1:32 Avro Lancaster B.Mk.I/III Canopy/Wheel Masks (for Border Models BF-010 kit)

The glass of a four-engine bomber piece by piece

The Avro Lancaster carried a crew of seven and three defensive turrets on top of that, so it has more glazed areas than most models a builder puts on his table. The B.Mk.I and B.Mk.III forms differed mainly in the origin of their engines, British against license-built American ones; outwardly they were practically identical and from 1942 until the end of the war they flew over Germany side by side in the same squadrons.

The scope of the package matches the subject. It covers the glazing of the pilot's station, the front position, the mid-upper and the rear turret and the landing gear wheels. The number of shapes is in a different league from a single-seat fighter, and so is the time the same work would take with tape.

• The pilot's station, the nose, both turrets and the wheels
• It applies to both engine forms of the bomber
• Shapes for the large Border Models kit
• Dozens of individual shapes on the sheet

Divide the work into stages by assembly. The turrets can be covered and sprayed separately before being seated into the fuselage, while the pilot's station is better finished after the halves are glued, so that the color transition does not jump anywhere. Between stages put the model down so that nothing presses on the films already applied; a folded corner cannot be straightened once it has been sprayed.

The size of the subject brings practical worries with it. The finished model reaches a span of nearly a meter, so you need room on the table and a free hand while spraying. Holding a piece like that without scuffing anything calls for a jig or at least prepared supports, and on top of that the certainty that the covered places will survive being moved several times.