Clunkmeister

Hey folks, Regarding needle vs paddle blades. Were Brit birds all built with needle blade props, or did they receive the paddle blade Hamiltons after a certain date? If they did, my understanding is wrong. I always thought Canadian production got Hamiltons after a certain date (local supplier and all), and the British aircraft received them when required for maintenance.

Serious coincidence. I have 35 years of attempting to not break airplanes and driving automobiles to destruction.

Bill, your swami is correct!

Johnny Fossil! Get out of comfy chair and belly up to your bench. Your Horten won't get built by positive waves of good intention. Feeling groovy positive waves, man.

Yes, thanks for that. In that pic, the new metal and paint are extremely obvious. For once in a very long time, I'm actually SUPER excited about a build. As in I can't wait to get home and start cutting plastic.

Actually I was wrong and had them backwards. 213 is flying today as the CWH Lanc, so she's alive and well. 104 is in B.C. being restored. My Bad, sorry. Carl, I had them reversed and dangit, I may swap numbers and build 104, undecided. But no worries, either or, they're darn near identical. I even just found one of those unique dark antenna housings that these Lancs had on the rear greenhouse. Left over from an RCAF Mustang build where I used the Leading Edge set....

That would be the easy way of course, but it's not difficult either way. I guess if someone was selling one for a few bucks I'd buy and use one to save the time and dust. Gotta check out references though to see if 213 originally had a Martin turret, because if so, the patch panel on the fuselage would show farther forward...

Phil, the Gizmo is the upper receiver for a British L1A1 SLR. The SLR is a variation of the FN FAL that was redesigned from metric to inch measurements by Longbranch Arsenal (CAL) in Canada and was then adopted in some form by almost all Commonwealth Nations. Nations who used the Metric system used the original metric pattern FAL, while Canada, N.Z., Australia, and the UK adopted the Inch Pattern. The USA came real close to doing so as well, but instead opted for an redesigned and improved Garand known as the M14.

The retired RCAF rescue fleet makes up the majority of surviving Lancaster bombers left on Earth, so I'm really hoping to bring the old girl to life in miniature, and as Hubert said, honor those who flew these aircraft to save lives rather than take them. Aircraft 213 is now in B.C. and getting the restoration she so richly deserves.

More like day, month, and YEAR I finish. I'm aiming for this July as I'd like to take it to the Nats in August, but who knows. Unexpected self inflicted issues with the F-5F pushed the the start date back an entire month.

Carl, that’s a Blessing in disguise. Mounting that engine correctly made my forehead bigger.

Martin conducting a clinic again. Sublime, my friend, sublime.

And probably the easiest way to eliminate the windows is to carefully, tediously cut pieces of Evergreen to fit, invent many new English words along the way, sand it oh so carefully until it’s just right. Then repeat 17 or so more times. Just kidding, I’ll install the windows, fill the edges, scribe over them as needed, then prime. I know enough cuss words as it is. I don’t need any more.

LOL, yeah, I had to get it. I build a lot of HPH stuff and having the color instructions, plus reference material right there is gonna be nice. Plus, I can stay on LSM while I build and torment you beggars.

thing that was bothering me was the upper turret location. I never really looked how it was molded, and I had nightmares about having to cut off the raised aerodynamic fairing ring from the fuselage. Imagine my relief when I checked and found that they molded the ring separate. Whew! But alas, HK didn’t thoughtfully include a turret blanking plate like they did on the B-25, so I’ll need to bend and cut one myself.

Hehehe. Right on, Carl!

Taking stock here. Yep, these locator slots will need filling. Aaaaand, I’m looking a bit sideways at the size and shape of those exhaust cutouts.

And quick, before I change my mind, let’s cut us a hole for a window. No going back now!

I’m thinking I’ll be doing 213, as she hasn’t been modeled much.

So with the F-5F nicely finished and sent off, I redid my model room and as promised, I immediately jumped into my next build, the glorious HKM Avro Lancaster Mk.X. Yes I said Mk.X, because I’m doing a Mk.X with plenty of postwar mods for the Maritime Patrol and S.A.R. Mission. Everyone is doing wartime birds, so I’m gonna be a bit different, just because I can There will be a touch of very minor kitbashing involved to get this to where I want it to be. I expect I’ll follow in the footsteps of the Intrepid Nige, and modify the seat and possibly a bit more in there. An Airscale panel will be present, and hopefully either HGW or RB belts. If other cockpit goodies become available in the next couple months, I’ll use them as needed. The rest of the build will be OOB, following the tweak list as shown in Nige’s thread. Side windows will be blanked off and an extra window cut into the rear fuselage for the lookout positions. Flame dampers, upper turret, and all guns will be eliminated. I’m waiting on decals that were promised in a month or so and I’m also hoping for pics of the sonobuoy and other mods by Lanc guys in Canada. Jeff was looking into that for me. So onward ho!

Toot finir! My French is worse than my Russian.

FUBAR

Hubert, what you lack in quantity you easily make up for in quality. I still remember some of your epic racer builds and conversions. That Mystery Ship shook me to my core.

Not a conversion, but close enough. Still 7.62mm.