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Avro Lancaster 1:48 Tamiya


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This was my inspiration. A Lancaster destroyed by the premature explosion of one of it's own photoflashes. The bursting charge has exposed the insides of the aircraft without causing a fire, and the armourers are commencing the awkward job of downloading the bomb load from the wreck. Twelve pages further on it will look like this.

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Edited by per ardua ad ostentationem
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Paul, Pete, Mac and Diamond,

Thank you for the welcome. I'm looking forward to the build. I hope that the stimulus of a deadline will speed me up a bit and keep me on track. I'm not in a rush though as I have the long school holidays for the main effort. For now I'm researching and brainstorming. I like to do something a bit different with the bigger projects. Here's a couple of thoughts so far:

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This is a photo of a Lanc after the photoflash flares exploded inside the fuselage, bursting it open but amazingly not causing total destruction. What a way to see the interior detail! The way the kite's back has broken downwards (due to being fully fuelled and bombed up, I guess) would also expose the bomb bay and underneath to view. I also like the snowy airfield scene with the Tilly.

Second favorite idea so far is to do a Mk2 with engines robbed from two Tamiya Beaufighters that I bought cheaply a while ago. Seems a bit extravagant though and what would I do with the engineless beaus? Merlin engined versions perhaps, but two of them?

What would catch your eye the most at a busy model show?

Edited by per ardua ad ostentationem
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I made my decision. Some busy hours with saws, pliers, scrapers, hammers, grinders and welding torches have now made it irrevocable! That fuselage plastic is a full 1/8 inch thick!

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I'm building 'Queen Elizabeth', a BI Lancaster R5548 OF-A of 97 Sqn at Woodhall Spa December 28 1942, after the fire and just before the tricky business of de-arming.

In honour of the bent fuselage I shall call it "The Banana Bomber"

[OMG! WHAT HAVE I JUST DONE?]

Edited by per ardua ad ostentationem
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Brave man lol

Hi Radleigh,

Brave? Daft maybe. lol. I was trying to avoid my habit of too much planning preventing any performance, sometimes in at the deep end works out best for me. Anyway I'm only risking looking foolish and I don't fear that because I've had such a lot of practice!

And thanks for the welcome, Cliff.

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Not given to swearing (it's simply lazy use of language), but 'J*s*s H. Chr*st' that is probably the bravest project I've seen on any group build.... ever !!

Ian

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Per

I feel ill, look what you've done to that beautiful Lancaster. I'm going for lie down to recover. I was going to suggest the snowy scene but now you've done that I hope everything works out for you,

Regards

Paul :confused:

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Looks like a sound way of modifying the kit- hope you enjoy scratchbuilding interior framing! The attrition rate of WWII aircraft due to accidents and errors was a big part of the overall losses so I think that the diorama will be a very appropriate tribute.

Indeed, the airfield close to where I grew up was RAF Blyton (Lincolnshire), and the Heavy Conversion Unit based there had nearly as high a casulty rate as an operational sqn. The HCU lost a staggering 50 crews in 26 months- one came down about 50 yards from my house (and about 100 yards short of the runway), leaving a crater that is now a peaceful watering hole for the cows.

Will

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Looks like a sound way of modifying the kit- hope you enjoy scratchbuilding interior framing! The attrition rate of WWII aircraft due to accidents and errors was a big part of the overall losses so I think that the diorama will be a very appropriate tribute.

Indeed, the airfield close to where I grew up was RAF Blyton (Lincolnshire), and the Heavy Conversion Unit based there had nearly as high a casulty rate as an operational sqn. The HCU lost a staggering 50 crews in 26 months- one came down about 50 yards from my house (and about 100 yards short of the runway), leaving a crater that is now a peaceful watering hole for the cows.

Will

Thank you. I did a Mustang with a broken back some time ago but this is soooo much bigger. Loads of scope for framing and components. Good references available on various walkrounds so no problems anticipated there. Whatever I mess up I can blame on the effects of the explosion! Whetever I mess up on the outside can be covered in snow.

What do you make of the white square panel on the aft end of the fuselage in the ref photo? Battle damage repair?

