Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Be interested to learn what you discover Andy, as it's been a 'discussion point' for many years.
1:32 scale Lancaster Mk.1 Hachette Partworks
- Thread starter Gerry
- Start date
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Be interested to learn what you discover Andy, as it's been a 'discussion point' for many years.
Crimea_River
Marshal
Well, I was down in Nanton today and decided to investigate these doors. First of all, the Lancaster on display there does have them installed. I was not able to get close as the area was undergoing restoration and was roped off but the doors actually appear to be made of wood. Sorry but I could not turn off the bare lightbulb either.
I then checked out the parts manual and found the pages devoted to the doors. They are termed as "Draught-proof" doors, indicating that indeed they were intended to prevent airflow through the fuselage.
I then checked out the parts manual and found the pages devoted to the doors. They are termed as "Draught-proof" doors, indicating that indeed they were intended to prevent airflow through the fuselage.
A4K
Brigadier General
Beautiful work Gerry, really hope to see this in person sometime!
Fantastic info too guys!
Fantastic info too guys!
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Great stuff Andy. I must admit, other than giving the doors a quick glance when in the Lancs, I didn't take that much notice what they were made of, presuming they were just alloy, as I was too busy trying to either wriggle into, or out of, the rear turret !
That comment is useless without a picture of you in said turret
Jeff Hunt
1st Lieutenant
Lord love a duck....what work!
Superb, simply superb.
Cheers,
Jeff
Superb, simply superb.
Cheers,
Jeff
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Got one somewhere, I think - but apart from being obscured by framework, guns, and a large, black moustache, being over thirty years younger at that time, you wouldn't recognise me !!!!
- Thread starter
- #828
Gerry
Staff Sergeant
Thanks Andy and Terry for posting the further explanation for the internal doors. I'd never have guessed they were wood! And thanks to Sancer, Evan, Herman and Jeff for your kind comments and for looking in.
There's a F/N4 rear turret on display at the Ulster Aviation Society Museum outside Belfast. I couldn't believe how small it was. Fair dos Terry if you managed to get inside, no matter how long ago!
Cheers,
Gerry
There's a F/N4 rear turret on display at the Ulster Aviation Society Museum outside Belfast. I couldn't believe how small it was. Fair dos Terry if you managed to get inside, no matter how long ago!
Cheers,
Gerry
Crimea_River
Marshal
The Nanton museum near me has a working Lancaster tail turret mounted on a mockup fuselage. On a typical display day in the summer they'll send someone in to demonstrate the workings and also the bail-out procedure whereby the turret is turned 90 degrees to the long axis, the rear doors opened and the gunner rolls out. On one occasion they "volunteered" a fairly burly soldier to try out the turret and it was quite a chore getting him in there.
- Thread starter
- #830
Gerry
Staff Sergeant
Thanks Andy for all your great work in sharing your access to the Lanc. I for one find it a great resource to answer any queries on specific areas that might not be possible to otherwise check.
I've been making a bit more progress, starting by getting the parts painted.
These are both the supplied parts and the scratch-built items. In the background is a sheet of home made decals to add details to the fire extinguishers and the reservoir tanks. Also I printed off some decals for some flares that still need to be added.
Most of this detail will be added to section 5, the section that contains the dorsal turret. I've got a good reference for this section from the Aviation Classics Lancaster Manual, which shows well the correct positions for equipment and the overall busyness around the turret body, which I'll attempt to replicate.
Here's one piece that nearly got forgotten. This is an electrical distribution board that I only came across when all the other parts had been painted.
Next is a shot of the port wall of section 5 with the new equipment added. This, by the way, is the section that the magazine suggests cutting away the starboard wall for better access. Fortunately I hadn't added stringers to this side, so I had a little better access but it was still very tight and tricky.
A new parachute is added, plus the reservoirs and the electrical board. The pumps and valves are positioned and plumbed in with lead wire. (A nightmare to use in the confined space, as any contact with anything else buckled it). You should also be able to see the two control rods for the elevators and rudders. These will eventually run the entire length of the port fuselage. Finally a couple of grab rails and some electrical cables were added. The next two shots just show the installed items from a different angle.
The starboard wall was tackled next, with the first of the fire extinguishers added with an oxygen net and bottle, reservoir and pumps and plumbing and grab rails. I'm starting to add the other extinguishers as I finalise the other sections of the fuselage.
While this was going on I had roughly assembled the turret components to ensure that it fitted and can still rotate fully when all the plumbing and supports are added, as in the reference shot. BTW, that's my thumb under the turret. I hadn't noticed it in the viewfinder!
I'm still trying to figure out how to attach the plumbing to the turret but still leave it able to revolve, Some sort of 'cup' that the base can slot into I think, but it will be tricky to get right in the comfined space. That's what I'm thinking about and hope to get on to it as soon as I get back from a short trip abroad.
Will post again when I get back and have made some more progress.
Gerry
I've been making a bit more progress, starting by getting the parts painted.
