Simon

Nice. Hope they print the decals the right way round though...

A final update - all done now, so I've posted a new thread in the 'Ready for Inspection' forum here: Thanks for all the messages during the build everyone, I'm very grateful for everyone's help and encouragement. Cheers Simon

Hello everyone After a long (7 months...!!) and at times surprisingly difficult build (more here), my Airfix Lancaster II is now done and dusted, and R.F.I. As I mentioned at the start of the W.i.P. I've build it as LL716 A2-G of 514 Squadron, which was lost on a mission to Bois de Casson on August 3rd 1944 after being struck by bombs from another bomber. The crew would all survive, with six of the eight members becoming P.o.W.s, and the other two including the pilot, F/O John Backhouse Topham, would successfully evade capture. His story has a fair bit of derring-do about it, including being hidden in a grave in a back garden while the S.S. searched for him. He eventually shot dead an S.S. officer, who ended up in the grave himself. F/O Topham would be awarded the D.F.C. Born in 1916 in Northumberland, he was police constable before the war, and returned to the police after his wartime service in the R.A.F. He died in a road traffic accident in Newastle-upon-Tyne on July 18th 1975. I did a load on internal work on the Lancaster, which you can see in the W.i.P. thread, and the base I printed myself. The vehicles are all Airfix - the Bedford MW's and the B.S.A. from the Bomber Resupply set, and the QLD truck from their Bedford QL set. Figures are from a variety of sources, mostly Royal Navy figures from Gunthwaite Miniatures. I'd also done a civilianised Austin 8 Tourer from Ace, but preferred the bike, so I'll save that for another day. Anyway, on to the photos, and some overall views: And some photos of the various elements: Airfix QLD truck: Airfix Bedford MLD water bowser, with the canvas top replaced with a frame, and the windows opened: Airfix B.S.A. M20, civilianised, with rider and interested party: Anf finally another Bedford MW, this time ocnverted into a Y.M.C.A. tea van: Overall it's been an enjoyable, if lengthy build. Not sure that the Airfix Lancaster is the easiest thing in the world to build, which surprised me a little, but it all went together eventually, and I'm pretty happy with the result. Cheers Simon

Just a quick update for today. The figures have arrived,s o i've been busy getting them painted up. These are mostly from Gunthwaite Miniatures - the R.A.F. officers are actually R.N. officers but don't tell anyone...! I'm also working on a couple more vehicles, including a companion for the Austin. This is the B.S.A. M20 from Airfix's Bomber Command Resupply Set, 'civilianised' as a 1939 model: As well as a civvy paint scheme, I've added the rear number plate braket and tail light. I particularly liked the figure who's bending down, from the Gunthwaite set GM72-026, so thought he could be taking a look at the bike: I'm busy with a couple more vehicles, so will post another update when they're done. Cheers Simon

Thanks for the photos VMA. I had an idea that was what it was, but couldn't find a photo. And thanks for the kind words everyone. Much appreciated! Regards Simon

Well, I'm back with another update. Once again, apologies for the long delay in progress reports, but that's mostly because there hasn't been any for a while...! So, on with the update. Turrets are all now done, with some nice Quickboost gun barrels added, and they are all installed. Front turret: Mid-upper: and tail turret: Note the 'Monica' aerial. This was a right royal pain the the proverbials, but looks the part. Here it is before fitting: I've also done a crew ladder for the rear door. Not much sense in having it open if no one can get in or out! That's the Lancaster pretty much done and dusted. Now I need to put it in a setting, so I've made a base like the one I did for my Italeri Stirling, and started on some extras to add some interest. First up is a conversion of the Bedford MWD from the Airfix Bomber Resupply Set, as a tea van. I've done one of these previously, based on the Airfix Austin K2, so knew pretty much what to do: I've also done a 'civvy' version of Ace's 1/72 Austin Tourer, which is now an R.A.F. pilot's little runaround: I've got some figures ready for painting, but some more are on the way, so more news when they arrive... Cheers Simon

