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1/48 Tamiya Lancaster. RAF Squadron 101


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The escape hatches look great and there where loads of Lanc's with flush escape hatches and loads

with raised hatches so this might have something to do with the fuselage flexing over time/missions

causing the hatch not to fit correctly. so what you've done is just great stuff :]

Cable cutters look good too.

As for the bomb bay i can see you getting you fingers stuck lol and you said it was OOB

this will be one smashing Lanc'

ian.

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As for the bomb bay i can see you getting your fingers stuck. lol, and you said it was OOB

ian.

You've got that right! These tiny little Eduard bits are always a challenge, but I've found from experience they are almost always very worthwhile.

I'm a little choked right now. At a small town near Calgary (where I live) at Nanton is both our local IPMS model show AND a Lancaster engine run tomorrow. I'd be all over that action except I have to go to a friggin' wedding! I've never entered a model in a contest and I've never heard a Lanc Merlin. CRAP! This wedding better be good! :thumbsup:

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Jesus Chuck !,

You've never heard a merlin running :cheers: I regulary see and hear Avro Lancaster 'Just Jane' fire up

and spit out flames from all four Merlins it makes your hair stand on end and when they 'run her up' its brilliant.

Hope that wedding is worth it :)

I've only ever showed my models off once at a show and never again its just too scarey everyone is pointing

trying to touch and the kids trying to grab hold of them is a nightmare too ! I once saw a 8yr old get hold of a

very nice kittyhawk and break the prop and tail wheel off the little lad thought it could FLY so threw it lol

ian.

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Hi there, Chuck! :whistle:

Needless to say this is an impressive build! I've got one of these kits in my stash, and I plan to get some aftermarkets for it before I build it. There's an enquiry I wanted to make with regard to the Belcher Bits engine nacelles:

Nacelle1.jpg

Judging by the picture, I take that Belcher Bits' nacelles are longer than Tamiya's. Please, whut else could ya tell me about Belcher Bits' in comparison to the kit ones? I thinks I might get Edward's flaps as well, or at least try whut Ian has done on his Lanc.

Keep up the awesome job, Chuck! :crying2:

Unc²

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Judging by the picture, I take that Belcher Bits' nacelles are longer than Tamiya's. Please, whut else could ya tell me about Belcher Bits' in comparison to the kit ones? I thinks I might get Edward's flaps as well, or at least try whut Ian has done on his Lanc.

Unc²

Thanks. No, the Belcher engines are not longer, although the pic above indicates they might be. I just compared some of the kit parts to the Belcher engines and they are identical in length, but I think they are slightly taller and, in my opinion, more realistic.

Hope that helps!

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"March 25, 1945. Target: Hannover marshalling yards. One of few daylight raids. Medium flak, no fighters, no cloud. Bombed visually, direct hit. Very good prang."

As I read my uncle's diary entries from this time forward, you can tell that the German's were in very tough shape by now with all the bombing and advancing Allied troops. I wonder if they knew the end was coming so soon now?

Back to the bomb bay and photo-etched parts, which I love AND hate. They almost always look terrific, but with my ham hands they are often very difficult to assemble. To help me out, I finally ordered one of those little presses that help you fold the tiny brass parts. The little sucker was expensive, but I can tell I'm going to need it for the bomb bay hinges which are long and thin.

Before I got too far in the bomb bay, I had to do some serious cutting, sanding and re-riveting of the bomb bay doors. The pic below shows the unaltered kit door on the top with those huge circular pin marks and an altered door on the bottom face to face. Being on the inside of a curved surface next to a crease, they are very hard to get rid of without a lot of careful work. The bottom door shows what it looks like after about an hour and a half of sanding a re-riveting.....

BombBay6.jpg

Since my uncle was a bomb-aimer, I'm going with the full bomb load, which is a good thing with all those big pins used to hold the bombs in place, because they will all be covered up. The big 4,000 lb. "cookie", however, will get some fine details with the clamps that hold it in place. These delicate parts will not be glued into place just yet, because I have some issues with the wings to deal with first. If these get bumped they will crush fairly easily. I'm also going to alter the cookie underneath so that it attaches to the bomb bay top with a pin like the rest of the bombs. Simply glued to the delicate clamps, it will fall off for sure....