These are both the supplied parts and the scratch-built items. In the background is a sheet of home made decals to add details to the fire extinguishers and the reservoir tanks. Also I printed off some decals for some flares that still need to be added.
Most of this detail will be added to section 5, the section that contains the dorsal turret. I've got a good reference for this section from the Aviation Classics Lancaster Manual, which shows well the correct positions for equipment and the overall busyness around the turret body, which I'll attempt to replicate.
Here's one piece that nearly got forgotten. This is an electrical distribution board that I only came across when all the other parts had been painted.
Next is a shot of the port wall of section 5 with the new equipment added. This, by the way, is the section that the magazine suggests cutting away the starboard wall for better access. Fortunately I hadn't added stringers to this side, so I had a little better access but it was still very tight and tricky.
A new parachute is added, plus the reservoirs and the electrical board. The pumps and valves are positioned and plumbed in with lead wire. (A nightmare to use in the confined space, as any contact with anything else buckled it). You should also be able to see the two control rods for the elevators and rudders. These will eventually run the entire length of the port fuselage. Finally a couple of grab rails and some electrical cables were added. The next two shots just show the installed items from a different angle.
The starboard wall was tackled next, with the first of the fire extinguishers added with an oxygen net and bottle, reservoir and pumps and plumbing and grab rails. I'm starting to add the other extinguishers as I finalise the other sections of the fuselage.
While this was going on I had roughly assembled the turret components to ensure that it fitted and can still rotate fully when all the plumbing and supports are added, as in the reference shot. BTW, that's my thumb under the turret. I hadn't noticed it in the viewfinder!
I'm still trying to figure out how to attach the plumbing to the turret but still leave it able to revolve, Some sort of 'cup' that the base can slot into I think, but it will be tricky to get right in the comfined space. That's what I'm thinking about and hope to get on to it as soon as I get back from a short trip abroad.
Will post again when I get back and have made some more progress.
Gerry
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Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Marvelous Gerry !
chris brown
Senior Airman
Fantastic work. It looks amazing.
vikingBerserker
Lieutenant General
Just when I thought you could not amaze me even more, you amaze me even more.
Just beautiful!
Just beautiful!
Crimea_River
Marshal
Continues to amaze Gerry.
Lucky13
Forum Mascot
Outstanding work Gerry!
fubar57
General
Superb work.
Geo
Geo
Excellent work so far Gerry!
- Thread starter
- #839
Gerry
Staff Sergeant
Thanks Wurger, Chris, Terry, Andy, David, George, Jan and Gnomey for continuing to looks in on the build and for your ever-positive comments, and thanks to everyone who continue to post information that adds to my knowledge of the Lancaster. 
Gerry
Gerry
- Thread starter
- #840
Gerry
Staff Sergeant
It's taken me a good bit longer to progress the build than I'd thought in my previous post. I'll try and explain why as I bring you up to date. If you recall, I'd said I'd try to enhance the plumbing under the dorsal turret.
I found a discarded metal bracket from the build that was originally a hydraulic tank bracket but in scale was far too thick. I inserted a hollow plastic plug into it and tacked it to the cross strut. It was fitted and adjusted a number of times before I got the fit I wanted. Then it was permanently attached with Superglue. The pipes are brass wire and again, were eventually fitted so that the turret could still fully rotate.
Here's how it looks with the turret test fitted. I think it does the job.
The next major job to complete this section was to fit the ammunition tracks to the rear turret. This is slightly complicated by the fact that the tracks fit over two sections, 5 6 and the ammo boxes are in section 4 – and everything needs to match up precisely when the sections are eventually married. First, rather than painting the tracks to simulate the shells, I decided I'd achieve a better effect by using Eduard PE .30 ammo belts. Here's how it looks in one of the straight sections.
The most interesting looking parts of the tracks are those leading from the boxes into section 5 of the fuselage as shown in the test fit below.
Each side consists of three sections glued together. Then I added the PE ammo. The motor drive brackets are scratch-built from plastic card and rod, to add a bit of visual difference. I got the ref, below, from a very useful Lancaster walk around by Dave Hollingsworth on the Cybermodeler site. I hope he doesn't mind me using it to illustrate a point. As the ammo boxes can be posed either open or closed, they had a layer of PE ammo added for continuity. The tracks are just resting on the boxes for the photo as, once installed, they'll never be seen as clearly again.
Well, after a lot of dry fitting to ensure the brackets fitted to the formers and careful measuring to ensure (hopefully) they'd fit to the boxes on one end and to track extensions on the other, I positioned them in the dorsal turret section and attached the track motors to scratch-built electrical panels. The turret plumbing had also been painted beforehand.
The ammunition boxes were then carefully fitted in section 4 of the fuselage to ensure a close join when the tracks are attached. I left some excess ammo showing, to bridge any slight gaps that might show.
Here's how it should look when finally joined together. You can see here how busy the dorsal section looks. The cocktail sticks are just to hold the two sections loosely together for the photo.
Here's how the two sections look from the interior, looking towards the front of the aircraft.
