#47 alextheblue...twist, twist...Dam, I'm Bust!!

[alextheblue]

Ahhh! The 1st of May, you spring out of bed nice and early to the warm rays of the morning sun. The birds are singing and there's a sense of hope and anticipation in the air. What can make you feel this way you think? The onset of spring, or perhaps the up-and-coming bank holiday weekend. Nah!! The start of a new SiG!!! Yayhay!!!!!!

It's been a while since I've taken part in a group build of any sort and only my second time entering one where the subject has been "wingy" things. I've got my feet wet with a couple of aircraft builds over the last few months and what with it being the centenary of the RAF, what better subject than the Lancaster bomber in 1/72nd scale.



My Granddad bought me one of these when I was knee-high to a butcher's dog and told me to sit and not touch anything as he put it together. The old fart should have stuck to gardening and sucking Wurther's, it was terrible, but ever since I have fancied building one. The box is pretty weighty and stuffed full of sprues, albeit, stuffed into a single bag. When will Airfix learn!? Just how much money are they saving by using a single bag.



The detail is pretty good and judging by the wings, this will be quite a sizeable model when it's finished.



Various other sprues of engine cowlings, wheels, control surfaces and other goodies.




Clear parts.....boy, there's a ton of glass on this thing. Better check my supply of masking tape and Maskol!!



I've got to say, one of the things that I'm impressed about since returning to Airfix, is their instructions. They are in booklet form, which for me, is always a plus. They are very clear and the steps are always very logical. For anyone that has built a Dragon kit, they will know that you have to study the instructions for at least three weeks. Go through part-by-part to identify all the steps that mislabelled, only to forget all of this and just go and build it how you think is best!!





Colour call-outs are nice and clear.



And finally the decals. Not too many for a bird of this size and the finish on them seems to be very nice. As I'm armour builder, I'm always a bit intimidated at the number of decals on an aircraft. For example, I'm just finishing up a King Tiger and it doesn't have a single decal!!



There's a ton of after-market for this thing, but I've decided to do it OOB, apart from the obligatory masks. What!! You thought I was going to mask that lot by hand!!



Right, one final thing to do and I'm ready to start!!

Clean the bench!



Phew! I'm worn out after all that cleaning. I'm going for a lie down!!!

All that's left to say now is............

Gentlemen, start your engines! Or, at least your compressors!!!!

[Les0012]

Got two Lancs and a Shackin the stash, if I have time I may do one aswell.

Looking forward to this one.

Good Luck Les

[Twokidsnosleep]

Oh this should be great, really looking forward to your build
Best intro line I have read for a sig yet
I welcome you to the sig and wish you the best of luck and a fun time...now I have to clean my bench off too
Scott

[gaz45]

Nice choice mate i'm doing the revell one

[Mylightweight]

Nice, I couldn’t help but notice there is the hole in the fuselage for the mid upper turret, is there some kind of blanking plate?

Have fun

[Garion77]

Nice ! one of my favorite bomber and almost bought the kit myself yesterday when I went to my hobby store to buy the paints missing for my entry !
Can't wait to see your build

[alextheblue]

Got two Lancs and a Shackin the stash, if I have time I may do one aswell.

Looking forward to this one.

Good Luck Les

Thanks Les!

Oh this should be great, really looking forward to your build
Best intro line I have read for a sig yet
I welcome you to the sig and wish you the best of luck and a fun time...now I have to clean my bench off too
Scott

Thanks Scott. As you'll see, I don't take myself too seriously. What I lack in skill, I try to make up with in humour!

Nice choice mate i'm doing the revell one

Thanks gaz, I've been following your build and its a cracking thread!

Nice, I couldn’t help but notice there is the hole in the fuselage for the mid upper turret, is there some kind of blanking plate?

Have fun

Thanks! There is a blanking plate and its proving to be a pain-in-the-a** when putting the two halves of the fuselage together.

Nice ! one of my favorite bomber and almost bought the kit myself yesterday when I went to my hobby store to buy the paints missing for my entry !
Can't wait to see your build

Thanks Garion! Its a nice little kit, you should have treated yourself.

[alextheblue]

Update One

I've been following everyone's builds for this SiG and there is some cracking threads going on already, some really interesting stuff. There's a whole heap of top-notch builders as well, so, I'm hoping my content will help hide my vain attempt to do this beast justice.

So, on to the build!!

