1/48 Avro Lancaster Mk. X (Serial No. KB700) aka The Ruhr Express - August 1, 1943

[Scooby]

49 minutes ago, Sergeant said:

Thank you, @Scooby I will send you a PM. A few months ago, I talked with the Director of Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum & RCAF WWII Memorial in Brandon, Manitoba. He confirmed that my uncle received his training there and his name is on their memorial. I asked about records and other information that might be available and he suggested I contact the Canadian Government Archival records and resources from the Second World War and the RAF HQ where my uncle served in Bomber Command. My Warrant Officer friend very graciously used his contacts to locate 85 documents from RAF Coningsby in Linclonshire, England.

 

Harold

 

 

I didn’t find 85 records, but I definitely found his records. Including his wartime identity pictures, a couple pictures of his grave in Dieppe Canadian Cemetery, in Normandy, France. His attestation papers, and his notice of death.

[Scooby]

Harold,

 

I count 68 records in total. Starting from his attestation papers, medical, flying training records, personal effects, pay statement’s, death notice, medals awarded, letters from his mom after his death, witness statements from the crew who survived, very sad to read.

Looks like he took a bicycle to Toronto and they didn’t know what to do with it.

 

Cheers, 

 

Gary (Scooby)

[Sergeant]

I am sending you a PM.

[Sergeant]

I learned on the 1:48 Supermarine Spitfire Mk. IIa and 1:48 Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina (my last two projects) there are different configurations, paint schemes, decals, and way to display the model that need to be considered.  So, I call this phase of the build forward planning and consider it and the historical research as important as assembly or painting. My research and planning for this model has developed three configuration options:

 

Plan A is to build KB700 the way it looked when it arrived in Northolt, Middlesex, on 15 September 1943. This would include the FN-64 belly turret and modified bomb bay doors.

 

Plan B is to build KB700 the way it looked when it was assigned code LQ-Q as part of 405 Pathfinders Squadron shortly after arriving in the UK. This modification involved removal of the FN-64 turret and adding the code letters LQ-Q to the sides of the fuselage. There was other modification too, but they will be addressed later.

 

Plan C is to build KB700 the way it looked while it was in 419 Squadron in 1944 - 1945. The principal modification was removal of the bulged bomb bay doors. Again, there were other changes, but those will be addressed later.

 

 

 

Plan A

 

When KB700 left Canada for the UK it had the FN-64 belly turret and bulged bomb bay doors with a fairing between the end of the bomb bay and back of the turret like photograph #1 below. The bomb doors start below the cockpit and gradually slope downward to create more space in the bomb bay. There are no 1:48 bulged bomb bay doors for HK Models on the market that I could find, but there is resin 1:48 bulged bomb doors for Tamiya, see photograph #2 below, which I ordered from Graham Endeacott at Relish Models in Hemingbrough, Selby, England today.

 

These resin Tamiya doors are the right scale, but most likely will not be a perfect fit. That is not a problem because I intend to modify them to fit both the HK Model Lancaster kit and the FN-64 turret I scratch-built out of resin bits. Then if all goes well, I will create a silicon mould and cast new resin parts that will fit the bomb bay and fuselage correctly. If my effort produces well-fitting, clean resin parts I will make them available through someone like Mike Belcher or Graham Endeacott, so other modelers will have the option of building a 1:48 Lancaster with these features.

 

Photograph #1

 

Photograph #2

 

Photograph #3

 

Photograph #4

 

Plan B

 

When KB700 was in 405 Pathfinders Squadron it's FN-64 turret had been removed and LQ-Q code was painted on the fuselage. During this time 405 Squadron, based at Gransden Lodge, was close to Bourn where 97 Squadron was based. These two squadrons suffered the greatest losses in the Path Finder Force on Black Thursday, 16 - 17 December 1943. In Plan B the FN-64 turret would not be used, but the modified bomb bay doors would be as seen in photographs #5 and #6 below.

 

Photograph #5

 

Photograph #6

 

Plan C

 

Plan C is based on information from a book that @alzictorini has, please see excerpt below. The text indicates the bulged bomb doors with smooth forward contours, at some point after arriving in the UK all were replaced with standard doors. In photographs #8 and #9 I believe we are looking at standard door while KB700 was in 419 Squadron. Although we cannot see the back end of the doors, the front does not have the smooth forward contour mentioned in the text below. Plan C would therefore be to use the kit doors that came with the model and not include the FN-64 turret.

 

Photograph #7

 

Photograph #8

 

Photograph #9

 

 

Edited January 2, 2023 by Sergeant

[Sergeant]

Happy New Year everyone.

 

I have been reading about resins and silicone mould making. The kit I purchased for casting the FN-64 turret is just a beginners' set and I was thinking of casting the bulged bomb doors with it too if the product works well for me. What I learned today is the resin in my kit is Alumilite Alumires RC-3 which is a polyurethane suitable for modeling parts with fine detail

 

The silicone mould making product in the kit I'm not sure about. It is tin-base silicone with a shore hardness of 40 to 50 on the A scale. That is roughly comparable to the flexibility of chewing gum at 20 and a pencil eraser at 55. The literature said it is for use as a one-piece mould or two-piece mould. If that is correct I believe the turret would be a one-piece mould like @alzictorini demonstrated and the bulged bomb doors will be a two-piece mould.

 

Harold

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2023 by Sergeant

[Sergeant]

I received the casting kit and started work on a silicone mould for my belly turret.

 

https://store.makelure.com/Shared/PDF/QuickSet_TDS.pdf

 

 

 

Edited January 7, 2023 by Sergeant

[alte hase]

Hi everyone. I have two quick questions about KB700. Were the dual controls ever removed? And also were the bulged bomb bay doors removed and replaced with standard bomb bay doors - I'm thinking maybe to accommodate the H2S radar dome? 

 

Thanks 

Edited November 23, 2023 by alte hase

[Mancunian airman]

She doesnt look to have the H2s cupola ?? 

[mrp]

KB700 retained dual controls throughout its service life. It was used to train new pilots on 419, after its very brief use by 405 Squadron. Looking at its service record, it did spend a fair amount of time at Maintenance Units, but did eventually do 49 missions. 

KB700 was the first aircraft on 419 to be equipped with H2S. I have a photo of it fitted, but annoyingly it doesn't quite show the bomb bay doors. There is a note in 419 Squadron diary about how the larger (8,000lbs) doors didn't seem  to affect  the H2S.

It is my assumption, that it did retain the 8,000lbs doors as a grainy picture of it on 419 , prior to the H2S being fitted and the above noted comment, shows the larger doors in place. The fairing for the turret, was removed for fitting the H2S. The turret was removed shortly after it arrived in the UK in September 1943 at Avro.

I would go with the 8,000lbs doors and the H2S. I haven't seen a picture that shows either the 4,00lbs or the 8,000lbs doors prior to its loss, and the ones that I have, don't really show, which is fitted.

The only way to probably prove this, is a work up sheet from the maintenance unit showing the fitting of the 4,000lbs door, if it was actually done. I would assume that is  buried somewhere in the National Archives, maybe someone has found this info.