Month: March 2017

Last week I covered the assembly of the aft most portions of the fuselage, and the mounting points for the mid-upper and rear turrets.

This week, I started (as ever) by unpacking this week’s set of parts.

The first step was to take the aluminium sheets at the left of the above photograph and trim them to fit the proper positions.

  

Next I used a thin marker and a ruler to mark out the rivet lines.

Once this was done I used a pinwheel and the same ruler to inscribe rivet lines into the metal.

Which had this result.

And once you turn the plate over:

I then set these aside to be painted later.

I then took these parts:

Plus a wooden dowel, and a short length of metal wire.

First I shortened the dowel to the required length, and assembled the pieces in the fret above to make a box like structure to fit around the base.  Then I assembled the whole structure, adding a thin metal sheet part way up the dowel.

I then added a piece of masking tape over the metal to protect it during painting.

I then set this piece aside for later.

The next issue focused on the Flares, and the flare-racks to be placed in the fuselage directly aft of the wings.

 

First I painted the flares black:

Before adding red paint to the tips, and to replicate the text on the sides.  I then secured them in groups to the flare racks, make sure to get the distance between the racks correct.

Before touching up the paintwork.

Lastly, I glued the racks into the fuselage section:

Following all of this I added stringers to the aft-most fuselage section:

Before starting on the construction of the starboard wing trailing edge.

This involved these parts, pretty similar to the same structure last week:

The main difference lies in the rectangular section at the right of the above image, which form the recess for the life raft to fit into as shown in this image:

Leading us to this week’s conclusion:

 

Next week I’ll be working on the leading edge of one of the wings and some more of the trailing edge completed this week.

Sorry everyone, for the missed week.  I finished the build diary, but never got around to actually uploading it.  With that in mind, this week I’ll upload two diary entries starting with last week’s.

Last week, I moved on from where the original owner of this kit had gotten to, starting with this:

This week I’ll be setting out on my own with parts 21 to 24.

The first step is to look at the parts provided for these instructions.

Looking at the instructions I see that parts 21 and 22 both focus on adding frames to the bomb bay of the model, so I’ll do both of those parts simultaneously.

First is taking all of the parts out of the sheet that they are cut into.

Then I attached them to a couple of pieces of masking tape so that the side attached to the model faces down.  Once this was accomplished, I spray-painted them all black.

The next stage was to take the short wooden batons seen at the far left of the unpainted image, and cut them to the proper length to fit between the frames of the cockpit section of the model.

Once this was done I attached the lengthways frames to the cockpit section.

Finally, I did the same with the other two sections of the bomb bay, and painted over any visible gaps in the paint work (seen here with the fuel tanks from last week in place).

Next I moved on to issue 23 which covers the construction of the next section of the fuselage.  All of the pieces from this issue are shown here:

Building it was relatively straight forward, the frames had to be cut from the sheet and glued together in sequence before using the wooden beams at the top of the image to strengthen the entire structure.

Issue 24 was much the same, using these parts:

In a very similar manner to construct the section of the fuselage holding the door in the Lancaster’s tail.

Leading to this week’s construction coming to a conclusion rather quickly.

 

I also have to mention that the replacement parts for the flight controls arrived just in time, and I also finished them off.

This week was slightly different, involving my first use of a pinwheel to mimic rivet marks, but more on that later.

The first step, as ever was laying out this week’s components:

And then unpackaging them:

As you can see, there are plenty of frame parts, a lot of stringers, and a few metal plates, two of which will be part of the floor in the main-spar section of the fuselage.

First was building the trailing edge of the starboard wing.  These are the parts:

Which were pretty strait forwards to assemble into this:

The next step was to add stringers to both the top and underside of the section, including a set of stringer pieces which had to be attached between the ribs as shown in this picture:

Next was preparing the two floor pieces for the main-spar section, first the metal plates were roughly positioned to check for overlap:

Next, I trimmed the pieces both along their edges, and at the end nearest the camera in this picture to allow the pieces to fit properly.  Then I used a pinwheel to mark out lines of rivets (unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo at this point). Before spraying them with primer, and then (once that had dried) cockpit green.

As you can see, I misjudged the trimming, as the two parts don’t actually meet in the middle.  Also, some of the rivet lines take a slightly odd path.  But this stage has been a useful learning experience as to how to use a pinwheel.