I'll do the peeled back skin in ally sheet from beer cans (If Carlsberg made aeroplanes.....) so tonight I'm 'sourcing raw materials' (hic) and wrapping up the U-2R to clear the workbench. It has a larger wingspan than the Lanc, I believe! So much black plastic in my life at the moment! It seems to be harder than grey for some reason and the Tamiya stuff is like anthracite to cut, very tough indeed.

I don't have enough info on the incident to know if there were casualties. Was it crewed-in or being bombed up (flared up?) when it happened? I'd guess someone was inside at the time but ordnance does occasionally go off on its own so let's hope this was just an aircraft getting the chop.

I have a mental picture of a troop of plumbers looking up into the full bomb bay, scratching their heads and wondering if their hoists will work at that angle!

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Sunday Afternoon.

Right then, this is my plan. I'll post an illustrated update here every Sunday and confine myself to words during the week. If I don't do this I'll spend more time uploading etc than modelmaking. As it is I am already spending hours looking at everyone else's work on this site. There's some inspirational stuff here!

The deck is nearly clear. As you see the U-2R is primed and will be painted and finished by next week all being well. The Lanc has been unloaded into my wonderful wip drawer and is ready to go. This week I'll be doing a few sub-assemblies while the little grey cells do their stuff about the tricky bits to come. I've noticed that the Queen has her flaps lowered, so that's complicated things a little. Do I go with Plasticard or etch? I reckon it's worth buying brass for once. I may even get the cockpit enhancements too. Am I getting carried away? Probably, but I've got time to think it over before payday and the first opportunity to spend far too much at Hannants.

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On a cheaper note, I've been experimenting with beer can alluminium. When heated and left to cool it becomes quite maleable for a while before hardening again. Ideal. I found that I can burn it and cause a useful melted and splintered effect. I'll be using that for burnt through sections of the skinning.

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Framing is going to be more difficult than I'd assumed because there was such a lot of it in there. I will probably simplify things a little though. I can't wait to build the Elsan and other stuff in the fuselage!

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I've written to the 97 Sqn Association for info on the nose art. I have only one blured photo and I cant tell if it's a sqn crest or a royal coat of arms. I suspect the latter. I'm not too fussed about it being exactly right but I want to be as representative as possible. Does anyone out there have anything like a royal coat of arm decal about 1 cm across that they don't want? I'll try to get a clearer photo of the crest by next week.

Right, that's it for this week. I'll go and work on a few bombs until teatime.

Happy fettling my dearios!

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I have a little time this morning for a quick update. Bombs away!

I want the viewer to be aware of the tremendous weight of a loaded and fueled heavy bomber. How to do this? Well the bombs themselves need to look like 18 individual quarter-ton lumps of cast iron and a two ton drum of nastiness. Another thing that will indicate the weight will be the undercarriage. So that's where I've been working.

It takes a while to finish 18 x 500 pounders and a 4,000 lb ‘Cookie’. The bombs as supplied are perfect and shiny so I rolled some of them on 240 grit sandpaper to give me a variation in texture. Others were coarsely scratched to indicate rough finishing on a lathe.

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Each one has a slightly different combination of tail and body colour since by 1942 bombs and tails were coming from all over the Commonwealth to England and paint spec's varied. Bombs and tails were assembled at the airfield. I'll drybrush them in a paler shade to bring out the textures still more. The bomb bay will be in shadow so I'm not worried about going OTT here.

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I shaded the cookie a little to suggest internal framing on this thin cased weapon. The 500lb bomb has a yellow ‘HE’ marking ring. What a pain! I applied this with the end of a suitably sized bit of plastic pipe, actually a transfer pipette, dipped in Humbrol 71 'Oak'. I don't use trainer yellow much as it looks too bright to me and Oak just looks like 1940s yellow paint to my eye. )I will use this on the prop tips too.)

Each bomb will be dry-brushed to bring out the texture of rough cast metal and give a sense of weight. The cookie will get a little stencilling too but I'm giving them time to dry hard first. Then each one will have a fuse picked out in metalic steel. Arming vanes, you ask? Enough’s enough, I reply.

I also did a little work on the huge mainwheels. The usual things; assemble, apply bulges (with candle flame, nerves of steel and local pressure), sand, scrub sanding residue away with a toothbrush, paint tyres.

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When they are totally dry I'll be washing much into the tread, highlighting the raised tread, applying oil stains, painting, highlighting and washing rims, and painting the slippage indicators.

