A Sweet Sibling of the York in the Winter of Our Discontent

[Procopius]

Now is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by this sun of York;

And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house

In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;

Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;

Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,

Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.

Thread title not a reference to the cuddliest-looking Prime Minister of the last fifty years:

Awww, look at him! Who wouldn't wait at the church for him?

In any event, I've made all the usual New Year's Resolutions: be a better, more loving husband; tidy up more; put myself forward at work; etc etc. I also swore blind to myself that I'd (1) try and build new additions to the stash ASAP, and (2) try and build some of the big kits I've long been putting off: Nimrod, Vulcan, Valiant, and Victor. I used to have an Eduard Minicraft LIberator VI and two Hasegawa Lancasters, but I sold all of them off when I figured I wouldn't build them. (This is changing. If anyone has the markings for decal option B from the Eduard Liberator VI, KH283, or knows of a surplus sheet, please let me know.) However, with the dawning of the New Year, I noted that Sprue Brothers, in an act of munificence quite unusual for them (I buy from them when I want it fast, not so much cheap, generally) had the Airfix Battle of Britain Memorial Flight set for only three dollars (21/-) less than the straight-up Lancaster I/III boxing. Well, how could I pass that up?

I didn't particularly want to build the aircraft in her current guise, opting instead to go aftermarket. I chose a sheet of Aeromaster (AKA Errormaster in some parishes) decals that had the following aircraft on it:

Majestic, isn't it? More sharkmouths than any other aircraft that flew in the war, I daresay. Also, based on my (almost nonexistent, please recommend a cheapish book) knowledge of the Lancaster, it appears to be eminently do-able with the Airfix kit. I will still be hoping for lots of advice, solicited or otherwise, and I hope you won't be offended if I prove too stupid to follow it. However, let's see if we can find a photo of the aircraft in question now, instead of halfway through the build, as is my custom. Well well well:

The udder that houses the H2S isn't shown on the decal sheet! Bashi-bazouks! Poltroons!

Other than that, though, we appear to be solid.

Okay, moving along.

My workspace is a little tidier than it's been recently, though this doubtless won't last:

I began with a sprayed coat of Tamiya fine surface primer, as I'll have to mask off the green bits to spray the black inside parts, and acrylics have a nasty habit of coming right up with the tape if there's nothing for them to cling to. As you all know.

To reduce clutter on my bench, I've conjured up a slightly Heath-Robinson-esque side desk, the cunning plan being that it, vice my normal desk, will become filthy. It's a can't-miss proposition:

Yes, I know my modelling grotto is a hole. Much of the rest of my house is fairly nice!

At the present, here's where we are:

So far it's just the interior green (the late lamented Pollyscale RAF Interior Green, and presently I'll mask it off and spray some flat black for the black bits. I'm hoping/trusting that Canadian Lancasters followed the same scheme of interior painting as their RAF counterparts. I've painted the firewalls visible in the landing gear bay interior green as well, but would they have been flat black/Night by the time KB772 saw service? Also, I note that much of the interior will not be seen, as the windows were all painted black. So I've wasted some irreplaceable paint, huzzah!

Incidentally, I didn't realize that the wing spars had a front and back, and so solidly glued the for'ard spar backwards and had to break it off and bodge it back on. Happily this seems to have worked, and it now fits about as well as might be expected. My current feeling on the kit is that it's cleverly-engineered, but perhaps too cleverly. I would not have wept were it less complex. Dropped flaps, for instance...pfah!

