1/48 Tamiya Lancaster Mark I

[Chuck540Z3]

Hi, this is my first post here, although I frequent other modeling forums in North America. I thought that my recent 1/48 Tamiya Lancaster build might have some interest here in the country it was created and flown.

I built this Lanc for my uncle who was a bomb-aimer in RAF Squadron 101, where and his flight crew completed 29 operations in early 1945. I was able to track down the code letters and serial number of their Lanc (thanks to the Lancaster-Archive) as well as make the custom nose art decal from an old photograph he took in the first pic below. The lettering of "Virgin Vickie" didn't show up very well on the black background, so I had to do a little artistic editing so that it was more legible.

I used quite a bit of Eduard stuff, AeroMaster decals (mixed bag from a few sets) and Belcher Bits for the engines. There are lots of kit mods, a few thousand rivets and some scratch built parts thrown in to make this war weary "kite" as accurate as possible. I'd do a few things differently next time, but overall I'm pretty happy with the end result.

Regards,

Chuck

Here she is, with a pic of my uncle's crew in the background.....

....and one last pic of what can be done with a little Photoshop help, courtesy of Alex at Hellenic Modelers. I think he did a fantastic job....

Edited September 30, 2010 by Chuck540Z3

[Abacus]

Outstanding Sir!

[spitfire]

Amazing, great work.

Cheers

Den

[CPNGROATS]

Wonderful model and great presentation...!!

Cheers,

ggc

[Shar2]

WOW! What a fantastic build and a great monument to the crews bravery.

[timbo33]

Really rather good!! - I have one of these to build but I'm going to build my confidence up on some smaller stuff first!!!

A great model and superb photographs

[keith in the uk]

Wow thats dammm nice you have the war weary look spot on

[daz greenwood]

A nice build of the RAF's greatest bomber of WW2

[Mike H]

Absolutely stunning build.

The weathering is spot on.

Regards

Mike

[Julien]

Simply stunning. A really great tribute.

Julien

[AnonymousDFB1]

Wonderful build

[Mentalguru]

I think this has got to be my "Model fo the Year!"

Before seeing your outstanding craftsmanship, I had already bee drawn to the extremely tasteful artwork!

[Chuck540Z3]

Thank you very much gentlemen, you are all too kind. The real reward in all of this, of course, is that my 87 year old uncle now has this Lanc on his mantle to bring back all those memories- both good and bad- of WW-II. Fortunately, I had a lot of inspiration for this build in the pics below....

[Mike]

Good work Chuck - and to the forums

[Warris]

Very nice work well done

[Chaotic Mike]

A stunning representation of my favourite plane.

[Tedfellows]

Thats bloody lovely, fantastic looking Lancaster! Well done!!!

And me growing up not far from Ludford Magna makes it sweeter!

Adam

[brianthemodeller]

Lovely model and a great tribute. thanks for showing us.

Brian

[F-32]

Love it, can't wait to see what else you have to offer us!

[maltadefender]

One of the nicest Lanc's I've ever seen. Brilliant.

[twentyten]

Fantastic job!! Detail is exceptional, also nice to see a story behind the Aircraft, a fitting tribute to your Uncle and the crew.

Mike

[sig226]

Truly stunning work my friend......nice to hear the story of the builds inspiration also .

Regards Simon

[Basosz]

I hate it! But only because it's orders of magnitude better than anything I could ever manage. Great job sir!

[Chuck540Z3]

Thanks again guys!

There's quite a story behind how I found the serial number and code for the Lanc, mostly due to the efforts of another Brit forum, the Lancaster-Archive. I found several websites dedicated to both the Lancaster and Bomber Command, that also helped me on my 6 month journey. If there's any interest, I could post a bunch of this, but unfortunately I'm getting on a plane for a 10 day vacation this morning, so I'll save it for later- aqain if there's any interest.

I also have some other builds you guys might be interested in, like my last 1/32 Tamiya F-14B build, although it isn't very British. Here's a couple of pics of that effort....

Edited October 1, 2010 by Chuck540Z3

[crookedmouth]

Wow! What a lovely Lanc - beautifully rendered and, of course, hats off to the chaps who actually flew her. Forgive me here but did she really carry that nose art? I would have thought it would have been a little too risque for the Station Commander?