1:72 Avro Anson

The Avro Anson, the aircraft nicknamed Faithful Annie

The machine grew out of a small twin-engine transport of the 1930s, and the Royal Air Force introduced it for patrolling over the coast. It soon turned out that its real strength lay elsewhere: in the classroom behind the pilot. Thousands of Ansons flew in the British and overseas training program, where navigators, radio operators and gunners trained on them, and the aircraft earned the nickname Faithful Annie through its reputation as a machine that would bring a crew home in any weather. Retracting the landing gear was done with a crank that someone in the crew had to turn more than a hundred times, which became the subject of many a story.

A greenhouse above the fuselage

The Anson is demanding to mask precisely because it was meant to give its crew a view in every direction. The cockpit and the windows following it form a long glazed area with dense framing. The prepared parts divide it into manageable sections and the builder avoids starting again after an hour of work with tape.

• The cut comes from the Special Hobby kit in 1:72 scale
• It covers the long glazed area above the fuselage
• The package consists of masks, not decals or parts
• The material follows the slight bulge of the windows
• Peeling off leaves no residue on the glazing

Training machines are built in conspicuous yellow finishes, on which sharp framing stands out even more than on camouflaged aircraft. The contrast between a saturated color and a clear area is so strong that any paint that has run under the edge shows at first glance, even without a magnifier.