1/48 Tamiya Avro Lancaster 'Dambuster'

Gallery Article by Martin Hemingway on Oct 28 2009

 

Hi there!  This is my first submission to ARC so I hope you enjoy it!  The aircraft I chose as my first submission is Tamiya's wonderful Avro Lancaster in 1/48 scale.  This particular aircraft was the specially adapted machine designed to carry the 'tallboy' earthquake bomb and Barnes Wallis's famous bouncing bomb.  I recently watched a documentary on tv called 'last of the Dambusters'.  It portrayed one of the few surviving crew members, George 'Johnny' Johnson, who flew in one of the Lancasters involved in the raid on 16th/17th May 1943.  His particular aircraft carried the serial 'AJ T' (Squadron leader Guy Gibson's aircraft was 'AJ G').   Johnny Johnson was a bomb aimer in 'AJ T' and in 2007 he learned of a group of aircraft archeologists who were searching for his Lancaster which was the only Lancaster not accounted for, as the remains of all of the others involved in the raid had been traced.  Amazingly, Lancaster 'AJ T's remains were discovered in a field in the Somme region of France.  The aircraft had been used after the dams raids for top secret missions over enemy occupied Europe until she met her fate on 10th December 1943, when she was shot down by flak over the Somme region.  'AJ T' was used as a test aircraft before the dams raid and she was the only Lancaster to have a machine gun fitted on the undersides of the fuselage.  Archeologists had unearthed this machine gun and it's mounting which confirmed that the remains found were that of 'AJ T'.  I found the history of this particular aircraft very interesting and it prompted me to build a model of it.  I dedicate my model to Johnny Johnson and the other brave crews of 617 squadron, bomber command.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

The model.

Tamiya's 1/48 Lancaster is an old kit, and unfortunately it doesn't construct as precisely as their modern ones do which we all know are superb.  However, I wanted this big, beautiful model in my collection so I set about building it.  The main areas where the most of the work was required was the construction of the engine nacelles and attaching them to the wings, as this required endless filling and sanding!  Then there was the fuselage which also required filling and sanding, particularly around the area where the bomb bay attached to the undersides.  I thought the cockpit could do with some additional detail so I purchased Eduards superb detail set which included an etched instrument panel which is exquisitely detailed.  I also purchased a set of resin gun barrels for the turrets which are a big improvement on the kit items. 

Apart from the problems outlined above, everything else went ok.  I airbrushed the model using Humbrol enamels and Tamiya acrylics and then applied numerous coats of Johnsons Klear coat to provide a sound base for the decals.  The decals were on the thick side but went on ok once 'softened' using micro scale setting solution.  An application of Revell matt varnish was then applied to the model and weathering was done using Tamiya's X16 smoke and artists pastels.  Finished!

I hope you enjoyed my article and would like to thank Steve for a superb modelling site!

Cheers.

Martin Hemingway

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

  

  

  

Photos and text © by Martin Hemingway