First up, a quick pic of the tools of my choice. I know everyone has their preference when it comes to cutters and knives etc., so here's mine.



Picked up this airbrush a little while ago and it's proving to be quite a capable workhorse. My AB of choice is Harder & Steenbeck's Infinity, but I find the 0.2mm needle a little finicky with some paints, plus it's not ideal for running Ultimate primer through. The Cobra has a 0.3mm needle with a self-seating nozzle and it's an absolute breeze to clean.



What better place to start than Step 1!



All very straightforward and it all fell together nicely.



There was one casualty though...........



"I'm hit, I'm hit!! I've taken a 50-cal round to the groin!!!

I know I'm not alone when I say that I couldn't resist just quickly dry-fitting it all together.



It's starting to look like a Lanc!! Albeit it, half a Lancaster with no wings, but you get the general idea! Next onto to painting the interior. A little while ago, I bought an RAF WWII set from Ammo for Mig, and this was the suggested colour for the interior.



Even before shaking it looked too light and after several minutes of furious agitating, it didn't look any better. Oh well, maybe it might dry a bit darker.



Have I mentioned, I'm no expert when it comes to things with wings, but this doesn't look right to me. I'm sure that once the fuselage is buttoned up it will look ok, plus you're not going to see too much of it anyway, but you know what it's like. You can't move on to the next step of the build until you're happy with what you're doing. Or is that just me!? So, it was out with my colour of choice.......



Sorry about the pic, what can I say, it's Model Air. You have to shake the stuff so hard, the molecules of the bottle don't stop moving for several minutes!! And this is what I end up with.........



It's probably not right either, but I'm happier with this colour.

At this point, I better interject with a slightly more serious note. When I was threading the wing spars through the sides of the fuselage, I almost snapped the end of the spar off. It's a tight fit and sections of it are very thin and it bends incredibly easily.



It didn't actually snap, but it's now flapping around like an exceedingly flappy thing in a high wind!! (What, so I couldn't think of a suitable analogy for something that flaps a lot, so sue me!!).

Rather than mask off what would be the section of the bomb bay, I decided to spray it up with the fuselage in place. This way it will mark the exact line once the whole thing is finally assembled and hopeful negate the need for any touch-ups etc. Well, that's the plan.



After a couple of colour changes and the application of some decals, I was left with the following.






Once it was all dry, I did start to attempt to attach the two fuselage halves, but that didn't prove to be quite as straightforward as I was hoping, but more of that in Update Two. All I will say, is that I decided to glue it together in small sections and to leave each bit to fully cure before starting the next bit.

Skipping ahead a bit in the instructions, I decided to tackle some of the control surfaces as these can be assembled while I'm waiting for the fuselage to "dry".

Here is where I encountered a mistake in the instructions. I did have to question myself as it is usually me that makes the mistakes and not the kit maker. But after close scrutiny and much dry fitting, I concluded that the error is Airfix's and not mine. The instructions dictate to cut the following parts from the sprue......



Which leaves you with the following..........



I checked several times, again to make sure that the mistake wasn't me, but these were definitely the right parts. Have you spotted the deliberate mistake. Go on, take another look.

That's right, location holes on both parts and not a lug in sight. Sure enough, looking at the other two parts and they both have lugs, but no holes, Perhaps they could share the one in the pilot's groin, I hear you cry!

Swapping the parts about does the trick and everything seems to fit together nicely.

Next up, it's time to put the fuselage halves together, but something tells me I've got a bit of a fight on my hands. I'll wind-up this update for now, but will be back shortly with what should prove to be quite a fight........plus, I don't fancy my chances much!

LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!

[Kevthemodeller]

It's starting to look like a Lanc!! Albeit it, half a Lancaster with no wings, but you get the general idea! Next onto to painting the interior. A little while ago, I bought an RAF WWII set from Ammo for Mig, and this was the suggested colour for the interior.



Even before shaking it looked too light and after several minutes of furious agitating, it didn't look any better. Oh well, maybe it might dry a bit darker.



Have I mentioned, I'm no expert when it comes to things with wings, but this doesn't look right to me. I'm sure that once the fuselage is buttoned up it will look ok, plus you're not going to see too much of it anyway, but you know what it's like. You can't move on to the next step of the build until you're happy with what you're doing. Or is that just me!? So, it was out with my colour of choice.......

