Gerry
Staff Sergeant
It's taken me a while to start a thread on this project and I hope that the Administrators will think it a suitable subject for this forum. As some of you will be aware, Hachette launched a weekly Lancaster partworks series, to build a 1;32 Scale Lancaster S-Sugar over 125 weekly parts, more than two years ago. I subscribed from the start but decided early on not to build it week-by-week but to wait until I saw what exactly what they were supplying, particularly the interior detailing - as they didn't ever publish a list of contents for the series, which would have been very useful. Every week was a surprise. As it happens, I think I made the right decision, as I can now plan the build more logically rather than following their plan, which tended to jump from section to section each week and I can already see some later corrected errors that occurred in early issues' instructions.
So, what did I get for my bucks? The basic internal skeleton for the Lancaster is laser-cut light plywood. This on my first trial runs is excellent, with hardly any warping on the parts. The laser-cutting is very precise and the parts remove cleanly from the frets (so far), when the thin retaining lugs are cut with a craft knife. Considering my subscription came through the post from the UK in plastic envelopes, I suffered very little transit damage. I think I replaced about 6 issues in 125 either for broken frets, which couldn't be easily repaired, or parts missing from particular issues. The stringers are supplied as plastic strips. In the initial issues they came straight but in later issues they were bent to fit into smaller packages which makes it more difficult to glue them over long runs like on the wings, where you need to glue and hold on each individual rib or former, until dry. The internal detail is a mixture of metal (zinc?) and plastic. The skin is supplied in aluminium sheets most of which, in the early issues, are pre-cut to panel shapes and drilled as necessary. Unfortunately, they seemed to get lazy towards the end, as for instance, the skins for the bomb bay doors came as a single 10" X 8" sheet, accompanied by a template with 96 individual panels marked for cutting! Pictured below, is a typical issue which included a fret (the bomb bay doors) and a bag of small metal detailing parts for the hinges and deploying arms - and a typical instructions spread from the magazine.
The standard of internal detailing is quite good with a fully detailed bomb-aimers's position, flight deck and navigator's position. One glaring omission was no radio equipment for the radio op's position! There are three reasonably detailed turrets, flare chutes, ammo tracks, stowed parachutes, tools, dinghies, 4 engines, wing fuel tanks etc. This is not an exhaustive list but you get the idea. Obviously, apart from scratch-building missing equipment, scratch-building extra panels and dials would enhance the authenticity of the interior. There are some contradictions also in the parts they supplied. For instance the H2S radar equipment is supplied for the cabin but they didn't supply the fuselage dome. In fact, the (basic) decals supplied are for S-Sugar at 100 missions, before it went for a major refit and had the H2S radar installed, along with the wider bladed props. My decision, at present, would be to dispense with the H2S radar and depict it before its refit.
Let me say that I have no previous experience working with wood or metal, so what I'm proposing to do on this project may be over ambitious. My thoughts at the moment are to depict the port side as fully skinned and painted. The starboard side would be largely cut-away, as in diagrams, showing the structural detail, engines and interiors as much as possible. Whether I have the skill to follow through on this, we will just have to wait and see. Surprisingly, there are very few blogs of this build that I have found, so far. There are, however, two on other forums that I have found very helpful, as regards a week-by week account; pointing out build errors, bear-traps and hints. There is one excellent build incorporated into one of these threads, short on interior detail but showing a beautiful result on the exterior. I would be happy to post links to these posts, if the administrators agree.
Here's how far I've got at the moment. I did a test build of the nose and the port wing when I first subscribed, just to see how it came together. Since then, I think it would be better to leave the stringers until the last, as the will impede access to the interior spaces. In one issue, the instructions recommend you cut away an already finished fuselage section to gain access for interior detail! I want to avoid that sort of madness, if possible.
I've now started on the front fuselage sections and will do all of rest of the sections to a basic level before I start detailing. I see this as being a Marathon rather than a sprint and, as I don't want to cease building conventional kits, will probably need to break from time to time - so this thread could be a long haul.
A shot of the sections built so far. The 1:72 Lanc is to give some idea of the size of this monster, in comparison. BTW, that's a mini cutting-pad under it!
The front three sections loosely joined together for fit with toothpicks and double sided tape and a close up showing the cabin joined to the main spar, incorporating the inner wing ribs.
