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1:72 Avro Lancaster- Remembering the crew of ED412


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On 5/29/2022 at 6:35 PM, cathasatail said:

I figured that adding rivet lines on the fuselage and bending the parts as I went would disturb any interior detailing- so I resolved myself to cracking on with the task of riveting before even starting to detail the interior.

 

Do you mind if I ask how you go about your riveting, i.e. getting straight lines, especially on curves? I have a riveting tool but I've never dared use it...

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Just a quick update today, with some work on the interior:

 

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The flare chute opening needs a bit of cleaning up but I'm very happy with its positioning.

 

And every self respecting flare chute opening needs a flare chute, of course!

 

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The main chute body is made from plasticard, with the "cap" made from Blu Tack shaped and superglued in place. The base of the chute might look simple but it required a little of planning to get it right- the assembly leans forward (easy enough to do), but you then have to account for the interior vertical curve of the fuselage wall (a little bit trickier). Thankfully it fits quite nicely.

 

2 hours ago, TonyOD said:

 

Do you mind if I ask how you go about your riveting, i.e. getting straight lines, especially on curves? I have a riveting tool but I've never dared use it...

Yes of course!

Using the kit panel lines as a guide, I measured and marked on the positions of the rivet lines onto the fuselage sides. The rivet discs are from the Trumpeter riveting tool but the handle itself isn't great and leaves the disc wandering all over the place. So I take strips of Tamiya tape and "join the dots" to create the lines (ensuring there aren't any inappropriate bends in the tape).

 

There are now 2 schools of thought (both of which I used):

-1: draw a pencil line along the tape edge, remove the tape, and follow the line with the disc

-2: follow the tape edge with the disc (a bit riskier but much quicker)

 

For example, on a test piece that I'll be using to test the stressed skin techniques:

 

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Note: The lines on here aren't straight, only one line was done with the tape and the rest were done very quickly freehand.

Also of note, the clear plastic circular piece underneath is purely for the test piece to give it a curved shape, normally I would be riveting straight onto the plastic.

 

I hope that helps!

 

Best wishes,

Sam

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Hi everyone,

 

A bit of a short update from me, it's been a busy few days and it's very clear that I won't be able to get this build done before heading back to university. However, I will be taking some supplies with me to ensure that I can keep on working on this project!

 

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This is an attempt at the rear gunner's parachute mounted to the starboard fuselage wall- about 5.5mm in width at this scale! Next to it will be a portable oxygen bottle.

 

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The green horizontal wiring is meant to be the rudder and elevator controls.

 

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The thicker yellow wiring closer to the camera is a Graviner hand fire extinguisher.

 

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The body of the flare chute was made hollow, allowing depth to be provided when looking in from the outside.

 

More updates to come over the remaining few days, but until then- have a great weekend!

 

Best wishes,

Sam

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Hi everyone,

 

Finally, we're at the stage where we can start adding some paint!

 

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You can see the turret ammunition tracks running just below the door, and the heating ducting pipe running above it.

 

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Tamiya tape has been used to mimic the .303 ammunition belts, and will be painted/scribed to further replicate the appearance of the real tracks.

 

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The flare chute, looking a bit better with some paint, alongside the grey rudder/elevator controls.

 

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And if you happen to be wondering if I went to the effort of cutting out the windows in the two doors and adding in transparencies with Clearfix... I'm afraid I did!

 

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Quite a tight fit- the width and height of the rear fuselage at this point would comfortably fit in the footprint of a 2 pence piece.

 

And so, the work continues...

 

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The plasticard structure in the middle of the photo (with yellow wiring in the middle of it) is meant to represent the flap hydraulic jack.

 

So that's it for now, and as always, thanks for dropping by! 😊

 

Best wishes,

Sam

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Afternoon all, me again!

 

I think the photos mainly speak for themselves, but plenty more detailing has been going on since my last post- with the master compass, more side panel details, wiring, piping, axe, shelving, a parachute pack, and the Elsan toilet (of course) having been fitted.

 

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The master compass is seen protected behind the yellow framing. Also of note: to the right of the door (aft) you can see the dipsticks in their rack, and to the left (forward) you can see a parachute pack, with a fire extinguisher to the left of that.

 

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Still plenty more detailing to be done, and plenty more weathering too (although this aircraft flew relatively few missions, I still want to give the impression of it being a somewhat lived-in aircraft.

 

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Also of note, the ammunition feed tracks had their links added by brushing thin lines of black along the Tamiya tape surface. At this scale it's a little bit difficult to get everything perfect, so apologies about the variations in line thickness/direction.

The flooring and steps need spraying so don't worry if their colour looks a bit temporary...

Talking of flooring, I've decided to remove the Tamiya tape from the floor just behind the rear bomb bay bulkhead. I have yet to decide whether to leave it bare, or whether to mask and spray some of the dark grey/black flooring in its place.

