Ol' Scrapiron Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 Once again I am a little late to the party -- but I'll try not to embarrass myself. I hadn't cleaned off the workbench since the Ol' Scrapiron project more than a year ago (yikes) so this was a good excuse to clear a bin ful of sprue remnants ad bits of wire, etc. - This is the old Matchbox kit I bought for $2 back when Kay-Bee Toys had a clearance sale about 35 years ago (I still have two Lancs, two Halifaxes, and a Stanrear flying boat from that haul!) Added bonus: Three Colors -- woooooo-hooooo!!!! As you can see, the kit is nearly devoid of any interior detail, and I'll need to arrange some Spitfire escort when I'm ready to tackle the channels they used for panel lines. - - With the family stuck at home, I hope to carve out opportunities to actually work on this -- I definitely plan to spend time admiring the work of everyone else to provide inspiration. I'll also try to share some of my own personal photos I have taken of Lancasters I have seen during my travels. Like my Ol' Scrapiron project, I plan to do this with no aftermarket (YIKES!!!) but do any/all detailing work using plastic, stretched sprue, wire bits and all sorts of experimenting. This should be fun! 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 Excellent!! I was patiently waiting for someone to unearth one of these classic kits for this STGB. The Matchbox kit is the last Lanc I recall completing and that was when I was about 15 years of age! Naturally, I went the RAAF scheme in a very streaky silver hand painted finish. Now I do have another one in the stash, however had plans to convert it into a Lancastrian to avoid using as many of those heavily framed clear bits as possible! Good luck with this build and we’ll all be watching and cheering you on. All the best.. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 Oh I say a classic 3 colour matchbox kit, yes please ! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vppelt68 Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 Welcome Steve, and I´m so glad to have you with us! I have fond memories of the B-17 STGB, where your fascinating late night updates were the first thing to read in my early mornings. I expect that to happen again . V-P 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ol' Scrapiron Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 OK, had a few hours to spare so I set straight to work on the cockpit. The kit calls for five parts (two seats, a floor piece, a radio bulkhead, yoke and instrument panel) to represent the complex command deck. Not on my watch! I started by adding stringers from stretched sprue, adding some rectangles snipped from soda cans to imply gauge boxes on the sides. I added a little flooring to the right side simply to conceal the long bump where the alignment pin is. A thicker piece of stretched sprue was added for the handrail from the command deck to the forward gun area. - Looking at some other builds in this STGB inspired me to detail out the pilots seat a little bit. It's a little crude, but that probably will be par for the course on this build -- lots of stuff with little regard for 100% accuracy. I did take a stab at the little supporting rods that run from the seat shoulders to the headrest, as well as some of the braces and tubing behind the seat. - Break out the brushes. Forgive my sloppiness. I'll admit it looks a bit like an impressionist painting (done by a 5 year old) but it has been a while since I painted anything that wasn't digital. Is it just me, or did 1/72 get really small sometime in the last 50 years?!!! I added a bit of woodgrain paper for a wood tabletop and then a bit of folded paper for a map. The stringers got a little splash of AK Engine Oil to add some grime and depth. After that I added to floor-to-ceiling poles on one side, and a baffle on the other. - Up front, the instrument panel was glued only to one side of the fuselage. It pains me to say that I've definitely lowered the level I'm willing to accept on this (even the photo came out mediocre 😞 ). As long as I had it rubber-banded together, I shot this next one with a flash to make the desk visible even though once the halves are joined no one will ever see it again. I'm not closing it up yet, but this is probably about as far as I will go on the front office. - Man, these huge enlarged photos really look BAD. Those of you that build in 1/72 regularly and have nice clean paint jobs must be true masters!!! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So here are a few of my own photos that I used for reference. Being stubborn, I didn't always recreate what I saw, but hopefully these might come in handy for someone else. Lancaster B Mk.1 DV372 (nose section); IWM London 2019 ----------------------------- Lancaster B Mk.10 KB889; Imperial War Museum Duxford 2008 ----------------------------- and closer to home, Lancaster B Mk.1 TW911 (nose section) at the Flying Heritage Collection - - and my son with the Lanc nose back in 2012 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody37 Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 That Matchbox artwork 😍 great start, looking forwards to watching it come together. Last time I built one of these was as a kid for my friends grandad who made them during the war. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 Thanks for the reference pics. I take it the young fella is now donning a beard and probably a whole foot taller than you are! Cheers.. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ol' Scrapiron Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 2 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said: I take it the young fella is now donning a beard and probably a whole foot taller than you are! Hahahaha. He looks a lot like Shaggy from Scooby Doo, but he is an Eagle Scout and lettering in a variety of high school sports and community service so I am certainly a proud papa. Not sure he is taller than me except his 10 inches of scraggly hair on his mop head. His hair was wet in this shot, but flies up like a fluffy mess when it's not tucked under a ball cap (which is most of the time!) 