Airfix Lancaster B.III - E for Easy

[alt-92]

If the clear parts are already in a good state you won't notice much difference, but it really helps when dealing with items that aren't all that clear. 
I've done the Klear treatment on a vacform which needed polishing and fettling, and it does improve the look significantly.

[Model Mate]

it's so much more than a flipping floor polish.... one of the most useful things to have in your toolbox - temporary glue, canopy improver, gloss varnish for decals and washes, decal solution in lieu of softener/fixer etc. etc. I wouldn't be without it.

Edited December 13, 2022 by Model Mate
possible accidental swear

[TeaWeasel]

4 hours ago, Model Mate said:

it's so much more than a f*cking floor polish.... one of the most useful things to have in your toolbox - temporary glue, canopy improver, gloss varnish for decals and washes, decal solution in lieu of softener/fixer etc. etc. I wouldn't be without it.

 

I've heard good things about it, I was just quoting the guy at Hannants.

[TeaWeasel]

Happy Monday everyone. 

 

Latest update and the interior is pretty much finished. The last coloured Eduard parts went on nicely thanks to Ultra Glue, so much easier to work with than superglue.

 

 

There's some runoff of the brown wash but that's not visible once the cockpit floor is attached. I also finished off the navigator table.

 

 

 

I know the purists will insist the maps wouldn't be on display in an empty aircraft but oh well...

 

Since then I've painted over the odd stray bit of glue, then I can begin the exciting task of putting the fuselage together.

 

Thanks all, comments appreciated.

Joe

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Very nice indeed, And that'll be the Nav on the carpet in the morning then.

[Thom216]

Clearly, some spy managed to get on board and rifle through the maps! Dang spies!

[Winded Penguin]

Looking terrific so far 👍

 

I nominate you for hero of the year - not for bringing a new one into the world, oh no -  but for working on those particular photo-etch parts in 1/72 scale.

You did well, I'd have got the screaming ab-dabs dealing with those tiny pieces 🙉

[Cklasse]

I am joining this party. Just bought a similar Dambuster yesterday from my prize voucher. 
 

I like your PE parts and shall look for it too. I want to depict the Lancaster over a diorama water, so will need to work on more details on the plane. 
 

[TeaWeasel]

Thanks for the comments everyone. Took a bit of a break from this over Christmas, the kit was starting to be a bit of a bugger.

 

The wings went on seemingly fine, no problems with them or the tailplane. 

 

 

 

I've run out of space to photo this thing so having to use the box topper from my next project. You can see I've applied a primer coat to some areas already which I'll explain in a bit.

 

The engine nacelles have been the buggery part. They were a bit warped on the sprue anyway, and while I've tried to correct it they've left some rather ugly seams. Maybe the wings just weren't lined up correctly, maybe this is standard for this kit, who knows? Either way, that's where most of my effort has been over the last couple of weeks. 

 

I've applied MiG putty in several areas to clean up the seams but it has the habit of sanding away from where you want it, while the areas you don't want it remain. Failing that I used GW Green Stuff. Overall it was much easier to smooth out and did the job a lot better but it's still not perfect. I think the best course of action from here would be to just apply another coat or two of the primer just to help hide that gap a bit more. There's little detail on the nacelle tops anyway so seems like a low-risk option. 

 

The undersides of the nacelles still need doing, but I think they'll be a lot easier now I have a plan worked out.

 

Thanks,

Joe

 

[TeaWeasel]

Another week gone by, some progress made. 

 

I've got 3 of the nacelles smoothed out to a satisfactory level, the fourth is proving to still be a thorn in my side. 

 

 

The number 2 engine looks a bit better in person, I think maybe one more layer of primer will help.

 

In the meantime I completed the tailplane and elevators.

 

 

Those little prongs by the rudders were a little fiddly, although they were better than a small fin I was about to attach to a 1/72 Hawk, ended up swallowing it by accident...

 

I was kinda dreading the Upkeep attachments mainly because I forgot to drill the holes in the fuselage for the arms. Luckily I was able to use a bright light to find the thinner areas of the plastic. I'll prime it black and give it a light drybrushing of grey; it'll be mostly covered with some sort of cowl so I won't go nuts on something that'll barely be visible (he says after fitting the whole Eduard upgrade).

 

 

And lastly I added the brass barrels to the rear turret. This was trickier than the nose turret as the location of the barrels gave little room for error. It's not 100% spot on, but I doubt you'd notice if it wasn't pointed out.

 

 

 

Thanks all, comments would be welcome.

Joe

[TeaWeasel]

Morning all,

 

The bomb bay is finally complete: I applied a coat of black primer then a heavy-ish drybrush of Vallejo medium grey. It's not great, but it's completely invisible once the final parts are attached.

