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1/72 Airfix Lancaster as W4308 UV-C (for Charlie) lost 23 January 1943.


elger

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On 06/10/2019 at 10:45, elger said:

I finished painting the parts for the landing gear and the turrets. I used Eduard Brassin tires:

 

 

 

... painted with MIG acrylics, and with a bit of pigment powder for weathering.

 

 

 

Lancasters changed very little between variants, but details such as the colour of the landing gear components did change. I based the colours of my model of W4308 on the configuration of W4783, which also served with 460 Squadron.

 

 

 

I blocked off the insides of the gear bays with sheet styrene painted a dark red to represent the wing fuel tanks.

 

 

 

Not 100% sure of its accuracy, but I went with dark red for the oil tank as well.

 

 

 

As I suspected, the nacelle fits around the landing gear:

 

 

 

Frankie was skeptical about this idea at first, but she now concedes I was right.

 

 

 

Finally, the turrets also painted. Again based on photos of early-ish Lancasters I painted the turret interiors metallic.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking - comments always welcome of course.

 

That's stunning work on those turret's, a million miles away  from the old Airfix lanc's  !!!

Edited by Julien
Dont quote images in a reply
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  • 3 weeks later...

Riveting continues with the tail. It's not entirely accurate but it looks okay. Very curious if it will resist masking tape eventually...

 

vqHG2ta.jpg

 

I've also already done the bomb bay doors. I'll be moving on to detailing and eventually painting the fuselage interior. Thanks for looking!

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Finished adding details to the interior. Kit bits, parts from two Eduard sets (one for the Airfix Lancaster, one for the Hasegawa), and some scratch built things. Added Archer rivets to the floor instead of using the Eduard photoetch part because those pieces tend to interfere with the fit of kits (at least with me).

 

nSdsdsI.jpg

 

iM36J8b.jpg

 

Painting this next. Thanks for looking!

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Finished the interior. Went for entirely interior green since W4308 was an early airframe:

 

9erhhsF.jpg

 

Had a bit of spillage with the wash on the floor at the back, but that won't be visible once the model is finished:

 

K9OCAbb.jpg

 

bfHG4Uc.jpg

 

I scratchbuilt the hand rail leading to the Observer's station:

 

e26meS6.jpg

 

GKYRT5b.jpg

 

44gsms8.jpg

 

llYOzD0.jpg

 

Thanks for looking!

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You may already be aware of this , but the area of the upper fuselage that's under the cockpit canopy would have been painted in the upper camo Dark Green.

 

Your build is looking great. 

 

 

Chris

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Yes - thanks. I've glued the fuselage together later today and the fit isn't great so there's going to be quite a bit of sanding so I'll get round to that area at some point as well. Must add rivets there too! 🤓

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  • 4 weeks later...

After gluing the fuselage halves together the project slowed down because I had a lot of trouble coming up with how to proceed with the turtle deck area underneath the canopy. I wanted to add the protective cover, as well as the armored glass plate that's missing from most Lancaster models.

 

I cut this piece from clear plastic recycled from some packaging material. I carefully matched the shape of the canopy as well as I could. For the protective cover I used Mr Dissolved Putty, although in hindsight I might have had better results with epoxy putty.

 

When these things were fitted, I added the rivets of the area. With those in place, I masked off the various components and painted the area Dark Green. I weathered it a bit with some watercolour pencils.

 

KSHEXKj.jpg

 

Based on the photos of G-George I added the blistered canopy sides. These parts fit quite poorly and required a little bit of careful filing. I also added some PE bits from the Eduard set.

 

XpPrhQf.jpg

 

Next up, the bombardier's blister and then the bomb bay. Thanks for looking!

 

 

 

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Eduard PE for the Lancaster's business section:

 

T4PDUea.jpg

 

YvEMJlD.jpg

 

At just over 3 months now, O for Oscar is showing a keen interest in all this. Here I am explaining to him that I'm actually not sure why some PE parts didn't fit entirely correctly; Eduard might have screwed up, or perhaps it was down to the poor fit of the Airfix kit...

