Paul,
The ammo chute looks great! I can't imagine how much fun it would be to fill that with .303 rounds in scale.

I'd no idea the Lanc carried a loo. I wonder how many other WWII aircraft carried toilets?

If you want a cement with a bit more tack, dissolved spue can give some good grip with difficult parts. I gave 5 different adhesives, and manage to use them all on every build. Crazy, I know.

Gaz

I have to admit i considered putting ammo in the chutes but even i'm not that crazy. I think you can get etched ammo belts but I'd like to keep aftermarket and cost to a minimum.

As for the loo, I don't suppose the crew particularly enjoyed using it but for a 12 hour plus round trip to reach the Tirpitz I imagine nobody wanted to "hold it" ! I've no idea if other long range heavy bombers carried toilets... I think you should foil one for your B29

I've seen a few people talk about dissolved sprue and i'm intrigued. I can't see how it would be easy to apply however?
I glued the starboard chute today. Lessons learned from the first meant that I used superglue to spot fix it and then used a few spots of regular cement to help bond the plastic together. Hopefully they'll remain fixed.

In other news :

Paul,
More nice details! I hadn't expected a bed. And I imagine any toilet would have been welcome. All of that heavy Yorkshire Pudding and whatnot? Except for the ground crew guy that had to clean it....lol

Once your Sprue has dissolved, it will slowly dry and thicken even with your lid tightly closed. That's when it gets to that stringy, difficult-to-apply stage. Add a little more glue, and give it a stir and you get away from that stringy stage. I apply it with a toothpick, and keep it stored in and old Tamiya paint bottle.

I really like it for wing and fuselage seams. Often, once you squeeze your parts together clamping and taping isn't required. Since I started using it I haven't had a seam pop while sanding or the other rigours we put models through.

It does take longer to completely cure, especially if it doesn't have exposure to air. Other than that and the occasional trapped air bubble, it doesn't have many bad vices.

Gaz

Thanks again Gaz, as far as the bed goes, I believe it was rarely used as a "rest" bed but was useful for casualties. Updates are coming thick and fast again this week

The area between the wing spars has been a lot of fun to work on! I think having all the scratch built components clustered together really brings the Lanc to life.
I had wondered about leaving out the bed and putting the supplemental mosquito fuel tank in here (for anyone not following the gist of the build, this is an extra tank that was added to give the Lancaster additional range to reach the Tirpitz).
It would seem to me to make sense that it was positioned here for two reasons :
The fuel system merges in this area at the front wing spar and it seems reasonable that a jury-rigged tank would tap into that.
Secondly, this area is nearest the centre of gravity of the aircraft and again it seems to me that that is where you would put additional weight.

However, in the interests of modelling fun, I'm going to put it behind the rear spar somewhere.... If someone can prove me otherwise I'd love to hear more about this rather unusual modification. In fact if anyone has information or images of the kind of tank that may have been used I'd love to know that too.

Paul,
It's nice to see all of that detail come toghether in that space. You're right, it really does bring it to life.

Gaz

Awesome progress really. I'm still laboring away in the 17 nose but will have some new posts up in the next few days.

Thank you guys, I've been lucky to get a good bit of spare time this week.
It's like we're not moving house in two weeks !

I've been looking into markings and such today as I recall reading some time ago that Tamiya's wing roundels are too small.
I had no idea there was such a variety of RAF roundel types used over time... and sizes for that matter too.

Well, the time has come ladies and gents...
We move house in a week and it was time to pack up the hobby bench.

As I began the Lanc in February, here's how she stands at a little over the halfway mark of the year long campaign build.



Looks more like a Lancaster than the original box full of sprues so I suppose we're heading in the right direction.
See you all on the other side in a couple of weeks !

Paul,
This is a cut and paste of my reply to your tank request on my Mossie build. Hope it's what you're looking for.

Here's 4 pictures of the bomb bay twin tanks. The 1st one is from a build of the Tamiya 1/48 scale kit. The next 3 are from the real deal. All three are from the same restoration. Odd that the tank on the right is darker in color, and well worn, but the one on the left of restoration looks brand new, and a much lighter shade.

The paint color leds me to believe that the tanks were made of Bakelite.

Paul,
I've been following your build posts but just forgot to post.

Your continued detailing is just amazing. 1st the ammo boxes, then the ammo shutes. The bed and the "toilet".

The Lancaster really looks good in that last picture. Impressive to say the least.

Now for the Sad news. I still remember moving into our house 35 years ago. My life changed forever. From apartments to a Condo, and finally a home of our own. It was just one year old, but I had no idea the amount of time, effort, and money it would take to keep it up to my Wife's expectations and standards. It literally became my only hobby. Hopefully, with todays more modern and efficient methods you will have a lot more spare time then I did to model, and the funds to do so.

