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Airfix Lancaster B.III 1/72 Old Tool!


SaminCam

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Hello! I've been thinking for a while that my next project has to be a 1/72 Lancaster and I've been reading up on the various pros and cons of the new tool Airfix v. Revell v. Hasegawa , etc, etc. Well, a few weeks ago my dad (who loves a sunday morning car boot sale) turned up with this venerable old beast which he'd picked up for a tenner and wondered if I wanted it... With some trepidation I peered into the slightly battered box and lo and behold everything was still bagged and untouched. On closer inspection I was amazed to see that this 40 year old kit looks crisp! There's no flash and the raised panel lines and rivets look pretty good. There's not much internal detail and the wheel bays, bomb bays, etc are bare so I think it's going to get made wheels up with pilots in place. The decals are all present and correct but a little yellowed, maybe they'll be alright though?

 

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I've very nearly finished my twin build of F35 and Harrier and promised myself I'd get them over the line before the Lanc is started, hmmm, I bet a few of us have thought that in the past... I've not really started but I couldn't resist painting up the pilots - the moulding on them looks great, better imo than recent new tool airfix pilots I've seen. 

 

I found a few tips on painting 1/72 pilots but I thought I'd explain how I've gone about it here. First I cleaned off the mould lines with a sharp knife and gave them a rinse with soapy water. I then airbrushed a base coat of xf78 wood deck tan mixed with a touch of white. Next I carefully brush painted the boots, trousers, jackets, life vests and helmets with black, xf54 dark sea grey, brown and yellow. I had a bit of a hunt around for photos of Lancaster pilots and there seemed to be some who wore RAF blue and others with leather jackets - in the end I decided the individuals probably made their own choice so did one of each.  I added a few touches of detail with goggles, straps, wool cuffs and face masks and then sprayed a layer of Vallejo flat coat which got me to here:

 

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To finish them off I used oil paints, thinned with white spirit, as a wash. I think this has gone well on the clothes but doesn't look quite so good on the faces. How do others paint 1/72 figure faces - what are the tricks?!? The final step was then to add some highlights to the jackets and trousers and this is the finished pair:

 

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They should look good in the cockpit of a wheels-up Lancaster! I enjoyed painting these two so much I wondered if you could find the rest of the crew as an after market set, I've had a quick look but can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

That's it for now, I am going to get the other two models finished before doing any more, promise!  

 

 

Edited by SaminCam
typo
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Evening all! I've had an enjoyable afternoon getting started on the cockpit of the Lanc and listening to England win their last game of cricket of the summer - I'd have taken 2-2 and a world cup win at the start of the summer!  I'm going to model the Lancaster in flight with pilots but after some um-ing and ah-ing decided the cockpit was a bit too bare so I got the plasticard out. I've tried to busy things up and have taken much inspiration from @The Spadgent's incredible build here: 

 

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I've also co-opted a spitfire pilot from the spares box who will take up the navigators(?) position and he's starting to get painted up. Next up will be some paint in the cockpit, thanks for dropping by! 

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Thanks @Thom216 and @Courageous! I'm not sure this build is going to be super accurate as from here on I'm pretty much going to build it out of the box (I'm not going to move windows around, etc), any thoughts on things I absolutely have to fix would be greatly welcomed though! Either way I still need to read up on the various different types as I don't know much about the Lancaster yet. I'm also hoping the yellowed, 40 year old transfers will be up to the job, but we shall see...

 

I've pretty much finished painting the interior, based again on The Spadgent's build - it's not the best job I've ever done (I messed around with some different weathering techniques) but not much is going to be visible anyway and I'm quite pleased with the figures. I'm going to try printing off a little map to go on the navigators table, give it all a final flat coat and call it done. 

 

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The internals look great, these old kits deserve a little TLC sometimes.

It looks like "George" is flying again as they both have their hands in their laps!

 

Ian

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7 minutes ago, limeypilot said:

It looks like "George" is flying again as they both have their hands in their laps!

Definitely just cruising along! I was wondering about surgery but couldn't see anyway of modifying him as a don't have any spare arms! 

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Lovely to see this old bird getting the attention she deserves. Glad my old build helped a little. 😇

you’re doing a great job so far. You could add a deeper colour was on the faces tended to work when I did pilots. Not so much these days. ☺️

I’d Love to tag along if I may.

 

Johnny. 

