1:32 scale Lancaster Mk.1 Hachette Partworks

That is looking really Nice Gerry

Great seeing this again. Marvelous work Gerry.

Thanks Wurger, Geo, Gnomey, David, Terry, pbhen, Kevin & Andy for looking in and picking up the thread again, as it were. I'm hoping there'll be more frequency between posts from now on.

Sláinte,

Gerry

A lot of great work there. Certainly looks v good.

Hi Gerry, great work, been following for a while. I thought I might offer a possible solution to the fuselage join problem. In issue 105 you get two formers, numbers 109-2 and 110-2. The instructions tell you to glue these formers (frames) to 109 and 110 then bridge the gap with short sections of stringers, crazy! Instead, create a join just like how the other fuselage sections join, former to former. Use former (frame) 109-2 as a stand alone former in its own right. It will be the first former as part of the rear fuselage section and will eventually be glued to former 109 (the last former as part of the dorsal turret section) when the two fuselage sections are joined. It will be placed about 8mm in front of rear fuselage former 110, your rear fuselage stringers will need to be longer to accommodate this extra length, former 110-2 wont be used at all. I'm not sure if this makes sense, let me know if you need more.

Regards, Tim.

Thanks Hotntot and Tim for dropping in to the thread. Hope you've found enough of interest there. Tim, that's an interesting suggestion I'll have a look and see how it'll work when I get to that section, which should be in the next couple of weeks. Thanks for taking the trouble to explain it so clearly, it sounds like it should certainly help.

Cheers,

Gerry

It's great to see the enormous size of your beautiful monster! :robot:
I congratulate Gerry, we are witnesses of a unique work! =D>

Saludos y un fuerte abrazo

Luis Carlos

Extraordinary work Gerry, simply outstanding.....

Hi Luis Carlos, Jan & Everyone, It's time for another update. I've been working steadily but slowly on this, as there was a lot of delicate and painstaking effort to progress thus far.


First task was to progress the outer wing skins.





The port outer wing, top, is fully skinned top and bottom except for the wing tip.

The starboard wing, bottom, is skinned on the underside only with the leading edge and wing tip still to be completed. At least one of the fuel tank hatches will be left off on this wing. The upper surface will feature considerable cutaways but the real reason the wings aren't finished is simply that I'm still trying to follow the sequence of the issues and haven't reached the relevant parts yet.





I then had a go at detailing the flap opening mechanism on both port and s/b outer wing split flaps. I used different gauges of plastic rod, the thicker control rod having to be cut into sections to fit between the ribs, which were not drilled. This is the s/b outer section. The flaps are hinged to open but are very loose and droop at full extension so I decided to pose them open at approx 30 degrees, so as to feature the connecting rods.


The next task entailed connecting the three rear fuselage sections, 4, 5 and 6.








Starting with section 6, the join between this section and section 5 is made at the delicate formers on both sections. I've been always worried about the strength of this join and I took Tim Mitchell's suggestion (from the previous post) of moving the additional (forward) former in 6 to the end of the walkway. This means that the facing formers of 5 & 6 will touch and give some extra strength to the join. In addition to this I glued two wooden supports under the walkway, where they will be concealed when the sections are joined (A). Some delicate manouevering was required to get the two sections to mate without damaging anything , as there were over hangs between the sections (B & C). Also the ammo tracks needed to match between the two sections. Despite my best efforts I did do some damage to the formers by putting too much pressure on them and managed to spring some of the internal fittings off the interior. Fortunately this happened at dry fit stage and I was able to repair and replace the damage before the final join.





Here's the two sections joined. The other important task was to ensure that the long horizontal spar, that runs the length of the fuselage was straight, so making all these perfect joins and connections at the same time took some concentration but in the end I got it too the stage that I felt was the best I could achieve without forcing it to destruction.





This is an interior of the two joined sections before section 4 is added.


Having left it to set overnight I then set about, following the instructions, to adding section 4.





This wasn't as difficult as the earlier sections in matching up across the join. The only major connection is the ammo chutes to the ammo boxes and I had tested this fit on a number of occasions. I had to remember to 'glaze' the viewing portholes to the bomb bay. However, the joins here are straight butt joins at the base of the formers (A). Had I thought ahead I might have been able to add some metal rod or screws between the bulkheads – the problem with that being, they would probably have been visible from the bomb bay and there is detailing on the inner face of the bulkhead already in section 5. The solution was to use a very strong contact adhesive and hope it holds. Some stringing and skinning should also strengthen the join. The join between section 4 and the rear spar is going to have the same issues when I come to it.





So, in conclusion here's the three sections joined and setting. I'm confident it'll hold but I'll keep it on the support jigs until I'm ready to connect it to the wings section. BTY those mini pegs, which I found in a local hobby/craft shop, have really paid for themselves. These fitted sections will get more stringing and await skinning instructions.


I believe that the next task is to finish constructing and skinning the two ailerons and I will keep in touch as I move forward.


Sláinte,


Gerry

Looks great Gerry, love the shot down the interior.


Geo

Excellent !
Great stuff Gerry, it's really coming together nicely, and looks every bit like a real Lanc inside.
And i like the 'Lego' jigs - very professional-looking.

Astonishing progress and begin to dimension the size; I hope to find a good choice of glue to attach the sections with the confidence that is a durable bond.

Comhghairdeas cara Gerry

Saludos cordiales
Luis Carlos

Always great to see your updates Gerry. You're going to have withdrawal symptoms after finishing this one!

