Airfix Dambusters Lancaster B.III (special)

[Isak]

This build has been on and off for the last two and a half years. Appropriately enough I finished it now, exactly 80 years after the famous dams raid the night between 16th and 17th of May 1943. 

 

The build was relatively trouble free, just a lot of filling and sanding to blend everything together as well as a quite labour intensive masking job for all the clear parts. A masking set would have been a clever investment. 

 

Feel free to comment and critique 

 

Isak 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Alpha Delta 210]

Excellent model and a very timely finish date!

[ColinChipmunkfan]

Yes, excellent model at a very apposite time.  Have recently driven through Te Kuiti, a small town in NZ where Les Munro lived after the war.  The road next to the small aerodrome is named after him.  He flew AJ-W and was the last surviving pilot, dying in 2015.

[MACALAIN]

A clean Lancaster. Well done.

 

Alain

[mick]

great work

[keith in the uk]

Love work there Isak , i have the very same kit in the stash and it just moved up to the top of the pile. 

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Pro job on this!

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

Superb Lanc, very attractive!

No critics, but I personally would have added a little bit of more weathering, especially for the exhausts??? Any photos of the underside???

[dogsbody]

26 minutes ago, PATRICK FROM THE SANDS said:

Superb Lanc, very attractive!

No critics, but I personally would have added a little bit of more weathering, especially for the exhausts??? Any photos of the underside???

 

As these aircraft were practically brand new when used on The Dam Raid, I disagree. The weathering on the model looks right.

 

 

 

 

Chris

[junglierating]

Looks great BZ to you which kit....im currently assembling with some minor extra work the 1980s airfix kit .....which id stumped up for the new one.Still I will finish it ...waste not want not

[stever219]

24 minutes ago, PATRICK FROM THE SANDS said:

Superb Lanc, very attractive!

No critics, but I personally would have added a little bit of more weathering, especially for the exhausts??? Any photos of the underside???

Don't forget that the Operation Chastise Lancasters were almost brand new and fresh from Avro's production line.  Squadron Leader Henry Maudslay's ED937, for example, was delivered to the squadron on May 16th and at the time she came down the following morning only had around 7 hours on the airframe: Gibson's ED932 wasn't nuch older (so the weather-beaten, grubby and "distressed" look so in vogue at present wouldn't be appropriate.  I'm away from my references at present but I think that ED825 was the oldest aircraft on the operation but even she could hardly be considered ancient.

[georgeusa]

Wonderfully done Lancaster.  I can't believe you had the patience and stamina to hand cut masks for all the various canopies and windows.  (If you can't tell, the most awful job about modeling is masking canopies in my opinion.)  It looks like you used a mask set as the panel lines are so precise.  Thanks for sharing such a fine representation of a historical aircraft on its 80th anniversary.  

[mick b]

Lovely result Isak and nice to see Barlow’s machine being modelled. As his aircraft was delivered on the 1st May and flown for approximately 23 hours before the fateful night then the level of weathering is, I would say, pretty much spot on as photos do show some exhaust staining on similarly new airframes at 617 soon after Chastise.

 

As Barlow’s upkeep was ripped off and found by the Germans it was documented  by them as being red oxide in colour, although not all of the other mines can be assumed to be as such.

 

Mike

 

 

[cngaero]

A fine and timely tribute.

[MACALAIN]

I have post mine today.

 

Alain

[Keeff]

What a lovely thing! It looks subtly weathered and the end of the build is very timely 👌 

 

Keith 😁 

[Isak]

Thanks a lot for the feedback.

 

@junglierating its the newest tooling of the lancaster. 

 

@PATRICK FROM THE SANDS, as has been pointed by others, the airframe was fairly new at the point of op chastise, and sadly it didn't return from the missionmso it never got old. I'm amazed by the level of detail knowledge demonstrated here. Sorry, no pics of the underside was taken.