Detail of the ribs and stringing on the port wing.
One of the 4 Merlins, partially finished (the black parts).
A metal prop, spinner and two bombs. The kit supplies nine bombs, I got 11 in total with replacement issues.
So that's it for now. I'll continue to post as the build progresses..
Sláinte,
Gerry
So, what did I get for my bucks? The basic internal skeleton for the Lancaster is laser-cut light plywood. This on my first trial runs is excellent, with hardly any warping on the parts. The laser-cutting is very precise and the parts remove cleanly from the frets (so far), when the thin retaining lugs are cut with a craft knife. Considering my subscription came through the post from the UK in plastic envelopes, I suffered very little transit damage. I think I replaced about 6 issues in 125 either for broken frets, which couldn't be easily repaired, or parts missing from particular issues. The stringers are supplied as plastic strips. In the initial issues they came straight but in later issues they were bent to fit into smaller packages which makes it more difficult to glue them over long runs like on the wings, where you need to glue and hold on each individual rib or former, until dry. The internal detail is a mixture of metal (zinc?) and plastic. The skin is supplied in aluminium sheets most of which, in the early issues, are pre-cut to panel shapes and drilled as necessary. Unfortunately, they seemed to get lazy towards the end, as for instance, the skins for the bomb bay doors came as a single 10" X 8" sheet, accompanied by a template with 96 individual panels marked for cutting! Pictured below, is a typical issue which included a fret (the bomb bay doors) and a bag of small metal detailing parts for the hinges and deploying arms - and a typical instructions spread from the magazine.
The standard of internal detailing is quite good with a fully detailed bomb-aimers's position, flight deck and navigator's position. One glaring omission was no radio equipment for the radio op's position! There are three reasonably detailed turrets, flare chutes, ammo tracks, stowed parachutes, tools, dinghies, 4 engines, wing fuel tanks etc. This is not an exhaustive list but you get the idea. Obviously, apart from scratch-building missing equipment, scratch-building extra panels and dials would enhance the authenticity of the interior. There are some contradictions also in the parts they supplied. For instance the H2S radar equipment is supplied for the cabin but they didn't supply the fuselage dome. In fact, the (basic) decals supplied are for S-Sugar at 100 missions, before it went for a major refit and had the H2S radar installed, along with the wider bladed props. My decision, at present, would be to dispense with the H2S radar and depict it before its refit.
Let me say that I have no previous experience working with wood or metal, so what I'm proposing to do on this project may be over ambitious. My thoughts at the moment are to depict the port side as fully skinned and painted. The starboard side would be largely cut-away, as in diagrams, showing the structural detail, engines and interiors as much as possible. Whether I have the skill to follow through on this, we will just have to wait and see. Surprisingly, there are very few blogs of this build that I have found, so far. There are, however, two on other forums that I have found very helpful, as regards a week-by week account; pointing out build errors, bear-traps and hints. There is one excellent build incorporated into one of these threads, short on interior detail but showing a beautiful result on the exterior. I would be happy to post links to these posts, if the administrators agree.
Here's how far I've got at the moment. I did a test build of the nose and the port wing when I first subscribed, just to see how it came together. Since then, I think it would be better to leave the stringers until the last, as the will impede access to the interior spaces. In one issue, the instructions recommend you cut away an already finished fuselage section to gain access for interior detail! I want to avoid that sort of madness, if possible.
I've now started on the front fuselage sections and will do all of rest of the sections to a basic level before I start detailing. I see this as being a Marathon rather than a sprint and, as I don't want to cease building conventional kits, will probably need to break from time to time - so this thread could be a long haul.
A shot of the sections built so far. The 1:72 Lanc is to give some idea of the size of this monster, in comparison. BTW, that's a mini cutting-pad under it!
The front three sections loosely joined together for fit with toothpicks and double sided tape and a close up showing the cabin joined to the main spar, incorporating the inner wing ribs.
Detail of the ribs and stringing on the port wing.
One of the 4 Merlins, partially finished (the black parts).
A metal prop, spinner and two bombs. The kit supplies nine bombs, I got 11 in total with replacement issues.
So that's it for now. I'll continue to post as the build progresses..
Sláinte,
Gerry
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