SWMBO has gone and got me Tamiya's new release of the good old Lancaster. I made one of these (badly) many moons ago. Thing is I haven't made a British bomber since then! I'm not sure what exactly I will build yet but my question really pertains to the interior colours. Can anyone give me the likely colours for the following areas?
1 crew compartments both visible and "hidden"
2 turret interiors
3 wheel wells
4 bomb bay
Hoping someone can help!
Cheers
Steve

Hi Steve,

All interior colours on the Lanc were black. I however am building one at the moment and have done the interior Panzer Grey with several black washes. It has come out really well well and gives a good well used look because I am building 'Phantom of the Ruhr' and she hung around a bit!. Unfortunately I have no pictures to show because my camera is bust. I will put some pictures up of the finished article when I can borrow a camera.

BTW The Revell kit you have is a totally new mold, much, much better than the old one. The only issue with it some people have is with the outer wing dihedral, but mine is together and I think it looks fine, maybe something to do with scale effect?


Steve

Most of the colour pics I've seen of Lancs show areas which can be see through glass as black with the rest in a light (cockpit?) green.

[http://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft/lancaster/lancaster_all.shtml]Cybermodeler[/url] has 3 walk arounds and walk throughs of the lanc. that link will take you right to the page. I'm working on one now the newest release, we get a nice retool of the exterior but the interior is the same old tamiya. I recommend the Big Ed set, it's a great additon to the stuff tamiya added. Now when in the war are you building??? Early from what i found is all black, late war is black in visible areas with the long stretch in RAF interior green, and Post War (the white option) being RAF int. green through out. hope that stirred the mud. STUG

I feel i need to add after rereading your original post. cause our answers just covered the cabin area.

Wheel wells are black with the area inside the oleo's being nat metal, Aluminum. this would be the area where the strut compresses.

Turrets are black as wellunless it is a post war lanc.

Bomb Bay area on all were black. Most post war lancs retained the black underside.

I do have a question myself, the Lanc I'm building is Picadilly Princess. She carried the radar dome under her belly and i do under stand that all but the aft portion is in fact black; however, Tamiya and even eduard has omitted the dish in side the dome, which is visible from the rear of the aircraft. Does antone know of a detail set to add this missing item to the kit? STUG

Hi all,

I'm currently building the Tamiya Lancaster as well. Like Steve I would recommend the Eduard Big Ed set for the kit (see review here). I'm using it right now and it is really fantastic although it does not correct some of the mistakes made by Tamiya.

Here are two links to threads in another forum which could be of some use:
- Avro Lancaster Interior Colors
- tamiya 1/48th dambuster build

All the best,

Jean-Luc

Thanks to one and all for the rapid and helpful replies. Looks like a lot of "black". Like you Steve I usually avoid black because it is,well,too black!
Good links too, thanks Jean-Luc.
Cheers
Steve

No Problem Steve, one thing of note the biggest thing that got me with this latest issues was the bomb bay, In dealing with the retailers on this side of the pond, the sets for the bomd bays were no longer available. A quick search of eduards webstore and I found their Big Ed set and it was well worth the hefty price. Eduard replaces and actually improves alot of detail in the kit. They only snag I'm having is whether or not to redo the the framing in the overhead of the bomb bay itself cut as the plugs are cut sanded flush with the framing according to the PE instructions. I'm not sure if they will be visble once the load out is completed. Stug


BTW, is there a lancaster Group build or Campaign that I didn't know about????

Hi Steve & all,




I don't think so. Or I don't know about it either...

Here's how the bomb bay looks like with almost all the Eduard PE parts installed...



The round plugs are still visible but I think it's ok. The best would be to redo the framing with plasticard strips of course. Unfortunately I have a deadline for this build so I can't do it. I am interested in the radar dish as well. Does someone has a picture of it or, even better, a technical drawing?

Jean-Luc

I've just had a look through my copy of Modellers Datafile 4 on the Lancaster by Sam Publications, and the only picture I can find is a colour profile of a post war Lancaster with the radar in a clear casing. If I can get the scanner to work I'll post a picture later on.

Jean-Luc, hows it going, I pulled out the bomb bay sheet myself to check the little peg visibility, no pics yet just been playing with the flaps for about a week off and on. It's how I noticed the little mistake in them. Don't worry you won't notice it with the flaps down at the propper angle.

In the bay though you won't even see the offending pegs with a full load out. I'm planning to fill the racks and leave the center empty, with the Cookie and 2 remaining bombs on a trolly. Doing this so atleast some of the work will visible in the bay.

The is going to be fun the fun part, here are the 2 pics I found on Cybermodeler . It's the Lancaster at the RAAF museum in Australia. First is the pod with the all the paint removed and the latter will be the antenna itself here we go.....


those are the only two photo's i found so far. hope that helps Jean-Luc.

I think this is cool, final pic is just for fun, She the bird at the Lincolnshire museum. Yes She is still flying. I'm jealous of my friends in the UK, Mal and Rowan are realy lucky to be there around such maintained peices. Here she is.... Just Jane (doesn't look bad pushing 70)





Credit goes to the guys at Cybermodeler. They have put together a quite impressive reference section over on their site.

