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1980 issue Lancaster B111


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Over in the Hawker GB I bit off more than I could chew, and failed to complete the pair of planes I started. Both kits sit unfinished in their boxes. 

 

For this GB I though the best plan would be to start and finish a kit, then get cracking on another. However, the best laid plans, of mice and men, come to nothing in the end. With three other kits in this group build yet to be finished, here's my fourth!

 

 

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Released in 1980 and replacing the 1950's G for George Lancaster, this one just sneaks under the wire for eligibility here. 

It's going to be one of the prototypes, which one is undecided. The yellow undersides decided it for me, I think it looks so unlike any other Lanc.

The first, with it's stunningly ugly tailfin looks the easier if I discount the tail turret. An early Airfix magazine provides a Manchester plan to copy the fin from.

The second prototype has cleaner lines but will need a ventral turret building. I've a bit of basic assembly in front of me before any final choice has to be made. A start has been made, with a bit of vintage Humbrol matt yellow added as an undercoat. Two or three coats should see things looking right. The paint is going on very well. Scrubbing the colour onto the grey plastic leaves a very thin film of paint that covers surprisingly well for yellow.

 

More later.

 

I'll try not to start anything else until at least one or two of the others are completed😁

 

 

Edited by TonyW
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Hi Tony,

I never thought I was capable of building these behemoths in my youth. So always ran away from the big kits!

This is going to be an interesting exercise. Kudos for being brave.

I am intrigued at your decision to paint all the loose parts before fettling, gluing, etc... How do you manage not to damage the paint with the inevitable puttying, sanding, and more.

Please tell us all!

 

Great choice by the way!

JR

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It will certainly make a nice change although I am guilty of currently building two 'regular' Lancasters.

 

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I look forward to see how this turns out  . . . .

 

Ian

Edited by Mancunian airman
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21 minutes ago, jean said:

Hi Tony,

 

I am intrigued at your decision to paint all the loose parts before fettling, gluing, etc... How do you manage not to damage the paint with the inevitable puttying, sanding, and more.

Please tell us all!

 

 

JR

 

 Giving the parts a dry run, I was pleasantly surprised how well they fitted. There won't be too much in the way of filling by the look of it.

It looks like the wings won't need gluing on, the fit is very snug and tight. That makes storing the plane a bit easier. I have an early FROG 1.96 Lancaster that has a similar fit. That one is a whole lot easier to store than my fully assembled Airfix G for George kit!

 

Painting the wings as separate top and bottom parts gives a nice clean line where the two meet. In theory. In practice it does not always work out.

Then there is the nightmare that is yellow. I've always found it one of the hardest colours to cover anything with. I very rarely use an airbrush, so multiple coats of brushed on enamel are in my future. The yellow on the plane now was part first coat, part experiment to see how it was going to go on in the first place! So far, it all looks fine.

I've glued and fitted all four nacelles this evening, the fit was good on all of them. Another thin coat of yellow tomorrow will highlight any bodywork that's needed, then it's on with more yellow until it looks right. 

 

A quick question while I think about it...

What kind of roundels would be on the wing tops?

I'm sort of assuming Type B, but really hoping that yellow ring A type were fitted. That would really make the plane an eye popper.

 I can't find any shots of the prototype top surfaces in my references or on the internet.

 

 

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Nice thread happening here Tony, however I have to ask - "Have you been into my reference books of late"? I've got all those publications in my personal collection as well!

Now I'm pretty sure you'll find that the dull Type B roundels would have been placed on the upper wings of these Prototype Lancs. A1's would be nice, however AFAIK they were deleted post Munich Crisis in late 1938 and apart from a few examples here and there, would doubt they would still be used as upper wing roundels as late as 1941. Although the yellow is a tell tail sign of 'non operational' service,  the effect of camouflage would still be required against any nasties that may be flying overhead.

 

Cheers.. Dave  

 

 

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Thanks Dave, that backs up what I thought to be the case.

 

Here's the references I've got at this end, My copy of the Harleyford Lancaster book was water damaged when the roof of my old flat leaked otherwise that one would have appeared in the picture.

