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I have one of the older mold Airfix Lancaster kits from the 1990s in my stash and (now effectively grounded at home with my wife who is in an 'at risk' group viz the coronavirus) thought I would see what I could do with this older model (though I am at best a mediocre modeller). Flicking through my Lancaster books and decals I thought I would try an aircraft from one of the less glamorous Heavy Conversion Units or Finishing Schools. But, subject to one exception, I cannot find any photo of a Lancaster from an HCU or a Finishing School which clearly shows both unit codes and serial. The one exception is W4113 (GP-J), a BMkI of 1668 HCU, though as an early Lancaster she has the flatter bomb aimer's clear perspex nose blister which isn't replicated in the kit (this has the more pronounced and bulbous later production blister). I have Harry Holmes book on the Lancaster and this gives me the codes and serials used by a number of HCU aircraft - but no photo and without a photo I can't be sure of the font and position of the codes etc. Can anyone help?

My latest completed kit is the 1980s Airfix 1/72 Lancaster which my dad picked up for me at a car boot sale. She's pretty much built out of the box though I added a bit of detail in the cockpit with plasticard and scribed some extra panel lines on the wings. She goes together really well for a forty year old kit and very little filling or sanding was required so I managed to preserve most of the raised rivets. I decided to model her wheels up - there's not much detail on the undercarriage or wheel wells and I figure it's hard to beat a Lancaster in flight anyway! The stand isn't finished yet, I'll add a proper piece of threaded rod to the wooden base, rather than balancing on the m8 caphead which you'll see in the photos. The stand will screw into a nut glued into the bomb bay doors and the doors are held on the model using two small neodymium magnets at each end of the bomb bay. This allows the Lanc to be easily removed from the stand (without unscrewing anything) and also reveals the bombs. The paints are mostly Tamiya acrylics but I went for the Mr Color version of Dark Earth. The only real problem I had with the kit was trying to use the original decals. I ended up cutting away as much of the yellowed carrier film as possible and had to "glue" some of them on with Future, they also reacted oddly to the decal softener (with and without Future) so aren't settled down particularly well. One good decision I made was to mask and spray the thin black and red lines on the top and bottom of the wing so I didn't need decals for these. Finally, the weathering was a bit of an experiment. I did a mottled pre-shade between the rivet lines to get the tonal variation in the panels and I added to this with brown and black oil paints. The chips are done with Tamiya flat aluminium and a fine brush and the exhaust stains are a combination of sprayed and painted oils. Spraying thinned oil paints works really well and has the advantage of being very easy to clean off if things don't quite go to plan. Thanks to everyone who tagged along for the WIP, your reference photos, tips and encouragement kept this one going right to the end, even when the decals were driving me mad! The WIP is here if you're interested: Enjoy the photos! I hope you like, thanks for looking! Sam

Hello! I've been thinking for a while that my next project has to be a 1/72 Lancaster and I've been reading up on the various pros and cons of the new tool Airfix v. Revell v. Hasegawa , etc, etc. Well, a few weeks ago my dad (who loves a sunday morning car boot sale) turned up with this venerable old beast which he'd picked up for a tenner and wondered if I wanted it... With some trepidation I peered into the slightly battered box and lo and behold everything was still bagged and untouched. On closer inspection I was amazed to see that this 40 year old kit looks crisp! There's no flash and the raised panel lines and rivets look pretty good. There's not much internal detail and the wheel bays, bomb bays, etc are bare so I think it's going to get made wheels up with pilots in place. The decals are all present and correct but a little yellowed, maybe they'll be alright though? I've very nearly finished my twin build of F35 and Harrier and promised myself I'd get them over the line before the Lanc is started, hmmm, I bet a few of us have thought that in the past... I've not really started but I couldn't resist painting up the pilots - the moulding on them looks great, better imo than recent new tool airfix pilots I've seen. I found a few tips on painting 1/72 pilots but I thought I'd explain how I've gone about it here. First I cleaned off the mould lines with a sharp knife and gave them a rinse with soapy water. I then airbrushed a base coat of xf78 wood deck tan mixed with a touch of white. Next I carefully brush painted the boots, trousers, jackets, life vests and helmets with black, xf54 dark sea grey, brown and yellow. I had a bit of a hunt around for photos of Lancaster pilots and there seemed to be some who wore RAF blue and others with leather jackets - in the end I decided the individuals probably made their own choice so did one of each. I added a few touches of detail with goggles, straps, wool cuffs and face masks and then sprayed a layer of Vallejo flat coat which got me to here: To finish them off I used oil paints, thinned with white spirit, as a wash. I think this has gone well on the clothes but doesn't look quite so good on the faces. How do others paint 1/72 figure faces - what are the tricks?!? The final step was then to add some highlights to the jackets and trousers and this is the finished pair: They should look good in the cockpit of a wheels-up Lancaster! I enjoyed painting these two so much I wondered if you could find the rest of the crew as an after market set, I've had a quick look but can anyone point me in the right direction? That's it for now, I am going to get the other two models finished before doing any more, promise!

