JB125/LM308: The Hoveringham Lancasters
RAF Syerston: 5 LFS (Lancaster Finishing School)

Andy Ball
In the field infront of these monuments lies the final resting places of 2 Lancasters, both crashed within a fortnight of one another in January 1945.
The monuments were erected by our neighbours on their land to commemorate the short lives of the British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand crews. The airfield is just across the River Trent at R.A.F. Syerston. In addition to these 2 crashes there were 3 others within a few kilometre-radius of my village- which shows how hazardous flying "Heavies" could be in poor weather. There are living memories in the village of what happened on those nights, and I'm sensitive to that.
At Kew in London I will have to research the radio codes for the planes, as there were no records of their configurations - other than the planes' serial numbers. (I believe they would have commenced with RC * as they were from 5 Lancaster Finishing School (5 LFS)). If anyone in the SCM community has any further information I'd appreciate it.
I will build both Airfix's and Revell's Lancasters to satisfy my curiosity as to whose tool best depicts the machine.

Łukasz Gliński
Very interesting, will follow.
PS. Lucky you, so close to the Peak District😉
PS2. Lovely naming - Hovering ham 😄

Andy Ball
Thank-you for following- this one is the 3rd and 4th in the project....Well Łukasz, I'm about 50km East of the Peaks - although my last house in Chesterfield was closer, and hillier. The name of my village means "The village on the humps in the river plains" - old English I believe. RAF Syerston had a couple of Polish Squadrons I believe, it's perfectly situated on an escarpment carved out by the river- it would give planes their lift. Around here it's pretty flat too.

Andy Ball
And we're off.......I haven't bothered with Hasegawa's overpriced and under-accurate Lancaster. This is a two-way shoot out over Revell 2007 and Airfix's from a couple of years ago....let's compare........

Micky
Good luck Andy, nice that you do your research and found meaning in your work. Also paying respect to those who died. I will star the Revell kit in a couple of weeks (I think it they used Hasegawa matrix).
I watched a couple of videos in YTube and seems a very good kit. I also found some inspiration in an Osprey book about Lancaster 1944/45 night Campaign. Also last year I was in Hendon and saw an actual Lanc and was amazing. Enjoy!

Łukasz Gliński
Is it the smell of another mini groupbuild?😉

Andy Ball
@Łukasz: you're always agitating for GB's!! - and I'm flying tandem here too!, maybe @Micky will fill us in with his real life observations from Hendon?...and show us how it's done!?

Micky
@ Andy...not sure if you are teasing me, but in Hendon Museum there is a Lancaster. I am from Argentina and last year went to London on vacation and took the train to Hendon. There is also a VR simulator that recreates the Dambusters experience. I took a lot of pictures to have actual details. That plane is also was also on the book I have told you. regards

Andy Ball
@Micky: no, not teasing you! I too have seen PO@S - and that very same Lanc flew from RAF Bottesford-now owned by my extended family.... I even made Tamiya's 48'er which hangs in their renovated control tower! So, I love the plane.

Łukasz Gliński
@Micky: props for the trip and perseverance. For you it must have been exactly the other end of the world😉
Nice to see I'm not the only one who takes every holiday opportunity to visit aviation museums (or/and airshows), however I didn't get that far away (yet I hope!)

Micky
@Thanks for sharing that experience Andy.... that plane(PO@S) has a lot of history... The Lanc always fascinated me and the one in Hendon is in very good shape. Making a 1/48 is extreme challenge I imagine.
Also cool that your family owns that place,.Is it a musuem, a comercial airfield or just private property for other purposes?
@Thanks Lukasz...It was worthy. My wife went with me to several museums(IWM, Churchill war rooms, etc) in London but that day I had to go alone. There is also a nice shop nearby called Hannats (may be you already know it)that has cool stuff.

Łukasz Gliński
@Micky: Yeah, Hannants is well known in our part of the world😉
Wish I would go there one day on my own...

Andy Ball
Hannants in Collindale, London (a tube stop or so away from Hendon) is the Mecca for modellers, went many years ago...absolutely transfixed...like a kid in a sweet (candy) shop.....IMO their prices and delivery make them uncompetitive, but for those of you paying in non-sterling currency they may be more competitive?....

