Jump to content

Avro Lancaster 1:48 Tamiya


Recommended Posts

Well the flaps are now off both wings, the flap mounted fairings at the rear of the inner nacelles also sawn off. Day by day there are more parts, not less! I've been scraping the flap insides and upper wing corresponding areas to produce a thin and flattish surface for the ribs etc. to be built on. Given the thickness of the plastic on this kit, there's now a thick drift of black plastic swarf around my ankles as I type. I suppose I'll have to get the hoover out soon, goshdarn it!

CoventryShow2011050-1.jpg

CoventryShow2011053.jpg

The wings are mated top and bottom and the outer nacelles assembled too.

I also worked the tail surfaces a little, refixing that drooped elevator and re-attaching the trim tab exactly as it was in the first place. It looks a mess but will hopefully clean up ok. If it doesn't, this is a winter scene remember, and snow can be persuaded to settle on any dodgy areas! I had to shim the joint a little too. I think there was a bit of slippage when I glued the top and bottom together since most of the mating pins had gone.

CoventryShow2011051.jpg

And here's a picture of that quick and simple main spar box.

CoventryShow2011052-1.jpg

Finally, please join me in welcoming my daughter Stephanie who is following this build from a distant land. She's not a modeller yet, but you never know what might develop!

Edited by per ardua ad ostentationem
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A virtually black cockpit would be incredibly boring, not to mention invisible, in 1:48, so I have to make it a little interesting. First coat was 3 parts Humbrol satin black and 1 part satin white. Looks pretty black doesn't it?

002.jpg

Compared with my lens cap you see that the cockpit is a very dark grey.

004.jpg

So when I pick out some panels and components in (almost) pure black, the place starts to come alive a bit. Then I dry-brushed satin black onto the traffic polished areas and then dry-brushed a lighter grey onto some of the structure, especially the floor and desk tops.

005.jpg

006.jpg

And similarly for the bomb bay.

007.jpg

Tamiya decals on the instrment panels

009.jpg

And some red and white details. It's beginning to look like I want now. In this pic you can see the lighter grey frames and stringers.

010.jpg

The I/P looks like it's wearing a condom! Note those dog whisker throttles thickened up with paint. Real size it's ok. Less than an inch across it looks nice and busy and is hardly visible anyway. Texturing the surface to add interest was a waste of time, it added nothing.

011.jpg

This is a radio set I'm scratch-building. It was pale grey and fills up the space nicely adding some visual interest in terms of colour and shape.

016.jpg

017.jpg

I like the way it's mounted obliquely. I'm going to use the Tamiya decals supplied for the radio operator's compartment. They won't be missed from there as it's entirely hidden once the fuselage is closed up.

This whole cockpit is based on photographs, but very much simplified. More a sketch of the aircraft than a replica. But isn't that what a model actually is? A simplified version of the real thing to make it easier to comprehend and use. Note that I'm not painting the seats at the same time. This will ensure that my paint shades are a little different and once again, add a little interest. I hope. I bought some pe seatbelts at the weekend so I may move onto the seats tomorrow. The microstrip has also arrived so I may well start on the rear cabin framing too.

019.jpg

For now though, it's time for some Zeds. G'night all.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

z...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:speak_cool: Per those Tamiya deatails ping out now, great idea with the black and white mix

Thanks. I'm looking forward to framing the rear fuselage this weekend. I'll be following your method so I'd be interested in your opinion of the finished job.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been thinking about all those windows. Canopy, turrets, nose... No, I just can't face the masking! I've ordered some Eduard ready-made masks from Hannants. The last word in luxury. And while I was on their site it seemed silly not to buy some resin gun barrels too. So much for the cheap build, but what the heck, it's my hobby and it's my money, anyone would think I was married or something!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awesome is a word which is seriously overused (especially by our cousins across the pond) but in this case, I think it's appropriate. Very nice work on a very brave project, looking forward to seeing the end results :)

Edited by bruce3371
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I couldn't resist loading up the bomb bay again now that the fuses are painted matt aluminium, and the bay is completely painted up. It's ok. Satisfactory if not particularly exciting. You will note that the Tilly has arrived. It will be blue! A nice splash of colour on a dreary winter's morning.

