I've made a start on the Lanc, and my first job was to reposition those windows. I put a piece of card behind the existing cut-out and drew the shape of the window. I cut the card out carefully then glued it, using PVA, in the correct position on the fuselage. When this was set, I used a 0.85mm drill in the four corners.
Then I used a larger (1.2mm) drill to "open up" some of the space. When roughly cut to shape, I used masking tape to mark the outer edges so that I could reproduce the window accurately. All this was checked with calipers as the work progressed.
And this is it just about ready for the window "glass" to be inserted. The next task was to cut a "blank" out of plasticard to fill in the space left by the incorrect window. This was simply placing the plasticard behind the window, drawing the outline, checking it several times as it was filed to shape and then gluing it onto a backing of more plasticard ready to be glued into place.
As shown here. Notice I've already glued the windows in place - ME453 as with all later Lancasters, didn't have windows fitted, so these have been put in to fill the gaps, which will be filled with Milliput putty and then sanded smooth.
To add some extra detail I've decided to open up the crew door so that I can show the flare chute, fuselage ribbing, trackway for the rear gun ammunition feed...and perhaps even the elsan! All will of course have to be scratch built!
I've filled in the window positions along the fuselage sides on the exterior using Milliput, next I'll be doing the interior though I'll probably use a strip of plasticard since it will take a lot of putty.
The filled-in window apertures have received a skimming of Squadron green putty followed by a light sanding. (The brown colour was simply the remains of some paint left over from doing the wings!)
I've cut some lengths of microstrip ready for laying along the length of the fuselage opposite the door opening, having filled the area that will be visible with putty. To try to determine the positions of the frames as accurately as possible, I enlarged some drawings to 1/48th scale, cut them out and.........
...positioned it over the fuselage, transferring the ribbing to the top and bottom edges of the fuselage. The position of the flare shute can be seen, I'll be using this drawing to help me make one from plasticard.
The microstrips are glued in position using Gator Glue and the precision applicator.
I have the Eduard photo-etched flap set to fit, so the first task was to carefully cut out the present moulded flaps on the wings. This was a relatively easy job because the lines marking the flaps were deeply engraved.
This set really is a work of art.....the detail is so good and fine, the down-side of course is that each item needs very careful handling to avoid creases and bends. It's another work of art making sure you understand the instructions - all shown by means of drawings but no words, so reading, looking, thinking and re-reading is the order of the day. I'm using Loctite Ultra Control Gel CA glue to assemble the set.
All the fine ribs, shown on the left as narrow triangles, have to be accurately positioned on the flat area of the flaps. Accuracy of assembly IS important due to the fact that control rods have to be slid through each rib once they are in place.
These are the unpainted flaps, it's easy to see the narrow triangular ribs in this shot and the metal (or plastic!) control rods that go through each one.
And this is the finished job, with their initial coat of paint, looking greyer in this shot than in reality. It's a pity that the "more interesting" looking flaps are the upper ones which are fixed to the underside of the wings and therefore not so easy to see in the model.
There has been criticism of the nacelles on the Tamiya Lanc, so I decided to buy the Belcher Bits set, shown on the right. The pieces are made from a grey-coloured resin and are finely moulded, although some cleaning up was inevitably necessary with a sanding stick. I particularly liked the exhaust shrouds which stand slightly proud of the engine panels and look especially realistic if the time is taken to thin the fore and aft edges to give a better "scale thickness" of metal. The radiator flap can also be put in your chosen position - in my case fully open!
And here is a photo of all the nacelles and their associated pieces with their initial coat of "black" paint, they are positioned on a reference photo of the real thing. Note the lip, or edge where the nacelle interfaces with the Tamiya part.
Here is the relevant part of the Tamiya nacelle with the replacement Belcher offering placed underneath it. Note the rear end of the assembly has already been cut off, this will be stuck onto the flap which is lowered.
I put some tape around the nacelle body to help me cut accurately, then with my razor saw I cut a millimetre or two infront of the intended line so that I could later trim it back. This method, by the way, is NOT how the Belcher instructions tell you to do the job - they say glue the whole Tamiya nacelle/undercarriage bay in place on the wing, then remove the front portion. I thought a greater accuracy and ease of working would be achieved by doing the cuts before gluing in place. I may have made extra work for myself!!
