Airfix 1/72 Avro Lancaster B.II With Some Nice Bristols!
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 11:36 pm
Hello Guys / Girls,
Here is my open box review of the Airfix 1/72 scale Lancaster B.II complete with 4 Bristol Hercules Engines; the first production model of this variant, released in 2013, so brand new tooling.....almost!
I completed this plane two weeks ago, but because I'm new on here, I've only just got around to working out how to upload images of 250kb maximum....I didn't have any available software tools to condense my 1.6mb images down to this size so that I could drop them in here. Anyway, I've gotten that sorted out last night and so this morning, I'm contributing my first ever build review and progress report. I'll follow these up over the next few days with the progression photos that I took during the build and complete it with the final photos and a video!
Airfix 1/72 Avro Lancaster B.II:
The Lancaster B.I variant, which superseded the twin engine Avro Manchester designed by Roy Chadwick, was designed to provide more power to enable a greater ceiling height and to enable carrying a larger bomb load. But, with the ever increasing demands for the Rolls Royce Merlin engine, production couldn't keep up and so the Air Ministry and Defense departments insisted that the fighters and fighter bombers, such as the Spitfire and Mosquito, were to receive the Merlins first. Therefore, the Lancaster B.II variant was equipped with the Bristol Hercules radial engines. These engines had some advantages, such as being air cooled and having a superior climbing rate to reach 18,000ft and able to cruise at a similar speed to the B.I, but could only achieve a maximum ceiling height of 20,000ft when fully laden. It was capable of carrying the larger 8,000lb bombs, enabled by the newly designed bulged bomb bay doors that came as standard.
There were 300 of the B.II variants manufactured, of which most of these were flown by the Royal Canadian Air Force squadrons, who had previously flown the Vickers Wellingtons or the Handley-Page Hampdens, which also were equipped with these radial engines. Therefore, it made sense for these squadrons to fly these craft, as their ground crews were already familiar with the engine, making the transition easier.
These aircraft served in many important battles, including the "Battle of Berlin", "Hamburg" and the "Ruhr" and during operations 60% were lost. Although not recognized as much as its Merlin Engine contemporaries, the B.II deserves recognition in history as a viable and capable alternative.
Speed: 265mph
Range: 1,550 miles
Length: 696ft 6in (21.18m)
Wingspan: 102ft (31.09m)
Armament: 10 x .303" Machine Guns and up to 23,000lbs of bombs.
Let's open the box and check everything is in order!
Image 1 by mldesigns58, on Flickr
That's a nice paint and decal guide and the instruction booklet comes with 110 assembly steps for the 239 pieces that are provided!
Image 2 by mldesigns58, on Flickr
There are 5 grey runners and 1 clear runner and a decal sheet. The material is a nice smooth material that feels softer and more malleable than the old brittle styrene kits of the 60's. I believe this could be an A.B.S (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) type material? I don't see any sink marks, ejector pin stress marks on visible surfaces, weld lines, knit lines, splay, short shots or warping, and, there is very little flash, if any, and parting line miss-match is almost negligible where it exists. The parts also have nicely recessed panel lines for those modelers that like to pre-shade and finish off with highlighting them!
Image 3 by mldesigns58, on Flickr
The decals look awesome; everything in register on the roundels and they don't look thick like the older style decals. I can't wait to apply these! There are markings for two squadrons: "Z-Zombie" No.408 (Goose) Squadron, 6 Group, Royal Canadian Air Force, Royal Air Force Linton-On-Ouse, Yorkshire July 1944 and "F-anny Ferkin II" No.514 Squadron, 3 Group, Royal Air Force Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, November 1944.
I've decided to go with the first option because I love the Zombie nose art!
Image 4 by mldesigns58, on Flickr
The clear parts look good; I can't see any blemishes, scratches, weld lines, air traps that would create voids, gate jetting / splay marks or warpage. All parts look solid and clear, although the gun turret moldings are thicker than the cockpit canopy parts.