Ok, so it wasn't that bad. Actually it was quite the opposite. I wouldn't have traded having our own home for anything else. A hurricane put a tree right through the garage roof once, and we lost it in a electrical fire. Had it rebuilt even better, and we made every upgrade we both wanted then. We're still living in our home, but the time is coming to think about selling and moving into a retirement community as we're not exactly getting any younger.

Joel

Thanks Joel, those images are really helpful. I'll do a little research and see if i can figure out rough dimensions.
I'd really like to see them from' above' too as thats how they will look in the Lanc.
Funny how such an unexpected detail has thrown up problems !

Also we're very much looking forward to our new place! In our forties now and this is our stage of moving from rented homes to very own space.
I hear you regarding shrinking disposable income!

Hi, just wanted to correct you on some information, the Lancaster you refer to as Tony Ivesons is incorrect, it was actually F for Fox ME554 And the nose are was of captain Reilly-foul a wicked squire- type bloke with a soft hat, a moustache and a monocle, he had a servant called Jake, he wore a horizontal striped jersey. The only other Lancaster Tony flew was M-for Mike NG-181 which he flew on 12th January 1945, I know this because my great uncle was Leslie Smith who is referenced in the chapter The Bergen Incident page 229 onwards, my great uncle is mentioned on page 232. Tony was his pilot, I had the pleasure of meeting him at the 70th anniversary of the Dams Raids in Lincoln, sadly he passed away later that year.

Hi David, thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment. I really appreciate it

I suspect you've spotted images of other Lancs in the start of the blog and jumped to a conclusion as we agree on all the points you mention :
This model is representing ME554 and I'm working on producing nose art of Reilly-foul and his servant (actually "Eric" )


However, it's fascinating that you are related to one of the crew of this particular aircraft. The name of Sgt Leslie Smith is well known to me as he was (I believe) the mid-upper gunner in Tony's crew and was one of the three crew that bailed out in the mission that earned Tony his DFC.

In a strange quirk of fate though, he didn't fly the third mission against the Tirpitz which is the particular incarnation of the heavily modified ME554 I'm depicting.
One of the main modifications was the removal of the mid upper turret and of course your Great Uncle's seat !

I can't recall if there was any mention of what happened to him after bailing out over enemy territory? Can you elaborate on his story ?

It's been a month in the making but lets get this Lanc movin' again !

The house move gone smoothly and I've installed myself in a temporary man cave at one end of the lounge until we can look at a more permanent solution to smelly paint thinners and plastic dust covering the furniture.

These intervening weeks have given me plenty of time to mull over the next big hurdles that this project has thrown in our way : namely this elusive extra fuel tank and the bulged bomb bay doors.

I've been able to come up with no definitive research on the extra fuel capacity question so I'm going with hunches and guesswork. Joel has given us some great images to work with above and he's kindly sent me dimensions taken from his own excellent Mosquito build ( http://aeroscale.kitmaker.net/forums/249398 ) so I can at least get the scale of the thing correct.
More to come on this later.....

Now the bulged bomb bay doors -

There seems to be a huge maze of information on these and very little definitive fact.
The majority of photos show "bulged" doors on a different Mk where they are faired into an FN-64 ventral turret like so :


This is not what we are after though. Luckily some more searching turned up this image of a Tallboy loaded Lanc:


And the 617 squadron historian (thanks to "M" for that point of contact!) kindly supplied this image of a 9 Sqdn Lanc with bulged doors :


Time to break out the tools again !

Paul,
Welcome back. IICR how I negotiated the rights to my own model/computer room, I'll let you know, but it's been so long that I really don't remember other then periodically upgrading to the state of the art tv for her to watch in the Den.

Looking forward to how you go about solving that bulge Bombay door issue, and the extra gas tank issue.

Joel

Thanks Joel. I'm actually very lucky in that the "other half" is extremely supportive of my hobbies.

I'm really eager to get this build moving forward at pace again. Its rather easy to lose focus in a year long campaign !

As far as the bomb bay door solution? It's low tech and flying by the seat of one's pants !

Paul,
It's been awhile! Glad to see you back!

Still watching with interest.



Gaz

Hi Gaz, it's good to be back !

Further progress this week on the bomb doors and fuel tank:





Famous last words indeed !
I've found nothing but anecdotal mention of this range-increasing fuel tank that mechanics must have been "borrowed" from the squadron's small Mosquito fleet.
It's a unique detail in this aircraft's history that I felt I couldn't omit. I don't think I'll ever be happy with the accuracy of it but we do our best !

Tank looks good! Metal straps are definitely a plus. I don't imagine any could argue with you bout it.

Nice work, Paul.

Gaz

Thanks Gaz
A couple of small details perhaps to add life and then it's off to the paint shop.