1:32 Avro Lancaster

The last two airworthy examples in the world

Of all the British four engine bombers built, only two remain in the air and one of them belongs to a British memorial flight. It is its appearance that the sheet captures. The machine has a serial number of its own from the end of the war but wears historical markings which change every few years, to commemorate a different crew and a different unit. The version captured represents an aircraft with the codes KC and the letter A, that is a machine of No. 617 Squadron, completed with a nickname carrying the ordinal marking of the third in that line.

A peculiarity of commemorative finishes is that the left and right sides often commemorate two different aircraft. A visitor to an air show therefore sees something different on every pass, which on a model means an important decision before the build begins.

The memorial flight tours the whole country with the bomber and fighters of the same generation accompany it. A display has a fixed scenario: a pass in front of the crowd, a slow circuit and a departure upward, so that the airframe is stressed as little as possible.

The period you choose

Before applying the printing, look up a photograph from the particular season. The shade of the ocher and green fields, the position of the national insignia and the form of the lettering on the landing gear doors all changed between individual overhauls. The commemorative machine is the best documented bomber there is, so source material is easy to find.

The package covers the surface markings of one fuselage and does not hold the kit itself. Models of this type in 1:32 are among the largest things by span that can be set on a table.