Have a look here mate, I think you'll find the Ammo Mig colour is correct. Often the real colour is somewhat different to what we think is should be.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?safe=of ... Jno#imgrc=_

Sorry about the pic, what can I say, it's Model Air. You have to shake the stuff so hard, the molecules of the bottle don't stop moving for several minutes!! And this is what I end up with.........



It's probably not right either, but I'm happier with this colour.

Absolutely it's your model if you're happy with the colour that's the colour it going to be

[Les0012]

That Lanc is coming together nicely, only thing I would say is that the interior green does look a wee bit dark, but hey as has been said it your model and modellers license is a great thing.

Keep up the good work.

Les

[Twokidsnosleep]

OOoo a 50 cal to the groinal areas.....that's gotta hurt
At least he has a cool stash so the chicks will dig him
Nice modelling btw

[Stokesy44]

Watching this one with much interest as I have a Dambuster to build too.

Not that I'm competitive or anything!

[alextheblue]

That Lanc is coming together nicely, only thing I would say is that the interior green does look a wee bit dark, but hey as has been said it your model and modellers license is a great thing.

Keep up the good work.

Les

Thanks Les, and you're absolutely right, that colour is too light. Under the glare of the lights over my bench, the colour look way more "yellowy", but I can see from my pic that I probably should have stuck with it. Hey ho!

OOoo a 50 cal to the groinal areas.....that's gotta hurt
At least he has a cool stash so the chicks will dig him
Nice modelling btw

Thanks Scott. And it least this gives him the chance for a new chat-up line - "do you want to see where my joystick goes!"

Watching this one with much interest as I have a Dambuster to build too.

Not that I'm competitive or anything!

Me....I'm not competitive at all. (Damn, wish I had said that first!)

[alextheblue]

After the little glitch with the destructions, I put the stabilisers together (is that what they're called, I'm still looking through the sprues for the turret parts!).



And now it's on to putting the fuselage together. There's two blanking plates, one on the top and the other on the bottom, and the instructions call for you to glue these into one half of the fuselage before joining it to its other half. All logical and common sense, but I can foresee a problem. As you try to marry the two halves up, the "hatches" are going to either ping up, or drop down as soon as you apply any pressure on the fuselage. Sure enough, my fears were realised.




After much fettling and re-attaching, this was about the best I could get. I did think about attaching a fine piece of thread to the underside with a spot of CA, with the idea of using the thread to "lift" the pieces into place. I wasn't convinced that this was going to give me any more of an advantage, so I left it as it was. Oh well, more bits to fill!

Finally the fuselage was together and I fixed the braces in place as I was petrified that I was going to snap the ends of the wing spars off.



Next the lower halve of the wings were painted up for the wheel wells and flaps.




You're not going to see much of the wheel wells once the landing gear is in place, but I weather them up with a wash that is really intended for streaking on ships. Rain and water streaks that is, not running around on-board with no clothes on!!


Now on to the engine nacelles. There's not too many parts and it all goes together very nicely.





The fuselage was then de-mummified, filled, sanded and the lower wings were attached. A combination of Squadron putty, Vallejo Acrylic filler and Mr Surfacer was used for this.





Nacelles were filled and sanded and attached and the upper wings were then attached. Now it's starting to look like a proper Lanc!




The landing gear was the next stage.



Painted them up on the sprues first and I'll assemble it all once the main colours are down.



Wheel wells were painted up. Vallejo Model Colour was used for the scarlet.



The front main brace need attaching at this point as this needs to be in place before the engine covers are attached. I could paint these up separately and attach them later, but I would rather they are in place when the camo goes down. I know I'm risking snapping the struts, but it's a calculated risk. Who am I kidding!! It's me!! It's a dead on cert that they'll get broken!

I have done a fair bit more as almost everything is now assembled and has received a coat of grey Ultimate primer. I just need to get some pics taken and posted.

I must confess, this has become a bit of a chore as there is more fit issues than I had been expecting. I'm not happy with the fuselage, but I'll be blowed if I'm spending any more time on it, life is too short! The engine covers didn't fit too well and there's a big gap at the back of a couple of them. The cowls for the props don't fit onto the nacelles too well on a couple of them and this will take a bit more filling and sanding. It's not that it's a bad kit, it's not, it's really very nice - I was just expecting a bit "more". I will stipulate at this point that I am sure that some of the issues are entirely my fault as my optimism far outreaches my skill level at times. But hey, you've got to be able to see further than you can reach, right!

