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Avro Lincoln B.2/4A 1/72 scale Airfix conversion


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Hi

My entry for the Lancaster SIG Group Build will be an Avro Lincoln B.2/4A in 1/72 scale. As most of you will know the Lincoln was originally to be named the Lancaster IV or V (depending on whether they used Rolls Royce or Packard engines), and the type was often described as the 'long range Lancaster'. It therefore follows a direct lineage from the Avro Manchester to eventually become the last piston engined bomber to be employed under operational conditions by the RAF.

I have long planned to build a Lincoln as part of a project to construct examples of all the types that have flown from my local airfield, RAF Wyton, since the end of WWII. In the mid to late 1940s, a Wing of 4 Lincoln bomber sqns flew from Wyton (XV, 44 90 and 138 Sqns). The aircraft I intend to build however, will be a machine from 1323 Radar Reconnaissance Flight which flew alongside EE Canberras as airborne listening posts during the early 1950s. I have seen a drawing of the aircraft I will build - serial RE319/A, in SAM Vol 12 No 4. The overall colours will be the Bomber Command scheme of the early 1950s of medium sea grey and black, with white codes and wing serials, and red fuselage serials.

Pictured beneath is the kit and accessories I have obtained in order to undertake this project.

lanc1a.jpg

These include the Airfix Lancaster B.I/B.III (from the BBMF Collection). This kit will then be converted using the Flightpath Lincoln B.2 resin conversion. To this I have also obtained Resin Art Lincoln mainwheels, Alleycat Lincoln tailplanes and 2 x Master-Model 0.5 calibre cannons for the rear turret. For reference, I have a copy of the Warpaint Avro Lincoln book and the aforementioned SAM magazine. Decals will be from my decal bank. I'm really looking forward to this build and will send in build reports after Jan 9th as construction gets underway!

Regards

Mark

Edited by canberraman
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Well start date for the Lancaster SIG has finally arrived and I have just come in from the model shed after a fairly exhausting first day of constructing the Lincoln. In the preceding days I have been doing as much research as time will allow on the idiosyncracies of the later bomber, and studying the areas where there is significant difference to the Lanc i.e. cockpit/bomb aimers compartment, and the main wheels and wheel wells. I have also been sure to study closely the Flightpath Lincoln conversion set and the scale plans that are provided with the Warpaint book.

After checking all the parts were present and in good order, I proceeded to wash the resin components in warm soapy water. The first and most daunting task was to be to cut the Airfix Lancater fuselage into three, immediately ahead of the cockpit for the Lincoln nose, and then twice mid way along to allow the plug to extend the length. Fortunately there are panel lines that form a guide for where the cuts are required, so with patience and a fine tooth razor saw I undertook the necessary surgery. Stage 2 was straightforward, I constructed the tailplanes and elevators from the Airfix kit. The only modification that will be needed at a later stage will be to alter the fittings for the Alleycat Lincoln tail fins and rudders which are designed for the Revell Lanc. The third stage was to begin the task of removing the multitude of rivets from the Airfix Lancaster fuselage which are oversized and should not in my opinion be visible on the 1/72nd scale build. This was done with 400 grit and progressively finer wet and dry.

lincoln-1.jpg

lincoln-2.jpg

The main assembly today has been the rear turret. The Lancaster was equipped with 4 x .303 machine guns which were replaced in the Lincoln by a pair of 0.5 caliber Browning machine guns. I obtained a set of brass 0.5 caliber guns which were then inserted into a pair of plastic disks which had holes drilled to take the barrels. These were then placed inside the turret housing in place of the mounting for the .303s. One concession I have had to make to overall accuracy is to retain the Frazer Nash Lancaster turret from the Airfix kit which is a slightly different shape to that used in the Lincoln. To improve it's appearance I have added some black decal striping to make the turret framing more closely resemble that on the Lincoln.

lincoln-3.jpg

The last tasks done today were to cut out a clear perspex rectangular cockpit window to replace the bulged one that the Lancaster has on the port side. All the tranparencies have been dipped in Johnsons Klear to improve their clarity. Also necessary was to cut out the astrodome from the Lancaster cockpit transparency as the Lincoln features a larger and taller version. I managed to find a suitable replacement from the spares box which was sanded to correct size and shape. Finally, I have begun to add some internal framing to the rather sparse Airfix Lancaster cockpit and Flightpath nose and bomb aimers compartment. These were made from heat stretched sprue for the horizontal formers and Evergreen plastic strips fon the verticals.

lincoln-4.jpg

That's probably it until the next seesion later this week. Thanks for looking and good luck to everyone else on the Lanc SIG build!

Regards

Mark

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Paul, Daz,

Thanks for the comments chaps! Paul, as noted, it's a good job I've bought in a job lot of wet and dry and Milliput!