BombBay7.jpg

There are photo-etch details for the bomb bay doors too.....

BombBay8.jpg

While I'm playing with bomb bay parts, I thought I'd make one bomb with the photo-etched fin parts to see if it was worth modifying 18 small bombs X 20 minutes per bomb of time and effort. Sadly, I think it is. The fins on those kit bombs look crappy now. Maybe I'll get faster and cut the time from 6 hours to 3?..... :thumbsup:

BombBay9.jpg

Now on to the wings, which i was going to attach AFTER I painted them for ease of handling. Looking at pics of the wing to fuselage join, it is a smooth curved lip and not a sudden, sharp crease. Also, at the front of the wing, there is a large lip which looks out of place, so, like all my other builds, I'm joining the wings to the fuelage now, placing a bead of putty at the seam, then sanding the join smooth and curved. Fortunately, you can glue one wing at a time and let the weight of the wing, which is substantial with the Belcher resin engines, push down and hold things together while the glue dries.....

Wings26.jpg

Here's a close-up of this join, made a little better with the Evergreen card I used earlier. That big lip at the front of the wing is left on most builds, but does not exist on the real deal. Good thing I haven't attached that wing vent yet, hey Ian?..... :worship:

Wings27.jpg

Being a 1/32 big fighter jet guy, I originally wanted a 1/32 Lanc to build, which does not exist. With both wings on, I'm really glad this Lanc is only in 1/48 scale, because right now it's HUGE! I'm going to need a bigger bench.

Wings28.jpg

Thanks for your interest and comments.

Edited by chuck540z3
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Hi Chuck,

A man of you capability will most not need any tips but its still fun for us all to join

in and build the best looking Lancaster ever [yours] on early Lanc's the wing tip lights

only had single lights in the tips. what i did to replicate this was to drill a hole into the

clear wing tip light then fill it up with clear red or green.

On later Lanc's the was three lights installed into the wing tips red/green/clear or green/red/clear.

On Tamiya's instructions on the wings and rear wings it tells you to paint little black circles

six on the main wings and four on the rear wings, you don't have to paint these black if you

don't want too ! These black circles are actually RUBBER covers on the real aircraft in which

you could remove these to gain access to the bolts which hold the wing / tips in place.

If these cover were never removed they would have stayed the camo' colour !

oilo006fh1.jpg

oilo007ik3.jpg

ian

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Hi Chuck,

Mate I've been looking at your work with envy this morning. My grandfather Murray Hann also served as a bomb aimer with 101 squadron. His crew was all Aussie apart from one bloke. He served from March unitl the end of the war. Even being part of operations "Manna" and "Exodus". Keep up the good work.

Edited by Azza from Oz
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{snip}and total DISASTER!. As mentioned earlier, I experienced a few tiny (at that time) hairline cracks in the canopy due to the stress of fitting the side windows into the canopy. These side windows are a bit too wide, so I flexed the canopy a bit to get them in. BIG mistake, because the cracks have grown, just like a rock chip in your windshield. Still, I like the result of the "chipped" windows frames........

{snip}

The canopy has to go and I need to start all over again with another one. Fortunately here in Canada we have a great source of Tamiya replacement parts. I just ordered another "Sprue F" (only $11.00 plus shipping) from Borgfeldt Canada at the site below:

{snip}

Hi Chuck, I've been reading this thread with great interest. I was wondering if you've ever tried vacuum forming your own canopies? Years ago I built a 1:72 scale Lanc. I don't remember what manufacture it was but I found that the kit parts were not only really thick, but had bubbles in them, and were generally useless. So I built up a small vacuum table and was able to build really thin canopy replacements. Maybe just a thought the next time you need to replace a cracked canopy.

thanks

David

Edited by RiderFan
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Hi Chuck,

Mate I've been looking at your work with envy this morning. My grandfather Murray Hann also served as a bomb aimer with 101 squadron. His crew was all Aussie apart from one bloke. He served from March until the end of the war. Even being part of operations "Manna" and "Exodus". Keep up the good work.