As mentioned elsewhere here, I had the delectable experience of having a filling fall out (or fall off, rather, as it was the side enamel that had worn away) on Monday, and had an emergency dental appointment today to rectify the situation. I have no fear of the dental arts, but what I experienced was horrible and involved three gag-inducing shots of novocaine and the hideous whirrrrrr of a drill as tiny fragments of my own teeth flew out of my pinioned-open mouth while the dentist and dental hygienist cheerfully discussed his jogging regimen. This was made all the worse because I run, and I felt like I had something to contribute. Mindful of preserving my tongue for future endeavours, I did not attempt to do so. (Many years ago, in the middle of a then-experimental laser surgery, six-year-old me was insufficiently anesthetized and awoke as two of the attendings were discussing the then-relatively exotic phenomenon of cable [banned in the household of Procopius Mater et Pater]. I weakly murmured "I love cable," and was rewarded with so much anesthetic that even after I came back out, I was literally seeing treble for hours after.)

Here I am after my thrilling adventure. Note the horrible ceiling of my grotto. When we bought it, the entire house was ceiling-ed with paper tiles, which did not sit well with the beautiful but uncompromising Mrs. Procopius, and everywhere else, they have been replaced with a proper ceiling. Not in the grotto, though.

My shirt has a sloth on it and the legend "live slow/die whenever", which is roughly my philosophy as I stumble into my thirties.

So I suppose I should tell the story of why I've always wanted to build a Lancaster.

Many years ago, and it feels strange to say that about this period in my life, as the mind for its own preservation tends to skip over the wasted and lost decade which followed, when I was in high school, I attended with a very intelligent and talented young woman with whom I am no longer on speaking terms. (Not uncommon, my associations, when they dissolve, tend to do so acrimoniously; I am not particularly likeable, and was even less so then.) Her grandparents were Polish displaced persons who had after the war gone first to the UK, where her mother had been born, and then to the United States. Her grandfather's first wife had been killed during the war, fusillé pour les allemands, as they say; his relationship with her grandmother, his second wife, was quarrelsome. Her grandmother had worked as a slave laborer for VW under armed guard until the end of the war. Neither of them had anyone else; their pre-war world had been obliterated by the great conflagration that defined their lives for sixty years afterwards. Even in the late 1990s, they always stockpiled food. I asked my friend to ask her grandmother, what, if anything, she felt about the RAF bombers that she heard passing overhead many nights, bombing German cities and industry and suffering terrible losses. I felt that her perspective as a slave laborer would be interesting to hear, as she too would have been a target, however inadvertent, for the bombs. Her response to her granddaughter was succinct: "They gave us hope."

And I guess that's enough for me.

[Navy Bird]

Perfect quote to start a Lancaster build with.

Cheers,

Bill

[Stew Dapple]

Note to self: that's how to start a build thread.

I'm in PC, happy building

Cheers,

Stew

[Tempestwulf]

Seems to the the year of the Lancaster so far with a few people starting their first 4 engined heavy, me, I plan my first twin engined which will be a Mossie Mk.XIII. Maybe a heavy next year 8D

Don't suppose you want to part with a set of national insignia from either the Airfix or Aeromaster sheets? I have a Hasegawa 'Lanc which will be 75 (NZ) Squadron but the kit decals are meh at best. Plus the white is actually cream.

[Learstang]

Always nice to see another Lancaster build. As luck would have it, I've just before posting this thrilling post been fondling two of my sadly unbuilt Lancasters, a Grand Slam, and a Canadian MK.10MR (or SR, I haven't decided yet what to make it). Anyhoo, I wish you better luck with yours than I have had. I have a bad habit of starting Lancs, but not finishing them. Let's see, there's the two aforementioned, my semi-legendary Mk.VI, a Manchester (well, it's really just a short-spanned Lanc with two horrible engines after all), two Lincoln conversions, etc. Quite the collection, or it would be if I ever finished the s******g things.

Regards,

Jason

Edited January 8, 2015 by Learstang

[John Laidlaw]

Callaghan?!?! Ugh*...

Having said that, I look forward to this build. Stay warm!

* In case anyone thinks that was a political statement, it wasn't - it was purely personal.

[Stesca]

I am looking around for this one currently, will enjoy watching this.

[modelglue]

A ceiling?!?! How luxurious. When I tilt my head back to dream about how I'd like my kits to turn out I have floor joists and plumbing in view.

