1/48 Tamiya Lancaster. RAF Squadron 101

[chuck540z3]

"March 31, 1945. Target: Hamburg U-boat pens and docks. Moderate flak, a few fighters. Bombed red smoke puffs and identified target by H2S (radar)."

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.

Cheers.

Thanks Guy!.

I've always wanted or needed something to help me bend those tiny Eduard brass parts. So far I've been able to wing it with other tools, but it's always a struggle and sometimes things don't turn out like I'd hoped. With this "Hold and Fold" now on my bench, I wish I'd bought it sooner. I really like the quality of the workmanship and bending brass is now a piece of cake.

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

You've come to know me very well! I love the painting part because I think a good paint job really separates a good model from a great one. I don't know if this bird will be great or not, but I'm sure going to try. See below.

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

Hi Aaron,

I'm glad there's someone else interested in the history of the 101 Squadron. It was a very special one and was mostly Top Secret to boot, which is why pics of their aircraft are so hard to come by. Fortunately I've dug up enough info to do this build justice, including the cool nose art. I can hardly wait to get it finished.

Before I go on I'd like to give you guys a warning. Painting aircraft with the canopies or windscreens glued on is always a risk due to fogging and this Lanc kit is no exception. After I glued on the nose blister above, I gave the bomb bay a light spray of Alclad and guess what? It fogged up! There are still gaps in the fuselage, however tiny, that let in paint. Fortunately, it wasn't glued on too strongly, so I have since pried it off and with a little buff, it's all clear again. The front gun turret glass appears to be OK, but when I build this model again, I'll leave off the bottom parts of the gun turret (B49 and B50) which you can't see anyway and squeeze the front turret in AFTER painting. This way I can get the entire fuselage sealed up so that the canopy and other clear windows are not at risk of fogging up. With the nose blister and turret left off, you can still access the canopy from the bottom for cleaning if required, although it's a tight fit. Now on to the first part of painting.

My goal for this Lanc is to make it as accurate as possible to a battle weary war-time bomber. I now have many pics of same and many of them have chipped up paint from wear, flak and general weathering. My planned painting and weathering sequence is as follows (which is always subject to change):

1) Light Grey primer. This first coat smooths out the color contrasts between the gray kit plastic and the light colored resin. It also serves as good base for future coats, especially Alclad, and it exposes sanding and putty errors that can be fixed prior to the final paint coats. I put this coat on very thin because I don't want a lot of paint build-up plugging up all those rivets and panel lines I worked so hard on.

2) Alclad Aluminum spot painted on front surfaces, like leading edges of the wings and other areas I want to look "chipped".

3) Salt crystals selectively placed on Alclad with water. This "mask" will prevent further coats of paint from coming into contact with the bare metal Alclad. Some guys like to just dry brush on silver paint after painting, but I don't think anything can replicate salt crystals for randomness and a natural look. We'll see.

4) Panel line darkening with Flat Black- the usual drill for pre-shading.

5) Camo paint. I'm going to use the required Dark Earth and Dark Green combination, using paper masks slightly raised off the surface to achieve a feathered look rather than have sharp edges, which always look too harsh. Each color will be applied separately so that the pre-shading isn't lost with too much paint from other colors.

6) Flat Black mixed with a little brown and white to lighten it up, painted on the bottom and sides. I know many of the Lanc survivors are glossy black on the bottom, but all my war-time pics show them to be flat black and weathered. Besides, I like to be different. ;) I'm going to try and not paint the black too thick, so that the pre-shading will still show through, even though everything on the bottom is black.

7) Lots of Future after the paint has dried, to prep the build for decals and seal the paint from further coats of solvent.

8) Decals.

9) Light coat of Future to seal the decals in.

10) Combination of Pro-Modeler wash and solvent based washes and pastels

11) Salt weathering. Yes, again, but this will be subtle to show light and dark weathering of the paint. This won't be a TPS F-14, but it will look weathered.

12) Dull coat.

So here's some pics of #1, the primer coat. Remember how bad the wing looked before?....

Here's the same wing now. Note the smooth wing to fuselage seam.....