Thank you "Azza". Like all of my builds, I know basically NOTHING about them until I'm done, which is typically after ~ 6 months of work. Even then, I know about 1/2 of what I should to make an accurate model. This particular build, as you can guess, has very special meaning for me.

Right off the bat, I thought that my uncle would have flown with Canadian Lancasters with Canadian crew, but, as with your grandfather, Squadron 101 was a very special one with crews of all nationalities including Canadians and Australians attached with English squadrons. As a matter of fact, most if not all of the "ABC" radar crew were of Jewish descent who could speak German fluently. Since my uncle flew with an "ABC" crew (1 extra crew member) in only about half of his missions and has no photographs of this particular ABC aircraft, I will be making this Lancaster as the bomber with "Virgin Vicky" nose art pic that he gave me of the Lancaster he flew with the most, which is not "ABC" equipped. I think my next Lanc will be - those huge antennae on ABC birds on the top and bottom of the fuselage are kinda cool and very different than most Lancs. Nothing like doing something "special".

Since I have my uncle's bomb-aimer diary, I already know that he was very much a part of "Operation Manna and Exodus" as well, which must have been very special with your grandfather, because they sure were with my uncle. As much as we are very impressed and appreciate those who risk their lives in war today, I can't imagine what my uncle and your grandfather must have thought when they had only a 27% chance of coming out of a bombing mission unscathed. Unbelievable!, and hence this build.

Regards,

Chuck

Hi Chuck, I've been reading this thread with great interest. I was wondering if you've ever tried vacuum forming your own canopies? Years ago I built a 1:72 scale Lanc. I don't remember what manufacture it was but I found that the kit parts were not only really thick, but had bubbles in them, and were generally useless. So I built up a small vacuum table and was able to build really thin canopy replacements. Maybe just a thought the next time you need to replace a cracked canopy.

Hi David,

The Tamiya Lancaster canopies are actually quite good- as long as you realize ahead of time that you can't stress them. They are not too thick at all, but my last build, a Tamiya F-14B was. Perhaps your vacuum table would have come in handy for the Tamiya Tomcat.

The Borgfeldt Canada distribution center in Ontario is great for Tamiya replacement parts, so the new canopy was very easy and inexpensive- along with a bunch of new clear parts that will always come in handy for this build or a future one. I highly recommend them. Their website is here:

http://www.borgfeldt.ca/catalogpc.htm?NBReset=0

Edited by chuck540z3
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Hi Chuck,

A man of you capability will most not need any tips but its still fun for us all to join

in and build the best looking Lancaster ever [yours] on early Lanc's the wing tip lights

only had single lights in the tips. what i did to replicate this was to drill a hole into the

clear wing tip light then fill it up with clear red or green.

ian

Thanks Ian,

I had already found a few Tamiya builds that had used the drilled hole technique (including your excellent Dambuster build), but I did not know about the single light. Thanks again sir! The lights will now be singles!

Edited by chuck540z3
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Hi Chuck,

When you added that piece of plasticard to the lower edge of of the wing near the fuselage and the wings don't fit neatly along its

leading edge its been bugging me some what, so i dragged out one of my old black kits and joined the wing halves together and they sit level

with each other with no problems, i then dragged out a Grandslam motorized version and guess what ? theres a step in those wings and on close

inspection tamiya's new Lanc' kit uses the Grandslam wings so i reckon they have had a problem with the molds,maybe distorted comes to mind.

ian.

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Wow... just when you thought you new someone :)

Marcel

Yeah, yeah, I've joined the "Dark Side" of props for a little while, but don't worry, my first love is still 1/32 fighters!

Speaking of props and jets, I just confirmed with my uncle that we're going to the Abbotsford air show in mid-August because the Lancaster will be flying there! Only 2 in the world left flying after 7,300 or so were built, so we better get our butts over there while we have the rare opportunity to see one fly. For those who might be interested, the Abbotsford air show website is here:

http://www.abbotsfordairshow.com/index.php?p=1_13_PERFORMERS

I've seen all the performers before, except for the Lanc. The F-15E still rocks, even back to back with the F-22, which I've seen many times at Nellis AFB.

