The 411:  Minicraft's Classic British WWII Lancaster was always a nice kit.  This release makes it better than ever - pre-decorated canopy plus enhanced Cartograf decals.  You can't go wrong - it's only $19.99!

Prior to the early 1990’s when Minicraft obtained the tooling for this model, the 1/144 scale Lancaster was very hard to find in the USA.  Many kits in the series were released in Revell’s awesome 1982 “Squadron 144” lineup, but the “Lanc” was not one of them.  Modelers in the USA rejoiced when Minicraft first released the Lancaster as part of their 1/144 scale legacy series and it has been fairly easy to find since.

Minicraft Models has improved their 1/144 Lancaster kit with new, enhanced decals and pre-decorated canopy.  If this isn’t enough, Minicraft includes their new, clear Minicraft Stand.
 
The kit’s 50 parts are molded in light gray and clear plastic.  Flight surfaces are delineated by fine, engraved lines and restrained, petite raised lines separate panels.

Minicraft is known for selecting striking and unusual markings for many current kit releases, and this kit does not disappoint with two notable paint schemes included.  The first is the classic camo-top with black bottom and sides, but they are from a Royal Canadian Air Force unit based in England, which is an interesting twist. 

Dramatic artwork by Ryan Dorling.  Ryan is from Suffolk, UK.

The other scheme is also out-of-the-ordinary; it represents the Royal Air Force 35 Squadron in a black-and-white scheme of a Lancaster used to tour the United States after WWII.  If you already have a previous release of the kit, buying a pair of these to add both schemes to your existing collection will make an interesting display.

Kit contents:  Note that the clear Minicraft Stand is included with this release!

The pre-decorated canopy simplifies construction.  As noted in other reviews, perhaps the most challenging part of pulling off one of these small-scale wonders is getting the fine canopy framing lines painted.  Minicraft has done this tedious and potentially frustrating work for you utilizing the Tampo printing process, which provides the ability to print fine details on a 3D surface. 
 
While I have not actually built this kit, I have built most others in the series, and this one should go together fairly easily into a nice finished model.  I noted just a handful of very shallow sink marks, which should not bother anyone except the most fastidious contest modeler. 

There are a few injector pin marks, but again, only the most picky of modelers will want to bother with them.  The most visible ones are on the tires, two each.  These shouldn’t be too hard to remove.  Stay tuned for some further thoughts on the undercarriage tires on this kit.

This is a substantial model requiring two sprues for the parts.

The "Lanc" is faithfully represented here.

Nicely appointed Cartograf decal sheet.

​Engine nacelles are four pairs of parts that go together in halves, and these assemblies are attached to the wing bottoms.  Seams here will be on the underside, so they won’t really show if you decide not to deal with them.  Otherwise, I’d recommend some dry-fitting ahead of time to minimize any cleanup or putty work that might be needed after the nacelles are attached to the wings.  The remainder of the ejector pin marks are inside these nacelles, and on the insides of the undercarriage doors.  Anyone but a contest modeler is probably not going to care about these, and removing them if desired should in no way be difficult.

In addition to the intricately executed paint work already done for you, the "glass" includes an unmodified canopy!

Both paint schemes will require a bit of masking.  The 35 Squadron scheme will be the easiest to pull off; if one uses white paint as a priming base, it shouldn’t be too difficult to mask above the beltline and shoot the bottom of the aircraft with black paint to represent the post-war tour markings.  Likewise, masking of upper surfaces in a classic RAF brown-green color scheme shouldn’t add too much more difficulty and the finished product should be pleasing.

Box side gives you a nice pair of profile drawings presenting your choice of markings.  Here's another instance where you'd better buy two kits, because it'll be hard to choose between these two striking aircraft!  Canadian modelers take note--that's a RCAF aircraft!

Bugaboos with this kit are minor.  Trim off these ejector pin marks or leave them be.

Other ejector pin marks are confined to hard-to-see places if you don't want to mess with them.

The kit captures the substantial "Lanc" undercarriage nicely.

They look like Lanc props!

Three-bladed props that resemble the originals pretty well are included as well as bladeless spinners that can be utilized with the Minicraft Stand for an easy in-flight display.

Minicraft kits have good instructions with a parts map and clear construction steps.  On the right is a comprehensive painting guide so you can get that camoflauge pattern done just right.

One easy way to rate the printing quality of a decal sheet is whether or not it passes the RAF Roundel test!  Anything other than perfection in aligning the differing colors on a decal sheet will stick out like a sore thumb on a concentric circle, and Cartograf gets it right with this sheet.  Some decal sheets with British markings take the easy way out providing a separate inner circle to leave the alignment to the modeler, but Cartograf’s accuracy in aligning the colors shows here with perfect register. 
 
