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Dambusters and the Lancaster – Warpaint Special Guideline Publications Few aircraft have the ability to capture the imagination and affection of the public, but the Lancaster surely ranks as one of them. The basic design of the Lancaster evolved from the less than successful Avro Manchester. Although the design of the aircraft was sound, its performance in service was significantly undermined by its chronically unreliable and underpowered Rolls Royce Vulture engines. Avro's Chief Designer resolved the problem by proposing an improved version with a larger wing and four of the less powerful, but far more reliable, Rolls Royce Merlin engines. Initially designated the Manchester III, the aircraft was renamed the Lancaster and entered service in 1942, the same year that the Manchester was retired from front line service. Once in service, the Lancaster proved to be an excellent aircraft. Its vast bomb bay could accommodate any bomb in the RAF's wartime inventory, right up to the 12,000lb blockbuster. Later in the war the aircraft was adapted to carry a range of special weapons, including the innovative Upkeep mine and the huge 22,000lb Grand Slam bomb, both designed by scientist and engineer Barnes Wallis. The Lancaster's place in history was secured on the night of the 16th/17th May 1943. On this date, a force of 19 Lancasters of the specially formed 617 Squadron attacked a group of four dams in the heart of Germany's Ruhr Valley. The aircraft carried the unique Upkeep mine, popularly referred to as the bouncing bomb. This weapon was the brainchild of Barnes Wallis and was designed specifically for use against these dams. As a result of the raids the Möhne and Edersee dams were breached, causing massive flooding and the loss of electrical power for hundreds of factories in the region. Eight of the participating aircraft failed to return, and of the 133 crew who took part, 53 were lost. It is estimated that around 1,600 individuals were killed on the ground. 34 of the survivors were decorated, with the leader of the raid, Wing Commander Guy Gibson, awarded the Victoria Cross. The Book The book by author Desmond Brennan is in the usual Warpaint format of portrait A4(ish) with a soft card cover utilising a perfect binding to accommodate the genuine total of 62 pages plus content printed on three of the four sides of the glossy covers, including a two-page spread of plans in 1:144, penned by Sam Pearson. Unlike the usual Warpaint issue, this special is broken down loosely into sections that cover various aspects of the raid, events leading up to it, the careers of Gibson, ‘Bomber’ Harris, and Barnes Wallis, plus an analysis of the effects of the raid both in an immediate and longer-lasting sense. The chapters are laid out as follows: Introduction The Concept and Wallis Developing the Weapon The Targets Bomber Command and Harris The AVRO Lancaster 617 Squadron and Gibson The Raid Aftershocks A Selection of Surviving Airframes There are several pages of colour profiles interleaved between the text and photographs, showing the Upkeep Specials, as well as a few others with Grandslam bombs, extended bomb bays, and flush bay doors. Three are even Scampton Station Flight aircraft, the spares/backups following the raid that saw no further use as bouncing bomb carriers after the single Ruhr Valley mission. The pages include a lot of useful photos with informative captions of aircraft on the apron, on the field, in the air, during trials, and photos of the dams in before and after condition, plus some photos of the test dams, some of which were built at 1:50, and the redundant Welsh dam that was sacrificed to prove that the bombs could penetrate that particular type of dam that utilised the same construction method as the targets. Some of the captions have become mixed up of the Wellesley, which used a Geodesic framework in its wings, which was another of Wallis’ designs, although the Wellesley and its Geodesic construction technique have little to do with any aspect of the raid, but does help to establish Wallis as a man of many talents. Some of the photos are suffering a little from digital artifacts, possibly due to the small size of the original, leaving jagged lines, and incidences of jpeg artifacts that obscure detail, and add it where there should be none. Even the cover photo is suffering a little from artifacts and ‘jaggies’, as the stepped lines are called in the trade. It is interesting to see the origins of the Dambusters, from the start of Wallis’ and Gibson’s careers, and the beginning of the Lancaster as the Manchester, although perhaps a little less Manchester text and photos would have left more space of the Lancaster. Harris’s initial disinterest and reluctance to authorise the raid was interesting, but the section seemed a little out of place given the subject matter, although the content was interesting. Conclusion The Dambusters and the Lancaster are a winner when it comes to heroism and impressive engineering of the day, a culmination of huge amounts of work by thousands of people, some of whom probably never knew they were working on something as remarkable as the Dambusters raid. Note: You can buy either the traditional physical version of the book by following the link below, or the digital version if you’re more modern and forward thinking, or have limited storage space. Digital reference is starting to grow on me, as I'm running out of bookshelf space. Recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Finally finished and photographed my Revell Dambuster as "G" flown by Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC, DSO & DFC. This has been on and off for months, but no idea why it has taken so long but mostly an enjoyable build. Only issue was silvering of the wing decals, but I trimmed them down once they had set. Built out of the box and painted using a mix of Revell, humbrol and Tamiya paints. I wish I could have kept the matt black finish for the lower half, but I don't think the decals would have stuck. Ive been waiting for a nice day to photograph it, but when getting it off the shelf I dropped it snapping the rear wheel, hence why its a bit wonky! Thanks for looking. lanc model-2 by matt wellington, on Flickr lanc model by matt wellington, on Flickr lanc model-3 by matt wellington, on Flickr lanc model-4 by matt wellington, on Flickr lanc model-5 by matt wellington, on Flickr lanc model-6 by matt wellington, on Flickr lanc model-7 by matt wellington, on Flickr lanc model-8 by matt wellington, on Flickr lanc model-9 by matt wellington, on Flickr lanc model-10 by matt wellington, on Flickr lanc model-11 by matt wellington, on Flickr lanc model-12 by matt wellington, on Flickr