After the surprise attack on Western Europe by the Russians in July 1945, things swung away from the west. Slowly using technology creep and finally putting theory into practice new platforms to enable a fight back emerged. Work was being done for Lancasters with Saddle Tanks for the Far East, but these modifications also offered an unexpected bonus.. loiter time. Fledgling work with Airborne Radar had already been done with the Night Fighters, but very little with a Surface Surveillance radar, apart from a short experiment with the Wellington.
Finally using the Lancaster a platform that could carry the bulky equipment plus crew emerged with acceptable loiter time.
Patrolling into the North Sea, the Lancaster AEW aircraft could track any Soviet incursions by naval forces. Others then began to be used over the European Battlefields. The Tide was turning back.
So.. for this group build.. what to do. I ratted the stash and found an older Airfix Lancaster, the 1980's update. Imagine the surprise when I opened the box and found that somewhere along the line I had put a Saddle Tank Resin conversion in there. Then then the Eureka Moment of a plan.
Early days yet, just fitted the saddle tank and began work on the active detector nose using the ball from a deodorant bottle.
![](https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/p2wdtswhlw409r6sd9xdm/aewlanc1.jpg?rlkey=bxmk77i5dnr9horv6fqufd1ua&raw=1)
Pretty sure it will evolve over time.