 

 

 

The cowling went on next followed by the Upkeep spin mechanism. Some filing was needed to get it to sit right but overall there were no major issues there.

 

 

The joins need a bit of sanding but nothing too major. I gave it a quick go over with the wet 'n' dry earlier and that's taken care of most of it already. 

 

Now we get to two cockups I've made so far in the build:

1. In my haste to get the engine nacelles fitted, I attached the top plate too early, not realising that the undercarriage legs are supposed to be fed in from the top. That's on me and my eagerness. Luckily I've discovered that they can still be prised into place from underneath with a bit of encouragement, so no problems overall.
2. I was ready to attach the canopy and mask it off for priming, and decided to dust it off. The cloth I was using must have had some sort of chemical on it because it's just ruined the plastic. I initially thought it was that clear coat that's just melted, so tried a bit of Biostrip to get rid of the rest, no help there. So it's off to Airfix for a spare. I've had great success with them before; they were able to send out multiple spares for the 1/48 Lightning they haven't made in years, so I'm confident they'll be able to help now.

 

While I wait for that I suppose the next steps will be the undercarriage and turrets. Once the new canopy arrives I can get it masked and start painting this beast.

 

Thanks all,

Joe

 

 

[TeaWeasel]

I took a little time off to clear up some leftover 40k bits, I've been having an issue with the rear turrets and I just wasn't enjoying the Dambuster at that point.

 

I got back into it last week and the undercarriage still was a looming issue; I mentioned previously that I jumped the gun with the engine nacelles and would have to glue the landing gear from underneath, not feed it from the top of the nacelle as the instructions suggest. The main gear was surprisingly easy, actually just snapped right into place. The other hydraulics and various struts though, they were trickier. The instructions could be a bit clearer, not helped by being a very tight space to work in, overall I found it a lot easier to just drop the smaller frame into the wheelwell loose, then attach the main diagonal struts. Once they had dried I used tweezers to position the smaller frame and glued it, left it overnight to fully set.

 

 

 

 

It's still fragile and the undercarriage doors have such a small contact point, the other set have already come away a bit. Once that's done I can finish masking the main canopy and turrets, then (fingers crossed!) start painting this beast!

 

Thanks all, comments and tips appeaciated.

 

Joe

[TeaWeasel]

Took some time off this project and worked on my Italeri Stirling, mainly as the undercarriage and doors were just giving me too much grief. Overall it's a nice kit but I think Airfix could definitely improve this bit. Eventually gave up and just used dabs of superglue and guess what? One of the doors still snapped off during the masking.

 

On the plus side it's definitely looking a bit better with a lick of paint. The whole thing was undercoated with Tamiya grey spray, then the panel lines were preshaded with Vallejo black. The brown went on first, using Gunze Dark Earth, and then the Top Notch masks were applied. Mask quality was excellent as usual for Top Notch, but the instructions could have been a lot clearer. Used these for my 1/48 Lightning with no trouble, trying to work out the individual shapes on a Lanc diagram smaller than a postcard was a pain.

 

Tamiya Olive Green went on next, and I decided to post shade with just the same colour with a fair bit of white mixed in. I wouldn't be surprised if the overall shades aren't exact, but they worked fine on my smaller 1/72 models.

 

 

And here we are! The green does look rather stark but I was gambling on it becoming more muted as it dries. As I'm typing this it already has darkened somewhat so that's a relief. There are some small areas where it's leaked under the mask but that can easily be fixed with a brush. 

 

Pretty busy weekend coming up but hoping to have the black underside completed soon. Thanks and any comments appreciated.

Joe

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

12 minutes ago, TeaWeasel said:

One of the doors still snapped off during the masking.

 

Perhaps you could try attaching all those fiddly, vulnerable bits such as u/c doors after the painting?

[TeaWeasel]

Just now, Bertie McBoatface said:

 

Perhaps you could try attaching all those fiddly, vulnerable bits such as u/c doors after the painting?

 

Then I'd be worried about the glue ruining the finish.

[Bertie McBoatface]

6 minutes ago, TeaWeasel said:

 

Then I'd be worried about the glue ruining the finish.

 

Yeah, I know what you mean. However, if I broke them off accidentally while painting, demasking etc I'd still have to glue the little tinkers back on after the paint had dried. I used to superglue the fiddly bits on at the end for minimum risk of melting the paint but we all have different preferences don't we.

 

By the way I like the dark edges to the green bits. It looks very interesting that way.

[TeaWeasel]

1 hour ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

 

Yeah, I know what you mean. However, if I broke them off accidentally while painting, demasking etc I'd still have to glue the little tinkers back on after the paint had dried. I used to superglue the fiddly bits on at the end for minimum risk of melting the paint but we all have different preferences don't we.

