Final steps and finished model

Welcome back to the last post of my Lancaster-Dambuster build.

I start with a video of the beast in action:

This is how it looks from the other side:

As stated in the last post I tested, if the painted insignia on the fuselage could be painted with flat varnish without destroying the wanted effect on the black surfaces.

The results will be the first thing, I will show you.

Following this I will also describe the steps of the final painting including the exhaust-stains and the assembly of the different accessories like the antennas, the bulb-windows to the canopy, the landing-gear and the bouncing-bomb.

And finally I will present to you a video of Richards set in operation.

First I want to show you some pics how the painting of the insignia and stencils with flat varnish look like after application.

Fortunately the result turned out how I expected it to be.

During the application of the flat varnish I managed to loose one of the balloon-deflectors. As you can expect I didn’t find

it (after 30 min. searching) so I had to scratchbuild a new one:

Next step was to install the bouncing-bomb in the bomb-bay. The fit of the parts was a bit tight but at least it worked:

Flat varnish applied to the bomb

Bomb with calliper-arms and belt-drive installed

View from the other side

Finally I connected the fusing-cable running from below the cockpit to the right calliper-arm. I added some weathering to the fuselage because of the cable-vibration during the flight:

Connection to the calliper-arm

Weathering applied to the fuselage with a sharp silver prismacolor pencil.

This was followed by the installation of the small parts to the fuselage:

Antenna on right side

Antenna below crew-entrance

Pitot-tube on left side

Antennas on top of the fuselage

Antenna lead-in on the canopy and whip antenna

Antenna-connection to left main antenna wire

Antenna connection at the fin.

Next thing to do was to install the main landing gear and the gear-bay-doors.

Everything fitted well and installation was done without any problems:

After this I moved over to the canopy to

install the bulb-windows. For their installation I created a mask for easier gluing:

The finished result:

I used Revell Contacta Clear as cement, which dries completely clear.

Following this I moved over to the application of the exhaust-stains on the wings, on the engine-nacelles and below the wings.

I used reference-fotos for the application.

On most pics I found in the net heavy staining could be found. This was caused by the lead in the fuel and the operation mode of the engines.

Since the crews of the Dambuster aircraft

flew very often before the raid and even at the day of the attack there was no time for the ground-crews to clean-up the exhaust residue. This is why I chose to paint on the heavy version.

I started the process with the application of a dark brown mix. The mixture I use is 80% thinner and 20% color. In this case a mixture of Revell enamel colors flat black and flat brown. This was applied in several layers. Finally it looked like this:

Then I airbrushed a mix of flat white, black and a drop of brown thinned to a ratio of 70:30 (thinner:paint) to the affected surfaces:

Since it came out too white, bright, clean and too regular I used Tamiya Weatherine Sets to tone it down and give it a more irregular and worn look.

With these improvements I was pleased with the result.

With this operation finished I just had to connect the detachable wings carefully to the fuselage and then the Lancaster Dambuster of Guy Gibson was finished.

Here are some more detail fotos from the completed model:

Sun-protection curtain and armoured glass for the Flight-Engineer.

Bomb-aiming tool

Cockpit details

Left position-light

Left formation lights

Crew entrance

Left undercarriage leg and bomb (to be exact: mine)

Front turret with reflector-gunsight

Rear turret with reflector gunsight

Tail-Navigation-Lights

And some airframe pictures with and without engines running:

Engines and lights working

Same with working engines from backside

With this picture I close my blog.

Special thanks go to my friend Sven Müller who gave me a lot of aid during the build and without his help this build would not have been possible. So thanks a lot Sven!

And I also want to thank Richard for his support and giving me the possibility to

write this blog.

Next step for me will be the building of accessories for our Dambuster Diorama.

I will build a small van and a complete crew:

The crew set from AC-Models

and the 10hp-vehicle from Tamiya.

I hope that I will have the opportunity next year to return to Telford. We plan to exhibit our Dambuster Diorama there. Maybe then you could take a live look at our Dambuster Lancasters.

I hope that you liked my blog and that I was able to offer to you some hints and tipps for building this model and integrating Richards beautiful electronic set.

Stay healthy and thank you for looking into my blog. All the best for you.

Best regards

Kai