Evening all, Have been finishing up some long standing projects. This one came about by accident - was given the Revell Dambuster Lancaster, and had the Hasegawa F-35B, so it made sense to combine the two! The Revell Lancaster went together very well - all OOB, with Xtracrylix and Tamiya paints. I also used Windsor Galleria varnish, which is the best matt I've come across. The Hasegawa F-35B went together perfectly - the cockpit and canopy are click fits, and I used Hataka Have Glass paint, which again is the most convincing version of this 'stealth' coating I've come across. The 'other' gray on F-35s is again a bit difficult to nail down; I used Tamiya XF-75 which to my eye works well. I did originally plan to use the new F-35B decals from Xtradecal presented as a bonus on their recent C-130 sheet; what they are not is 1/72, and inaccurate to boot. I used the decals from Italeri's new F-35B which while not as good as Hasegawas will make a pretty fine model in its own right - but that's another project! Anyway, here they are!

“They were so weak- they allowed everything to happen – to be done to them. They were people with whom there was no common ground, no possibility of communication- that is how contempt is born. I could never understand how they could just give in as they did.” -- SS-Brigadefuhrer Franz Stangel, second commandant of Trebelinka "Six men with tommy-guns were posted at each pit; the pits were 24 m in length and 3 m in breadth - they had to lie down like sardines in a tin, with their heads in the centre. Above them were six men with tommy-guns who gave them the coup de grace. When I arrived those pits were so full that the living had to lie down on top of the dead; then they were shot and, in order to save room, they had to lie down neatly in layers. Before this, however, they were stripped of everything at one of the stations - here at the edge of the wood were the three pits they used that Sunday and here they stood in a queue 1½ km long which approached step by step - a queuing up for death. As they drew nearer they saw what was going on. About here they had to hand over their jewelry and suitcases. All good stuff was put into the suitcases and the remainder thrown on a heap. This was to serve as clothing for our suffering population - and then, a little further on they had to undress and, 500 m in front of the wood, strip completely; they were only permitted to keep on a chemise or knickers. They were all women and small two-year-old children." -- "Major General Walter Bruns’s Description of the Execution of Jews outside Riga on December 1, 1941, Surreptitiously Taped Conversation (April 25, 1945)", National Archives WO 208/4169, Report SRGG 1158 A mountain of footwear was pressing down on me. My body was numb from cold and immobility. However, I was fully conscious now. The snow under me had melted from the heat of my body. ... Quiet for a while. Then from the direction of the trench a child's cry: 'Mama! Mama! Mamaa!'. A few shots. Quiet. Killed. — Frida Michelson, I Survived Rumbula, describing the events of the second Rumbula Massacre on 8 December 1941 "Meanwhile Rottenfuhrer Abraham shot the children with a pistol. There were about five of them. These were children whom I would think were aged between two and six years. "The way Abraham killed the children was brutal. He got hold of some of the children by the hair, lifted them up from the ground, shot them through the back of their heads and then threw them into the grave. "After a while I just could not watch this any more and I told him to stop. What I meant was he should not lift the children up by the hair, he should kill them in a more decent way." -- Testimony of SS-Mann Ernst Gobel at the SS trial of Untersturmfuhrer Max Taubner for ordering the "unauthorized" killing of 459 Jews in late 1942; the court ruled that "[t]he accused shall not be punished because of the actions against the Jews as such. The Jews have to be exterminated and none of the Jews that were killed is any great loss." "We are going to scourge the Third Reich from end to end. We are bombing Germany city by city and ever more terribly in order to make it impossible for her to go on with the war. That is our object; we shall pursue it relentlessly." -- Air Marshall Sir Arthur Harris, 28 July 1942 "The first thing we can see now is a wall of searchlights, not the thirties we saw as we came in over the coast, but they're in hundreds, there's a wall of light with very