Re: Airvell 1/72 Avro Winchester B.I/B.III

[Captain Canada]

Very nice ! I'm sure it's an oft thought build for many of us, so it's nice to see it for real....especially so well done !

[Old Wombat]

Thanks, Fred!

I survived!


Thanks to you, too, Cap!

I'll agree it is well done; right up to the point where I started on the undercarriage, & the bomb bay & wheel well doors, then things went sideways. Badly!


Tomorrow, with any luck, may be the day I get her finished. We'll see what happens, eh?!

[NARSES2]

Thanks, Fred!

I survived!

Good to read 

[Old Wombat]

Today, well, yesterday, now, was not the day I finished her.

Tom Today might be.....

.....but matt coating made great blobs of gluey lumpiness highly visible along the rear half of one of the hinge lines of the bomb bay doors.

I don't want to have to fix it but the craftsman inside me is telling me that I must fix it; & he's probably right, otherwise it'll bug me for all eternity if I don't.

[Wardukw]

Damn mate this thing is kicking your back side nine ways to Sunday...why the hell is it when some ..well most builds go off without a hitch and yet there's just one that will fight you every step of the way? .
It's strange and it sucks and freaking annoying.

[Old Wombat]

As I said up in Post #271, Phill, this build was almost as smooth as silk, right up to the landing gear & the wheel/bomb bay doors, then things went South ... Fast!  

[Wardukw]

The exact same thing as that B58 ..everything was great...then poop city ..right towards the end and its crap pickle time .
Same with the Stalker..painted ..decaled and then poop.
So now I'm building another tank 

[Old Wombat]

A-and "great blobs of gluey lumpiness" reduced but not eliminated.

In the meantime "Village Inn" is being a village idiot but I'm slowly making headway with it.

[NARSES2]

I don't want to have to fix it but the craftsman inside me is telling me that I must fix it; & he's probably right, otherwise it'll bug me for all eternity if I don't.

Yup, if you don't fix it you'll be waking up in the early hours thinking about it 

[Old Wombat]

I don't want to have to fix it but the craftsman inside me is telling me that I must fix it; & he's probably right, otherwise it'll bug me for all eternity if I don't.

Yup, if you don't fix it you'll be waking up in the early hours thinking about it 

Yeah, well, I beat him with a big stick & threatened him with a slow & painful demise until he accepted a compromise of "better but not good".

[Old Wombat]

Well, it looks like tomorrow may be the day I f-i-n-a-l-l-y get this mongrel finished!

Seriously, though, she was, actually, a dream build for the first 2/3-to-3/4, then things went to Hell in a Handbasket.

The finish is, generally, quite good, except where the stuff-ups were. So, she won't get pride of place in the display cabinet but she won't get relegated to the deepest, darkest dungeon, either.

After the required duties are performed around the house tomorrow, I'll fit the last turret & try to get some photo's done before dark.

[Wardukw]

Now mate I am gonna enjoy seeing those pics that is for sure 👌 

[Old Wombat]

Photo's & backstory are being processed, so here's something to keep you entertained.

Specifications (Manchester Mk I)

General characteristics
   Crew: 7; pilot, flight engineer, navigator, bomb aimer/nose gunner, wireless operator, mid-upper and rear gunners
   Length: 70 ft (21.34 m)
   Wingspan: 90 ft 1 in (27.46 m)
   Height: 19 ft 6 in (5.94 m)
   Empty weight: 31,200 lb (14,152 kg)
   Max takeoff weight: 50,000 lb (22,680 kg)
   Powerplant: 2 × Rolls-Royce Vulture I X-24 liquid-cooled piston engine, 1,760 hp (1,310 kW) each
   Propellers: 3-bladed constant-speed feathering propellers

Performance
   Maximum speed: 265 mph (426 km/h, 230 kn) at 17,000 ft (5,182 m)
   Range: 1,200 mi (1,900 km, 1,000 nmi) with maximum bomb load of 10,350 lb (4,695 kg)
   Service ceiling: 19,200 ft (5,900 m)

Armament
   Guns: 8 × 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns, (nose (2), dorsal (2) and tail (4) turrets)
   Bombs: 10,350 lb (4,695 kg) bomb load


Specifications (Lancaster I)

General characteristics
   Crew: 7: pilot, flight engineer, navigator, bomb aimer/nose gunner, wireless operator, mid-upper and rear gunners
   Length: 69 ft 4 in (21.13 m)
   Wingspan: 102 ft 0 in (31.09 m)
   Height: 20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
   Empty weight: 36,900 lb (16,738 kg)
   Max takeoff weight: 68,000 lb (30,844 kg)
   Powerplant: 4 × Rolls-Royce Merlin XX V-12 liquid-cooled piston engines, 1,280 hp (950 kW) each
   Propellers: 3-bladed

