Avro Lancaster B II Bomber

Before starting a kit build, I always check the contents carefully and thoroughly. The molded parts in this kit were impeccable; crisp, clean, flash free with nicely detailed parts, including recessed panel lines. This is the first representation by any manufacturer of the B.II version of Lancaster Bomber with the four Bristol Hercules radial engines. This is new tooling and it shows! The decals are excellent with the choice to represent two different aircraft. The parts go together well, except for the 4 upper wing engine access panels that were a little sloppy in their fit, but with some patient filing / sanding, they dropped in place nicely. The new design for fitting the wings to the fuselage is solid, utilizing cross members that go through the fuselage and out both sides, with the inner engine framing / struts and wheel well assemblies included for extra rigidity. When fitting the wings, the internal framing they locate onto will need some filing and dry fitting, until the fit is perfect. I didn't have to use any filler, just smoothing of all the glue joints. The interior cockpit comes with one figure only, has a decal for the instrument panel, a seat, joy-stick, navigators table and seat. There are some features on the internal side walls, too. The only negatives I had with this kit were that upon initial inspection, two of the small parts were missing from their sprues, possibly fell off during the manufacturing, inspection, packaging process. These were parts whose gates were very tiny from which the slightest twist of the part would break them free. The port side tail rudder was also broken at the tip, right at the gate entry point; probably due to the internal shear stresses that build up around the gate location during the molding process. But, I called Airfix customer service in the UK, who were very helpful, and replacement parts arrived 10 days later. I would have given this kit 5 stars based on the price, the quality of the kit contents, the amount of the contents and how well it looks when put together, but for those few missing and broken items obviously missed during the inspection process, I had to penalize Airfix for the mishap in their quality control. Overall; if you're a fan of the Lancaster Bomber, this is a must have, you won't regret it! For the beginner modeler, you'll need some patience, there are a lot of parts and you will need to do some dry fitting / checking before gluing. Airfix have come a long way since the 1970's, I absolutely loved this kit and highly recommend it!