few breaks, and behind that wall, there's a pool of fiercer light, glowing red and green and blue, and over that pool there are myriads of flares hanging in the sky. That's the city itself." -- BBC reporter Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, recording an op against Berlin by Lancaster ED586/EM-F "F-for-Freddie" from 207 (City of Leicester) Squadron on 3 September 1943 During the long, hard period from 1941 to 1944, when nowhere outside of Russia were the Allied armies in action against the main might of the Third Reich, which fell across the continent like a great funeral shroud, the only way to strike back was by air. In 1909, when Bleriot's fragile monoplane had first crossed the Channel, the Daily Express's headline had blared "BRITAIN IS NO LONGER AN ISLAND", and the entire underpinnings of Britain's splendid isolation had seemed to totter, but in 1940, Shakespeare's "precious stone set in a silver sea, which serves it in the office of a wall, or as a moat defensive to a house, against the envy of less happier lands," held once more, when the RAF's fighters bought the nation and the world time to prepare for the titanic battles that would be needed to free Europe. Until the moment when the Allies fell from the sky at night or stormed ashore at dawn, the great burden of the offensive would fall upon Bomber Command. There has long been a contention that the Bombing Offensive did little to effect German war production, because output continually rose despite the thousands upon thousands of tons of bombs dropped over Germany by day and night. Economic historian Adam Tooze, however, in his magisterial history of the Nazi war economy The Wages of Destruction writes that: "In the summer of 1943, the disruption in the Ruhr manifested itself across the German economy in the so-called 'Zuligieferungskrise; (sub-compnenents crisis). All manner of parts, castings, and forgings were suddenly in short supply. And this affected not only heavy industry directly, but the entire armaments complex. Most significantly, the shortage of key components brought the rapid increase in Luftwaffe production to an abrupt halt. Between July 1943 and March 1944 there was no further increase in the monthly output of aircraft. For the armaments effort as a whole, the period of stagnation lasted throughout the second half of 1943. As Speer himself acknowledged, Allied bombing had negated all plans for a further increase in production. Bomber Command had stopped Speer's armaments miracle in its tracks." This was what 16,229 Bomber Command personnel died for in 1943. Not, as Arthur Harris hoped or believed, to win the war outright, but to buy the time for breath to be drawn and the war to be won. Night after night, the bombers went out, each aircraft its own entire universe for the seven men inside, who had only each other to count on against the terrifying power of the German air defences. Laden with fuel and bombs, they stood little chance of survival if hit. But in the great black bellies of their aircraft, they carried with them the great sledgehammers that would shake the firmaments of the Nazi Empire. The aircraft I'm building is a "Ton-Up" Lancaster, one of only thirty-five aircraft to survive over a hundred ops, in this case EE139, "The Phantom of the Ruhr", which flew 121 missions, including Hamburg, the V-Weapon research site at Peenemunde, and a staggering fifteen trips to Berlin before being taken off operations on 21 November 1944, by that time utterly clapped-out. EE139 flew with both 100 Squadron and, when 550 Squadron was formed out of C Flight in November 1943, EE139 went with, which is where she finished her war. I'm using the rather elderly Xtradecal RAF Bomber Command Part 2 sheet, which has her in her guise as HW-R with 100 Squadron in November of 1943, shortly before her transfer to 550 Squadron. Notably, in this photo she lacks the circular yellow gas detection patch frequently seen on other 1 Group aircraft, though this would be added later on (and is present on the Xtradecal "Ton-Up Lancs" sheet, go figure -- and if anyone has the 1/72 Ton-Up sheet, let me know, I suspect the nose art may be better rendered). I also have a small assortment of aftermarket: Eduard photoetch set for the interior, canopy mask, seatbelts, and Quickboost's hollowed-out intakes for the Merlins, which I think should be a great improvement. The kit's just come out of a soak in soapy water, so we can hopefully get started soon.