The next task was to complete the track run to the rear turret. This section comprises two long sections of track on both sides and these proved the trickiest to install properly.
The instructions require the rear section of track to be inserted through circular holes under the turret and butted up to the bulkhead behind the Elsan toilet. I would have been much simpler had that bulkhead had receiving holes but they hadn't thought to put them in and it was too enclosed to be able to retro fit them.
Here you can just about see the starboard track and the tip of the port one. These were a nightmare to manoeuvre into position with tweezers but after many attempts I forced them into a position that looked right for joining up with the next section of track.
The final installations were the tracks in the front of the section, between the Elsan bulkhead and the crew door.
I had to visually match these to the position where the rear tracks met the bulkhead. Access was better on this side but to get the tracks to meet both ends, I had to move the flare chute on one side and replace the crew step by the door with a wider one as the supports on the original were right in the middle of the track run. But after fixing some tricky brackets they were finally installed. The trick now is to make sure that they meet the tracks in section 5 as I couldn't butt fit them as there are still extended stringers and longerons preventing these two sections from marrying up, so I'm hoping for the best.
That's now the interior for all sections largely finished. There are still a few wires, extinguishers and oxygen modifiers to go in, then that's about it for inside. After that there's still a lot of basic wing and flap construction to complete before skinning and joining the fuselage sections. That's going to take some time and is not going to be very exciting but it has to be done. I will post again as I make some substantial progress.
That's it for now.
Gerry
I found a discarded metal bracket from the build that was originally a hydraulic tank bracket but in scale was far too thick. I inserted a hollow plastic plug into it and tacked it to the cross strut. It was fitted and adjusted a number of times before I got the fit I wanted. Then it was permanently attached with Superglue. The pipes are brass wire and again, were eventually fitted so that the turret could still fully rotate.
Here's how it looks with the turret test fitted. I think it does the job.
The next major job to complete this section was to fit the ammunition tracks to the rear turret. This is slightly complicated by the fact that the tracks fit over two sections, 5 6 and the ammo boxes are in section 4 – and everything needs to match up precisely when the sections are eventually married. First, rather than painting the tracks to simulate the shells, I decided I'd achieve a better effect by using Eduard PE .30 ammo belts. Here's how it looks in one of the straight sections.
The most interesting looking parts of the tracks are those leading from the boxes into section 5 of the fuselage as shown in the test fit below.
Each side consists of three sections glued together. Then I added the PE ammo. The motor drive brackets are scratch-built from plastic card and rod, to add a bit of visual difference. I got the ref, below, from a very useful Lancaster walk around by Dave Hollingsworth on the Cybermodeler site. I hope he doesn't mind me using it to illustrate a point. As the ammo boxes can be posed either open or closed, they had a layer of PE ammo added for continuity. The tracks are just resting on the boxes for the photo as, once installed, they'll never be seen as clearly again.
Well, after a lot of dry fitting to ensure the brackets fitted to the formers and careful measuring to ensure (hopefully) they'd fit to the boxes on one end and to track extensions on the other, I positioned them in the dorsal turret section and attached the track motors to scratch-built electrical panels. The turret plumbing had also been painted beforehand.
The ammunition boxes were then carefully fitted in section 4 of the fuselage to ensure a close join when the tracks are attached. I left some excess ammo showing, to bridge any slight gaps that might show.
Here's how it should look when finally joined together. You can see here how busy the dorsal section looks. The cocktail sticks are just to hold the two sections loosely together for the photo.
Here's how the two sections look from the interior, looking towards the front of the aircraft.
The next task was to complete the track run to the rear turret. This section comprises two long sections of track on both sides and these proved the trickiest to install properly.
The instructions require the rear section of track to be inserted through circular holes under the turret and butted up to the bulkhead behind the Elsan toilet. I would have been much simpler had that bulkhead had receiving holes but they hadn't thought to put them in and it was too enclosed to be able to retro fit them.
Here you can just about see the starboard track and the tip of the port one. These were a nightmare to manoeuvre into position with tweezers but after many attempts I forced them into a position that looked right for joining up with the next section of track.
The final installations were the tracks in the front of the section, between the Elsan bulkhead and the crew door.
I had to visually match these to the position where the rear tracks met the bulkhead. Access was better on this side but to get the tracks to meet both ends, I had to move the flare chute on one side and replace the crew step by the door with a wider one as the supports on the original were right in the middle of the track run. But after fixing some tricky brackets they were finally installed. The trick now is to make sure that they meet the tracks in section 5 as I couldn't butt fit them as there are still extended stringers and longerons preventing these two sections from marrying up, so I'm hoping for the best.
That's now the interior for all sections largely finished. There are still a few wires, extinguishers and oxygen modifiers to go in, then that's about it for inside. After that there's still a lot of basic wing and flap construction to complete before skinning and joining the fuselage sections. That's going to take some time and is not going to be very exciting but it has to be done. I will post again as I make some substantial progress.
That's it for now.
Gerry
Last edited:
