1:32 scale Lancaster Mk.1 Hachette Partworks

Great work Gerry, that turret looks great!

Masterful work Gerry! As always!

Hi Everyone, I'm sorry it's been a while since my last post but I haven't been very well over the past few weeks. I was going to post an apology last week but reckoned that with a little more time I might be able to show at least a little progress.


I've been in and out of hospital with bad kidney stones and after a procedure to remove or break them, I am recuperating painfully at home. This has really slowed me down and I'm tiring very easily although my wife says she hadn't noticed any difference! I'm still not out of the woods as I have to go back in for a follow-up procedure to remove a stent next Monday.


Although slow, I've been pushing on as best I could with skinning and assembling the twin tailfins. Here's what's been done so far.





The skeleton for the port fin had already been assembled. As this will be fully skinned I didn't do any extra work on it. The skins are supplied cut to basic shape, although the first instruction was to move the position of the pre-cut slot as it's in the wrong position!





When laid in position on the skins you can see the metal edge is wider than the fin. This is supposed to be bent around the curved leading edge using the rounded tip of a paintbrush. (I'm still scratching my head?). The only way I could figure out to actually do this was to draw the outline and gently bend in small sections at a time with a pliers. This was difficult as it's very hard to avoid crimping the metal on curves.


Anyhow, here's the edges bent and the insides painted on the starboard fin.





I had done a bit more work on the skeleton of this one as I want to show a portion of the outboard skin cutaway. There's a better angle on this later.


Here is the port fin inside on the left and the starboard fin outer side on the right, with the cutaway.





I took the opportunity, before skinning, to anchor the aerial wires to the framework (left). The rudders are solid wood covered in chrome tape that helped accentuate the riveting. I added circular inspection hatches, (stolen from the wings, see final shot), based on photos of the actual fins. The rudders are supposed to be moveable and you can see one of the six hinges supplied to allow this.


…Speaking of which here is what was required.





The hinges come in three parts and when assembled are approx 3mm wide. The coin shown is the smallest I had on me. It took me over half an hour to assemble the first one – and there's five still to do. Unfortunately, they didn't supply any spares, so if the carpet monster is hungry, I'm rightly stuck.


Here's what the attached rudder is supposed to look like according to the instructions.





I'm not crazy about the gap they've left. You could drive a panzer army through that! I'm going to have to measure carefully as I would rather a flush fitting to a working control.


I couldn't help trying a dry-fit to the starboard tailplane. The rudder is currently just taped in position at the back.





The angle is a little foreshortened to show part of the tailplane but you can see the girder structure of the fin a little clearer in the cutaway.


Finally, this issue is completed by adding various inspection hatches to the upper and lower wings.





I'll be checking if these positions are correct from an official RAF diagram, from the Haynes Lancaster Manual – but good therapy nonetheless. That will be issue 120 put to bed. Only five more to go – yippee!!!


Gerry

Sorry to hear about the kidney thing gerry, and I hope you have a quick and comfortable recovery.
The work on the tail feathers looks good so far. Looking forward to the next set of pics !

Same here Gerry. Get well soon.

Speedy recovery Gerry.

Great work so far Gerry!

Thanks to all for your kind wishes. Will keep you updated on progress, in both senses.

Sláinte,

Gerry

I'm sorry to hear about your health situation Gerry, and also that your recovery has been painful. It's not a simple thing, but I'm happy to see that your good attitude and desire to get ahead, is reflected in those wonderful twin tailfins.

Recover soon but be careful not to abuse and I hope that your follow-up procedure to remove a stent last Monday has been a success.

Best regards, mi amigo

With all here Gerry

Awesome work, but hope you heal quickly!

Hi again,


Thank you all for your good wishes for a speedy recovery. It's fair to say that I'm firing on all cylinders again at this stage.


It's been a slow start back into this project for a number of reasons, not least having a very social Christmas Season and preparing the annual IPMS Ireland newsletter. However, I've made my first tentative steps back earlier this week and have largely been cleaning up a number of unfinished and unglamorous tasks – mostly filling and sanding.


I was still making the rudder hinges when I left off.





These little beauties have been a real pain in the rear! I found fitting the supplied nail to connect the two sections very difficult, as the nail wasn't really long enough to grip and position easily. Plan B was to string them all along a piece of brass rod and secure each side, before trimming, with a dot of super glue. This worked quite well, just had to be careful the glue didn't seep through and seize up the hinge movement.


Of the two completed hinges in the picture, the top one used the nail and the bottom one the brass rod.


Unfortunately, the pain didn't stop there. The hinge slots in the rudders had to be deepened to hold the hinges, otherwise there would be a noticeable gap between fin and rudder.





Next, I managed to lose a hinge off my tweezers as I was positioning it and it hasn't been found yet. I managed to get all three hinges fitted to the starboard rudder but when attached to the fin, the hinge action is so loose that it swings from side to side at the slightest touch. All of these calamities makes me think that, unfortunately, the rudders are going to have to be static on the fins.


The next task was adding access port covers to the port and starboard wings (in reality this is mainly for the port wing as the positions of the hatches on the starboard wing are mostly cutaway).