This last picture shows that nose art. Not sure how to do that yet, hand painting will deffo be a last resort!

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Edited by per ardua ad ostentationem
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Today and yesterday I had few chances to get solidly to work but I did manage several little 'tinkering' sessions. I got the bombs drybrushed and I'm fairly satisfied. i had a thought about arming vanes and will be shopping for tiny star washers in my friendly neighbourhood electronics supply shop at the weekend. It might work, it might not.

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I carried on with the mainwheels as promised. Painted almost black to begin with. Almost black is the closest I ever get to uncut black paint. I think full black is simply too stark for models so I always add 5-10% white to a new tin of Humbrol 33. I drybrushed the sidewalls with med sea grey and and the tread with a lighter grey. I think it's good enough. No call for mud/dust in the treads as the diorama is set in an East Anglian winter. The runways and taxiways would have been wet, and the the tyres clean of debris. (I brush painted the rims. Looks manky but will have to do. I can't be bothered starting again.)

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Lanc tyres are always pictured splattered by those dripping Merlins above. I used Tamiya Smoke neat (and wished I'd thinnned it!) and washed the rims at the same time.

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The bomb bay is a very busy place full of pipes and cables etc. But full of ordnance, not much will be seen. In addition, it's all painted black! Still, I thought it worth while 'busying' it up a bit with stretched sprue and a few odds and sods from the spares box.

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Turning the bomb bay over took me into the cabin for similar 'busying'. Tamiya did a good job for the time, but a real Lanc is a bit more complicated than that! I wish I could afford resin or brass but plasticard will have to do. It will all look ok when it's painted (I hope). I worked too far aft and wasted time on areas which won't be seen dammit! There's more to go in, especially in the area behind the pilot's seat, but I'll build the seat first.

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The instrument panel will be a decal, as will the engineer's panel so I added a little texture with card and a drill. I'm hoping it will improve the final appearance???

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Finally, I built the tailwheel with its strange anti-shimmy tyre. Only change there was to add the strange 'thingy' to the front of the fork. I think it's either a shimmy damper or the tailwheel steering lock pin housing. It was part of a flare from a Wellington if I remember right.

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And now I'm going to watch tele for a while.

I'd appreciate some feedback on the build thread if you could. Is it too long, boring, picture heavy? What do you like out there?

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I was just messin' about and wondered what it's all going to look like in September. Guys, it's going to be big!

Here's the original main reference photo...

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...and this is what I have so far...

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...and a better view of 'the hole'...

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...and with a SHAR and a DVD for scale...

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...and now I AM excited!

(and wondering where on earth I'll keep it on its baseboard with its Tilly and figures and fire extinguishers?)

(and I only just noticed that the rudders, elevators, and ailerons are all displaced - because the cables are snapped presumably - more fun!)

Sweet dreams!

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:popcorn::)

Keep up the good work!

Cliff

Thanks Cliff, I'll do my best.

I always think the instrument panel is one of the focal points of a model. Maybe it's because I imagine myself sitting in the pilots seat! At the moment it looks a total mess but I have hopes. Tamiya have moulded only three sets of throttles and rpm levers which is odd but excusable as the inner two are very close to each other. They are very short too and I decided to try adding 4 longer levers on the top of the quadrant, and a fifth red lever which is very noticeable on some reference pictures I have.

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I used a dog whisker for the throttle levers. Tough, stiff and flexible so It will survive being painted, I hope. The bigger lever is stretched sprue. I'll try to put knobs on with white glue, I reckon.

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Here's another picture with a bit of card behind the new levers. I'll trim them to size when the glue's dried. For jobs like this I use a bottle of Humbrol Poly with sprue dissolved in it to make a sticky paste. It strings like mad but it's great for easy attachment of tiny components where the location is less than a good fit.

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The next shot is a large patch repair (?) as seen in the reference photo. When it's hardened off. I'll put some rivets on it. I'm guessing that it would have been primed at least. Maybe it was a rush job and there was no time for the top coat. It looks white in the monochrome reference photo, but I'll probably paint it grey unless anyone has a better idea what colour primer was in use in 1942.