After a bit of tidying up, the Belcher nacelle seemed to fit very nicely into the remainder of the Tamiya part.
A shot of the nacelle incorporating the undercarriage and prior to putting the engine in place. This was a dry fit to test the assembly.
After a lot of fiddly work, the Belcher engine nacelles were secured in place and the assemblies glued to the wings. Note the cut out for the flaps. The undercarriage for the Tamiya Lancaster looks good in my opinion, but it is tricky to fit, and different people have different approaches as to when and how to put it in position. I had made mine up completely as a unit, including adding the brake lines and the wheels. I needed to put the undercarriage in at this stage and prior to putting the top wing on. I also wanted to add some plasticard sections to represent the fuel tanks which would be visible to the left and right of the undercarriage bays, behind the internal wing structure. I found the undercarriage a very tight fit so to avoid the risk of damage I thinned the walls of the undercarriage nacelles.
The completed undercarriages ready for the brake lines to be added using lead wire. This wire is inert and will stay in place exactly where it's put, so it's very good for this purpose.
And here is one of the undercarriages in place. The work that is still necessary to get a good fit with the Belcher engine nacelles is obvious.
Firstly I sprayed the whole of the upper surfaces of the iwngs with Vallejo Dark Earth. Then I enlarged the drawings in the kit's instructions to 1/48th scale, cut out the Dark Earth sections and put them in place using thinly rolled strips of Blu-Tak. I then sprayed the Dark Green.......
....with the results looking like this for the wings and the tailplane surfaces. I wanted to make the Lancaster look like a used one, and they are noted for the white streaking on the upper wings caused by the high lead fuel that was used, so at this stage I airbrushed a very thin white paint on.
So the upper wing surfaces are looking like this, with a very light spray of black/brown also added flowing back across them. But further difficulties were in store......
...because the fit of the upper wing half to the lower around the top engine panels was not a good one.
So a considerable amount of time, Squadron Green putty and sanding was necessary to achieve anything like a smooth finish.
The "ribbing" on the ailerons is very heavy and looks completely wrong, so I've decided to take it off completely. Using a chisel X-acto blade the plastic was carefully pared off then sanded using various grades of Squadron sanding sticks, finishing with Very Fine.
The job was soon finished as this composite of the starboard upper and lower views shows.
As a bit of "light relief" from the on-going engine/wing problems, I decided to make a start on the cockpit, navigator and wireless operator's positions. These areas were going to be enhanced using the Eduard photo-etch sets.
The pilot's seat and adjacent controls in the initial stages. The "leather" padding has yet to be added at the back, as are seat belts and a pilot figure, of which more later.
A view showing the rear detail of the seat.
An "early view" of the w/ops equipment on his bench.
And some of the navigator's equipment.
A view from the front of the pilot's seat (recently updated), with the navigator's table resting behind......
.....and one showing a bit more detail from a rear three-quarter angle. Notice the morse key on the w/op's. table! The "mysterious" yellow circle on the armour plating behind the pilot's head has yet to be added.
I've been making progress with the interior of the cockpit area including the bomb-aimer's compartment. The Eduard PE set doesn't include the handrail leading down into the compartment so I decided to build one using stretched sprue. I enlarged a drawing to the correct size then used it as a template to make it.
And here is the finished handrail placed in position. The Flight engineer's seat in its folded position and his panel and various switches have also been added. There is debate whether wartime handrails were painted yellow or black, I'm obviously favouring the yellow option because the nose section of 467 squadron DV372 F for Freddie in the Imperial War Museum is in as original condition as any Lancaster, and the handrail there is yellow!
The cockpit canopy is such a prominent feature of the Lancaster that I wanted to do justice to it. I have the Eduard paint mask to assist with getting the framing right, and I also decided to have the sliding window by the pilot's seat in the open position so that the seated figure could be easily seen and looking more authentic. This photo of an unidentified 463 squadron pilot was my inspiration:
Fortunately the two glass panels immediately by the pilot's and flight engineer's postions are provided as separate items: this to enable you to decide whether to have the "blister" on both sides, or as with later Lancs only on the starboard side. So it was a relatively simple job to cut out the glass sliding panel.
The next stage was to mask up the canopy. I should have "dipped" the canopy in Klear to give a shiny hard finish first, but I forgot to do this!
