**** DONE: GB-52 1:144 Lancaster Mk I - Heavy Hitters IV

[PlasticHero]

Username : PlasticHero
First name : Alan
Category : intermediate
Scale : 1/144
Manufacturer / Model : Minicraft Lancaster Mk I
Extras : Decals and any PE that I can use from Amodel Lancaster Mk I

Going with the same markings as my earlier Favorite AC; but this time using the Minicraft kit instead of Amodel. It is a much older kit and the detail (or lack of) shows. Raised instead of scribed detail and less of it. There is no bomb bay and the wheel wells are pretty shallow. The price is half the Amodel but there is one thing that is almost worth the entire price of the kit and that is the prepainted windscreen. I don't know how its done, but it is crisp and opaque. I just opened the box and the inclusion of location pins on Mini makes it an easier kit to build. I found their lack on Amodel made it seem more like a thick vacuform then a kit. Every part had to be held in position to glue.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

deleted

 

[PlasticHero]

The Minicraft kit has a support molded in at the position of the red line to put a flat plate to put the cockpit decal. I'm using the cockpit parts (already built) from the Amodel in its place. I'll have to trim away part of the navigator's bulkhead at the back and the structure at the front to move the cockpit forward and up.

As you can see, the pilot sits high and forward under the canopy.

 

[fubar57]

Nifty little kit

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far!

 

[Wurger]

As you can see, the pilot sits high and forward under the canopy.
View attachment 650386

Yep .. the pilot's chair was higher because it was attached to main fuselage plate with an additional platform ...

the pic source: INTERIOR OF THE COCKPIT OF THE LANCASTER BOMBER 'G FOR GEORGE', SHOWING THE PILOT'S POSITION, ...

the source: Avro Lancaster Technical Drawings

 

[Totalize]

coolio!

 

[PlasticHero]

Still here, and getting a little progress. The cockpit is ready to close up, took a bit of trimming but will now fit. Comparing the two kits shows much finer detail on the Amodel, the Minicraft landing gear is short because the top of the wheel well is on the lower wing segment and not where it should be, at the top.

 

[Wayne Little]

Any progress is a step in the right direction...

 

[Crimea_River]

Good stuff. Insides of the nacelles might rather be black?

 

[PlasticHero]

I've seen both black and green; I've also read that Canadian built were black and British were green. I'm sure that the bomb bays were black because they would open over hostile territory, but let's hope the wheels would stay up. My build of a Squadron 166 bomber form '44 I think would be green.

 

[Airframes]

Wheel bay door inner faces were black, as were the lower edges of the bays, with the wing frames etc in Cockpit Grey-Green. Bomb bays and doors were black.

 

[Gnomey]

Nicely done so far!

 

[PlasticHero]

When someone named Airframes says "it was black", then black it is.

For the green frames, I'm going to paint some strips of card and glue them across the top of the wheel wells.

This is how I did the prop tips. They are small enough that a dip doesn't give you a blob on the end of your prop.

 

[Crimea_River]

Good stuff. I'm not sure that you interpreted Terry's description correctly but will let him chime in on this.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

The Grey Green frames I mentioned are the wing ribs, above the wheel wells, inside the wing.
These would be difficult to see, even in 1/48th scale, without turning the model upside down and using a torch, and virtually impossible to replicate in 1/144th scale, due to the constraints of plastic thickness (of the wing halves and nacelles) and moulding process. For your model, painting the entire wheel well interior matt black will be adequate.
I do have some photos looking way up into the wells on a real Lanc, but trying to scan them would damage the spines of the books they're in. However, the extract from the HK Models Lancaster instructions, shows these ribs (blue arrows).
The other photos show the front and rear views into the wheel wells of a Lincoln, which is virtually identical to the Lanc in layout - notice how dark it is in there, even with the use of flash, and that the "roof" of the well (actually the inner surface of the wing upper skin) is also black.

 

[rochie]

looks good