You weren't kidding about your love of toothed engines, I am sensing a theme here! The boxed set you purchased is a great value alright, the PR spit being a favourite of mine. No bite in any sense of the word.

If you are still looking for reference and the timing is right, I will be visiting the Air museum in Hamilton On where a Lancaster resides. I would be happy to contribute photos of any peculiarities Canadian Lancs exhibit. The last time I was there the mechanics had an engine off and apart. Pretty special to see.

Good luck with the teeth!

Edited January 8, 2015 by modelglue

[MikeW]

Well hello all. I don't have anything especially profound or erudite to add at this juncture, but this will be my 1000th post and I thought I needed to put it somewhere glamourous and classy. This is a glamourous and classy place, yes?

From a thousand war films, watching the fully loaded Lancasters lumbering off the airfield, I was reminded of the Flanders and Swan bit about flying, and the wry comment about the ubiquitous sign "Beware of low flying aircraft". 'Not much you can do about that, take off your hat?'

Anyway, you have my permission to totally clutter your bench again, get glue everywhere, and enjoy.

Cheers,

Mike

[Learstang]

A ceiling?!?! How luxurious. When I tilt my head back to dream about how I'd like my kits to turn out I have floor joists and plumbing in view.

Floor joists and plumbing!? We used to dream 'bout floor joists and plumbing! Nothin' but burned out frame above head for us. If we wuz lucky! Okay, sorry about the "Four Yorkshiremen" bit, but I couldn't resist.

Regards,

Jason

[Procopius]

Seems to the the year of the Lancaster so far with a few people starting their first 4 engined heavy, me, I plan my first twin engined which will be a Mossie Mk.XIII. Maybe a heavy next year 8D

Don't suppose you want to part with a set of national insignia from either the Airfix or Aeromaster sheets? I have a Hasegawa 'Lanc which will be 75 (NZ) Squadron but the kit decals are meh at best. Plus the white is actually cream.

I wouldn't necessarily have a problem parting with the Aeromaster roundels and fin flashes, but they don't look much better than the Hasegawa ones, IMO. Hope to see your Mosquito XIII, not too many of those built, I daresay.

I have a bad habit of starting Lancs, but not finishing them.

Fortunately, shame and fear are the engines which drive me. I will finish this build or die trying.

Callaghan?!?! Ugh*...

Having said that, I look forward to this build. Stay warm!

* In case anyone thinks that was a political statement, it wasn't - it was purely personal.

I obviously have no political opinions worth hearing about a country (sadly) not my own (except in my heart) and about figures in power before I was born and almost before my parents were married, but I usually liked his cut-and-thrust in Hansard. If I could impose and you don't mind, would you mind PMing me why you dislike (or at least "ugh!") him?

I am looking around for this one currently, will enjoy watching this.

If you've ever wondered if the kit is idiot-proof, this build will decide it one way or the other.

A ceiling?!?! How luxurious. When I tilt my head back to dream about how I'd like my kits to turn out I have floor joists and plumbing in view.

If it makes you feel any better, sometimes I'm pretty sure chipmunks get in up there during the summer. I hear their romantic interludes and their domestic disputes at curious hours when I'm modelling. The hidden life of a chipmunk is replete with pathos.

You weren't kidding about your love of toothed engines, I am sensing a theme here! The boxed set you purchased is a great value alright, the PR spit being a favourite of mine. No bite in any sense or the word.

I think shark mouths are the best...arrrrroouuuuunnnnnd! I have a number of aftermarket decals for PRXIXs courtest Freightdog, including a Malayan Emergency one, so I hope to get to those this year as well.

If you are still looking for reference and the timing is right, I will be visiting the Air museum in Hamilton On where a Lancaster resides. I would be happy to contribute photos of any peculiarities Canadian Lancs exhibit. The last time I was there the mechanics had an engine off and apart. Pretty special to see.