After an hour or so the masking was complete. The tricky areas are the astrodome and its edges and the blisters on the top and starboard sides. Elliptical masks are provided for the latter two, but liquid mask (Maskol in my case) was applied to the edges and to the astrodome; these areas are evident in pink.
Since the inside of the cockpit was going to be easily seen, I wanted to paint the inside of the canopy framing so out came the interior green. I later realised this was a big mistake......the inside of the framing was black!! I carried on with the exterior camouflage whilst pondering my options for correcting my gaff.
The interior showing the offending interior green.......
...and the corrected canopy interior which I hand-painted using black matt enamel paint and a 000 brush. Also shown is the seated pilot giving the "thumbs up" signal. I have altered the angle of the left arm so that it will (I hope) be outside the cockpit and giving the signal to the groundcrew.
The completed canopy in Dark Earth and Dark Green.
I've made a start on two of the figures, the pilot and the groundcrewman signalling engine start up. Having cleaned the moulding lines off them, they were firstly primed with a coat of Alclad grey primer. I'm using paints from the "Warhammer" acrylic range to paint them: shown here is "Elf flesh", "Skull white" and "Bleached bone"!!
Both figures were then given a sprayed coat of light grey/ blue - this base coat will have nothing else done to it. Shades will be added as the painting progresses.
A flesh base coat was applied, a 0000 sable brush was used for accuracy.
After a bit of work, the groundcrew figure is just about finished....front and ....
....back! The panel pin in the piece of dowel will give some idea of how much bigger these pictures make the figure appear. More work on the pilot now.
The beginning of the pilot with the initial flesh tones added, and with a hour or so's work.......
....a more complete looking pilot. Although I intended using the Warhammer paints throughout, I found that the Vallejo acrylics brush-paint even better than Warhammer, which is fortunate because I have a far wider range of Vallejo. But would the seated pilot fit well with the canopy in position with that arm out of the window????
Thankfully, yes! It's starting to look promising for the scene that I want to re-create.
I spent an evening adding the tiny details to the inside of the canopy such as the grab-handles in front of the pilot, the bar which is lowered to slide the window back etc. The latter can be seen in this picture. Time to proceed with other parts of the cockpit now: the control panel, flight engineer's panel etc.
I've made a start on the Lanc, and my first job was to reposition those windows. I put a piece of card behind the existing cut-out and drew the shape of the window. I cut the card out carefully then glued it, using PVA, in the correct position on the fuselage. When this was set, I used a 0.85mm drill in the four corners.
Then I used a larger (1.2mm) drill to "open up" some of the space. When roughly cut to shape, I used masking tape to mark the outer edges so that I could reproduce the window accurately. All this was checked with calipers as the work progressed.
And this is it just about ready for the window "glass" to be inserted. The next task was to cut a "blank" out of plasticard to fill in the space left by the incorrect window. This was simply placing the plasticard behind the window, drawing the outline, checking it several times as it was filed to shape and then gluing it onto a backing of more plasticard ready to be glued into place.
As shown here. Notice I've already glued the windows in place - ME453 as with all later Lancasters, didn't have windows fitted, so these have been put in to fill the gaps, which will be filled with Milliput putty and then sanded smooth.
To add some extra detail I've decided to open up the crew door so that I can show the flare chute, fuselage ribbing, trackway for the rear gun ammunition feed...and perhaps even the elsan! All will of course have to be scratch built!
I've filled in the window positions along the fuselage sides on the exterior using Milliput, next I'll be doing the interior though I'll probably use a strip of plasticard since it will take a lot of putty.
The filled-in window apertures have received a skimming of Squadron green putty followed by a light sanding. (The brown colour was simply the remains of some paint left over from doing the wings!)
I've cut some lengths of microstrip ready for laying along the length of the fuselage opposite the door opening, having filled the area that will be visible with putty. To try to determine the positions of the frames as accurately as possible, I enlarged some drawings to 1/48th scale, cut them out and.........
...positioned it over the fuselage, transferring the ribbing to the top and bottom edges of the fuselage. The position of the flare shute can be seen, I'll be using this drawing to help me make one from plasticard.
The microstrips are glued in position using Gator Glue and the precision applicator.
I have the Eduard photo-etched flap set to fit, so the first task was to carefully cut out the present moulded flaps on the wings. This was a relatively easy job because the lines marking the flaps were deeply engraved.