 

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This was good fun: adding wiring looms with thicker wire, and producing end connector wiring with thin pieces of thread. Some of the paintwork needs cleaning up here.

 

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...Which brings us up to today!

The notorious rest bed has been built (not pictured here), and you can just see the headrest glued to the forward face of the rear main wing spar.

 

So that's it for now. I've come to terms with the act that even the interior won't be completed before university starts again, which I think is fine- I would hate to rush this of all builds.

 

Thanks again for having a look!

 

Best wishes,

Sam

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  • 4 weeks later...

A belated hello everyone!

 

I really appreciate your kind comments, and thank you so much for your patience as well.

The past few weeks have been a little bit hectic. Despite my initial assertions and promises, I haven't been able to move any of my modelling equipment and tools over to my current location. Alas, I also have not had the spare time to devote to this project- spending the vast majority of my time either on placement or catching up on work.

 

With that being said, I do have a period of time available after the next 2 weeks which should allow for some good progress with the Lancaster. But apologies, nevertheless, for the radio-silence.

 

 

I also could not let today go without mentioning that this evening, some 79 years ago, the Badge crew set off from Nottinghamshire, bound for Turin. Unfortunately, their mission was to end prematurely.

 

Hopefully in the near future I'll be able to resume progress on this project. So until then, thank you for your patience.

 

Best wishes,

Sam

Edited by cathasatail
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  • 2 weeks later...

I look forward to see your diorama taking place especially as you have the Bomber Command  Re-Supply set. 

Its a great addition and should enhance the aircraft with such vehicles and bomb trolleys. However I would like to point out that the OIL bowser has the wrong wheel base. 

Having measured such a number of these trailers it should only have a 9ft wheel base (36mm) and not the 12ft (48mm) as per kit.

Check out any number of Lancaster books to seeing these bowsers in attendance with the Lancaster to see the wheel base, its looks a lot better shorter . . .

A simple solution is just to cut 12mm out from the chassis and the tank from the centre of each.

Fairly straight forward  . . .

Airfix-Oil-modified-1.jpg


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I scratch built a larger one to accompany my 32nd scale Lancaster . . . 

DB-Tractor-complete-3.jpg

Edited by Mancunian airman
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  • 2 weeks later...

Well it's been a jolly long time since I've provided an update- or indeed had any time to do some modelling. But, finally, progress resumes!

 

First up (to get back into the swing of things) is the crew rest station:

 

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And the storage area just behind the rest station:

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Probably the most deceptively simple items to be built for this project- the rest bed, all made from plasticard.

 

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The rest bed roughly in its final position. I'll probably rotate it around by 180 degrees (not a fan of the slightly uneven supporting structure on this side).

 

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The hydraulic oil reservoir, which will be positioned on the port side, in the arch of the forward main spar (paintwork needs refining a bit too).

 

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You can get a good sense of the scale that we're working at- the two emergency air bottles to be fitted to the starboard side, just above the step leading to the radio operator's position.

 

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The pilot's seat, courtesy of Eduard photo-etch. I'm going to have to build up the arm rests, seat pan, and back rest with some Blu Tack.

 

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And, finally, some work on the starboard fuselage side- with detail being built up either side of the forward main spar. The "bottle" on the left is the Graviner hand fire extinguisher, and the "bottle" on the right is the portable oxygen bottle.

 

That's it for now- thank you for your comments (and patience) over these past few weeks!

 

See you soon,

Sam

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Just a bit of an update...

 

I've been working on the pilot's seat (and have decided on going for the black seat/armour, and the black fuselage in front of the navigator's position, combination)... it was all going so well.

After using Blu Tack to build up the pan and back portion, I tried to use the Kits World seat belt decals:

 

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Clearly the belt is way too big for the seat. Either Eduard has made a catastrophic error with the seat dimensions (unlikely), either I have made a terrible mistake (quite possible), or the decals are sized incorrectly. Based on my experience, it seems as though despite being advertised as 1:72 scale (see below), the Kits World decals would be best suited on a 1:48 model perhaps? Has anyone had similar experiences? The kit seat is almost the same size as Eduard's in terms of height, it would seem.

 

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Still, I tried to cut, chop, and change the decals and ended with something that could be passable: (?)

 

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(Apologies for the lighting- having to rely on artificial light)

 

Best wishes,

Sam

Edited by cathasatail
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Morning all!

 

Just another update from me. To have bit of a break from detailing the fuselage sides, I have had a go at adding a bit of colour to some of the more prominent items:

 

First, the tiny F24 bomb camera:

 

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(Some fantastic information (and images) of the bomb aimer's position and the F24 camera can be found in this video)

 

Next, the crew rest bed:

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(A coat of gloss varnish was used on the dark green aspect to make it appear a bit more like leather)

 

Then onto the wireless operator/navigator's table:

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(Note the morse key)

 

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And the navigator's seat:

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Talking of seats.... :

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The yellow circle was exceptionally fiddly, and had to be sprayed on. I drilled a suitably sized hole in a thin piece of plasticard, and superglued this to the headrest. After spraying, the plasticard was removed and the "damage" painted over with black- I think it's turned out surprisingly well.