The other side.....

Those panel lines and rivets at the top of the engine nacelles are replicated from pics....

Underside of inboard engine. Vent covers and exhausts will go on later.........

and outboard engine.....

Make sure you plug up ALL holes before painting....

Thanks for checking in!

Edited June 15, 2010 by chuck540z3

[robw_uk]

great build... lookking forward to seeing it with paint on

[chuck540z3]

"April 3, 1945. Target: Nordhausen Nazi Headquarters. No flak, no fighters, 10/10 cloud cover. Bombed by DR (dead reckoning) daylight raid."

great build... looking forward to seeing it with paint on

Thanks. This part will likely be SLOW, but it's my favorite part of any model build, so maybe I just like it to last? We'll see.

After priming the model I fixed and sanded all blemishes that inevitably come out with a coat of paint. For some reason there were hardly any, so maybe I'm finally getting the hang of model construction without too many errors.

Next, I gave the entire model a coat of Alclad Dark Aluminum. I want a "natural" metal finish underneath the main paint, so any thin coats will reveal a metal color underneath rather than gray plastic. I also plan on doing a little salt weathering, so all the chipping I hope to create will look like natural metal.

Next, I did a LOT of panel shading. This may look like overkill, but when I'm finished I think you'll agree it was all worth it. Even the black underneath will have pre-shading of black, because I plan on putting on thin weathered coats that should reveal the darker panel lines. Only time will tell.

One other thing I took advantage of at this stage was to mask off the radiators in the front and back of the engines after the coat of Alclad. These should be painted in this color anyway, so by masking them off I'll preserve the nice metal paint job on them now.

Due to a slow drying primer coat and commitments at home, I likely won't post much in the way of progress for a couple of weeks. I want a nice hard enamel base coat anyway before I get too crazy with the airbrush. I can hardly wait!

Thanks for looking.

[Prop Duster]

Very Nice build

its per -er- Inspiring to see

Thanks

[HOLMES]

VERY INSPRIING, and you are doing a STUPENDOUS job on it...

LOve it...

[GreyGhost]

Whoa, excellent pre-shading, Chuck !

Gregg

[ian lanc]

Looking rather good Chuck.

A tip for you if your using the kits roundels don't ! If your spraying your own it doesn't really matter.

The kits Wing Roundels are the very early type which can be seen on Manchesters and really shouldn't be

used on your Lanc', the larger type should be used, these are available on most aftermarket Lanc' decal sets.

ian.

[chuck540z3]

Looking rather good Chuck.

A tip for you if your using the kits roundels don't ! If your spraying your own it doesn't really matter.

The kits Wing Roundels are the very early type which can be seen on Manchesters and really shouldn't be

used on your Lanc', the larger type should be used, these are available on most aftermarket Lanc' decal sets.

ian.

Thanks, I wasn't planning on it anyway. I have the Aeromaster "Lancaster Bombers Part 1" decals, mostly because they include the "SR" code of 101 Squadron. Are these OK?

[ian lanc]

Thanks, I wasn't planning on it anyway. I have the Aeromaster "Lancaster Bombers Part 1" decals, mostly because they include the "SR" code of 101 Squadron. Are these OK?

The Aeromaster decals are spot on :)

One thing i totally forgot to say is becareful when you put the roundels on the wings !

The fuel caps which are under the decal sticks up way too much and can cause you

problems when you apply the decal and can lead to major creasing of the decal around

were the fuel caps are. I normally skim the plastic off the fuel caps then re-cut the lines

were the fuel caps should be.

ian.

[Anders_Isaksson]

Due to a slow drying primer coat and commitments at home, I likely won't post much in the way of progress for a couple of weeks. I want a nice hard enamel base coat anyway before I get too crazy with the airbrush. I can hardly wait!

Well, I can hardly wait either!

Looking excellent all around, Chuck!

Will be exciting to see this one in camouflage soon.

Cheers,

Anders

[chuck540z3]

"April 4, 1945. Target: Lutzkendorf synthetic oil refinery. Medium flak, no fighters, 3/10 cloud cover. Bombed Newhaven, diverted to North Creake."