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I've cut out the flaps on one wing. I'm going to stick with plastic and refrain from etched brass on this job, so I'll be faking up some structure with plastic rod and sheet just as soon as I restock from Hannants. I decided not to move the ailerons because the photo evidence is inconclusive to me and because it looks a difficult job as the upper and lower hinge lines don't line up.

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Last night I did the same thing with the tail surfaces. The elevators were separated and then the trim tabs. There's a lot of sanding and fitting to come at the back end, but It's only going to be visible from on top when the dio is finished so I only have one side to get right.

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The seats are coming together ok. Seatbelts will be added and the trim wheel assembly stuck on the side of the pilot's seat before fitment into the cabin. The inboard armrest is in the raised position.

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The cabin now looks like this. I'm wondering whether I should have painted before assembling so much. I'll soon find out!

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This weekend is pretty well free of commitments so I'm hoping to make lots of progress. Keep watching!

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This is brilliant :thumbsup:

Wish I had a 1/48 Lanc full stop, let alone one I would dare chop up

Keep up the great progress

Chris

Thanks Chris, I need all the encouragement I can get. This is one project I don't want to lose interest in. I was lucky earlier this year when I bought the Lanc on eBay for a good price (£40-50 I think and one sold this month for only £31!) but it still felt a bit outrageous to attack it so brutally. lol. One advantage of this idea is that the build time will be doubled so in terms of entertainment per pound, it's not so bad. I wonder how long I'll actually be working on it, maybe 2-300 hours? I'll be buying a few bits and pieces but no expensive brass or resin so the total cost won't be more than a single good night out. This sounds like I'm trying to justify myself to you but in fact I'm trying to justify myself to that part of me that says I've spent too much on a toy! Well, nuts to that. I'm enjoying it so I hereby declare myself innocent of extravagance. lol. If you ever get the chance of a bargain, even for it's age, the Tamiya Lancaster is a brilliant kit. The strong, thick plastic, which is causing me such grief when I need to cut it, has ensured that there's no warping at all and the surface detail is very subtle. The raised panel lines, which are so often a pain, will help me break up the large areas of solid colour using just a little dry-brushing. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Reporting progress on here is also great fun. It keeps me focussed and is making me analyse my methods with very interesting insights. Especially into the cock-ups! Impatience led me to attach the bomb bay and cockpit floor too soon. I really should have painted the floor first. Never mind though, I'll just have to paint the floor and walls in their slightly different colours without benefit of airbrushing. I also regret separating the elevator trim tabs because a little thought has led me to conclude that the elevators are drooping because the cables have snapped, so it's likely that the trimmer cables were snapped also and would not have moved as the elevators fell, which was my earlier assumption. Again, never mind, I can stick it all back together easily enough, and I only cut one side. (Third thoughts; maybe I'll displace only one trimmer as a 'teaser' for the overly critical viewer. I'll tell them that one trimmer cable snapped but the other side just drew tight! lol.)

I'm off to town now to search for a large cheap picture frame to use as a base. God bless the man who invented the charity shop!

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No pictures today as I've been quite idle. I dipped the transparencies in Kleer, mostly for the tough anti-fogging protection this provides from glue fumes. The transparencies are nice and thin and very clear already. They are a bit brittle but that's the price we pay for glass like clarity. Drilling holes for HF aerial cables will be a nerve-wracking job!

I scratch-built a main spar box in the fuselage which will probably be pretty well invisible, but it provides the end wall of the exploded area and I'd hate to do all that and then see the plastic wing tabs where the great big spar box should be. Old Lancaster crewmen often mention the difficulties they had climbing over this great big box in full flying kit, so I put it in for them too. In memoriam of many barked shins.

Finally I fitted the windows in the fuselage. Loads of glue and to hell with fogging - they will be painted black anyway.

I want to get on with the fuselage framing but I am waiting for microstrip from Hannants (only ordered today as it was pay-day on Friday, whoopee!). I'm off to the Coventry show tomorrow so I may buy an packet there. I'm going to want some of that white plastic beam-section (plastruct?) for the main frames so that's on my list for the morning too. No joy on the base yet but I did find some fine wire for general fitting out and some silver solder for brake-pipes. So all in all, some progress was made today. Not so idle as I'd thought then!

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Been to Coventry show for a long hot day out so no building done. I did find some suitable groundcrew figures there and found out how to make the snow from an old friend. Two tiny steps forward but as they say, "how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."

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