[roncar]

HMAS Australia was a County class cruiser and the flagship of the RAN from 1928 to 1954. An opportunity to build a representation of HMAS Australia was realised when I found a card model kit for HMS Kent, the leader of the early design of the County Class cruisers. Although the two ships had been modified in some different directions after 1928, the hull design and basic appearance remained the same and some of the modifications followed the same path.
I chose to represent HMAS Australia as it appeared in 1942 serving as part of a US taskforce in the Pacific. I had a couple of good reference photos, and the plain blue US measure 21 colour scheme would show off the ship’s classic profile. Any date later than 1942 would involve extra changes to the superstructure that took the Australia further away from the basic Kent configuration.
The first job was to scan in the Kent parts to rescale them from 1/200 to my chosen scale of 1/250 and recolour them from the Atlantic camouflage scheme to Pacific blue. A spray paint job would have been quicker and easier, but would change the card texture and cover all the printed detail. After many computer hours with a paint shop program I had a Kent model in a 1942 shade of US navy blue ready to assemble.
I discarded the Kent’s shelter deck and moved the AA guns down to the main deck. In 1942, the Australia still carried torpedo tubes, and as these had been removed from the Kent, I copied them from an existing kit for HMAS Sydney. The extra wings for the bridge are scratch built, as were the forward searchlight positions and some workshop areas aft of the aircraft catapult. I also added some AA gun tubs in front of B turret, as they were very visible in 1942 (although they were repositioned in 1943 when the torpedo tubes were removed and the foremast changed to accommodate more advanced radar.)
The result shows that it is possible to kit-bash a card model, just as the plastic modellers do. In some respects it is even easier, because card lends itself to scratch building, so one doesn’t have to rely on some third party supplier to provide extra resin parts.