Image 5 by mldesigns58, on Flickr
On closer inspection, there were 4 loose parts and a piece of a tail rudder that was broken off at the tip.
Image 6 by mldesigns58, on Flickr
Looking closer at the broken rudder piece, I can see that it has sheared right at the gate entry location. Also, opposite the gate is a cut out where the rudder movement limiting piece fits which has sharp internal corners. Therefore, we have the internal shear stressing that occurs at the gate location during freeze off exacerbated by the internal stresses that occur within sharp corners. When I contacted Airfix to inform them about this broken part, I recommended that they move the gate location within the mould further down to a location central to the two slots, so it isn't opposite one of the slots where there is internal stressing at the corners. They will want to repeat a mold-flow analysis to see how this effects the overall molding process to check if the process has to be modified; ie change temperatures, pressures and times.
Image 7 by mldesigns58, on Flickr
Ohh dear! Part # 8 is missing which is the upper bearing/location bracket for the front turret machine guns.
Image 8 mod by mldesigns58, on Flickr
Damn!! Part # 33 is missing too! This is one of the two tail rudder motion limiters. Airfix just lost one star out of a possible 5 star rating for their Quality Control Inspection Engineers missing these 3 items!
Conclusion thus far: This looks like a really excellent kit of high quality for all of the contents within the box. My only complaint would be, that when I was a teenager which was the last time I built models prior to restarting this year, I built an Airfix Lancaster and it came complete with bombs. Although, there's so much more in this box than there was back then, so for the $28.00 (17.00 GBP for our UK friends) that my wife paid for this kit (Christmas present), it's absolute great value for money! I can always buy the additional bomber re-supply set and make a diorama at a later date : )
My next post for this will show stage 1: Painting the cockpit and parts on the runner systems, along with assembling the two cockpit halves together.
Cheers,
Martin
P.S. After 6 hours of frustration trying to upload photos to this post and almost giving up, I tried "Flckr" which was really simple to use.
Here is my open box review of the Airfix 1/72 scale Lancaster B.II complete with 4 Bristol Hercules Engines; the first production model of this variant, released in 2013, so brand new tooling.....almost!
I completed this plane two weeks ago, but because I'm new on here, I've only just got around to working out how to upload images of 250kb maximum....I didn't have any available software tools to condense my 1.6mb images down to this size so that I could drop them in here. Anyway, I've gotten that sorted out last night and so this morning, I'm contributing my first ever build review and progress report. I'll follow these up over the next few days with the progression photos that I took during the build and complete it with the final photos and a video!
Airfix 1/72 Avro Lancaster B.II:
The Lancaster B.I variant, which superseded the twin engine Avro Manchester designed by Roy Chadwick, was designed to provide more power to enable a greater ceiling height and to enable carrying a larger bomb load. But, with the ever increasing demands for the Rolls Royce Merlin engine, production couldn't keep up and so the Air Ministry and Defense departments insisted that the fighters and fighter bombers, such as the Spitfire and Mosquito, were to receive the Merlins first. Therefore, the Lancaster B.II variant was equipped with the Bristol Hercules radial engines. These engines had some advantages, such as being air cooled and having a superior climbing rate to reach 18,000ft and able to cruise at a similar speed to the B.I, but could only achieve a maximum ceiling height of 20,000ft when fully laden. It was capable of carrying the larger 8,000lb bombs, enabled by the newly designed bulged bomb bay doors that came as standard.
There were 300 of the B.II variants manufactured, of which most of these were flown by the Royal Canadian Air Force squadrons, who had previously flown the Vickers Wellingtons or the Handley-Page Hampdens, which also were equipped with these radial engines. Therefore, it made sense for these squadrons to fly these craft, as their ground crews were already familiar with the engine, making the transition easier.
