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Airfix Dambuster diorama set.


TonyW

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Here we go again, not satisfied to just finish my Revell Lanc, I've found a good enough excuse to start another! 

 

It's an Airfix Dambuster Lanc, complete with a rather basic vac formed diorama base depicting a section of dam to attack. I've had the thing for years, origins long forgotten but probably a boot sale find. I used to frequent the Bordon Boot Sale near Alton, Hampshire and being near Farnborough, Aldershot and Odiham was a frequent goldmine of kit related stuff.

 

Anyway, here's the kit...

 

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The base has had a bit of paint applied by me ages ago. I stopped at that point as the  model wouldn't fit in with my sixties and earlier displays of the time. Fast forward to now, and it fits in here just fine.

 

I gave the base a bit more oil paint colour and things started to cheer up a bit, so I got stuck into the kit itself.

 

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To give me a better chance of finishing the build, I'm going wheels up, cresting the dam, with the bouncing bomb making its final splash behind it. Clear discs for props, no wheels to fuss over, just a fun build to take my mind off the outside world for a while.

Parts have been snipped off the sprues and cleaned up...

 

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...and before you know it, a bit of paint makes an appearance!  

 

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Cheap pound shop matt black spray went on very well indeed as a guide coat and the tea went down very well indeed as a moral booster. The sun was setting over my shoulder as I finished up at around five thirty and all is well in the Fenns.

 

Here's a snap of the model building shed, with the Airfix Lancaster on the bench to the right and the Revell one at the window bench. This is the latest in a long line of layouts in the shed and it seems to be working well.

 

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More tomorrow. Stay safe everyone.

 

Tony.

 

 

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Hi Pete.  Were the dams painted black?  I didn't know that, but I suppose it makes sense.  I visited a couple in the 80s and they were definitely 'natural stone finish' by then ;).

 

Cheers

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3 hours ago, CliffB said:

Hi Pete.  Were the dams painted black?  I didn't know that, but I suppose it makes sense.  I visited a couple in the 80s and they were definitely 'natural stone finish' by then ;).

 

Cheers

I doubt they were black, but somehow I need to hint at the darkness of night time. I'll be drybrushing the stonework a bit but it will remain rather dark. Ditto the water, it looks a bit tropical at the moment!

 

3 hours ago, MarkSH said:

Tony 'two benches' should be your new moniker, seriously I'm jealous of all that available space! great work on the lancs!

 

 Err, it's three benches really, there's another on the left, but nobody likes a show off 😄

 

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Tony

Edited by TonyW
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4 hours ago, TonyW said:

Err, it's three benches really, there's another on the left, but nobody likes a show off 😄

Tony

 

That's not real! It must be all photoshopped! Who has that much space and could keep it so neat and tidy? 

 

 

 

Chris

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31 minutes ago, PeterB said:

That's more like a bungalow than a shed!

 

Pete

 

It's been a long time coming Pete. The big back garden was the main reason for moving out into the Fenns. There's no way I could afford the same setup anywhere else.

 

Here's the shed last summer. The model building bit is the dark lean too on the right.

 

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Here's the frame of the building shed.

 

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To afford it, I've used reclaimed materials a lot. I've also had to build it myself for the same cost reasons.The roof and cladding are new and they hurt to buy. The big shed is still not finished. That one will be my own private Model Shop when it's done. I can't see it getting done this year, what with the world on hold, but once things calm down a bit, I'll be back on it. In the meanwhile, I'm lucky enough to have what I've got.

 

Thanks for your interest.

 

Tony.

Edited by TonyW
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Tony, you are living the dream! This is going to be the physical manifestation of your ‘Nostalgia...’thread. When will you be receiving visitors? (to rival that ‘Telford event’ - I’ve never been). Post-week 1 vino kicking in here but your outpost in the Fenns looks like modellers’ heaven! More power to your elbow, mate. All the best. Mike.

Edited by Ventora3300
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Enough about the shed, let's get back on with the Dambuster build...

