Hi again,
We had my wife's cousin visiting from abroad for the past week so consequently the build suffered. And David, I got my Haynes Lancaster Manual back, and I can't believe how I missed the emergency equipment graphic - it takes up a full half page! Guess I was concentrating on the photo references (lame excuse).
I've had my first major SNAFU on the build. I was working on the S/Board wing inner trailing edge, which contains the dinghy stowage, before I was interrupted. I followed the instructions and it turned out fine, I thought.
Apart from sticking the edge of it (the green stain) to my cutting board, it went together very easily - until, that is, I lined it up against the main S/Board wing section and found the ribs don't line up as they do on the port wing.
I was kicking myself for getting it wrong until I checked the instructions carefully again and found the fault wasn't mine but the magazine's. This was something I hadn't picked up on in other builds and, so far, I haven't found that the magazine has ever corrected it in later issues.
This, I think, leaves me with two options, as I don't think I can unpick the assembly which was superglued. Option 1: I could disguise the error when I skin the wings by conforming the rivets and panel lines to follow the main wing section ribs or, Option 2: try to get another copy of that particular issue and build it correctly which can be done if the inner spar is reversed. This however, gives rise to another small problem. Because the ribs aren't evenly spaced the dinghy compartment will be approx. 2mm shorter on the width which might affect the equipment that's contained in it. As you can see, I haven't strung it yet in case I need to change it and that's something I want to talk about next.
I had, at first look, thought that the magazine had had got the proportion of the stowage compartment wrong. My impression, in most references that I've found, it that it is a square rather than a rectangular shape. However, on doing some research, I've found that both shapes appear to have been used.
(See schematics below). I've highlighted the dinghy compartments in red for easier reference and tried to keep the same approx. magnification on both.
The top one is the one I'm most familiar with. This schematic is from the Haynes manual and is presumably from a contemporary RAF document. The second schematic is from the SAM Lancaster Modellers Datafile, in the fold-out endpapers (thanks, Terry). Unfortunately, neither are attributed with a Mark number. Despite some attempts to research dinghy stowage on the internet, there doesn't appear to be much information out there. What I'm trying to ascertain is; whether the compartments varied by Lancaster mark or by time, i.e. were larger dinghy compartments added to earlier marks as dinghy technology improved?
The final photo shows the dinghy equipment supplied for the build. (Issue 47 - a little bit down the line yet). Does this have any resemblance to the actual equipment? I have found some information on dinghy stowage on page 108 of the SAM guide. This seems to be for the 'square' compartment and seems to have a different layout, although it's difficult to be sure from the angle of the illustrations. Depending on what feedback I receive, I'll go with either the magazine route or, alternatively, try to modify to the squarer shape.
There's no rush on getting this sorted, as it can be completed further along in the sequence. My next build section contains the Camilla bunk and the portable oxygen bottles beneath and that's what I've started on now.
Keep you posted,
Gerry