Lancaster B Mk I #1 / Fuselage /

Lancaster is famous British bomber, haunting Germany at night, often identified with the Dambuster's Raid (70th anniversary this year). It is also my new project, from Battle of Britain Memorial Flight kit, which I picked up from late Modelzone, lured by the bargain. For the same price Dambuster Lanc by the same manufacturer is available, but BBMF set contains Spitfire & Hurricane models, supplied with very handy 5 model stand & set of acrylic paints. Spitfire is already built, Hurricane may become part of Bomber Airfield diorama in future. I happen to have RAF Bomber re - supply kit and airfield crew, which will be used to spark some life around a stand down bomber.

The build had to be planned from very beginning if I wanted to have interior and turrets painted, omitted few first stages suggested by assembly instructions and started with fuselage. I picked option with landing gear extended, in stand down position, under re - supply process. Flaps for landing gear as well as for bombing bay are supplied in closed position to build "airborne" model (hence the stand). Part no 36, bombing bay floor panel was not included (after all model comes from special kit, where the Lanc is not very well detailed) or was somehow misplaced. Thick card was used instead, with minimum detail, as bomb load will block the view.  Couple pictures below show bomb bay of Lancaster's older brother Avro Lincoln B II.

Lincoln B II

Lincoln B II

Interior references: The Telegraph's: Pictured: Inside a Lancaster bomber

I decided to cut out entrance hatch to make it available for maintenance crew. It started smoothly, but plastic was rather thick, too much pressure applied made my hand slip dragging blade through rear section of fuselage and tip of my pinkie. Lancaster = 1, me = 0. First round lost. Need to remember not to make this mistake again... When surgery was completed, cockpit and turrets were assembled (with guns painted before). Interior was painted in two tone scheme, with no particular attention to realistic color. Grey for cockpit  and turrets, light green for rest of the fuselage. Both halves were glued together with upper turret already masked off in it's slot.