 

@mick b thanks, i wasn't aware that the reported red mine was from this aircraft. The mine is not glued in, so it will get a repaint. Do you have any idea if the red and yellow stripes shold be there on the red primed mine?

 

 

[mick b]

23 minutes ago, Isak said:

 

 

@mick b thanks, i wasn't aware that the reported red mine was from this aircraft. The mine is not glued in, so it will get a repaint. Do you have any idea if the red and yellow stripes shold be there on the red primed mine?

 

 

According to the excellent book Dambusters by Piotr Forkasiewicz and Mark Postlethewaite the mine was red oxide overall with some numbers chalked on the end, too small for 1/72nd perhaps. 
 

Yes unfortunately Barlow’s Lancaster was the first to take off and the first lost and the mine was ripped from its underside intact for the Germans to inspect.

 

Once again, superb model Isak, and a fitting tribute.

 

Mike

[Isak]

Thanks for the info. 

 

Also, the excellent podcast "We have ways of making you talk" are releasing episodes now on the dams raid and the preparations before the op. Higly recommended

[Cklasse]

This is beautifully built.
I am tidying up my AJ-E at the moment. I had painted my bomb black with traces of red brown to simulate a hastily painted bomb. 
 

I see there are aerial lines running from the fins to the cockpit. Where exactly are the end points?

 

[sprue]

The colour of the mine has been discussed before. We have to take account that the mines were rushed into production against a deadline in May, while testing was still in full flow. Originally they were given a curved wooden overcoat to help the bomb skip across the surface of the water. There therefore was no need to paint the inner steel casing other than an oxide primer. As is well known dropping the mines from 150 ft only resulted in the destruction of the weapon. In desperation because the bombs were in production and the looming deadline Wallis asked Gibson if the bombs could be released at 60 feet to lessen the impact with the water. By chance the result was that although the wooden overcoat disintegrated the steel inner part continued to skip and remain intact. Those bombs that had been delivered to 617 were then stripped of their overcoats and probably rebalanced. The urgency of the operation probably left no time for repainting which explains why Barlow's bomb was recovered by the Germans still in an oxide primer finish. An unbalanced  10,000 lb cylinder rotating and shaking under an aircraft would be hazardous to flight safety and therefore the idea that anyone repainted a bomb black just before the operation is doubtful. I think the chief armourer would have had something to say about that. Its self evident that bombs left in store after the raid were then properly repainted as per regulations and obviously without the wooden overcoat.

[Isak]

17 hours ago, Cklasse said:

This is beautifully built.
I am tidying up my AJ-E at the moment. I had painted my bomb black with traces of red brown to simulate a hastily painted bomb. 
 

I see there are aerial lines running from the fins to the cockpit. Where exactly are the end points?

 

 

 

Hi. I attached the aerial wires to the second frame of the greenhouse. Attachment points are visible in this picture from IWM's Twitter:

 

 

[Mr Orinnoco]

Hello your Lancaster looks great!

i,m building one of these as my second project in model making after 20 plus years ; i was wondering did you use : the matt 33,black enamel humbrol paint for the undercarriage etc ?

[Paulaero]

Excellent work and I can only echo the comments that the weathering looks spot on for the age of the machine as at the time of the raid.

 

I too think the current 'in vogue' over weathering and highlighting of panel lines make models look more like .......models .

[Paulaero]

On 16/05/2023 at 16:44, stever219 said:

Don't forget that the Operation Chastise Lancasters were almost brand new and fresh from Avro's production line.  Squadron Leader Henry Maudslay's ED937, for example, was delivered to the squadron on May 16th and at the time she came down the following morning only had around 7 hours on the airframe: Gibson's ED932 wasn't nuch older (so the weather-beaten, grubby and "distressed" look so in vogue at present wouldn't be appropriate.  I'm away from my references at present but I think that ED825 was the oldest aircraft on the operation but even she could hardly be considered ancient.

Can't  agree more with your comments about the weather beaten and distressed look, which is so over done at the moment giving that 'scrap yard' appearance , its very artistic but not realistic.