I hope to crack along with this guy, but absolutely, yes, please! Hopefully this won't be my last Lancaster, and who knows how long this will actually take me anyway.

Well hello all. I don't have anything especially profound or erudite to add at this juncture, but this will be my 1000th post and I thought I needed to put it somewhere glamourous and classy. This is a glamourous and classy place, yes?

As for the build, it progresses, but not without infuriating hiccups.

I masked off the fuselage floor and spars to paint the black portions, but when I removed the tape, the forward bulkhead (remember how I put it on wrong and had to switch it around?) came free in a blistering stream of expletives torn from the pages of Gorky Park. I tried to glue it back, but it just wasn't going to happen unless it was stabilized, which meant I had to glue the floor into the fuselage. There's naturally now a huge glue thumbprint right up on the nose, too. Mother...

This fuselage was one of the banana-y ones, so it needed some clamping and tender swearing to get everything in okay. Oh, and I was a fool to paint the spars anyway: they don't fit through the slots if painted. I had to sand them down. Grrr.

I think it looks okay now, but I'm sure glad I'm going to close up the bomb bay.

So far this kit is seeming to be along the lines of Airfix's new Lightning: incredible detail, astonishing frustration.

[Winenut]

Where do you get the time!!!????

Goodness me you only just finished the Beau.

I'm still recovering from my Stuka and unsure if I have the will to start something else just yet.

Nonetheless I shall be closely following your progress........ despite your appalling ceiling.

[Procopius]

Where do you get the time!!!????

One advantage of my truncated personality is that I have few friends to distract me or make demands upon my time, and to use our TV requires operating three remotes correctly and in sequence.

Nonetheless I shall be closely following your progress........ despite your appalling ceiling.

You and Mrs. P would get along well. She still hasn't gotten over the trauma of the paper tiles covering the ground floor ceiling. "You know what would make this place look great, Edward?" she often asks me, rhetorically, as is her wont: "some paper tiles."

I'm still recovering from my Stuka and unsure if I have the will to stat something else just yet.

I do sometimes need a little recharge after a build, and sometimes quite a long recharge. But I feel guilty about how much of our money I've spent on kits, modelling supplies, etc, and if I don't actually use them, it's just compounding a felony. But the Beaufighter was also a very easy build, as well; I try to alternate between easy and hard kits. HOPEFULLY I'll have the will to do my Hasegawa Mitchell III after this one.

[MolarDoc]

Dear Procopious,

Well you have certainly taken the prize for the most entertaining, eloquent and energetic WIP for 2015 with your Beaufighter build (although if your start for the Lancaster thread is anything to go by it looks like you may trump it!).

My New Year resolution to put-up a WIP may now fall by the wayside until I am able to improve on my literary style. Seriously though lovely Beaufighter in a much overlooked, but beautifully elegant scheme - Sometimes less is very much more.

Having lived through the Rt Hon James Callaghan's "Winter of Discontent" in the Old Country, I can understand the previously quoted "Ugh", although have no political axe to grind (and certainly not here).

Carry-on the entertainment - A perfect cure to the post-festivity/return-to-work blues.

Regards,

Molardoc.

PS/ Being relatively new here, I have obviously missed-out on the story of what appears to be an albino hedgehog?

PPS/ Glad to hear your dentist did the right thing regarding the fee.

[kwaterous]

Floor joists and plumbing!? We used to dream 'bout floor joists and plumbing! Nothin' but burned out frame above head for us. If we wuz lucky!

I wish I had that! My ceiling is just... Nevermind

I'm actually another one with floor joists and plumbing up there

Oh, yeah, nice work on the lanc too PC, geez you work fast!

K

[woody37]

This is going to be a another enjoyable build, especially as I've been wanting to do a Lanc with the sharks teeth scheme

[Harry Lime]

Very nice choice of scheme, but we would expect nothing else from you! It just wouldn't be cricket if you weren't building a shark-mouthed scheme. Incidentally, you know that Aviaology have re-released their shark-mouth set for the Hawker Typhoon? I'm not wanting to place temptation in your path at all, just sayin'.....

