A HIGH flying modeller from Worlingham struck gold at an international competition last weekend with his model of a German aircraft.Ramon Wilson, who lives in Broadland Close and has been chairman of the Oulton Broad Scale Model Group since 2006, won a gold medal in the 1/48th scale aircraft (detailed) category at the annual Scale Modelworld competition at the International Conference Centre in Telford.

A HIGH flying modeller from Worlingham struck gold at an international competition last weekend with his model of a German aircraft.

Ramon Wilson, who lives in Broadland Close and has been chairman of the Oulton Broad Scale Model Group since 2006, won a gold medal in the 1/48th scale aircraft (detailed) category at the annual Scale Modelworld competition at the International Conference Centre in Telford.

He also won the Jim Howard trophy, which is awarded for the best example of a seaplane across all the categories.

It was the third year that Mr Wilson had entered the competition, which attracts entrants from all over the world. He had been successful at the competition before, winning gold and silver for models of tanks, and this year he also won a bronze medal in the 1/35 scale AFV post WWll (detailed) category.

However it was the first time that he had won a highly coveted aircraft award. “The aircraft award is especially rewarding as this is always strongly contested to a very high standard,” said Mr Wilson, 64. “This was my third attempt, previous ones being totally unsuccessful! The aircraft classes are the heaviest subscribed.”

His winning model was a German World War Two Junkers JU 52 twin engine transport aircraft, which he built from a photograph in a book.

The aircraft had originally been used on the Russian front, but was transferred to the Mediterranean theatre of operations and fitted with floats for use in a maritime environment in May 1944.

The aircraft kept its Russian front whitewashed winter camouflage, which was heavily worn and weathered, and it was this feature that attracted Mr Wilson to the aircraft. “As soon as I saw it I thought 'that's what I want to do,'” said Mr Wilson. “The poor condition of the finish, that in itself was a challenge to replicate. All my aircraft are very realistic and have a weathered finish.”

Mr Wilson first painted the model with aluminium paint and went over it with a dark green camouflage, and then to create a weathered effect he went over the underlying layers with whitewash.

The model was modified from a standard kit, and includes a fully detailed cockpit and extensive detail both inside and out. The floats are a further addition, which again have been considerably modified and detailed, and alone took Mr Wilson two and a half weeks to make.

The whole aircraft took from November last year to April this year to complete.

For further details on the Oulton Broad Scale Model Group telephone Mr Wilson on 01502 714905.