Tamiya 1/48 Lancaster

[cynicaljohnny]

What size bombs are the ones supplied in the kit supposed to represent? 250lb? 500lb?

Are there aftermarket options for 1000lb bombs?

Thanks

[Dave Batt]

I think the kit bombs are supposed to be 500lb but have an odd shape. Belcher Bits do a lot of weapons suited to the type (including incendiary packages) and I'd also suggest you make friends with someone who's built a Trumpeter Wellington, 'cos they're bound to have a lot of spare bombs!

[chacer]

I used the belcher bits cookie & sbc's & flightpath 1000 pounders in my rendition of EE139.

[avro683]

The kit bombs are supposed to be 200 pounders which I don't think the Lancaster ever carried. Normally the bombs were fitted to carriers three abreast, not 4. The Belcher bits stuff is excellent, well worth investing in.

Tony

[magman2]

The kit bombs are supposed to be 200 pounders which I don't think the Lancaster ever carried. Normally the bombs were fitted to carriers three abreast, not 4. The Belcher bits stuff is excellent, well worth investing in.

Tony

Look here, 4 abreast

http://www.lancaster-archive.com/lanc_bomb_bay.htm

[cynicaljohnny]

Thanks guys - I have the Belcher 4000lb bomb (plus one from the Airfix Mosquito) and the Eduard bomb rack set, which I think is meant to be 3 bombs across, - I'll try flightpath for 1000lb bombs

[Troy Smith]

Thanks guys - I have the Belcher 4000lb bomb (plus one from the Airfix Mosquito) and the Eduard bomb rack set, which I think is meant to be 3 bombs across, - I'll try flightpath for 1000lb bombs

HI

this will really make you cynical....

in the WW2 section Iain Wyllie has posted on the Tamiya Lanc, http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.p...amiya+lancaster

I recently dragged out my half built kit with the intention of finally finishing it and started to check what looked like strange errors in the cockpit and floor area.

The enginerrs panel had always looked too big, the forward end reaching the engineers folding seat, so I scanned and scaled up to 1/48 the "Equipment Location" drawing that appears in the manual and also in the endpapers of the "Lancaster at War, Vol. 2. This drawing appears to be quite accurate, certainly accurate enough to show up errors in the kit.

First thing I checked was the engineers panel and, as I suspected it is far too big, some 7 scale inches too wide and 8" too deep. Other discrepencies now became very clear, the pilots seat in the kit sits too high above his raised floor but only slightly too high compatred with the top of the cockpit side wall. A quick comparisoon with the drawing shows that the entire cabin floors in the kit is a scale 8" too low, also making the bomb bay 8" too shallow - hence the too small 4,000 lb. bomb supplied. The control column is placed to far forwrd in relation to the pilots seat, unless, of course, the RAF had been secretly training gibbons as pilots.

The entire interior has errors, big and small, the two pillars are lcated too far forward, as is the navigators chair, which is also too tall. The radio is twice as deep, front to back, as it should be - correcting this and repositioning the pillars gives the navigators table a bit more space on top. Etc., etc., etc.

The main problem is how to correct the floor height. I am considering cutting off the side pieces, attaching them to the fuselage sides and then mounting the floor at the correct height, 8" futher up the fuselage sides - shouldn't be too difficult and will have the double advantage of making the cockpit interior look correct and giving the correct depth inside the bomb bay.

Most people won't consider the fairly easy modifications worth doing but, for those going to the trouble of adding detail, say from the Eduard interior set of pe, also their bomb bay set will find it worthwhile. BTW, the Eduard set is full of errors, and does not correct the engineers panel size, for example, most of it being lipstick on a pig, but some of the etched parts for the cockpit are useful. Having already used the Belcher engines and scratch built a lot of corrected detail and improvements, like thinned trailing edges, etc., I feel that I can't let the cockpit and floor errors go uncorrected.