Performance
   Maximum speed: 282 mph (454 km/h, 245 kn) at 63,000 lb (28,576 kg) and 13,000 ft (3,962 m) altitude
   Range: 2,530 mi (4,070 km, 2,200 nmi)
   Service ceiling: 21,400 ft (6,500 m) at 63,000 lb (29,000 kg)
   Rate of climb: 720 ft/min (3.7 m/s) at 63,000 lb (29,000 kg) and 9,200 ft (2,800 m) altitude

Armament
   Guns: 8 × 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns, (nose (2), dorsal (2) and tail (4) turrets)
   Bombs: Maximum normal bomb load of 14,000 lb (6,400 kg) of bombs


Specifications (Winchester Mk III)

General characteristics
   Crew: 6; pilot, flight engineer, navigator/ wireless operator, bomb aimer, nose and rear gunners
   Length: 67 ft 6 in (21.43 m)
   Wingspan: 90 ft (27.46 m)
   Height: 18 ft (5.47 m)
   Empty weight: 29,000 lb (13,154 kg)
   Max takeoff weight: 60,000 lb (27,216 kg)
   Powerplant: 2 × English Electric/Napier Sabre Vb H-24-cylinder, liquid-cooled, sleeve valve, piston aero engine, 2,850 hp (2,130 kW) each
   Propellers: 4-bladed de Havilland or Rotol constant-speed propellers

Performance
   Maximum speed: 295 mph (475 km/h, 256 kn) at 17,000 ft (5,182 m)
   Range: 2,250 mi (3,620 km, 1955 nmi) with maximum bomb load of 12,000 lb (5445 kg)
   Service ceiling: 20,500 ft (6,250 m)

Armament
   Guns: 4 × 20 mm Hispano Mk.III autocannon, (nose (2) and tail (2) turrets)
   Bombs: 13,000 lb (5,900 kg) maximum bomb load

[Wardukw]

I like the Winchester lll..alot more power      

[Old Wombat]

Bomb! B-b-bomb! Bomb!
Bomb! B-b-bomb! Bomb!
Bomb! B-b-bomb! Bomb!
Bomb! B-b-BOMB!



Avro Winchester:

The Winchester had developed an early reputation of unreliability due to its Napier Sabre engines, with the Napier company appearing to be complacent about various issues with the engines, including extremely poor quality control, and the squadron flight crews and maintainers were not too happy about receiving them.

However, Napier had been forcibly acquired by English Electric in December 1941*, on the insistence of the Ministry of Aircraft Production, and English Electric had been quick to rectify the QC issues and had fixed most of the design problems by March 1942, moving on to develop a new turbo-supercharger to improve high-altitude performance. The Winchesters supplied to 465 Squadron RAAF were the latest versions including all of these improvements and were soon loved by the personnel.

Developed in parallel with the Lancaster by Avro to replace its less-than-stellar predecessor, the Manchester, the Winchester was smaller than either aircraft, but not by a lot, and, despite its poor start, had developed into a reliable, relatively fast and agile bomber occupying the niche role of heavy-medium bomber.


Avro Winchester TZ-W (MW496) of 465 Sqn RAAF operating out of RAF Winthorpe:

No. 465 Squadron RAAF was an Article XV Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) bomber squadron during World War II. Formed in the United Kingdom in July 1942, and flying out of RAF Swinderby, from its formation until January 1943, when the squadron moved barely 5 miles to RAF Winthorpe, due to operational problems during poor weather at their former airfield, the squadron undertook combat operations in Europe until the end of the war, flying the heavy-medium Winchester bomber aircraft.

Unlike most Article XV RAAF squadrons, 465 Squadron benefited from an influx of RAAF graduates of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan arriving just as it was formed and a little over 30% of its aircrew were Australian, with the rest coming from the other BCATP signatories plus, somehow, a smattering of Poles, Czechs and one Ukrainian, who had fled Stalin's "Collectivisation" Holodomor.

No. 465 Squadron led a hectic life from the moment it was formed and TZ-W (MW496) was there from the start. By March 1944 she had clocked up 99 missions & had kept 3 crews safe to the end of their tours of duty, with an upgrade from Mk.I to Mk.III, by replacing her English Electric improved Napier Sabre Mk.IIs with English Electric/Napier Sabre Vb (bomber) engines with improved altitude performance (achieved by fitting a much better turbo-supercharger), after her 50th mission.

TZ-W (MW496) was lost with all her crew on the night of the 24th-25th of March, 1944, on the ill-fated final big RAF bombing mission over Berlin. This was her 100th mission and the crew's final mission before being rotated off front-line combat duties. It is believed she was shot down by a Ju.88 night-fighter.



In memory of all those who lost their lives in Bomber Command, 1939-1945.



































And for whoever it was who said that this & the B-25 were comparable:





[*: This is fudging history a bit by bringing the enforced take-over of Napier by English Electric forward by 12 months.]