Previous to this, I had not had much interest in the Shackleton, not out of apathy or anything else like that, but because of the sheer volume of aircraft types which have been available over the years, and simply out of a desire to not get overloaded from taking on lots and lots of new projects.

However, as tales of Mr(Dr.?) Murphy's Laws may attest, never say never, and such is this case.

In one of the Yahoo Groups I subscribe to, one of the members of an aviation group published a photo of a Shackleton, or at least what I think is a Shackleton, in that it has Griffon engines with contraprops, and just looks like one. However, this one has Canadian markings, with bands of International Orange, and has a drone of some sort, I believe a Firebee that is painted red, and the nose of the aircraft is very different from all the pictures of Shackletons I have been able to find.

And when I tried to find if there were ever any in Canadian service, that drilled well hole came up dry.

And the photo shows, to me, a very handsome flying machine, one that would be worth modelling, only I'd like to know more, if this was in fact a Shackleton, or another craft that looks similar but is not.

I know of Lancaster firebee mother aircraft in RCAF service such as this one

but I've never heard that the RCAF used Shacks.

Can you post a link to the picture in question?

That's the exact photo I saw in the Yahoo Group.

Is that a Shackleton, or something very similar?

And is that drone a Ryan Firebee, or what?

I see my mistake. It is a Lancaster, not a Shackleton(which demonstrates my "profound" intellect or lack thereof).

This is what I get for ASSuming.

The Lancaster is the Shackleton's "grandfather" via the Lincoln so it's not surprising that you confused the two. The RCAF used the Lancs to carry early first generation Firebee drones in the 1950s.

I just found that out(it's amazing how easy it is to branch out a bunch when doing research on one item).

The Lanc in the photo is a Mk X, right?

Are there any models of the X, or can an existing kit be modified relatively easily to that mark?

The Mk X was a Mk III which was built in Canada. There are no significant external differences (before post-war modifications, anyway). Any Lancaster kit will suffice. If you're doing an post-war RCAF Lanc there were any number of mods made depending on what its mission was at the time but they're up to you to do

If you want to model this one, Belcher Bits does the Firebees and once upon a time they did a decal sheet but it appears to be out of production now.

I'm having a spot of bother reading those engines as Griffons with contraprops, but what I don't know vastly exceeds what I do, so I'm not about to complain.

That is indeed a fine-looking Lancaster and you can get to one fairly easily from the Hasegawa or new Airfix kits. A friend of mine recently built the Canadian preserved Lancaster from the Airfix kit - you can find it on Britmodeller.

But your first thought was also a good one. The Shackleton was a dear old thing (best known as the Old Grey Lady) and Airfix are bringing out a new kit of the MR.Mk.2 at the end of this year. It promises to be a cracker. Look for pictures of Mk.2 Shackletons, especially the ones with white roofs, and you'll quickly see that it will be well worth doing.

Now, Canadian, maritime patrol ... where's my Argus?

Here?

Or in a more manageable scale and format, here and here.

Won't a Canadian Lanc need a Martin twin 50 dorsal turret? Did Airfix include one in the new kit?

Not necessarily, and certainly not for any postwar Lanc. The first production Lancaster Xs had the British turret (I can't recall exactly when the switch was made), and postwar the mid-upper was the first to be removed and faired over.

No Sean, I had a brain fart, pure and simple. I just looked, without my usual care for attention to detail, and simply ASSumed that it was a Shack with that those were Griffons with contraprops.

You could say I was dazzled by a classy lady's makeup without seeing the rest of her.

Of course, removing the turret would make sense.