Tamiya
1/48 Lancaster B Mk. I
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It
would be nice to say the the fuselage halves went together easily, but
that was not the case as it was not possible to get them together
without steps in
several locations. Before
assembling the halves, the mating edges were chamfered so that after
the initial gluing thin CA could be flowed in along the seam
to strengthen
it. However, after gluing with Tamiya Extra Thin cement but
before the CA was applied the seams were inspected and the stepped
areas were
located. A long
section of the top was sawed along the seam line with a JLC saw and
reset. After that the seam was reglued and the CA was
applied,
followed by taping off the seams and filling the remaining chamfer with Tamiya grey putty. Next came several sessions of sanding. Montex masks were
used, although
they were incomplete in a few spots, and in other spots I was not happy
with the fit and substituted Tamiya tape. The turret
internal parts
were painted flat black and gun metal as appropriate. The nose turret required a little grinding to clear the gun mount. On the early kits Tamiya reversed
the orientation of the tail gun
mounts, so they were re-reversed which required removal of a gusset like
part which wasn't in any pictures I could find anyway.
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