Well I have not made a model for over 30 years and this is my first attempt. This is my first foray into using an airbrush and acrylics. I used Vallejo model air for this build. I didn’t realise how things have moved on and the detail now included. Any ideas how to add aging to the paint so it doesn’t look like new would be appreciated. I have a 1/48 P-51d tamiya mustang 8th AF or a Messerschmitt Bf109E-4/7 Trop and can’t decide which to do next ?

After sitting on the partially complete shelf of doom, I finally got up the gumption to finish this rather marvellous kit. A curious mixture of superlative engineering coupled with strange design considerations and lousy construction sequence. All previous incarnations of an Airfix Lancaster allowed you, I believe, to construct it with large sub-assemblies; only bolting the bits together after painting e.g. A Lancaster in bits With their newest Lanc, Airfix has long wing spars on which you hang the wings, and then everything is added to the airframe, including all those easy to break off teeny, weeny delitcate bits. As you can see from the photo above, I cut through the wing spars to leave stubs on the fuselage. All bits were added to the fuselage (and undercarriage to the wings) right at the end when painting was completed. Saved a lot of grief. I notice that Airfix appear to have learnt their lesson. Their Shackleton is a far more sensible beast to construct. I'm afraid photos have come out a bit on the dark side. I had problems with my lens and the light conditions. Photography took place over two days, as I tried various things. This kit fought me all the way to the end - basically self inflicted wounds. It rattles for one. I had inserted some of the side fuselage windows. Only when I came to removing the liquid mask (which had reacted with Halford primer and was fairly solid) I pushed the glazing into the fuselage. Sigh. Deep breath. OK. Reach for the Kristal Clear, which had set over the years. Add water, stir, shake, wait; repeat a few hours later until I had a liquid goo. Fill in all the glazing hole. I noticed that there seemed to be an awful lot of small bubbles in the liquid. Never mind I thought. When the Kristal clear sets, the bubble will disappear. Five days later, and the glazing was milky white. After a lot of swearing, I carefully removed all the milky white Kristal clear, and reapplied it. Two days later it set with no bubbles. Oh, the reason why I have two photos of the Lanc from above is that the lighting conditions changed. Thought I'd include both as one, I think, has better detail but the other shows better colours. I thought I had finished this beastie after the Kristal clear incident. On tidying up my modelling area, I came across a nose blister. Uh oh, I thought. Yep, you guessed it. I forgot that two years previously I had removed the blister from its sprue and cleaned it up already for painting. Roll forward two years, and I had studiously painted and glued on the wrong nose blister. After yet more swear words, I eased off the nose blister I had fitted, and then glued on the proper one - now suitably cleaned and painted. Weathering was done with some rather nice Tamiya weathering sets I discovered I had. I'm not skilled enough to do all this pre and post shading with an airbrush, and didn't dare do the exhaust stains with an airbrush. Yes, the eagle eyed may notice that I have painted the mine red oxide. I decided to do so as I read somewhere that German records regarding a recovered mine said it was painted red oxide. I now have the Airfix Shackleton AEW2 on the go. First eye balling of the instructions indicate it should be easy to construct, with a whole load of sub assemblies to be bolted together at the end.

