This could also come under the heading ” What I did with 2 HK kits and a bunch of 3D bits”.
Many years ago a bloke named Fred Harris, IPMS doyen and my modelling mentor, showed me this scratch built model he was working on using fibreglass and aluminium – a 1/32 Avro ( GAF) Lincoln. This was long before the plastic models were even a consideration. Fred ( seen here ) passed away in 2018 and I ended up as custodian of his unfinished model for a time. I was intending to complete his model but not long after the HK models plastic model became available and as those who have seen my previous posts, I’ve since made a couple of them in various scales and decided to use this kit to build a Manchester ( coming soon ) and… complete Fred’s legacy and build a 1/32 Lincoln.
Fred Harris – Absolute modelling legend.
Fred’s Lincoln fuselage with some of the spare parts from the first issue of the HK kit.
It took a little while to gather references and plans and then the project started to take shape.
It was going to take 2 Lancaster fuselages cut strategically forward and aft of the mid line to make a basic Lincoln fuselage with minimum effort, new turrets, new wings outward of the inner engine line, new engines, new front end, new rudders and a whole lot of minor changes.
Anything that I could use from the HK kit was suitably assembled and the rest, as mentioned above, was created using 3D CAD techniques that took the best part of a year to cobble together – here’s a brief overview
Wifey Karen with some of the 1/32 Lancastrian stock.
Rather than go through a blow by blow description of each design modification I’ll pop up a photo montage here which will show most of what you see in the above graphic in their final 3D printed form.
The whole nose section is a combination of vacformed plastic for the frame and 3D printed resin fuselage forward section. There was a lot of putty involved in the final shaping.
The upper turret utilised my 3D parts and brass 20mm barrels intended for use with a Skyraider.
The wings were the hardest part and were made in sections from 3D printed resin.
I think we’re getting the picture. Lots of printing, fettling, adhesion and believe it or not but the wing subsections contain quite a lot of those plastic bread ties used as internal structure, filler and tabs.
I made the decals from scratch using photopaint and Windows Publisher based on images found in Stewart Wilson’s book on the subject.
Laser printed on clear and white decal sheet I found these quite acceptable thus avoiding any interaction with decal manufacturers.
With the finish line in sight it and the 2025 ModeExpo looming it was time to get things finished.
Thankfully the Mazda 6’s cargo area was just big enough to cater. ( Photo taken prior to completion to test the custom box )
…and here it is on the comp table with other 1/32 entries ( Banana for scale thanks to a fellow modeller )
It sort of dwarfed the others and needed its own table ( there’s more up the other end ).
and here’s how we went. No good in the category but it scored best RAAF subject for the show.
Not the best angle that.
and then a few months later we scored a gong at the Northern Area Modellers comp.
and that’s the end of that chapter. I was going to attend ScaleACT and compete with it after that but decided not to for various reasons.
Next comes the Manchester in 1/32 and I’ve got another Lincoln to do in 1/48 – maybe a Mk31 longnose ?
Just checking to see if you got this far. This is an Avro Doncaster. Go on – look it up. ( You’ll probably find it on uncleles1 on facebook, or maybe not. )