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Hi Chuck,

When you added that piece of plasticard to the lower edge of of the wing near the fuselage and the wings don't fit neatly along its

leading edge its been bugging me some what, so i dragged out one of my old black kits and joined the wing halves together and they sit level

with each other with no problems, i then dragged out a Grandslam motorized version and guess what ? theres a step in those wings and on close

inspection tamiya's new Lanc' kit uses the Grandslam wings so i reckon they have had a problem with the molds,maybe distorted comes to mind.

ian.

Glad you checked Ian, because I was wondering if I screwed up or not. I do recall seeing another build have to do the same thing due to the step, but I'll be darned if I can find it right now. It's all fixed now and I've made some decent progress, so I'll post new pics soon. I can hardly wait to get out the airbrush and make this thing come alive.

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Hi Ian,

Now that I'm starting to finish off the nose of the Lanc,, I need some info on that front bomb-aimer blister, which comes with and without those 2 hole-like thingies above the circular flat window. I've gone with the one that has them, but I was wondering what those things were for?

Second, what aerials should I use? It appears from my uncle's pic that those big ugly spear-like aerials are not present, so what should I use?

Thanks,

Chuck

Hi Chuck,

Those big OO's are a more accurate bombing aid than the 'Norden Bomb Sight'. This was are called Z equipment.

These were only fitted on late Lancasters and most likely would have been on your Lanc'

A little more detail about the OO marks were infra-red transmitters (known as "Z-Equipment") that were introduced late in the war as an IFF measure to be used in parallel with "Village Inn", the radar that was fitted that would detect aircraft behind. Village Inn was designed to project a "blip" onto the gunsight such that when the blip and the aiming reticule coincided, the gunner could open fire "blind". As I understand it, the Z-equipment was fitted so that the gunner could check the aircraft behind with an infra-red scope, and if it was showing the infra-red light, he would know it was a friendly aircraft.

Those big ugly aerials were only fitted on 'Pathfinder' Lanc's.

I've put up a few pictures of where the aerials go and where the wire aerials go too.

If you look at your model and look at the fuselage section below the upper turret you'll

see a little bit of plastic this is where the wire should go in, you'll have to drill a hole in each,

the hole needs to be drilled rearwood of the fuselage.The V shape wire is on every

Lancaster but can hardly be seen. If and you are going to attach the wires to the canopy

drill very very tiny holes into those little 'nobley' bits which are near the escape hatch.

Do you know about the three ID lights which are under the fuselage and can be seen in the first picture ?

aerials001.jpg

No idea what this was for but can be seen on late Lanc's, wonder if it says anything about it on the CD-ROM you have ?

aerials002.jpg

The two aerials are as fitted in the picture above,normally use very thin brass rod and when glued in place cut to size.

ignore the one inside the canopy this is for very very early Lanc's Manchesters.

aerials003.jpg

Where the wires attach ! the wire that attach's the the rear wings is in the middle of the wing right on the very tip of the wing.

I normally just drill a very very tiny hole into the edge of the wing and super glue it in.

aerials004.jpg

In the top round hole where the upper main wire aerial should attach.

aerials005.jpg

Basic layout of wires.

ian lol

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Those big ugly aerials were only fitted on 'Pathfinder' Lanc's.

So I don't need any aerials on the front nose area?

I've put up a few pictures of where the aerials go and where the wire aerials go too.

If you look at your model and look at the fuselage section below the upper turret you'll

see a little bit of plastic this is where the wire should go in, you'll have to drill a hole in each,

the hole needs to be drilled rearwood of the fuselage.The V shape wire is on every

Lancaster but can hardly be seen.

Man, I had no idea there were wires down below as well! The attachment to the horizontal stabilizers seems clear, but I'm still not sure where they attach to the fuselage, but I'll check my CD tonight.

If and you are going to attach the wires to the canopy

drill very very tiny holes into those little 'nobley' bits which are near the escape hatch.

Yeah, I figured those little suckers were for the wires. What material do you use for wiring?

