Launcester Lance, interpreted .... ** Finished **

[PaulBradley]

Very nice, John!

[JohnRatzenberger]

Thanks to Tamiya TS-17 Gloss Aluminum, it is now that color.
Managed to sneak that in, giving me more time tomorrow afternoon and Sunday.

[lancfan]

Brilliant job John.

David.

[MarkyM607]

Looks nice. I think a two-blade prop would suit this, looking at the front view.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Yes, I had been thinking 2-blade all along, then convinced myself the 3-blade might be more appropriate for the "recently obsolete" aircraft, but now I'm back to the two-blade.

My quandary is still the markings. The Lances were unmarked on the ferry flight and thus the first combat (although the 1938 book cover does show markings!). On the one hand, it is not reasonable to think Smyth & Carter painted them on that night, given all the effort to relocate from the hangar into the tree-line, before their flight in the morning to force down the bomber.

On the other hand, would Biggles have not wanted to be proper & correct and the application of markings was done but not noted.

But on the other, other hand, Biggles has no reluctance to swipe & fly an enemy-marked aircraft, so who knows ....

Now I'm sure that, post story, they were all properly marked.

Sigh ....

[Stuart]

If Smyth had applied markings to them whilst in the process of moving them to the hangercin the trees I suspect they would have been very simple - even just the tail maybe.

I would have thought Biggles would have wanted them marked for the first patrol - if he'd gone to the trouble of getting a uniform.

The two blade prop sounds good!

[lancfan]

Don't forget that W.E. Johns would not have thought of such things when he wrote the book and remember that the illustrators were very loose in interpreting the stories so try not to over think this, it may be better to think instead of how you imagine it should have looked and go with that. Don't forget these were childrens' books, when you read the book go with your imagination- You cannot be wrong.

David.

[JohnRatzenberger]

I'll need Monday to finish up.

Rigging is done, just need to cleanup after. Then glue on wheels, prop, and windscreen.

It will be bare silver dope, unmarked, as on the ferry flight and 1st dogfight.

[VickersVandal]

This looks great! A very convincing Lance.

It's frustrating the mismatch between the stories and the illustrations, isn't it!

[JohnRatzenberger]

And here we are, represented as the ferry flight and first combat. I have detailed most the changes to make it somewhat like the text and pix, so boys book or not it's as close as my AMS can get me Yes, I've tried to out-think a boy's book







Thoroughly enjoyed the idea behind this GB, doing the research, etc. I regret, and apologize, that my time was otherwise occupied, again, so I didn't participate as much as I should.

[AndrewR]

That looks great, John.

[lancfan]

That is a superb model John.

David.

[PaulBradley]

Lovely, John!

[VickersVandal]

Superb! Those Lovitznian single-sweaters are in for a rough time.

[MarkyM607]

Excellent, looks really good. Did wonder what you were letting us in for at the start but should have known better than to doubt the Jratz!!!