Łukasz Gliński
In my case the choice between Hannants and Aviationmegastore lies rather in the items in stock than the price.
Being from the East, everything beyond Oder and Baltic seems expensive😉
Therefore all popular stuff I have to source down here, or in Ukraine.
Still, visiting the Dutch in their warehouse is hard to forget, must be the same w/Hannants😉

Micky
@Andy@Lukasz For us down here everything is expensive in pounds! We live in constant economic crisis! Nevertheless I am 48 (i am not rich but I have a decent job) and I look more for quality than quantity, so at the end of the day, the price is not my main concern. The problem in Argentina is that we do not have the right supply here and shopping on line is restricted or has huge import taxes. But at the end of the day I manage to get what I need or want. When I have the chance to travel(work or vacation) I usually increase significantly mi stash of kits paints or accessories. cheers

Marc Le Bayon
@Micky. If my memory is good enough, there is a lancaster in a museum in south of America. Argentina/Brazil/Chile...
I've seen in a book on Lanc that lasts have been sold to thoses countries in the end of 50'.

Łukasz Gliński
@Micky, my foreign travel results are exactly the same 😄 👍

Andy Ball
@Micky: ah, but you have the steak and the Malbec...😉
Seriously: if there's something you want I wonder if I bought it with your money on your behalf and shipped it whether that would get around importation duty? (I had the same with a beautiful guitar I bought from the US, it languished in UK customs until I paid £350 importation taxes....) and yes @Marc: the Argentinians were big post-war Lanc flyers as it dawns on me.

Micky
Hi @Mark what I know is that there is an Avro Lincoln in a museum in the outskirts of Buenos Aires(Former Air base Morón) in the same city that I was born and went to school. I know very well that base due to the father of my best friend was Argentinean Air force Commodore(same as Colonel) and he had invited us several times to fly in Pipers Dakota when we were young. He was a veteran of the Malvinas conflict(Falklands).
The Lincoln(to my poor knowledge) is a kind of evolution of the Lanc. This plane particularly was sadly used in 1955 to bomb Buenos Aires during civil war and military coup. Years later was put (abandoned) in the metropolitan domestic commercial airport but was highly deteriorated by weather and climate. More than 20 years ago some veterans transported the Lincoln to the aforementioned ,and abandoned, Morón base as a beautiful museum. They restored pretty well the Lincoln and now is in exhibition with other planes( Canberra, Skyhawks, Sabre, Albatros, Mirage, Pucara, Ju 52, among others) HISTORY IS ALL AROUND US!
Here is a link of that Lincoln. Youtube Video

Micky
@Andy,Thanks for your offer but I have already tried that with a Aussie friend that lives in London and they charge the same import duties. (It doubles the original price!![) Crazy thing that politicians do to fund their own corruption.

Cuajete
Interesting project. It is a good occasion to compare both moulds.
Following one more time, Andy!😉

Erik De Smet
Following too. I saw the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Lancaster a few times in the past (first in 1975 , I believe) , but is it still in flying condition ?

Łukasz Gliński
@Erik: Seen it in 2017, hopefully it's still flying

Andy Ball
@Erik: The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) still has its functioning, flying, Lancaster, based at RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire. Additionally there's another Lancaster that taxis, but doesn't fly. Of course, our Canadian cousins have theirs- flying, based in Ontario I believe.

Andy Ball
@Cuajete: thank you. Again!

Jay Dubya
While there is no obvious Australian connection to this bit of tragic history, aside from being a training place, I'll be stopping by occasionally to have a sneaky peak from down under.
BTW: I too went to Hendon & Hennants, on a day off from a business trip, in 2018. I loved how Hendon was used for the bogus US General scene in the Dirty Dozen!

Andy Ball
@Jay: yes, I thought in one of the crews there was an Aussie....but only Kiwi's and Canadians with our boys whom perished. My cousin's airfield at Bottesford had the Aussie crews I believe (Manchesters and Lancs). Anyways, many thanks for popping by.

Munkyslut
Watching😉

Andy Ball
thanks Munkyslut, belatedly!, I've loaded some updates...this goes on with the 1/24 Spit, the 1/72 Brengun Tiffie...I'm multi-tasking!