1:32 scale Lancaster Mk.1 Hachette Partworks

[Gerry]

Hi again, everyone,


Thanks, once again, for all your encouraging posts. I was hoping to post a lot more frequently than I have been but life, in general, has been intruding a lot more than previously.


With this post I'm hoping to bring the chapter on the bomb bay to a conclusion. I have been making slow progress on this due to changing my mind - there are things I thought were OK but on a second look that I decided needed improving - and adding bits that I hadn't originally intended to.


I'll start with the payload.

These are now painted and 'dirtied up' by weathering. The incendiary canisters are painted and weathered and I've added bomb fuses to the 500 pounders from etched brass discs, from my spares box.


Next up was to finish the bulkheads and ceiling of the bomb bay. The photo is looking towards the rear.

The red slips for the cookie were scratch-built from plastic and metal rod. The piston arms, on the bulkhead, for the bomb bay doors was supplied but all of the plumbing and wires were added from photo references.


Then I test fitted the cookie to ensure it sat comortably. The fuse wires will be anchored to the ceiling fittings when it's finally positioned.

I then decided that I'd scratch-build a bomb slip to fill a space behind the cookie, where a mounted bomb won't fit. This was made rom bits from the spares box, plastic card and tube and brass rod.

Then painted...

...and positioned...

In service, this would probably have been removed if a bomb wasn't going to be fitted but it just adds an extra bit of detail to the bay.


Finally, this is the payload configuration I'm intending to use, firstly looking forward.

You can see that the bomb slip fills an otherwise empty space and the forward bulkhead has been detailled the same as the rear.


And finally, a couple of shots of the loaded bomb bay looking from front to back.

I had originally decided that I would permanently fix the bomb load into position at this point but I've changed my mind on that. I weighed the bomb load - mostly made from cast metal - and the load came in at 175g or 5 ounces (over a quarter pound) in old money. As I'm going to be flipping the aircraft for further fittings both on top and underneath over the next while, then filling and priming, I think that there's every danger of some pieces falling off. So, fixing these will probably be one of the last things I do, along with final fitting of the bomb bay doors and undercarriage doors.


I think my next task will be fitting the engines on the port wing that will be fully enclosed in the engine cowlings and I will post again when I've made some visual progress.

Sláinte,

Gerry

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

Marvellous as always, great stuff Gerry.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Man, what a stunner!

 

[Gnomey]

Excellent work so far Gerry!

 

[Crimea_River]

Love to see these updates. Brilliant work Gerry.

 

[N4521U]

ditto
brilliant

 

[Smokey Stover]

It's about time I made another post on the progress of this build. Since I last posted a whole lot of cleaning-up, filling and sanding and restoring has taken up most of my time. The main advances were closing up the gaps between the wing sections, restoring the knocked-off split flaps and installing the ailerons. But let's start with some newwork on the nose section.


View attachment 467009


Firstly, the escape hatch door needed to be finalalised and installed to plug that large gap in the floor.


View attachment 467010


I printed off some homemade decal placards and scratch-built the release ring and bar and added the grab handles from some old PE belts. This was then pushed into position from underneath, with the aid of some lubricant to ensure a tight fit...


View attachment 467011


View attachment 467012


...Hopefully resembling the interior of the Lanc... and a final shot taken of the interior as this viewpoint will be lost when the nose is attached to the rest of the fuselage.


View attachment 467013


View attachment 467014


I attached the nose at this point because I felt I would get better adhesion on the butt join before I started the skinning process. This, I felt, would also allow me to make for better continuity between the nose skins and those on the rest of the fuselage.


The skins need to be cut to shape from metal sheet using the printed template as a guide. As you can see some of the shapes are going to be tricky to cut accurately especially seven, which contains a window. Also note shape six which I'll come back to.


View attachment 467015




View attachment 467016


I started on the port side, as this side will be completely covered in the finished model. Because of the complex contours of the nose, there are five separate panels individually stuck on in this shot.


View attachment 467017


On the underside, the exterior of the hatch door dictates the fit and position of the surrounding panels. The templates are only an approximate guide as small variations in the build can make them inaccurate. The way to progress is to make accurate tracings, test-fit them around the contours of the nose mark any adjustments on the tracing paper then cut the metal panel to the adjusted size. Check again and trim as necessary. This is time consuming and laborious but is the only way to get it close to right.


This brings me back to panel six which I mentioned earlier. The instructions neglect to mention that a circular aperature is required in port side panel six to allow for the camera lens. This error is corrected about 4-5 issues later but that makes it almost impossible to cut out of the attached panel. Fortunately, I spotted this and here is the corrected panel. I point this out for the benefit of anybody building this kit.


View attachment 467018


The easiest way to do this was to punch the hole in the metal sheet first – I used a standard paper punch – and position it over the end of the camera lens then work out the shape of the panel with the opening positioned correctly.


View attachment 467019


Here are the four bottom panels cut, riveted, bent to shape and test-fitted. Note corrected panel six port on top left. Gaps between the panels should close up when presssure is applied during adhesion. Glazing also needs to be applied before these are finally fixed in position.


