Lancaster Build Diary

Again, I need to apologise to everyone for the extremely long delay since the last build diary.  Here at the Archive we’ve been working to finish all of the material for the exhibition which will open in the New Year at the Chadwick Centre on Canwick Hill near Lincoln and that has been taking up the vast majority of our time.

 

Last time we discussed creating the decals of the nose art selected in the poll, and talked about finishing off the main fuselage prior to painting it. The last blog ended with a photograph of the model with the black paint on its underside.

In the last month work on the model has continued apace, starting with a base coat of brown paint to start creating the camouflage, before masking the model to add the green part of the colour scheme.

Which was duly added.

We also finalised the cockpit, adding the pilot’s seat, control column, trim controls and rudder pedals to the cockpit.

Before attaching the canopy.

At this stage, the model looked like this.

We then moved on to adding the bomb bay doors.

Which involved first, attaching the hinges to the model.

Before attaching the pins to a mount installed into the bomb bay.

Whilst the model was upside-down we took the opportunity to add the red line along the underside of the nose, and the red rectangle around the dinghy hatch.

We also took the opportunity to permanently extend the undercarriage, and attach the undercarriage bay covers.

Before righting the model for a final time (and taking a lot of photographs to commemorate the situation).

Next, we added most of the remaining small details to the model including the two fins on the nose, a pitot tube and small details on the control surfaces.

Before moving on to the decals which came in two groups; the decals which came with the model, and the decals which we had produced (with lots of spares).

Once we’d added the flashes to the vertical stabilisers it became possible to permanently attach the horizontal and vertical stabilisers to the model and to add the two sets of weights to each of the rudders.

That done, we continued adding the decals to the relevant sections of the fuselage.

You will be able to see white lines and colour changes in the black surrounding the decals in the photographs above.  These were painted over to hide the edges of the decals, and a couple of layers of varnish were added to finish off the model.

And, finally it was time to deliver the model the IBCC Digital Archive, where it will stay until we can find somewhere to keep it.

This is not the end of our work, we will be creating a diorama to place the model on over the next few weeks, and our progress will be covered on this blog, but the model aircraft itself is finished.

Here are two photographs of the main builders with the model, Robin Evans on the left, James Evans on the right.

Finally, as a reminder of how far this build has come, the model with the box it came in.

Sorry to all for the long wait since the last build diary.  Things have been a little hectic lately for us and work on the model has slowed a little as a result.  That said, the results of our poll are in, as you may have seen almost 50% of respondents chose ME812 “Fair Fighter’s Revenge”.

 

Last time we spoke about the build specifically we had just finished the last big sections of the model, the bomb bay doors, and assembled the turrets.

Since then we’ve been working on evening out the fuselage by filling in any gaps.

And adding small details like hatch covers.

Before priming the whole surface to expose any flaws and repeating the whole process until satisfied.

Finally, we moved on to masking the model in preparation for the application of the first coat of paint.

Which was applied in black to the lower part of the model.

Recently though, we have been focussing on the process of creating decals for the model.

The first step, once the poll had closed was to obtain pictures of “Fair Fighter’s Revenge” which we could use to recreate the nose art and operation talley.  We found the most useful pictures in Norman Franks’ “Ton Up Lancs” from which the two photographs below were scanned (pages 169 and 170).

The first step was to take the first image and to manipulate it to remove perspective as much as possible.  We also ended up inverting the colours in order to maximise visibility.

Having done that, the process of recreating the text became one of tracing over the text with colour and then removing any excess, leaving this as a final result (also shown with a plain black background for clarity).

Next, came the far more complex task of recreating the nose art, a woman bearing a fencing foil (not a riding crop as I mistakenly stated in the poll entry). We decided to build up the image in a series of layers, the first of which was the dress.

Then the body, which, it must be said will be around an inch tall on the model (so please forgive the extremely poor quality of the art).

Then the hair, which was built up out of three separate layers to try and make it look slightly more like hair than it did originally.

The foil, which being an inanimate object was one of the more simple parts of the whole process.

And the subject’s shoes which underwent almost a dozen revisions on their own.

Finally, we were able to build up the entire image.

