1944 Group Build

Rigidrider

I do like the old Lancaster! Looking forward to more pics! By the by... I call them Photo Blunder... real quality site... when it works that is!(LOL)

Doug, really looking good there.

I do like the old Lancaster! Looking forward to more pics! By the by... I call them Photo Blunder... real quality site... when it works that is!(LOL)

That's nice work Rob.

Very nice Rob

To heck with it, started up a new Photobucket while I wait. Anyway, as previously mentioned I got underway on the big Lanc on the weekend and progressed through the first couple pages. BIG instruction book. I decided to do the A model as it's a RCAF bird. I really wanted to do that rear facing belly gun on the RAF version, but, I really wanted to pay tribute to my country history. Anyway, here's the boxtop:

Most of you know, I'm sure, these usually start off with the bomb bay as the core construction prior to fusing the fuselage halfes. My poor lighting, as usual, cannot show the black contour washes and very light steel drybrush to just bring up some high and lows (had to hand-write in the Humbrol colours on the instructions ):

Right side up showing cockpit installed with pilot seat, elevated base and instrument panel. Unlike the Revell version I recently completed, Airfix provides these spars to extend out and start the framing for the wheel wells. Very nice feature compared to Revell (I may throw out a few side by side comparasins as the memory is fresh).

A bit of a closeup of the instrumentation. Decal, of course, but, it's sharp and well defined with some colour, which, is a plus. The downside: NOT ever going to be visible again once the greenhouse is on (just a blurry splotch through the thick plastic canopy.

Here's the fuselage half, masked with bare metal foil. PROBLEM: the ceiling 'port-holes' are not cut out like on the Revell version. Don't know how I'm going to get a piece of round clear plastic in to fill these windows? Any ideas? Does that liquid window making stuff really work? The Revell version had these cut out and a clear plastic round window for each window.

The whole assembly dry fit into the left fuselage. All windows masked with bare metal foil. The nav and radio table is installed with maps on the table top. Cute, but, again, won't be well seen again. I left the bomb site unpainted as I wanted to look at references to see what sort of colours: black. Oh well, in 1/72, there's really not much to see, but, as it will be visible through the front bubble, I thought a bit more would have made it pop. Will lightly drybrush it to try to give a bit of depth. Added bare metal foil harness as the harness was fixed to the pilot whom I will not use.

That's it for now. Interesting that you guys were talking about colour match earlier in this thread. I have limited access to a LHS, so, I gotta make due. Thus, my Interior Green is not out of the bottle. A bit of Tamiya dark green darkened slightly. The interior, as you can see above, is not stark black. I used dark iron, darkened slightly, to offer a contrast to the black insrtumentation and overall black finish. So, on the bench is the right fuselage half which I need to mask and paint the interior. More to follow. Thanks for lookin' thus far.

Hey Rob, I do hope you get the Photobucket issue resolved because I'm dying to see some pics of your Lancaster.

Well, I am ready to start posting progress pics of my Airfix 1:72 Lancaster B.II, but, of course, I can't get into Photobucket!!! Funny, just used it last week, and this week, can't log in. Working on the problem. Anyway, got the bomb bay, side spars, cockpit and radio operator station completed and mounted in the left side fuselage (pretty much page 1 and 2 in the 21 page instruction book).

Thank you guys... Yeah having served time in the Pacific ,The Philippines and Okinawa in 1971 and 72 as a Fleet Marine, Ive seen the effects of salt and sand on finishes, and during that time (WWII) it had to be a thousand times worse. I've been told by some WWII vets that it was (Other then the gross disrespect from the old line chief) much like the show BaBa Blacksheep, as far as maintainence went. You had to beg borrow and yes... "steal" at times to keep your guys flying. From what I;ve read on this squadron about the only time these birds were not running was during maintainance periods, sometimes having 2 pilots per aircraft.

Doug at first I thought there may have been a lot of scratching and chipping, but after seeing it painted up, it looks like its been through an island war in the Pacific. Those line chiefs just tried to keep them running at all costs. Nice job.

Ooooh, It's getting better there Doug buddy.

More later... Thanks!

DougJust a little more for the moment. Started to put decals on... They too will have to be aged and weathered...

Mike: I think your cockpit looks really good. The color is fine. I, like others, like to get as close as I can to any given color. But. I just don't get myself to wadded up about it as I have to remember that I am modeling for myself. Take the cockpit green for instance. Color could vary between the factories in which it was assembled.So, if I have some thing that is remotely close I'll run with it. Keep it coming you're doing great.

Doug: You indeed have yourself one hammered Bentwing there. It appears that your technique worked out quite well. Thanks for sharing that.

Mike: nice start on that cockpit.  Looks like Mustang green to me.

Rider: now THAT is a war plane that's seen some service!  Looking forward to more updates.

You know... just about every time I dfecide on a color, I find out I,ve either made the wrong choice or another example will turn up. Yes I do try to be as acurate as I can, but there comes a time when you just have to choose and build. I just research and build best as I am able. Your start is looking fine.

Yeah these birdies were often left in theater when the units shifted and were maintained and flown by several different squadrons. They rarely left an area unless withdrawn completely. They did not live an easy life.

Doug

Doug,

Thanks for the encouragement.  The biggest thing holding me back was all the discussions between the excellent builders on here regarding the exactly correct shade for various builds. I finally realized they all have much more experience (and I assume a much larger collection of paints) and I needed to let go and JUST DO IT.  (Hopefully any other newbies with the same problem do the same)

Great job on your paint/weathering.  It looks like that bird has seen quite a bit of action!

