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1/144 Scale BBMF Lancaster and Dakota


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The masking was removed yesterday, and after further time to harden, the model was given a gentle rub over with a flatting pad. I started spraying future coats this morning.

 

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Edited by Army_Air_Force
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The BBMF decals don't have wing walkway lines as some 1/144 scale sets do, so I had to cut my own. They're too think for scale, but a little less than 1mm is as small as I could cut.

 

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They don't look too bad once on the wings. The ailerons are of course too big, but it's being built to a budget, so there's a limit to the changes I was prepared to do to the kit. The roundels are also possibly a fraction too big looking at photos of the real aircraft.

 

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The fins need to be attached now before the inner fin flashes are added. I can then look at some weathing from the exhausts. The wings still aren't attached properly yet.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

The fins were attached at the end of November and fin flashes added too. It was then given a dust over in clear to seal them in.

 

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The wheels and landing gear legs were also painted.

 

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The BBMF Lanc often has heavy exhaust staining across the wings. These were masked with blu-tac and sprayed. They came out heavier than I wanted, and the lighting in this picture makes them look heavier than real life. Part of the problem is using an Iwata Kustom TH airbrush bought for spraying 1/6 to 1/3 scale radio controlled aircraft, which has a 0.6mm nozzle. A bit big for 1/144 scale. I had a plan to fix it though.

 

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Prop tips were also painted.

 

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The canopy hadn't moulded well, and was missing part of the lower edge. This was built up with some tube glue and will be mostly covered by the painted lower frame edge anyway.

 

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The main canopy was masked for the frames. I always mask in straight lines and paint in stages, rather than masking lots of tiny squares and triangles and paint all the frames in one go. The straight line method allows much easier masking. The turrets were all painted freehand, squinting through a x15 watch makers magnifier. 

 

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To tone down the exhaust staining, I used a cotton bud, and stippled green and brown over the exhaust marks, similar to dry brushing. The canopy was placed on just for the pictures, but the frame painting wasn't complete at the time. The wings are also not attached yet, just pushed into place for the pictures.

 

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The wheels were clipped into the legs and the Lanc set up for a few photos.

 

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The Dak was also given a coat of primer to check the fuselage and wing seams. The tailplanes have been left off for now, as I know I'd end up knocking them off while trying to sand other parts of the fuselage!

 

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  • 1 month later...

Life got in the way recently, but the Dak finally got its tail on a couple of days ago.

 

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After a bit of filling and sanding of the tailplane joints, the nacelle lower halves were fitted.

 

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In the kit, there were two sets of cowlings, and three sets of front nacelle sections of different lengths. After a check of a photo of the BBMF Dak, I picked the combination that looked the closest match and attached the engines to the nacelle front sections.

 

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I printed out a Dakota plan and side views, and using photos of the original found online, drew out the camo pattern on the drawing. I then went to the workshop and copied the pattern onto the model.

 

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Because of the tight space between the fuselage and nacelles, I decided not to mask and spray the green, but to brush paint it freehand instead. There's a slight shine on part of the brown on the fuselage where the brown is still wet. That had to be touched up after accidentally getting some green on it while trying to paint the inside face of the starboard nacelle.

 

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Today, the masking on the sky underside was removed, and the whole model given a light wet rub down with a flatting pad to knock off any lumps and bumps. There's a couple of minor touch ups where the thin green paint crept along panel lines, but otherwise came out well. After the touch ups, it will be time for a gloss coat and decals.

 

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Edited by Army_Air_Force
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These are looking great. Nice recovery on the exhaust streaks on the Lancaster. It gives the aircraft a nice, slightly weathered look. 

 

I'm feeling slightly nostalgic seeing your work on the Lancaster. My dad built me a 1/144th kit when I was younger. Think it might have been a Minicraft kit. 

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I built my first Crown Lanc back in the 1980's I think. The crash diorama at the start of this thread was from the Minicraft rebox, built around 2011. The Minicraft version had much nicer styrene to work with. The Crown kit had a very hard and brittle plastic.

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Yesterday, the Dak was given a gloss coat and left to harden while I worked on other projects.

 

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Today, I got to start decalling. The decals came from a mixture of leftovers from the BBMF Lancaster set and from the spares box.

 

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Fortunately for the 'AI' squadron codes, the BBMF Lanc set had a red 'V' and 'T' amongst them. The arms of the 'T' was cut off to make the 'I' and the cut off parts, along with the 'V' inverted, made the 'A'.

 

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I couldn't resist a quick picture of the pair together.

 

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I also made the graphic for the Pegasus logo on the nose, and printed that onto decal paper. It was given a protective sprayed coat, but left overnight to fully cure before it gets dunked in water.

 

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Later in the day, the Lancaster was jigged up and its wings were glued in place and left to dry.

 

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Nose turret fitted to the Lancaster. I've left off the plastic guns and will fit thin brass rod instead.

 

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The top turret was much too tall, so about 1/16 inch was sanded off the bottom of the turret until it sat much lower in the fuselage. It's still the wrong profile, looking more like a Martin turret, but it will do. Because the original gun barrel slots were now lost below the fairing, new barrel holes were drilled.

 

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The bomb aimer's nose glazing and canopy are fitted.

 

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The tailwheel is just pushed in place for the photo. The fragile wheel and props may be left off the model until it's just about ready for final framing to reduce the chance of damage.

 

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Today, the Lancaster was armed! The brass gun barrels were fitted. They are still far too big for scale, but an improvement on the plastic kit parts.

 

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Top turret. The barrels were glue in with PVA, which is still wet in this shot and hasn't yet dried clear.

 

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