The next task was recreating the operation tally, which was made more complicated by the fact that no two squadrons seem to have used the same style for their tally marks.

To make the operation tally we started by drawing a bomb (shown here with a black background for clarity).

Before copying the bomb nine times to create a line.

Then copying the line five times to create a block.

And then copying the block twice (before deleting the majority of the second copy) to create the full tally of 104 operations.

In addition to the bombs themselves, around 45 of the markers have an additional detail above the bomb, which it transpired was a sun or a star, which denoted that the operation had been flown in daylight (according to “Ton Up Lancs”).  We therefore created a sun symbol to be used.

Before copying it into all of the relevant positions.

We obtained the colour for the bombs (and the roundels for the next section) from the existing decals which came with the model (to finish it as S for Sugar R5868).

Next, we used a downloaded font to recreate the Squadron code and aircraft serial number.

We then assembled all of the components of the decals onto a single sheet.  Sizing them correctly in the process.

Before finally adding a few spares.

Bringing us to a close for this week.

For next time we hope to have the painting done and the decals affixed.

Hello again to all who are reading this.  As we approach the end of the build we’ve been thinking on all the suggestions that have been given to us over the last few weeks.  Later this week or early next week we will be putting up a poll of a short-list selected by the IBCC Digital Archive team from all the suggestions which were submitted to us for the decoration we should use.  At that point, the decision will be in your hands.

Last time we started on the nose and mid-upper turrets, finished off the rudders, the vertical stabilisers and added the skin panels to the nose section.

This time we worked on the mid-upper and rear turrets, the bomb-bay doors and started some work on the canopy.  Here are the parts which came with the relevant issues.

The first thing we did was to assemble the model of a pilot so that we could use it to properly position the foot pedals and control column in the cockpit.

Next, we moved on to one of the major tasks of this diary entry, the construction of the two bomb-bay doors.

Starting with these parts.

First, we extracted all of the parts from their frames, and assembled the hinges.

Then, we assembled the basic frame of the doors.

Before adding the stringers.

Having done this we then sanded the frame into shape, before beginning to prepare the 72 separate metal panels which were cut from a sheet of metal a few weeks ago (18 shown here).

Each of the panels had to be filed at the edges to ensure a smooth fit with their neighbours and had to be curved (by rolling the pieces over the handle of a knife) to fit the frame.

For the interior panels, even more work was needed.

The interior panels form two curves allowing large bombs (like the 4000lb HC bomb or “Cookie”) to fit inside the bomb-bay.

This meant that first, the line where the panel crossed the bar along the length of the doors had to be drawn onto the panels, followed by bending the panel at that point, and finally curving the two sides into shape.

Then, after all the panels had been glued on, we had to add filler to close any gaps, before sanding the doors down.

That done, the bomb-bay doors were set aside to be painted.

We next moved on to adding masking tape to the clear plastic pieces which make up the turrets and the astrodome.

First, we added masking tape, and then (with a very sharp knife) slowly cut away all the excess to leave these.

These were then set aside to be painted.  Unfortunately, whilst removing the masking tape from the rear turret following painting, I must have had either some superglue or some paint thinner on my hand.  The result was that the plastic turned foggy almost immediately, and we are currently working on how to salvage the rear turret.

That having happened, we proceeded more carefully with assembling the mid-upper turret and the internal parts of the rear turret.

Below are all the parts worked on this week, including the last propeller and its spinner.

Whilst these were being worked on my father was assisting by attaching most of the remaining panels and using filler to close any gaps.  He was also attempting to solve the problem we encountered with the canopy (mentioned in last week’s interlude).

To that end, we decided that all the flat panels with cracks in should be removed and replaced with some plate styrene which we had available.  First, the damaged panels were removed.

Then, a piece of card was used to obtain the shape and size of the panels.

Finally, pieces of scrap metal were used to recreate the window frames.  The missing section is where the cockpit windows will be slid back, as they would be on the ground (we also intend to add a lower rail in that area).

Bringing us to our conclusion for this build diary.

Our hope is that the next build diary will be the last focussing on the Lancaster itself, and that the diary will cover attaching the last few details and painting the model.