Cheers and good luck with your builds.

Mark

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I managed to pick up resin parts to convert an Airfix Lancaster into a Manchester.

I was thinking today whether you could convert a Lancaster into a Lincoln as my local air museum has one. Then I find this post!

Looking forward to watching this build progress mate as I will be taking tips.

Deacon

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I managed to pick up resin parts to convert an Airfix Lancaster into a Manchester.

I was thinking today whether you could convert a Lancaster into a Lincoln as my local air museum has one. Then I find this post!

Looking forward to watching this build progress mate as I will be taking tips.

Deacon

yes u can convert lan to lincon thats what i did still not completed it

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  • 2 weeks later...

OK gang, here's the second instalment of the Lincoln build for the Lanc SIG.

The main effort so far has been to improve the Airfix Lancaster cockpit and to add a few more details to make it more 'Lincoln like'. The Airfix inner fuselage and cockpit details are extremely sparse so I began by adding some internal structure with strips of plastic card and HSP. The pilot's seat was improved with the addition of armrests and some painted tape seatbelts and thin wire buckles. The Lincoln has the facilty for a second pilot if required, so an additional control column and yoke was attached to the pilot's controls. Extra aircrew seats were obtained from the spares box, including one for the bomb aimer, which was placed inside the resin nose along with some other boxes to clutter it up a bit.

lincoln-6.jpg

lincoln-5.jpg

With the front end nearly complete, attention turned towards completing the aft fuselage and the installation of the rear turret. The aft fuselage was padded out with strips of plastic card and some Milliput putty to enable a bigger surface area when the time came to mate it to the solid resin centre fuselage. The Flightpath instructions require the top of the rear fusleage to be sanded down as there is a slight protusion for the fairing of the mid upper turret which was not used on the Lincoln.

lincoln-7.jpg

With the front and rear ends nearly complete it was time to join the four fuselage components - two resin and two kit plastic - all together. This was done using CA for the resin to plastic joints. There was considerable risk that with four pieces to join that there would not be good alignment and it looks now like the resin front fuselage may be a couple of degress off centre from the rest. Oh well!

Not unexpectedly there remained some gaps to fill both along the fuselage seam and where the four parts joined. The gaps were filled with a combination of Revell model filler and Milliput. To preserve the round fuselage contours I used my flex-i-file as shown beneath.

lincoln-8.jpg

The single biggest task to date has been the removal of all the external rivets and raised lines. This was done with various grades of wet and dry sand paper and assorted files. With my copy of the Warpaint Avro Lincoln scale plans to hand, work began on rescribing all the required panel lines. This was done with strips of cut Dymo-Tape and my Tamiya scribing tool. Inevitably with a task this large, there were a few mistakes, but these were fixed with Tipp-Ex and then rescribed. Once I was satisfied with the scribing, the fuselage was given a further rub down with fine grade Micromesh cloths and then washed in warm soapy water. 10 thou plastic card strips were cut and added to the bomb bay strengtheners to give them a bit more defintion and the unusual air scoop of the starboard fuselage side was fashioned from some spares box weaponry.

lincoln-9.jpg

Not sure this is ever going to be the 'silk purse' some of you are contructing with your Revell and Hasegawa Lancs, as the Airfix base kit is rather a 'sow's ear'. It's also taking considerably longer than I had bargained for, so time will be tight to get it done by April 9th but today is the turn of the wings! Thanks for looking.

Mark

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Thanks Daz! Slow progress but I reckon once the wings are on she'll start looking better.

Mark

Nice work so far Mark.

It's beginning to look like a Lincoln.

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  • 2 weeks later...

OK we're ready for the third instalment of the Lincoln build which this time has concentrated on the necessary changes to the Airfix Lanc wings, and construction of the Griffon engines. Firstly however, I thought I'd post a copy of the Flightpath conversion instructions which highlight all the changes that have been required to modify the fuselage.

lincoln-12.jpg

As with all other stages of this project, first task was the rubbing down of all the oversized rivet detail from the Airfix wings. I then carefully removed the Airfix wing outers which were to be replaced by the longer resin Lincoln components. As the Lincoln wings have less dihedral than those of the Lanc, it is necessary to make razor cuts unto the top and lower wing halves to reduce the incidence to 8 degrees. The incisions to the upper wing were later filled with thin plastic card and CA glue. The wing halves were then glued together along the trailing edge only. The resin outer wings were carefully aligned and affixed to the original wings with CA. A resulting gap is left along the leading edges which was again filled using a combination of plastic card, Milliput and CA glue. After removal of all detail the kit alierons were then fixed into position. As the Lincoln has a longer wingspan, the existing aileron lines were filled with model filler and new aileron lines scribed in place.

