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Airfix Avro Lancaster B.III - 'new tool' first build


Ventora3300

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Looking great Mike and nice to see some crew being included as well... something I should possibly address one day on one of my builds. 

Cheers.. Dave 

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On 04/05/2020 at 19:26, stever219 said:

I’ve found that a little bit of aluminium foil glued shiny side down behind the I/d lamps and landing lights gives them a bit of “sparkle” and helps them to stand out against the dark undersides.

Thanks for that great tip, Steve, and I have happily incorporated that for the recognition lights and the port wing landing lights - looks good!

 

The forward crew are in! There was a bit of surgery required to turn those running pilots into a navigator and a flight engineer and a standing pilot into a recumbent bomb aimer. The CO type figure is going to be a passenger for the mission, filling the radio operator's role. 

 

c0JzHzh.jpg

 

The flight engineer is in motion...

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The bomb aimer has his eye to the bomb sight - in reference pics, you can see a pad for the bomb aimer's elbows or chest and another on top of the escape hatch - not included in the kit.. The CO is peeping out of the astrodome, one hand in pocket, scruffy so and so!

hUdBaT4.jpg

 

You can see all of the forward crew when the fuselage is put together so I'm hoping they will still be discernable once the main canopies go on. Phew - the camera never lies - still some touch ups and matt varnish required, I think. I thought they would all be wearing yellow life jackets but the Instructions just indicate khaki parachute webbing.

WcHulN0.jpg

 

While the crew painting has been going on, I've got some of the other assembly done - wheel well framing on the spars on the port side and engine nacelles assembled - I'm using the exhaust shrouds option as per the Instructions but exhaust stubs are provided as an alternative (what type do they go on?) Props are put together and they are all 'spinners'. Stabilisers / elevators / fins / rudders assembled and being painted. The wheels are together and on the undercarriage legs - they spin well but of course have the 'weighted' look. Lovely detail and fit all round. The gunners are ready for the turrets but will be going under the knife first.

QZvneEB.jpg

Edited by Ventora3300
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Nice update Mike. The crew all add to busy things up and tell a story for themselves. Something I might consider in a future build.

Cheers.. Dave

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On 11/05/2020 at 20:42, Rabbit Leader said:

Nice update Mike. The crew all add to busy things up and tell a story for themselves. Something I might consider in a future build.

Cheers.. Dave

Thanks, Dave, I found myself checking the end date for this GB as the addition of the crew was really extending this build. The plastic is much softer and if you flex the figures at all, the enamel paint flaked off. Maybe a better soapy wash is required and acrylic paint would do better.

 

The fuselage is together and it seemed a very good fit, until it dried that is. I definitely need to have a serious look at how I'm putting fuselages together as I ended up with a step at the seam, more pronounced towards the rear. (Might be expected on a vintage kit but this new tool??). I maybe need to be using clamping rather than just pressing together for a while and leaving to dry. Seam was filled and sanded but a bit of work still required. During all the mucking about, two of the window glasses popped out (the ones just behind the cockpit thank goodness) and two of the crew came loose as well. I forgot to say earlier that I did file out and fill the circular windows in the top escape hatches with cut runners from the clear sprue, sanded and polished with the seam.

 

Wing tops are on and there was a bit of little bit of daylight between the wings and the fuselage so I filled that as well.

 

Stabilisers are on - a very tight fit and needed a bit of paint clearing / filing inside the location in the rear fuselage. Each side interlocks with the other inside the fuselage so that had to be all clear as well. Fins and rudders are together and I've just realised I've forgotten to add in the rudder balances as part of the assembly.

 

 

H2VzRNm.jpg

 

I like the undercarriage well detail under the wings so I'm going to keep it all intact and build up the wings on the fuselage rather than separately. I'll try to paint the wing tops and bottoms before joining it all together. Also, I'm sure I've seen in someone else's build that you should be able to see the wing fuel tanks outboard of the wheel wells when looking through the side formers - nothing in the kit so I may consider doing something there.

mk8OBsC.jpg

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This Lancaster B.III build is still going! I made up some wing fuel tanks from foam sheet (to give a bit of depth) and glued these in place behind the wheel well side formers. Other smaller pieces going on the kit like the rear wheel post, rear aerial and trim tab actuators.