Do you know about the three ID lights which are under the fuselage and can be seen in the first picture?

Nope (no surprise there).

Thanks Ian.

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Yeah, yeah, I've joined the "Dark Side" of props for a little while, but don't worry, my first love is still 1/32 fighters!

Speaking of props and jets, I just confirmed with my uncle that we're going to the Abbotsford air show in mid-August because the Lancaster will be flying there! Only 2 in the world left flying after 7,300 or so were built, so we better get our butts over there while we have the rare opportunity to see one fly. For those who might be interested, the Abbotsford air show website is here:

http://www.abbotsfordairshow.com/index.php?p=1_13_PERFORMERS

I've seen all the performers before, except for the Lanc. The F-15E still rocks, even back to back with the F-22, which I've seen many times at Nellis AFB.

Looks to be an awesome airshow. I ahven't been to any in a while, even missed out on Shawfest despite it being just 2 hours drive from here. That said, I am daydreaming about making it to Axalp next year :whistle:

Marcel

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1- So I don't need any aerials on the front nose area?

2- Man, I had no idea there were wires down below as well! The attachment to the horizontal stabilizers seems clear, but I'm still not sure where they attach to the fuselage, but I'll check my CD tonight.

3- Yeah, I figured those little suckers were for the wires. What material do you use for wiring?

1- You will need to add the small Pitot Tube on the fuselage below the pilots window, this is the small one. Don't attach the early large Pitot Tube. Check your photograph !

2- Look at your fuselage below the upper turret fairing and you'll spot one piece of squarish plastic,one on each side.

3- I use ''Merlin'' Black/smokey Nylon Invisable thread, this stuff is used in the dress making industry and is very very thin, won't snap and looks ace.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/INVISABLE-THREAD-1-X...=item41502d6644

http://www.threadart.com/shop/category.asp?catid=88

ian.

Edited by ian lanc
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"March 27, 1945. Target: Paderborn marshalling yards and troops. No flak, no fighters. Daytime raid with 10/10 could. Bombed by Wanganui."

Thanks for the encouragement guys and thanks again Ian for the tips. I think I've got those aerials and wires all figured out now, thanks to you and a new book I bought on ebay simply called "Lancaster". It has LOTS of wartime pics, which are in many ways better than the ones I have on the CD, which has great pics of restored Lancs, which don't always look like they should. This new book has confirmed this Lanc is going to be chipped and dirty. There's no way it could go on 45 sorties with flak all over the place then land in a muddy field back in England without getting some bumps and bruises. Besides, most of the Lanc builds I've seen so far have them looking fairly pristine, which to me is boring. To each their own I guess!

Now back to the build- I've been very busy lately! In my last pics I had a bit of a gap at the wing root, which is not very accurate. Most of the pics I have show the wing to fuselage join to have a curved piece of flashing, so I tried to replicate same with putty. Here's that same wing with the Evergreen card I showed earlier now fixed. Not bad.....

Wing30.jpg

I used that same masking tape, putty, solvent then Q-tip routine I used on the canopy, but this time I used Tamiya lacquer thinner instead of nail polish remover, thanks to that tip given by "Switch". Not only did it work better than nail polish remover, you can tell it's the identical solvent in the Tamiya putty I'm using by its odour, so it smoothed things out perfectly. It also works great to remove putty that might get placed where it shouldn't. Thanks Switch!

Wing31.jpg

Don't forget the top of the wings.....

Wing32.jpg

and the rear horizontal stabilizers.....

Wing33.jpg

With sanding, comes detail loss, so I think I'm up to about 10,000 new rivets by now (and counting!)

Wing34.jpg

I've been stalling with the bomb bay because I have so much Eduard photo-etch brass to stick in there, but almost all of it needs to be bent into place. I've been able to handle brass parts fairly well in the past with putty knives, screwdrivers and pliers, but this bomb bay has some very long hinges which are very hard to bend in a long straight 90 degree angle. Faced with this task, I finally caved and bought a "Hold and Fold" brass bender from "The Small Shop". Here's what one of these contraptions looks like......

