Burn Down Their Hanging Trees (1/72 Airfix Lancaster B.III)

[Procopius]

1 minute ago, DaveWilko said:

IIRC,two of the aircraft's three crew were in on the defection(Pilot and F.E)but not the W/op.

I imagine it must have come as something of a surprise for him.

 

38 minutes ago, Tomoshenko said:

I am aware that you've built and Airfix Lanc before, so apologies for boring repetition if you haven't forgotten these things.

I had forgotten, and I appreciate it!

 

6 minutes ago, 06/24 said:

If it's at Cosford we can go see it in November?

I think we pretty much have to, don't you?

[DaveWilko]

36 minutes ago, Procopius said:

I imagine it must have come as something of a surprise for him.

 

I think we pretty much have to, don't you?

I believe the F/E held him at gunpoint to keep him away from the radio(it is many years since I read the book,but I think that's the gist of it.)

 

The Ju 88 is at Cosford:

 

https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/collections/junkers-ju88r-1/

 

And just to whet one's whistle so to speak :

 

https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/cosford/

Edited February 26, 2019 by DaveWilko

[stevehnz]

8 hours ago, mrp said:

The book about the defection is " The Great Coup" by Robert Hall.

Damn, two book recommendations in one thread, so far, I'm going to struggle to keep up at this rate, & to avoid getting my ears boxed. In a fit of irresponsibilty, I've ordered both from Abebooks.

Steve.

[Procopius]

4 hours ago, DaveWilko said:

And just to whet one's whistle so to speak :

 

https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/cosford/

 

 

[spruecutter96]

5 hours ago, 06/24 said:

If it's at Cosford we can go see it in November?

It will be there in November, I'm very sure (unless something really drastic happens before then - unlikely). It is currently in one of the smaller hangars at the top of the site.

 

I went to a special, "Open Cockpit" evening at Cosford in early December last year and we were allowed to have a look inside the JU-88. We had to stand on a small platform and had our legs protuding from the Junker's underside. I'm guessing that the Museum thought there were too many hazards for folks to crawl around inside the cockpit. It was fascinating to take a look inside and I'm very grateful to the Cosford management for allowing the viewing. 

 

Chris. 

 

PS: Sitting inside the FW-190's cockpit at the event was even cooler, though.... 

[Andwil]

1 hour ago, spruecutter96 said:

PS: Sitting inside the FW-190's cockpit at the event was even cooler, though.... 

 

AW

[dogsbody]

1 hour ago, spruecutter96 said:

It will be there in November, I'm very sure (unless something really drastic happens before then - unlikely). It is currently in one of the smaller hangars at the top of the site.

 

I went to a special, "Open Cockpit" evening at Cosford in early December last year and we were allowed to have a look inside the JU-88. We had to stand on a small platform and had our legs protuding from the Junker's underside. I'm guessing that the Museum thought there were too many hazards for folks to crawl around inside the cockpit. It was fascinating to take a look inside and I'm very grateful to the Cosford management for allowing the viewing. 

 

Chris. 

 

PS: Sitting inside the FW-190's cockpit at the event was even cooler, though.... 

 

Lucky -------!

 

 

Chris

[Procopius]

My brass barrels arrived! 

 

 

Frankly, I'm not sure they're that much skinnier than the kit barrels. Time will tell. 

 

Also added some more teeny-tiny etch:

 

 

And painted a few more interior parts interior grey green. 

 

 

 

[AdrianMF]

Looking good! And comprehensively detailed in your posts as ever. After last week in the USA I need to follow your diet and exercise regime too... The brass barrels do look like things of beauty though, and the cockpit looks super.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[dogsbody]

Every man wants brass ones.

 

 

Chris

[06/24]

3 hours ago, Procopius said:

Frankly, I'm not sure they're that much skinnier than the kit barrels. Time will tell. 

Skinny isn't everything. Durable is what they are (and refined in appearance).

[Procopius]

15 minutes ago, 06/24 said:

Skinny isn't everything. Durable is what they are (and refined in appearance).

True, though I hope it's something, because otherwise why am I punishing myself with this diet, but one thing that always strikes me about photos of real Lancasters is how small and fragile their machine guns look against the bulk of the aircraft. I want to try and capture that.

