1:32 scale Lancaster Mk.1 Hachette Partworks

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Great to see you back at it Gerry - I've been looking forward to seeing more!
Whilst I can't be definite regarding the bottles, all period photos I've seen appear to show them in the interior Grey Green colour, same as the master reservoir on the port side. These photos are, of course, B&W, but the tonal rendition is the same as the surroundings. Also, colour coding of pressure vessels and similar containers, didn't really start until quite some time after WW2, although (fixed) oxygen bottles, as part of the aircraft crew oxygen supply, were black, to denote 'clean' oxygen, as opposed to air, which may contain impurities, water etc.
Note the light grey air bottles - these appear to be to conform to modern safety and I.D. standards, with the appropriate 'modern' stencilling, but with a concession to authenticity by having the domed ends painted in the interior colour.
 
Thanks David, Wayne and Gnomey.

Andy thanks for your offer of the refs for the radios. I have good references myself just need the movivation to get on with it.

Terry, thanks for you opinions on the bottle colours. I feel more confident now going with a variant of interior green.

Gerry
 
Gerry,

Thanks for the fine account of your progress. In itself summarizing your work is time consuming,but gives us a good account of problems we would also incur if ever deciding to take on a monster like your 1/32 Lancaster. I think at the conclusion of your project you may want to print a synopsis of your work and sell it to help subsidize your costs. Another thought as I look at your skeleton fuselage is painting detail. How in the world will you get a brush and painted parts through those ribs and stringers? Good luck and hats off to a serious craftsman.....Scipio
 
Thanks Wurger, and thanks for looking in, Jerry, Martin Evan. Thanks also Scipio. I hope that this thread will stand in time to give some aid to anyone tackling a large scale Lancaster build. As regards painting this monster, most sub-assemblies need to be painted before being positioned, as the most you could do after that would be some minor touching up. I also consciously decided to leave all stringers off the starboard side until later to facilitate painting and fitting. Even with that, it's a tight fit in there!

I've been making slow progress on the over wing 'rest' cabin and here's what I have to show for it.



Front and back of the space divider, after some young crew members embellished it.



The blowdown bottles enhanced with bits of sprue for the valves and some lead wire for the pipes. Again I used old decal scraps for the stencilling (Not legible in actual size). To mount the bottles on the bulkhead it was easier to first position them on the crew step and then position the whole assembly.



The hydraulics assembled and painted with instructions decals added from scraps. In fact, I had to disassemble the main tank to fit it properly, then tease it all together again, in position.



How the hydraulics look in position, before any other of the components are positioned. I used the second photo in post 457 on the previous page as my reference for this.



Next the divider was added, hiding most of the hydraulic system and finally the previously assembled Camilla bunk.



Finally, I replaced the tops of the formers. Most of these, as it happens, had been accidently knocked off when assembling the undercarriage. However, I think I would have had to remove some of them to have positioned the elements in the cabin.

There's still some retouching of the repairs to be done and some wiring looms will need to be added to busy up the cabin. After that, I intend to try to finish off the main crew cabin, which includes scratch-building the radio equipment. I suspect Christmas will slow this down somewhat, but I'll keep you updated as I get the sections completed.

Sláinte,

Gerry
 
Nicely done Gerry. Not sure that pin ups would be allowed, although they were probably posted anyway, but it's a nice touch. See if you can find a tiny Teddy Bear, one that's about 5 to 10mm tall, to hang by the radio or Nav table as a mascot or lucky charm.
 
Thanks everybody for your kind comments. I'm still looking for that elusive mini bear, Terry. To Night Fighter Nut, it will be wired for appearance but not for working lights.

As suspected, the preparations for Christmas really got in the way. In the cracks, all I could do was have a go at scratch-building the radio equipment.



This shows the basic construction. I started by printing two good straight-on references of the transmitter and receiver down to scale size. From those measurements I built two boxes from plastic card and sprayed them black. Then I added detail. The dials are part of the photos carefully cut out. The white circles underneath the tuning knobs on the transmitter (top) are from a template of brass shapes that was masked and sprayed white. These were then cut off the form and glued in position. The batteries(?) are plastic strip and other switch bases are spare buttons from the build. The central knob on the receiver is the head off a picture nail (right).



Then the switches and knobs were made from thin cable and sliced plastic rod, respectively. These were painted on the end of a sharp craft knife before being glued in position. the battery straps are thin strips of lead foil. Finally, three cables were added to the transmitter and will be trimmed when the radios are installed. Hopefully, all this will look reasonably realistic when in position.

That's all for the present. All I can do now is wish you all, As Gaeilge (in irish) Nollaig Shona agus Athbhliain faoi Mhaise daoibh (A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year).

Gerry
 
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