AX 365 Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 (edited) As soon as I finish my current project (painting stage of a 48th scale Revell F-15E Strike Eagle) I'm going to start the above noted project for this GB. There are two options in this kit: a B.I of 9 Sqn R.A.F. or a B.III of 100 Sqn R.A.F. No idea which way I'll go. I'll figure it out once I start building. There are options to pose the bomb bay open or closed and to display two of the four Merlin engines. I might button everything up for simplicity's sake. Anyway, it will be some time before I start this build. I just wanted to start a thread to let everyone know of my intentions. I'll post photos as I plod along. Thanks to the mods for organizing and running the build and good luck to all the participants. Mike Edited September 16, 2015 by AX 365 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted July 15, 2015 Author Share Posted July 15, 2015 While I'm still working on my F-15E (2nd coat of clear for decal stage has been sprayed and note exhaust cans in the photos), here are photos of the box art, the decals and the kit itself for this GB. Nothing earth shattering here but just to show the starting point. I'll have to go over the instructions to "X" out the pieces and / or steps that I won't require for this build. I think I might go with 100 Sqn's B.III. If I have to spray white for 9 Sqn's B.I, I might as well go the extra mile and paint the yellow for 100's vertical tails. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Emvar Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 Those two exhausts for the Lancaster you have on the upper left of the last pic are very cool.....LMAO I'm watching this one too... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Those two exhausts for the Lancaster you have on the upper left of the last pic are very cool.....LMAO I'm watching this one too... Shhhh! No mention of the top-secret Lancaster update and modifications! Big Brother is watching. ALF P.S. Looks like a great kit, Mike - but you are far braver than I, going with yellow tails. I knew you could! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted July 21, 2015 Author Share Posted July 21, 2015 Those two exhausts for the Lancaster you have on the upper left of the last pic are very cool.....LMAO I'm watching this one too... Shhhh! No mention of the top-secret Lancaster update and modifications! Big Brother is watching. ALF P.S. Looks like a great kit, Mike - but you are far braver than I, going with yellow tails. I knew you could! I was thinking about doing the Avro Lancaster used as the Orenda engine test bed as seen here: https://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1376&bih=694&q=lancaster+orenda&oq=lancaster+orenda&gs_l=img.12...2850.11496.0.14067.18.12.2.4.2.0.108.953.11j1.12.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..4.14.893.l2bHXXH7leo#imgrc=vMUTqu8ePcF8sM%3A Then I realized that the exhausts in the photo were 48th scale and the Lancaster here is 72nd scale. Apples and oranges. :( ALF...look at my tag line underneath my avatar. That pretty well sums it up. I started building last night (Monday). I have a few small things painted but I'm going to spray the interior black and RAF interior green soon. As you alluded to in your thread ALF, parts are tiny. They're also fragile. A few small parts are broken but they were salvaged with a bit of Tamiya Extra Thin. Unfortunately, one of the barrels for the rear turret machine gun assembly is broken off and missing. I'll have to stretch some sprue to make another barrel. No photos but I'll post a couple after I get the interior painted and before I close it up. Thanks for looking. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CorsairMan Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 I built this one for my uncle a few years ago. Its a relatively easy build - I don't remember anything strange about it except maybe the fit of the canopy might have required some finessing. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted July 23, 2015 Author Share Posted July 23, 2015 Thanks for the insight CM. I'll let you know if I run into any problems there. I've done some painting and a bit of assembly. I've used the kit decals for the instrument panel, flight engineer's panel, a couple of seat belts and the radios. They look pretty good and have reacted well to Solvaset. You have to immerse the decals in warm water for at least 45 seconds to get the to free their death grip on the backing paper. They're a bit on the thick side but even so, I exercised a bit of TLC in getting them to move on the paper. Will post another update when further progress is made. Thanks for looking. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Nice and neat, Mike. Your kit is nicer when it comes to interior detail, and you've done a superb job of taking advantage of it. Tomorrow I'll post my progress in my thread, and you'll see that the Airfix kit is not quite as well done inside. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trojan Thunder Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 (edited) Nice start Mike, it will be good to watch how you and Alf go with the kits. I have the new tool Airfix Lancaster in the stash. Don't think I will get around to it in the GB. I built the Hasegawa BIII Special for the club display a couple of years ago and it went together nicely. Edited July 23, 2015 by Trojan Thunder Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted July 24, 2015 Author Share Posted July 24, 2015 ALF / TT, Thanks guys.I was quite surprised at the level of detail in the fuselage / cockpit area. I think much of it will be distorted or obscured once the 'greenhouse' is installed though. At least I know what's in there. That's a great job on your Lancaster, TT. I've been pondering getting one of the new Airfix Lancaster B.II's with the Bristol Hercules engines and building it as a 426 'Thunderbird' Squadron, R.C.A.F. machine. Decisions...decisions... Anyway, the flight deck has been glued together, a few switches and knobs in the bomb aimer's compartment have been picked out and the flight deck glued into the right half of the fuselage. So far, fit is pretty good. I haven't tried to put the two fuselage halves together yet though. Some finesse may be required but I'll let you know when that time comes. A few more photos... I'll be leaving the bomb bay doors closed so there's no need to paint under the floor or the bomb bay area. More photos and another update when more progress is made. I might be slowing down a bit because my almost six weeks of holidays draw to a close on Monday. I'm not looking forward to Monday morning at 04-early. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trojan Thunder Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 That detail work is nice, you will see a lot of it when you close it up (cockpit at least). Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 Great detail inside, Mike! This kit deserves you - I wouldn't have done it justice. Rough having to go back to work on Monday... I still have another 3 weeks. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Emvar Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 I feel all your pain guys....off for 4....on for 2... then off for 31 days. Will be a working holiday, but only when I feel like it. Watching both your builds as I know nothing about Lancaster Bombers. Looking good so far. Cheers Emil Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted July 25, 2015 Author Share Posted July 25, 2015 ALF - considering your generousity, I wanted to do it right. Thank you. Emvar - thanks for dropping in bub. Always a pleasure. On your holidays, take a quick drive up to Hamilton and fill a memory card with photos of their Lanc. Good excuse for a day trip that gives you a bit of private time and allows Mrs. Emvar the same consideration. You can't lose. Or can you? My holiday has felt like a mini retirement. I liked the experiment. I hope you both really enjoy your time off. I still have a boat load of time to burn before the end of the year so there will be more vacation time in the months to come. The fuselage is glued together as are the wings and horizontal stabilizers. The vertical stabilizers are a one piece affair. The fuselage join is actually very good. There is only one spot that will require a bit of filler and that is the seam immediately aft of the bomb bay. Not a big gap at all. The flight deck and bomb aimer's compartments look pretty good. The wheel wells are a multi piece affair and the fit is good and quite painless to put together. You can see how the wings will attach to the fuselage. It will be a strong join and wings will not droop. The join is also nice and clean with very little gap. Any gap can be filled with white glue or clear cement. Finally, the engines and bearers and firewalls have been completed. Only the back if the firewall will get painted as all nacelles will be closed up. According to the instructions, the decals provided are for an aircraft in April 1945. By then, many Lancasters had the exhaust shrouds and dampers removed so I'm leaving them off this build. They will be painted a burnt metal, etc. That's it for now. Thanks for looking and as usual, helpful hints and constructive criticism is always welcome. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted July 30, 2015 Author Share Posted July 30, 2015 A small update today... In the photo of the engines and bearers in the previous post, you can see how the engine is supposed to be glued onto the bearer as per the instructions: Yeah...that doesn't work so well so I just shoehorned the engines and bearers into the nacelles and glued everything together taking care not to break off the exhaust stubs in the process. They were kind of fragile. Engines are supplied for the inner nacelles only. Exhaust stubs on the outer nacelles were glued in place after assembling the nacelles but before gluing them to the wing. The fit of the nacelles to the wings was quite good requiring a bit of filler to hide a couple of gaps. I used white glue to fill the gaps on the bottoms of the wings. I used Tamiya putty where the top of the nacelle meets the wing. So far, a very well engineered kit. I've opted to leave the bomb bay closed. The doors are moulded in a closed configuration. You have to score them down the middle if you want to pose the bomb bay open. Same thing to display the engines and open the landing gear doors. Everything is engineered to build the model as if it is in flight. Curiously, there's no display stand in the kit. The landing gear pieces are designed to be mounted after the nacelles are glued in place. Not a bad idea. I can leave them off until the painting is done. I've reached the point where it's now time to mask the canopies and turrets for painting. E-Z Masks, a local supplier of painting masks makes canopy masks for the 72nd scale Hasegawa and Airfix Lancaster but not Revell. I'm going to pickup a set of each to see how close they are to the Revell canopy. That's it for now, my friends. Thank you for looking in and as usual, comments and constructive criticism is always welcome. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Coming along great, looks more detailed then the Tamiya in 1/48 to me. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted August 3, 2015 Author Share Posted August 3, 2015 Thanks buddy. I built the Tamyia 48th ages ago. I think you may be right in your observations. No construction updates or photos today. As mentioned, I got the E-Z Masks for the 72nd Hasegawa Lancaster B.III. Some masks work well and others not so well. I tried Micro Mask on the main canopy but that wasn't working very well either so that's why I tried the E-Z Masks. It's time consuming but hopefully the parts should turn out okay. And I'm still not done all the masking. The main canopy glass took me an hour to complete because the Hasegawa masks are not the right size for the Revell kit so there is some refining to do to get the masks right. It then took me over 1/2 an hour to do part of the bomb aimer's dome. After waking up at 0700 hrs (as I'm off today, that's an extra 2.5 hrs of sack time for me!), I spent 1/2 an hour masking the rest of the bomb aimer's dome and the front turret. I still have the top turret and the rear turret to do along with the windows along each side and other assorted 'glass' bits. Tedious but necessary, in my opinion. No pain, no gain. As I'm off today and tomorrow, I should be able to get the masking done by tomorrow evening. If all goes well, I should be able to start painting on the weekend as I'm off Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Thanks for looking in. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted August 8, 2015 Author Share Posted August 8, 2015 Small update today. I have FINALLY finished masking the glass. As CM opined, there was a bit of an issue with the main canopy glass but I believe I have solved that problem. I'll be able to make a more informed decision once I prime the area. I've also primed the required areas and sprayed two coats of MM Insignia Yellow on the wing tips, vertical stabilizers, balance horns and prop tips. They yellow looks a little dark but that's due to the lighting and the flash. It's not that dark in real life. As it's a nice and sunny day, I might spray the black tonight. We'll see how that goes. Thanks for looking. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 Wow! Lots of fiddly work there on the glass. I think the end result will reward your efforts. Or at least you'll feel good about it. Or something... ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted August 23, 2015 Author Share Posted August 23, 2015 Wow! Lots of fiddly work there on the glass. I think the end result will reward your efforts. Or at least you'll feel good about it. Or something... ALF Praying for the former. Hoping for the middle. Will accept the latter. No photos but the dark earth has been sprayed and the corresponding areas masked and the dark green was sprayed about an hour ago. I'll let the paint cure for a bit before removing the masking tape, but not the canopy masks. They'll stay on until after I've sprayed the clear gloss, applied the decals and sprayed the clear flat. I'll post photos of the paint job after I remove the masks. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
K5054NZ Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 Looking forward to the photos Shaun, I'm almost ready for paint on an Airfix B.III. Great work so far, that paint scheme will certainly stand out. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted August 27, 2015 Author Share Posted August 27, 2015 Looking forward to the photos Shaun I don't know who Shaun is. Sean is my younger brother. phantom is Shawn. Not to worry, my friend. Because of my chosen profession, I have been called a LOT worse. Thanks for taking the time to pop in a leave a comment. I appreciate it. Here are a few photos of the progress thus far. You're right! The contrast between the camo and the yellow is pretty amazing. Tips were sprayed MM light gray, then MM yellow. After the yellow dried, I used 6mm Tamiya tape, folded width wise around the tip of the blade to mask the yellow. I then sprayed the flat black. I have yet to paint the hubs aluminum. I'll be going downstairs to spray the Alclad aluminum on the gear legs and struts momentarily. Although no photos of this, the wheels were sprayed flat black and the EZ Masks have wheel masks. I've applied those and whill spray the hubs when I spray the landing gear legs and struts. That's it for now. I'll post more photos when more progress is made. As always, comments and constructive criticism is always welcome. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
K5054NZ Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 Sorry Mike, I got you confused with another Canuck on the boards! Sorry. Great job with the paint, the yellow looks great but I love your camo work. The demarcations looks pretty darned good. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trojan Thunder Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 Progress looks good Mike When painting yellow I usually prime with white ( which can have its issues). I did not think to use a light grey instead. Might try it next time. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 slow and steady wins the race, my friend. Beautiful paint job. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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