Hello again. Today I want to continue my blog with some comments on the kit-instructions and how I started with the build.
With the kit come 2 instruction-sheets. One for the MK-I- and one for the Dambuster-Version.
As I already told it's a bit extra work to implement the Dambuster-instructions into the MK-I
instructions. But since the first work to get familiar with the kit is going through and commenting the instructions this was not a big deal at all. I also integrated informations regarding the implementation of the EDUARD brass-parts, painting-advices and hints to the books I mentioned in my 1st blog-entry when extra detailing or painting is required.
Here are 2 examples how my instructions look like after commenting:
After having finished all the commenting the next step is to mark all the parts on the sprues with
their main color. This makes airbrushing much more easier since you can paint all parts which have to be painted before assembly without having to look into the instructions all the time.
This also has the effect that you get used to the parts-breakdown and the parts themselves.
When all this is done the real build can start.
Normally one would start with the cockpit as of the instructions. But for the Lancaster it's different because crew-figures have to be integrated.
I realized in the beginning that the pilot and the flight-engineer cannot be put into their respective places after the assembly due to the limited or not even available space after assembly of the whole cockpit. Secondly it became evident, that the posing of the 2 figures had
to be changed to fit into the cockpit as I wanted it to be.
So the build started with the assembly and making the 2 crew-figures fit into the cockpit in
the poses I wanted them to be in.
To find out the required changes first of all the surrounding cockpit parts have to be plugged together with gluing only done, where necessary. Therefore I first assembled the pilots seat as per the instructions (without seatbelts) and plugged the needed parts onto the cockpit platform.
In the next step I cut the pilot into several pieces so that I had the following separated parts:
- Head
- Body
- 2 thighs
- 2 lower-legs with the feet
- Left and right arm cut into each 2 pieces
Then I assembled the control-column and soon found out that is was too short to be above
the thighs of the pilot. so I added 5 mm to it with a plastic part out of my spares box and then placed the all parts into the cockpit fixing them with Tamiya-Tape where necessary.
Next step was to place the pilot-body into the seat and starting to glue all the other parts with a
pinpoint of superglue to the body. All this was accompanied by trial and error, lots of repositioning and sanding to make him fit as I wanted him to be:
Here you see the pilot finished in his final position. For better view the rudder-pedals and the control-column have been removed. In the end his feet should be on the rudder-pedals and his left hand at the control-column. You can see the massive rework and puttying on his thighs and the 2 arms. And sanding and scribing still to be performed....
Same things were applied for the flight-engineer who I wanted to place standing in front
of his control panel. To achieve this only the posing of his head and right arm had to be changed.
The original figure from the ICM-Kit is a pipe-smoker and holds a pipe in his right hand. I removed the pipe and added an index-finger pressing one of the buttons on his panel. In order to
reach this button I corrected the angle between the upper and the lower arm of the flight-engineer:
Last thing to do was to check whether the 2 figures would fit into he cockpit regarding their height and posing with the canopy attached:
There were 2 things I had to correct after this test-fit:
The right arm of the pilot had to be put further down and the pilot himself had to be shortened in body-height to leave enough space between his head and the canopy. As I wanted it to be he is now looking outward and downward of his movable window which I will pose open on the finished model.
This is all for today. I will continue next week with the next post showing how I implemented the
EDUARD cockpit-set in the cockpit. This is real enhancement when compared to the kit-parts as you will see. Looking forward to seeing you again next week.