HK Models Lancaster Tweak List

[Uncarina]

The HK Models Lancaster, first released in 2018, is a great kit: no serious shape issues, innovative engineering (eg, one piece wings), excellent fit, ease of assembly. It does have some tweaks however, that can make it even better. Various modelers besides myself have identified them (for example Jeroen Peters and Nigel from Large Scale Modelers and Iain (AKA Bomber Command Nut)), and I certainly take no credit for the entire list, but wanted to compile the most obvious ones here. Feel free to contribute to this list as you see fit. The majority of them are applicable to modeling most Lancasters, and some are for a specific version, noted as such. For photos I cite the page number from my Late War Canadian-built Lancaster Mk.10, “Sugars Blues” build:

 

1) Cockpit (Pages 1, 2, and 3)

--Seat Pan is 4.5mm too long, 1.5mm too high, and the seat pan floor is raised 2.5mm too high

--Armor plate is 3mm too short

--Pedestal height should be raised 15 mm from the main floor

--The red landing gear lever assembly is missing a rear cutout and the lever is overscale (Page 5)

--The instrument panel support column is vertical and should be replaced with one that angles downward and forward a few degrees

--Add rivets to the control column and remove the gap on the forward face

--Add blackout curtains to the rear of the cockpit cutout on the left fuselage half (Page 17)

--Add a moveable lamp to the Navigator's table

 

2) Bombardier Position (Page 4)

--Add two vertical posts that connect the forward flight deck to the forward fuselage

--The Williamson strike camera (part P26) is missing a cone that extends almost to the inner window face

--The bombsight support frame is molded as a simple L-shaped piece and can be replaced with short lengths of rod

--The forward escape hatch is missing a white "Parachute Exit" sign

 

3) Nacelles (Pages 10 and 11)

--Add an opening to the two small intakes on either side of the lower nacelle which are molded solid

--The main intake has a curved surface from below the propeller spinner all the way back to the radiator, when according to reference photos it transitioned to a flat shape to match the top of the radiator

--The kit includes only the "Far East" late war version which was slightly larger with a larger intake. Seen from the front, this can be amended by using fine mesh screen and framing to match the standard intake (Page12, 18)

--The tops of the wheel bays are too thick and can prevent a good fit of the inner nacelles to the wings (Page 17)

—The small intakes on the upper side of the outer nacelles should be removed

—The small intakes on the upper side of the inner nacelles are the wong shape, and the port inner nacelle should have the intake moved to its starboard side

 

Note: If you want to build the nacelles without the engines the parts required are not listed in the instructions but are included in the kit:

-- Attach the propeller shaft (Y15) to the nacelle front (K43)

-- Attach the forward radiator face (Y4) to the lower cowling (H8). This will be the trickiest part to line up, but I'd suggest adding styrene spacers to help.

--Attach the firewall (K11) to the rear nacelle halves (G11 and G12). This will be critical to help line up the cowling sections.

 

4) Wings (Page 10)

--The landing lights were located under the port wing, but HK has them molded under both

--They were concave lenses, but HK just has molded circles engraved

--The life raft hatch was located on the top of the starboard wing, but HK has them molded on top of both

--The wing outer sections may have a poor fit when attached to the main sections;

 

5) Landing Gear (Page 21)

-- The rear main support struts which are meant to articulate along half of their length was molded as a solid block on the kit.

--The kit has a support strut which is often seen in museum aircraft which helped support the landing gear but not seen in wartime photos

 

6) Fuselage (Page 14)

Note: late war Lancasters had a cabin air vent above the starboard wing. The kit includes this (part M21) but does not include it in the instructions

 

7) Canopy (Pages 14, 21, and 23)

—Some Lancasters had blisters on both sides of the canopy, some on only the starboard side, and some had none. The kit canopy does not include a cutout on either side, so this can be improved by carefully drilling the appropriate cutout. To do this trace the outline of one of the blisters on Tamiya tape, cut out the inside, then apply it to the canopy side as a template

—The canopy is missing blackout curtains

—The astrodome is a fully enlosed dome, not a partial shape as depicted in the kit

 

Note: Some Lancasters had sections of the rear canopy framing only on the interior whereas others had them on the exterior as well. You can depict the interior framing by using internal masks, painting the inside frames black, then mask these sections when painting the exterior frames. (Pages 14 and 26)

 

8) Horizontal Stabilizers

--The stabilizers have different detail between their upper and lower surfaces. Some early releases of the kit have you assemble two upper surfaces together and two lower surfaces together. This can pose a problem since the connecting pins will interfere with a other and one of the stabilizers will lack the rods which connects it to the fuselage. To correct this cut off the connecting pins and add two short rods that will fit in the matching holes in the fuselage. Later releases of the kit has this corrected. Well done HK Models!

