Hi all!

I´m restarting my "Bombs Away" tread as I forgot to name the earlier tread properly .
Perhaps Jean-Luc or Rowan can do some "pc-magic" and get It together!

Here´s the link to the earlier tread;

https://aeroscale.kitmaker.net/forums/80844&page=2

Now It´s time for a update!
What have happened since last time?

Both wings are fully assembled, all seams filled and sanded, next step will be the paint booth.

I have been struggling with the fuselage!

First, my plan was just to paint over those small windows.
Simple plan, but it did´nt work as the fit of the windows were lousy and there was sinkmarks in EVERY window!

Get out the filler, fill and sand!





In the end I got a more accurate apperance as this Lanc never had any of those small windows.
But I lost a lot of the surface detail on the fuselage, wich i tried to
avoid!

Well, some times you loose, some times you win.

I found out that Eduard recently released a set of "Magic-masks" to the Lanc.
As I hate masking canopies It was not long before I had a set on the table.



There´s three(!) larger sheets and one half-sheet of masks in this set, and YES you get masks for ALL Lancaster versions Tamiya have released!

I started masking, and it was a joy to use these masks!

Perfect fit and very easy to apply and not too sticky, this is how paint-masks should work!



Not before long the fuselage will hit the paint booth too.

Due to the sieze of this aircraft and the camouflage demarcation borders, I will paint wings, tailplanes and fuselage seperatly.
A lot easier to handle and far less masking to do!

No chance I can get her in the booth any other way!

Cheers!

Stefan E

Hi all!

A small update on my Lanc.

I have painted the camouflage pattern with Dark Earth and Dark Green.
I airbrushed the pattern freehand as I wanted a bit softer edges between colors.
In my references I have seen the cammo with everything from very hard edges to very soft, my attempt is a middle way.



Here´s all parts laid out on the floor;



Fuselage Is masked up for the "Night" (black) paint.



Soon It will be time to assemble this large aircraft, Ouch....

Cheers!

Stefan E

Looking great Stefan!

Hi Stefan!

Looks very good so far! Do you plan to pre or post shade the underside black?

Jean-Luc

Excellent workmanship so far.

I converted the currant Tamiya TOY Grand Slam version into the B I/III configuration a couple of years agowhich was done the same way.

Hi all and Thanks for the kind words!

Jean-Luc;

I have no plan of what to do, except "playing around" with several different shades of black.
How do you pre-shade a black surface?

I won´t use black straight from the bottle, I plan to mix the black with a drop of flesh/blue/brown and try to get some life in the surface.

There will be some exhaust staining and dust too.

Plan to paint in the next few days.

Cheers!

Stefan E

Hi All!

Tonight I married the fuselage, wings and tail on the Lanc!

But first some pics when I had the Night sprayed on, masking worked perfectly!





This aircraft Is big!





The bombbay with the interior was also installed after I attatched the wings.
Now she´s drying and tomorrow I will install the landing gears.

Comments welcomed as always!

Cheers!

Stefan E

Hi all!

Here´s next update on the Lanc.

With a kit of this age, fit is sometimes troublesome.
But the wings interlocked with each other and clamped the fuselage between them perfectly.
Leaving the bombbay off ment I could glue the wings from the inside and use very little on the outside join.

On the topside the wings fitted without any gaps, just perfect!
I had some small gaps on the underside, but when i popped in the bombbay, the gaps dissappeared and the seam was very good.

No filler nor sanding was needed, Phew!

Now all small parts and sub-assemblies are piling up on my workbench!
Props masked and painted;



The bombload with the 4000lbs "cookie" I robbed from a Airfix Mosquito kit, as the Tamiya Cookie is grossly undersiezed.



All three turrets are masked and ready for some paint.
Note that I have cut off the barrells, I will replace them with new resin ones from Quickboost.



If you are like me and HATES masking, then I can recommend Eduards new Yellow tape masks.
Fits perfectly, easy to use and gives a perfect result, I will use these whenever I can from now on!

