Launcester Lance, interpreted .... ** Finished **

[JohnRatzenberger]

I sanded down the seam filler a bit, then sprayed the whole thing with Tamiya Lt Grey primer - both as a base for the Vallejo paint and I think it'll do well enough for the interior ....

No pix. Gone tomorrow, but back to work on it Sunday ....

[JohnRatzenberger]

Here we are. The interior is in, but it isn't fun ....



The IP is PE+clear-sheet and too big for the fuselage so I had to trim it down and put it where I think is correct by the not helpful drawing. However that meant the stick would be behind it unless I pushed the seat halfway into the rear fuselage, so I repositioned the stick.

Tomorrow I'll try to button up the fuselage and get moving ....

[JohnRatzenberger]

Fuselage is assembled, lower wing is on, rigging holes drilled in fin and on stabs and they will be mounted tomorrow.

Pix tomorrow, after I get it right.

The engine with the kit is meant to hide inside a cowl and has no rocker detail, no intakes, no exhaust - causing me problems that I must get busy on.

[VickersVandal]

Interior looks nice there.
I find joystick positioning relative to the IP to be a perennial pain too, given that I have had to scratchbuild a lot of cockpits for old basic kits.

[lancfan]

That is a very good cockpit John and it sounds like you have this one beaten.


David.

[JohnRatzenberger]

That is a very good cockpit John and it sounds like you have this one beaten.
David.

If you believe that, I want to talk to you about some land I have available

Well, it is now no longer in as many pieces.



Now I need to work on the struts, remembering this is now longer an OOB Gauntlet.

I believe I will do it in silver, with Maltovian markings, just as the cover of the 1938 edition.

[PaulBradley]

Coming along nicely, John!

[JohnRatzenberger]

Did about everything but the center struts .... Found a nice 14-cyl twin-row radial in a spare Blue Rider Nighthawk that should look good. I don't really have an intake or exhaust collector but that's a minor detail .... Got the two guns mounted .... I'm going to do minimum rigging, main flying & landing wires + the tail, no incidence wires.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Engine (described above) is on as are the center struts and main wing.



Let this dry then start to fit the interplane struts. Once I get them on, I'll convert them to "N"-struts. Note I haven't painted anything yet - it'll be hosed down with Tamiya Gloss Silver .... nothing subtle ...

[JohnRatzenberger]

As I feared, the kit struts are just a bit short of fitting after the wing surgery. I have some Strutz but have no way to make a pin to fit in the holes, so I'm going to have to work my way around with CA gel and see if they'll hold in the glue until I can accelerate them.

Probably not until Thursday, so I'm really running behind.

[lancfan]

John, do you need the weekend to finish?


David.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Probably, tomorrow is pretty well shot, and both Thursday & Saturday are complicated.

[Stuart]

Looking good John, I like your concept!

[JohnRatzenberger]

Here we are, with struts and landing gear on. The Gloster Gauntlet hacked into my interpretation of a Launcester Lance.



The wings have been shortened to make a plausible unequal-span single-bay biplane, with N-struts. The engine is an uncowled 14-cylinder (2x7) radial. The guns are mounted atop the fuselage decking.



There are very few parts remaining - prop, wheels, windscreen, gun sight. I have not decided on a 2-blade or 3-blade prop.

What I need to do is get after all the glue smutz all over the place because there simply was nothing pretty about how all this happened.

Then I can hose it down with silver, then minimally rig it.

Then I can decide on markings, if any, because this may be the straw/camel thing.

[Stuart]

John that looks brilliant!