satpm006.jpg

I have acquired some seatbelts from Adeco. £3.25 for two and two half sets - odd! They are good though, nice and thin and flexible. Maybe that's why some bright spark thought it a good idea to glue them to their backing card. Doh! I was surprised to discover that only the pilot had a harness; the rest of the crew just held onto the many handrails if things got bumpy. Unless you know different of course. If you have a reference showing other seatbelts, let me know before I close up the fuselage please.

satpm007.jpg

Getting the brass in place is hard for me. I have fingers like pig's teats. I also have a very sharp pair of tweezers!

satpm008.jpg

satpm011.jpg

satpm012.jpg

I apply superglue with some of these. Sewing needles with the ends filed off, mounted in sprue handles. They hold a tint drop of CA and deliver it precisely by capillary action. They clog up fast but are simply cleared by passing through a flame. I have many different sizes for different jobs.

satpm010.jpg

On the subject of tools, here's a handy thing. I stir paint with an Ikea coffee frother (£1) holding the tinlet in a coronation chicken pot from Sainsburys. The tinlet sits in a slab of packing foam. No splashes and paint mixed well in seconds. I cut down the frother and bent a little hook in the end. I'll post a picture of the business end tomorrow.

satpm013.jpg

Here's the GEE set, painted and decaled. I like this, as it will stand out well in that dismal black hole of a cabin.

satpm016.jpg

Another tip. Take tinlet lids off with a spoon and they don't distort. Much better than a screwdriver!

satpm017.jpg

I porked up the painting of the tailwheel, didn't I? Never mind...

satpm018.jpg

...a soak in a glassful of Mr Muscle oven cleaner will strip it off so I can start over.

satpm019.jpg

Slippage indicators applied to the mains. They are decals and don't seem well fixed so I'll varnish them later.

satpm020.jpg

And finally, a few random stencils for the cabin walls.

satpm021.jpg

Overall, not a great deal of progress this week. Life has been a bit busy. I've been concentrating on the first part of the modelling process, earning the money to pay for them. I'll do a little more after tea and tomorrow morning so you may just see another update this weekend.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good morning readers,

I am staging a practice 'retirement' for the day. Rising at 7.00 and dressing, breakfasting, dog walking and so on, I plan to be at the workbench by 8.00. I'll then push this project forward in two hour 'shifts' with tea- and meal breaks as appropriate. I'm using the oven timer as a 'foreman'. I don't know how many shifts I will work but there's little else to do today so I'm planning to get ten hours in if my lower back holds out ok. (I'll have to sit properly and not hunch over so much). The final shift will be a sitrep on here late evening. By then I'll perhaps have an slight idea how much of my real retirement I will be filling with the hobby!

Until later ladies and gentlemen,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The work's gettin' done! I can't wait to show ya!

I took my new cycle for a test ride at lunch. Now I'm shattered and my arms are trembling. First bike ride in years! Time to move on to some less exacting areas of the project...

Edited by per ardua ad ostentationem
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I couldn't wait until the evening! Also, I need to let my arms stop shaking after that bike ride so here's a summary of five hours work don so far today. The time went really quickly and I don't seem to have achieved much when I look at it now. However, I learnes a lot about scratchbuilding which will be very useful when I finally get round to the 'great big hole'.

First, here's the business end of my Ikea paint stirer/coffee frother. If you make one, leave it a bit longer so it reaches the bottom of Mattcote bottles easily (I learn as I go!). To soften the metal and avoid snapping, heat the end cherry red and let it cool slowly before you bend it. Do let it cool - I learned from that experience too!

sundayafto001.jpg

I started small today, just painting some seat cushions. I was aiming for dirty and worn but I'm not sure that this is exactly what I wanted? Maybe better satin finished?

sundayafto002.jpg

I soon tired of this and wanted to play with some bigger bits. (I like big bits and I cannot lie...) Sanding down the wing joints took a while. I'd misaligned one side by half a mil or so which didn't help - doh! Anyway, with that out of the way, I turned to the flaps.

This is what I'm aiming to recreate. However, I am making a model (a simpler version of the real thing...) so a bit of a redesign was called for. I want the spirit of the thing, not every nut and bolt.

