1:32 Avro Lancaster B.I

The striding gentleman from a distiller's advertisement

Few pieces of nose art stayed in memory as long as the one carried by the machine with serial number W4954. A figure in a top hat with a cane was painted on it, taken from an advertisement for Scotch whisky, and a slogan about still going strong was added. The more bomb symbols accumulated beneath the artwork, the better that slogan fitted, and the crews took it for their own.

The aircraft served with No. 9 Squadron of the Royal Air Force at the station of Bardney in Lincolnshire. This unit was among those which at the end of the war attacked German targets moored in the Norwegian fjords with heavy bombs, and its machines tended to be modified for an unusually large load. The printing captures the appearance from 1944, when the aircraft carried the fuselage codes WS and the individual letter J. No. 9 then shared its airfield with ground crews who had individual machines personally assigned, and it was the mechanics who were the authors of most of the artwork on the noses.

Artwork on a curved side

The nose of a bomber curves in two directions at once, so a large piece of artwork is not laid on it in one piece. Cut it out close to the printed edge, place it in position and press it out from the center to the edges with a dampened cotton swab until the last bubble has gone from under it. Only then come the bomb symbols, which are aligned to an imaginary line drawn along the lower edge of the artwork.

The sheet holds the markings of a single fuselage and assumes the modeler has the kit and paints prepared in advance.