As always, thanks for looking and back soon with some more!

[Les0012]

I am getting excited to see this one get some camo on it,

It is starting to look amazing

Les

[Tomcat64]

Nice start mate - and you got to love it when the instructions call the wrong parts out!

Looking forward to seeing it with the fuselage buttoned up.

Edit: Somehow I missed the third page!!! What a numpty I'm obviously out of practice.

Anyway - cracking progress since the last progress I saw - love the details in the gear bays

[Twokidsnosleep]

Great progress
Looks like I better get off my but and get building!!

[pourquoi61]

Airfix of the new and a very good job you have done too.

[alextheblue]

I am getting excited to see this one get some camo on it,

It is starting to look amazing

Les

Thanks Les, you're too kind. Just don't look too closely!

Nice start mate - and you got to love it when the instructions call the wrong parts out!

Looking forward to seeing it with the fuselage buttoned up.

Edit: Somehow I missed the third page!!! What a numpty I'm obviously out of practice.

Anyway - cracking progress since the last progress I saw - love the details in the gear bays

Thanks Neil. And if you're anything like me, you read through so many threads, you forget where you are at times.

Great progress
Looks like I better get off my but and get building!!

Building! You ain't got no time for no building, you've got a SiG to run and all those threads to post on!

Seriously though, we've all got until August, so there should be plenty of time - hopefully!

Airfix of the new and a very good job you have done too.

Thanks porquoi!

Yeah, I always used to avoid Airfix kits like they had the plague. Plus, they're not really known for their choice of armour builds. These new kits seem pretty good though. I really liked the 1/48 scale Sea Hurricane and Tomahawk kits.

[alextheblue]

Update Three

Forgot to put a close-up of the wheel well on the last update, plus I've got the covers in place on the underside.





The lower half was a bit of a faff and hassle, as you had to try and glue it into the right shape whilst in place on the fuselage and then set it aside to cure. You also have to take into account that the cement will "pull" the two halves together slightly as it drys, but it wasn't too bad. Just a bit fiddly.

Next up was assembling the release mechanism for the bomb.



Now here was where I experienced another little glitch. The chain mechanism, which I assume spins the bomb as it is released, is just a little too long.



Once again, I assumed the error was mine, and maybe I had attached the support arms around the wrong way. After closely scrutinising the destructions, it appeared as though I had put them on round the right way. Oh well! Not a huge problem as you only need to shorten the chain slightly.

Job done and I test fitted the bouncing bomb.



There's still a ton of prep to do on the fuselage and wings, but to be honest, I'm losing the will to live now and I just want to get onto the fun bit, painting and weathering!! What can I say, I'm an armour guy, we just chuck everything together, assemble everything in one go and then put away the glue for good until the model is finished. Or, at least until we break something off!

So without further ado, out with Ultimate's grey primer, sprayed through Mig's Air-cobra AB with a 0.3mm needle.



Mask up the canopy and the rest of the bits and bobs get a spray of Ultimate.




A bit of messy pre-shading and masked up ready for the black to be applied to the underside.



Paint of choice? I've just recently bought some of the MRP (Mr Paint) to tackle the this one and after reading the reviews, I was chomping at the bit to lay some down.



Verdict?? See for yourself...........



Looks pretty good and it seemed to go down real nice, but as it started to dry, I noticed the following........



But worse still......



WTF!!!

I tried putting on another slightly heavier coat, but still it dried with this pale chalky finish. I can't understand it, I was spraying at between 10-12psi, light thin coats and sprayed close-ish to the model so the paint doesn't "dry" in the air. The pigments are so fine in this paint, it is almost like an ink. I even tried a light spray of Mr Colour Levelling Thinner to try and re-activate the paint.

I sat staring in dismay at the carnage in front of me and I just couldn't get my head around it. It can't be a bad pot of paint as on most of the model, it had gone done really nice. Very even and super smooth and it has a beautiful even satin finish. I've used all types of paint and even have no problem with Vallejo Model Air (well, most of the time!) and have never experienced anything like this before.

The only thing that I can think of, is that I had been painting a ceiling early in the day and I had been using a damp-seal paint. I thought my hands were nice and clean when I sat down at the bench, but maybe I have contaminated the surface of the model. I try not to over-touch it when spraying, but the tips of the wings are the areas that I would use in order to rotate and move the model.

