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1/72 Airfix Lancaster as W4308 UV-C (for Charlie) lost 23 January 1943.


elger

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The model I'm currently working on is Airfix' 1/72 Lancaster B.I which I will be building as W4308 UV-C which was lost on January 23rd 1943.

 

tFbrS1O.jpg

 

Lancaster W4308 took off from RAF Breighton at 1714 hours on 23 January 1943 to attack Dusseldorf, Germany. Bomb load was 1 x 4000lb bomb and 1080 x 4lb incendiaries. The aircraft failed to return to base from the mission. Six aircraft from the Squadron took part in the raid.


Crew:

RAF Sqn Ldr Osborn, R B DSO, DFC, Captain (Pilot)
RAAF 403620 FO Longworth, S U C (Navigator)
RAAF 411084 Sgt Conlon, J V (Bomb Aimer)
RAAF 406441 Sgt Martin, P A (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
RAAF 400391 PO Methven, S C (Air Gunner)
RAAF 401812 Sgt Brown, R A (Air Gunner)

 

Sqn Ldr Osborn, Flt Sgt Longworth, Sgt Martin, and Sgt Brown became POWs. In a statement by Sqn Ldr Osborn he reported:

 

The aircraft was attacked by an ME110 just over the coast on the way home. I decided to attempt a belly landing with only the right arm, the left upper arm had been injured by a cannon shell. Conlon baled out and probably went into the sea. Methven was dead in the plane and Brown was badly injured in the right leg.

 

4eZXfZP.jpg

 

The aircraft crash landed very close to the village where I grew up. Its wreckage was moved from the field it landed in and was stored for a while in church parking lot behind the house I grew up in. For a long time, the only photos I knew that existed were a couple of the quality posted above. Then this year I found the following images in The Defense of the Reich: Hitler's Nightfighter Planes and Pilots by Holger Nauroth and Werner Held (translated from Die Deutsche Nagdjagd) from 1982.

 

HYMgRts.png

 

It includes a photo of the nose art the aircraft carried:

 

6JXBa8s.png

 

My favourite thing is thinking about model kits and for a long time I was trying to decide which kit to use for this build: Hasegawa, Revell, or Airfix. So why did I go with Airfix?

 

K6olr5k.jpg

 

Hasegawa is the most expensive of the three options. It has the least amount of cockpit detail but the overall shape is accurate. Its only serious flaw is that the cockpit escape hatch is in the wrong place. Rumour has it there's something wrong with how the outer nacelles are attached to the wings but I've never been able to tell that problem.

 

Revell is the cheapest option. The cockpit detail is very nice but there are some shape issues: there is not enough dihedral, the fuselage escape hatches are in the wrong location, the wheels lack detail, and the radiators are the wrong kind for typical wartime Lancasters.

 

What Revell and Hasegawa have in common is their wonderfully subtle (if perhaps not entirely accurat) surface detail. That brings me to my main concern with Airfix - the surface detail is comparatively very heavy. And that had put me off from starting it.

 

XoSNBDn.jpg

 

The fuselage windows are a little bigger as well than the competition but I can live with that. But my main concern was doing something about those heavy panel lines. I also needed to fill some mold marks - although the molding of this kit is nicer than the Mk.II that I built in 2014.

 

Mold marks above the flap area can be seen here:

 

5cLFUcL.jpg

 

My 'fix' for the surface detail was two-fold. First of all, I scribed additional panel lines in the kit parts. Airfix seems to have a bit on artitrary choice for which panel lines to show and which to leave off. So I added some lines and filler hatches to the main surfaces of the wing and the fuselage. Secondly, I filled all the panel lines with Mr Surfacer and Tippex.

 

DqJIUvl.jpg

 

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After sanding, I primed the parts with Tamiya primer from a spray can.

 

iB92QrZ.jpg

 

In hindsight, it would have been easier to simply prime these parts with several coats of Tamiya primer - I tried this on some other components and that reduced the depth and width of the existing panel lines considerably; next time I have to reduce panel lines I'm just going to do that.

 

d34rmNV.jpg

 

What's next? I'm going to be starting with the wings. I have a cunning plan and I'm deviating from the suggested build sequence by installing the landing gear legs first, and to then add the nacelles. I think that ought to work and that might prevent those parts that cover the nacelle/fuselage joints on top from fitting poorly. I've gone ahead and glued those into place. I'm also cutting off the wing spars so that I can leave off the wings and install them later.

 

Also, my wife and I are expecting the birth of our first child in less than a month so it's going to be very interesting to see how much work I can get done after that - not expecting to be able to do a whole lot, certainly not at first. But I've got to do something in the mean time so I might as well do this ;)

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Edited by elger
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Pictures of my cunning plan unfolding:

 

aujBaTu.jpg

 

I've cut the wing spar parts and have built up the landing gear wells including adding some Eduard parts. As I suspected, the nacelle will fit around the landing gear legs. I'm going to paint all of these components now and then assemble everything: glue the upper and lower wings together, then the landing gear legs, and then the nacelle around it. I'm sure this will solve some of the fit issues of the nacelle part to the wing.

