SPA Modeler

It's a slow start, but I did get my first model done for 2022 fairly early. Even though the decals fought me, I'm pleased with how this turned out.


This is the ancient 1/72 scale FROG kit of the Fokker VIIB-3M "Southern Cross" trimotor. This plane is one of many firsts. To start, in 1928 it was the first plane to fly across the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco to Brisbane, Australia in 83 hours and 38 minutes. It was also the first plane to fly across Australia in 25 hours. She also made the first Australia to New Zealand flight in 23 hours. After that, she was renovated and then on April 12, 1929 she flew from Sydney Australia to England after 12 days and 18 hours, setting another record.After a complete rebuild, she took off from Portmarnock, Ireland to attempt the first East-West flight across the Atlantic. Due to a fuel shortage, she ended up landing in Newfoundland in June 24th. Once she got to the US. she left New York to fly to San Francisco again, becoming the first aircraft to circumnavigate the world.


Today after much use as an airliner, barnstormer, and movie plane profiling the life of Kingsford-Smith; she is now kept in a glass case in Brisbane airport.


Here it is:











Thank you all for looking in, comments are welcome.

Very nice, Mark. It might have been the first civilian plane to do the round trip, but the US Army did it first with the Douglas World Cruisers in 1924. You could always get the Williams Brothers kits, they actually did one release with four kits in the box so you could replicate them all!

1st one done already?! Excellent!

Very nice subject and very nicely done!

Seeing an airplane in "non-typical" colors, like this wonderful blue looks so cool!

- Kari

And the first one is checked off. Great start Mark

That's great work Mark!!

jeaton01 wrote:Very nice, Mark. It might have been the first civilian plane to do the round trip, but the US Army did it first with the Douglas World Cruisers in 1924. You could always get the Williams Brothers kits, they actually did one release with four kits in the box so you could replicate them all!

Thank you John! yes, I actually do have that Williams Brothers kit with all four planes in it. Mine even included a CD inside with a documentary on it profiling the history of that flight. I do want to build them; I was even contemplating having a diorama showing two with wheels and two with floats.

Thank you Carlos! Hopefully a couple more will cross the finish line this month!

Thank you Kari! Yeah, I do like doing something that brightens the shelf!

Thank you Johnny!

Thank you Mike!

Dang you're quick at this stuff Mark. Really like the subject matter and this turned out very well.

Super cool and super fast!! I love the colors of this!

Thank you Joe! It did take a bit longer than I hoped, but mostly because of the decals. Still, I'm thrilled that I got this done.

Thank you Brent! It certainly is an attractive plane!