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 Ha! that’s just great, at least I got the beard right (if you can call it that). I can certainly see the ‘Scooby Doo - Shaggy’ likeliness and have similar images of my son when he was a nipper and now 18 year old scruff merchant. Joey is now an Accounting Auditor cadet, so I’m pretty proud of my son too. Cheers.. Dave 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody37 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 My 20 year old son has just had his hair cut so taking a temporary break from the Shaggy look! Scary how fast they grow up. He’s moved from dinky cars to real ones in a blink! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ol' Scrapiron Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 (edited) 6 hours ago, woody37 said: He’s moved from dinky cars to real ones in a blink! Yes. I think the "learners permit" stage is not so much about the kids getting used to the idea of driving, but more to do with the parents getting used to the idea of the kids driving. He picked up a little scooter that's sharper than most of his friends have. I had a hot rod in school, so I understand, but I didn't expect him to have a nicer car than ours! By the way, he took to driving stick in a matter of minutes and is a much better driver than any of his peers. Edited March 19, 2020 by Ol' Scrapiron 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ol' Scrapiron Posted March 20, 2020 Author Share Posted March 20, 2020 (edited) Quitch'yer flappin' My goal for today was to get the simple wing to look something more like this... and that would mean opening the lower flaps. Lancaster B Mk.1 R5868 My photos at the RAF Museum London back in 2008 Soooooooo, after hacking up the 1/48 B-17 kit, this should be no problem, right? Being that I only had one shot working with this brittle plastic, I proceeded with a bit of nervousness -- hack, hack, slice, slice, bend, snap, whew! 😅 I added short lengths of Evergreen strips backed by some sections cut from a soda can (yes, still the same can that I used for the Ol' Scrapiron build). The strips at the trailing edge are more soda can that I ran a poncing wheel over to make lines of rivets (instead of the larger holes on the real plane). - Once that was painted, I tried adding some AK Engine Oil... uh-oh. I think I may have used the wrong thinner or somehow had some residue in the mixing cap -- whatever the problem it turned to a sticky goop. I tried putting some of the base color back over that but what a mess. I'll keep the flaps closed a little more than I had originally planned. - I also plan to imply a lattice framing to the back with some tiny slits of dark red to imply you're looking into the wing at the wing fuel tanks. ---- I also did some work up front, creating a support and foldaway seat for the pilot's helper on the right side. I added a small block to represent the throttle quadrant in the bottom/center of the instrument panel and a set of rudder pedals for the pilot. - - Some grime was added and I did little (very little) clean up to the paint job on the seat. Some horrible blemishes just spring up when you post a pic at great enlargement beyond actual size (apparently more for me than some of the builds here that look simply stunning) I only did the one wing, so I'll have to try and match this (why on earth would I want to do that?) before moving on. The next step will be building the inside of the wheel wheel. I do have a few pics from my visit to the RAF Museum... - but they aren't going to do the trick. My plan is to study what those of you with larger scale kits and/or aftermarket part do -- and blatantly steal the ideas. That's all for today/tonight/whatever time it is. Must be tired. Edited March 20, 2020 by Ol' Scrapiron 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ol' Scrapiron Posted March 20, 2020 Author Share Posted March 20, 2020 I need to be up front about this change in plans... So I feel a bit silly about having added a handrail in the cockpit area once I realized that the whole nose section is an entirely separate assembly that projects forward. I added some stingers out of stretched sprue, and some soda can bits to represent boxes on the sides. The floorboard is soda can with some rivets added with some styrene sheet bits to make a cushion for the bombardier to lay on. Some bent wire will be the new handrail down to the lower deck. As for the turret, I couldn't be satisfied with the "gun barrels on a bar" treatment so I cut some shapes to represent the body of the turret that actually houses the gun. I wasn't worried about width, just a make-shift profile to see when viewed from the side - So it would look more like the nose turret of DV372 at the IWM in London The nose pieces almost ready to assemble... I noticed there is some sort of coiled hose on the right side of the turret (as seen in the nose of TW911 at the Flying Heritage Collection )... ...so I put in a slice of soda can (not that it will be visible when buttoned up. Time to glue it together. Then I noticed a panel to the right side of the nose in the Flying Heritage Collection example, which also provides a decent look at the bomb sight. The bomb sight was made of a chunk of sprue. The side panel is actually the part indicator (for part 3) snipped off one of the black sprues from the kit. Oddly enough, after I glued it in place I noticed the "3" is actually on the visible side when I added some silver gauges. Added the front plexi and voila!!! - - I notice that Matchbox kit didn't include a window under the sight that can be seen on KB889 at Duxford,.. and on R5868 at the RAF Museum in London. - Interestingly enough, those two full aircraft have the two smaller holes above the optical plate, but the two nose sections I have photographed do not. Here is the nose of DV372 at the IWM London (Old Fred) and the nose section of TW911 at the Flying Heritage Collection Since I was able to get up close to photograph the nose sections in Everett and London, I see in my pics that there should be a protective strip in the slots for the gun barrels, I guess filling the slots will mean choosing an elevation for the guns since they won't be movable afterward. I hope the nose section photos I have taken will help others on their builds. 