A08019 1/72 Vickers Wellington MkIC

[Heather Kavanagh]

It has been far too long. If I have an excuse, it is that I lurk here regularly, but do most of my project updates on another forum. Also, many of my 1940 obsession builds are sadly not Airfix kits, and not really allowed to be seen here except in passing.

Vickers Wellington MkIC, L7842 KX•T, No 311 (Czechoslovak) Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, Honington, Suffolk, October 1940.

No 311 Squadron was a Czechoslovak-manned squadron of the Royal Air Force in the Second World War. It was the RAF's only Czechoslovak-manned medium and heavy bomber squadron. It suffered the heaviest losses of any Czechoslovak formation in the RAF. During the war 511 Czechoslovaks serving in Allied air forces were killed. Of these 273 (53%) died while serving with No 311 Squadron.

 

The squadron was formed at RAF Honington in Suffolk on 29 July 1940, although RAF records give the official date as 2 August. It was crewed mostly by Czechoslovaks who had escaped from German-occupied Europe. Some were airmen who had trained with the Czechoslovak Air Force, escaped to France, served in the French Air Force in the Battle of France and then been evacuated to the UK. Others were soldiers who had served in Czechoslovak Army units in the Battle of France, been evacuated to the UK and then volunteered to transfer to the RAF Volunteer Reserve in order to serve in No 311 Squadron.

The squadron was equipped initially with Wellington MkI medium bombers, which were soon replaced by Wellingtons of MkIA and IC. From 16 September 1940 the squadron was based at RAF East Wretham in Norfolk as part of Bomber Command's No 3 Group, whose commanding officer was Air Vice-Marshal John Baldwin. He said No 311 Squadron "put up a wonderful show" and had "the finest navigators in Bomber Command".

On 6 February 1941, six of the squadron's Wellington MkIC aircraft took part in a raid on Boulogne-sur-Mer in German-occupied France. On the return flight one aircraft, L7842/T, the subject of my build, suffered navigation problems. Then it ran low on fuel, its commander Plt Off František Cigoš mistakenly judged that they were over England and he landed at Flers in northern France. Both the aircraft and its crew were captured. The Luftwaffe repainted KX-T in German markings and transferred it to its Erprobungsstelle (experimental and test facility) at Rechlin–Lärz Airfield in Mecklenburg.

 

After the end of the war, 311 Squadron was disbanded as an RAF unit and became the 6 letecká divize ("6th Air Division") of the reformed Czechoslovak Air Force.

The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson; a key feature of the aircraft is its geodetic airframe fuselage structure, which was principally designed by Barnes Wallis. Originally to have been called the Crecy, the aircraft was renamed Wellington, one of two bombers named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, the other being the Vickers Wellesley. Development had been started in response to Air Ministry Specification B.9/32, issued in the middle of 1932, which called for a twin-engined day bomber capable of delivering higher performance than any previous design.

After initial success on day bombing missions at the start of the war, the Wellington and Hampden squadrons were switched to night operations after increasing losses to German defences. During 1943, it started to be superseded as a bomber by the larger four-engined "heavies" such as the Avro Lancaster. The Wellington continued to serve throughout the war in other duties, particularly as an anti-submarine aircraft.

It holds the distinction of having been the only British bomber that was produced for the duration of the war, and of having been produced in a greater quantity than any other British-built bomber. The Wellington went on to be built in 16 variants and two post-war training conversions. The number of Wellingtons built totalled around 11,460 of all versions. On 13 October 1945, the last Wellington to be produced rolled out.

 

(Information and data edited from the Wikipedia entries.)

 

The Wellington kit was released in 2018, and is a joy to behold and build. I built it straight from the box, barring masking tape harness for the pilot, and included the entire internal detail as provided in the box. Painting was ColourCoats enamels, and Humbrol and Revell Aqua acrylics for detail work. I used an Eduard masking set for the clear parts, and design and made my own masks for the aircraft markings. The Wellington MkII has since also been released by Airfix, and is patiently waiting its turn on the bench.