 

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I'll be going with the blue/red roundels, they can always be changed if the million to one shot comes in.

Digging out my old decals, I find I have a sheet of Modeldecal A A1 C and C1 roundels, sheet no40. That's them sorted then.

 

I've also decided that I can't bear to have the pig ugly Manchester finned prototype on my shelves, so the second prototype it is then. Decision made.

A set of prototype P decals has also been ordered. Already I'm thinking of all the other prototypes I would like to do, I know I have a part started Halifax buried in the loft somewhere and probably a Mosquito or two. HELP! 

 

Edited by TonyW
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10 hours ago, TonyW said:

 

A quick question while I think about it...

What kind of roundels would be on the wing tops?

I'm sort of assuming Type B, but really hoping that yellow ring A type were fitted. That would really make the plane an eye popper.

 I can't find any shots of the prototype top surfaces in my references or on the internet.

 

 

Here is the photo of the top wing and the correct roundel . . . . hope it helps

 

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Ian

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Spot on! Thanks for that one. 

 

The cammo works really well, doesn't it?

The cammo pattern is also quite a bit different to the one on the Airfix instruction sheet and also the one in the Profile centerspread.

It's also different to the one on the wings sat on my windowsill. Grrrrr.

 

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Oh well, better to catch the blunder now rather than later.

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Was there a common camo pattern (I know the colours were specified) on all RAF bombers like wot the Luftwaffe tried to do? If so, that makes it a bit repetitive for us modellers, doesn't it? The camo you have looks good to me.

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The pattern I've put on the wings is close to the real deal, but now I know I'm off in a few areas it will niggle me.

I'm all for close enough is good enough most of the time, but I'm going to have to try to get a bit closer to the picture.

One escape route might be to finish the model as it sits now and place it over a bit of landscaping, it would be near invisible! Mind you, take that to the extreme and all I would need is a pair of floating roundels instead of a plane!

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All RAF aircraft had standard camouflage patterns applied at the factory using large rubber style matting IIRC.

 

The camouflage on the prototype Lancaster was only a suggested scheme at the time. The biggest noticeable change was the vertical rudder going all black and the black being higher up the fuselage  as seen on production aircraft

 

Ian 

 

 

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The Prototype decals arrived today, all systems go on the decal front then!

I found a decent shot of the plane showing the underwing roundels. They are a bit on the big side, running from just behind the leading edge to just in front of the flaps. The biggest I could find were a couple of 1.48 scale Airfix Fury decals. They have been fitted for now. They might get corrected if I find a pair the right size, then again, once it's sat on its undercarriage who will know what's there?

 

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A couple more questions for the more knowledgeable please? 

 

Would the prototype have had the reinforcing beam that runs along the fuselage just above the bomb bay? All the photo's I've found so far seem to show a smooth fuselage.

 

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I also found another copy, of the picture Ian posted above, of the upper surface of the plane. 

 

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There's a few points I could do with comments on.

 

Firstly, do the tail fins look black there? They seem very dark compared to any other vertical surfaces. The colour side view in the Profile above shows cammo on the fins.

 

Then there's the port outer wing section. Does that look like a replacement panel? The colour demarcation seems strangely fore and aft, rather than the usual cammo squiggle.

 

 

Thanks in anticipation,

 

Tony.

Edited by TonyW
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Nice choice for the GB.

 

I like also your choice of DG595, should look very smart in the prototype finish. I think the vertical tail fin/rudders are probably green (with earth at the tops). The smaller picture at post 9 (Mancunian airman, thank you) looks much lighter. In the larger picture the nose also appears much darker, some sort of trickery at play, I feel.

 

A stand out feature, sorry to point this out, I feel slightly guilty, are the fuselage windows. Maybe you could pick them out with some black paint. I think the detail is moulded on?

 

Nice work so far, the yellow undersides look spot on.  

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Thanks Smudge, the first picture does look a bit lighter. I'll probably go for cammo on the fins.