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Things moving along with the old Lanc. I got the cockpit finished off and crew settled into their new home and then fixed the fuselage halves together. I've slightly modified (i.e. hacked off some plastic from) the front and middle gun turrets so they can be added towards the end of the build. It's hard to see with the photos of the black plastic but the fit is really good so hopefully I won't need too much filler. The engine nacelle halves also went together with a minimum of fuss and I was able to get rid of most of the seam lines by just sanding and painting on some surface primer. While sanding these I masked off as much of the raised detail as possible and I'll do something similar when I start tidying up the fuselage. 

 

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While I really like the rivets on this old kit I decided the wings needed to have a bit more going on so I've been scribing my own panel lines. I've not done much of this before so pleased to be learning a new technique - I'm using a Tamiya scribing tool and thick black tape as a guide.  I know there's a big debate to be had about the best way to represent the surface details and the pattern I've gone for comes from a mixture of others models, photos, drawings and a bit of artistic interpretation. I've also tried to stop before going over the top, to my eye it looks busy enough now and will hopefully help make things look more interesting once painted.  

 

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Finally, with one wing done (hence the two engines) and the other one half way there I couldn't resist a dry fit:

 

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Don't you just love a Lancaster!

 

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Sanding,  sanding, sanding... the fuselage halves fit really well so at the moment I'm sanding without filler. Process is to mask off as much of the raised detail as possible,  then sand through several grades and finish up micromesh 6000. I'm slightly surprised but this actually might work,  the grey line is brush painted Vallejo surface primer to check (and fill a little) the join and it looks ok! I've managed to save the slightly raised panel lines and the missing rivets will be replaced once it has an undercoat on. I'm about half way there so next update probably at the weekend... Thanks for looking!

 

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I still maintain the 'old' kit is the best for shape and the only thing that lets this kit down is the low profile of the canopy.:thumbsdown:

 

I like what you are doing with this kite and hope you carry on the good work to make her shine to represent one of her breed

 

I have two of the same waiting in the boxes waiting to come out to be treated with some TLC but until then I shall enjoy watching your progress 👍

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@Thom216, @Bell209, @Mancunian airman, thanks gents, have to say I am really enjoying this build, as you say it just looks right.

 

Since the last post I got a new bit of a kit, a light box so I can take better photos. It's quite a decent size and really makes a difference: I'm still using my mobile for the snaps but the background, LEDs, diffuser and reflective walls light things up much better than taking photos on the bench. As for the model itself I got a base coat of Tamiya rubber black xf85 on the body and the good news is the seams have pretty much gone. Less good was the hash I made of the hatches between the cockpit and the turret - after the raised panel lines got sanded off I tried to rescribe them but I didn't have much control and they ended up all over the place. The best solution I could come up with was to make some hatches from plasticard to cover up the mess, not very realistic but it'll look ok once its painted. Having fixed that problem I re-riveted the areas which had been sanded off and then preshaded with a lighter shade between all the rivet lines. Next up I need to paint the fuselage behind the cockpit which gets covered up by the canopy and then get the wings tidied up and primed. Thanks for looking in!

 

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I've also been pondering my options for paint colours for the camouflage on top. The only other brown-green RAF aircraft I've painted is a Mk1 Spitfire where I mixed up my own colours from Tamiya acrylics, what do people think:

 

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I was really happy with this when I made it nearly two years ago and she looks nice photographed in the new light box, but can I do better with the RAF dark green and dark earth? 

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On 29/09/2019 at 14:36, SaminCam said:

I've also been pondering my options for paint colours for the camouflage on top. The only other brown-green RAF aircraft I've painted is a Mk1 Spitfire where I mixed up my own colours from Tamiya acrylics, what do people think:

 

48814307738_236251e0ec_b.jpg  

 

I was really happy with this when I made it nearly two years ago and she looks nice photographed in the new light box, but can I do better with the RAF dark green and dark earth? 

 

Personally, I'd go a bit darker on the two colours. Yours looks a bit washed out to me, but it may just be the lighting for that particular picture. 

 

I just think they would look too pale on something the size of a Lanc. 

 

Just my 2 cents. Those are Canadian cents of somewhat lesser in value than other pennies.

 

 

 

Chris

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13 hours ago, SaminCam said:

I've also been pondering my options for paint colours for the camouflage on top. The only other brown-green RAF aircraft I've painted is a Mk1 Spitfire where I mixed up my own colours from Tamiya acrylics, what do people think:

 

48814307738_236251e0ec_b.jpg  

 

I was really happy with this when I made it nearly two years ago and she looks nice photographed in the new light box, but can I do better with the RAF dark green and dark earth? 

Did this version have the older radio system?  I have a Mk1a but wasn't sure if the longer aerial was needed.  I also read that even with the triangle shape that connected the cable was still there with the new setup.

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