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Airfix 1/72 Lancaster II LL716 A2-G, 514 Sqn


Simon

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Hello everyone

 

So, my New Year Resolution is to get some model building done, so I'm starting with the recent Airifx Lancaster Mk.II. I'll be doing it as LL716, A2-G, of 514 Squadron, which was lost on August 3rd 1944 on a raid to Bois de Casson. The Lancaster was hit from above by bombs from another aircraft, and crash-landed nera Beaumont, in the Oise region. 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.

 

It will be hopefully 'O.O.B.' with some Eduard gubbins for the cockpit, and little bit of scratch building to liven up the cockpit area and the turrets.

 

So, first impressions of the kit. Looks nice, very detailed, but with a few small quibbles. Firstly, part C32 (the bomb sight and its mounting frame) was damaged, with the bomb sight itself missing. Not to worry, as I'm sure Airfix will replace it. I've also got a bit of sinkage on the starboard upper wing, part A8:

 

Lancaster-II-07

 

as well a couple of strange round sink marks on the starboard lower wing:

 

Lancaster-II-06

 

As you can see, they mirror the position of the landing lights on the port wing, so perhaps they were put in the wrong place originally? One more thing - the escape hatches on the fuselage top:

 

Lancaster-II-08

 

Shouldn't they have round windows in them? And be a bit more flush with the fuselage?

 

Anyway, onwards and upwards - I'll crack on and post some progress photos soon...

 

Regards

 

Simon

 

Edited by Simon
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1 hour ago, Simon said:

 

Lancaster-II-08.jpg

 

Shouldn't they have round windows in them? And be a bit more flush with the fuselage?

 

Anyway, onwards and upwards - I'll crack on and post some progress photos soon...

 

Regards

 

Simon

 

 

Yes - there should be round windows in there. But at least the escape hatches are in the correct position, unlike the Revell kit.

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6 minutes ago, elger said:

 

Yes - there should be round windows in there. But at least the escape hatches are in the correct position, unlike the Revell kit.

Ouch, are you saying that the circular area should be clear?  If so, I'll have to drill them out on my two Airfix Lanc builds on the shelf!

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The B.II has always been my personal favourite of the Lancaster types and F/O Topham sounds quite a character so I'll be following your progress :) 

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You can't see much through those hatch windows so I just scribed, masked and sprayed the rectangular hatch gloss black then used a round mask for the window whilst cracked on with the rest of the painting. You can't tell the difference.

 

look forwards to your progress :)

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So, first progress report.

 

I've started with the cockpit, adding some Eduard photo-etch to the side walls, as well as some bits of piping and cabling to add a bit of interest:

 

Lancaster-II-11

 

Lancaster-II-13

 

For the pilot's seat, I've added the trim wheel and what I believe is a lock (the red bit), as well as the pockets down by the side of his seat. I'm waiting for some seatbelts arriving hopefully soon to add to the pilot's seat.

 

(Edit - just noticed those two round moulding marks in the floor - I never noticed them while I was doing the work :doh:)

 

Lancaster-II-14

 

Meanwhile, moving further back into the Navigator's position, I'm going to add the map from the decal sheet, as well as a pantograph:

 

Lancaster-II-10

 

There are some more bits to add to this area, including the Navigator's lamp and various odds and ends.

 

One other thing done so far is to remove the two mainwheel bay sections from the ends of the two spars, as mentioned on other builds on here, to make life easier. Not sure why Airfix made the construction so complicated:

 

Lancaster-II-05

 

More soon...

 

Regards

 

Simon

Edited by Simon
typo
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Pantograph? Oh COME ON! And is that an ashtray?

Simon that's looking great and you're definitely raising the bar on 1/72 interiors - great stuff :) 

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I think it's all well and good the some folks are adding maps to navigator tables, but is this historically accurate? I'm pretty sure that any Nav who left a map in their aircraft would be in for a severe talking to by their commanding officer. Wartime security and all that.

 

 

Chris

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No I guess it's not correct, but a nice touch to get an empty table busy. So it's ok for me. I think they got the maps only just before the start after their last target briefing. So, if you pose it just before the start, it could be correct. Cheers

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18 minutes ago, dogsbody said:

I think it's all well and good the some folks are adding maps to navigator tables, but is this historically accurate? I'm pretty sure that any Nav who left a map in their aircraft would be in for a severe talking to by their commanding officer. Wartime security and all that.

 

 

Chris

 

No, you're of course right, it's probably not correct. I might put something else there in its place - a manual or two maybe.

 

And no, CedB, it's not an ashtray, it's sometjhing I saw in a couple of photos of R.A.F. Navigators at their stations - a compass maybe? Mine's a bit too big, scale-wise:

 

bfm04.jpg

 

 

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By all means add your maps. I think it looks good. To be able to see inside a scale model and recognize a map on a table is most interesting. Besides some old anal-retentive like me, who else would know if it's historically accurate or not?

 

 

Chris

 

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28 minutes ago, dogsbody said:

By all means add your maps. I think it looks good. To be able to see inside a scale model and recognize a map on a table is most interesting. Besides some old anal-retentive like me, who else would know if it's historically accurate or not?

 

 

Chris

 

 

I have a cunning plan...

 

Simon

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Nice start and good detailing, and useful tip about removing the mainwheel bay sections from the ends of the two spars. May have to do that on mine. Like the map light too. As for the debate about leaving maps on navigator tables, I'm sure the airman in question would have had a man's vegetables telling off by their commanding officer in respect of security. So unlikely to be historically accurate. However, we all take some artistic licence with our builds, and I think it's a nice touch. I intend to use the map decal on my build. The only issue I have with it is that it appears a little too colourful. Hell I'm going a step further and printing some more off for the map holders. Hey may as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb. :D

 

Anyroad if you feel a little adventurous here are the links that were kindly posted on my thread.

 

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/online-exhibitions/617-squadron-and-the-dams-raid/target-map-and-photo-of-the-eder-dam.aspx

 

https://goo.gl/images/pMMwEM

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Hello again everyone

 

Just a quick update to show a little more progress. I had a think about the maps being on the Navigator's table. I thought, it's going to be on the ground at the home airfield, so what if an erk or two were busy in the fuselage somewhere, and had left a couple of items lying around on the table while they was busy elsewehere in the aircraft? Here's a copy of the Bury Free Press (as in Bury St Edmiunds, not Bury, Lancashire), and Picture Post, from July 1944:

 

Lancaster-II-17

 

I've also made a couple of fire extinguishers, and the baskets that hold the emergency oxygen bottles that were placed around the aircraft:

 

Lancaster-II-19

 

Here's the fire extinguisher and table lamp in place:

 

Lancaster-II-15

 

Meanwhile I've been busy with the Pilot's and the Navigator's seats. The kit's seat for the Navigator looks awfully small - it's 5mm wide, which at 1/72 is about 14 inches. So I've mad a slightly larger one, more in keeping with the size of the pilot's seat:

 

Lancaster-II-18

 

Lancaster-II-20

 

Here's the two seats with the Eduard belts attached:

 

Lancaster-II-21

 

More soon...

 

Regards

 

Simon

 

Edited by Simon
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