ZJSdDnp.jpg

 

Tail is fully assembled now. Dark Earth on the top surfaces, ready for the Dark Green. I split the windscreen washers to place them further apart and fully in front of the two sections - as per some helpful advice here somewhere in the STGB.

c3j9Z1J.jpg

 

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  • Ventora3300 changed the title to Airfix Avro Lancaster B.III - 'new tool' first build

 

On 22/05/2020 at 14:49, Rabbit Leader said:

Coming along well Mike. Nice enhancements to those wheel wells too. 
Cheers.. Dave

Many thanks, Dave. You can actually still see them when the wheel wells are closed in by the wing lower halves so worth doing - and worth Airfix including in any upgrade to the kit!

 

Dark Green is on now - my Humbrol 116 was low and went streaky when I tried to add thinners so I've moved on to 149. In the course of painting, a trim tab actuator and a rudder balance have disappeared - you need to stay alert in this game!

tNaQUX9.jpg

 

Wing lower halves are on - generally a good fit but I was a bit shocked to see a bit of the port wing upper wing tip still visible. What happened there? The Lanc is gaining a bit of weight, now. I remembered to put a bit of black paint inside the two leading edge intakes on the wing halves before closing up (nothing in the Instructions about that). I re-fixed the tailwheel post as I thought it was too long - I think you need to push it through the fixing hole until it butts up against the underside of the stabiliser interlocking tabs inside the fuselage. If we only had the 'locate and cement' type Instructions to keep you right...!

7PxcncE.jpg

 

Other bits are being painted in parallel to try to get the assembly speed up. There is a lot of black in this kit - I'm trying to think how various bits like prop blades and tyres can be given a slightly different shade to provide a bit of variation. Only this week left now.

9bo3qwm.jpg

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I'd better start thinking about the bomb load at this late stage in the game. Time to break out the Bomber Re-Supply Set.

 

mqBAW6B.jpg

 

There's a huge number of pieces here - looks great. I'm only going to build up the bombs this time round.

QgTzqnT.jpg

 

These went together easily - plenty trimming of sprue gates etc. The total haul is 1 x 8000lb, 1 x 4000lb, 6 x 1000lb, 6 x 500lb and 6 x 4lb incendiary canisters. However, maybe a full days work in painting and applying the transfers!

 

azY6CAb.jpg?2

 

Engine nacelles are on and the undercarriage and tailwheel are fitted. I needed strong light to see inside the wheel wells for the fitment points for the undercarriage supporting struts. The panels on top of the wing leading edges at the nacelles need some better bedding down - must be paint in the locating channels. I put a little dark grey into the Humbrol 85 for the tyres.

eS2OOtl.jpg

 

Flaps are on in the lowered position and a bit more painting required. Painting of bombs in Humbrol 30 is in progress. Lots of little corners requiring touch up but the last major job is the turrets, I reckon, not forgetting the markings and stencils, of course!

oKScMud.jpg

Edited by Ventora3300
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Hi Mike,

 

Coming along nicely. I seem to remember a normal "full load" would be around 14000lb depending of the range and therefore fuel load required. I think my old 2nd mould Airfix Lanc had 1 x 8000lb and either 5 or 6 x 1000lb though no doubt a few incendiaries would have been normally carried as Harris did like a good fire.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

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4 minutes ago, PeterB said:

Hi Mike,

 

Coming along nicely. I seem to remember a normal "full load" would be around 14000lb depending of the range and therefore fuel load required. I think my old 2nd mould Airfix Lanc had 1 x 8000lb and either 5 or 6 x 1000lb though no doubt a few incendiaries would have been normally carried as Harris did like a good fire.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Thanks Pete - even though I'm painting up the 4000lb 'Cookie' and also the 8000lb-er, I'll have to leave one of them behind on a trolley. It would be stretching it a bit to put them all in!

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On 5/11/2020 at 11:42 AM, Ventora3300 said:

 

While the crew painting has been going on, I've got some of the other assembly done - wheel well framing on the spars on the port side and engine nacelles assembled - I'm using the exhaust shrouds option as per the Instructions but exhaust stubs are provided as an alternative (what type do they go on?) 

Some good progress there Mike, and I like what you’ve decided ne with (to?) the crew.

 

The unshrouded exhausts are intended for post-war Lancasters as depicted in the B. 1(FE) kit for example, as well as Coastal Command GR, MR and ASR variants.

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2 hours ago, stever219 said:

Some good progress there Mike, and I like what you’ve decided ne with (to?) the crew.