Best thing to do, walk away and let it fully cure and then take a look again later. You think I'm going to be beaten by a crummy piece of plastic. No way!! THUD....THUD!!! (that was the sound of the gloves hitting the floor, it's time for bare-knuckles!!)

Thanks for taking a look!

[gaz45]

Greats start ther mate

[digger303]

Update Three




Paint of choice? I've just recently bought some of the MRP (Mr Paint) to tackle the this one and after reading the reviews, I was chomping at the bit to lay some down.

But worse still......



WTF!!!

I tried putting on another slightly heavier coat, but still it dried with this pale chalky finish. I can't understand it, I was spraying at between 10-12psi, light thin coats and sprayed close-ish to the model so the paint doesn't "dry" in the air. The pigments are so fine in this paint, it is almost like an ink. I even tried a light spray of Mr Colour Levelling Thinner to try and re-activate the paint.

I sat staring in dismay at the carnage in front of me and I just couldn't get my head around it. It can't be a bad pot of paint as on most of the model, it had gone done really nice. Very even and super smooth and it has a beautiful even satin finish. I've used all types of paint and even have no problem with Vallejo Model Air (well, most of the time!) and have never experienced anything like this before.

The only thing that I can think of, is that I had been painting a ceiling early in the day and I had been using a damp-seal paint. I thought my hands were nice and clean when I sat down at the bench, but maybe I have contaminated the surface of the model. I try not to over-touch it when spraying, but the tips of the wings are the areas that I would use in order to rotate and move the model.

Best thing to do, walk away and let it fully cure and then take a look again later. You think I'm going to be beaten by a crummy piece of plastic. No way!! THUD....THUD!!! (that was the sound of the gloves hitting the floor, it's time for bare-knuckles!!)

Thanks for taking a look!

It was going so well. I do really feel your pain. Hope you sort it quickly

[Les0012]

Oh Hoh, Now I've just bought some of this MRP paint and got another lot on the way, Now am thinking was this a good idea will have to try on another kit to see the results.

Your looking like your getting on like a house a on fire with that Lanc, I positive that all your paint problems will work out OK

Les

[alextheblue]

Greats start ther mate

Thanks gas

Update Three




Paint of choice? I've just recently bought some of the MRP (Mr Paint) to tackle the this one and after reading the reviews, I was chomping at the bit to lay some down.

But worse still......



WTF!!!

I tried putting on another slightly heavier coat, but still it dried with this pale chalky finish. I can't understand it, I was spraying at between 10-12psi, light thin coats and sprayed close-ish to the model so the paint doesn't "dry" in the air. The pigments are so fine in this paint, it is almost like an ink. I even tried a light spray of Mr Colour Levelling Thinner to try and re-activate the paint.

I sat staring in dismay at the carnage in front of me and I just couldn't get my head around it. It can't be a bad pot of paint as on most of the model, it had gone done really nice. Very even and super smooth and it has a beautiful even satin finish. I've used all types of paint and even have no problem with Vallejo Model Air (well, most of the time!) and have never experienced anything like this before.

The only thing that I can think of, is that I had been painting a ceiling early in the day and I had been using a damp-seal paint. I thought my hands were nice and clean when I sat down at the bench, but maybe I have contaminated the surface of the model. I try not to over-touch it when spraying, but the tips of the wings are the areas that I would use in order to rotate and move the model.

Best thing to do, walk away and let it fully cure and then take a look again later. You think I'm going to be beaten by a crummy piece of plastic. No way!! THUD....THUD!!! (that was the sound of the gloves hitting the floor, it's time for bare-knuckles!!)

Thanks for taking a look!

It was going so well. I do really feel your pain. Hope you sort it quickly

Thanks digger mate, appreciate that. It's no big deal in the scheme of things. Sure, it's a pain in the rear end when it happens, but it's only a model at the end of the day. I'll get this one finished and it will be forgotten by the time I start the next one!

Oh Hoh, Now I've just bought some of this MRP paint and got another lot on the way, Now am thinking was this a good idea will have to try on another kit to see the results.

Your looking like your getting on like a house a on fire with that Lanc, I positive that all your paint problems will work out OK

Les

Thanks Les I'm pretty sure it's nothing to do with the MRP paint, the areas that it has gone down nice, it's a beautiful finish. Plus, the pigment is so small, you can airbrush the finest of lines. I'm fairly confident that I had contaminated the surface of the model before painting it. Let us know how you get on with yours.