These aircraft served in many important battles, including the "Battle of Berlin", "Hamburg" and the "Ruhr" and during operations 60% were lost. Although not recognized as much as its Merlin Engine contemporaries, the B.II deserves recognition in history as a viable and capable alternative.
Speed: 265mph
Range: 1,550 miles
Length: 696ft 6in (21.18m)
Wingspan: 102ft (31.09m)
Armament: 10 x .303" Machine Guns and up to 23,000lbs of bombs.
Let's open the box and check everything is in order!
Image 1 by mldesigns58, on Flickr
That's a nice paint and decal guide and the instruction booklet comes with 110 assembly steps for the 239 pieces that are provided!
Image 2 by mldesigns58, on Flickr
There are 5 grey runners and 1 clear runner and a decal sheet. The material is a nice smooth material that feels softer and more malleable than the old brittle styrene kits of the 60's. I believe this could be an A.B.S (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) type material? I don't see any sink marks, ejector pin stress marks on visible surfaces, weld lines, knit lines, splay, short shots or warping, and, there is very little flash, if any, and parting line miss-match is almost negligible where it exists. The parts also have nicely recessed panel lines for those modelers that like to pre-shade and finish off with highlighting them!
Image 3 by mldesigns58, on Flickr
The decals look awesome; everything in register on the roundels and they don't look thick like the older style decals. I can't wait to apply these! There are markings for two squadrons: "Z-Zombie" No.408 (Goose) Squadron, 6 Group, Royal Canadian Air Force, Royal Air Force Linton-On-Ouse, Yorkshire July 1944 and "F-anny Ferkin II" No.514 Squadron, 3 Group, Royal Air Force Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, November 1944.
I've decided to go with the first option because I love the Zombie nose art!
Image 4 by mldesigns58, on Flickr
The clear parts look good; I can't see any blemishes, scratches, weld lines, air traps that would create voids, gate jetting / splay marks or warpage. All parts look solid and clear, although the gun turret moldings are thicker than the cockpit canopy parts.
Image 5 by mldesigns58, on Flickr
On closer inspection, there were 4 loose parts and a piece of a tail rudder that was broken off at the tip.
Image 6 by mldesigns58, on Flickr
Looking closer at the broken rudder piece, I can see that it has sheared right at the gate entry location. Also, opposite the gate is a cut out where the rudder movement limiting piece fits which has sharp internal corners. Therefore, we have the internal shear stressing that occurs at the gate location during freeze off exacerbated by the internal stresses that occur within sharp corners. When I contacted Airfix to inform them about this broken part, I recommended that they move the gate location within the mould further down to a location central to the two slots, so it isn't opposite one of the slots where there is internal stressing at the corners. They will want to repeat a mold-flow analysis to see how this effects the overall molding process to check if the process has to be modified; ie change temperatures, pressures and times.
Image 7 by mldesigns58, on Flickr
Ohh dear! Part # 8 is missing which is the upper bearing/location bracket for the front turret machine guns.
Image 8 mod by mldesigns58, on Flickr
Damn!! Part # 33 is missing too! This is one of the two tail rudder motion limiters. Airfix just lost one star out of a possible 5 star rating for their Quality Control Inspection Engineers missing these 3 items!
Conclusion thus far: This looks like a really excellent kit of high quality for all of the contents within the box. My only complaint would be, that when I was a teenager which was the last time I built models prior to restarting this year, I built an Airfix Lancaster and it came complete with bombs. Although, there's so much more in this box than there was back then, so for the $28.00 (17.00 GBP for our UK friends) that my wife paid for this kit (Christmas present), it's absolute great value for money! I can always buy the additional bomber re-supply set and make a diorama at a later date : )
My next post for this will show stage 1: Painting the cockpit and parts on the runner systems, along with assembling the two cockpit halves together.
Cheers,
Martin
P.S. After 6 hours of frustration trying to upload photos to this post and almost giving up, I tried "Flckr" which was really simple to use.
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