 

DFebU09.jpg

 

Up next: filling/sanding last remaining items, masking the clear parts, and then riveting the fuselage. Thanks for looking!

Edited by elger
added pic
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The fuselage is officially together and has reached the point where I can start adding the Archer rivets.

 

5B0Xmss.jpg

 

Nu4NOkt.jpg

 

Although I tried to take even more care than usual with the main canopy, I made my first 'big' mistake of the project here. The fit of the canopy is not great, so I wanted to seal it and fill the gaps underneath. I used some black Mr. Surfacer for this, and I carefully removed some of the excess with Mr. Leveling Thinner.

 

I had used some masking tape to protect the clear parts, but when I removed that I noticed a little light smudge on the lower edge of the right hand side of rear canopy, down at the bottom behind the side window. The process with the Mr Surfacer also left a little residue on the canopy side window which I easily removed with a bit of polishing, but some of the polishing compound somehow seeped into the canopy as well, leaving a residue of that on the inside on the front bit of the canopy.

 

I then decided to remove and open up the side panel to inspect the damage and try to fix these problems. I managed to remove most of the polishing compound on the front with a paint brush, but best that I can tell the light smudge on the lower edge of the rear part is actually the kit's plastic showing through. Somehow perhaps some of the Leveling Thinner seeped through and dissolved the paint.

 

I think that trying to remove the canopy all together might just make things worse, so I will leave it as it is.

 

Also, in the process of removing the side window panel temporarily, I must have knocked off the little PE handle that was on the window on the inside and that disappeared.

 

lg4K7qz.jpg

 

At a distance it's hardly noticeable, and I'm hoping that the canopy framing will hide some of it, but I am annoyed about it.

 

uBCxVud.jpg

 

Oh well, next up: riveting!


 

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update: after posting the images above I decided I couldn't live with it so I bit the bullet and removed the canopy. Managed to remove the last of the polishing compound properly, and more importantly, managed to touch up that weird smudge on the turtle deck. The paint had dissolved, in fact.

 

Went to the attic and looked through my spare parts box, and even found the leftover PE set from when I built a Mk.II Lancaster and I had neglected to fit the window handles on that, so I lucked out there as well. (Although as I pointed out to my wife, it does not bode well for my scale modeling hoarding tendencies. But as she pointed out, I only hoard very small things ;))

 

g5AKBxp.jpg

 

A slight delay, but the end result will be better!

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Rivets... rivets... rivets... (in progress)

 

The process is actually very satisfying. Very zen... one line at a time.

 

Measure, cut, soak, apply. Measure, cut, soak, apply. Measure, cut, soak, apply...

 

YqejF1g.jpg

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Phew! All the rivets of the fuselage are on!

 

cFSdkot.jpg

 

g5H87A7.jpg

 

JkeW1hs.jpg

 

yvhFrjf.jpg

 

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The wings are up next. Fit isn't great so I'll either add some styrene to fill the gaps and leave them off - riveting and painting them separately, but if that doesn't work I'll attach the wings to the fuselage, followed by riveting and painting the whole thing.

 

Thanks for looking!

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If it wan't for the masking tape and matchbox I could have beleived it was a CAD drawing!

                                                                                                                                             :gobsmacked:
 

Gondor

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/4/2020 at 3:49 PM, Gondor44 said:

f it wan't for the masking tape and matchbox I could have beleived it was a CAD drawing!

                                                                                                                                            

Just my first thought! Amazing....

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8 hours ago, woody37 said:

Just caught up with this as a good reference for mine. Any more progress @elger? Beautiful work :)

 

Thanks! I'm close to finishing the wings. I ordered some additional double row rivet sheets directly from Archer to finish the upper wings and I hope they arrive this week. I have to admit that the process is testing my patience - there is such little apparent progress... eager to start painting the thing!

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