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Avro Lancaster B.I Admiral Prune


Plumbum

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Here is the start of my old mold Airfix Lancaster. It was in a dusty box with a factory

sealed bag. Upon opening I was amazed and how good it had held up, but the fuselage

halves were a bit warped. Away we go.---John

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I need a little history on Admiral Prune. There were 2 Lancasters by this name? I am

guessing Admiral Prune and Admiral Prune II ? The first Lancaster was W4118 code

ZNL and the second was ED593 code ZNY ? Both piloted at times by Guy Gibson? The

"original" was a  B.I and the second was a B.III ? I found decals for ZNY. Are there decals

for ZNL as well? Thanks---John

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I did a little search and found this on lancaster-archive.com

It appears W4118 Admiral Prune was ZN-Y and ED593 Admiral Prune II was ZN-T (other sources state they were ZN-L and ZN-Y respectively)

ZN-L apparently was also another Lancaster ME668.

W4118 was apparently lost while Gibson was on leave. He apparently claimed ED593 as a replacement and had it painted with the same identity. 

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Just to confuse things a bit, weaponsandwarfare.com show both W4118(Lancaster I) and ED593(Lancaster III) wearing ZN-Y.

Edited by Brigbeale
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I built one of these late 70s airfix lancs last year and it's actually a lovely kit - didn't need much filler and "looks" right to me. Fuselage on mine is indeed slightly twisted but only if you look hard. I also tried to use the original decals but they silvered quite badly and if i was doing it again I'd chuck them and start with a modern set. Looking forward to seeing yours come together, good luck!

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Still my favourite Lancaster kit, I have built plenty of these . . .

In post #3 you can see the bottom of the individual aircraft letter, clearly not the letter 'L' so I think you are right with the 'T'.

Alway look forward to see a Lancaster built

Good luck 

Ian

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Thanks for the replies. My concern is are the SKY decals correct? I had always

thought pilots were superstitious, not naming a second aircraft with the name

one had or had had. So should ED593 say Admiral Prune II ? The codes L,T, Y

have me totally baffled! Thanks again---John

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4 hours ago, billn53 said:

So many people have said so many good things about this kit, that I bought one for myself instead of the newer offering.  I’ll be most interested to follow your progress. 
 

The only issue I have with the older 08002/3/4/5 kit is the low windscreen at the front.

I overcome this by taking off the bottom frame moulding to give it a bit more depth . . . . it works for me 

Ian

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Thanks. I have the fuselage together. I had to add the upper turret but was able to modify the front and rear turrets

to add later. The cockpit decals were old but I used them, they started to peel off so I used the old "Academy" trick

and added some Elmer's white glued around and under them. Seems to work. I got the twist out of the fuselage with

a lot of glue then tape going from tail to cockpit.---John

NsHMwZT.jpg

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BEAUTIFUL JOB! what color are bombs? I am going with bronze green(Euro 1 Green) for bombs and cookie.

I still think it looks as good as or better than the new mold. The new one is nice but for me it is too over

engineered. But if they do a new mold Grand Slam I'll try it again.......never finished my 1st new mold attempt.---John

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16 hours ago, Alex Gordon said:

There's this IWM photo of Admiral Prune II where the serial number can be seen but the individual aircraft letter is not quite visible.

 

This:

 

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There's also this:

 

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Chris

 

 

 

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18 hours ago, SaminCam said:

I built one of these late 70s airfix lancs last year and it's actually a lovely kit - didn't need much filler and "looks" right to me.

I used one for my Lincoln conversion and found it quite an easy build, too. The riveting is heavy-handed but I sanded most of that off anyway.

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I have some more work, the outer engine nacelles are glued up and sanded, inner engine nacelles glued

and weapons glued. I went to cut landing gear from the sprue and one broke. Exactly what happened on

my last 8000 series Lanc earlier this year and in the same spot. So I glued it up but have my doubts about

it holding weight. Are there any replacements out there? I know there is a metal set for the new mold Lanc

but I don't know how it works as the new kit was re engineered.---John

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Winging it. I started the wings. If my memory is right the wings fit good so I should be able to

mask them and paint them separate of the fuselage. That will save on time and masking. The only

thing to watch out for is not to sand off the cable cutters on the leading edge.---John

eELtYLs.jpg

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On 9/7/2020 at 3:27 PM, Johnv said:

Thanks for the replies. My concern is are the SKY decals correct? I had always

thought pilots were superstitious, not naming a second aircraft with the name

one had or had had. So should ED593 say Admiral Prune II ? The codes L,T, Y

have me totally baffled! Thanks again---John

Codes were changed from time to time on squadrons I think so it could be that no one is wrong, particularly if its been around for a while. If there is a photo of one with a particular code however, you can't go wrong. 

 

Nice progress :)

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23 hours ago, Johnv said:

Winging it. I started the wings. If my memory is right the wings fit good so I should be able to

mask them and paint them separate of the fuselage. That will save on time and masking. The only

thing to watch out for is not to sand off the cable cutters on the leading edge.---John

eELtYLs.jpg

Oh yes the fit of the wings is good painted them the fuselage and the tail planes separately 

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The second issue Lanc is a nice kit. One formed the basis of a Lincoln conversion I did a few years back and the Mach2 York looks as if the kit was used as a basis as I was able to subsitute some parts from the Airfix kit for parts in the Mach2 kit that were not worth the effort of refining and they fitted with no real issues. 

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