[pourquoi61]

I do hope that you find out what the problem is and can fix it.

[Twokidsnosleep]

They always look so cool in black
You are moving along very well...I am stuck in my cockpit
Keep up the good work
Door prize draw coming up this weekend

[alextheblue]

I do hope that you find out what the problem is and can fix it.

Thanks porquoi61, there's not a problem that can't be fixed.........or at least walked away from!!

They always look so cool in black
You are moving along very well...I am stuck in my cockpit
Keep up the good work
Door prize draw coming up this weekend

Got to agree about the black. Only slight downside is, it doesn't leave you too many options as far as weathering goes.

Stuck in your cockpit!
Plenty of lubrication and try and pull out at the same angle you entered, that should sort you out!!!

[alextheblue]

Update Four

I went over some of the black with Vallejo Model Air black and that seemed to knock back the excessively "sandy" patches. Not happy about it, but what can you do, you just have to plough on.

Next, I laid down some Dark Earth, again in MRP paints and I even lowered the pressure down to about 8psi. For an H&S Infinity, this is like asking an asthmatic pensioner to run a marathon, but I didn't want there to be any risk of the paint drying too quickly. I gotta say, I wasn't impressed, the colour seemed way too dark and as the paint dried, those ominous dry patches started to appear again. Not as bad as on the underside, but still noticeable.

I made the decision to press on and assess the situation once the green was down. White wiggly worms were liberally applied along with lashings of Tamiya masking tape. For someone that usually hand sprays camo onto AFV's, this was somewhat tiresome, but at the same time, strangely therapeutic.



The green then went down, again MRP paints. I hated it! The "dry" patches were even more noticeable and again, the colour just didn't seem right. Without a second thought, and apologies, I should have taken a pic of the original colours, but I just wanted them gone. Instead, I used dark green and dark earth from the Ammo from Mig range. Love these paints! They spray really nice and each bottle had a little BB shaker inside...nice touch. Couldn't be arsed to re-mask the camo, plus, it was easy enough to spray over the old colours.





I then lightened the dark earth and sprayed some small patches onto the centre of panels etc. I didn't want to overdo this, as I'm sure that I read somewhere that these planes were only a couple of weeks old when they flew their mission. However, needs must and in order to cover the horrible finish, I'm going to need to weather it probably more than it would have been in real life.



After breaking the undercarriage supports for the umpteenth time, I decided to attached the wheels........might as well bust these at the same time!



I'm on the final stretch now and I've got to be honest, I'll be glad when I can call it done. I'm still convinced that the horrendous finish to the paint is down to me contaminating the plastic somehow, but this has just been one of those builds where everything has gone wrong. We've all had them!

I've actually done quite a bit more to the old beast, but in my rush to get it finished, I've neglected to take any pics....oops! I shall rectify that immediately and will get another update posted shortly.

Thanks for taking a look!

[Twokidsnosleep]

For all that has gone wrong, she sure is looking pretty darn RIGHT!!!
Keep at it

[Les0012]

For all that has gone wrong, she sure is looking pretty darn RIGHT!!!
Keep at it

Can’t disagree there, she looks great.

Les

[pourquoi61]

Great job with the paint work.
Funny comment on walking away.

[digger303]

I'm seeing some great progress despite the odd set back.

[pourquoi61]

Keep on going mate.

[demarcation]

Absolutely amazing!!Keep up the good work!!

[alextheblue]

For all that has gone wrong, she sure is looking pretty darn RIGHT!!!
Keep at it

Thanks Scott, just don't look too close!

For all that has gone wrong, she sure is looking pretty darn RIGHT!!!
Keep at it

Can’t disagree there, she looks great.

Les

Thanks Les

Great job with the paint work.
Funny comment on walking away.

Thanks, appreciate the kind words

I'm seeing some great progress despite the odd set back.

It's the set-backs that help us to grow.

Shoot me now, I sound like a crappy motivational poster.....aaaarghhh!!!!!!

Keep on going mate.

I'm going to keep on keeping on!

Absolutely amazing!!Keep up the good work!!

Thanks for the kind words

[alextheblue]

Update Five

Well, that's me done with this one. Gloss coat down, decals on, weathered and a final light matt coat to seal all that crappy goodness in!