Thanks for the kind comments guys!

For those of you who've followed my builds before, you'll know that I love to paint and I REALLY like to salt weather just about everything. A Navy F-4 or F-14 will get the full dirty bird look, while an F-16 will get some blotches, but nothing too serious. One big problem with reference pics for the Lancaster is that almost all the readily available ones on the 'net or my reference DVD are for newly restored Lancs, which have new paint jobs. Fortunately I have a book full of Lanc pics from WWII called "Lancaster" by M. Garbett and B. Goulding that I picked up recently on ebay. In this book, without exception, the Lancasters all look heavily weathered, chipped, dented, you name it. Great! Now I can do my thing!

My normal salt weathering sequence involves using salt crystals as a mask after painting and after a good coat of Future. For this bird, however, I want bare metal to show through and a worn, chipped look that I see in the WWII pics. I found that early Lancs used flat black for the undersides, but late in the war they went to a shinier finish that was easier to maintain. All the restored Lancs you'll find have gloss black for the bottom, which is very rare in the pics from this book. As a matter of fact, I can't find one with a shiny belly.

The other thing I notice from the pics is that the flat black weathered in the sun and rain quite a bit, so it was more of a very dark gray/black with rubbed off wear marks. The green and dark earth camo colors, were also weathered to a lighter color and there was a lot of chipping at the front of the engines and the top of the wing where crew would walk when doing maintenance and filling up the gas tanks. Of course after 45 missions through all sorts of flak, there would be chipped paint all over the place.

Now that I've got that stuff out of the way, here's a pic of the model with salt sprinkled over the parts I wanted to be chipped and weathered. The top of the fuselage was usually fairly clean, since nobody walked up there.

The "Before" pic.....

and the "After pic".....

To get to the second pic is along journey, but I always find this part fun. Here's some more pics of the salt applied to the "bare metal" before painting....

Now on to the real painting. This is my first attempt at camo painting and I'm not a big fan of sharp camo demarcation lines, so I learned to do the following somewhere in the Tools and Tips section. Luckily, the Tamiya instructions are pretty accurate for the camo paint scheme and even more lucky is that they are almost exactly 1/3 the size of the model. I enlarged the camo scheme on a photocopier to 300%, then cut out the camo pattern and attached it to the wings and fuselage using a "Blue Tack" type of product to keep the paper masks off the plastic about 1/8". This allows a fuzzy spray line between the 2 camo colors. It's always best to paint the dark colors last, so I put on the RAF Dark Green masks first....

After painting the Dark Earth color, you reverse the masks and then paint the Dark Green. Note the Blue Tack to hold the paper mask....

Camo colors done!

The lower black comes later, after you wash off the salt. Even though I use MM enamel paints, I did the entire paint job within 4 hours from start to finish. If the paint was glossy, it might take 3 days. Here's how things look before the salt is washed off...

and the "After" pic, when all the salt is removed under the sink. Be careful! I lost an Aileron bit down the sink and don't invert the model, because you don't want water getting into that canopy....

Edited July 9, 2010 by chuck540z3

[chuck540z3]

Here's some close-ups of the "chipped" paint. I know this method isn't for everyone and I know that some of you will find it too harsh, but I have a long way to go before I'm finished, so bear with me. The application of Future, for instance, always tones things down and I usually spot paint a weathered pattern after decals to smooth things out....

Here's where all those added rivets really come to life....

I really like how the front fuselage sides turned out. These look very close to my WWII reference pics with the chipped and blotchy look. I used flat black mixed with a little white to lighten up the paint and then a few drops of dark brown. No amount of post shading or brush painting can replicate the random patterns of salt crystals....

The big door at the back always looks beat up from wear and tear.....

The bottom. I may add another coat to tone down the panel lines a little later.

The "chipped" lower chin....

Thanks for looking in.

Edited July 9, 2010 by chuck540z3

[phantom]

That is coming along REAL good.

[longmc]

This is an outstanding build! I sure love a good Lanc!