I mainly followed an official RAF diagram for these as well as any photo references I had where the ports are visible on the wings. The shapes of the ports aren't clear from the diagram but the photos show the fuel filler ports as square and other ports circular. It's not absolutely correct but it's more accurate than what the build instructions suggest. Some of the large circular ports have been punched out of plastic sheet and riveted.


I then did the same on the tailplanes.





Here the task was simpler as there are five hinge inspection hatches on each tailplane. (I've only got three hinges on each side, so a compromise on positioning had to be decided). The elevators are only positioned as a dry fit.


This brought me to the end of issue 120. Looking forward to issues 121 & 122, these two issues cover the last major structural components of the build – the bomb bay doors. They also cover the assembly of the dorsal turret. These are my next tasks.


However, there are still lots of bits still put aside for refining and painting, such as the engines. As I had a spare hour I've begun to have a look at the main canopy, which I intend to add some detail to before it's painted and fitted.










First thing I've done was to cut out the sliding windows beside the pilot and flight engineer. As the cuts were a little rough (the Perspex on the canopy is about 2mm thick, as you can see in the first photo) I evened the frames out with plastic strip. The sliding windows will be added as will some interior detail. But that's for the next number of posts. It will possibly be a few weeks but I'll post again as soon as I have something substantial to show.


Have a good 2018.


Gerry

Great to see you up and about Gerry. Hinges definitely look finicky

I'm glad to know you're already recovered, Gerry.
These hinges look formidable and your sanding and detailed work is really thorough (during my detailing and sanding stages, I think of the work you are doing with your Lanc, ... and I have no excuse to delay and waver in what I am doing)

I also wish you an extraordinary 2018 and with many satisfactions. I'm sure you'll continue to be an inspiration to many who enjoy this.

Saludos

Glad to hear the gears are meshing Gerry and nice work on your ambitious project. Perhaps a dab of heavy grease in the hinges will limit the motion a bit more.

Good to know your back on your feet again Gerry.
Great work again, and I know exactly how to stop the rudders swinging about - get my ex-wife to paint them, and they'll be stiff to move. At least, that's what happened when she ever painted a door !!

Glad you are feeling better, and amazing work!

Looks great so far Gerry!

Hi again,


Once more I'm coming back much later than I anticipated but I haven't been totally slacking– it's just that everything seems to have been taking longer than I thought and unfortunately, I haven't had the uninterrupted run at it that I had hoped.


Terry and Andy, thanks for your hints on firming the hinges. I had forgotten how sticky paint and grease can be and, whilst I haven't got to painting those sections yet, I'm sure it'll help.


I've been working on the last major structural element of the build – the bomb bay doors and of course they were trickier than I thought they would be. We'll start at the beginning.





Top of the photo are the parts to make the starboard door. Bottom is the assembled frame for the port door. Apart from the framework, two metal end pieces are supplied and a center metal rib. These will support working hinges that are unlike anything on the actual aircraft. Also in the picture are the cylinder door jacks that should allow the doors to open and close to some degree, when fitted.


The original skinning scheme, envisioned by the magazine, is to skin the doors in individual panels, inside and out.





Here is the metal sheet and template supplied. I did experiment with the first and second panels but it is so difficult, even on the outer skins, to get them to curve to the same degree, that there would be gaps to fill between every panel. Add to this the extra drying time for each panel before its neighbour could be positioned, that I thought that there must be an easier – and quicker – method.


Here is my solution. Each door is 30cm in length, approx.





I couldn't see why this couldn't be achieved by using just two panels. After some experimenting with tracing paper and light card I felt brave enough to cut the metal sheet to join at the centre metal rib. This was then riveted and shaped to fit the convex shape of the door frame. The above shows a first test fit and the type of clamping required to keep the skin following the shape of the frame when setting.





After only a coat of primer to the frame (it won't be visible when fully skinned) the first section was attached with contact adhesive and left overnight to dry. Before this though, the panel lines had been scribed to match the positions of the ribs. (On the actual aircraft there are two intermediate formers between each rib, hence the additional rivet lines.) The second panel was then adjusted to fit and left overnight to set.


The next task was to skin the inner door surfaces. This created its own problems as the inner doors consist of a distinctive shape of double concave panels, top and bottom.





Because of this unique shape I found that the metal sheet was to thick to bend to get a tight contour with the ribs. I experimented with .25 plastic card and found that, with plenty of clamping, the card fitted the contours much better.


Here the left panel has been attached, left overnight and most of the clamps now removed. The right panel is undergoing the same process and you can see the amount of clamps needed to get the correct shape when setting. Both sections had been riveted and panel lines scribed before attaching.





Here, the finished door has had a reinforcing strip (chrome tape) added between the top and bottom sections.


I am currently working on the starboard door but that shouldn't take as long as I have worked out most of the problems on the first one.


I'll wait until both are completed before final painting. It's now my intention to continue working on the bomb bay and bomb load before attaching the doors and complete this section before moving on to other aspects of the build.


I will keep you posted as progress is made.


Gerry