TonyOD

What an unusual choice! I#m on board for this one.

That's a clever trick with the wheel wells! I like this kit, I built it when it first came out (during my "second age of modelling"), Will follow with interest. Enjoy!

Workspace in its usual state of chaos, not much to look at apart from lots of bits of interior in at various stages of fettling, sticking and priming. I wish I’d discovered Tamiya Extra Thin a long time ago, it makes everything very easy! Note tiny internal window that I’ve taken the trouble to fit and mask, I’ve since realised that thin will be invisible, as will all that detail behind it. I presume there’s an “armed” version of this kit with opening bomb doors where this would look impressive. You got that right @DaveyGair, shake-and-bake this is not!

“Merchant Navy”. LOL. Great result that.

Thanks for that @Troy Smith, again my modelling aspirations are very modest and the skill sets I develop will be likewise, but the lighter fuel for thinning panel line washes is a tip I'm going to keep a note of.

Ooh nice choice.

And we're off! Spent an hour with the kit this evening, nothing worth a picture yet but it's become clear that she's a fettlesome beast, it soon became apparent that pretty much every piece is going to need some degree of trimming or sanding. Should be fun. I am painting the props too... 4 props x 4 blades = 16 yellow tips to paint and mask. If you play with the heavies I guess... have fun everyone...

Great choice, and lovely to see a Lanc in something other than green/brown/black! (Any debate about the "O word" doesn't bode well for my build )

@Troy Smith Thanks for this, I'll spend a bit of time with it later on. I've had my fingers burnt a couple of times by oil washes and have pretty much decided that weathering isn't for me, I'm looking for my models to look sort of smart, like they've just had a wash even (which I know in real life situations especially in wartime... I had an online chat a while back with a guy who served on HMS Ark Royal when it had the Phantoms and he said they were filthy, "cleaned" with WD40 because they didn't have ready access to the large quantities of fresh water needed!) Still, without a bit of somethi

@Kari Lumppio I've finished the book now, some further information about those .5 inch guns: The guns were still present on WS-J and the two other 9 Squadron Lancs (but had never made it as far as other aircraft) when they were sent to bomb a V2 installation at Watten on 19/6/44 (op. number 79, recalled after an hour in the air as it turned out), but by now seemed to be almost objects of derision. Bob Woolf: "We were after flying bombs and were expecting a hot reception. Whether for this or another reason they gave us an extra gunner to operate the point five undergun.

@ckw all the lines I've tried to so far are of my own making - Heller kits that have had raised panel lines, but I've scribed myself. I suspect that adter 1 coat primer, x coats of paint and the Klear they might not be very deep any more! @franky boy I'll look at the Flory stuff, thanks.

I've been trying to bring a bit of life to my models by adding a dark wash to panel lines, using Humbrol enamel washes. I give the model a coat of Klear first and let it sure for minimum 24 hours, the theory being that with capillary action the wash should "flow" down the panel line, but it doesn't, so I end up just painting a line of wash along the line. Then when taking off the excess (after a drying time of 20-30 minutes) I find that most of that I've put on just lifts out of the line and I'm back to square one. I've tried dabbing with just the most slightly thinner-moistened bit of kitchen

@stevehnz @modelling minion @CliffB thanks for the kind words gents.

The fiddly part was the grab bars - cutting tiny lengths of painted 5 amp fuse wire to length and gluing them in place (especially the upper step on each side, as there's a "T" shaped arrangement.) Thought I was going blind...

Enjoy! And thanks for the kind words.