As part of my over-arching 1940 obsession, I decided 2023 should be the year I finally give Bomber Command some love. I had already built the Airfix Whitley, and the Blenheim MkIV, acquired both versions of the new-tool Wellington, a 1975 boxing of the Short Stirling, a Valom HP Hampden, Revell HP Halifax, and patiently waiting for the Ffrom Fairey Battle to complete the set. Stretching my rule that aircraft must be in squadron service during the period January to December 1940, I have allowed myself the luxury of including the Short Stirling, Handley Page Halifax and Avro Manchester, even though these aircraft were not truly fully operation until the beginning of 1941.

When I finally complete it, I shall recount here how I decided to create an early Stirling Series 1 from the venerable Airfix kit. Something to look forward to!

[Ratch]

"sadly not Airfix kits, and not really allowed to be seen here except in passing.. "

Management position has changed a little. They're happy for non-Airfix kits to be shown demonstrating modelling techniques - but they obviously don't want other brands promoted on here. Understandable really.

Nice builds as usual Heather.

[SD45elect2000]

I really like the Wellington kit as well, I think I need another one.

good luck on the Hampden front end clear parts ! I’m thinking of using vac parts instead.

it’s a challenging kit.

Randall

[Heather Kavanagh]

Management position has changed a little.

 

 

Oh, that’s good to know. I won’t abuse it, though!

[Heather Kavanagh]

good luck on the Hampden front end clear parts ! I’m thinking of using vac parts instead.

it’s a challenging kit.

 

 

I managed to build it without too many tears. You are right, the clear parts were a pain. I found the nose parts a smidge too wide. My fallback option was to use the Falcon vacform bits intended for the Airfix Hampden! Anyway, it looks okay if you stand far enough back!

 

 

Apart from the Battle, I know have a full set of early war British bombers.

[SD45elect2000]

I managed to build it without too many tears. You are right, the clear parts were a pain. I found the nose parts a smidge too wide. My fallback option was to use the Falcon vacform bits intended for the Airfix Hampden! Anyway, it looks okay if you stand far enough back!

Apart from the Battle, I know have a full set of early war British bombers.

 

 

I’m working toward the same goal, also waiting for Battles. Currently building the Vickers Wellesley a contemporary of the Fairey Battle.

 

 

Randall

[Heather Kavanagh]

I’m saving a Wellesley for when (if I live long enough!) I start working on the Mediterranean and North Africa portion of my obsession. For now, it’s Northern Europe only.

[paul71]

its a nice looking kit heather, noticed you did the bombs the correct colour for 1940.

I must get around to doing my bombers at some point.

paul

[Matthias Muth]

Wow, it is an excellent building. Hope for the Stirling soon.

Matthias

aka modelldoc

[Heather Kavanagh]

Wow, it is an excellent building. Hope for the Stirling soon.

Matthias

aka modelldoc

 

 

Thank you!

 

 

 

 

A sneaky peek!

[Dominic Thomas]

Heather, excellent, inspiring post, as always.

What is the significance of the red tails on some of the bombs?

[Heather Kavanagh]

Heather, excellent, inspiring post, as always.

What is the significance of the red tails on some of the bombs?

 

 

It denotes the bomb has been fitted with a time delay pistol. I am led to understand the delay could be set for anything up to an hour after the bomb had landed. A typical load for a bomber could include random red-tails, plus incendiaries in special cases. Those are the aluminium boxes in my photos.

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

Looking forward to your Stirling Heather, I've build one a long time ago, it was a lot of work.

Can I ask why you went with the very old Airfix moulding rather than the much more modern tooling from a certain Italian manufacturer?

I can see that you are already improving it with plastic card inserts around the vastly overscale control hinges.

[Heather Kavanagh]

Hi PMM!

I had seen others build the Italeri kit, and the work they opted to do filling anpparently overdone panel lines. At the time, I didn’t want a Stirling, but when I realised it fitted my obsession the MkI kit was hard to find - and still quite expensive.

I decided, as I needed to do a fair amount of remedial work - I wanted an early Series 1 aircraft, when they didn’t have the mid-upper turret, and some other differences - I’d be happier buying an old Airfix kit and updating it. The gruesome tale is recounted on the other forum, but I will add a topic here in time so you can all have a good laugh at my efforts!