Building a kit in this "modular" way means that final assembly is very much like putting a "Kinder-Egg" toy together, few parts, fast and easy.

Now it was time to get the landing gears in the wings, and that was easier said then done!

NEVER, NEVER; EVER DO IT THIS WAY!

I had to use a lot of foul language and a LOT of brute force !

I could get the gears in place and with a lot of help from the willing modelling gods, they survived the abuse unhurt, because they are VERY sturdy assemblies.

Yes, painting was a lot easier, but I wouldn´t do this again as the risk of breaking or damaging the gears are very great.

Once in place, the fit was perfect and they snapped into place without any need of glue.



Finally the fin tailplates(?) was glued into place.



Now she´s looking like a beautiful Lancaster!

Comments welcomed as usual!
Very few comments so far, am I too boring, boring subject or just a bad build?

Anyway, next update coming soon!

Cheers!

Stefan E

Hi Stefan!

Your work is too good, so there's nothing to say!

But the main reason why you don't get as many replies is probably because the "Bombs Away" Campaign is... how can I say... not very active at the moment. The Campaign Leader disapeared so there is unfortunately nobody to animate this Group Build. Usually, two weeks before a Campaign's end date, there are much more conversation between the participants.
That's why I hope that we can find Campaign Leaders who are serious and reliable for the 2007 Group Builds. This would prevent us from having people building excellent and spectacular looking models like you do, and getting almost no feedback!

Anyway, keep up the good work on your Lanc Stefan!

Jean-Luc

Hi Jean-Luc!

No campaign leader?
Well, that will explain why It´s so quite at the moment!
Only other "bomber" tread I have seen so far have been Rowan´s Halifax build.
Where are all the other guys?

Will there be any ribbons/awards?

Not that It will change anything, I have a great time building this kite anyway as It´s my favourite big bomber from WWII.

But, we are 54 people who will be left "hanging in the air"!

Can we find anyone who can finish this campaign for us?
Maybe extend the time limit, or (a fast) re-run of the Campaign counting all models built until now?

I´m not so good at computers (as You know :-) ) and my time Is quite limited , so I´m very sorry that I can´t help you.
If I only could, I would!

I fully agree with the statements You did about Campaign leaders in a another tread.
It´s a real commitment and surley takes a lot of work.


I can only imagine what amount of work It takes from you and the other staff here!
You are all great guys, working your butts off to get everything organized, working and running here!
This is clearly the best modelling site I have found, and I consider It a "home" on the net by now!

I wish You and all the great People here on Aeroscale/Armorama a really Happy Christmas with many kits in the stockings or under the Christmas tree!

Cheers!

Stefan E

Hi Stefan,

Well, you're certainly not boring neither is it a bad build, far from it! I sneak in through the kitchen door and hoover over your shoulder everytime that I see that it's a new message here. Sorry for not leaving any comments as often as I should (hangs head in shame). Keep up the excellent work matey, looking great the Lancs and I look forward to see it finished..... Kudos to you!

Your Lanc is looking good so far, I believe the under carriage legs on the Lanc were black.

Are you doing the kit decal option as the boxart ? or something different ?

Here is a wartime pic of the kit boxart during her 466 Sqn RAAF service days.



Look forward to seeing this bird completed.

Janne, du är alltid välkommen att kika över min axel!





Hi Rob!

Thanks for that pic, very nice shot of PO-S beeing rearmed.

I started with the Grand Slam kit but wanted to do a "normal" Lanc, so I had to find decals and some parts from other sources.

Techmod (from Poland) have some very nice sheets with aircrafts from the 300th sqn. (Moldovian), so my kite will be BH-B.
This Is a late war Lancaster BI stationed at Faldingsworth 1944-45.

From what I have found in my references, the landing gear and wheel hubs could be painted either black or aluminium.
I haven´t been able to find any pics of "my" kite so It´s hard to tell.
I choosed Alu. as It simply gives a little more color to the otherwise black underside.