OK guys... some more progress...

Guys Im sorry, but I got so wrapped up in the paint that I forgot to take step by step pictures... Before I knew it I had the paint on and was weathering. Any way, After the silver base coat , I sprayed an extra thin coat of MM Dark sea blue. Then I took the left over mix and put several drops of Tamiya Sky grey and some MM flat finish , mixed well and applied another light coat to the previous blue.

As soon as I could safely handle (approx 30 min) I began scratching and scuffing, then lightly buffing the paint away with a light scotch brite cloth, in the usual wear areas until the silver underneath began to show through. I had read that the paint on these craft was fairly rugged and resisted chipping, (although it did chip) but the salt, sand and ground up coral and pumice of the Pacific islands played hell on the finishes.I have it glossed now, and will start applying decals next. Thanks...

Doug

Hey mike... Looking good! Yeah I know what you mean, I'll go over colors, choose, use, then see something that contridicts or makes me doubt my choice. Its looking right to me brother!

Doug

Funny story: After much-too-much stressing over using accurate paint colors, I finally told myself to stop it.  I'd get as close as I could and just get a @$&* model built.  So after many weeks of stressing about it, I see in my pictures that my camera (well...me) is unable to accurately reproduce the colors I used anyway!

So, anyway here's my cockpit pics.  The green is quite a few shades darker than it appears.  There seems to be a ton of discussion on what color green to paint the Mustang interior.  So, I took the advice of one guy (can't remember who or even which site) and mixed 10 parts Model Master Green Zinc Chromate with 1 part Testors Flat Black.

And I took my first stab at weathering.  I painted the floor Testors Gloss Wood and then went sloppily over the top with Flat Black.  I then carefully scrapped away a little more right where the pilots feet would be.  I think it turned out OK.  Something I'll have to work on.

The office:

Fuselage halve assembled:

Yeah, normal gloss it is. It's too late to spray some aqua gloss on top without softening all the surface details though, so I'm really stuck with what I got right now.

Thanks Clemens.

Are you using the regular Alclad gloss?  If you are really stuck, you could always try using the Aqua Gloss... no issues with oils or associated thinners.

Amazing work, Blue! I didn't get to applying a wash yet (still fighting those damn AM decals), but I'll start messing around with it tomorrow. I still have to think of a way to add some streaking to my bird that doesn't rely on my beloved oil paints. I can't use oils because they'd jsut eat right through the alclad gloss...

Thanks again for the supportive comments.

Joe, that is the Dark Dirt Flory wash, and yes, it does show up very nicely against that white paint!  I hadn't thought about a lighter wash on the drab; I am waiting to see how everything looks under a matte coat before reacting.

Blue

Wow Big Blue, that is amazing!  Great work!

Blue, wow, that's is looking awesome. Can't wait to see this finished.

jibber

Thank you all, this was a lot of fun. Love the 251's.

Well, there's plenty more versions to choose from. That's a great job, thanks for those close up's. I do like the result you have got on the light.

Big Blue, Boy, your talents are turning out one amazing "Jug". Nice. Really really nice. I have to say that your panel wash on the cowling is among some of the sharpest and crisp I've seen. Is that done with the Flory washes? As far as a wash on the darker OD, you may want to try a a medium to light gray. The decaling looks real sharp also.

Blue thanks, I have to say again that the tones you employ are awesome. You see a lot here and I don't build many aircraft, but the green shade and the underbelly blue is right out of WWII. You do a great job. Love the decal work too.

Wow, nice job Jibber!

I've made some progress: 2 coats of Aqua Gloss, and the non-stencil decals are on.  The Barracuda decals went on beautifully, with minimal fuss.  Here are a few quick pics:

The olive drab looks darker, greener and more contrasty in these pictures than it does in person, and the glossy finish isn't helping.  The cowl and flaps are dry fit for the pictures.

I need to wash everything down a bit to clean it up, and give it another gloss coat or two to help blend the carrier film in a bit.  That will have to wait until I get the stencils laid down.

One slightly odd thing about the nose art is that the "Mortician's Delight" script is large enough that it just fits on the aircraft's nose, and in fact, the leading edge of the "M" is actually under the open cowl flaps.  Odd as this looks, it matches the artwork in Barracuda's marking guide.  Unfortunately, my only reference photo has that section blocked, but the placement of the scorecard and name plates seem to be correct.  If anyone has a decent shot that contradicts this, please let me know... although I'm not sure what I'd do about it now anyway.  Heck any reference photo is always welcome.

As you may be able to tell from the shot of the cowling, I have also tested out a couple of Flory washes for the panel lines.  Neither of my two usual washes, black and dark dirt, shows up particularly well against the green, but perhaps this will change with a matte clear coat.  

This picture also shows that I should have masked out a white circle to go under the nose art as the contrast between the olive drab & white stripe shows through.  I was smart enough to think about the issue and mask for the stars & bars on the fuselage, but didn't even think about the nose art.  One more lesson learned.

One last thing you can see in the photo of the underside is that I made the bold call of painting the metal arms that extend the lowered flaps a brass color.  I have no idea if this is accurate for wartime Thunderbolts, but I have a color reference photo showing this to be the case (page 25 of Walk-Around; I apologize for not scanning it.)

Thanks again to all of those who have contributed suggestions as well as those who have taken the time to share the positive comments.  Both are much appreciated.

Thank you all, this was a lot of fun. Love the 251's.