Hasegawa's 1/72 scale
Lancaster B.I Grand Slam

by Chris Wauchop

images by Brett Green

Hasegawa's 1/72 scale Lancaster Grand Slam is available online from Squadron.com

This is Hasegawa's 1/72 scale Avro Lancaster B.Mk.I with Grand Slam bomb. My model represents a machine from 617 Sqn. RAF during the attack on the Arnesberg Bridge in 1945.

The Grand Slam version of the Lancaster B.I featured faired over forward and upper turret positions, and an open bomb bay to accommodate the huge 10 ton (22,000lb) "earthquake bomb". The Grand Slam bomb was developed to destroy fortified structures that were otherwise impervious to aerial bombing.

Hasegawa provides all the parts needed to accurately build the Grand Slam version of the Lancaster in their Limited Edition kit number HAS00819. No additional cutting is required, as the bomb bay is supplied as an insert.

Construction was completely straightforward with almost perfect fit of all parts.

Relatively few enhancements were made:

• Eduard's exterior photo-etched detail set (72450) was used.

• A yellow circle added to top of the pilot's seat

• Some filler (Milliput White) was required around the fuselage side windows and, following examination of reference photos, one of the starboard side windows was filled in and overpainted.

• The ends of all gun barrels were hollowed out using a new scalpel blade

Paint

Most of the additional effort was expended on the paint and markings.

All paint was applied with the Testor Aztek A470 airbrush fitted with the fine tan-coloured tip.

The kit includes the markings and colour scheme used on this aircraft.

Lower surfaces were first painted with a mix of Tamiya X-18 Semi-Gloss Black with XF-1 Flat Black in a 50/50 mix, with a dash of XF-64 Red Brown added.

Upper surfaces were painted Gunze Sangyo H72 Dark Earth (after an abortive coat of Tamiya Flat Earth - just did not look right), and H330 Dark Green.

The wheel hubs were first painted silver, followed by a heavy application of the black/brown mix.

Decals

Kit fuselage were used with the exception of the fuselage roundels (which were too large anyway) and fin flashes. The only criticism that I have of the kit is the red in the roundels is too pale.

Unfortunately, my client wanted this particular aircraft so the kit decals had to be used for the codes and serials, but I think that the result doesn't look too bad.

All decals were applied using Gunze Sangyo, Mr Mark Setter and Mr Mark Softer. They performed flawlessly.

Weathering

Exhaust stains were first sprayed with a black/brown mix, then the centre of the stain was oversprayed with Tamiya XF-57 Buff.

In two photos of this particular aircraft, which appear in SAM Publications' "Lancaster Modellers Datafile", it can be seen that the upper ventral turret fairing has been removed. The area underneath this fairing appears to have been left unpainted, with a darker coloured round panel covering the hole where the turret was previously installed.

These two photos are still from movie footage. After completion, I discovered that I had about 3 seconds of this footage on DVD.

The teardrop shaped area under the fairing was painted silver, and the round cover was initially painted a wood colour to suggest unpainted plywood. This combination looked disturbingly like a fried egg, so I repainted the circular cover Dark Green instead. The area was toned down with the black/brown mix to blend in with the surrounding camouflage.

Panel lines and various dirty patches on the upper surfaces were emphasized using the thin Tamiya Red Brown / Flat Black mix thinned around 80% with alcohol. Some panel lines and hinge lines on the lower surfaces were post-shaded with 100% Flat Black which, in the right light, shows up subtly against the black mix of the airframe.

Paint chipping was done with a very sharp Prismacolour Silver Pencil.

A very thin wash of Tamiya X-18 Semi-Gloss Black was brushed around the canopy framing.

Hasegawa's 1/72 scale Lancaster B.Mk.I Grand Slam is a beautiful kit of a fierce looking bird!

Click on the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Model and Text Copyright © 2007 by Chris Wauchop
Images Copyright © 2007 by Brett Green 
Page Created 29 October, 2007
Last Updated 24 December, 2007

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