Lastly, for this section, a view of the starboard skinning, where I am still working on.


View attachment 467020


The under section beneath longeron A will be skinned but most of the rest will be open to allow access to inside the nose section.[/QUOTT

Truly amazing work. The detail is incredible!

 

[Capt. Vick]

Damn!

 

[fubar57]

Very impressive

 

[al49]

Very nice job!

 

[SANCER]

I loved those bombs and how they were installed in their place.
Wonderful work in detail!
Gerry, you are achieving something of a first level !!

Saludos Maestro

 

[Tony Hill]

Brilliant stuff Gerry!

 

[Wayne Little]

Brilliant is the word......

 

[Alicatt]

Just finished reading the thread so far, excellent job you have done Gerry, quite impressive.

 

[Gerry]

Thank you all for your patience and continuing kind comments. And Alicatt, welcome to the thread.

Once again I must apologise for the long delays between posts. It's been a very disruptive year here, largely caused by problems at our property (and the disruption of our first grandson). We've had builders in and out since April, because of an underfloor leak. That room is still not back in use yet and it's where my servers and desktop computer is situated so I haven't been able to make this type of post, including images, from my phone or iPad. I'm actually making this post from my son's computer, as we babysit.

Consequently, the build has been progressing but much slower than I had hoped. I have been working on three engines; the two port engines that will have full cowlings and the inner starboard engine that will be partially exposed. Engine No 4 won't be mounted until very late in the build as it will be fully detailled and fully exposed.

This is the engine block, basically assembled and painted earlier, with the supplied accessories to be added.

I decided that the two covered portside engines would only get basic work, as they won't be seen and just act as propeller mounts and weight counter balances for the port wing. These are the basic assemblies for the port engines.

A couple of small problems manifested themselves at this point. I could't find any reference photos with part A in the position suggested. My conclusion was that it was actually part B, that came pre-moulded on to the engine casing. So, I've deleted part A altogether. More serious though was a problem with the shaped engine oil tanks.

If I had been building week by week, as the magazine suggested, the first engine would have been completed by issue 15 and the other 3 by this point. The instructions in issue 115 are to remove the oil tanks and file/grind away the mounting tabs 'A' as without doing that the cowlings won't fit! I mention this only as a pointer to anyone who might be using the thread as a build guide. Fortunately, I had spotted it in time so it didn't cause me any disruption.

Then the port engines were mounted to the engine mounts and the radiators added.

This was the only basic work I was going to do on the port engines, but found mounting the engines tricky, as the only contact points areas on the real aircraft, are two small brackets on either side. In fact, I lost an engine when I turned the model over to see if I could secure it better from underneath. It fell out and most of the fittings, exhaust stubs etc, broke off and had to be reattached. Better that this should happen on an engine that's going to be hidden and I was using these engines to try things out, with this in mind.

The next task was to add some detailled plumbing to the starboard inner engine that will be exposed on the right side.

Experience on the port engines meant that I wouldn't mount the exhaust stubs, oil tank and radiator until ready to mount the engine. Some plumbing is also required on the engine bearer frame.

Then the completed engine is mounted and everything seemed to work fine...

...until I started to seriously fit the cowlings!

Here are the three of the cowlings assembled. They come as clear perspex so you can view the engines through them, if you choose. However, it's harder than plastic and is difficult to cut or sand. These have been primed filled and sanded. There were some unfortunate sink marks in the chin of the radiator intakes that I've hopefully got rid of. But the biggest problem is that they don't fit properly and they're the wrong shape.

All of my reference photos suggest that these should jut out absolutely horizontially from the wing. Mine have an obvious taper from back to front and when fitted over the engines the angle of them looks completly wrong (they appear to point skywards). in addition, the chin radiator is too far back in the nacelle to look accurate and all of the nacelles fall short of mating with the engine mount wall by 2 - 5mm, even with the engine front butted right up against the nacelle front.

Firstly, I solved the radiator positions by removing them from the engine and positioning them correctly in the nacelle chins, before mounting. Then I had to correct the angle of the engine from the fire wall in each case. This had to be done visually and by trial and error until it looked right and the horizontal plane of the prop shaft is parellel to the centreline of the fuselage.

Here is the starboard inner corrected to look right but you can still clearly see the taper on the cowling top. You can also see the card shim I've had to use, with filler, to close the gap at the back of the cowling.

The same process was applied to the port wing and now I have the task of sanding and filling until I get a smooth join.

So, that brings us right up to date. I'm at the end of the magazine build process and the actual construction is now largely finished, with the exception of the mid-upper and rear turrets. The tailplane and fins need to be added and the final engine needs detailling. But,as is obvious from some of the photos here, there's still a tremendous amount of cleaning up, filling and sanding to be done before the paint process starts and I can see still that taking up a lot more time.

One again, I'll post as soon as I can make progress.

Gerry

 

[fubar57]

A lot of fiddling around but you made it work, well done Gerry

 

[Wurger]

 

[vikingBerserker]

This is truly a master piece, just beautiful.

 

[N4521U]

Inspiring stuff.
I've still got my Mustang to get back to.
These last photos make me want to pick it back up!