Avro Lancatser BIII - Dambuster

Airfix 1/72nd scale kit (2013)

This kit is built from the box. Few war-time stories have captured the imagination in the way that the ‘Dams raid’ of WW2 has. 80 yaesr on it is still a fascinating story. Immortalised in the excellent 1954 film starring Richard Todd and Michael Redgrave, in fact many people do not beleive it is a true story.

The goal was to destroy the mighty dams in the Ruhr Valley deemed vital to the German war effort. A specially formed squadron (617), flying uniquely converted Lancaster bombers at very low level (60 feet, at night, over water!) to deliver a top-secret - and frankly fantatsic - weapon. The Bouncing Bomb would skip along the resevoir, going over the anti-torpedo nets and coming to rest at the Dam wall, where it gently sank under the water, rolling down the wall until at a specified depth - of 120 feet - the explosives were detonated using the force of the water to supress the blast and focus all of the energy into the Dam wall, breaching it. Incredible.

I had a minor accident and lost the guns for the front turret. I had the contemporary Revell 1/72 nd scale Lancaster and was able to steal the guns from that kit. they were not identical to the Airfix guns, but fit quite nicely. The framing of the cockpit and turrets was done with very thin Trim-Tape painted and cut to fit. The slightly over-scale thickness is an acceptable trade off (for me) in order to get straight framing. I was pleased with how the streaking from the exhausts on the wings came out as this seems to be quite apparent in pictures of Lancasters in operation in WW2. The 617 Lancaasters were fresh from the factory so may have had only minor signs of wear. I painted the boincing bomb a shade of green similar to regular RAF bombs of the time, although there are reports of some bombs being painted black, or even ‘primer’ red. The stand is custom made.

Avro Lancaster designed by Roy Chadwick

Bouncing Bomb (codename Upkeep) designed by Barnes Wallis

617 Squadrion under the command of Guy Gibson