[Stew Dapple]

Also the kit gun barrels won't pierce your fingertip in a surprisingly painful manner if mishandled 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[06/24]

29 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

Also the kit gun barrels won't pierce your fingertip in a surprisingly painful manner if mishandled 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

I believe it was the Sunderland which was dubbed the Fliegendes Stachelschwein (flying porcupine) but this was what immediately popped into my mind, at the thought of a miniature Lancaster impaling Procopius on its tiny spines, ready for Grant the Devourer to deliver the coup de grace...

[CedB]

Great update on 'Life, the Universe and Everything' PC and, with Grant starting school, another milestone for the biography  

 

Nice work on the PE and internals too and pleased to see she closes up without too much Anglo-Saxon.

 

As a fellow dieter I feel your pain… especially if you're handling Cookies and Peanut Butter - oh, the temptations! Stick at it though matey, you don't want to get jammed into the seat in November (unlikely).

[Riksbar]

I found and scanned the picture.  In 1985 the Royal Canadian Air Force crews returned to former RAF Middleton St. George to unveil a memorial.  My Air Cadet squadron formed an honour guard, and I built and presented a model Lancaster to the Canadian Air Attache.   I used the Ian Allan Lancaster at War by Mike Garbutt and Brian Goulding as a reference.   I took the book along and many of the veterans signed it, with a lot of them looking for pictures of themselves or their aircraft to sign.   It was an amazing day, I even got inside the RAF's Lancaster.

 

This is the picture of Phantom

Phantom of the Ruhr by riksbar, on Flickr

 

And this is one of Ropey

Middleton St George Canadians 2 by riksbar, on Flickr

 

Hijack over, loving the build PC.

 

[Procopius]

2 hours ago, Riksbar said:

 

Hijack over, loving the build PC.

 

That wasn't a hijack at all, what an amazing experience that must have been!

[perdu]

@Riksbar didn't the ATC give so many of us amazing things to do and later, to remember

 

Thanks for sharing that with us, tremendous interjection

 

I bet Debs would have been pleased to see your post if she was still here 

 

PC please be careful with those guns, I know it's tempting to puncture yourself

 

Refrain do, dear boy

 

I wish to be in the happy throng welcoming you to Telfordshire in November

[Harley John]

On 26/02/2019 at 19:25, DaveWilko said:

The book about the defection is " The Great Coup" by Robert Hall. I don't personally have a copy in my library, but it does appear that there area number of copies available on AbeBooks  https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&cm_sp=SearchF-_-home-_-Results&an=robert+Hill&tn=the+great+coup+&kn=&isbn=

I can see a copy heading for a Chicago suburb shortly.

Damn I've only just got over the great Halifax book expense where I bought three books and then got a couple about the Liberator - as you do and now more books!!!!!

 

PC great updates as usual and the Lanc looks fab as do the nippers. Wonder if I can get brass barrels for my stalled Halifax build.......must stay away from t'nterweb, must be strong, must be.....

[perdu]

"Ye're doooomed I tell ye, doooomed!"

 

The way of the brassmeister beckons...

[dogsbody]

7 hours ago, Harley John said:

 

.......must stay away from t'nterweb, must be strong, must be.....

 

 

Admit it! You're as weak as the rest of us, unable to resist the lure of injected styrene and the scent of liquid glue. Oh, to unfold those pages of new instructions!

 

 

Chris

[Procopius]

Sorry for the slow progress on this one, chaps, this is always a tough time of year, and Grant's contrived to catch his first cold of his scholastic career, which has made him slimy and ill-tempered (which was also how he came into this world), and of course he's managed to get me (and our long-suffering sitter) sick as well, though I at least have been exposed to my germ-infested children for so long that aside for an interruption in my running (and thus slowing my long journey towards my goal weight, and by extension extending the time I spend cut off from all the foods which make life worth living) I've hardly been slowed. 

