Hi, If you can stomach yet another Lancaster build, I'd like to share with you my (mis)adventures in building Revell's 1/72 Lancaster "Johnny Walker". I first contacted the site 15 months ago looking for references for this particular aircraft and got some good shots from "Airframes", which encouraged me to to search out further references - thanks Terry. However, due to builders and other distractions, I only started the build in March. As I knew there were going to be long gaps in the build, I decided not to do a build diary but, out of courtesy to Terry and to other contributors whose postings I've plundered, to summarise at the end, which I hope to do, over the next few days.
This is the first build I've attempted in 20 years, when I was trying to enthuse my son in model making (an excuse for me really) but that phase didn't last long as X Box and Playstation won out. I would consider myself a novice, having made mainly Airfix kits as a kid, straight out of the box with brush painting. This build is my first real attempt at 'proper' model making - trying for accuracy, scratch-building some added detail and airbrushing - a fairly steep learning curve.
I made a lot of mistakes on the build, due to the my inexperience, but hopefully won't make them again in the future. Most of them I hope I managed to camouflage successfully (literally!). But more of that later.
I wanted to build "Johnny Walker" as a night bomber, at about 93 missions, when I assume, the tail fins were still black. I also wanted a classic shape, without the H2S radar bulge.
I found the fit of the kit to be very accurate, almost too accurate at times, when even a coat of paint could negatively affect the fit. I've seen a few threads about the accuracy of the kit, particularly the dihedral of the main wing, but I didn't feel confident enough to try to correct this at this stage. I also found a thread when someone (Iain?) corrected the position of a escape hatch. But my fuselage was already complete by the time I discovered this. My main area for enhancement was the cockpit area. Other than that I just added some Quick Boost gun barrels and some extra 'J' decals to the tail fins.
Now I'm going to attempt to upload some shots of the interior.