Guy Gibson's Dambuster Lancaster - Group Build Redux

[FZ6]

Back in 2014 I entered the Bomber Command Group Build inspired by a recent trip to the Derwent Reservoir to see the two Lancasters fly over the Dam.

 

 

I made a start but didn't get very far as the bomb aimers blister was scarred by poor moulding and I put it to one side while I contacted Airfix to get a replacement. They got back to me saying they had no spares at the time and they would send me a replacement as soon as they had them in stock. The model ended up on the back burner and last year I decided to chase it up as I had never heard back from Airfix and realised that it had been 2 years since my original request and after chasing it up and getting a replacement the build was finally back on. My motivation has been fuelled further with a couple of book purchases I've recently made and a visit to East Kirkby braving the pouring rain last friday on my bike to make the trip to take part in one of the winter maintenance tours East Kirkby are offering at the moment as it is a unique opportunity to see a Lancaster stripped down to bare metal and see areas of detail you don't see every day such as fuel tank bays and engine nacelles without fairings. Even the H2S Dish!

 

 

While I was there I also discovered that the Control Column and Throttle Quadrant from Gibson's Lancaster were recovered before was scrapped and are on display in the museum as part of an exhibit.

 

 

Deciding which colour to paint the interior was another stumbling block. I wasn't sure which areas of the interior to paint black and which parts would have been interior green. I used a but of artistic license and painted some of the interior green that may have been black so that the detail can be seen on the model when looking through the canopy. I painted the interior with Humbrol Matt Black (33) and Interior Green (78) I lightened the Interior Green with some sky in areas to make the detail stand out a bit more in the dark interior and did the same with black by lightening it with 67 and 87.

 

I painted the seats in Humbrol 30 and went over them with some oil paint. The Flight engineers seat was modified so it could be displayed folded up and the Radio Operators and Navigators seats were CMK ones. I used the kit pilots seat. I used the pre-coloured seat belts that came with this set. I also used an Eduard zoom set for the interior as the pre coloured wireless sets and instrument panels really set it off nicely. Also the full interior set was a lot more expensive and I was unsure how much would be seen. After the outside of the fuselage was painted in black primer so I could make sure the areas around the windows were black I glued the windows in with some two part epoxy and filled the gaps with pva to make sure they were secure.

 

 

 

 

 

Before closing up the fuselage there were a couple of mods I did.  Firstly after test fitting I decided to glue a couple of plasticard strips onto the underside of the mid upper turret fairing so it sat flush when it was fitted and the fuselage halves were closed up.

 

 

I also decided to replace the escape hatches. so they had a clear window. I thought about painting the window gloss black and masking it off but thought as it would have a join line which maybe difficult to eradicate as it was recessed I decided to cut out the hatches and replace them completely. The way I did this was to first cut a hole in a piece of 10 thou plasticard the size of the window. I then trimmed it down so the hatched matched the kit one and the window was in the centre. Once I had the replacement hatches I cut them out of the lit fuselage making sure the openings were slightly smaller than the hatches. The next step is to paint the hatch, add an acetate window and fix it in position.

 

 

 

I did some research into the colour of the signal lights on the underside of the aircraft and after I came to the conclusion they were Red, Green, Amber fore to aft I used a technique I've been meaning to try for a while now for the lenses. I used some of the metallic foil confetti you can get for putting in cards of the relevant colours and cut some discs out the size of the lamps with my trusty punch and die set and fixed these in place to the underside of the lamps with Klear then backed with a piece of black plasticard. They look really effective and I'll have to take a pic of the underside with the lights showing to demonstrate as I seem to have forgotten to do this.

 

 

Once the fuselage had been closed up I could attach the top wings and all the bulkheads in the undercarriage bays as well as reuniting the wing spar with the bits that broke off early in construction. I then painted the inside of the wings using the same technique of the interior green to give the detail a chance of being seen. Note the fit of the bomb bay fairing is not great. The interior was a tight fit and an think it's prevented the fuselage from fully closing up in places which has affected the fit of the bomb bay and fairings.

 

 

Lower wing with landing light lenses in place using the same technique as the signal lamps.

 

 

Here we see the Lancaster with the lower wings and engine nacelles in place and the tail dry fitted. The fit of the tail planes is so tight that it can be fitted without glue! The fit of the lower wings was tricky and I think this was again down to the fit of the fuselage halves closing up. I had to do a fair bit of trimming and clean up to get the lower wings to fit as I have had to do with a lot of parts on this model I thought would just fall into place.

 

 

The panels above the inboard engines are taped into place because the main undercarriage legs are attached to the wing spar and slot in from above through here.

 

Next step for me is to clean up all the seams and the undercarriage parts. I can then paint the undercarriage before fitting and hopefully they won't get damaged during further handling of the model. the fit of the panels is not great so I can't leave them off till the end.

 

I'm enjoying making this kit so far and can see myself making a couple more of these in the future.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Crossofiron1971]

Lovely work sir!

Great subject too, seeing that exhibit in the flesh would send a bit of a shiver down my spine...

 

[Thom216]

Lovely Lancaster getting all dolled up!