 

The diet normally isn't too bad, since I just lug a big bag of Clementines to work and eat them in lieu of the candy I once consumed (Mike and Ike "Zours", generally, a food -- I use the word loosely -- I can neither defend nor stop eating once its placed in front of me), but today we left Winston with my parents so he could go to church (not without profound reservations on my part, my parents belong to a really messed-up church, but he just goes downstairs and plays with one of my cousins' kids) and went out for breakfast, and boy did I feel the diet. Now they have to print the calories of each entree on the menu, and the regionally-famous Walker Brothers Pancake House serves food of such absurdly high caloric levels as to boggle the mind: Mrs P's entree, for example, was 1880 calories, or more than my daily intake allowable under my diet. I had a turkey BLT and ate it with grim resignation. Afterwards we spent the afternoon at my parents, which had the virtue of at least keeping our house clean, and Winston got to watch youtube videos of trains on his grandpa's ginormous television.

 

Who can fathom what eldritch secrets those trains told him; judging by the look on his face it was some pretty heavy stuff.

 

Since March is my birth month and I grew up without Christmas as a gift-giving holiday, my birthday has always held a special significance for me as the one time of the year where people not only had to pretend to like me, they also had to give me presents. Mrs P, not having had such a memoir-ready childhood, neither understands nor appreciates this, and so birthdays can be a little depressing, but she's making a game attempt to celebrate the monthlong extravaganza that is Edwardmas the only way she knows how: with little effort and no visible emotion. The boys "made" me a cake to celebrate my birth month with her help, though, which was a very sweet gesture except of course that I can't have any right now.

 

 

For every drop of yellow frosting he put on the cake, Winston sucked down about five times as much straight from the tube surreptitiously until he was caught, far, far too late.

 

 

 

Anyway, I finally got downstairs tonight for about two hours (plus an hour spent writing this in between intermittent distractions so far, taking me to 1 AM), and in that time, I managed to add in some little black boxes to the interior:

 

 

Add the Flight Engineer's little folding stool, which I should've done way earlier because it was a huge pain:

 

 

More black boxes and painting of upholstry:

 

 

And adding windows before I forgot:

 

 

I also managed to jab myself in the right forefinger (being left-handed, like all decent people) with a 2mm micro-chisel, which caused me to bleed like a stuck pig (assuming stuck pigs are full of blood, of course), and necessitated some sanding down and respraying of the navigator's little table, as it got covered with blood. Adventure is everywhere if you know where to look or alternately don't pay too much attention when you ought to be looking.

 

 

 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Extra marks for the use of “eldritch” - a word I have (had) not heard in a long time.

 

Nice Lanc, too, but that’s hardly a surprise!

[CedB]

As a fellow dieter I feel your pain Edward - cake, mmmm…

 

Nice work on the black boxes and a brotherly 'ouch' for the chisel accident  

[SafetyDad]

On ‎26‎/‎02‎/‎2019 at 05:47, Procopius said:

 

Phantom of the Ruhr doesn't seem to have had H2S fitted ever, but would she have carried MONICA in 1943? As I understand it, it had been introduced the prior year and wasn't removed until after the Ju88 night fighter was captured in 1944. Incidentally, does anyone know if there's a good treatment of that incident anywhere out there? I've read in some sources the crew got lost, but in others that they planned on defecting and even overpowered one of their number. I'd love to know more. 

 

 

 

I've just found this thread, and am thoroughly enjoying both your build PC, and the accompanying gentle humour that is accompanying it. I too aim to follow your progress closely in future.

 

BTW, and not wanting to hijack your thread, I think you gentlemen might be confusing two Ju88 acquisitions by the RAF.

 

The defection was a Ju88R-1 to Dyce in Aberdeenshire; indeed two crew were defecting (gosh my auto speller had them going to the toilet there, rather than changing wartime allegiances - 😲).  One poor lad on the crew wasn't in on the plan, so must have had a very bad day...

 

Arguably the more valuable acquisition was the Ju88G-1 that landed in error at Woodbridge having flown a reciprocal compass course, becoming totally lost in the process. This airframe was chock-full of radar and ECM equipment, and it was the discovery by RAF specialists of the previously unknown FuG 227 Flensburg set to home onto Monica that led to the hurried removal of Monica from BC aircraft.

 

Back to your Lancaster now PC...