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Airfix Dambuster - 1/72 Avro Lancaster B.III


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Hang in there Tom, glad you're feeling better and back at the bench.  Nothing like pointless (Mrs F's view rather than mine....) bits of plastic and metal (lots of metal in your case) to act as a welcome distraction.  We lost my mum several years ago and my Dad took it hard. I mention it just because in a small way modelling and aviation generally has been part of the process of him getting through it.  He and I have spent many weekends away together themed around visits to the Hendon, Duxford and Cosford museums and been to the Telford and Cosford model shows as well.  'Course it might be the good meal and the evening in the pub element of it that's helped as well.......That and the amount of golf he plays....but his on his own with that one! (well him and his cronies)......

Edited by Fritag
edited for spelling
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My sincere condolences as well. In a way, it's a blessing that it happened the way it did. My mum passed in 2004 (on Valentine's Day) but it was only after she had suffered for several years. Her symptoms were bad enough, but all the doctors, hospital visits, etc. were just too much for her. It was sad to see her suffer, I just hated it. 

 

Hang in there, mate. The plastic can help, but it can also wait when there's more important things to do,

 

Cheers,

Bill

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Thank you for your kind words folks. I must admit your comments, and those of people I’ve been in contact with recently (friends, work etc) have reinforced my confidence, optimism and faith in human nature, which let’s be honest, at times a ten minute surf of the news channels can be enough to turn you into a raving cynic for life. Passed on your comments to dad which he appreciated. Anyroad, once again thanks to all, but I feel a few replies are in order:

 

 

On ‎4‎/‎29‎/‎2017 at 3:52 PM, perdu said:

And as Clive says, Its good to have you back

 

I'm glad you have it all together and feel up to it now

 

Always ready for a natter if you need it mate

 

See you soon

Bill will take you up on that at the next club meet but it is likely to be about rotor blades and beer mat dimensions :P

 

On ‎4‎/‎30‎/‎2017 at 11:19 AM, Fritag said:

Hang in there Tom, glad you're feeling better and back at the bench.  Nothing like pointless (Mrs F's view rather than mine....) bits of plastic and metal (lots of metal in your case) to act as a welcome distraction.  We lost my mum several years ago and my Dad took it hard. I mention it just because in a small way modelling and aviation generally has been part of the process of him getting through it.  He and I have spent many weekends away together themed around visits to the Hendon, Duxford and Cosford museums and been to the Telford and Cosford model shows as well.  'Course it might be the good meal and the evening in the pub element of it that's helped as well.......That and the amount of golf he plays....but his on his own with that one! (well him and his cronies)......

Steve me and dad were planning on a trip to Cosford (he was a fireman in the RAF 50-53), but now we’ve moved it forward on the agenda. Dad’s itching to go as soon as possible. We’ll also be penciling in a few trips to Hendon, Duxford etc. As an aside he’s a big fan of the Jet Provost.

 

On ‎5‎/‎1‎/‎2017 at 5:19 PM, Navy Bird said:

My sincere condolences as well. In a way, it's a blessing that it happened the way it did. My mum passed in 2004 (on Valentine's Day) but it was only after she had suffered for several years. Her symptoms were bad enough, but all the doctors, hospital visits, etc. were just too much for her. It was sad to see her suffer, I just hated it. 

 

Hang in there, mate. The plastic can help, but it can also wait when there's more important things to do,

 

Cheers,

Bill

Bill thank you sir. I must admit the thing that leaps out from your threads (apart from the wonderful modelling) is how you take things in your stride and got on with stuff. If ever I feel sorry for myself a quick read of your threads puts things into perspective.

 

Roight up then, back to the build. Finally got the innards primed and painted. Although a couple of last minute tasks first. Belt buckles – Jasper Carrot once remarked that TV coverage of golf amounted to “hours and hours of televised sky” ok I paraphrase somewhat; but I felt this was somewhat akin to my efforts of hours and hours of fiddling and folding bits of 5 amp fuse wire. Must admit I can’t deny that to the non-enthusiast or uninterested there is a fair wodge of futility – if you don’t like golf then watching the air flow of the ball is pointless. If you’re not into modelling then recounting my efforts at trying to reproduce a seventy-odd year old belt buckle seventy-two times smaller than its real size is equally pointless…well not to me and here are the results. Not gonna put Eduard out of business but through the canopy they will pass muster.