Im saving up money for model kits rn and I am constantly thinking about the HK Models 1:32 Lancaster, which is not on my list yet, what are your thoughts on the kit and if you have made it by any chance what did you think of the build? Thanks in advance. Levi

Avro Lancaster Instrument Panel Upgrade Airscale 1:32 In preparation for the release of the huge HK Models Lancaster, we have Airscale providing a replacement instrument panel, which includes each individual panel, levers and shrouds for the throttle quadrant and a set of decals, and knowing Peter's penchant for detail, highly accurate. There are also two small sheets of acetate with exceptional optical quality. The etched steel parts should be painted and finished off to the modellers taste before assembly can begin. For the main instrument panel, engineers panel, navigators and circuit breaker panel the clear acetate sheets should be cut to size, using the panels as a template, the gluing the acetate to the rear of he panel followed by the decal, ensuring the instruments align with the positions on the front of the panel, the etched backing plate is then glued into position completing the assembly. Some of the instrument decals are for the front face of the panels such as the switch covers. For the throttle quadrant, you will need to make slots in the kit part before adding the various levers. The shrouds should be removed from the sheet separately in order to fit the correct to the correct position on the quadrant as there are left and right shrouds in addition to the main shroud for the throttle levers. Conclusion Peter's decal panels and Photo-Etched (PE) instrument bezels have rapidly gained a reputation for quality within our hobby, and Fantasy Printshop have done another fine job of printing his work. The big Lancaster will be a labour of love with as much detail as possible by most modellers who buy it and what better place to start than the cockpit. When I talked to Peter at Telford, he assured me this set will also fit the newly announced 1:32 Lancaster from Wingnut Wings. Review sample courtesy of Peter at

okay so popping the posting cherry with tamiyas 1/48 lanc with extra bits and bobs thrown in generally the right places. namely the eduard cockpit detailing set and landing flaps, new barrels for the turrets courtesy of Hannats the brand escapes me but bloody gorgeous bits of turned brass they are, the decal set including 'Lonesome Lola' delivered to my mucky dabs by way of Kitsworld and a type D bomb trolley with cookie bomb by flightpath again from Hannats its a build that started some 7 months ago although to be fair there's probably only about 2 months actual work been done, gotta love the distractions of work, missus, and various really should get on but ill do this instead things. only got a few pics nearing the end of the build as my old laptop decided to go on permanent strike with the rest of the pics on and some bright spark forgot to back them up! So I didn't really take much on as my first foray into PE and weathering here's a couple during the decaling process https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=9810129D57482670!2277&authkey=!AOjgSEvbDx5kxgA&v=3&ithint=photo%2cJPG​ https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=9810129D57482670!2272&authkey=!AG0kmq3HpEDcPHY&v=3&ithint=photo%2cJPG​https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=9810129D57482670!2276&authkey=!AEyRQS5dYXapM28&v=3&ithint=photo%2cJPG and after https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=9810129D57482670!2274&authkey=!ALmijkV5HWYC0jY&v=3&ithint=photo%2cJPGhttps://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=9810129D57482670!2271&authkey=!ANnUy_UA8sCG13w&v=3&ithint=photo%2cJPG​ and on a roughly knocked up base that originally was intended to be a concrete dispersal area with a tractor to go with the bomb trolley but I couldn't find one for less than about 80 quid and didn't find the time to play around with scaling down and scratching the concrete https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=9810129D57482670!2266&authkey=!ANZk8bywtDdSNUk&v=3&ithint=photo%2cJPG​ https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=9810129D57482670!2269&authkey=!AIpTto2f4AZklAk&v=3&ithint=photo%2cJPGhttps://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=9810129D57482670!2307&authkey=!AMrZtZOpWQECIAI&v=3&ithint=photo%2cJPG​ https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=9810129D57482670!2304&authkey=!ADa2O9ofLOid294&v=3&ithint=photo%2cJPG​ https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=9810129D57482670!2306&authkey=!ALBU5i2omvrLh74&v=3&ithint=photo%2cJPG​ any comments, questions or advice good bad or indifferent are most welcome, I just wanted to share what hopefully just for now is my most accomplished bit of man cave mayhem Matt