The Lanc’s decal sheet includes fine wing walk lines, blue fuselage windows, and striping to do the remaining plexiglass turret bubble lines if you don’t want to mask and paint them.  This sheet is more comprehensive than those for previous releases, and will add a new level of detail to the finished model.  Minicraft doesn’t scrimp when it comes to the decals they put in their kits and the Cartograf sheets that come with all these recent Minicraft releases of their 1/144 legacy kits are a good incentive to buy them even if you may already have the earlier releases

Dem Brudders are happy that the Minicraft Lancaster, already a good kit to begin with, is looking even better thanks to this latest release.  We give it an enthusiastic four thumbs up and recommend adding it to your collection!

Special thanks to Minicraft Models for providing this kit to review!

(click the photo above to learn more about this model at Minicraft.com!)

Buy the Minicraft Lancaster MK-1 at your local hobby shop today or order it directly from Minicraft.com!

BONUS MATERIAL

MODIFY IT
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I previously mentioned the ejector pin marks on the main undercarriage tires and it is here is where my biggest issue (It's minor!) with the kit resides.  The “Lanc’ is known for its prominent undercarriage with one massive tire on each strut.  In my opinion, the tires on the Minicraft kit are a tad on the narrow side, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to add a shim of sheet plastic over the ejector-pin side to thicken the tire.  Be careful that the tire doesn’t get thicker than the space between the struts for it; the struts are extra-thick and the lower parts surrounding the wheels could do with some thinning if you want to make this correction.

BUILD OTHER VARIANTS

There are a few interesting variants and conversions that would be fun to do with the Minicraft Lancaster.  Doing such work is much easier in 1/144 scale, and if you like “slicing and dicing” a model kit to come up with an interesting conversion, these Minicraft kits provide many possibilities.  With a low, low price of only $19.99, it won't break your bank to buy multiples of the Lancaster kit.  There are plenty of drawings and photos online to use as a guide for the scratchbuilding necessary for these suggested conversions.

THE DAMBUSTER

No, it's not the landing gear!  This drawing (from Wikipedia) shows the "Upkeep" bomb in its open bomb bay cradle.  The photo shows the chain-drive that put 500 rpm of backspin on the bomb.  Barnes Wallis, designer, specified that if the bomb was released at a precise speed and altitude, it could "bounce" on the water well over half a kilometer.

Perhaps the most famous variant of the Lancaster is the Dambuster.  Building a representation of the cylindrical “Upkeep” bomb shouldn’t be too difficult and modifying the bomb bay in 1/144 scale shouldn’t be too hard, either.

During the early 1950's when The Dambusters movie was being produced, the Upkeep bomb was still classified.  Filmmakers guessed what the bomb would be like, shown in this screenshot from the movie.

Learn more about The Dambusters DVD at Amazon.com by clicking on the DVD image at left.  We are an Amazon Affiliate for this product.

The “upkeep” bomb should be a simple scratchbuild effort.  Use some 0.010 or 0.015” styrene sheet and make a cylindrical “can” from two circles.  We’ll demonstrate an easy way to do this later with an update to this review.  You'll have to cut open the bomb bay doors.  You could use extra kit sprue to fabricate the cradle, as shown in the pictures above.  There are plenty of drawings and material online to help you with this conversion.

"GRAND SLAM" AND "TALLBOY"

Modified Lancasters were used to drop giant “earthquake bombs” used to attack heavily reinforced concrete targets such as bunkers and submarine pens.  “Tallboy” and “Grand Slam” were two programs.  You’d need to make a large bomb and modify the belly of a Lancaster to carry it.  Making these bombs will be harder than doing the simple Dambuster cylinder.  You could roll some sheet styrene cones or carve some balsawood forms for vacuum-forming or resin casting.

This Wikipedia photo shows a Grand Slam bomb at moment of release.

This drawing, also from Wikipedia, shows the Grand Slam bomb in its modified bomb bay.

LANCASTRIAN AIRLINER

The Lancaster was also modified for use as a passenger airliner.  From 1943, some were converted from bombers, and later, a number of Lancastrians were built from the beginning as airliners using factory infrastructure that was previously for building the bombers.  Brudder Dick converted a 1/72 Matchbox Lancaster model into the Lancastrian seen in the photo below.

Brudder Dick's Lancastrian is a 1/72 scale model.  Creating a Lancastrian airliner in 1/144 scale shouldn't be hugely difficult from the Minicraft Lancaster kit.  This picture comes from his 1/72 Large Aircraft Gallery.  You can also see his Hasegawa Lancaster B on that page.  There is a great view of the open bomb bay there as well.

SCROLL ON DOWN TO SEE WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON AT DEMBRUDDERS.COM - WE HAVE ALL KINDS OF FUN STUFF HERE!​

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