Odd, isn't it? I've re-linked three picture-heavy threads on here with links from Flickr replacing the PB ones, and they do seem to be of higher quality - even thought they're exactly the same images on my hard drive. Maybe PB samples them down more the Flickr...? Hope to have some more updates soon. And not just pictures of the Lancaster... Simon

Hello again Apologies for the lack of progress on the build, but I'm not able to get any time on the workbench for various reasons at the moment. However I've just been reading about the upcoming PhotoBucket apocalypse, so I've found alittle time to re-link the images throughout the thread via Flickr - hopefully this will work okay...! Cheers Simon

Registered F-WLEG, formerly W/Nr. 16310061 and Air Ministry 203 - photo here: http://www.panzerfux.de/panzerfux_e/prodpic/Flugzeug-Profile-52-Messerschmitt-Me-163-der-erste-Raketenjaeger-UNI-1072_b_1.JPG Text states it was flown without engine in Brittany after being civil registered. Regards Simon

More here: https://www.airfix.com/uk-en/news/workbench/workbench-edition-50/ Regards Simon

There was an R.A.F. Marine Craft unit in Lyme Regis: "In 1937, and with only local boats once again acting as lifeboats, the Royal Air Force Marine Craft Unit came to the town and operated their fast patrol and safety launches from the site of what is now the Marine Centre west of the Cobb on Monmouth Beach. The R.A.F. unit was closed in 1964." Source: http://www.lymeregis.com/lifeboat/ Regards Simon

Another update for today... I've got all the bomb racks installed in the bomb bay, and I test-fitted the bomb load to make sure it would fit okay: That done, time to add some wings and the horizontal taiplanes and make it start to look like an aeroplane, at last. The fit of both wings and tailplanes wasn't 100% perfect, and took a little bit of fettling to get them on. Now they're on, I've done some weathering on the upper surfaces, as R.A.F. Erks seemed to have mucky boots and Lancasters often seemed to have particularly scruffy upper wings where the groundcrew went about their work: So, I think I'm getting there. More soon... Cheers Simon

Another quick update for today... While I was aiting for replacement decals for the problematic FP ones, I thought I'd look up LL716 in some reference books, to see what history it had. Seems it was with 115 Sqn before joining 514 Sqn, which means it would have had the 115 Sqn codes overpainted and replaced the 514 Sqn ones. In for a penny, in for a pound... I masked off the areas where the codes would be, making sure the edges weren't too straight: and overpainted the areas with a more solid, newer-looking coat of black: Meanwhile the Xtradecal codes had arrived, so I set about chopping sections out them to shorten their height. Here the port side on, with a sample of their original size to campare to: You can still see the joins, but a couple of coats of DACO's decal-setting solution should sort them out. Once they've been coated, I'll leave them for a day or so to bed in, and then on to the bomb bay. Meanwhile, it's the Northern Model Show at North Shields tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to getting down there... More soon... Cheers Simon

Yes, I was a little surprised, and more than a little disappointed. However, lesson learnt, and I'm 100% sure that the Xtradecal ones will be prefectly fine once a little 'chopping and changing' to get the right sizes has gone on. Simon

Another day...another issue to get round... I'd had trouble finding fuselage serials that were the right sixe - 514 Squadron used slightly smaller letters than the standard size for their A2-X codes, about 42 inch. So, I found some red 1/48 27" letters on the Fantasy Printshop website which would be ideal. Just applied them, and they're very translucent which, on a black fuselage side, isn't exacly ideal - compare them to the Airfix roundel and Xtradecal serials: Here's one of the letters with a sheet of white paper under part of it, and you can see how translucent they are: I'd assumed they're be underprinted with a white base layer to make them opaque. I dropped FP an e-mail to see if this is how they'd actually been produced, and to their great credit they replied with half an hour, and said they're an old design that wasn't underprinted, to save costs. Bit of a pain, so on to Plan B, which looks to be using slightly over-sized 1/72 48" codes. Cheers Simon EDIT Found an old and very yellowed Modeldecal sheet of 48" x 24" RAF codes in amongst my spare decals, so tried a quick experiment to see if they could be cut down clightly to make shorter letters: I think they'll work fine, and Xtradecal make them now as XD72210, so I've ordered a couple of sheets.