 

IMG_1788.jpg

 

Next up I filed and cleaned up the transparencies for the portholes and observation windows. They are a tight fit, so I advise sand and dry fit. I didn’t want to be doing too much faffing around when I’ve got the paint on. The front observation windows or lights (when I was an apprentice coachbuilder, windows, windscreens etc were always referred to as “lights” and I got told off if I referred to them as windows) were frustratingly problematic. They sort of fitted but not flush, leaving a ridge or a recess – okay if you want your forward observation windows to have a window sill for a pot plant but somehow I don’t think Avro had that in mind!

 

Looking at reference piccies the windows (lights) are flush. You probably can’t see it that well in the piccie below but flush they aint. I’ve circled them (or should that be ellipsed) in red to give you some idea.

 

IMG_1817_LI.jpg

 

IMG_1807_LI.jpg

 

Anyroad after some fettling, filing and faffing they fit nice and flush. It will be a bit tricky not to splurge glue all over them, but I reckon a coat of clear and fitted in place with Tamiya thin will do the job.

 

IMG_1803.jpg

 

IMG_1815.jpg

 

Not that it makes that much difference but with a deep recess they just didn’t look right especially when you compare them to library pictures of the real machine.

 

Okay with that sorted I moved on to organising everything for the paint job. Must admit getting everything ready for paint was a job in itself, I mean trying to hold fiddly bits of metal and plastic. Here are all the little bits and bobs arraigned ready for primer. It sort of looks like a good evening’s haul for The Borrowers.

 

IMG_1822.jpg

 

Here’s a selection of paints used and the pit post primer.

 

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Okay I know grey paint aint that interesting but I must admit it makes all the difference. What was previously an abstract collage of bits of plastic, wire and foil of all colours, now takes on a uniformity. And at last begins to take on the form of a Lancaster interior.

 

Notwithstanding the fact it was a relief to get the bench cleaned up. It looks quite neat and tidy here (sorry Britmodellers but I’m giving you the “everywhere the Queen goes she always smells fresh paint” syndrome as my bench is usually a proper mess). Anyway here is a general overview of the painted bits to date. Also did the props as it made sense to use up the yellow on the tips while at the same time painting the handrail.

 

IMG_1847.jpg

 

Now if you go back to when I first started this thread, there was some debate and contribution from posters as to the correct colour call outs for the interior. There was some consensus that as they were special one-offs the interior was all green, lacking the blacked out sections of the gun turrets. Certainly this is quite plausible – and would have been more convenient - but after scouting tinternet for hours and hours I’ve found no definitive references to bear this out. In fact references to Chastise Lancs on Britmodeller and other forums maintain that the forward sections were painted black, and only the very early Lancs were all cockpit green.

 

Indeed our esteemed colleague CedB’s Dambuster build opted for the kit colour callouts:

 

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234984340-dambuster-t-tommy-airfix-172/&

 

A nice build (good choice of namesake Ced) with some nifty etch work and some fine figure painting fnar fnar.

 

So I made an executive decision and went with the instructions. Although I have used Tamiya NATO Black, not HU33 black black, but painted the IP, column, gun turrets and other instruments HU33 just to add contrast and a little depth at this scale. Of course now I have committed myself it is only a matter of time before someone posts definitive references of the correct colour schemes for the Chastise Lancs showing an all green interior. In fact I’ll bet a pound for a penny that someone will post a link to a book published in 1944 titled: “The ACME Avro Guide to Lancaster BIII Chastise Special Interior Colour Schemes, Limited Edition Full Colour Special – The Definitive Guide for all Enthusiasts and Future Modellers”.

 

Anyroad here it is. A wash will be added in due course, detail painting and dry-brushing, but it looks much better now and a little more complete.

 

IMG_1848.jpg

 

Harnesses courtesy of HU94.

 

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The rear gun turret looks much better, albeit a little flat and will benefit from a dry-brush.

