exbrat

Answers to questions: No! Yes!! As I said before, progress is very slow. Being new to this scribing lark I am trying to be very careful, with not much success. Not too sure as to what extent the scribed lines need to be made. I assume that panel outlines can be fairly light but those for a flight control, e.g. aileron should be more prominant, any ideas. Another problem that will soon arise is the lack of the slightly larger astrodomes that the Lincoln had compared to the Lanc, i.e. the 'lump' at the rear of the canopy. I also need an additional one to go where the mid upper turret was situated. Any help in that area would be appreciated. Emails to various suppliers have been ignored. Thanks for asking forlornhope, best wishes, exbrat

Hi Callum, Thanks for that info. It's amazing what a little shove can do to motivate one into action. General Melchett provided me with such to undertake the Valiant. Currently I am sweating on Airfix being able to provide me with a couple of 'domes, but will keep your suggestions in mind. Intend to start on the left (port) wing this afternoon, nothing better to do on a wet, cold, miserables winters' day, Cheers, John

Hi Callum, Thanks for posting those pics, good to see another Lincoln, well parts of one. Let's have some more when you fix the rear end. I wondered where you obtained the canopy and you gave me the answer and yes the astrodome is at the rear. Best wishes, John

Thanks for comments gents. Slowly proceeding. Forlornhope. Did your ever post finished model, or WIP, if not lets have a look? Graeme H. Assume you are going to do the Aussie version, let's see WIP when available. Cheers for now, exbrat

Having been reasonably satisfied with the Airfix Valiant I made last year I have now started converting an Airfix 1/72 Lancaster to an Avro Lincoln using the Flightpath conversion set. The particular aircraft I am modelling is WD131 of 199 Squadron, the Valiant was modelled as WP213 of the same Squadron, but later era. In common with many other models built by various folk, I have chosen this one for the following reason. The weekend of June 25/26th 1955 saw the Squadron engaged in a major exercise (Carte Blanche) over the continent and the UK. The late evening of the 25th was very overcast as the crew of WD131 came out to the aircraft to prepare for another routine sortie. All did not auger well as one engine proved difficult to start. The engine fitter had a quick check and could not find anything amiss. After a while the Merlin sprung to life and 131 headed eastward never to return. It seems that while over Germany, at the darkest hour of the short midsummer night, with all lights extinguished, a Sabre fighter, engaging 131, collided with the aircraft in the area of the rear fuselage, slicing the tailplane off. The crew had no chance of using their parachutes to due to the high 'g' forces exerted on the plummeting remains. The aircraft crashed in the area of the Black Forest. The bodies were returned to Hemswell for a military funeral and burial in the village cemetery, their final resting place marked by the familiar headstones. The pilot of the Sabre was able to escape, using his ejection seat. The crew members of WD131 were as follows: Flying Officer H.S. Honour - Pilot and Squadron Adjutant Flight Sergeant G.W. Overton - Flight Engineer Sergeant G.V. Weller - Navigator Sergeant R.W. Walters - Signaller Flight Sergeant R.F. Jarvis - Special Operator Sergeant I. Jones -Special Operator And so to progress to date. I have dispensed with the usual box and associated conversion set pictures. For the record I am using the Airfix ‘G for George’ and Flightpath Lincoln conversion set. Having checked all the bits and pieces the first task was to tackle the surgery required to remove the unwanted plastic parts from the forward and rear sections ready for the new nose and lengthened fuselage resin parts. Sawing anything was never my strongest point, but with adequate amounts of Milliput such errors can be disguised, said he hopefully. Having joined the respective items I checked for alignment against the ‘Warpaint’ plan and as can be seen some Milliput will need to be used. They say ‘a change is as good as a rest’, so I have put the fuselage to one side and made a start on modifying the right wing, again out with the razor saw to remove the Lancaster wing tips in order to fit the longer resin units as required by the Lincoln. Further surgery was required in the upper and lower wings in order to obtain the 8 degree dihedral of the Lincoln. I was puzzled as to how to achieve this, but came up with a Heath Robinson contraption in the form of a piece of balsa wood to which I secured the inner flat section at one end, bent and secured the outer section to the required angle, which allowed me to insert plastic card into the upper section where previously cut, cunning, eh? Well it looks OK to me, will see what the final job looks like, I’ve got the other wing to do yet. The Heath Robinson contraption and dihedral check: The next problem,was how to scribe the required panel lines, something I have never tried before? I did read an interesting item by one Matt Swan, via Google. As he rightly says, ‘one line at a time’. So having given the matter a little thought I came up with the following. Scanned a copy of the plan by Cliff Minney, adjusted the measurements to match the assembled wing, cut out the outline from a print, attached to wing and...... It’s just a matter of carefully cutting through the various outlines to obtain the line on the plastic which can then be scribed as required. For longer lines, I found a reel of insulation tape in a local hardware store, which at £1.25 is much cheaper than Dymotape and thought it looked suitable. As you see from the following I have cut a strip and placed it along the leading edge, having previously cut through the paper copy at a start and finish point. [/img] That’s about it for now. As for the wing I still have to carefully remove and store the aileron gizmos as they have a different position on the Lincoln, and lots more to do. As this will probably be my only build this year I am taking my time and at least it’s something to do these cold afternoons.