 

LESnpaH.jpg

 

Will post updates on how things go :)

 

 

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I finished painting the parts for the landing gear and the turrets. I used Eduard Brassin tires:

 

VeACfDF.jpg

 

... painted with MIG acrylics, and with a bit of pigment powder for weathering.

 

B9K1OFd.jpg

 

Lancasters changed very little between variants, but details such as the colour of the landing gear components did change. I based the colours of my model of W4308 on the configuration of W4783, which also served with 460 Squadron.

 

8UnsF55.jpg

 

I blocked off the insides of the gear bays with sheet styrene painted a dark red to represent the wing fuel tanks.

 

8REoNyX.jpg

 

Not 100% sure of its accuracy, but I went with dark red for the oil tank as well.

 

B62SUgG.jpg

 

As I suspected, the nacelle fits around the landing gear:

 

CwMuIrn.jpg

 

Frankie was skeptical about this idea at first, but she now concedes I was right.

 

HW2ATum.jpg

 

Finally, the turrets also painted. Again based on photos of early-ish Lancasters I painted the turret interiors metallic.

 

5yIj6do.jpg

 

Thanks for looking - comments always welcome of course.

 

Edited by elger
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First class approach to the build with some useful tips.

Never did like the idea of putting the U/G thro the top of the nacelle ????

 

Its to late for you now but I am lead to believe that Additional fuel tanks be they in the fuselage or bomb-bay were painted red whereas main wing tanks were Green.

 

I look forward to seeing your reproduction of the artwork and of course the squadron codes for 460 Squadron which, as I am sure you know, change to AR when the moved to Binbrook.

Ian

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2 hours ago, Mancunian airman said:

First class approach to the build with some useful tips.

Never did like the idea of putting the U/G thro the top of the nacelle ????

 

Its to late for you now but I am lead to believe that Additional fuel tanks be they in the fuselage or bomb-bay were painted red whereas main wing tanks were Green.

 

I look forward to seeing your reproduction of the artwork and of course the squadron codes for 460 Squadron which, as I am sure you know, change to AR when the moved to Binbrook.

Ian

 

Hi Ian, thanks for these points. I thought that the tanks seen in the background of this photo were wing tanks, which is why I painted them red.

 

rTnbcCZ.jpg

 

I think the squadron code letters were UV; the move to Binbrook was in May 1943, I think, and apparently the change from UV to AR was in November 1943, 10 months or so after this aircraft was lost.

 

This is the only image I have that I think is the aircraft's nose art - if anyone has other info I'd love to hear it :)

 

x1NoY6D.png

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Congratulations Daddy Elger, you'll be balancing the Lanc build with nappies now for a while!

 

Great introduction and sad history to the crew and aircraft but I'm sure you'll do a great tribute as always.

 

I've found the Tippex pens very good for dealing with the panel lines as they sand easily and fill the line rather than covering too much of the surrounding surface. 

 

Nice start :)

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Congratulations. Now back to the important stuff.........

 

Your work so far on the Lanc is very impressive, it's always interesting to read the story of the aircraft or understand the modeller's interest / connection. Good effort all round!

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On ‎10‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 7:39 PM, elger said:

Last week baby O (for Oscar) landed so that will keep me busy and take me away from the bench for a while :)

 

WjrZc32.jpg

 

- Elger

Congratulations Elger! This are the best Moments in live of a man.

 

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On 10/14/2019 at 12:39 PM, elger said:

Last week baby O (for Oscar) landed so that will keep me busy and take me away from the bench for a while :)

 

WjrZc32.jpg

 

- Elger

Elger,

That is a special picture.  One for the family album forever. Simply beautiful.

 

All the Best!

Don

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So, as my wife takes an afternoon nap and Oscar sleeps between feeding and changing I've been able to do a tiny little bit of work and finished the turrets:

 

WclxoDV.jpg

 

Updates to follow slowly :)

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On 10/14/2019 at 7:39 PM, elger said:

Last week baby O (for Oscar) landed so that will keep me busy and take me away from the bench for a while :)

 

WjrZc32.jpg

 

- Elger

Congratulations! As a father of three kids i honestly tell you: keep modeling and continue your cool build till O grows up! Now he is to small to interrupt you, but in a year... you will see!

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I assembled the nacelles and the wings, and added flaps from Eduard:

 

meFxvV6.jpg

 

Note that the PE wing sections extend all the way to where the wings meet the fuselage - if you follow Eduard's instructions they tell you to leave a bit of plastic on the inside of the wing where it meets the fuselage but if you do that there is no way these parts will fit.

 

ATJuDIW.jpg

 

One of the four flaps, assembled with superglue, Mig Ammo's Ultra glue, and Future. I cut a small notch out of the top right corner here (also from the opposite side of the other flap) to make sure they fit into the wings.

 

wNt8i7M.jpg

 

Thanks for looking. Next up I will look into adding some rivets to the wings.

 

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Rivets added to key sections of the lower wing:

 

In8sGR6.jpg

 

These are raised rivets from Archer which I had been wanting to try for a while. For the lower wing I'm using the rivets that are fairly spaced out - on the fuselage and top surfaces I'm planning to use the finer ones that come with the sets.

 

3m6vLR5.jpg

 

Thanks for looking!

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