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Lancaster B1 Special PD130


224 Peter

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Don, 

 

I read somewhere that only the pilot had a "fighter" seat parachute, later on the rear gunner got one so he could bail out without having to find his parachute pack inside the fuselage.  

All the other crew had to first find their pack and clip it on before exiting. 

 

BUT it could well be that some pilots preferred to clip on schute and a soft cushion! 

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Wow what a fantastic project.

 

Thanks so much Peter for your generosity in sharing the incredible progress being made and in answering questions of detail - its a fascinating thread.  For myself I am eagerly awaiting arrival of the 1/48 HK Models Lanc; whilst I hope they've corrected errors from their big kit I suspect they may  not. Either way this will be an excellent reference to put things right. I hope the maker of the 3d pilots seat has seen it and can maybe update the model  and ideally issue a 1/48 version. I'm still considering getting the 1/32 HKM Lancaster nose - this thread may well have  made up my mind!

 

Rich

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2 hours ago, 224 Peter said:

Don, 

 

I read somewhere that only the pilot had a "fighter" seat parachute, later on the rear gunner got one so he could bail out without having to find his parachute pack inside the fuselage.  

All the other crew had to first find their pack and clip it on before exiting. 

 

BUT it could well be that some pilots preferred to clip on schute and a soft cushion! 

Thanks Peter,

 

I appreciate all your "off topic" input to help us small scale modellers. I am enjoying the 1:1 stuff you are doing and best wishes for this project. I wish I lived somewhere that I could volunteer for this kind of thing!

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Don, 

 

I'm really a 1/32 scale modeler, I had the HK Lancaster but moved it on because of the errors and the size. But this thread has motivated me to get the HK Models nose and replicate the 1/1 scale model that we are building at BDAC. 

The big one has another year or so to run, so I'm not in any hurry. 

 

Peter

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22 hours ago, 224 Peter said:

Don, 

 

I'm really a 1/32 scale modeler, I had the HK Lancaster but moved it on because of the errors and the size. But this thread has motivated me to get the HK Models nose and replicate the 1/1 scale model that we are building at BDAC. 

The big one has another year or so to run, so I'm not in any hurry. 

 

Peter

Yeah, i didn't get the full kit because of the size but the nose kit is a stroke of genius and actually quite nice. Plenty of scope for correction/scratch building.

 

My plan is to get one a year as a Christmas present and slowly build up my collection of fancy nose art Lancs.

 

Cheers

Don

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On 3/29/2021 at 5:42 AM, 224 Peter said:

Here we go. 

 

1. the seat plinth is 2" deep. 

2. the seat base is 14.5" front to back and 18.5" wide

3. the back is 20" tall. 

4. The rear pivot bar is 23" left to right and the centre of the pivot bar is 4.5" from the plinth.

5. With the seat in the high position the back base of the seat is 10" from the floor,  so the top of the seat is 30" from the plinth. 

6. The seat pan is 6" deep to take either a parachute of upholstered cushion. 

 

Hi Peter 

Thanks for the dimensions but could I ask for some more :pray:

 

I have drawn to scale the side view of the plinth and have put dimensions which I think are close but need verifying these I have circled in red, also scaled up the drawing of a control column and as you will see got a few dimensions from this, ( this is to help with the build if this is not allowed please remove)

 

zkzId6.jpg

 

VdJoxP.jpg

 

The next two pictures are yours and I have tried to get some form of dimensions by scaling which are in red and others I have marked with a question mark but if you can confirm these that would be fantastic.

 

L82uT5.jpg

 

lPnoTL.jpg

 

Last pictures need to know diameter of the wheel and how high of the plinth floor also and could also get a dimension from the corner to center of wheel

 

3opv1n.jpg

 

Regards

Richard

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On 3/31/2021 at 12:45 PM, DonH said:

My plan is to get one a year as a Christmas present

Good luck with that... the "Nose Art" kit seems to be currently out of stock/unotainable here in this part of the world (UK/ Europe) at least; with no indication of when, or if,  this item will be back in stock.:sad:  Lets hope that this indicates its a good seller that warrants a second production run - rather than a limited edition release.  🤞

 

Rich

Edited by RichG
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1 hour ago, RichG said:

Good luck with that... the "Nose Art" kit seems to be currently out of stock/unotainable here in this part of the world (UK/ Europe) at least; with no indication of when, or if,  this item will be back in stock.:sad:  Lets hope that this indicates its a good seller that warrants a second production run - rather than a limited edition release.  🤞

 

Rich

Got mine from Sprue Brothers in the US. They have stock but don't tell anyone because I want another one for Christmas.

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Went into have a look at the Lancaster. 

Progress, but a couple of backward steps. The hot air pipe, which runs along the floor on the RHS, is done, I'll try to get a photo, but it is very distinctive and I don't recall seeing it on any model build. It is alloy, with holes on the side next to the  pilot and navigators station.  It is a uniform height, but tapers in plan view.