This set really is a work of art.....the detail is so good and fine, the down-side of course is that each item needs very careful handling to avoid creases and bends. It's another work of art making sure you understand the instructions - all shown by means of drawings but no words, so reading, looking, thinking and re-reading is the order of the day. I'm using Loctite Ultra Control Gel CA glue to assemble the set. 
All the fine ribs, shown on the left as narrow triangles, have to be accurately positioned on the flat area of the flaps. Accuracy of assembly IS important due to the fact that control rods have to be slid through each rib once they are in place.
These are the unpainted flaps, it's easy to see the narrow triangular ribs in this shot and the metal (or plastic!) control rods that go through each one.
And this is the finished job, with their initial coat of paint, looking greyer in this shot than in reality. It's a pity that the "more interesting" looking flaps are the upper ones which are fixed to the underside of the wings and therefore not so easy to see in the model. 
There has been criticism of the nacelles on the Tamiya Lanc, so I decided to buy the Belcher Bits set, shown on the right. The pieces are made from a grey-coloured resin and are finely moulded, although some cleaning up was inevitably necessary with a sanding stick. I particularly liked the exhaust shrouds which stand slightly proud of the engine panels and look especially realistic if the time is taken to thin the fore and aft edges to give a better "scale thickness" of metal. The radiator flap can also be put in your chosen position - in my case fully open! 
And here is a photo of all the nacelles and their associated pieces with their initial coat of "black" paint, they are positioned on a reference photo of the real thing. Note the lip, or edge where the nacelle interfaces with the Tamiya part.
Here is the relevant part of the Tamiya nacelle with the replacement Belcher offering placed underneath it. Note the rear end of the assembly has already been cut off, this will be stuck onto the flap which is lowered.
I put some tape around the nacelle body to help me cut accurately, then with my razor saw I cut a millimetre or two infront of the intended line so that I could later trim it back. This method, by the way, is NOT how the Belcher instructions tell you to do the job - they say glue the whole Tamiya nacelle/undercarriage bay in place on the wing, then remove the front portion. I thought a greater accuracy and ease of working would be achieved by doing the cuts before gluing in place. I may have made extra work for myself!!
After a bit of tidying up, the Belcher nacelle seemed to fit very nicely into the remainder of the Tamiya part. 
A shot of the nacelle incorporating the undercarriage and prior to putting the engine in place. This was a dry fit to test the assembly.
After a lot of fiddly work, the Belcher engine nacelles were secured in place and the assemblies glued to the wings. Note the cut out for the flaps. The undercarriage for the Tamiya Lancaster looks good in my opinion, but it is tricky to fit, and different people have different approaches as to when and how to put it in position. I had made mine up completely as a unit, including adding the brake lines and the wheels. I needed to put the undercarriage in at this stage and prior to putting the top wing on. I also wanted to add some plasticard sections to represent the fuel tanks which would be visible to the left and right of the undercarriage bays, behind the internal wing structure. I found the undercarriage a very tight fit so to avoid the risk of damage I thinned the walls of the undercarriage nacelles. 
The completed undercarriages ready for the brake lines to be added using lead wire. This wire is inert and will stay in place exactly where it's put, so it's very good for this purpose.
And here is one of the undercarriages in place. The work that is still necessary to get a good fit with the Belcher engine nacelles is obvious. 
Firstly I sprayed the whole of the upper surfaces of the iwngs with Vallejo Dark Earth. Then I enlarged the drawings in the kit's instructions to 1/48th scale, cut out the Dark Earth sections and put them in place using thinly rolled strips of Blu-Tak. I then sprayed the Dark Green.......
....with the results looking like this for the wings and the tailplane surfaces. I wanted to make the Lancaster look like a used one, and they are noted for the white streaking on the upper wings caused by the high lead fuel that was used, so at this stage I airbrushed a very thin white paint on.
So the upper wing surfaces are looking like this, with a very light spray of black/brown also added flowing back across them. But further difficulties were in store......
...because the fit of the upper wing half to the lower around the top engine panels was not a good one.
So a considerable amount of time, Squadron Green putty and sanding was necessary to achieve anything like a smooth finish.
