Excellent detail again for the right-side bomb bay door, including the thirteen lightening discs and the operating
crank forward. The right side gear nacelle is behind. The three cross members supporting the shiny plastic panel will
be modern, probably a “Health and Safety” museum addition.The tailwheel, its axle, and the claw holding the axle. Note how the rearmost tailplane stay is fixed right at the very
bottom of the ventral fuselage line.The bomb bay doors again, but this time looking to the rear towards the
bombardier’s gondola. The fairing in the foreground, with the short yellow shape
protruding, is offset to the left side. The fairing ends with a short continuation onto
the outer surface of the left-side bomb door.The bombardier’s gondola showing loads of useful detail. I have doubts that some kits have the lower fuselage
side windows in the correct position, relative to the gondola under-windows; here, note how the under-window is
placed very close to the entry door’s rearmost hinge. The two oval shapes are the extensible “trouser” fairings for the
bombardier’s legs. Some drawings and photographs show a transparent flat panel at the nose of the gondola, not
the plain, curved fairing shown here. In fact, both are correct! During the bomb run the fairing was drawn up into the
fuselage to reveal a flat transparent panel behind, situated just ahead of the triangular side windows.The rear of the gondola. Luckily, the collapsible quarter-round doors that cover
the aperture for the ventral gun (no gun fitted here) have been left open, but note
the thin tracks along which the doors were slid to open and to close. Note also
that, by the time the rear of the gondola is reached, the cross-section changes to a
circular shape (the Airfix kit is at fault on this one).Excellent detail for one of the main wheels, probably the left side. If this were a
model, it might be said that the modeller had not removed the flash from the rear
edges of the X-shaped struts! The gear door actuators are included in an Eduard
set.84 • MARCH 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL
082-85-VP-Sm79-0318.indd 84 09/02/2018 15:43