 

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The famous bomb sight which received a squirt of HU62 and has picked up a hair and looks a bit rough close up (damn those macros).

 

IMG_1855.jpg

 

That’s a nice little milestone reached. So next up will be detail painting, a wash, interior decals and then a coat of matt varnish.

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Nice work Tom, I am agog to see the wash going on

 

and potentially coming off in places

 

It's an area of modelling of which I have zero competence and even less knowledge so I definitely need to chat with you about that

 

 

 

(I suppose your dad could join the queue of budding pilots waiting to climb in the JP fuselage at Hendon, there were a dozen little lads jostling to be next in...)

 

Getting his mind out of the house is an important part of getting used to the status quo

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Great stuff Tom. The internals are looking really good and I can't wait to see your detailing - ready to learn from a master :) 

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Beauty!

I do question the yellow on the prop tips. Yours seems to be a bit too large an area. Regulations called for a 4" yellow tip. Now I realize that 4 inches is quite small in 1/72 and the majority of the Earth's population would never know or notice.

 

Sorry, it's just my age-induced anal-retentiveness kicking in.

 

 

Chris

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Wonderful work sir. I have to tell you that I have been following this build and enjoying it no end. Your mention of the Borrowers rang a bell and reminded me of another book from my childhood ... Stuart Little  by E. B. White.  Don't know if it was part of your childhood but the main character is a mouse/man who is given a miniature car by his dentist..(shades of Paul Budzick!) Anyway as a kid, I was fascinated by that car in the same way that my imagination was captured by the Borrowers world. 

Thanks for sharing your work. 

Best wishes,

Terry

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Nice to that you're up and at it again. Very sorry to hear of your loss. It's nice to see that even as a community separated by miles of cable and screens we do all offer comfort to each other..

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On 5/2/2017 at 3:25 PM, Tomoshenko said:

a book published in 1944 titled: “The ACME Avro Guide to Lancaster BIII Chastise Special Interior Colour Schemes, Limited Edition Full Colour Special – The Definitive Guide for all Enthusiasts and Future Modellers”.

This book certainly exists, but i cannot be unearthed until you complete this build - you are the key.

 

Fantastic detail work.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Right up. I did some detail painting – mainly the odd dial here and there, white and red spots to give a semblance of detail, and some dry brushing with silver. Nothing special really, but looks reasonably decent and adds some depth. On with a coat of klear, then I added a wash.

 

No exotic recipes, just Paynes grey oil well diluted with Winsor & Newton Sansodor. I prefer the latter to turps because it isn’t as smelly and it is quite mild and is less likely to react with the paint.

 

IMG_1867.jpg

 

Now the black areas. A little more problematic for obvious reasons, being black a dark wash doesn’t really work, cos well it’s black. I added some white to the wash so it was a light grey, or highlighting wash. I find this and dry brushing the only way to bring out any kind of depth or detail with black, especially at this scale.

 

IMG_1871.jpg

 

Here is the finished result which I’m quite pleased with. Not absolutely fantastic, but seen through the canopy it should be convincing enough. As you can see I’ve added the handrail, seat, and a harness for the flight engineer, plus the lamp for the navigator, and finished with a coat of Alclad Klear Kote Matte.

 

IMG_1907.jpg

 

I think it's a compromise to bring out the detail. Apart from a lamp to see the maps and charts, as per above (many moons ago) I’d knocked up a parallelogram and some earphones and a Morse code clicker for the radio operator.

 

IMG_1883.jpg

 

Another blast from the past was the maps that The Baron had provided me links to above:

 

IMG_1510.jpg

 

I did use the kit transfer in the end even if it does look a bit too newish and HD Photoshop enhanced for a 1940s map. I tried to dull it with a bit of grey pastel. Anyroad I used one of Tony’s maps, plus my home brew compass and parallelogram (I’m quite impressed with myself, not so the scratch build, but I can now spell “parallelogram” correctly!). So here they are, perhaps a tad overscale but they’ll look all right through the canopy.

 

Okay I know you can see diddly squat detail on the ones folded in the map holder…but dear reader you know – cos I’ve told you – that they are authentic, and we know they are there!