BrassBender1.jpg

and here's their website....

http://www.thesmallshop.com/

They are a bit expensive, but after bending these long hinges, it was more than worth it....

Hinges1.jpg

Armed with a tool that can bend tiny brass parts easily, I got back to business. Here's some preliminary results after a bit of Alclad Steel used for pre-shading. Note those new hinges for the bomb bay doors and the "Cookie" clamps....

Bombay10-1.jpg

Unfinished Cookie and bomb placed inside for fit. Good thing those ugly bomb pins are invisible with bombs stuck on them....

Bombay11.jpg

There's some nice detail at the door pistons as well.....

Bombay12.jpg

Edited by chuck540z3
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Next up before I get to finally painting is to deal with the nose section, mostly because the front gun turret needs to be inserted under a fairing before you do. While I was dealing with that, I thought I'd get after the bomb-aimer's nose blister. I've notice on almost every pic of this nose blister that there are very large "clips" as I call them, holding the blister to the fuselage. Here's a pic I took of the Nanton Lanc to show you what I mean.....

Frontblister1.jpg

Since the blister supplied with the kit doesn't have hardly any detail, I decided to add some, included rivets to the circular window. After thinking about what to use for several days, I finally decided to use a material that Guy (geedubelyer) uses all the time- "Foil". This is not ordinary foil, but that thicker foil you can often find on the top of wine bottles. To try and match those clear plastic and metal clips, I cut out small sections of foil, then carefully glued them in using white glue. I used white glue over CA glue because you can work with it and it dries clear without fogging up the plastic. Once dry, I dipped the blister in Future to help hold the tiny bits, because the white glue bond isn't really all that strong. Here's how it came out. Not bad, although the scale is a bit off.....

Frontblister2.jpg

Before I show you how it looks glued onto the fuselage, here's something I've noticed on many of these Tamiya Lanc builds- There's a gap on the port side, which is often missed. As noted, those blemishes on the front gun turret are meant to be there. Trust me, they won't look so bad once I'm done and those rivet holes need a light sanding yet.....

Frontblister3.jpg

EDIT: Now with the gap fixed and the blister temporarily glued on. I found that there was some fogging from painting, so I'm going to leave it off so that it doesn't get damaged and I still have some access, although limited, to the canopy and front gun glass. If those areas fog up too, I can still polish them back up before cementing on the front blister permanently. The scale looks better now....

Frontblister4.jpg

A closer look.....

Frontblister5.jpg

and one from the bottom. That little bottom window is masked off right now and I need to fill in the the anchor point for part B28 I'm not using....

Frontblister6.jpg

I think I'm almost ready to get some primer on this bird! Thanks for checking in.

Edited by chuck540z3
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Wow! :o

This thing bird is really moving along Chuck, great work :)

The additions to the bomb aimers blister window look superb, cracking job on those. :cheers:

It's easy to see that this is a labour of love by the amount of dedication you are lavishing on the build. Your Uncle will be thrilled by the end result :pray:

That Hold and Fold is a worthwhile investment. I think you'll use it on many more models in the future and it's something I've been promising myself when I have the spare dosh. Glad to see it made short work of those incredibly long, thin etched pieces. The Eduard etch adds substantially to the look of the complex bomb bay of your Lanc. Good stuff. :whistle:

Keep at it, you're nearly at your favourite stage, the painting and weathering. I'm eager to see what you do with the paint finish.

Cheers.

*Edit* Cuz I'm a numb nut and can't write purperly

Edited by geedubelyer
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Hi Chuck,

I've been flicking through my Grandfathers diary from training sadly there is no diary from service in UK. After sailing from Australia to the US across the Pacific he travelled across country to NEw York and then up to Canada ending up at "No 10 Air Observer School, RCAF Station Chatham, Miramichi City". That was in 1943, he spent some time in Canada. I understand he stayed on as an instructor for a while. He trained in little Ansons there.

I've also been looking at some logs from 101 Squadron sent to me by David Champion, a historian of 101 Sqaudron. It appears your Uncle and my Grandfather may have been in different flights.

Regards,

Aaron

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