1/32 HK Lancaster Dambuster....with Additions

[CraigH]

OK, the Hellcat is off to its new home and the bench is cleared for a commission build of a 1/32 HK Avro Lancaster Type 464 in Operation Chastise mode.

Have to be honest, the box picture is more exciting than the opening of the box. The well documented poor HK packing was evident but everything was thankfully in one piece.

 

Two nice instruction books, one for the standard MkI/III build and another with the special bits for the Dambuster build. Also a nice little extra a little book called "Rad Shutters Auto" by Stuart Reid, a former BBMF pilot. Nice little touch.

 

The failings of this kit are well documented but, I love a challenge and it was the only option really. My client wanted a Dambuster aircraft and, of course, the Border model is a ferrari against a ford in their base state but there are no Border Lancs about at the moment and God knows when or if a 617 squadron one will come along. With lots of work, reshaping, scratch building, tons of research, ( I'm about 30 hours of research in already and still only sorting out cockpit layout, there's a brilliant kit to be built. The floor for the pilot's seat has to go, it's way too high and misshapen. Pilots seat is very poor but a resin one from Resin 2 Detail is in the post and the IP is frankly, disgusting for a £300+ kit. Thank the Lord for Peter and Airscale. Their IP arrived today and, as ever, it's superb. Also got one of his new branch out  of seatbelts for the pilot's seat, they look more RB than HGW. I'll get that made up tomorrow. The eyes will suffer for that one!

 

 

Spot the deliberate mistake BTW? I've gone and ordered the Sutton harness in 1/24 instead of 1/32  Still, it'll be fine for the new spitfire in the autumn

 

So today, the horrid box construction that the pilots seat sits on has gone, I'll reuse some of it for height but it needs a total reshaping before that. The engineers panel has been filed smooth ready for the Airscale PE plate. I've removed the two little star shaped knobs first though for further use. Go in through the back with a ball cutter and they just pop out. Thanks to Nigel at Nigel's modelling bench for that one. Used it on the Hellcat too. I've made up the pilot's seat too just to get a feel for the fit and hardness of the plastic although I won't be using it.

That's about it for now, got a trip to Lincoln at the weekend and maybe a detour to look at a Lancaster.........

 

Edited May 7, 2022 by CraigH

[Bobs Buckles]

Good luck! 

 

Bob 

[brahman104]

Following! Looking forward to learning more about this kit for when I build mine one very distant day!

 

Craig

[CraigH]

Thank you. You'll see a grown man cry 

[CraigH]

35 minutes ago, brahman104 said:

Following! Looking forward to learning more about this kit for when I build mine one very distant day!

 

Craig

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Cool project! I'll be following along for sure.

 

Kev

[CraigH]

Just now, LSP_Kevin said:

Cool project! I'll be following along for sure.

 

Kev

Welcome aboard Kev. Should be fun

[LSP_Kevin]

2 minutes ago, CraigH said:

Welcome aboard Kev. Should be fun

 

Just in case it's not too late, Robert Mrozowski Model Design has a number of Lancaster items, including a replacement pilot's station:

 

https://www.robertmrozowski.com/

 

The website does state that production is currently halted, however.

 

Kev

[CraigH]

49 minutes ago, LSP_Kevin said:

 

Just in case it's not too late, Robert Mrozowski Model Design has a number of Lancaster items, including a replacement pilot's station:

 

https://www.robertmrozowski.com/

 

The website does state that production is currently halted, however.

 

Kev

Yeah seen it but az you say, it seems he'sstopped production. Super kit but I've ordered the Resi 2 Detail which is still fantastic. Import charges crippling though

[BloorwestSiR]

Nice start. I need to get back to mine that I won in a raffle here on LSP. 

 

The Resin2Detail seat is really impressive. I threw a primer coat on mine and it showed even more detail than I initially noticed. 

 

 

Carl

[CraigH]

1 hour ago, BloorwestSiR said:

Nice start. I need to get back to mine that I won in a raffle here on LSP. 

 

The Resin2Detail seat is really impressive. I threw a primer coat on mine and it showed even more detail than I initially noticed. 

 

 

Carl

Nice. I'm still undecided whether to have the armour plate up or down. Last minute decision on that one I think

[CraigH]

So I thought it was about time for an update. It's been mostly cutting and carving TBH. As I said earlier the horrible box construction has gone and I've used some of it to create an accurate plinth that the pilots seat stood on

 

The instrument panel has been filed smooth and butchered to let the larger compass sit in there when the Airscale IP is ready for it

 

My Airscale replacement IP is here and I've started to look at the engineers panel. Firstly primed and sprayed with a gloss black coat then varnished with Alclad Aquagloss to stop the whole damn lot coming off. Then some fiddly masking to try and demarcate the individual gauges followed by a SLOW build up of firstly yellow dials using very dilute paint and lots of light coats so nothing gets under the flimsy masking tape strips, followed by the same with a light blue. After that, all that's needed is to fit the two star shaped wheels I cut off earlier and add Airscales decals and a few from the spares bag to jazz it up a bit. All accurate I might add. A very light drybrush to bring out some of the detail then sandwiched to the backplate with acetate in between to simulate glass, being careful of course to clean the acetate well before you sandwich it between the decalled backplate and painted front

As you can see from the centre picture with the rule in there, it's quite small, one of the problems in working in 1:32 instead of my usual 1:24 but with a kit this big, I'd need to move house to do it in 1:24. I need to add a lamp and a few switches to this then it's ready for mounting. Reference was this drawing from the Lancaster manual.

 

Much the same with the IP really. You have to be careful cutting the acetate for the "glass". It's important, I think, to leave some metal for bonding the two metal plates together. The acetate is stuck to the decal and that's very flimsy. Try and bond to just a full fitting acetate and the whole lot could separate. The feathering buttons to the lower right were made with some 0.5mm plastic rod, radiused on the tip, painted red and fastened through the holes of the IP from the back. The back of the compass housing is always shown as a white domed area with the compass sitting in it. I found an old armour head plate from a 1:24 Me109 and dremmelled out a radius on it, cut it off and painted it white and it's worked very well

 

With exception of around 30 2mm long switches made of fuse wire to insert, the IP is almost done

 

I've started on the Navigators and radio operators table. It's too short due to errors by HK so I need to let a 13mm fillet in to bring it back to size but an interesting point is that either end had a lift up flap with a green baize storage pocket for pencils etc underneath a bit like a school desk. Being a daft bugger and a glutton for punishment, I've carefully cut along the length of the table and created this storage pocket. I'll show it as open with some "pencils" made of thin rod painted red with the ends done in wood colour to simulate the pencil

 

Lastly today, the radio transmitter and receiver. Again in 1:32 it's quite small and very fiddly to paint too well so I've not detailed it to a very high standard as it's barely seen when closed up.

 

Next up will be getting all the measurements right for the placing of the pilots plinth and the painting of the excellent seat from Resin2you. The plinth is made and painted but it needs a couple more tweaks including neatening up the riveting a bit. I've already started a bit of wear round the pilots seat. Important to note through the whole of this build will be that wear and tear will be very restrained. These 464 provisioning aircraft were almost all new and not used much before the raid so heavily weathered models just can't be accurate imho but, we do what pleases us in modelling I always think

 

[Mark P]

Watching with eager anticipation...

 

Mark Proulx

[LSP_Kevin]

Excellent work on those instrument panels, Craig!

 

Kev

[CraigH]

25 minutes ago, LSP_Kevin said:

Excellent work on those instrument panels, Craig!

 

Kev

Cheers Kev. Eyes not what they used to be, takes a bit longer and a strong lamp now