1:32 scale Lancaster Mk.1 Hachette Partworks

Here's the latest update from the Avro production line, but first let me acknowledge the last series of posts. To Aviatik: that is the site I alluded to in my early posts. I have found it very useful and informative and it has forewarned me to some problems that might otherwise have caused me grief (more about that later) and also set standards to aim at. I have tried to register on that site just to show my appreciation but it appears that I am on a waiting list for ratification since September. To Night Fighter Nut: I'm going to go as detailed as possible, within my abilities. All skins will be riveted, with a riveting tool supplied "free" with the kit (see photo later). However I don't see myself installing working lighting in the finished model. And to Darryl and Wayne, as always, thanks for looking in.

Now back to the build. I have been progressing building the remainder of the fuselage sections which took me longer than I had thought. This proved to be quite therapeutic in a sheltered accommodation type of way. I also attached the wing tip to the port wing, photos 1 2. This consisted of bending the lower section and glueing it with superglue to match the curve of the outer rib. Then the spars were added (I forgot to photograph this bit) and when dry, the plywood upper wing section is bent into shape and glued with a lot of help from clamps and pegs until dry. The sanding of the leading and tailing edges to shape, still need to be done.





The next section tackled was the mid-upper turret section. The assembly instructions for this piece appeared over 4-5 non-consecutive issues in an order of, say, C, D, B, E, A rather than A, B, C, D, E which made more sense. This is what I'm trying to think ahead on to make life easier. I suspect that the reason for this was that the parts weren't available to the publisher in time for the correct build sequence. It's also possible that I'll have included something now that will cause me problems further along. We'll just have to see. Photo 3 shows the start of the curved keel at the rear of the fuselage. The former isn't set at a 90o angle, as had the formers to this point. However the attachments are cut to give the correct angle (about 85o)



Ignoring the instructions, the first thing I added was the skin for the flooring as it was easier to peg it in position before the formers are added. Photo 4.



Then the bulkhead was detailed with strip and rod. Note the hatches in the floor, supplied as separate parts. This level of detail is wonderful but at the expense of other major parts not supplied at all? Photo 5



Photo 6. The next part to construct is the aperture for the dorsal turret. This, believe it or not, took two pages of instructions! The reinforcing bars were all individually measured and cut from wooden strip.



Photo 7. Next the formers were added but the longerons were just dry-fitted after being marked with the measurements from the keel notches to ensure they would be parallel (A)



Photo 8. Just to show up the riveting of the floor skins a little clearer.



Photo 9 10. The finished section. Just as well that I hadn't glued the longerons to the formers as instructed. When the turret aperture is fitted there needs to be several adjustments to the fit to get it into the correct position.





The final section of the fuselage was the first to cause me real problems. Photo 11 shows some of the problems I encountered. A. The keel has to be broken to get the correct upward curve. If the parts are fitted as instructed it results in a very severe slope to the upper fuselage. B. All the notches in the keel and formers had to be deepened. C. A mistake of my own making. I reversed a former that had a notch for the crew door lintel to the opposite side so I had to cut a new one. D. This part needed major surgery to line up properly (See also photo 12). The receiving holes A, B C had to be enlarged considerably to get it to line up. The repairs were later disguised by plastic sheet.





Photo 13 shows my method for getting the curve right. I used a schematic drawing of the fuselage as a template to adjust the angles. If I had built as per the instructions, I would have ended up with downward curving longerons rather than straight and there would have been a step in the keel. I had been forewarned of a problem in this area from the other build but not how to correct it. That I had to work out for myself.



Photo 14. The section as it ended up - not without casualty. This section includes the crew door and the rear turret mount. A. is part 118 adjusted to fit properly. B. is some reinforcement where I had to cut the keel. C. I have just discovered in issue 90 that this section of the keel has to be cut away to mount the tail wheel assembly! D E. Some more repairs. You have to be very careful applying pressure points. By pressing in the wrong places I snapped the top arches off a couple of formers and the ring for the tail turret. Fortunately the formers were easy to repair by lining them up with cocktail sticks. I added the triangular supports for the tail ring to give it added strength.





Photos 15, 16 17. The overall fuselage assembly held together by cocktail sticks. There is a gap of about an inch between the two sections. This is caused by the instructions retaining the overhang of the longerons on one section for later use(?). It gives a better idea of the size of the beast now and how it will eventually slot together. I'm also happy that the sections are lining up true. I can't be sure how it'll come together when everything is tightened but I'm confident any slight misalignment could be corrected by shims.







That's it for now. Until the next post, cheers,

Gerry

Mercy, mercy me. That is fantastic Gerry.

Geo

I'll say. You been busy Gerry!

I'm loving this! Thanks Gerry !

fubar57 said:

Mercy, mercy me. That is fantastic Gerry.
Geo

Click to expand...

Man, I will second that!

Absolutely outstanding work Gerry! Are you going to use the decals that came with, or?

brilliant job

Damn! that looks great!

I've just had a look at that link posted earlier. After all the work the chap has done, it's a shame he's used what appears to be US Interior Green, and in the forward area too!

Fantastic work!

