Clunkmeister

I tried several times to get him to come ride jump in the freighter, and he never would. He allowed me to take him around the patch a few times in a 206, that was all. My aviation connections apparently helped get him a coveted spot on a Veteran’s crew ride on the first cross Canada tour of the Mynarski Lanc, he was thrilled but at the very last moment when we got him to the airport, he caught a case of the shakes and he couldn’t even get out of the car. We had to take him home. He didn’t even want to see het fly. He talked often about when their crew was together, they never so much as caught anything more than a few holes from stray MG rounds, but he he often talked about his friends getting “coned” by searchlights and when it happened, it never turned out well for the bomber. He talked about not being able to see the Messerschmitt fighters until they were right up close to the bomber, and how he was glad to finally get a brand new Lanc X, because his tail turret was equipped with the .50 caliber guns like the American bombers instead of the little .303s his Halifax had. He felt much safer in the Lanc just for that reason. He enlisted at 29, and was the “old man” of his crew. Am Blessed to have known him.

Oooooh, James, if I didn’t have a big Lanc to finish, and then write a review and build a 1/32 Dak, I’d be on my knees groveling to build this... this kit has serious coolness baked into it!

Looking stellar, Danny!

Love those big Hamilton paddles!

429 had a long history throughout WW2. Sqn ID of AL. I have his logs and I hope to figure out his ship, then build one in honor of him and his crewmates.

My ex Father in Law and Grandfather to my children, W.O. Wilvers was a great man. Flew with 429 Bison Sqn. Trained as an air gunner in the Fairey Battle, moved to OTU in the Wellington, then Ops in the Halliebag lll followed by the Lancaster X. They stayed postwar to ferry Allied POWs from Italy and Germany to England. He’s third from the right, and a spittin’ image of my daughter. I expect Nige will notice the radiator intakes.

So far, at least a little corner of it.

Martin, do the Czechs and Slovaks still use them, or have they changed completely yet?

Ahem, ummmmm.. Everybody here does realize that we have a maniac on our hands, right?

Mine is on the list of To Do things, Smitty. I second Rob’s take on the engine mounts. What a nightmare! They all spline in, if I remember correctly, with the mainspar, the landing gear boxes, and the cockpit floor. Plus, you have a cannon mount to deal with and a fully detailed engine. And then, all the cowls and radiator have to line up. The biggest issue I ran into is making perfectly sure that that front to vent right behind the radiator is perfectly inline with everything else. If you don’t get it right, that piece will have a definite downslope towards the radiator, which kills the look and lines of the aircraft. Slow and easy is the way. And deal with those wing fillet rivets that look big enough to have been used on the Ark Royal.

Lolololol @Martin.

The seat isn’t done and I have yet to build a mount for it, but it will feature a comfy cushion, because late 50s, early 60s RCAF SAR birds featured plenty of store bought seat cushions to fill the space meant for a parachute. I’ll make a cushion out of Milliput because that thing looks like a plank. It was peacetime and the old Lanc wasn’t going to go round and round with a Soviet submarine. They had the Neptune and the brand new Canadair Argus coming on line for those fights. Be kind. I realize most of this won’t be seen when the canopy is on. So no, I didn’t get goofy with the details or the filling of the floor seam. The RCAF Lanc has a solid canopy to, so it’ll be even less visible

I also tried blacking out the rear of the pedestal. I’m thinking that after some doctoring up, through the birdcage it’ll pass for the open space that was there on the real ship. Maybe

Alrighty then. A small update on this. I’ve been playing around with some green tones. I don’t like the RAF interior green they give us in a bottle, so I’ve been mixing a bit of interior green into the RAF stuff until I came up with this. I think it looks convinced enough to me, so I’m going with it. I’ve seen pics of a non skid walkway on these, so I added one. I’ll shorten it up a bit, but this is as it is right now. It’s way to stark for me I think I’ll hit it with my old black standby, RLM66. All I’ve done for mods is to lower the pilot’s pedestal to slightly less freeboard, mess with the seat to where it’s ok, and add the bare minimum of missing plumbing, plus holders for maps and the “How to Fly an Aeroplane” book. Comments welcome

And 17 cats.

This must be the oddest kit I’ve ever run across. It’s a neat subject, but I have no idea how or even if, it builds. I. Don’t think I’ve ever seen one built.

Agree with Hubert on the gearblegs. It’s a combination of the subtle that makes a truly world class build. Model on, Sir Nige.

Not Viktor the Cleaner?

Yup. I 86’d mine last week.

John, back I come to this and here I stay for awhile, soaking it all in. One thing. Be very, very careful of that Alclad clear. I’ve used it on occasion, and it never, ever really dries. After 4 years, my Gotha is STILL tacky and will show fingerprints. On the advice of Brian (Outgtcha) in the other site, I switched to MM lacquers, and they are absolutely idiot proof, so I’m safe.

I learned the Cyrillic “alphabet” as a young kid. I should brush up on it and be able to speak almost English, in code.

Martin knows Kavorknik. I expect Ivan does now as well. Lololol

This is an awesome thread guys. Nige, your Lanc is going to be brilliant, and Martin, what can I say? Nige, my good friend Martin has been documenting my builds with pictures previously unseen in the West for more years than I care to admit. The man’s a veritable fountain of the obscure. Every single last build I’ve needed documentation on, Martin, UNASKED, has gone to his crazy search engine and library, and given me priceless pictures. I’m in continuous and lifelong debt and awe.