 

The unshrouded exhausts are intended for post-war Lancasters as depicted in the B. 1(FE) kit for example, as well as Coastal Command GR, MR and ASR variants.

Thanks Steve. I also wondered if there are still exhaust stubs under the shrouds and there was a need to depict a bit of heat damage to the black paint on the shrouds. Apparently, you could still see 8 blue flames from a Lanc at night despite the shrouds.

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Thanks, Pat. Just to make all the crew a cosy bunch, I’m thinking about having the Wireless Op in the front turret while the CO stands looking out of the cupola with a hand in his pocket. That will make eight on board!

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13 hours ago, Ventora3300 said:

Thanks Steve. I also wondered if there are still exhaust stubs under the shrouds and there was a need to depict a bit of heat damage to the black paint on the shrouds. Apparently, you could still see 8 blue flames from a Lanc at night despite the shrouds.

Thanks Matt.  On thee real aeroplane the shrouds covered the stubs, there are plenty of images around showing the stubs on the engines with the cowlings off.  Our problem is that moulding limitations mean that we’d probably get undersized stubs and/or oversized shrouds if we tried to faithfully replicate this.  On my old-tool Lancasters I saw moly drilled and filed out the ends of the moulded-on shrouds and called it job done.

 

I’ve often wondered how effective those shrouds were; I’ve read a number of accounts where German night fighters and other bomber pilots were able to formate on Lancasters and Halifaxes using the exhaust flames as a reference.  The Germans certainly seemed to be a bit more diligent in their efforts to reduce these light sources, witness the huge cylindrical affairs on Bf 110 night fighters for example, but there must have been a performance penalty with those installations that Bomber Command wasn’t prepared to accept.

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I would imagine it was always going to be possible to make out the exhaust flare from the rear, but I suppose the shrouds made it less apparent fom the front/side - at least to the naked eye. The Luftwaffe of course did have Spanner Anlage infrared detectors on some planes though I have no idea how well they worked.

 

Pete

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4 hours ago, stever219 said:

Thanks Mike.  On the real aeroplane the shrouds covered the stubs, there are plenty of images around showing the stubs on the engines with the cowlings off.  Our problem is that moulding limitations mean that we’d probably get undersized stubs and/or oversized shrouds if we tried to faithfully replicate this.  On my old-tool Lancasters I saw moly drilled and filed out the ends of the moulded-on shrouds and called it job done.

 

I’ve often wondered how effective those shrouds were; I’ve read a number of accounts where German night fighters and other bomber pilots were able to formate on Lancasters and Halifaxes using the exhaust flames as a reference.  The Germans certainly seemed to be a bit more diligent in their efforts to reduce these light sources, witness the huge cylindrical affairs on Bf 110 night fighters for example, but there must have been a performance penalty with those installations that Bomber Command wasn’t prepared to accept.

 

2 hours ago, PeterB said:

I would imagine it was always going to be possible to make out the exhaust flare from the rear, but I suppose the shrouds made it less apparent fom the front/side - at least to the naked eye. The Luftwaffe of course did have Spanner Anlage infrared detectors on some planes though I have no idea how well they worked.

 

Pete

Thanks for your help, guys. As usual, we have some fascinating 'previous' on this subject in BM by @somnas as below! 

 

 

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Hi Mike,

 

just found your interesting thread now for the first time. And I thoroughly enjoyed it! I realize there is an awful lot of work involved in building such a big bird... 

I did notice in one of your photos how small the crew was against a wheel... Last year, one of those tiny weeny Hyundai car drove over my foot, and for a few minutes I thought my toes had been turned into flippers... A Lancaster wheel may be slightly more interesting in the same circumstances!

I thought the Bristish bombs were a sickly yellow only people raised on jelly can enjoy. I did not know green 30 would do. One learns something every day!

 

Great show! Keep it up.

JR

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  • 3 weeks later...

I got around to replacing the small bits which had been knocked off - the aileron trim tab actuator was made up from a piece of bent staple and similarly the missing rudder balance weight.

7meusRH.jpg

 

Of course, as soon as I had put on the new trim tab actuator, accompanied by gluey blobs, the carpet monster gave up the kit original so it had to go back on!

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I also sanded across the top of the starboard nacelles to remove the ridges and the windows which had popped out needed to be 'tweezered' back into position inside the fuselage (which involved cutting one set in half and removing most of the frame bezell so it could be levered in from the outside rather than inside). There was a lot of touching up required and I've coated the aircraft outer surfaces with satin cote to differentiate against matt on any 'inner' surfaces.

