The kit includes a nice color illustration of "S for Sugar", one of the few Lancs to fly more than 100 operational missions and I decided to represent this aircraft. A question that came up when planning this effort was the demarcation of the RAF dark earth and dark green camouflage colors. Some models and a few photos showed feathered transitions between green and brown while others showed a much sharper, masked transition like that between the camouflage and black fuselage sides. For the first time, I threw a question out to the Hyperscale discussion group and got some very helpful comments and facts in response (thanks guys). According to these people, the green/brown camouflage was sprayed with large masks that were laid on top of the aircraft. Instances where period photos show feathered transitions can be attributed to field repairs and touch-ups.

The first step in painting this large kit was to prime the fuselage seams to show any areas that needed further puttying and sanding. Once satisfied, I primed the entire upper surface with light gray acrylic. I’ve found this color to be easier to spray through my airbrush than white acrylic. Panel lines were pre-shaded using the undersurface color Polly Scale Night Black acrylic and the whole thing sealed with several layers of Future.

The first phase of the topside camouflage was to paint Model Master Dark Earth enamel over the entire wing, tail and fuselage upper surfaces, being careful not to completely cover the pre-shading.

The advice I’d received from the Discussion group gave me an idea on how to paint the dark green camouflage scheme. I measured the dimensions of the kit and compared them to the instruction’s plan view and found the kit to be close to 300% larger. Using a copier, I blew up the top plan view by 300%. I then used a glue stick to paste the thin copy paper onto thick construction paper. The dark green mask sections were then cut out with extra paper over the edges to help mask off the sides of the fuselage and wings. My goal was to create a very slightly feathered transition between the colors. By taping the masks to the surfaces with small ~2mm offsets and spraying the Model Master Dark Green enamel perpendicular to the masks at ~15psi, I was more or less able to achieve the desired effect.

After painting and sealing the bulk of the camouflage, I was still left with one little piece to paint that would prove to be one of the most annoying parts on the entire model. This part, the Front Turret Shroud, was poorly molded and quite twisted. I used hot water to soften the part and torqued it close to its correct shape. Having left this part and the three Turrets off of the model while painting, I figured it would be easy to spray and drop into place. After priming the Shroud like the rest of the fuselage, I used the same Dark Earth enamel and sprayed this small part. To my consternation, the color that slowly developed with each thin coat was markedly different (darker) than what had developed on the rest of the model. After stripping and repeating the process, I still wound up with this considerably darker shade of brown. It was like comparing dark semi-sweet chocolate with light milk chocolate regardless of the number of paint layers.

In a panic, I went again to the Discussion Board and confided my problem to the experts. Several people came forward and really helped me figure out, mostly by the process of elimination, what was really going on (thanks Russ!). The solution dawned on me as I was thinking, not in the macro world of pressure settings, paint mixes or layers, but in the micro world of paint droplet size and density. When spraying the bulk of the model, I used a coarse spray and higher than normal pressure in order to cover the large surface area evenly and in a reasonable time. The paint droplets from my trusty old Paasche H thus would have been relatively large, but with a low density of droplets per unit area due to the higher than normal pressure and distance of my spray nozzle to the surface. When I sprayed the little Turret Shroud previously, I used the same air pressure and paint mixture, but adjusted the paint flow rate way down and sprayed quite close to the small part. This produced very small paint droplets of a relatively high density. This was the reason the same bottle of paint and thinner could produce such different colors. I tested my hypothesis on a similarly primed sheet of Evergreen, and found that I was correct. With another primed sheet and Turret Shroud, I blew them the same way as the rest of the kit and now the Shroud’s color matched the rest of the Lanc. Mystery solved.

I was warned that the kit decals silvered badly and in some cases were the wrong color. To solve this problem, I bought the AeroMaster sheet and used the wing and fuselage roundels. In order to prevent silvering, I pre-coated the model with several layers of Future, then used Future as a setting solution for some of the decals. This helped to hide the clear film on several of the decals. On the large fuselage side letters, I removed the sizable areas of clear film prior to application (easy on the P’s and O’s, but a bit tougher on the S’s).

After applying the roundels and letters, I was faced with a little problem of missing decals. The kit was either missing or did not come with the various black walkway, and red undersurface stripes. ‘Al’ down at D&J Hobby came to the rescue with some generic Microscale 1/16" thick decal stripes in both colors. Also missing was the famous quote from Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering; "No enemy plane will fly over the Reich Territory". If any readers just happen to have this decal lying in the bottom of their spares box, let me know.

Restraint was used when weathering this model. Period photos of the Lanc showed that the engine exhaust flowed along the black nacelles and up and over the wings on all but the outermost engine manifolds. Only in a few cases did photos show small amounts of exhaust flowing over the wings from these outer-most manifolds, while the rest of them produced nearly opaque parallel flows of thick chalky residue. The engine exhaust was a combination of airbrushed tan acrylic and brush-applied gray artists pastels.

I blatantly copied a feature of Graham Green’s wonderful 1/72 Manchester by adding wire hydraulic lines to the landing gear and washing them with diluted black acrylic and liquid soap. The radio antennas were made using invisible nylon thread. Holes were drilled into the solid one-piece tail fins and CA glued into place. Then they were stretched taught and taped to the canopy and glued to the two small knobs on top.

Enough of this guy’s hot air, let’s hear the bottom line! Well, if I could turn the clock back about 6 months, I would have waited for the SAM Lancaster modeler’s guide which I’m sure would fill in many of the holes in my research. With one of the good after-market detail sets, I think this kit could be made into a very attractive and fairly accurate representation of this WWII classic, raised panel lines and all. The only problem facing the modeler after completing this behemoth, is where to find enough tarmac to land this baby. It won’t fit into my spacious office model display case, so it now sits in a bit of a precarious open spot where unsanctioned handling and breakage is a real threat. I’ll just have to banish my bosses and co-workers from my office.