 

A bit more got done on the dam base this morning, with the oil paints dug out and a mix of dark blue and black scrubbed over the water area. I wiped off some of the mix where I'm going to add the bouncing bomb leaving the tropical blue showing through. I've also sprayed on a bit of black at the base of the dam to suggest shadow on the waters surface. The walls of the dam were dry brushed with tones of dark grey yesterday but looking at the result this morning, I wasn't happy. Too light. I've gone over the walls with thinned sienna and umber mixed with black and it looks better now.  The base edges also got hit with matt black spray. The oils will need a couple of days to dry before I can do more. With a bit of luck, I'll get a bit done on the plane itself today.

 

I couldn't resist propping up the Revell Lancaster I'm also doing in the GB, just to see how things looked. I quite like the way things are progressing, although the Revell kit is giving me real problems, but that's for another thread.

It's sobering to think that the below model is posed at a scale 50ft above the water in these shots. The crews were fantastically brave and quite magnificent flyers.

 

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Tell you what, I work for three days and there’s so many updates to catch up on! This is looking superb Tony, although let’s face it, n your hands it would hardly be classified as anything else. 
Cheers.. Dave 

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A bit more done on the dam base today, with the underneath getting filled with hi ex foam I had left over from my shed construction.

Horrible stuff to work with as it's incredibly sticky and has a habit of getting all over you. Once it had set hard, and I had unstuck my fingers, I sawed it off level with the base as it had risen like a loaf of bread! The base is good and firm now which it certainly wasn't before. I'll be back on the plane itself tomorrow.

 

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Not strictly Lancaster related, but worth a mention, I also took delivery of a set of rather nifty Pixnor tweezers after reading high praises sung about them in another thread on BM. They are very, very nice. I got the set of nine, with a tip for just about any tweezering I'm ever likely to do. Top quality stuff for not a lot of money at all. They make my current pair look very crude indeed. 

 

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Tony.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Any progress is good progress.

 

Today see's the bouncing bomb cut down a bit and fixed to the 'water' with gorilla glue. A bit of cushion stuffing was added to provide a bit of splash and the two dam top pieces were also glued on with the same glue. Not much done in the Grand Scheme of things, but a move in the right direction. 

 

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Lovely work Tony

I had no idea the bomb would be that colour ?

I assumed they would be black to blend in with the bottom of the aircraft 

Every days a school day as the saying goes !

Look forward to the next instalment 

Cheers Pat

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59 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said:

Lovely work Tony

I had no idea the bomb would be that colour ?

I assumed they would be black to blend in with the bottom of the aircraft 

Every days a school day as the saying goes !

Look forward to the next instalment 

Cheers Pat

 

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Chris

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I had no idea what colour to paint the bomb Pat, but thought primer red a likely one. The post from Chris, showing Gibsons plane carrying a green bomb has opened my eyes a tad!  Thanks Chris.

The Gibson codes are the ones supplied by Airfix.

I'll be adding a coat of Gibson Green ASAP.

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The Lancaster itself got a bit done on it today, the wings received some paint followed by some gloss varnish on them and the fuselage sides in preparation for some decals. The prop spinners got their prop slots filled and then painted with flat black. This one is getting clear discs as it's going to be finished flying over the dam.

 

My build style is a bit odd, but it works for me!

 

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Edited by TonyW
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A couple of steps backwards to report. Grrr.

 

I gave the wings and fuselage a nice, smooth, glossy finish for the decals to lay on. They didn't co operate at all though. The fuselage codes refused to conform to the sides despite what seemed like gallons of Sol and Set. The reinforcing beam that sits a bit proud of the fuselage was the problem area. I did use FROG roundels here, as on the wing tops, and they worked perfectly. Things went from bad to worse when I tried to add the wing walks. They seemed to go on OK at first but they dried with an appalling amount of silvering showing at every tiny raised area of the wings. I tried repainting over the silvered areas but it looked terrible. Off with the whole lot then, decals and all. I'll now need to repaint the wings and will be using a black marker to add the wing walks. I might get away with paint touch ups for the fuselage codes if I'm lucky.

 

I also spent a while cutting out four clear discs to use as spinning props. Trying them out on the plane revealed a very toy like look to them. They caught the eye far too much for me to use them as intended, so I'm going to be using the spinners only on this one. The final scene, with the plane zooming over the dam should still look the part, at least I hope it will!

 

Tony.

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Just catching up on this one and that bouncing bomb looks just wonderful. Shame to hear you’re having some decal issues, however if anyone can recover from a slight hiccup... it’s TonyW!! 
Cheers.. Dave 

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