This is the very first Hase Lance I have seen anyone has worked on. Does look typical Hase with just enough for the interior in this scale for their 72nd series. Then I haven't seen whats in the Airfix box either, but it seems like they may have much more to offer if it is like their recent releases such as their B-17 and Whitley. Yet doesn't cost as much either . Will watch this with great interest.

Chuck, truth be told, I bought this one instead of the Airfix kit because it was cheaper . I got it on sale for $25. These things were obscenely priced around $60 here in the US when they came out back in 2005. The new Airfix Lancs have a lot more detail throughout. I know because I have a B.II in the stash. The fit on this model is great except for the nacelles. The radiator mouths did not fit well and the joins to the wings were not stellar either. You can see the Tamiya putty at the joins. The lack of cockpit detail I can deal with since it’s black and it’s 1/72.

Jeff, the small oval windows were there because the Manchester/Lancaster had a secondary requirement to be able to serve as a transport. Many of these were painted over in service. You need to ch4ck photos of the plane you’re modeling. They were finally deleted late in the production run. These windows are one area where this kit beats the new Airfix model. The Hasegawa windows are the right size. Airfix’ are too large.

I haven’t done much in the last week due to 1:1 scale life, but hope for some progress in the coming days. Thanks for looking!

Thanks Louis. I built the original 1958 Airfix Lancaster when I was a kid, and then I did the Matchbox Lanc in the mid 1980s. The Matchbox kit was surprisingly nice.

Looking good John, I'll be watching your progress. And as my dad was fond of saying when asked how cold it was outside, he retorted "colder than a well diggers a** in the Klondike."

Great work John, your Lancaster is coming along wonderfully!
That Polar Vortex looks epic on TV - we have a hard frost here in London, a beautiful clear sub zero start to the day, but I'll bet that it is nothing compared to what people in North America are having to deal with!
Take care

Thanks guys. Jeff, it’s going to be finished as EE139 “The Phantom of the Ruhr” in standard camo. “The Phantom” was a Lancaster “centurion” , having survived 121 missions. I have the Kitsworld decal sheet for this plane when it was assigned to 550 Squadron, coded BQ-B. The noseart printing on this sheet is beautiful, but the code letters are too bright. I’m waiting for some dull red code letters to arrive and then will decide if I finish it in the aforementioned codes or as HW-R. This was the code the plane wore when originally assigned to 100 Squadron.

I finally got some paint on this one. The brutal cold in Chicago over the past month discouraged airbrush use. I just didn’t feel like exhausting warm air out of my basement workshop with outside temperatures well below 0 degrees F. Back to the Lanc!

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.