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ol' Scrapiron Posted March 21, 2020 Author Share Posted March 21, 2020 With the front turret done, I am almost ready to close up the fuselage... almost. Only thing holding me back is the back (rear turret) The kit is really simple in this sub-assembly, so I headed to my archives of the Lancasters I have photographed. One thing that I noticed right away in this shot of R5868 at the RAF Museum London, is that the inner sides of the gun slots have a lot of depth. I was able to slip some strips from the soda can in to be the sidewalls. Unlike the Ol' Scrapiron build last year, I remembered to install them with the metal part in. There were a few times in the B-17 build when I had to paint the bare metal part AND paint the printed side silver (which would have been much easier to just install them the other way and let the metal side stay unpainted metal!) The purple area is the can, which was easily painted black later. Also in that shot from the RAF Museum, it's clear the guns were staggered with the upper gun being further outward and only slightly higher. The kit would have them stacked straight up. I trimmed the mounts and carefully glued them to that configuration (which was all in vain as I discovered later) Looking at KB889 at the IWM Duxford, it's also clear there is a lot going on inside the plexi on the sides of the turret Just to give the impression of what I see here, I rolled some dimples in more soda can bits and made a 90-degree bend at one end. Painted those a dark gray and added an "X" in black paint (to imply other "stuff" going on, based on the last photo at the end of this post) Installed them up against the sides interior of the turret. My wisdom of using the bend to have something at the base to glue (rather than the sides against) was negated by my impatience of putting them in before the paint had dried enough. Of course the modified gun mount was a hint wider due to the upper guns being relocated outward... and the upper barrels squished around as I squeezed the whole thing together and soon it looked like a porcupine rather than four parallel barrels. After applying some brute force (with no positive effect) and a few curses (again, no positive effect), I eventually tore off the two upper barrels so I could get the lower barrels lined up and level. Eventually I got all four guns to look right (close enough). However, being so frustrated at my ham-fistedness I opted not to pick up the camera for any photos (probably the wisest thing I did during that ordeal) ------------------------------------------------- Here are some addition tail turret pics from my archives, for those crazy enough to stray from what the kit offers. IWM Duxford Note the back of the turret is plain black -- I have seen the assembly line pic posted by someone here in the Group that shows the top of the back being painted in the camo color on the body. I'm not sure which I will do for my build (probably depends on if I accidentally spill paint on it before I'm through) RAF Museum London - This last shot was the one that gave me the idea for the "X" on those side panels. Hope these help. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ol' Scrapiron Posted March 21, 2020 Author Share Posted March 21, 2020 Count to ten... breathe out... count to ten... OK, I've calmed down from the turret fiasco. The Matchbox kit provides for three options: 1) RAF mid-fuselage top turret 2) Australian mid-fuselage top turret with a flared combing 3) flush with no turret at all Hmmmmmmm.... after battling the tail turret I opted to close up the body without a top turret. Fuselage is now closed and puttied. And looking at it now, I guess the turret turned out passable after all. - exposed plastic area around turret with be painted after sanding is complete You can see some of the paint inside the turret from installing the side "plate thingies" before they were dry. Note self: "Stop rushing so much ... " Inner voice: "Where's the fun in that?!!!" Three updates in one day, wow. I think tomorrow will be a family day away from the workbench. We'll see. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ol' Scrapiron Posted March 21, 2020 Author Share Posted March 21, 2020 (edited) You guys are really going to have to trust that this update follows a path moving forward -- because it starts out ugly! ⚠️ Warning: Not for the faint of heart ⚠️ This looks more like a crime scene than it should. Please ignore the fact that I used the inside of the wing as a palette while painting the flaps. After marking through the opening in the bottom of the wing, I added more soda can to the top half of the wing. The smaller strips will be an anchor point for the framework of the wing, the larger outer pieces are to represent the fuel cells. The black ribbing is stretched from a piece of the black sprue. Brace yourself, this is going to be a long scary path. Some green added to the bottom and red to the fuel cells. - When I put the halves together you can see how the fuel cells are recesses to the point that there was no need to make any depth to them at all. I taped the halves together to add some dimpled can strips to form the framework of the inner wing. These were made extra long so I