 

9) Rear turret (Page 31)

Note: some late war Lancasters had a section of the perspex missing from the rear turret to allow better visibility for the gunner. Carefully remove this section based on the aircraft you are depicting.

 

Cheers,  Tom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 25, 2022 by Uncarina

[Uncarina]

Mods, please move this to the appropriate location if it doesn't belong here.

 

Thanks,  Tom

[LSP_Kevin]

4 hours ago, Uncarina said:

Mods, please move this to the appropriate location if it doesn't belong here.

 

Thanks,  Tom

 

I think we should publish it on the website actually, if you're agreeable Tom.

 

Kev

[Uncarina]

Kev,

 

Absolutely.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[rsanz]

I no longer have a dog in this fight but a few things I might be able to add;

3) Nacelles (Pages 10 and 11)

-The kit actually only includes the "Far East" late war version of the radiators and the associated nacelle front fairings. Without scratch building new parts there's not very much can be done about this although displaying the nacelles all closed up does help hide the shape of the radiators. Perhaps the aftermarket will come to the party. Unless you're modelling the BoB Memorial flight Lancaster Mk.IFE, in which case these Far East radiators and nacelles are pretty much correct.

 

 

 

-The small scoops on top of the top cowlings should not be on the outermost 2 nacelles for WWII. The small scoops on the inner top cowlings are the wrong shape and the one of the port inner cowling on the wrong side (it's been mirrored from the starboard side nacelle). So these should be removed, the holes filled and new scoops carved to shape. -The pointy propeller blades appear a little too wide so could be sanded to shape.

 

 

8) Horizontal Stabilizers/Elevators

-The elevators on WWII Lancasters (almost certainly all of them, but absolutely certainly all of the ones manufactured with fuselage windows) were covered in linen so all the metal panel lines should be filled and 14 rib tapes added to the top & bottom of each elevator. Of course if you're modelling the BoB Memorial flight Lancaster Mk.IFE the metal elevators are pretty much OK.

 

 

9) Rear turret (Page 31)

-There's quite a lot of detail missing in the bottom of the rear turret but this would require quite a lot of work.  

 

If the images don't appear above you should still be able to see them on the Wingnut Wings website;

 

http://www.wingnutwings.com/ww/productdetail?productid=3193&cat=6

 

 

 

[Finn]

The Lancaster only had 15 positions for bombs:

 

 

although double loads could be carried on the middle positions:

 

 

Jari

[Greif8]

Very nice list Tom, thank you for posting it.  I made most of the corrections you point out in the nose area when I built the HK "Nose Art" kit, though I ran out of energy when it came to both riveting the control column and the canopy curtains.  You Lanc looks outstanding by the way.

 

Ernest

[Uncarina]

Ernest, thank you! I thought you did an excellent job.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[Finn]

When the kit first came out it looked like they copied the 1/48 Tamiya bomb load, not quite the right size. For the real 4000lb HC Cookie:

 

LT -110"

Dia - 30"

Tail dia - 29"

 

for the bombs, which are hard to tell if they are supposed to be 500lb or 1000lb ones, a real 500lb with the short tail:

 

LT- 57.8"

Dia - 12.9"

 

1000lb short tail:

 

LT - 72.6"

Dia -17.75"

 

If you want a load of 250lbs bombs, and have a 3D printer, just scale this one up:

 

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4312538

 

Jari

[Astro32]

As I recall the navigator's astrodome at the aft end of the canopy is a full dome, not the partial one as depicted in the kit. 

[Uncarina]

Any references for this?

 

Thanks,  Tom

[thierry laurent]

3 hours ago, Uncarina said:

Any references for this?

 

Thanks,  Tom

https://www.auction.fr/_en/lot/incredibly-rare-wwii-lancaster-bomber-astrodome-canopy-14583593

 

He is fully right. Here's one.

[Finn]

You can make out the dome in this pic:

 

 

Jari

[Dennis7423]

The Wingnut Wings/Border Models Lancaster correctly depicted the astrodome on their kit.

 

- Dennis S.

   Thornton, CO USA

[Uncarina]

That could be doable for the kit by cutting out a piece of curved acetate sized to match. 

 

Cheers,  Tom