1:32 scale Lancaster Mk.1 Hachette Partworks

[Gerry]

Thanks everyone and thanks Tim for posting the shots of your build. I must say it looks very neat and impressive. I had real problems originally with lining up the rear section. If you follow the instructions for matching the keel, you will find that it won't follow the shape of the actual aircraft and can cause problems lining up the stringers. From your shots, it looks like you've allowed for this, as your top longeron seems in a perfectly straight line. The other benefit of starting late is learning from the mistakes of others, myself included.

I'm currently working on skinning the fuselage. Not as easy or quick as I had hoped, despite all my preparation with the tracing paper. But I'll go into this in more detail when I get a bit further along and take some photos.

Cheers,

Gerry

 

[A4K]

Looking forward to the pics Gerry!

 

[Airframes]

Me too.

 

[Robert Porter]

With all!

 

[Gerry]

Sorry for the ongoing delay but it's proving to be a very sloooow process. Hope to finish this section by the weekend (Friday's Paddy's Day) but will hopefully have some photos, at least, by then.

Gerry

 

[Crimea_River]

So no work on Saturday then.....

 

[Gerry]

So no work on Saturday then.....

Hmmmmm...We'll have to see...

 

[Tim Mitchell]

Thanks for the positive comments guys, first time the Lanc's been seen outside my living room.
Gerry, a big Thank You for the time and effort you've taken in sharing your build with us. With skills of the highest order you've given much inspiration to those trying to put this damn thing together.

 

[Gerry]

Thanks Tim. I have a question that I haven't been able to get an answer to till now. Did you manage to get an intact rear turret clear canopy section? I received three extra copies in the post after complaining when the first one arrived smashed. Unfortunately the three arrived all broken, one after another. I gave up after that. I know of one other builder, now sadly deceased, that had the same problem with the two he sent for. Just interested as I can't believe that the postal system in the UK and Ireland is that careless. I suspect that the publisher received a defective batch but sent them out anyhow. Just like to know if an intact canopy exists.

Regards,

Gerry

 

[Gerry]

After an intensive St Patrick's weekend – no longer just one day – I failed to meet my posting deadline, for this weekend. Perhaps the attached photo might go some way to explain why, a selfie taken on Monday morning.

Seriously though, this part of the project was really tough and has taken me much longer than I had originally estimated. At times, I was really out of my comfort zone and stretched to the limits of my ability – and beyond, as you will see. Firstly, my detailed tracings weren't as useful as I thought. Basically paper wraps much easier than metal plate as I soon found out! I had hoped to post a completed fuselage section but as I still haven't completed it, all I can do is take you through the processes. I was surprised that it was so difficult as I managed to get parts of the wings skinned without any real problem.


First I needed to be sure that these fuselage section will line up when joined to the forward sections. For this I did a 'cocktail stick' fit to ensure everything is square when fitted.

What I was looking carefully at was that the tail planes were horizontal to the main wing and that the distance from the rear spar to the tip of the tail plane was equal on both sides. Also, that the rear fuselage sections would line up perfectly when connected to the inter-spar section, in front. If there were any discrepancies, these could be corrected by shims at this stage if necessary. The only problem I found was that the starboard tail plane was drooping a little but that can be tightened when finally attached.


Here the first section of skin has been attached to the roof between the rear spar to the dorsal turret.

Firstly, here you can see that I decided to underpin the sections of the fuselage where the panels meet on the vertical and horizontal joins. This I thought would allow for a more solid join, with more adhesive, than along either the stringers or the formers. The main problem is getting the curve right for the skins to wrap around the curved roof. This was a matter of testing fitting than adjusting till it looked right. Another problem is that the metal doesn't hold its shape easily as it's still springy and needs to be firmly glued to the skeleton to hold its shape. This caused problems that I'll elaborate on later.

Above is the starboard side that, because of cutaways, can't have as much underpinning.


Here the skinning slowly progresses.

A second section of the roof skin is added aft of the dorsal turret and the aft skin has been added around the tail plane box spar. Part of the reason for the slow progress is that each section of the attached skin has to be allowed to cure – usually overnight – before an adjacent section can be added. I don't have clamps suitable for this so the only way was to tightly wrap lots of tape around and leave to set. This caused some unforeseen problems on the exposed starboard side, such as stringers being removed by the tape when undone and finger pressure on the skins to get good adhesion, cracking stringers on the starboard side if I wasn't applying counter pressure in a safe area. I managed to 'spring' some of the internal mounted equipment but thankfully, have been able to reposition it.


Rather that go through each individual section of skin, I'll go to the completed port side. The area that gave me most difficulty is the section between the dorsal turret and the rear turret.

As you can see in this shot, the rear section of the fuselage tapers top and bottom and narrows at the sides in the rear section. This proved really difficult to cut and shape skins that followed the compound curves here because the degree of curve is different at either end. It was like tailoring a suit of armour. The original traces were a starting point but I soon found that I had to overcut the sections by a couple of millimeters, test fit, adjust, fit again till I felt it was right, or at least it was the best I could do. I wasted a number of skins doing this but I have enough spare metal to do this Finally, it was very hard to get all parts of these sections to stick down flat as there was real stress on the metal because of the unusual shapes.


Speaking of unusual shapes, I can't cut curves in metal freehand with a knife so had to resort to light metal shears – here to carefully cut out around the wing trailing edge on a side panel. This is later cleaned up by sanding.

So, to end, I'll show some shots of the complete port side. Despite my best intentions the panel joins are very visible and will require cleaning up, sanding and filling – not the pristine build I was aiming for. I'll probably leave the filling till later in the build, then do it all at once. The rear turret flange is only test fitted at this point and the dorsal turret just for position.

There are 13 skin sections in total. The underside has been skinned but no point in showing it until I add the final three starboard skins which will be a little trickier because of the cutouts. This I hope to complete in the next week or so and will bring you up to date then.


Sláinte,


Gerry

 

[Crimea_River]

Pretty nice despite what you think Gerry.

 

[Tony Hill]

Bloody stunning Gerry! I'm daunted by doing it with large, easily cut and handled Ali sheets...to do it "in miniature" is mind boggling.

well done,

D

 

[fubar57]

Agree with the above. Would these Berna Clamps be of any use? They work on round surfaces pretty well

 

[Airframes]

Excellent work Gerry.
I tremble at the very thought of even thinking of attempting such a build !

 

[Robert Porter]

Those clamps look very interesting! Are they what are otherwise called "Friction Clamps"?

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gerry]

Thanks guys for your positive reaction. I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't as neat as I'd planned.
And thanks George, those Berna clamps are new to me and certainly are worth investigating further.

Gerry

 

[SANCER]

It's great to see your performance Gerry, it's hard work, but it's proven that you're getting ahead.
I still enjoy the process.

BTY I've already seen those Berna clamps here in Mexican territory ... it will be a matter of looking for them.
They are very practical, though they are not cheap!

Saludos

 

[Airframes]

The Berna clamps are recommended - Andy sent me some over a while back, and I've found them extremely useful.
If you have problems finding them, there is a web-site direct to Berna.

 

[Gnomey]

Great work so far Gerry!