At the same time as I painted the floor plates, I also painted the wing trailing edge built above, first with cockpit green, and then, I masked over it and painted the interior of the spoilers black:

The next part of the procedure was to extend the aft-most section of fuselage built above up to the rear turret using these parts:

Which resulted in this:

This was then further extended to add the rear turret housing:

And a similar set of pieces were used to create the attachment for the mid-upper turret:

This concludes the assembly up to issue 28.  It currently looks like this:

 

Next week we’ll be making more flooring, adding a lot of stringers, and starting on the internal details for the aft fuselage.

 

 

Last week I spoke about how we received a Hachette Partworks 1:32 scale Lancaster model.  I also covered our efforts to repair some damage which had occurred prior to us receiving it.

This week I will be focussing on catching up to the instructions in issue 20, as the original owner had clearly intended to do things in a slightly different order to the plan given by the manufacturer.  As I mentioned last week, we’ll be keeping to the instructions for the most part (unless we decide on a modification for the model).

 

The first thing that I did, was decide that I didn’t like the way that I had painted the fuel tanks last week.  So I took everything off, sanded them, and repainted them.  I also shortened the straps to make it easier to insert and remove them from their positions, and sanded down parts of the frames around them for the same reasons.

 

Whilst the fuel tanks were drying I primed and painted all of the metal pieces (except the cockpit instruments, more on that later).

Once these had all dried, I installed the smaller silver pieces onto the fuel tanks, and followed that by spraying them with a satin varnish.

Next I used the other metal parts (except for the propeller and spinner) to build the first of the four merlin engines.

The next stage was to finish off the fuselage sections which I repaired last week, installing stringers to complete the assemblies.

Finally, I painted the fuselage assemblies the mixture of the “Cockpit green” and black described by the instructions.

Whilst all of this was going on, another modelling enthusiast (my father) had volunteered to build anything connected with the cockpit.

To this end, he started by repainting and repairing the pilot’s seat.

Before moving on to the engineer’s panel and cockpit controls.

Unfortunately, one of the engine control boxes went missing whilst this was being worked on.  A replacement issue has been ordered and should be in place by the next build diary.

All together the sum of our work looks like this:

Please join us next week for issues 21-24, including the first sections of fuselage which I will actually have to assemble.

In late 2016 the IBCC Digital Archive were approached by one of our volunteers, Geoff Hallett, who asked whether we had anyone who would be willing to take on a project.  Geoff, who is a member of several associations had been approached by Graham Chilton, a member of one of the associations, who asked whether Geoff could find a home for a Hachette Partworks 1/32 scale Lancaster kit which had belonged to his brother, a keen model builder, who had only just started the model when he passed away.  Geoff accepted the model and asked the IBCC Digital Archive whether we would be interested.  We agreed to take possession of the model, and I eagerly volunteered to finish it.

 

Geoff delivered the model in late February, and I began preparing to restart construction.  At this time it was suggested that a Build Diary might be a good way of promoting the whole process.

The first step was to unpack the box and to see what was inside.

In addition to the completed components and the box containing the parts that have yet to be assembled, the container also held a variety of paints and tools which had clearly been intended for use on this project.

I next checked that all of the component parts matched the instructions.  I found in the process that one bag of parts out of 126 had been left out (almost certainly at the warehouse).  Fortunately, a quick internet search remedied that.

The last stage of preparation was to identify all of the parts which had been completed (or partially so) and discover any damage caused during storage.

As can be seen in these two pictures the most obvious damage is to the broken frames on the Aft fuselage.  Fortunately, all of the parts are still present.  There is also some damage to the paint on the fuel-tank straps (some of which are partially detached), and one of the centre wing section ribs had been displaced at some point.

 

First, I removed the fuel tank straps, primed and repainted them.  Whilst the paint was drying I sanded the glue marks off of the base of the two fuel tanks and then repainted them.  Next, I very carefully detached the wing rib from its position with a craft knife, and moved it into its proper place before reattaching it to the main structure.  By this time the paint on the fuel tanks had dried, and I was able to reattach the straps to the fuel tanks.  Finally, I was able to reattach the broken frame parts with some super-glue.

 

The final results look like this:

Next week, I’ll work on making sure that all of the instructions up to stage 20 have been completed.  I intend to follow the instructions in full and in sequence at this time, though if someone wishes to make any suggestions we will consider them carefully.