I´m decalling her right now, so pics will be posted as soon as she´s done!

Thanks for the nice words to everybody!

The reason for my question was that I felt a bit lonley here!
I feel better now, knowing there´s someone out there who follows the build.
You know, I´m not writing this to please myself (even If it´s great fun!), but to share the experience with you, and to get some feedback on what I do.

Cheers to all great friends here!

Stefan E

hi stefan! i am also building a kit for this bombs away campaign, however at the moment i am without a camera because my last one died on me, so my posts have been text only. i'm building an airfix JU88 and i'm at the painting stage. i'm hoping to get a camera around xmas time so i might squeeze in a last minute photo update. so you're not alone but circumstances are making it difficult for me to put in proper updates.
rest assured, your build thread is neither boring or a bad build, it just seems this campaign has lost its way a little which ain't your fault

Tackar allra odmjukast polarn...
I have some Lancaster pics to show too......













What's next Stefan? Another Lanc?

Stefan,

Your model is an inspiration for me. I started my B-25 Mitchell earlier this year but have been gone for several months. Seeing your post has given me some drive to complete my bird! Keep up the good work!

Hi Stefan,

I've been watching this build with great interest. The last Lanc I built was the Airfix 1/72 "Dambuster". That was 32 years ago.

I might try this one sometime. It looks great so far!

Hi all!

Here´s my next, and last update on my Lancaster build!

After I added the tail finplates, It was time for a good clear coat.



I used Humbrol clearcoat to get a nice, glossy surface for the decals.

Last time I masked all the turrets, now I had them painted satin black (H85).
When dry I removed the masks, wich had worked perfectly.






The decals from Techmod went on fine, but some silvered even If the surface was very glossy!





Nice noseart on this Lanc;



Even the cookie got a decal;



A good coat of Humbrol Mattcoat sealed everything in and gave a nice, not really dead flat, but a slightly satin surface.



From here everything went really fast, demasking, adding all small parts, bombs, bomb bay doors, landing gear doors, adding the turrets and arial wires.

After some small touch-ups here and there I could call It completed!























Well, this was some of the pics of this build, quite a lot but just a fraction of what I have taken.
If anyone Is interested to see more pics, please use this link;

http://www.mypix.se/ShowFriend.asp?AID=JMMMRMLMLSE


Thanks to all for Your support during the build!
It has been a very enjoyable build and I had fun all (well, most) of the time.

Will I build another Lanc?
Sure, now I know this kit and I have learnt a lot about Lancasters during this time.

Now It´s only one thing left to say;

BOMBS AWAY - MISSION COMPLETED

Cheers!

Stefan E

Great looking lassie Stefan, awesome! Looking forward to see more from you in the near future....

Hi Stefan!

Fantastic model and fantastic build! Thanks for sharing it with us!

Another Lanc? Wow, That's what I call motivation! :-)

Jean-luc

Great build!! Impressed! Thanks for sharing.

Hope you will find interest in something for the upcoming campaigns as well.

Hi Stefan:

Your Lancaster looks fantastic. Very nice build and I guess one with a lot of job. How big is the kit ? Congratulations

Carlos

Hi!

Thanks Carlos, glad you liked her!

Yes, this was a very big kit!

Span about 645mm (31m) and length 437mm (21m), I had to get a new cabinet for the Lanc!

I started building on the Lancaster 060801, and I finished it 061230.
Four months from start to finish, that´s not much more time then I normally can spend on a fighter build.
The kit was actually very easy to build, but the parts were very large!
Only major fit issue was the engine assemblies, as you can see in the tread.
Besides this, everything fitted very good, even If the kit isn´t up to the standard of today!
Sure, It was a lot of job, but It was a fun and rewarding build.
This kit Is really impressive when built and I´m very happy with her!

Cheers!

Stefan E

Excellent job Stefan
Very well done!

Nige

Stefan,

All I can say is WOW! Thanks for posting.