elger

Heller is the least bad I think. It's above the others because it has a better representation of the corrugated surface than the others (Italeri and Airfix), but on the other hand the fuselage windows are slightly the wrong size. Overall shape of Heller is also more accurate I believe. Thorough discussion of the subject here:

I've always liked Hellza Droppin' which was featured as a decal option in Revell's old 1/32 Droop Snoot. If you could make a scan of the 1/32 decal sheet and reduce its size to 1/48 it seems very doable to mask the markings (including the name). https://www.der-lustige-modellbauer.com/t4616p100-jorg-s-flugzeug-hangar

The Italeri kit is the strangest thing. It's definitely more detailed than the ancient Airfix kit but pretty much all the detail is just wrong. I remember thinking it's almost as if Italeri's people were allowed a 15 minute look at reference material and that it was taken away from them and they had to reproduce it from memory. All key details are there, sort of, but it's all just in the wrong place. The exterior panel lines are very deep and wide, but they're also almost all in the wrong place. The interior framing in the cockpit does not align with the exterior detail (or reality). The cockpit components are there, but the bulkheads are just in the wrong place. Same with the frames in the rear fuselage. The bomb bay frames are not spaced accurately at all. Here is my attempt:

So, as my wife takes an afternoon nap and Oscar sleeps between feeding and changing I've been able to do a tiny little bit of work and finished the turrets: Updates to follow slowly

Painted mine red - the ones on the BBMF Lancaster are dark green, but I think that the detail of this photo borrowed from the Wingnut Wings website (IWM original) shows that the tank is red:

Yes some genetic kit bashing going on there

Yeah no the premixed RAF colours from MIG are terrible. Haven't looked at the day fighter colours, but I've experimented a bit by mixing some paints to make Dark Earth and Dark Green; I've been most successful so far making a better looking Dark Earth by mixing 3 parts 071 (Russian Tan) and 1 part 232 (RLM 70), and making Dark Green by mixing 1 part of 915 ("Dark Green") with 1 part of 253 (RLM 74).

Last week baby O (for Oscar) landed so that will keep me busy and take me away from the bench for a while - Elger

Hi Ian, thanks for these points. I thought that the tanks seen in the background of this photo were wing tanks, which is why I painted them red. I think the squadron code letters were UV; the move to Binbrook was in May 1943, I think, and apparently the change from UV to AR was in November 1943, 10 months or so after this aircraft was lost. This is the only image I have that I think is the aircraft's nose art - if anyone has other info I'd love to hear it

I finished painting the parts for the landing gear and the turrets. I used Eduard Brassin tires: ... painted with MIG acrylics, and with a bit of pigment powder for weathering. Lancasters changed very little between variants, but details such as the colour of the landing gear components did change. I based the colours of my model of W4308 on the configuration of W4783, which also served with 460 Squadron. I blocked off the insides of the gear bays with sheet styrene painted a dark red to represent the wing fuel tanks. Not 100% sure of its accuracy, but I went with dark red for the oil tank as well. As I suspected, the nacelle fits around the landing gear: Frankie was skeptical about this idea at first, but she now concedes I was right. Finally, the turrets also painted. Again based on photos of early-ish Lancasters I painted the turret interiors metallic. Thanks for looking - comments always welcome of course.

So if I read between the lines - you're saying Italeri makes the least bad Sunderland kit currently? Great info in your SH build by the way, but could you perhaps make a list with some of the key pros and cons of each kit?

Here is how mine sits - landing gear is OOB except the wheels which are from Eduard's IX kit:

maybe even skip the Pigment fixer and spray on several really really -really - thin coats of clear?

Thank you

Putting the turrets together & adding some detail. Maybe some priming tomorrow!