[Beaconroot]

Great looking Lancaster! I love the effect you got with the salt weathering. Keep up the good work. I will save this build for my Dambuster Lancaster I will build someday.

Jim Root :)

[Prop Duster]

This one is a great tool to learn from.

NOW I can see what salt chipping means- I understood the words but seeing it is a whole different critter.

Thanks :)

[mareku]

Gorgeos job :) Fantastic efect with the salt Great model of lancaster

[chuck540z3]

Thanks again guys- here's another update, although minor. As I mentioned earlier, the application of Future to prep the model for decals will alter the color and chipped look fairly dramatically. I tend to overdo it a bit at first with the salt weathering, because Future smooths things out so that the light doesn't catch the edges of the chipped paint as readily. I also sand the paint using 2000 grit sandpaper, to prep the paint for Future and expose raised detail underneath, which in this case is metallic in color. Here's what I mean:

Underside after sanding. Dull and very gray.....

After a couple coats of Future. Very shiny and very black. Much of the detail will come back after the final dull coat, but not all of it....

The top.......

A close-up......

I also salt weather the other bits that will go on last, like the bomb bay doors, gear doors, engine bits and even the props....

After a coat of Future, this chipped and eroded paint look will tone down as well.....

Edited July 11, 2010 by chuck540z3

[ian lanc]

Chuck ! Makes me wanna buy ''Rubbers'' FANTASTIC'O'

;) CAN'T WAIT TO SEE IT FINISHED

ian.

[RiderFan]

2000 grit paper? Isn't that just normal white photocopier paper at that point? I don't even know where I'd buy 2k grit...

Anyway, looks pretty freaking fantastic.

Edited July 16, 2010 by RiderFan

[ian lanc]

You can get wet/dry paper in fine grades of 1,500. 2,000. 2,500. 3,000. 3,500 and so on right up to 5,000

Mercedes/Rolls Royce and Aston Martin use these grade in paint perfection. Its not available in your local

car shop, its a specialized item and the best paper comes from Germany and its called MATADOR WASSERFEST.

Some U.S custom car makers also use MW paper.

[sorry chuck didn't really mean to jump in]

ian.

[Kostucha]

Simply stunning work. I stumbled on this one a bit late and couldn't help but sit back with a beer and start reading from the beginning. Superb attention to detail, and your paint work on this ole bird is very, very convincing!

Thanks!

[dkobayashi]

Gorgeous lanc...my grandfather was also a bomb aimer in an RCAF lanc, but he died almost 10 years ago so I don't have a whole ton of information about the plane he flew- seeing this build now though, I want to build it.

[chuck540z3]

2000 grit paper? Isn't that just normal white photocopier paper at that point? I don't even know where I'd buy 2k grit...

Anyway, looks pretty freaking fantastic.

Thank you very much Guys! I'm a real sucker for praise.

David, I bought my 2000 grit sandpaper at my modeling store, just like the other grits like Tamiya 600 and 1000. For really fine grits like 6000, 8000 and even 12000 (for canopy work mostly), I bought them on-line. Any good modeling on-line store has them, like Hobby Linc (US) and Hobby Link (Japan). I've used them both many times with excellent prices and service.

What comes next is the really fun part. Decals (I have a bit of a surprise here), bombs (a Bomb-Aimer like my uncle NEEDS good looking bombs!) and quite a few detail bits for the engines. I'm also going to follow the great advice of ianlanc and add the cable aerials, but since I can't find any good pics of a Lanc with the thin aerials on the top of the fuselage, they are in jeopardy right now unless someone can steer me back in their direction. ianlanc?

BTW, the more I research the Lancaster, the more I love it. This is one important bird of WW-II for the British, Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders. The Spitfire may be more popular, but the Lanc was no less important to winning the war.

[Kostucha]

BTW, the more I research the Lancaster, the more I love it. This is one important bird of WW-II for the British, Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders. The Spitfire may be more popular, but the Lanc was no less important to winning the war.

You hit the nail on the head pretty good with that comment.

I can't wait to see more of your build. Truly something else.