Bridlington & Wolds Scale Model Club Forum
Models => Modelling Projects => Topic started by: cph64 on March 13, 2023, 12:02:10 PM
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The night of May 16th/17th this year marks the 80th Anniversary of 617 Squadron's attack on the Mohne, Eder and Sorpe Dams and as I had the Revell kit of the Lancaster B.III 'Dambuster' in my stash, courtesy of our eldest son, I thought it was time to build it. This is the 2009 release with new parts superceding the initial 2007 release and has 224 pieces, some of which aren't used, spread over nine sprues and a clear sprue. The twelve page instruction booklet has 65 build stages and the painting/marking instructions are for 3 aircraft: AJ-G, Wg.Cdr. Gibson's a/c, whose mine exploded short whilst attacking the Mohne, AJ-P, Flt,Sgt. Martin's a/c, whose mine missed the same dam and AJ-F, Flt.Sgt, Brown's a/c, whose mine hit and exploded and cracked the Sorpe Dam but failed to breach it as this was of an earthen construction unlike the steel and concrete of the Mohne and Sorpe. It will be this last a/c that I'm modelling. The squadron code AJ derives from Gibson's father Alexander James' initials.
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Obviously a start to a bomber fleet with the Wellington.
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Looking forward to seeing this one progress.
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Senior moment in the post it should read that the Mohne and Eder were concrete and steel, doh!!!!!!!
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Isn't age a wonderful thing......
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As usual work started with the cockpit. The control console, navigator's and radio equipment plus those moulded on the fuselage sides were painted with a mix of Vallejo and Tamiya colours. There are decals for the console and radio but that would have meant removing the raised detail so I decided to paint. There are two options for the pilot's seat one with and the other without the head armour, online referencing said the armoured plate could be folded down, hence the two options. I went with it up. There are three holes in the back of the seat for some reason which required filling. The forward fuselage and fittings were painted Vallejo Panzer Grey as a black would be too dark and not show up the black instruments, with the rest Tamiya Cockpit Green. Once everything had set and dried the wing spar was added to the floor, which is the roof of the bomb bay, and the maps from the Airfix Dambuster decal set were added to the navigator's table.
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Looking nice.
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Hi Chris,
I think the maps are upside down, or was it flown by an Australian Crew?
Only joking........ :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
It's coming along nicely.
Kevin
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Nice progress Chris.
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Looking good Chris
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The maps are the right way up if you're sat at the table Kev. Time for a trip to Specsavers methinks, lol!!!
I was going to Glue and Glaze the fuselage windows but decided to use the kit transparencies and use Maskol instead so they were fixed in place before closing up the fuselage. The tail spar made this more difficult than it should have been but I got there, The blanking plates for the removed turrets were then added. The Merlin engines were painted and built ready for putting into the nacelles but the instructions weren't clear as to how the mounts fitted and I got it wrong so they everything match up with the hole for the propellers. As such I took the decision to remove the engines and mounts, once the nacelles are closed up and the flame dampers are fitted you can't see them anyway!! When the wheel well nacelles were fitted to the wings gaps were seen but I was prepared for this as an online article mentioned it so filler was used.
In his 2003 Scale Aircraft Modelling article on adding detail to the Airfix Dambuster Lancaster Paul Lucas mentions that the inside of the bomb bay should have a semi-circular roof, Revell have this as flat whereas Airfix, Hong Kong Models and Wingnut Wings have the original bomb bay roof showing there. I decided to remove the centre section, shown marked on the photo, and fit the other parts accordingly.
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Another labour of love Chris.
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Coming along nicely Chris.
Bob c
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The fuselage has been joined but the seams took a lot of work to get to where I was happy with them, although there is still a 'ghost' seam in one place that refuses to be fettled. As with the Wellington the major parts lent themselves to being painted modular. First up Vallejo Air Dark Earth was applied and once cured it was masked using a combination of Blue Tack sausages and Vallejo Masking fluid, experience has taught me the best way to remove this is by rubbing with a damp finger. When this had cured all the upper surfaces were masked to some degree before Tamiya NATO Black was sprayed on the undersurfaces and fuselage sides. After a couple of days the masking was removed and some touch ups were made.
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Progress Chris.
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THe undercarriage has been fitted to the wings whilst they were off to make things easier. Like the fragile parts on the Heinkel He 111 by Airfix Revell tell you to fit the finer parts with the central sprue still attached. After leaving these overnight to set the sprue was removed and the parts delicately cleaned up. There are two further arms to then be fitted underneath these components. This was somewhat fiddly and I found that they didn't quite fit as required being slightly short. As they're up inside the nacelle I can live with this. Once everything had set the wheels were fitted with the centres being Humbrol Satin Black and the tyres Tamiya Rubber Black dry brushed with German Grey. The tailwheel leg has a long arm which goes up to meet the rear elevators spar. I surmise this is for added strength but then why is the tip round and not level?. The tailwheel was painted as per the main ones. Again everything was left to cure before the tailplanes were added. Some sanding and cutting was required to get the starboard one to sit correctly and some minor fettling will need to be done. The wings were then added so I could get a feel of how things were going overall and to check for any cleaning or touch ups to be done before applying Klear for the decals.
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Getting there.
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Coming along nicely.
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Plodding on Chris - looking good.
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The undercarriage was fitted and this consists of some fiddly parts and you have to ensure everything sits correctly. With the wings and tailplanes fitted it was time to move on to the cockpit glazing, Initially I tried to mask this using Maskol but as some of the panes are small I opted for the Eduard set, disappointingly some of these are oversize and those for the rear turret main glazing don't have the lower cutouts for the framing. As usual Klear was applied before the decals were applied. It could have been me but some of the wing walkway ones seemed oversize and had to be trimmed. Despite applying Micro Set before applying them some of them still silvered and needed work to get something like. The main culprits were the fuselage codes so I carefully cut around them and the roundel with a sharp Stanley blade. An online builder said he had the same problems with the Airfix kit!! The propellers, upkeep mine and brackets were fitted before Satin varnish was applpied. All the fiddly parts like the aileron actuators and mass balances were then fitted. Bad move. I should have left these off as an actuator disappeared whilst removing the masking only to be followed by a rudder mass balance as I took the plane to be photoed. I had thought about using superglue for these small parts so another lesson learned. Lastly the turrets and fairings were fitted.
Online reviews of the kit say there are two major faults, the undercarriage is too short and the outer wing dihedral isn't steep enough. Others are, there is no DF loop for the cockpit, the glazing of which is a poor fit, and the instructions have you fit the H2S box (the one on the stick) in the cockpit. Provisioning Lancasters didn't have this fitted. It looks like a Lancaster so that's all that matters to me.
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Really like the last picture, very atmospheric.
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Taken from a great angle - makes the photo look even more life like
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Yes, I thought at first it was the real thing. Great model Chris.
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Looks pretty good to me. Love the low angle shot.
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Thanks everyone (again,lol!!!)