

6 days ago

As mentioned here on the 9th, the members of Task Force 72's Fleet Base Gulf Waters put on a static display for the public in Adelaide, and did they ever come through.

As one member described it... "All up we have 3x Battleships, 1x small Carrier, 2x Nuclear cruisers, 1x Attack sub, 2x DDGs, 2x DDs and a FFG, 1x Russian Corvette, 3x Armidales, 1x LCH, x1 USN Fleet tug, 1x Coastguard cutter, 1x Hospital ship, an Amercian paddle steamer, a Japanese PT boat, a Sunseeker 108 motor yacht, a 1/72 sailing ship and a Circus ship!"

Enjoy some of the models on show. ...

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