could handle them. Just a drop of cyano glue at the tip allowed me to attache them to the small inner strip I had installed earlier. And after trimming to meet the lower wing correctly - I painted those beams green and was now able to close up the wing permanently. Amazingly it all worked as I had envisioned it more or less. I probably should have added a baffle for the engine firewall before I attached the nacelle to the wing, but I think I can still make something work (not as if I am requiring jewel-like precision) - I did have to cut off the back of the nacelle to accommodate the flaps being lowered, which was easier than I had expected (thank goodness!) As for the lowered portion of the flaps, I added some can bits to give a solid purchase to the wing. The REAL trick, of course, will be trying to re-create this over on the other wing. Edited March 21, 2020 by Ol' Scrapiron 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mancunian airman Posted March 21, 2020 Share Posted March 21, 2020 You certainly have made use of the soda can, something which I never considered 🤔 The Matchbox kit can be made to look something good, here's one I made earlier . . . I look forward to see more and the final scheme you finish with 👌 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsbody Posted March 21, 2020 Share Posted March 21, 2020 Though it's a bit late now, here are a couple pictures of the CWH's Lancaster, taken on it's visit to CFB Greenwood, in the summer of '92, if I remember it right. I was back home in Nova Scotia, visiting family at the time. As Greenwood is only about 50 miles away, me and an old buddy went to see it. Chris 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ol' Scrapiron Posted March 21, 2020 Author Share Posted March 21, 2020 My wife and I were just joking that I should call my process as "guerrilla scratchbuilding" 🤣 Whenever I go to chop up some Evergreen strips I ask myself if some stretched sprue (FREE) wouldn't work just as well. Same with the soda cans (actuallly a heathy V-8 drink) that can be easily cut with scissors and dimple real nice when you run a poncing wheel over them. Last year I detailed out a 1/48 B-17 and now this, all from two can's worth of aluminum (and still more to use). Before HK introiduced their 1/32 Flying Fortress kit I had a scratchbuilt 1/24 B-17 underway so I asked all my students to each bring me a couple of undented cans that I could cut into sheets ... Lifetime supply right there! Your Lanc looks very nice especially on the mini airfield there, and I think I might also go with the "Jane" markings. But I'm not sure I trust the decals that were in this box -- they are very old. Also, I don't see any painting specs in instructions (only what color to paint the wheels, seats, etc.) and as far as I can tell, the three profiles on the side of the box are the ONLY suggestions for the schemes. There's a lot of walkways and other odd decals to just leave a model builder to research where they should be applied. I started to use the boxtop art to paint in the camo on the wings, but will have to look a bit into how that should look. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted March 22, 2020 Share Posted March 22, 2020 Those inner wing colours look like something out of the Spanish Civil War ! Really admire your attention to detail, however please remember to enjoy the build as well 😉 cheers Pat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mancunian airman Posted March 22, 2020 Share Posted March 22, 2020 Here is a photo from my book ol'Scrapiron showing the upper camouflage ] I hope that helps . . . 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ol' Scrapiron Posted March 23, 2020 Author Share Posted March 23, 2020 Thanks to the profile posted by Mancunian, I was confident blocking in the camo on the tail planes enough to go ahead and do some gluing. I also changed to a darker brown than I was originally planning on (you can see a swatch of the lighter color on the nose section in the second pic). All the colors will be touched up before the end, so t may look rough at the moment. - I also chiseled off the back half of the giant cheese wedges that the kit has to represent the rudder actuators and put in tiny lengths of stretched spue. When those are fully dry I will snip off the excess. In the meantime it looks as though one rod has strayed. Better get to that before it sets permanently. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsbody Posted March 23, 2020 Share Posted March 23, 2020 Those units on the rudders are actually mass balances, not control linkages Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ol' Scrapiron Posted March 23, 2020 Author Share Posted March 23, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, dogsbody said: Those units on the rudders are actually mass balances, not control linkages That makes a lot more sense. I was looking at them as if they were the arms for trim tabs (since that's what they looked like in the original kit) and they were clearly too small to actually turn the rudder. I recently did some digital art of a Hurricane and a Spitfire and they have similar little housings and rods on the stabs and I guess that planted the seed for my thinking. I will have to correct that, and the pics you have there are very helpful. And I love that tractor vehicle in that shot. Edited March 23, 2020 by Ol' Scrapiron 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsbody Posted March 23, 2020 Share Posted March 23, 2020 13 hours ago, Ol' Scrapiron said: And I love that tractor vehicle in that shot. That's a David Brown tractor. You can get one in the Airfix RAF Bomber Re-supply kit. https://www.super-hobby.com/products/Bomber-Re-supply-Set-RAF-World-War-II.html Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.thumb.jpg.1b7e0b29f0d6300d78c7f03e6d716b61.jpg)
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now