 

I'm debating what to do about the windows. Airfix mold in an outlline on this release that looks a bit basic. Black paint would be an easy option and might be the way forward. Drilling out two dozen windows and filling them with glaze only to have a black hole to admire after all that work does not fill me with joy, it has to be said.

I'll try a couple and see how they look.

 

I've got a yellow painted Lancaster and a pistachio coloured Hunter sat on my bench at the moment. Two more unlikely colours for RAF machines would be hard to find!

 

More after the weekend. Real world stuff is intruding on my model makingfor a day or two. Curses.

 

Tony.

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4 hours ago, TonyW said:

 Drilling out two dozen windows and filling them with glaze only to have a black hole to admire after all that work does not fill me with joy, it has to be said.

Ha ha yes, I know the feeling. Curse all this accuracy malarkey  :D

 

4 hours ago, TonyW said:

I've got a yellow painted Lancaster and a pistachio coloured Hunter sat on my bench at the moment. Two more unlikely colours for RAF machines would be hard to find!

Can't beat a bit of colour, should brighten up the shelves.

 

Enjoy the weekend.

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I would go with the coloured fin/rudder as mentioned.

Looks to be a replacement wingtip . . . .

 

Not noticed the bomb-bay external strip previously on DG595 so I will look into that as well.

 

I feel that I ought to have the 2nd prototype in my collection now that YOU have stirred  my interest in this girl . . . .

 

BTW have you noticed the top turret has NO fairing ???  this is getting more interesting as the post come in 🙂

 

Spotted this down on the BAY

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AVRO-LANCASTER-PROTOTYPE-BT308-RAF-1941-1-72-SCALE-BUILT-FOR-DISPLAY/153065614020?hash=item23a36beac4:g:IRgAAOSw4ahbJsP0

 

Ian

Edited by Mancunian airman
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That eBay listed model is quite good. I wonder where he got the idea that the upper wing walk stripes were painted red? I know your building the 2nd prototype, however the tone of the stripes in comparison with the wing roundel looks much darker than red. I'd be going black which is what I would have thought all along anyway. This is also coming along nicely. Looking forward to the next update. 

 

Cheers.. Dave. 

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AFAIK the wing walkway lines were always Night.  However Airfix released the 1980-edition Lancaster as part of a BBMF (60th?) anniversary set a few years ago and a printer’s error resulted in Red walkway lines.  I suspect that by the time the error had been identified it was too late and too costly to reprint the sheet using the correct colour, or to include an erratum sheet.

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A bit more got done today, no pictures but there's not that much to look at anyway.

The fuselage top turret fairing has been cut off and a bit of plasticard/filler application commenced.

I've drilled out the fuselage windows on one side to see if glazing the holes will look better than painting them black.

The wing tops have had the wonky cammo removed with an overnight soak in bleach and a repaint in a pimer coat of dark earth.

 

All good stuff, with more to follow.

 

tony.

 

 

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Chip Chip Chip, slowley getting there.

 

More filling and rubbing down, not really much to look at so no pictures yet again. On the plus side, postie dropped of a Lancaster Cockpit interior today!

 

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Pretty soon I will be able to utter the superdetailers mantra,  'You can't see it now it's closed up, but I know it's there!'

 

At this rate it won't be long before I'm ready to leave the Temple...

 

 

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Part number 17 (two pieces) are the throttle levers. they have to be bent into a loop for fitting!

 

The scale packet of Woodbines, for the rear gunners crafty ciggy on route, look to be difficult to fold up as well. The Swan Vesta's look quite beyond my abilities. Individual matches are just showing off.

 

The photoetch is quite remarkable really. Every dial has a needle, things seem to have a scale thickness about them, even the word FUEL is clearly readable on the relevant panel, although I can't read it without a magnifier!

I'm looking forward to having a go, although I have a nagging feeling that a well detailed cockpit will only highlight the lack of detail elsewhere. Where do you draw the line? I'm already looking at paint masks for the canopy for instance.

Let's hope my abilities don't fall too far short here.

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