Catching Up

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.