Yes, yet another lovely looking Valiant and agree, a few more pics please Exbrat

Well done that man. There's nothing I can say that hasn't been said in preceeding post's. A very moving story. exbrat

Well, you learn something new every day, often wondered why ORD for O'Hare. now I know, thanks Mike. And yes, adding to all other comments, the Canberra looks really good, as do all your 'air-to-air' shots. John G

Good to see another Valiant. We might even see representatives of every Squadron. exbrat

Another excellent model Mike. It's good to see them in 'flight'. Have you obtained a Valiant yet? Would be interesting to see how you pose that 'flying'. I am about to take the plunge converting an Airfix 1/72 Lancaster to a Lincoln of 199 Squadron. Cheers, John

Thanks for that info, still undecided. exbrat

I am contemplating doing a 1/72 Lancaster to Lincoln conversion. I see that the Flightpath conversion set relates to the Airfix B.lll kit. Does anyone know if the conversion set would work with say the Revell kit, or any others for that matter? I have also seen that Eduard produce masks for the Revell and Hasegawa kits, anyone know if these would be compatible? BTW I was mightily peed off to see that Eduard have produced masks for the Airfix Valiant, my attempts at masking were awful. Win some lose some! I have seen the conversion that canberraman did and it looks very good. Hope someone can help, thank you, exbrat

In my best 'Bluebottle' voice, 'Um! 'how do you know that mister?' exbrat

1/72 Avro Lincoln please. exbrat

WOW!!!!!!!! If only it was a model of the actual aircraft that saw service. Nearly as good as WP215 Andy, but then you may say I'm biased. Enjoy Telford along with all other Britmodellers. John G (exbrat)

Hello Tom, Being a new boy (!!!!!!) I have only recently seen your lovely looking Lincoln. Used to see 143 from Lindholme when stationed at Finningley. I have just resumed the Tamiya 1/48 Lanc to Lincoln conversion after some hitches awhile ago. One of which was the failure to locate suitable decals to compile the serial WD122. I see you obtained yours from Xtradecal, can you let me know the details. As you will see I will need 8 2's. I looked for your PM but without success so hope you find this soon. Thanks in advance and good to see a Lincoln, very well done. Regards, exbrat

Good to see the Valiants appearing on the site. I'm sure that several more variations are feasible. This one certainly looks good, keep 'em coming. exbrat

Well done young man, keep them coming. Exbrat

Thanks to all for those comments, most appreciated. I almost blushed reading your comments Houston. Yes, if I remember correctly I did enjoy assembling the model, no filler required. Mind you, the Spitfire is just about my favourite aircraft of all time. Perhaps these comments are sufficiant for me to resume the Lancaster to Lincoln conversion I started somewhile age, then for various reasons gave up. So thank you all for your comments. Best wishes and keep gluing 'em, painting 'em and enjoy the hobby. exbrat

WOW!!!!!!!!!! Fabulous model Mike and shown in an unusual manner too. That's how I expect to see the Valiant (199 Sqdn) when completed LOL!! I bet if the Arrow and TSR2 had entered service both would have still been doing so somewhere. I do believe that when the Conservatives were returned in 1979 thought was given to resurrecting the TSR2, but for various reasons did not proceed. Good to see you posting, keep them coming, John (exbrat)

Lincoln WD122 199 Squadron hopefully, i.e. the Tamiya 1/48 with Paragon mods, unless someone comes out with a 1/72 version.

Two posts in one day!!!!!! Having received much help and encouragement from Le General I have at long last posted these pics. While not being anything as near as perfect as Andy's superb model of WP215 of 199 Squadron I am reasonably pleased with my model of WP213. The reason I chose this was that 213 was the first aircraft we received in 1957. I was therefore closely involved with this aircraft and it's RCM equipment, as well as the remaining six aircraft, until I left the RAF in 1962. So you can see we had a long association. Any comments will be welcome. Cheers, exbrat

In fact it was about 25 years ago!!!!!! I know I enjoyed making it all those years ago. That was when we didn't smother them with floor polish and used a brush to apply the paint, etc. No, we didn't have airbrushes or 'rattle cans', or the internet to display our wonderful creations and exchange ideas, my, how things have changed. So yesterday I towed this from the hanger (top of bookcase actually) gave it a quick clean and took these pics. Hope you enjoy them and comments, good or bad will be welcome. Cheers, exbrat

Thank you Enzo, will give that a try. Regards, exbrat

With much encouragement from El General I am slowly progressing with the build of a Valiant. Becaause of my lack of modelling skills I am having much difficulty with the anti glare panel in front of the cockpit windows. No matter how much I try to mask this area, painting it fails. I have managed to make a suitable item of artwork on my computer. Printing this onto ordinary paper and trimming same looks OK. Obviously I can't just stick a lump of paper onto the model. I am seeking help as to whether some one can recommend a suitable decal paper for use with my HP 4L laser printer. Also a source of such paper. Thank you in advance, exbrat