"Just Jane" doesn't fly at all all she does is taxi runs (which is still great to see as she is only a 40 minute drive from where I live and they do them quite regularly).

Unfortunately the only flying Lancaster we have in the UK is the one in the RAF's Battle of Britain Memorial Flight

Hi Jean-Luc,

Bomb bay looks good, however a small question if I may? Didn't the Lanc only have three bomb racks across the bay? I believe Eduard got this wrong when they issued their update pack. I am not 100% sure though and the reference pictures I have are not clear. Maybe Rowan could have a peek under the Lanc at Hendon the next time he is there.

Do you have any more photos of this build we could have a look at, I am going to get oe tomorrow as my LHS has just got it in.

Steve, you're right. just checked the photo's from the lanc at Duxford. the are only 3 cradles, and the photo of the RAAF museum only has 3 across as well. I wouldn't blame Eduard though, thet just made the parts following Tamiya's original oops. Also of note looking at the photos, if cookie were loaded there would not be room for the 2 bombs to be loaded outboard of it in the bay. Good eyes Steve, thanks for catching that little detail.

The Lancaster Manual confirms a maximum of three bombs, side-by-side, across the bay, usually with the heavier/larger bombs in the middle, lighter front and rear. Regarding the interior colours, don't forget that the Lancaster was built in three sections, so it's entirely likely that it would be black from just forward of the mainspar, with the aft two sections green.
Edgar

These may be worth a look as well:

http://www.kiwiaircraftimages.com/lanc.html

http://www.kiwiaircraftimages.com/lanc.html#tour

Hi there

I've got the FlyingZone Publications DVD, which includes a mass of technical data, including the wartime Lanc manuals, and it shows a 3-abreast bomb load-out in every diagram.

Just to complicate matters is this nice clear wartime photo of 4-abreast bombs from Peter Jacobs' "Lancaster Story" - Cassell 1996 :



It looks like the centre pair are hung on a dual-mount to position them slightly lower than the Cookie and the rest of the load.

All the best

Rowan

Well worth splashing out on is this colour dvd of Lancasters at RAF Hemswell.
I believe its the only colour film made of Bomber Command.
Highly recomended.
NIGHT BOMBERS

If we tour together soon I'll bring my copy with me Steve

Nige

Rowan, I hope the guy in your photo isnt trying to hold that cookie up all on his own

Thanks Rowan and Nigel, I'll have to find that DVD. Anyone know what happened to Accurate Armour? I tried looking for the airfeild equipment and their webpage is down. I need their bomb cart and maybe a tilly or fuel tanker. Steve

Hi all,




Rowan, thanks, you saved me hours of additional work with that photo!
It seems that Eduard's Bomb Bay isn't very accurate though. The PE racks stand proud of the bomb bay frame while it seems they were part of it on the real aircraft. But as Steve already said, it's hard to blame Eduard for the initial mistakes made by Tamiya. Doing a Big Ed set that adresses both the detail and accuracy issues would have made the product cost twice as much at least...

Steve, the Accurate Armor site is working fine for me. Are you sure you've used the good URL?
http://www.accurate-armour.com/

I couldn't find their bomb cart though...

All the best,

Jean-Luc

Nice one Nige. I'm doing another of my Dad's Sea Furies at the moment and then I have to endure the caterwauling of five tone deaf women for several weeks (lovely girls though). You can guess who I mean. Not gonna say here in case one of them has a keen modeller of a brother or something!
The Lancaster is next in line - I've already started ordering British paint.

That guy does look like he's doing a 4000 pound press!!

Cheers
Steve

Thank's Jean-Luc, I appreciate the good link. I was hoping they didn't go under like many other cottage places these days.

Steven good luck on the Sea Furies and Sirens hope to see your Lanc on here soon. I've got to go and start my own thread for pics soon. I'm almost done with the starboard wing and I think some would like to see the port wing go together with the PE set. Later guys Steve

Hi all,

I just wanted to show you pictures of the Lancaster I'm working on...











I started earlier si I'm a little ahead of you Steve. If you have anything to ask, just do it. There are a couple of things to watch out for when adding the PE parts.

I'm currently preparing the sub-assemblies (fuselage, wings and tailplanes) for painting. I hope to start airbrishing the camouflage and the markings next week-end.

All the best,

Jean-Luc

Ted, you're way ahead of me there, I'm still truding throuh the interior, and my starboard wing is killing me, though I made some cuts i shouldn't have done and my problems are my own fault. the port wing is going to be alot easier. I am not sure of the interior painting thoughmy walk arounds show the black interior all the way back to the wing spare behind the radio station. I'm curious about that. Oh well, need to get back to my Lanc, Good luck yours look nice. Steve

Don't forget that the Lancaster fuselage was built in three, separate, sections, then mated at the final assembly stage. It makes sense that the front stage would be black right through (to the wingspar,) with the rear two painted green.
Edgar