thecornflake

I'm currently building the Revell 1:72 Dambusters Lancaster kit, I replaced the wheels with aftermarket ones which look a lot better than the originals, and I'm also thinking the guns that come in the kit aren't great. I've seen some aftermarket gun barrels, mainly quickboost ones but none specifically for this model - they're either for another company's kit, or for another Lanc e.g. the BII. Example here (hope the link is allowed) - https://www.scalemates.com/kits/669998-quickboost-qb-72-465-lancaster-b-ii-gun-barrels-oval-type Will any of these be suitable for my model at all?

Thanks for all the helpful replies. I'm thinking about mixing a small amount of dark blue with black and maybe testing it on a bit of sprue alongside regular black and then the 5% grey mix (already made as its used a lot elsewhere in the plane) to see how they compare.

In the instructions for my Revell 1:72 Lancaster it has the colour for the bottom half of the plane not as plain matt black, but 95% black mixed with 5% light grey. However in most of the pics I've seen of both real planes and models it looks like it's just a regular matt black. This is the dambusters edition so I'm wondering if they had slightly different colouring, or is there another reason why I can't just use matt black?

I'm currently building this and am up to the point where the engines are beng put together. From what I've read elsewhere there's an option of having the side of the engine open showing the internals, but it's quite a complicated and involves cutting bits out? I wouldn't call myself very experienced, this is my 3rd kit recently after getting back into modelling after having done a lot when I was younger. Previous to this I've done the standard Airfix Spitfire Mk1a and BF109. So far I've found the Lancaster to be pretty easy. I'm wondering if it's worth doing this option, a lot of the pictures I've seen of the completed model have this done and do look good, plus it gives me options for a sort of diorama with maybe a mechanic on a ladder working on the engine for example.

Thanks for the replies so far. Might go with the printed option for a nice small base for the Spitfire, I'm getting a Lancaster for xmas so may do something more involved for that

I've recently got back into modelling after a good few years, now I have kids and after a trip to Duxford my daughter wanted to build a Spitfire together. It looks pretty good now it's painted and I'm thinking about doing a nice little base\diorama for it to sit on, maybe with a couple of crew figures etc. I'd like to have it sitting on a concrete runway, so I'm wondering what the best way is to represent the concrete. I'm guessing you can probably buy some some of matting like you can get the basic green scenery matting for model railways, or is there a good way to do it from scratch? I'll probaby just have basic grass effect beside the runway to have the support crew and maybe a small support vehicle or something as well.