First of all let me say what a pleasure it is to ask questions on this site. I have not been berated for stupid questions or had people argue or call me names. This has to be the nicest forum I belong to and the answers to my questions sofar have been first rate. Thank you everybody. On to the Lancaster, Question 1: The pitot tube seems to change positions, I assume it was moved at some point. It seems to be down by the bomb aimer in early units and then is moved to the longeron just above the bomb bay doors on the port side. It seems to be in one place or the other, but never in both locations. Am I correct on this? The reason I ask is the preproduction shots of the HK kit show it in both locations. Question 2: Reference the radar antenna located on both sides just forward of the cockpit, shaped like an "H". Is this part of the H2S radar or does it have a seperate purpose. I can't seem to find info on this in my internet searches. Also how many aircraft carried it? I don't see many period photos showing it. Question 3: How many aircraft actually carried the H2S radar? In my research, it seems like it was very common, but most of the Lancaster photos from the war don't show it. Thanks again for everyone's help from the misplaced Brit (my parents emigrated to the States when I was 4, I was born in Portishead, Somerset). It is appreciated.

Airfix is to release in 2014 a new Lancaster variant in 1/72nd, the Avro Lancaster BI(F.E.)/BIII - ref. A08013 V.P.

Learnt something today, care of RAAF Facebook page:

Back in the day, Saturdays and Sundays had proper tv programs. Saturday tea time was Airwolf, Knightrider, The A Team or Streethawk and Sunday afternoons was war film time, The dirty dozen, Kelly’s hero’s, Where eagles dare, 633 sqn, and my favourite The Dambusters. During my my time at RAF Coningsby, I managed a jolly in BBMFs Dakota, that was a memorable experience, especially when the engine stopped. Luckily we were still on the ground, unluckily it started again and we took off. But one of my favourite memories was refuelling the Lancaster when working weekend shift on tanker pool. Winston Churchill once said "The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of world war by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day, but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate, careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power. On no part of the Royal Air Force does the weight of the war fall more heavily than on the daylight bombers who will play an invaluable part in the case of invasion and whose unflinching zeal it has been necessary in the meantime on numerous occasions to restrain." 55,573 young men died flying with Bomber Command during World War Two; that’s more than those who serve in the entire RAF today. I aim aim to build Amodels 144 Lancaster, she even has markings similar enough to BBMFs one year.

Yesterday, I was watching Raiders of the Lost Ark and it was quite appropriate because today I collected the Holy Grail of Bomber Command modelling, the 48 scale Paragon Manchester conversion! Before I go any further, I can't thank to Dennis (Spitfire) enough for selling it to me without needing a mortgage to afford it, so I intend to do it justice and have it done for Telford. Whilst I'm at it, I'm also doing the Paragon 1/48 Lincoln conversion with an equally big thanks to Chris (Cngaero) who sold that to me for an equally reasonable price, that's 2 Christmas's so far this year and we're only in June! That will be published elsewhere in the future, so I can't show the full progress on that one, but will drop a few photo's in along the way. I recently build the excellent Blackbird Manchester & Lincoln conversions, as you may guess, I'm a big fan of Avro's line of props, but always wanted to do them in 48 scale, I just couldn't get hold of the damn resin! The Lincoln was started a few weeks ago, the resin quality is excellent... The base for both conversions is of course the classic but superb Tamiya Lancaster Now for the Manchester resin.....

My first completed model of 2018! And it's not even December! Here is the very fun and very little Meng Kids Lancaster. Obviously inspired by the classic egg planes of the past. This is more of a cartoony or "chibi" style. The inspiration for this build once again came from Andy Moore who has built a couple of these in the past. The model is essentially OOB. The tires supplied are have very square shoulders so those were sanded to round them off. The bottom of each tire was also sanded to give the impression of weight. The three turrets come molded completely clear so I masked and sprayed on some simplified framing. The guns were drilled out and the decals came from Kits-World. I used a mix of 1/72 and 1/144 to fit the non scale nature of this model. There was a little silvering on the larger decals with clear sections but I'm sure that was more my fault as the decals seem to be of very high quality. The decals I used were only fractionally bigger than the markings provided in the kit. But due to the tiny size of the compressed fuselage there was VERY little room for decals of any kind! The aircraft serial number had to be located underneath the horizontal stabilizers. In reality, Ropey (KB772) was a Lancaster Mk.X operated by 419 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force. She was built in Canada and flew out of RAF Middleton St George. She survived the war and was brought back to Canada in anticipation of being used in the Pacific. But the war ended with Ropey in Canada and there KB772 would remain until being scrapped in 1947. The bombs were painted OD and given some non historically correct yellow stripes just to add a little visual interest. It really is a tiny little thing. This was a lot of fun and I would absolutely build another. Thanks for looking! -matt

