Lancfan's 'Just Jane' build ***FINISHED***

[lancfan]

The cockpit is finally complete as per the full size Just Jane (or as near as I can get it) and the fuselage has been buttoned up.



David.

[Stuart]

That's looking great David... lovely work on that interior.

So did all Lancs have a black cockpit then?

[lancfan]

Time to open the can of worms Stuart, the Manchester and very early Lancasters had a light green cockpit/forward fuselage to match the rest of the fuselage but this was changed to matt black early on in UK production. Canadian production is not as clear as they came later and very few have been conserved and those that have been photographed inside are restorations. There is an online interior picture of an unrestored Canadian aircraft and that appears to be green inside but there is no provenance for this and if it was repainted from black at some point post-war (for ASR use?) there is no evidence to support it. The problem lies in the lack of original colour pictures to show how these aircraft were finished back then. in short if you are modelling an aircraft that you know to have been green from the serial number for example then you are OK but to mudddy the waters the colour change in the UK would probably have been during Lancaster I production at some point during the following serial blocks-

Avro built- (Lancaster I) R5482 - R5763 (200 A/C)
Metrovick built- (Manchester I & Lancaster I) R5768 - R5917 (100 A/C)
Metrovick built- (Lancaster I & Lancaster III) W4761 -W5012 (200 A/C)

David.

[Stuart]

lol - a can of worms indeed. So - it was most likely to be black, BUT if I wanted to do a mix of Green/Black in the cockpit to give it a bit visual interest that I'll be able to get away with it

(And apologies - I read the conversation you had with Paul in HIS thread on this subject after I'd posted the question..)

[lancfan]

LOL, none needed Stuart I did mention the can of worms and the two colour cockpits are all part of this- which factories did this? is it a legacy of service overhaul or modern restoration? who knows-not I.

David.

[Stuart]

so my sudden desire to go all PRU Pink maybe all right rhen

[lancfan]

LOL

David.

[lancfan]

We are joking about colour but when I sprayed the Dark Earth on this model it looked awful, nothing at all like the colour seen in pictures of 'jane, I lightened it for a second go and it was still out. I am giving this a full rub down ready for a third attempt in a new colour mixed to match the tone seen in the pictures.


David.

[lancfan]

Almost missed spotting a mistake- NX611 is a mkVII and had a Martin turret mounted further forward than that in the kit layout. Slightly out of sequence and taken yesterday, this is the kit turret aperture blanked off and filled and the new turret position cut out in the correct place prior to painting.


Masking a Lancaster is always a pain due to the proximity of the colour line to the wing, the build sequence of this kit will make this task much easier as the sides can be painted before the wings are fitted, in preparing for this I fitted the rear turret coaming and scratched a cabin heater from plastic card, the upper wing panels have also been removed from the sprues for these to be painted at the wing roots and in doing so I noticed that the kit doesn't have a dinghy compartment so this was engraved on the starboard wing in the correct place. as related earlier I had a few problems with colour for this model, here it is with the top of the fuselage and wing roots painted (on the third attempt) in a mixed colour matched to pictures of 'Jane' as she is now.



David.

[Stuart]

Nice work David - always interesting watch one of your threads!

[lancfan]

Cheers Stiuart.

David.

[lancfan]

The Dark Green was applied by brush and then the colour division was masked up and the black was airbrushed on.


David.

[lancfan]

Having painted the fuselage without needing to fight off the wings I decided to apply the decals before fitting the said wings, now there are two problems with this decal sheet, in the first place the placement instructions are just plain rubbish and this either needs walk around access of the full size or a good session on Google Images to gather suitable pictures before starting to apply them. The other problem is that there aren't enough roundel decals to make all three aircraft and as I intend to do just that I will need to use kit decals at some point and in this case the red of the Airfix decals differed from the kits-world sheet (although the Revell kit decals are very close) so a suitable supply of spare (or accurate, generic aftermarket) decals is a must. I am quite surprised at how quickly this excellent kit is going together- dare I make a start on "Vera"?


David.

[lancfan]

Looking at pictures of the surviving flyers I can just about see the exposed ends of the fuel tanks in the wing from within the wheelbay so to put that to the test on the model I have made a balsawood plug and taken four impressions in Miliput, from that I will make a set of end pieces out of Das Clay to fit into the wing before I close it up.


David.

[Stuart]

Great work going on here David! It's looking great - what is DAS clay?

Cheers!

Stuart