Zv1GrX1.jpg

 

Did I say the last major job was the turrets?? This bomb load has taken a mountain of work given the numbers of decals per bomb, and I've still the incendiary cases to do. Those decals are tiny and a lot of nudging about with a small paintbrush required, and that's after actually finding them on the backing sheet and sliding them off. There will be another coat of matt varnish required once they are in position.

WP7Af6F.jpg

 

The bomb load needs to go in now and here is a handy picture on the alternatives. I'm going to go for a 'strategic' load for V1 sites etc. That will leave a few behind to load the trolleys if I ever get around to doing the rest of the 'Bomber Re-supply' kit.

9wBFopN.jpg

 

Calipers are all in the bomb bay now.

umWHLM2.jpg

 

I had a trial fit of bombs to the bomb bay and trying to fit everything in, it's clear some of the calipers will need to get moved along slightly from the positions set up in the kit bomb bay - I just hope I've used the right ones as there are some left on the sprues - I'll check. 

05pMMu4.jpg

 

Here's a diagram for the cookie calipers. There doesn't appear to be a 'double' rail at the back as it the kit?

 

fxCCpud.jpg

Edited by Ventora3300
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Looking good! For information purposes, the area on the upper fuselage, just to the rear of the cockpit opening, should be painted Dark Green.

 

49618137018_94950f76d4_b.jpg

 

49670261742_7962afcd44_b.jpg

 

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Chris

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20 hours ago, dogsbody said:

Looking good! For information purposes, the area on the upper fuselage, just to the rear of the cockpit opening, should be painted Dark Green.

 

Chris

Thanks, Chris. Yes, I saw you posting these images earlier in the GB on another build and took note. Airfix have this area down as black in their painting guide with the kit so I followed that initially. It's definitely sensible to have this area as dark green as it it is seen through the perspex and matches the camo outside. I wondered if it was all a matter of whether this area was painted with the fuselage before the framing was put on (you wouldn't paint it afterwards). I think this area could either be perspex within external framing or perspex screwed to internal framing. Of course, there is a restored example which has it as black and some of the earlier colour photos could be faded dark green or even faded black. Why would you want it black? Not too late to change it.

 

SJxQKqk.jpg

 

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hP6XiCP.jpg

 

 

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The bombs are on board! 13,000lbs by my reckoning. What a fiddly job it was, with blobs of glue required to get everything to stay in. I moved the calipers for the Cookie into the 'inside' of the double rail and other calipers either side to allow the 500lb bombs to go in.

Bomb bay doors are on - not really a positive locating position and I'm convinced one of the long doors (port side) is bent slightly and not sitting correctly. Undercarriage doors are on no problem. 

 

LPhalaT.jpg

 

Here's a front on view, with bomb aimer busy at work. Painting of prop blades is ongoing - yellow tips next.

 

6ItdIVx.jpg

Edited by Ventora3300
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On 17/06/2020 at 17:28, vppelt68 said:

Well done, in my Lanc too the bomb bay doors would never really close in real life but hey, it's only a plastic model anyway :coolio:. V-P

Thanks V-P but I can feel the bomb bay doors on my Lanc flexing every time I pick it up for more work - it probably won't be long before I knock one of them off., like I've done with a wheel well door already.

 

Anyway, I've decided to get the transfers/decals done before I fix on the props and last aerials. Here is the underside done, the very first wingtip stencil I put on twisted and would not open out again so it had to go. (I have a couple of spares of these from a set of decals for the BBMF Lancaster but they are not exactly the same so no point in putting on one of them, unless I extend it...... It was quite hard getting this thin red lines to settle down straight.

ZLIACoz.jpg

 

Transfers on the fuselage and upper surfaces in progress - I just had to get those big wing roundels on! I've lined up the fuselage roundels on each side directly opposite each other as having one more forward (to accommodate the Squadron Codes) doesn't fit with me. My plan is for this B.III to be a squadron mate of G-George in the 'Kit I made as a Kid' GB so I need to make up 'AR-A' from the various plain red (not yellow-line-bordered) letters available. A-Apple since I do have a smaller 'A' in yellow to put on the nose.

xwvKnLV.jpg

 

fA3Xs4Y.jpg

Edited by Ventora3300
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