Avro Lancaster B MK III

[Chris S]

Tally Ho ;D .

Yes ,another wingy ....Actually I've been sort of railroaded into this one !
A friend of mine was visiting a few weeks back ,(he collects diecast aircraft) and while he was in my workshop ...having a rummage through my diecasts! He spotted a kit below my bench of a Lancaster ,which I picked up last year .,after a short while he ask me to sell it to him ,but I let him have it as he does me a few favours ....Anyhoo ,I got a call from him last week with the question ......could I build it for him !!!! ,he hasnt built a kit for years and on opening the box found it a bit daunting , So I agreed ....besides it will be good practice for when I get round to building the Lanc I have planned
So ...this one will be built as the boxart (cause he likes the yellow bits ) and it represents a Lanc B MK III from 100 Sqdrn 1945 and will be displayed on a nice Base



It looks like a pretty nice kit including the interior ,so it should be a fun build .

Thanks for looking .

Chris.

 

[Mike T.C.S.M]

I shall be watching this keenly. seeing as I live in one of the B.B.M.F. practice flight paths. Also I just love the lancs. hopefully I'll learn from the master here

 

[Glorfindel]

Chris your buddy knows when things are in good hands. So looking forward to this as it looks like it's got a whole lotta stuff going on. I sense another learning experience on the horizon.

 

[Chris S]

Thanks fella's ,always nice to have you along

The Spit is in the paintshop now ,so I might get a start on this later on today

Chris.

 

[TRM]

I'm in!! Looking forward to this Chris!! Getting comfy and making some popcorn!!

 

[JMac]

I'm eagerly following along also.

 

[Chris S]

Hi chaps ,

Well ...Time I got tore into this one
Like most kits of big bombers ,there's not much in the interior ,But in saying that Revell have made a reasonable job of the forward section ...ie main cockpit ,navagators& bombers stations .Most of which you cant really see once the fuselage is closed up . There's also some nice detail on the fuselage sides ,and a couple of decals for instrument panels . The pilot seat comes with the harness molded on ,but there is also a decal option provided ,I chose just to paint the harness in .
So ,I didnt waste a lot of time on the interior ,like I say most cant be seen . I painted everything up ,done a bit of dry brushing ,followed by a neutral dark wash to tone everything doen a bit ,then some smaller details were picked out .








Once everything was painted & dry I started assembling the interior ,before fixing it all in place I done a dry fit to make sure the fuselage would close up ,sometimes the bomb bays can give trouble and need a bit of cutting ,but not in this case ,everything just falls together





And .....Bang ...everything disappears .





I got the wings assembled too .These are nicely engraved with some fine panel lines and details .But if you want to build a completely accurate Lanc ,you'll need to do a bit of work . There are a lot of panel lines on the wings which are not actually on the Lanc ! ,also the dihedral at the tip is a couple of degrees too shallow ,so you will need to cut the wing at the outboard engine to correct that .My brief on this one is just to build it out of the box ...suits me



A quick dry fit showed the wings to be a nice snug fit



I should also mention the bomb bay , its nicely detailed ,the kit gives the option of keeping the doors open and comes complete with a full payload of various bombs ,but again this one will be closed up ,so no need to do anything in there .



Thats about it for now

Thanks for looking.

Chris.

 

[Mike T.C.S.M]

Wow Chris is that one days work ?. its seams to have more of an the interior. than some of the 1:72 kits in my stash. The academy Sopwith Camel and the Supermarine Walrus spring immediately to mind

 

[Chris S]

Hey DB ....yeah ,pretty much ,bit done yesterday ,bit done this evening .The Spit is in the paintshop ,so I'll get a bit more done on this tomorrow

Chris.

 

[Glorfindel]

Chris ya just snapped to it didn't ya pal? I see what you mean about the interior of these never being visible after closing up the fuselage halves. I always wondered if I would still be considered a modeler if I skipped painting some parts inside if I knew they wouldn't be seen. I don't really see anything wrong with it. It's worth doing if you would like the practice and don't mind slowing things down a bit. (like you said, waiting for paint to dry and detail work) But like some fancy voodoo magic your soaring high again with this one too.

 

[Chris S]

Hi Anthony , yeah unless you build a cutaway ,there's really no point doing much in there mate ,even the small windows down the side get painted over on the MK III (the version Im building ) ,so the rest of the fuselage just got a quick lick of black so there is no light grey plastic visible anywhere The time will be spent on the exterior

Chris.

 

[Chris S]

Alright folks

Keeping this one moving along ,hope to have most of it done by the end of the week .

So, the main airframe has been assembled ...wings ,tailplanes ,engine nacelles ..etc . I have'nt added the fins yet as they are to be painted yellow . I must also mention that this kit comes with two inboard Merlin engines & subframes. They are quite nice ,but they are not getting displayed on this one ,so I left them to the side for my Lanc project .
I was very pleased with the fit of the wings ,in fact the fit of the whole kit has been excellent , but check out the root join ....



The undercarriage bays carry some nice detail ,including the lattice work of the wing ribs ,but everything in there goes Black .....









After making sure all the joints were sanded ,and the few little spots of filler I used ,its time to get into the paint I decided that doing the Black first would be the way to go .This is because if there were any accidents ,paint bleed ,or paint lifting it its easier just to touch in the black
When masking for paint I like to do the edging first (old habits die hard ) ....



Once taped up it was off to the paintshop .
I used a Satin Black car spray can ,decanted and sprayed through the AB ,I think it gave a real nice finish





I'll let this sit up for a day or two now to dry while I crack on with the Spit

Thanks for looking.

Chris.

 

[JMac]

Excellent progress Chris. Another really nice kit.

 

[Chris S]

Thanks Jason,hope to have the paint finished before the end of the week

Chris.

 

[ShutterAce]

That's definitely not the old Revell kit I built 30 years ago! Looking good Chris ;D

 

[Chris S]

Thanks Jim ...No ,this is a new tooling , well when I say new it has been about for a few years now . The kit itself is quite good ,but to build an accurate Lanc you would need a few modifications ,biggest one being the wings ,far too many panel lines and the dihedral is wrong ,there is other things like the shape of the fairing round the top turret ,the wheels/tyres too big and the wrong wheels ,tail wheel has no centre groove .....but in saying all that ,it will still look like a Lanc

Chris.

 

[Chris S]

Hi chaps

Well ,this is probably one of the biggest mask/paint jobs I've done (on a model) so far ! ...Quite enjoyed it tho
All the camo done Dark Earth & Dark Green with Yellow Wingtips .Came out ok I think ,Once the decals go on I'll be doing a bit of fading to the paint befor adding panel lines etc .









Thanks for looking.

Chris.

 

[Mike T.C.S.M]

It's looking awesome as usual Chris

 

[Chris S]

Thanks DB

Chris.

 

[Glorfindel]

This Lancaster has a black belly? I'm completely guessing this was used for night time bombing missions hence the black. Camo looks spot on as always Chris. Always crisp out of your hands.