Airfix Avro Lancaster B.I RAF 1/72 A05001-8

First introduced into RAF service in 1942, the basic form of the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber changed little during its production run and the Mark 1 continued in production to the end. The B.Mk1 (F.E.) was a special tropicalized version designed for a campaign that never took place – the RAF’s strategic bombing assault on Imperial Japan’s Asian Empire. With the dropping of Atomic bombs by US forces, there was no requirement for deployment but the near-new airframes were available to equip the squadrons of a much-reduced RAF Bomber Command in the early years of peace. The F.E. versions featured a very distinctive colour scheme; Black undersides were logical for what was intended to be a night bomber, White upper surfaces to deflect tropical heat and to provide camouflage on long over-water flights. These specialised Lancasters were intended to be part of Tiger Force, an integrated strike and transport force that would range over the Far East in 1946 and beyond. Following Japan’s surrender on 2 September 1945, Tiger Force was abruptly disbanded on 31 October in that year, without ever being deployed. Bomber Command was drastically reduced to a peacetime complement of some 270 Lancasters spread across 22 Squadrons. The nearly-new Tiger Force Lancasters went into service while hundreds of war-weary airframes headed for the scrap yard and the type was gradually supplanted by the successor Avro Lincoln, a process completed by late 1949.