 

I've left off a lot of the small gubbins like pitot tubes, etc, but yeah I agree. Perhaps I should have left the doors off. I think I originally attached them to strengthen the undercarriage legs a bit, the whole assembly is a bit flimsy.

 

1 hour ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

 

By the way I like the dark edges to the green bits. It looks very interesting that way.

 

Thanks, I originally used the same effect on my 40k superheavy tanks, lot starker though given the aesthetics of those tanks. The Lanc's dried a lot more since and it's definitely subtler but more effective this way.

[TeaWeasel]

Didn't realise today is the 80th anniversary of the Chastise raid, very nice surprise. 

 

Have tried to touch up some of the blemishes on the camo and the result was troublesome. Applying the same Mr Hobby brown simply started stripping away the existing paint. After several swears I tried with the airbrush and that fixed it. I've seen several examples with much lighter brown and considered postshading a lighter tone, but that too was unsatisfactory. 

 

 

The rest was masked off and the black applied. Nothing special, just Tamiya NATO Black and a coat of gloss varnish to prep it for decals and panel washes. 

 

 

Masking around the nacelles was tricky, and I may go back and touch up the borders afterwards. I then had a go with Ammo's Light Grey PLW on the black areas, and I'm happy with this.

 

 

Much cleaner on this than previous attempts, shame there's so much of it to do!

 

[2996 Victor]

Just catching up with this - its been a bit cantankerous, hasn't it, but you're wrangling it together in great style! The camo looks good to my eyes, and although I'm not a huge fan of panel washes the grey wash on the black looks pretty effective.

 

Looking forward to seeing the stickers go on 😉

 

Cheers,

Mark

[Cklasse]

I am building the AJ-E now and had bent the front gun barrel a couple of times during painting. Good thing Airfix has soft plastic that bends readily. 
We are about in the same pace. I will be putting on the decals tonight. 
 

That camouflage painting looks good. 👍

[TeaWeasel]

17 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

Just catching up with this - its been a bit cantankerous, hasn't it, but you're wrangling it together in great style! The camo looks good to my eyes, and although I'm not a huge fan of panel washes the grey wash on the black looks pretty effective.

 

Looking forward to seeing the stickers go on 😉

 

Cheers,

Mark

 

Thanks I'm still unsure as to why it started stripping the basecoat off. Same paint, same thinner, same ratio, only difference was the brush.

 

12 hours ago, Cklasse said:

I am building the AJ-E now and had bent the front gun barrel a couple of times during painting. Good thing Airfix has soft plastic that bends readily. 
We are about in the same pace. I will be putting on the decals tonight. 
 

That camouflage painting looks good. 👍

 

Thanks. I made a slight hiccup in that I was thinking the vinyl masks could be adapted for the Stirling I have waiting...but I'd already chucked them.

[TeaWeasel]

Amidst all the panel line work I couldn't resist adding a bit of extra colour to the Lanc, so the first of the decals went on. The decals were...ok-ish but the instructions could have been a bit clearer on the exact placing of certain elements. Right at the start of the project I did consider painting the roundels on, but the pressure of having to get it absolutely exact would be too much. 

 

 

For some reason though this white residue is starting to appear on some areas of the model, as well as that strange smear just to the right of the roundel. No idea why this is suddenly appearing but fingers crossed a coat of matt varnish would be able to sort it out. 

 

While they were drying I also had a look at the wheels and rear turret.

 

 

I originally lost the rear panel for the turret weeks ago, turned up a few days ago unscathed next to my desk. Wheels are just painted in NATO Black, but not sure how to make them look more realistic. I've seen various pigments and washes used but no experience doing so myself. Any tips would be appreciated.

 

Thanks all

 

[TeaWeasel]

Bit of time spent here and there getting the decals on. The ribbons on the underside were particularly tricky, the instructions not being the clearest on their exact placement.

 

 

The camera's definitely picking up more imperfections than normally visible. The Upkeep is also almost ready, just a coat of matt needed to finish off the decals. They were notably tricky, as they were about 3mm longer than necessary, and the instructions could have been a bit clearer that the stripes are one decal. I accidentally split them and had to realign them on the bomb. The bomb's only held in place, I still need to assemble the trolley. 

 

 

 

[TeaWeasel]

First props finished. Just a coat of NATO Black, tips based in white before a coat of yellow.

 

 

So close to finishing, then I can really crack on with the Stirling on my bench. Also managed to snag the Revell Halifax for a bargain price, my model schedule for the next few months is pretty full 😀

 

[Clio182]

I have been looking at this kit myself having built the older version as a lad. Just not sure I could do a good job of it and so might have to try something a bit more simple to begin with.

 

You've made a top job of it however, looks spot on!

 

I missed seeing a real one fly over Stockport the other day.