NZR RM30 Railcar 'Aotea'

The second locomotive.


I don't normally like diesel locomotives, but the colouring and three-quarter aspect appealed to me. I'm especially pleased with the way the light reflects off the sloping front panel and windscreen.

The drawing is based on a photograph I took of NZR Class 'Rm' No 30 diesel Railcar (Standard Type), 'Aotea'. Built by NZR (Hutt workshops), RM30 entered service in July 1938 and was withdrawn in December 1972 after running 1,363,684 miles. It is now based at the Silverstream Railway, Lower Hutt, New Zealand.

BR 9F 2-10-0 locomotive

And now for something completely different - the first of a new series featuring locomotives.


I very much enjoyed drawing this. Basically monochromatic with varying shades of warm through cold greys, I concentrated on drawing it bit by bit. It wasn't until I stood back and looked at the finished product that it suddenly became real. It seems to have a life of it's own.

I've always had a liking for steam locomotives. They somehow seem alive. My very early youth was spent in a railway town and I can still hear the haunting sound of an NZR chime whistle echoing around the hills on a cold winter's night.

The BR 9F 2-10-0 was designed to operate fast, heavy freight trains of up to 900 tons over long distances. Here we see 92204 speeding through the English country-side.

Consolidated PBY Catalina PB2B-1

The seventh of my aircraft.


Another aeroplane with a New Zealand connection. I'm not happy with the background - it is supposed to represent a cloud-covered island coastline - so I will rework it at some stage.

The aircraft depicted, RNZAF PB2B-1 Catalina, Code GF-C arrived in Fiji on 04 April 1944. It was declared surplus to requirements in 1951 and broken up at Hobsonville in 1952. Long-range patrols and reconnaissance flights were carried out from Lauthala Bay, Fiji by flying boats of No 3 Operational Training Unit.

Mustang P51D

Number six in a growing series of aircraft.


This was a very difficult aeroplane to draw. I had decided on something with a New Zealand theme, but there wasn't much in the way of source material available, hence the unappealing angle. And of course, the Mustang is a highly polished aluminium beast so there are all sorts of reflections.

This drawing is of a NZ Territorial Air Force P51D Mustang. The black & red checkers denote a Canterbury squadron. NZ ordered 320 P51 Mustangs as a partial replacement of its F4U Corsairs - only 30 were delivered and the war ended before they entered service. One Mustang is on display in the RNZAF Museum and three other privately owned Mustangs are airworthy in the country.

Messerschmitt Bf 109G

The fifth in my aeroplane series. Again, I'm using Polychromos pencils.


A move away from trying to render highly reflective surfaces - a camouflaged Bf109G returns from a sortie. The scan gives the impression that the plane is emerging from a dust cloud or a rain squall, so I might modify the background accordingly.

From the spring of 1943, the Bf 109G saw the appearance of bulges in the cowling when the 7.92 mm MG 17 was replaced with the 13 mm MG 131 machine guns. Erich Hartmann, the World's top scoring fighter ace, claimed 352 victories flying only the Bf 109G

Chance Vought Corsair F4U

The fourth in a series. Another blue aeroplane rendered in pencils.


I'm a fan of the Chance Vought Corsair F4U, probably because my father served in the RNZAF 30SU Servicing Unit (Corsairs), serving on Espirito Santo, Guadalcanal, Bouganville, Green (Nissan) Island & Jacquinot Bay. There were 237 F4U-1s and 127 F4U-1Ds used by the RNZAF during the Second World War.

I'm also rather impressed by the noise of its 2,000 hp 18-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radial engine - just magnificent.

In the drawing, a USAF F4U Corsair does a slow, low level pass. By late 1944, the RNZAF had equipped all 10 Pacific-based fighter squadrons with 424 Corsairs. Only one airworthy example survives: NZ5648/ZK-COR, owned by the Old Stick and Rudder Company at Masterton, NZ.

The Corsair is also the official aircraft of the State of Connecticut, USA - one of my photographs of RNZAF's only surviving Corsair is used on the 'State Symbols of USA' website (here).

Supermarine Seafire

The third aeroplane. Same media.


I spent a lot of time trying to get a glossy depth to the blue aluminium of the fuselage and wings, including reflections of the wing markings in the highly polished metal. I was quite pleased with the light reflecting off the cockpit, the pilot hunched over the controls (almost urging the Seafire on), and the brute power suggested by the twin counter-rotating propellers.

The Seafire was a naval version of the Supermarine Spitfire specially adapted for operation from aircraft carriers. The name Seafire is derived by collapsing the two words Sea Spitfire.

Westland Whirlwind

My second attempt. Again, I have used Polychromos pencils, but this time I thought I would try a monochrome rendering using a number of shades of grey:


The original version had no background (ie, the view of the Kent country-side through the clouds) and I'm not happy with this result as I think it detracts from the Whirlwind.

The Westland Whirlwind was the RAF's first single-seat, twin-engined, cannon-armed fighter. It was one of the fastest aircraft when it flew in the late 1930s, and was much more heavily armed than any other. However, development problems with its Rolls-Royce Peregrine engines delayed the entire project and only a relatively small number were ever built.

Fokker DR.1 Dreidecker

My first art attempt - Faber Castell Polychromos pencils on paper:


A simple, almost naive, attempt to capture the reds & camouflage colourings. The drawing is obviously free hand and I'm not yet comfortable with blending different shades to achieve a worthwhile outcome. Yet, I have sold quite a few copies of this print.

The Fokker DR.1 (Dreidecker) first saw widespread service in the spring of 1918. It was slow with poor directional stability and was prone to upper wing failure. Only 320 were manufactured and no originals survive.

The Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre in Blenheim, NZ, maintains five flyable replica DR.1s.

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