 

One other thought: the frames and skin of the cockpit area are less than 2", which is 1.4mm: I suspect that the kit is thicker, so assuming the outer width is correct the cockpit has to be narrower than in 1/1 scale. It would be interesting to know the kit wall thickness, in 1/1 scale.  

 

As requested, I measured the main trim wheel, it is 10" and seems to moulded Bakelite.

 

And the step backwards? The Avro drawings for the throttle pedestal box were lost  in a fire at A V Roe & Co design office in the 1960s, we had it mounted about 1" too aft at the base, now corrected there is a gap where the sheeting over the side of the seat platform joins the pedestal. We also forgot that there is a foot rest bar that pulls out so when the flight engineer is sitting on the fold down seat he has somewhere to put his feet. If you build the A/C with seat folred down then the bar should be extended.  

 

 

Peter

Edited by 224 Peter
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  • 3 weeks later...

Didn't get there today..I'll try next week. 

 

But I did manage to get a HK Models 1/32 nose section!! 

Looking at the cockpit floor again, it really is a dog's breakfast! 

Most of the errors we have noted, but another one is that the floor of the cockpit should be the roof of the bomb bay section, with removable covers so that the bombs could be manually tripped. About 1/4" thick: on the kit it is two pieces and scales up to 8" thick. As we know the cockpit floor to window rail is about right this means the bomb bay must be too shallow. 

 

I'm going to make a 1/32 version of the 1/1 scale version of PD 130, so much of the cockpit will be a scratch build exercise. 

I'll also have to sacrifice the front turret, this was faired over. 

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Great thread Peter, one of the best WIPs I've read in ages!

With some regret I sold on my 1/48 Tamiya Lanc as I realised it was never going to be built, but I must fit in a 1/72 Lanc soon.

Old Sarum isn't so far from me, I'll see if I can visit with my aviation mate Phil. Will you be open for visitors in the summer?

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Time for some more images....

 

The cockpit with control column in place, not the signed disk with Benny Goodman, the 617 pilot who flew the aircraft. 

 

spacer.png

 

Next, more progress with the Navigators station, there is a desk to fit at some point in the future. The scope angled out from the bulkhead is the GEE display. The wheel above the seat is the DF Loop controller. 

 

spacer.png

 

And finally, the heating duct along the RHS of the cockpit. 

 

Heating-Duct-14-May-21.jpg

 

That is it for now, progress may seem slow, but there is a lot to do! 

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Only just picked this up, awesome work.

 

Trust me from someone who has been working for over 20 years on a 1:1 Stirling, your progress is lightning fast.

 

Wish we had some more original drawings LOL

 

John

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Update: 

 

the big news is the metal castings that are the joint nodes for the canopy are back and the canopy is now being fitted. 

Here it is from the ground...

spacer.png

 

And of course from the inside, looking forward...

 

spacer.png

 

The next shot shows the sliding side windows... nhe horizontal bar operates the stop positions, the window slides back to sit inside the aft window. 

 

 

spacer.png

 

And finally, looking back past the D/F loop to the Astrodome. 

 

spacer.png

 

From the metal part of the canopy shown in the first photo back to the Astrodome the canopy structure is wood, steamed into shape. The engineering team are metalworkers, not carpenters and they are not looking forward to this next stage.. 

the DF Loop is enclosed within the canopy, one of the reasons the structure is wood, not alloy and steel. 

 

More in a couple of weeks...

 

 

 

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And it will need some work.. much better than the HK models attempt, but the Throttle gate needs levers and the column looks odd, it is plain flat metal on the front, back and sides and the rivets are not visible, 

If it was $50.00 I might get it, but not at £72, too much for me. 

 

Also, the front pannel is too far back, if you look at my photos the instrument pannel is under the coaming, there is no gap between instrument pannel and the cockpit frame. 

 

Peter

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Hi Peter just thought I would show you want I have come up with from some of the measurements you have provided and the from the side drawing still got more to do just wish I could get some good drawings with dimension of this area.

 

G5hSLx.jpg

 

OdcJEG.jpg

 

T8lNHi.jpg

 

lPBu7m.jpg

 

4OyaUR.jpg

 

JPmLpY.jpg

 

Have seen some pics on the column and it proves that the HKM column is too small

 

JBOl3Z.jpg

 

Don you said the the nav's desk is to small and I agree but does anyone have the dimension for the table, I think it should go to the next rib forward which is about 8mm

 

G6ypu3.jpg

 

Again thanks Peter for posting all these pictures they say a thousand words,

 

Regards

Richard

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Nice thread this, I have one of the cockpit sets as well, now I'm thinking of copying the replica you're building, but leaving off the skins.

Would you have dimensions of the stations? Or know where to find drawings?

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