A 1/144 scale picture/diorama built for a friend. The original Crown Lancaster and Minicraft Dakota. The Lanc and Dak at rest with BBMF crew, re-enactors and veterans looking around. Build thread here -

Hello all, Just finished this new tool Airfix Avro Lancaster B.III last night. I did it as ED927, AJ-E, which was lost near Haldern in Germany before hitting its target, no survivors. I quite liked this kit, even though it came with a warped nose on one fuselage half, which was corrected with some hot water. One thing I don't like though, are the wingtip lights and windows on top of the fuselage, Airfix should have done those in clear plastic. Top colours are Humbrol 29 and 163, bottom is a 50/50 mix of Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black and XF-17 Sea Blue. The exhaust streaks were done with pastels. I painted the Upkeep mine in some rusty red color (Revell 83), because from what I've read about it, most were still in their red oxyde primer when they were used. There might be many errors on it, but I don't claim to be an expert on Lancaster, and I mostly just followed the instructions. Thanks for looking, and I hope you like it. Pete

Forgive me if these ideas are old news but have I missed the boat on B-29 or Lancaster STGB or a rotary wing GB?

Hello all, I’m looking for information on Flying Officer Errol W. Barrow, who served in Bomber Command from 1942. He’s said to have been Navigator on Lancaster’s, squadron as yet unknown. Also was navigator on Sholto Douglas’s personal aircraft in the immediate postwar period. He would also become the first Prime Minister of Barbados. any information would be greatly appreciated, especially on Sholto Douglas personal aircraft. Was it a Dakota, or York, or another type? Tony

Afternoon folks - I'm currently building the Tamiya 1:48 Lancaster and am wondering about the windows along the fuselage. Are these windows blanked out? I ask as the decals on the side of the fuselage cover one or two of the windows and I'm not sure if I should have these windows as windows or blacked over? thanks chris

A friend at work was telling me his primary school teacher was in the Dambuster raid. Top stuff a local bloke in such an important mission. I gonna build his plane. Bought the kit and Eduard Big Ed and blow me down I can't find any reference to a Brian Mattingly DFC on that mission. I came to the conclusion teachers tell S*** Stories to impress the kiddies. The build is going to be fun, never had so much PE to play with. I am on holidays from Fools Paradise and I want a large project to keep me entertained and hopefully this project will end up going well as my last few have not been so satisfying. I have been trying Vallejo paint, I find it very soft and scratch the paint off with my fingernails. A real Gordon Ramsay moment. Box art Thanks for looking Stephen

Hi all. I am currently working on the Airfix new-ish Lancaster kit (dambuster version) and I am wondering what the little tabs on the leading edges of the lower wing parts are for. You can see them quite well in this review. You're not supposed to glue any other parts on them or anything, and they don't correspond with little notches in the top wing parts. I did some searching, and they seem to match those little things next to the nacelles on this Lancaster B.II, and also here. But I don't see them on many others. Anyone got an idea what they are for, and if I should keep them on or sand them off? Thanks.

Hi all, With the Vulcan and X-Wing off the benches, and the Gnats driving me up the wall, it's time to start something else. So, the Lancaster is the next stop. The Revell 1/72 Dambuster to be more accurate. We have plenty of goodies for this build: A couple of sets of Master brass gun barrels, Eduard masking set for obvious reasons, Aires wheels, and Eduard seatbelts and cockpit photoetch set. I figured that a lot of detail will be seen through the green house on top of this kit, so I've gone to town. Nothing has happened to this build yet, other than washing the sprues as I seem to remember Phil Flory having a problem with release agent on his video build many years ago. After market Hannants Xtradecals are to be used with this build also: To be honest, I bought these decals for a 1/72 Tornado GR.4 project (I've not started yet), and these decals are part of the set. Seemed to make sense to use them. Hopefully we'll have a good time with this little lot! Cheers, Val