Looks great so far Gerry!

Hi Gerry. Ive just joined this forum after coming across your pictures of the 1:32nd scale Hachette Lanc following a search on Google.

I too am the proud owner of this beast, but am way behind you in my progress. I came to a grinding halt with it when - like as happened to your Lanc - the keel under the rear turret mis-matched the keel under the crew entry door section. I ended up cutting a completely new keel rather than cannibalise the existing one. It worked well, but left me thinking that if Hachette got that so wrong, what else was not right. So I left it until all the editions and parts had been delivered.

I like the extra detailing you've put into your Lanc and so will be watching this thread with care and attention. I'll be having my Lanc fully skinned but will aim to have sections of the skin removable so as to see the details inside.

I've lost a set of exhaust pipes for one of the Merlin XX's but will have a go at casting a new set from white metal. Also missing are a set of coolant pipes to the one of the engines. However I've decided not to use the ones that came with the kit but to bend some 1mm copper pipe to resemble those fitted to the original.

... by-the-way .....

Does anyone know if a 1:32 scale set of WW2 RAF bomber crew exists as well as 1:32 scale WW2 Luftwaffe bomber crew for the Revell 1:32 HE111P which will be next on the list to put together?

Welcome to the forum, and it would be nice to see pics of your Lanc.
There were some individual 1/32nd scale crew figures around a few years ago, but I can't for the life of me remember which company produced them !
When I need figures in this scale, I tend to use one of the Airfix 1/32nd scale 'Multipose' figure sets, and convert them as required. Some of these sets have recently been re-released, and others can often be found at such places as King Kit.
The 'nationality' of the figures doesn't always matter, as conversion will probably mean the addition of such things as flying jackets, 'Mae Wests' etc etc, which can be done by building up from 'Milliput', paper, foil etc etc.
There are normally around six individual figures in each set, with separate torsos, legs, arms and heads, to which the supplied equipment is then fitted. This allows a wide range of possibilities, as it's quite easy to alter the poses, and the plastic used is quite soft, making re-sculpting fairly straightforward.
So far, I've used figures from the German Infantry set, and from the British Infantry set, plus a couple from the 8th Army set, with 'long trousers' moulded using 'Milliput', where they've been used for RAF, USAAF and Luftwaffe figures, regardless of the set used.
It's a useful source of basic figures in this scale, and with six figures (plus weapons and equipment which, in some cases, can be used elsewhere) in each set, a very economical way of producing a number of different figures, such as the seven-man crew of a Lancaster (or 8, if a Spec Op crewman included), at a fraction of the price of resin figures, where one individual figure will cost more than one of the sets.

Wow....fantastic work!

Thanks to everybody who checked the build out recently, Wurger, Geo, Terry, Luis Carlos, Andy, Gnomey and Wayne. Luis Carlos, I'm impressed by your Irish. I'll have to brush up on my Spanish!


Cyberia, welcome to the thread. It's nice to be contacted by another builder – it's been a while since I've spoken to one. I hope you find the contents informative and you can learn from my mistakes. If you have any questions I'll do my best to answer them.


I second Terry in hoping to see some shots of your build. I also agree with his advice on the figures. I too was hoping to find some 1:32 or 1:35 Bomber Crew figures but so far have had no luck. There are some 1:32 RAF fighter pilots and ground crew available, but need work to convert to bomber crew flying gear. I've also had some success adapting Tamiya 1:35 Panzer crew but mainly as ground crew.


Now for a quick update of what I've been doing since my last post.





Here's a shot of the interior, looking aft from section 4. I'm taking these as I progress because, when the next section is added, I won't be able to access this angle with my camera again, unless I use a fibre optic lens (which I don't possess).


Next the inboard wing trailing edges had the split flaps constructed and added.





On the left is the underside of the port wing trailing edge and the newly constructed split flap. The control rod was added, as were the metal edges and triangular skin. The same was done to the underside of the starboard assembly, on the right. These have still to be painted but I'm holding back on this until I have enough pieces for painting to justify a session.


The ailerons were tackled next.





One skeleton had previously been assembled and the second soon followed. The pre-shaped metal skins were test fitted and sanded to fit – and also carefully checked to ensure that they fitted the wings. The trim tabs are separate and are just test fitted here.





The ailerons on the Lancaster were fabric covered, not metal as the magazine suggests. So I set about adding fabric retaining strips from masking tape to simulate the effect as seen on this great ref, previously contributed by Jan (Lucky13). These took me ages to get right for some reason.

Finally, a test fit of the ailerons in position on the wings. From this you can see that the wing tip skins need to be extended to the dotted line (A) to match.



I've also started to test fit the engine support cradle (B) on the starboard outer engine. As I'm intending to have this engine largely unskinned, I'm having to cut away the wooden firewall supports. These are fine if the cowling hides them but look wrong if exposed. I've already cut away the left support leaving the right support to hold the firewall in the correct position. The idea then would be to superglue the left cradle to secure it before cutting and removing the right support and then securing the right cradle in position. Hopefully this will give a strong enough bond to support the engine weight. The wooden supports (40) are more clearly seen in this photo from the instructions, below.





That's where I am at this moment. As far as I can see the next couple of issues are about skinning fuselage panels. However, these seem to be at random rather that being adjoining panels. I think I'll have to gather and paint them and then apply them in groups in each section.


I'll see how it goes and post pictures again when I've made enough progress.


Gerry