What can I say about this kit?
It is a good one and I recommend it. The best Lancaster in this scale most certainly.
Fit was good except for the wing tip lights. I had a big problem with these as they needed filling and sanding to make them blend into the wing tips. For this the rather weak glues we use for transparencies was inadequate and they repeatedly kept falling off. If I built one of these again (I won’t) I would firmly cement, yes cement, the wing tip transparencies into place, fill and sand them and at the end of the build sacrifice accuracy to paint them a solid red or green, as appropriate and gloss them. It would save a lot of frustration.
There is one other moan about this kit, I have never had so many problems with final fitting before.
It would help if instructions were clearer, if the many aerials had location points (even if they need drilling) and, of course, to properly explain exactly which of them applies to the Mk1 aircraft. Trying to find out online was impossible for the aircraft I was building. In the end it was just pot luck.
If I had attached these vulnerable parts earlier in the build life would have been easier, but of course they would not have survived! So ignore the two missing blade aerials from in front of the cockpit, one of them just disappeared while in my hand! Literally. Ignore the missing ‘box’ that should be under the nose, it was supplied in etch, I bent it into shape and painted it, no issues there but it was meant to glue to the fuselage (no exact position indicated) by the thin edges of the part. Suffice to say I just ended up with an area of the fuselage needing a clean up of dried c.a. and no ‘box’ as in my struggles it folded in on itself, broke and ended up binned! Ignore also the mass balances on the tail, they are all there but the angles!
Why did I not scratch the two blade aerials and the box? Why did I not remove the mass balances, clean it up, repaint the area and reattach? Build fatigue, I simply got to the point where I wanted to finish and move on.
Please do not be put off building this model. It is a good kit, just take my warnings and adjust your approach accordingly. One tip - a lot of parts are very fragile and the undercarriage parts gave me a particular problem. I bought a white metal set after deciding not to buy a brass set for £60. I was wrong. The white metal parts for. SAC are useless, grit your teeth and get the brass set regardless of that cost. I only used a few spars from the white metal set and that brass one would have been so much better.
Anyway, the photos.
I really want to get back to 1/32 scale but I have decided to get on and polish off the last of my 1/48 stash first or I will never get to build them. Just five kits for reasonably quick builds.
After these I very much doubt whether I will return to small scale again…..
It is a good one and I recommend it. The best Lancaster in this scale most certainly.
Fit was good except for the wing tip lights. I had a big problem with these as they needed filling and sanding to make them blend into the wing tips. For this the rather weak glues we use for transparencies was inadequate and they repeatedly kept falling off. If I built one of these again (I won’t) I would firmly cement, yes cement, the wing tip transparencies into place, fill and sand them and at the end of the build sacrifice accuracy to paint them a solid red or green, as appropriate and gloss them. It would save a lot of frustration.
There is one other moan about this kit, I have never had so many problems with final fitting before.
It would help if instructions were clearer, if the many aerials had location points (even if they need drilling) and, of course, to properly explain exactly which of them applies to the Mk1 aircraft. Trying to find out online was impossible for the aircraft I was building. In the end it was just pot luck.
If I had attached these vulnerable parts earlier in the build life would have been easier, but of course they would not have survived! So ignore the two missing blade aerials from in front of the cockpit, one of them just disappeared while in my hand! Literally. Ignore the missing ‘box’ that should be under the nose, it was supplied in etch, I bent it into shape and painted it, no issues there but it was meant to glue to the fuselage (no exact position indicated) by the thin edges of the part. Suffice to say I just ended up with an area of the fuselage needing a clean up of dried c.a. and no ‘box’ as in my struggles it folded in on itself, broke and ended up binned! Ignore also the mass balances on the tail, they are all there but the angles!
Why did I not scratch the two blade aerials and the box? Why did I not remove the mass balances, clean it up, repaint the area and reattach? Build fatigue, I simply got to the point where I wanted to finish and move on.
Please do not be put off building this model. It is a good kit, just take my warnings and adjust your approach accordingly. One tip - a lot of parts are very fragile and the undercarriage parts gave me a particular problem. I bought a white metal set after deciding not to buy a brass set for £60. I was wrong. The white metal parts for. SAC are useless, grit your teeth and get the brass set regardless of that cost. I only used a few spars from the white metal set and that brass one would have been so much better.
Anyway, the photos.
I really want to get back to 1/32 scale but I have decided to get on and polish off the last of my 1/48 stash first or I will never get to build them. Just five kits for reasonably quick builds.
After these I very much doubt whether I will return to small scale again…..
).