The "ribbing" on the ailerons is very heavy and looks completely wrong, so I've decided to take it off completely. Using a chisel X-acto blade the plastic was carefully pared off then sanded using various grades of Squadron sanding sticks, finishing with Very Fine.
The job was soon finished as this composite of the starboard upper and lower views shows.
The pilot's seat and adjacent controls in the initial stages. The "leather" padding has yet to be added at the back, as are seat belts and a pilot figure, of which more later.
A view showing the rear detail of the seat.
An "early view" of the w/ops equipment on his bench.
And some of the navigator's equipment.
A view from the front of the pilot's seat (recently updated), with the navigator's table resting behind......
.....and one showing a bit more detail from a rear three-quarter angle. Notice the morse key on the w/op's. table! The "mysterious" yellow circle on the armour plating behind the pilot's head has yet to be added.
I've been making progress with the interior of the cockpit area including the bomb-aimer's compartment. The Eduard PE set doesn't include the handrail leading down into the compartment so I decided to build one using stretched sprue. I enlarged a drawing to the correct size then used it as a template to make it.
And here is the finished handrail placed in position. The Flight engineer's seat in its folded position and his panel and various switches have also been added. There is debate whether wartime handrails were painted yellow or black, I'm obviously favouring the yellow option because the nose section of 467 squadron DV372 F for Freddie in the Imperial War Museum is in as original condition as any Lancaster, and the handrail there is yellow!
The cockpit canopy is such a prominent feature of the Lancaster that I wanted to do justice to it. I have the Eduard paint mask to assist with getting the framing right, and I also decided to have the sliding window by the pilot's seat in the open position so that the seated figure could be easily seen and looking more authentic. This photo of an unidentified 463 squadron pilot was my inspiration: 
Fortunately the two glass panels immediately by the pilot's and flight engineer's postions are provided as separate items: this to enable you to decide whether to have the "blister" on both sides, or as with later Lancs only on the starboard side. So it was a relatively simple job to cut out the glass sliding panel.
The next stage was to mask up the canopy. I should have "dipped" the canopy in Klear to give a shiny hard finish first, but I forgot to do this! 
After an hour or so the masking was complete. The tricky areas are the astrodome and its edges and the blisters on the top and starboard sides. Elliptical masks are provided for the latter two, but liquid mask (Maskol in my case) was applied to the edges and to the astrodome; these areas are evident in pink.
Since the inside of the cockpit was going to be easily seen, I wanted to paint the inside of the canopy framing so out came the interior green. I later realised this was a big mistake......the inside of the framing was black!! I carried on with the exterior camouflage whilst pondering my options for correcting my gaff.
The interior showing the offending interior green.......
...and the corrected canopy interior which I hand-painted using black matt enamel paint and a 000 brush. Also shown is the seated pilot giving the "thumbs up" signal. I have altered the angle of the left arm so that it will (I hope) be outside the cockpit and giving the signal to the groundcrew.
The completed canopy in Dark Earth and Dark Green.
I've made a start on two of the figures, the pilot and the groundcrewman signalling engine start up. Having cleaned the moulding lines off them, they were firstly primed with a coat of Alclad grey primer. I'm using paints from the "Warhammer" acrylic range to paint them: shown here is "Elf flesh", "Skull white" and "Bleached bone"!! 
Both figures were then given a sprayed coat of light grey/ blue - this base coat will have nothing else done to it. Shades will be added as the painting progresses.
A flesh base coat was applied, a 0000 sable brush was used for accuracy.
After a bit of work, the groundcrew figure is just about finished....front and ....
....back! The panel pin in the piece of dowel will give some idea of how much bigger these pictures make the figure appear. More work on the pilot now.
The beginning of the pilot with the initial flesh tones added, and with a hour or so's work.......
....a more complete looking pilot. Although I intended using the Warhammer paints throughout, I found that the Vallejo acrylics brush-paint even better than Warhammer, which is fortunate because I have a far wider range of Vallejo. But would the seated pilot fit well with the canopy in position with that arm out of the window????
Thankfully, yes! It's starting to look promising for the scene that I want to re-create.
I spent an evening adding the tiny details to the inside of the canopy such as the grab-handles in front of the pilot, the bar which is lowered to slide the window back etc. The latter can be seen in this picture. Time to proceed with other parts of the cockpit now: the control panel, flight engineer's panel etc.