On another note, back in my second year at Uni I was walking past an outdoor pursuits shop in Aberdeen on a typically dreich early January day when I started chuckling out loud, much to the alarm of those walking towards me (I'm sure one or two gave me a wider berth than would seem polite). The cause of such a public display of amusement? The sign in the shop window advertising their sale on camping equipment, "Now is the Winter of our Discount Tents".

Mark.

[Pawel Szczudlyk]

Nice start you have made

I am doing the same right now...but from revell.

I will be watch your build closley

Cheers

Edited January 8, 2015 by sdk_uk

[Pete in Lincs]

And we're back in the saddle again, it would seem.

Thankfully not on a horse though. No brake pedal!

Those late war Lancs had all sorts of different

arrangements for the small side windows.

Some had very few at all.

Is it too late to search for pictures of your build?

Somewhere on youtube there is a nice sequence

of a Lanc in Canada running at night at a museum.

found it....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOlENYm2tJ0

Mark, Nice use of the word Dreich.

Now you'll have to explain it to overseas viewers.

[Procopius]

Generally I don't suffer too many adverse effects from being a high-strung, low-functioning neurotic besides the usual, but all night I was tormented by dreams that I'd left my uncapped airbrush hung uncleaned, with paint still in the paint cup. Well, I woke at 4:40 this morning, and I want to assure you gentlemen (and ladies, naturally) that I did no such thing. I was merely the victim of my own intensely overactive imagination. I'm sure in some way this is because I took a three-hour nap yesterday afternoon, no good can come from such things.

Well you have certainly taken the prize for the most entertaining, eloquent and energetic WIP for 2015 with your Beaufighter build (although if your start for the Lancaster thread is anything to go by it looks like you may trump it!).

Well, 2015 is quite young yet! Clearly I can't afford either comparison or to rest upon my laurels.

My New Year resolution to put-up a WIP may now fall by the wayside until I am able to improve on my literary style.

Well, in all seriousness, I would recommend you do one; I was hesitant for some time because, quite honestly, I'm such an average (at best) modeller that I figured it would be of interest to nobody but me and I'd be dancing with myself as it were. But everyone was very nice and pretended I wasn't doing a terrible job!

Seriously though lovely Beaufighter in a much overlooked, but beautifully elegant scheme - Sometimes less is very much more.

I agree, it's pleasing to the eye and has the added effect of emphasizing that this is a familiar aircraft in an unfamiliar setting, which I have a weakness for: all these old warhorses, intended for the great contest, pressed again into service elsewhere, after their prime. I hadn't even though about it much, but I have a number of built kits like this, and even more in the stash. Really must do my Munich-era Gauntlet at some point. There's an especial poignancy about those "Silver Wings"-era fighters in camouflage that reminds me of a line from Kathryn Tidrick's Empire and the English [sic] Chracter, a book which is largely a critical one: "Power had corrupted the British, by making them think it inhered in them personally rather than in the terror of their arms, but in 1939, when everything they admired in themselves seemed suddenly at stake, the qualities they chose to display were those of courage and of reckless pride. Reluctant to fight, they were not afraid to die." Which to me, at least, has the shade of Achilles in the Iliad to it: "Why, O Xanthus, do you thus foretell my death? You need not do so, for I well know that I am to fall here, far from my dear father and mother; none the more, however, shall I stay my hand till I have given the Trojans their fill of fighting." (I am, incidentally, a sucker for the Iliad.)

PS/ Being relatively new here, I have obviously missed-out on the story of what appears to be an albino hedgehog?