 

IMG_1902.jpg

 

Probably the radio operator and navigator’s seats are a little underscale but I’m gona putt that down to rationing and war time resource issues.

 

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IMG_1909.jpg

 

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On the whole though I am quite pleased with the outcome.

 

IMG_1911.jpg

 

Now those blinkin’ forward observation windows. I knew they were going to be a bit of a faff, and yep they were a roight proper palaver. I got them glued in but they still weren’t flush with the fuselage and there was an ever so slight gap. So glued in and then I added some perfect plastic putty, which I can understand why folk rave about it.

 

IMG_1914.jpg

 

Yikes what a mess! Well I flatted it back, then added some Mr Surfacer. Then more sanding and micromeshing, and here is the finished result:

 

IMG_1919.jpg

 

It’s come out quite well, nice and flush, and is reasonably shiny, although you can’t really tell from the piccie. I’ll mask just inside he fill area and probably treat it to a coat of klear once everything else is painted.

 

In other news I’m in receipt of the latest additions to the mancave itinerary:

 

IMG_1915.jpg

 

Yes it’s a lathe. What to use it for? Well give me enough time…but I’m excited. Makes a nice whirring sound too.

 

And silicon moulding stuff from an art shop in Brum (yes even in Brummagem we do have those sort of shops you know). Have to say I’m quite impressed with it. Already tried it out on the fuselage windows. Sets fast, easy and not messy to use – my kind of stuff.

 

IMG_1916.jpg

 

I’ll finish off the other window, final check on the innards then can finally get it zipped up.

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45 minutes ago, Tomoshenko said:

No exotic recipes, just Paynes grey oil well diluted with Winsor & Newton Sansodor. I prefer the latter to turps because it isn’t as smelly and it is quite mild and is less likely to react with the paint.

 

Second that.  Call me old fashioned but I just think that oil over a Klear coat works so well; and I pray in evidence the fine work of Mr Tomoshenko........and wth Sansodor you seem to be able to play about with it almost endlessly without it lifting or reacting with the Klear.  I have invested in some of the Mig Oilbrushers as a neat and convenient (albeit not cheap) alternative to tube's of oil paint tho' :blush:

 

51 minutes ago, Tomoshenko said:

being black a dark wash doesn’t really work, cos well it’s black. I added some white to the wash so it was a light grey, or highlighting wash. I find this and dry brushing the only way to bring out any kind of depth or detail with black, especially at this scale.

 

Agreed again :) I tend to sue Tamiya Nato black - which is said to be a lighter black; but I've found that I like the look better in 1/72 if I add a few drops of white to lighten it even more - and I'm hopeful (well guessing really) that a pure black wash might show up against it.....or it might not.....

 

59 minutes ago, Tomoshenko said:

I used one of Tony’s maps, plus my home brew compass and parallelogram (I’m quite impressed with myself, not so the scratch build, but I can now spell “parallelogram” correctly!). So here they are, perhaps a tad overscale but they’ll look all right through the canopy.

 

 

Impressively mad.  Looks almost ridiculously good.

 

1 hour ago, Tomoshenko said:

Yes it’s a lathe. What to use it for? Well give me enough time…but I’m excited. Makes a nice whirring sound too.

 

I got one too.  It's Tony's fault.  Mine makes a nice whirring noise too.  Can't think what I need it for so I'm relying on you to think of something to justify it Tom.........

 

1 hour ago, Tomoshenko said:

And silicon moulding stuff from an art shop in Brum

 

Hmmm.  But I've got some of the quicker curing RTV (cures in a couple of hours allegedly) so I don't need it.  Do I?  Has 'need' actually got anything to do with it?

 

Ace update Tom.  Preternaturally neat.

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Fabbo update Tommi

 

The whirry thing...

 

Looks kinda purposeful

 

Ish

 

 

I wait with 'bated breath to find out what for

 

😱 😲 😷 😛 😟 😭 🙌

 

The Lanc' however is storming on beautifully

 

Fabulous map works and oil shading

 

So I have to get Noodour or wotsitsname

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