I'm using plasticard and sprue to my own design. Etch would have been more 'realistic' but would be expensive and someone else's time and effort. Now I don't object to that and will use aftermarket when I can, but this particular project is going to be done on the cheap and will rely mostly on me and those nice guys at Tamiya. (Though I have ordered gun barrels and masks already, remember?)

sundayafto002a.jpg

So this is where I start...

sundayafto003.jpg

I added torque tubes from sprue...

sundayafto004.jpg

I needed stiffeners with lightning holes. Plasticard, cut to size and punched out with a broken drill bit held in the needle nosed pliers and belted smatrly with the other ones. I did it on my cutting board, the turquoise one, which is a place mat from Ikea (two for 60P) and it punched out the holes reasonably well. At first I wasn't hitting it hard enough and was having to slice the bulges off the strip afterwards but with practice I could make clean holes in one bash.

sundayafto005.jpg

sundayafto007.jpg

Stiffeners in place. Looks a mess but will be OK under paint, I hope.

sundayafto008.jpg

A couple of ribs added. All good practice for the fuselage and this won't be too visible so I'll forgive myself the wobbly alignment.

sundayafto009.jpg

And the pretend ribs go on.

sundayafto010.jpg

Shrapnel from the punching process. Instrument dials anyone?

sundayafto011.jpg

Two wing flap housings completed. I want to paint them NOW! It will be easier to do this after the wings are painted black (due to masking considerations), so I must be patient.

sundayafto013.jpg

The flaps themselves. You see four stages - smoothly sanded; corrugations added; stiffeners; and finally, ribs. I'm getting faster and more accurate with practice. The first time I've done each process has taken ages but the subsequent repetitions become like an efficient production line. One day I'll make a whole squadron of aircraft and the last one will just fall together!

sundayafto014.jpg

And this is what it all looks like held together with Blutac for the photo. I've seen much better but not on MY workbench before, so I'm well chuffed!

sundayafto018.jpg

I've been using this stuff as well as Humbrol Liquid Poly. It comes in a tall and easily knocked over bottle. Experience has taught me that if you knock it over, you destroy everything on the bench AND have to evacuate the house for an hour. Not nice. I give you this tip of keeping it in a lump of nylon foam in the hope that you don't make that same mistake I did!

sundayafto016.jpg

I stuck the outer nacelles to the wings now that I don't need to work on them flat any more. These little scoops were all marred with sink marks which I've filled with my patent Gloop; sprue dissolved in liquid poly. It will take ages to harden but I'm not in a rush.

sundayafto019.jpg

Gloop in the bottle. Strings like hell but great for small filling jobs and whenever you need something really sticky and slow setting. Use with care because it dries slow and emits lots of canopy fogging fumes. It can also burn through kits if you use too much. Like Alien 'molecular acid' blood.

sundayafto021.jpg

Thanks for reading this far. That work on the Lanc took 5 hours. Writing this (and uploading photos etc) took another hour. It's been a total blast and after tea I may well do a little more. Perhaps I'll take a look at that Tilly...

Seeya later

Edited by per ardua ad ostentationem
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gloop in the bottle. Strings like hell but great for small filling jobs and whenever you need something really sticky and slow setting. Use with care because it dries slow and emits lots of canopy fogging fumes. It can also burn through kits if you use too much. Like Alien 'molecular acid' blood.

If you dip your applicator in liquid glue before dipping in the "gloop" there will be a lot less stringing. I use an old tamiya glue brush for application.

Your Lanc looks great, keeping an eye on this one.

Looking forward to more.

David.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you dip your applicator in liquid glue before dipping in the "gloop" there will be a lot less stringing. I use an old tamiya glue brush for application.

Your Lanc looks great, keeping an eye on this one.

Looking forward to more.

David.

Yes, thank you. You can also dip a cocktail stick full of Gloop into the liquid poly to thin it as you use it. It reduced the intense stickiness too if that's what you need at the time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This does look great Don. :clap:

I wouldn't know where to start when trying to scratch build. References obviously, but trying to work out the thickness of something, or the diameter, just beyond me. :o

Deacon

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Per

great work so far, love the flaps. A couple of points/suggestions. All the crew had seatbelts though the mid upper was sat on a sling. The Tamiya 4000lb'er is too small, I take it that is the kit offering? I recently got some American 500lbd bombs and have 2 sets of the bombs that come with the Trumpy Wellington. Though your bombs look great p'raps next time you'd consider a mixed load. Keep up the good work, looking forward to the finished item,

Regards

Paul

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...