Do you refer to my avatar? It's a commonplace (as if any of those superlative creatures, the finest on this dark earth -- cf. Sappho: "Some say thronging cavalry, some say foot soldiers, others call a fleet the most beautiful of sights the dark earth offers, but I say it's whatever you love best" -- could be common or mean) African Pygmy Hedgehog displaying its teeth, probably in a yawn, but it looks jolly and/or jolly fierce, doesn't it? Actual albinos (I had one named Philippe) have red eyes and look eerily like Billy Idol. It's uncanny, honestly.

PPS/ Glad to hear your dentist did the right thing regarding the fee.

Me too! I had a sarcastic speech all ready to go if they had charged me, but given that half my face was immobilized at the time, I think it might not have gone as well as I was imagining.

This is going to be a another enjoyable build, especially as I've been wanting to do a Lanc with the sharks teeth scheme

Glad I'm getting it done now, before the bar is raised!

Oh, yeah, nice work on the lanc too PC, geez you work fast!

Some do great work, but I content myself with fast work. Though in truth, most of the obstacles to getting this far with the kit are mental; having to paint all the inner bits makes things seem slower than they are, in my opinion. The key is to just get cracking and blunder along, making hideous errors and promising I won't make them the next time (but I will, I will).

Very nice choice of scheme, but we would expect nothing else from you! It just wouldn't be cricket if you weren't building a shark-mouthed scheme. Incidentally, you know that Aviaology have re-released their shark-mouth set for the Hawker Typhoon? I'm not wanting to place temptation in your path at all, just sayin'.....

No temptation placed, I kept a keen eye on its reprint date and snaffled it up the instant it came back out.

On another note, back in my second year at Uni I was walking past an outdoor pursuits shop in Aberdeen on a typically dreich early January day when I started chuckling out loud, much to the alarm of those walking towards me (I'm sure one or two gave me a wider berth than would seem polite). The cause of such a public display of amusement? The sign in the shop window advertising their sale on camping equipment, "Now is the Winter of our Discount Tents".

Magnificent.

I will be watch your build closley

Not too closely, I hope, I make a lot of mistakes!

[Procopius]

And we're back in the saddle again, it would seem.

Thankfully not on a horse though. No brake pedal!

Believe it or not, I have never ridden on a horse, although I once rode on an elephant, very near the back. This is in a very literal sense far from being the best spot to sit. I learned a lot about where elephant food goes, and what it looks like when it gets there, though.

Those late war Lancs had all sorts of different

arrangements for the small side windows.

Some had very few at all.

Is it too late to search for pictures of your build?

Somewhere on youtube there is a nice sequence

of a Lanc in Canada running at night at a museum.

found it....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOlENYm2tJ0

It's not too late! There are two photos of VR-R that I know of:

The Canadian Lancaster still extant was painted as her for a while, and even I can spot some differences:

Mark, Nice use of the word Dreich.

Now you'll have to explain it to overseas viewers.

I guessed gloomy, but apparently it means dreary. Difficult to imagine that being applied to Scotland, the jollity capitol of the UK.

[perdu]

Dreich would fairly accurately describe the reign of Callaghan and his cronies

My beloved country had some bloody awful times under those people

I however expect good times to roll now

Press on Procopius, press on to victory

[woody37]

Looking at the pictures there, only the small square window below the cockpit is present (can just about see it). Late war lancs never had the small slit windows running along the fuselage. running a bit of filler over them should do the trick and means less masking to worry about too

[Learstang]

Which to me, at least, has the shade of Achilles in the Iliad to it: "Why, O Xanthus, do you thus foretell my death? You need not do so, for I well know that I am to fall here, far from my dear father and mother; none the more, however, shall I stay my hand till I have given the Trojans their fill of fighting." (I am, incidentally, a sucker for the Iliad.)

Just once I'd like to get through one of these Lancaster threads on BM without yet another reference to Xanthus! Why not Xenophon or Heraclitus?

Regards,

Jason (would-be Classical scholar)

[Pete in Lincs]

I bet none of them had a pilots licence.