With regards to the interior it brings a new meaning to the code letters provided with the original kit - P-OS being one option!

and this

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.p...amiya+lancaster

All the rest is getting scratch built and it is a long job. I am in the nose area at the moment and have made a correctly sized glycol tank / step, the F 24 camera and mounting but am struggling to find good detail of the bomb aimers pad. Some photos show a box for expended cartridges, others a simple rectangular pad with supports on either side, all in different sizes. I am not going to make every detail as most won't be clearly visible through the nose blister but it will make it a bit more realistic. The Eduard bomb sight mounts will be useful here as the ring has the tiny brackets for attaching the nose blister - items that would be difficult to scratch build and to get looking even.

The interior of the cockpit area will be more detailed, as I intend to make the canopy removable, attaching it with some of the permanently tacky adhesive used for grass, etc., in dioramas to just hold it in place but enable it to be removed as desired. I removed the crew door some years ago (it has been an on (and off) going project for many years) only to discover that the kit door is too large, so I had to reinstate the opening to the correct size. Some detail was added to the inside of the fuelage in the area visible through the opening, such as step, floor, formers and stringers, ammo tracks, control rods, tailplane spar bulkhead and the Elsan - just visible by looking from in front of the door.

The navigators position is getting treatment as well and I have already added the Gee unit and swivelling support, added some litersture to the pockets below it and a chart and dalton computer on the table. The pillrs will be added during final assembly - in the correct position and not where they are in the kit. I have also fitted the main spar as it can be seen when the canopy is off - like I said, a lot of work still pending.

Raising the floor to the correct level was easy. Just take a deep breath and cut off the sections of fuselage on each side, clean up and attach them to the fuselage halves. Then take off the details on the fuselage halves below the new level of the floor, add strips to each side of the floor and sand to the correct width to fit the fuselage; add sections to the top of the front and aft bomb bay bulkheads, drilling the circular windows in the correct position in the aft one, reduce the height of the pilots seat platform and attach to the floor, after removing the over long seat support which was necessary in the unmodified kit to get the seat up to the correct height, due to the floor being far too low - it all looks so much better already after doing this! Just takes some time as the work involved is not difficult.

Incidentally, to get all the sizes abd positions correct, I simply enlarged and printed the "Location of Equipment" drawing in the manual ( and on the endpapers of "Lancaster at War Vol 2"). It is remarkably accurate and matches the kit very well. It enables the correct size of a mass of internal detail to be scaled off and fitted. Purists will shudder but the accuracy is well within modelling tolerances.

The only correction that I am not going to address is the strange wing section, which has too sharp a LE radius, but it is not too noticeable ........ if you half close your eyes! Oh, and the too large wheel hubs, mmm, and some others, too.

which is fascinating, but somewaht sobering, but also why the Tamiya bombs are a funny shape....

HTH

T

[Finn]

It looks like the bombs are supposed to represent the 500lb MC:

The actual bomb, with the long tail has a length of 70.6”, while the short tail has a length of 57.8” and the dia is 12.9”.

According to my measurements, the kit bombs scale out to be 61.4” long (not including the nose probe) with a dia of 13.4”.

Jari

[cynicaljohnny]

Thanks Guys.

Troy:

I am aware of most of the faults mentioned in the posts you quote, and will be fixing the obvious ones - radio depth, position of fuse windows, pilots seat/stick position, and nav table pillars, but am not sure about the floor. 8" works out to be about 4mm, and I'm not sure whether this will be noticed looking through the cockpit glazing - won't know until I actually start this build. As for the bomb bay depth, I'm not too concerned with this, as once its glued to its base, this probably won't be noticeable at all - a lower bomb bay roof may actually make it easier to see some of the etch I plan to bung in there (already purchased, so may as well use it). I know this isn't correct, but I personally am a "out of sight, out of mind" modeller - for this reason, undercarriage bays seldom get a huge amount of attention, either.

As for the bomb load - the idea is to have them sitting on the flightpath bomb trolleys....

Thanks for the info tho - I'll be modding some of the stuff mentioned...

John

[Honeybee]

Hi

I beleive that the middle two bombs in the row of four are attached to a double carrier that is then attached to the middle of the three carriers,

Regards

Paul