Avro Lancaster Mk.10 SR by Scott Bregi (Hasegawa + Leading Edge1/72)

Hasegawa's 1/72 scale
SAR Lancaster Mk.10 SR

by Scott Bregi

Royal Canadian Air Force
Search and Rescue (SAR)
Lancaster Mk 10 SR
“FM104”

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Introduction

Hasegawa 1/72nd scale Avro Lancaster B Mk II Special Edition conversion with Leading edge Decals and resin parts.

Here is my first foray into the “Heavies” as I normally build single and twin engine fighters and such. I first started this project as an Out of the box project but after perusing the internet I came across some pictures of a very colorful Lancaster sporting the vivid colors of the Search and Rescue arm of the RCAF. I couldn’t pass it up! All those drab green/brown over black schemes just didn’t catch my eye. After a little bit of internet research I soon found out that the plane in the pictures is still with us. You can follow the restoration process at FM104’s home page at: http://www.lancasterfm104.com/history.html

History

FM104 was built at Malton, Ontario in April 1945. She was based at RCAF Stations Greenwood, Nova Scotia and Torbay, Newfoundland. FM 104 at retirement was a Mark 10 SR (for Search and Rescue).

Lancaster FM 104 was finally struck off charge on 10 Feb. 1964 when she was sold to the RCAF Assn, Toronto region, so she can take part in the Official Retirement of the Lancaster celebration at Canadian Forces Base, Downsview on April 9 1964. For the next 35 yrs FM104 resided at a memorial park mounted on a plinth (or pedestal for us colonials!) near the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) grounds.

Luckily she is currently undergoing restoration and will be on permanent loan to the museum for indoor display. FM104 is being restored to its original wartime colors, as it left the factory at Malton in 1945.

Construction

As I had stated earlier I had planned this as an Out of the Box build. But then I heard Leading Edge (LE) was re-releasing their earlier decal sheet to coincide with Hasegawa’s release of the Lancaster. While waiting for them to release the set I saw that Hasegawa was releasing the kit as a special edition with the Leading edge decals and resin bit provided in the box I was elated! I also added the beautiful Eduard pre-painted zoom photo etch sets to fill out the cockpit. In order to do a post war Lanc you have to give it new treads! All post war Lancs had the treaded tires not the smoothies that were installed during the war. So the nicely cast Belcher Bits resin wheels where a welcome addition.

The build was fairly straight fwd with no real glitches noted during assembly. Most of the problems I had stemmed from the fact that this was my first large model I have done in 20 some odd years and found that it was a bit wieldy during the handling process. I kept banging the wings on the lamp above my desk and in the paint booth during the finishing stages. I actually placed rubber tubing around the outside of my paint booth to prevent nicking up the paint job.

A fair about of scratchbuilding was done concerning antenna masts and boy there are quite a few and small details not included in the LE set like the rear camera track. Luckily the Hasegawa kit contains all the turret blanking plates in the kit so this sped up the assembly process. The biggest problem I had was installing and blending in all the windows as FM104 only had the small windows aft of the nose and below and aft of the navigation dome. I made a master for the two sonobouy operators’ windows and stretch formed new windows from Squadron Thermaform®.

The kit was finished as per the kits direction with the addition of the cockpit details from the Eduard PE set. All the windows were cemented in place with superglue and puttied over with Tamiya Basic putty. After setting for two weeks I block sanded the areas flush with the fuselage and slopped on a coat of Gunze Mr. Surfacer 500. After cleaning up all seams I then primed the model with Mr. Surfacer 1000 and repaired all panel lines. After this was done I had put the model down to set so everything can cure for 1-2 months. Even after this lengthy period of time the windows all had shrunk necessitating another round of putty and Surfacer.

All the sensor and antenna masts were made using stretched sprue and added to the model just prior to the final paint job. The radar antenna aerials on the sides of the fuselage were made from an Eduard 1/72nd scale Mosquito boarding ladder and added after the model was finished.

Brake lines were added using .015 lead fly tying wire. Antenna wires were fashioned using material used for making stretchable waist bands.

Painting and Markings

The model was finished with a combination of lacquers, enamels and acrylics. The entire model was given an overall coat of Alclad II aluminum. I used a copy of the original painting instructions to paint and mark my model as the LE instructions have a few inaccuracies in them. This is mainly in measurements in placing the markings. Thanks Clive!

I then masked off the bottom of the fuselage along the stiffener plate and sprayed Testor’s Model master aircraft Gray enamel and set aside to cure overnight. I then masked off the wingtips, horizontal tail and upper fuselage and primed with Testor’s flat white lacquer.

Next, I pained the upper fuselage Model Master Classic white (gloss) and the wing tips and tail surfaces Model Master florescent red enamel. This was then set aside to cure for a week.

I then painted the areas around the engine nacelles a custom mix color to replicate the silver aluminum paint that was used on the RCAF Lancasters.

The remaining surfaces were given a differentiating panel effect using 7 shades of Alclad II lacquers masked off using Tamiya tape. Surprisingly the Day-Glo red matched the decals almost perfectly so I did not have to overspray them in order to get them to match.

The model was gloss coated using Future and decaled as per LE directions. It took copious amounts of Solvaset to get the decals to hunker down on the model. Otherwise the decals went on quite nicely. After the decals dried I then over coated the model using Testor’s Semi gloss lacquer. Panel lines were highlighted using artist oils thinned with Turpenoid. I kept weathering to a minimum as these acft were kept in a high state of cleanliness by their crews.

Conclusion

Well there you have it. Another fine addition to my collection! I would like to give a great word of thanks to Clive Reddin. Who is an integral part FM104’s restoration team. His insight and immense knowledge of FM104 was a great help in the completion of this project. I only wish I lived closer to Toronto so I could drop in and say hello and see the real McCoy!