Thanks George, Andy, Terry, Bill, Jan, Karl Wayne for the very positive feedback to my latest post. I must apologize for the length of that post. I had compiled it in sections over the course of yesterday and it was only when I pressed the send button, very late last night, I realized that there was a problem. On my first attempt I lost half of my original post because the auto save function couldn't cope with the entire text. I had to rewrite, edit and rejig it so it fitted, so it all ends very tersely. I think in future, shorter, more frequent posts, but I wanted to show up some of the problems with the build in case someone following the thread was planning on building this kit.

To answer some of the specific queries raised: Jan, the kit comes with a very indifferent set of decals for the early S-Sugar. Being lazy I thought I'd probably use these but as this is a decision that won't have to be made until right towards the end, I might consider some other scheme, provided that it fits a late-build Mk.1 (no fuselage windows) and no H2S radar. Then it would depend on whether I could print up fresh decals or hand paint them. Not something I've had to do before.

Terry, I hadn't looked too closely at the shade of green in the other build, but now you point it out, it does look far too green. I was more concerned with the builder's insistence that the cockpit cabin should be finished in green. This was one of the reasons I wanted to log into that forum, to challenge that conclusion. Maybe he was basing it on a restored Lanc? Here's an interesting website I've been using for some of my references. It looks to be a Lancaster under restoration but has a lot of its original features and colours. http://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft/lancaster/lancaster02.shtml

This raises questions about the equipment. For instance, the kit supplies fire axes that it suggests should be painted with red blades. My suspicion is that this would be a post-war safety scheme with the originals finished in natural metal, with perhaps handles in black or green? however the nature of the build is such that all the equipment will have to be pre-assembled and painted before it's fitted. This will give me the opportunity to photograph and post it so any errors will hopefully be spotted by the eagle-eyed members of this forum!

I've just realized that I've been rabbiting on again and I'd better finish before I lose half of this post as well!

Sláinte,

Gerry

Thanks, Meatloaf. Our posts must have crossed.

Fantastic work Gerry this is going to be a awesome build.

Looks great so far Gerry!

Wonderful work!

With all here.

Gerry, every surviving Lanc I've seen photos of, or been in, has the black forward section. However, I have seen photos of very early Mk1s where the bomb aimer's compartment, and possibly the cockpit, were in the grey green. From what I've learned over the years, talking to former Lanc crews, if the aircraft survived long enough, these areas were soon painted black!

Talk as much as you wish Gerry, all interesting....the talk, the build and the pics!

I agree. More talk, more pics, more build, whenever you're ready!
I am really enjoying this. Ever since seeing a partly sectioned, very large scale model Lanc in the IWM London, way back in the 1960s, I've always wanted to do a large scale Lanc. Wish I'd bitten the bullet and got this when the issues were published - I'd worry about space problems later!

Thanks guys for that last set of posts. It's very encouraging to me to see the interest that this build is provoking. However, encouraging an Irish person to talk more could be something like scoring an own goal. Getting me to shut up might be an even bigger problem!

Maybe I'll just expand a little on the content of my last big post that I had to cut. That last stage of the build has brought me up to issue 31 of the series. There were, however, a number of sub-assemblies that I put aside for later attention. These, I feel, should be tackled now before I make more progress. These include the cabin seats, the instrument panel and throttle quadrants and the Fl. Engineer's panel. I'd like to get these together so that they can be painted at the same time, then assembled. There were also the parts for the bomb bay, over two issues. These, as supplied, are fairly basic, made of plywood and a little clunky and will need a lot of alteration to get them looking like the real thing. They also go into three separate sections of the fuselage. I had been thinking that I might wait for the fuselage to be assembled before tackling this, but on reflection it would probably be better to follow the instructions, as when the fuselage is joined, all of the interior details will have been added and I don't want to damage anything by inverting the fuselage unnecessarily.

I agree with Terry on the internal color scheme. I have never been fortunate enough to have been inside a Lancaster, but all of the colour reference photos I've seen show the green/black combination. In fact, from memory, the nose section of F-Freddie, displayed at the IWM until late last year, had the black as far as the radio op's position which then reverted to green there. I'm also wondering if the cut away section Terry remembers is the one now on display at RAF Scrampton? Lancaster S for Sugar | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
I'm told also, that the Science Museum in London has a cutaway of a Lancaster on display but it appears a bit basic from photos I've seen. (See Post 434) Hachette 1/32 scale Lancaster Bomber - Page 22 - The Diecast Aviation Web Site and Forum

Finally, Terry, I think I know how you feel about not subscribing to the kit. I've seen a number of your tribute builds featuring the Lancaster and I know how meticulous you were in scratch-building the interiors to give them authenticity. This would have been an ideal project for you. Maybe they'll reissue the series at some point? In the meantime, I came across this pre-announcement for a 1/32 scale Lanc on the Hannant's site.
Buy Hong Kong Models HKM01E06 1:32 scale from Hannants. We sell Aircraft kits (injection), models, decals, paints books.
Other than this, I have no further info on this kit.

That's all for now. If I make the progress I'm hoping to, I will post some more shots over the weekend or early next week.

Cheers,

Gerry