 

And finally, a little bit more work on the wireless operator's position:

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So that's it for now. Broadly, the next steps are going to be detailing up the fuselage sides further until they can be sprayed with green. Only then will I look at picking out details and adding in the larger coloured photo-etch parts. There's a way to go but we're making progress!

 

Thanks for dropping by,

Sam

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Morning all!

 

Another short update from me. More progress has been made on the fuselage walls and I have been adding the various wiring bundles that crisscross the aircraft.

 

The hand-rail leading down into the bomb aimer's position from Eduard just wasn't up to scratch, so I've had a go at making it with sections of wiring.

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(Note the bomb aimer's cushion)

 

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I also replaced the rather "blocky" bomb sight's mounting brackets, that were found on the kit part, with some thin sections of plasticard.

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Short sections of wire were used to build up the mount for the camera.

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Until next time!

Sam

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Hi everyone,

 

Finally, we're not that far away from the point where the fuselage can be closed up! The main tasks to get done will be adding in the final details/wiring, maybe getting the mid-upper turret built and test-fitted, removing the interior window masks, taking some last reference photos of the interior, and finally closing up.

 

But for now, here are some photos of the interior so far:

 

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You can see the engineer's seat having been folded up against the starboard wall (needs a gloss coat to represent the leather material).

 

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The bomb aimer's parachute pack, the bomb camera, the bombing computer, cushion, and bomb sight have all been added in.

 

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So that's it for now, thanks for having a look!

 

See you soon,

Sam

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On 8/14/2022 at 4:16 PM, Thom216 said:

Stuffin' it with detail! Likey!

And there's plenty more detail to come!

 

Today it's the turn of the nose area to get some more detail:

 

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That's pretty much all of the major wiring looms added onto the starboard wall, forward of the main spar.

 

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The flight engineer's headrest and mounting has been added (made from plasticard and wire), along with a few more wires.

 

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I'm very happy with how this is turning out- the port fuselage wall. I couldn't resist adding the navigator's and pilot's seats. Also of note are the electrical equipment boxes underneath the navigator's table. While I'm not sure what exactly they are for, once I'd noticed them they had to be added!

 

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(Whoops, just noticed a bit of wet glue still on the pilot's raised flooring. That needs clearing up)

 

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Just in case a reminder was needed of the scale that we're working with...

 

That's it for now- progress continues!

 

Best wishes,

Sam

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This is superb work. Absolutely stunning.

Before you seal it all up, there are a couple of things, which, knowing me will be in error, but I think I'm correct. The fire extinguishers you've so perfectly portrayed, should I think, be brass coloured, not red. The other thing I spotted was the seat "cushion" on the pilots seat. As far as I know that should be his parachute pack. The pilots wore seat packs, the rest of the crew, chest packs. The final thing is the handrails into the bomb aimer's compartment. You might want to dig up some references, as I believe these were a post-war addition.

But seriously keep up the good work, am loving watching this.

Regards

Pete

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1 hour ago, Pete Robin said:

This is superb work. Absolutely stunning.

Before you seal it all up, there are a couple of things, which, knowing me will be in error, but I think I'm correct. The fire extinguishers you've so perfectly portrayed, should I think, be brass coloured, not red. The other thing I spotted was the seat "cushion" on the pilots seat. As far as I know that should be his parachute pack. The pilots wore seat packs, the rest of the crew, chest packs. The final thing is the handrails into the bomb aimer's compartment. You might want to dig up some references, as I believe these were a post-war addition.

But seriously keep up the good work, am loving watching this.

Regards

Pete

 

Hi Pete,

Many thanks for the observations- I really appreciate it!

 

The fire extinguishers should be an easy fix, so I can get those done relatively quickly.

As for the seat pack, I suspect this might be more challenging to address. The Blu Tack used to make up the bulk of the pack has been superglued into the seat and the belts added on top. To remove the pack would involve scraping away at the seat to dig out the Blu Tack and I have a feeling the seat may get rather damaged in the process (likely from handling alone). I'm afraid I will have to keep that as it is.

 

I have been digging through a few references with regards to the handrail, and I've come across some sources that seem to show the handrail in place during wartime operations.

From "Lancaster" by M. Garbett and B. Goulding:

 

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The above photos (albeit only one is dated- 1944) suggest the presence of the handrail leading down into the bomb aimer's position. I'm very amenable if there are photos or additional evidence suggesting it wasn't present earlier in its service life.

 

There's a good thread here with some photos (one from 1943, I gather) showing the handrail in place:

 

Best wishes,

Sam

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