The lengthiest part of this conversion to date has been the rescribing. Using plans from the Lincoln Warpaint book, I marked out all the planel lines with Dymo tape on wing upper and lower surfaces and began rescribing with the Tamiya rescribing tool. I reckon it took 4 evenings in total and goodness knows how many rolls of Dymo tape I got through! The final stage was replacement of the aileron hinges and trim guards.

Pictured below are the Flightpath plans that show the necessary wing changes followed by a couple of photos of the wings which are now nearly complete.

lincoln-13.jpg

lincoln-10.jpg

lincoln-11.jpg

With the wings done, I then began work on the engines. Firstly, the correct late mark white metal Lincoln unshrouded exhausts were fitted to the resin Griffon nacelles. The outer engines/nacelles were then glued in place to the wings with CA. The small gaps that remained were filled with CA. A bigger job was the construction of the inner engines. The Airfix Merlins were sawn off at the point shown in the Flightpath plan piuctured above. The replacement Griffons were then tidied up and attached using CA. As the Griffons are somewhat wider than the earlier Merlins, the Airfix engine mountings were 'padding out' with Milliput to give the correct alignment. I'm not a huge fan of Milliput but when wetted it does mould into the right shape - its the sanding and shaping afterwards that I always find rather difficult as it has a rather spongy texture.

The Lincoln main undercarriage is also slightly different to the Lanc's and is beefed up with a pair of extra struts on account, no doubt, of the later bomber's extra weight. I fashioned a pair of struts from some stretched sprue which was sanded down at each end and cemented into the appropriate position. The Airfix wheel wells are a bit basic so I made them slightly more detailed through the addition of plastic card bulkheads, some details fom the spares box and additional ribbing from Evergreen plastic strips. The wells were then painted Revell anthracite, and details dry brushed with black and gun metal enamels. The undercarriage was painted satin black, and the lovely Resin Art main wheels painted and fixed in place.

Pictured beneath is the wing with the inner engines placed in position. There seems to be a large gap on the inner engines where they meet the Airfix wings which again looks like it will need filling with plastic card and Milliput. Happily at least I think we're almost ready to bring all the main parts together!

lincoln-14.jpg

Thanks for looking! Good luck to everyone else involved in this Lanc SIG build!

Mark

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Hello Canberraman,

Looks good so far. IIRC, early Lincolns could have the Lanc B.7 mid upper and rear turrets. There's a picture of an Aussie one with this setup in Stewart Wilson's book, "Lincoln, Canberra and F-111 is Australian Service"

Meanwhile, if your enthusiasm flags, have a look at this!

IMG_1159.jpg

TW

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This is a really impressive build. I salute anyone who can get stuck in with major conversions like this. You're really transforming the kit.

I'll keep watching with interest :popcorn:

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Gents

Thanks again for the comments.

David, Lincoln interior pix are quite scarce, that one of the bomb aimer's position is really good, wish I had put a bit more detail in all that empty space now!

Tony, that built Lincoln certainly is inspirational - if mine looks half as good when it's done I'll be happy.

Rowan, thanks for the kind words - it certainly is not the easiest build I've ever done but hopefully because of the difficulties it will be all the more satisfying.

Regards all

Mark

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DANGER DANGER Will Robinson......

Check the length of the FLiGHTPATH rear fuselage extension against the WARPAINT plans very carefully......!

mine was way too long by about a Centimetre and it was also very noticable compared to photographs.....

Accepting all the usual caveats about plans been wrong and not trusting photos you might want to check it out for yourself as most built up models ive seen using the flightpath

conversion appear to have too big a gap between the wing trailing edge and elevator leading edges....(theres a great example in a Scale Aircraft Modelling (the one with the lincoln on the cover) )

(not trying to put ya off or anything but better you check it now than decide its wrong at the decal stage :)

Edited by Neil Lambess 01
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Neil

Many thanks for the warning. I will check my sources again and the model itself and see if anything needs doing, or indeed can be done, to put it right.

Thanks also to everyone who has posted words of encouragement for what is an increasingly daunting project.

Regards

Mark

DANGER DANGER Will Robinson......

Check the length of the FLiGHTPATH rear fuselage extension against the WARPAINT plans very carefully......!

mine was way too long by about a Centimetre and it was also very noticable compared to photographs.....

Accepting all the usual caveats about plans been wrong and not trusting photos you might want to check it out for yourself as most built up models ive seen using the flightpath

conversion appear to have too big a gap between the wing trailing edge and elevator leading edges....(theres a great example in a Scale Aircraft Modelling (the one with the lincoln on the cover) )

(not trying to put ya off or anything but better you check it now than decide its wrong at the decal stage :)

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