It's not that this was a bad kit, because it isn't, it's just that I had a bad time with it. We've all had those kits or projects that just seem to go wrong from the start. On a positive note, I've learnt a whole ton of stuff about modelling and whilst I have always had a high regards for aircraft builders, that is now a whole heap higher

To carry on the list of calamities, a few of the decals broke and silvered, I broke a heap of stuff in the final assembly and to add insult to injury, one set of the windows at the front of the plane fell in when I was unmasking them. Never made windows from scratch before, but it's actually quite easy with the old MicroScale Kristal Clear. They didn';t dry completely clear, but they match the rest of the clear parts that fogged up!

Before I put up a couple of final pics, I wanted to quickly pay respect to all of the men that took part in operation Chastise, but especially to Flight Lieutenant Robert Barlow and the crew of AJ-E "Easy". Of the 113 men that set out on the night of May 16th, 1943, 53 would never return home. There's not a whole heap of information for Lancaster, serial number ED927, but I thought the following was quite poignant -

Departed: approx 21:28 (16/05/43)

Barlow (AJ-E) crashed near Haldern, Germany at approx 23:58 (16/05/43)
Reports say he hit power cables
No Survivors
Returned: Did Not Return

Mission Duration: approx 2 hours 30 minutes

I just hope that the bravery of these men, along with all the others like them is honoured and remembered by generations to come.









I'll try and get some better pictures taken and post some up on the Final Reveal thread.

A massive thank you to Scott for hosting the SiG and I've been blown away by the fantastic quality of everyone's builds. Bearing in mind the amount of time that's left, I may just be tempted to enter something else.

Thanks for taking a look!

[Stokesy44]

Really nice finish mate. Camo looks great with the fade effects and I really like the engine smoke stains too.

[Quax]

super job!

Paul

[Kevthemodeller]

Blimey you've finished, I've not even open the plastic bags work work work

Great finish there mate looks really good, I'm sure the better pictures will revel more

[Twokidsnosleep]

Good lord man, you are finished and she is a lovely beast
Great Work

I am still wallowing around in the forward compartment pretending to make details that no one will ever see

[Mylightweight]

Holy you’ve been busy. Looks great, very nice camo work, well done

[pourquoi61]

I am so glad that you finished the build and she is looking great.

[Garion77]

Wow !Already finish a plane that big !! And I haven't posted, or done much, in more than a week ! How much time did you spent on it ? Great work. Love the exhaust stains

[alextheblue]

Really nice finish mate. Camo looks great with the fade effects and I really like the engine smoke stains too.

Thanks Stokesy

super job!

Paul

Thanks Paul

Blimey you've finished, I've not even open the plastic bags work work work

Great finish there mate looks really good, I'm sure the better pictures will revel more

Thanks Kev. They'll deliberately be no close-ups of this one - far too many mistakes and errors. I'm not saying it's ugly, but if this was a dog, you'd hang a pork chop around its neck so the other dogs will play with it!!

Good lord man, you are finished and she is a lovely beast
Great Work

I am still wallowing around in the forward compartment pretending to make details that no one will ever see

Thanks Scot. I've seen that forward compartment and it's a thing of beauty my friend

Holy you’ve been busy. Looks great, very nice camo work, well done

Thanks Mylightweight

I am so glad that you finished the build and she is looking great.

Thanks pourquoi61 It was a fight and it almost had me pinned a couple of times, but I refused to tap out!

Wow !Already finish a plane that big !! And I haven't posted, or done much, in more than a week ! How much time did you spent on it ? Great work. Love the exhaust stains

Thanks Garion As I say to the wife, what I lack in skill, I make up for in sheer speed!!!
I try and get an hour in most days. I'm pretty lucky and work from home, plus my hours are flexible, so it all works in my favour. And don't worry about not posting yet, there's plenty of time left..........in fact...........I might just tackle something else!!

[Stokesy44]

I try and get an hour in most days. I'm pretty lucky and work from home, plus my hours are flexible, so it all works in my favour. And don't worry about not posting yet, there's plenty of time left..........in fact...........I might just tackle something else!!

I was thinking exactly the same thing. There's still over 3 months of the SIG left. You've GOT to do another build Sir

[RossiM1]

Fantastic build hope mine turns out a fraction as good as that brilliant mate

[gaz45]

Looking the buisness now mate

[demarcation]

Super nice finish mate!!