My Xmas Wellington

[Peter s]

Hi All,

Every Xmas I get a kit from my wife... usually a pre-order and inevitably its late  😀 I actually rather appreciate a random present in Feb but after the S.79 appeared and disappeared from the listing there was much female ranting about Airfix so I asked her to get me a Wellington 1A/C as it was in stock and would definately arrive on time......

Even in childhood I've never done a wellington however I've seen some other builds here and been really impressed by the quality of the new tool multi-engines so I was looking forward to it. The kit instructions are for the two most obvious choices so I searched eBay and found some very inexpensive AML decals for Polish aircraft in RAF service. The early in this set was a veteran from 301 squadron with some cool nose art and 20 bomb mission symbols. I like to weather so step 1 was find some good real images to see how far I could take it....

 

(I've actually finished so I'll post the rest of the images in one go this afternoon... apologies for skipping a few steps. some phone pics were too blurred to use). More to follow when the mods approve the pics;

[Peter s]

Post 2 : the build.

Dead easy. As with many airfix new tools there's an insane amount of internal detail that you'll never see from the outside. However one modeller in 10,000 with the skill to cut away panels could actually replicate the Wellington on display at Brooklands. The structure of the geodetic frame on this kit is incredible. 

Airfix mark in green the internal parts you don't need to fit. I actually fitted all of them apart from the floats and flares. I'd recommend anyone else do the same as the extra bulkheads add rigidity to the whole kit..... plus you've paid for them! 

Unusually and very kindly because they'd be fiddly as hell to fit the kit comes with the outer bomb bay doors already fitted. These would be 6 doors a side otherwise not all in perfect alignment so be careful handling the fuselage. For bomb bay shut just trim them off and fit the solid one part close bay doors bit. Undercart doors are the same. Oddly the engines are installed THROUGH the lower wing and tolerances are tight so again be careful not to snap them off.

Also very kindly all the clear parts fit in from the outside. As I'm not a modeller in 10,000 I left all clear parts off until the end. I didn't bother painting any internal either knowing full well the initial spray of black would cover all exposed internal grey parts.

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Took me about 4 hours doing nothing else to get to this stage. Earlier this year I discovered a number of advantaged to priming in black tamiya (XF1) and for an aircraft that will be black underneath its a no brainer.

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Black can be an unforgiving colour so can show you defects that you need to tidy before going further. I was unusually neat so no nasty glue marks anywhere.

[Peter s]

Post 3:

Firstly here's the real ones:

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The final one especially has had a hard life. Heavy chipping on the aluminium leading edge of the wings and some filthy marks on the canvas. This is what I'm aiming for without going OTT and wrecking it.

AML also sell a mask for about a fiver designed for this kit. Its not hard to cut your own but at that price and to do a top end job I'd recommend them. First I sprayed vallejo dark earth (model air)

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Then applied the masks and sprayed my own green. This is 50/50 Vallejo BS dark green and US dark olive drab. I find their British BS green too green and the olive improves it a lot.

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The vertical stabiliser is a separate part and can be left off until the end. This makes painting it black easy. Many wellingtons have the cammo finish in front of the tail but my decal sheet showed it extending all the way back (like a Lancaster) so I went with that instruction.

Apologies for some missing pics but this photo shows a few extra touches. I used those little coloured stickers (approx 6mm round) intended for wall planners to make a wavy line between the upper green/earth and the lower black. I oversprayed the Tamiya black with the Vallejo model air equivalent as it has a similar shine to the uppers. I blobbed some slightly darker green onto the wings to replicate rapid repairs on base. After I applied a few coats of varnish these practically vanished. I also mixed up a pea sized blob of burnt umber oil paint in approx 5mls odourless turps and using a 1" flat ended soft brush applied this front to back over the kit. This both acts as a wash, a filter and creates some mild streaking.

Coat of varnish applied then decals. PRAISE BE! very few tiny stencils  😀

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Note the engine rings.... airfix show them as gunmetal and the Brooklands one has shiny silver. The real pic I'm copying also shows steel. These are actually stainless steel but the effects of heat can turn them all sorts of colours. This is why traditionally modellers paint a steel part bronze. I masked the rings and sprayed will Vallejo duraluminium then applied a tiny amount of AK interactive true metal copper. Not too far off the other two pics I think.

There's a clear panel in the rear of the bomb bay so I held off finished the bay until the final coat of varnish was applied.

My sole complaint with this kit is a poor bomb load. Just 6x 250lb when it could carry 18 easily. No problem though... a swordfish donated another 6x 250lb which I fitted in a double stack in the middle cell. These bombs are painted model colour yellow ochre.

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Small bit of styrene used to hold the bombs apart. These were hand painted black and become invisible.

Kit is almost finished now so it joined its bigger cousin on the shelf while I fitted glass and breakable bits.

The decal sheet showed it fully glazed however the kit has hard panels to cover the glass if not appropriate for your build

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I used 0.2mm brass wire for the aerials.... this is a long run and they sagged (I quite like that though) more than on smaller aircraft. My wife's hair has been used on occaisson and has a few advantages!

[Peter s]

FINALLY! I used to make VERY large models (1/16 >) semi-professionally and I've some big backdrops left over. Jessops the high street photo shop used to be very good at printing photos onto A3. I've kept a few and they came in handy for this project. My other backdrops are from ebay. Pricey but you pay for quality.

The ladder is part of the kit & the figure is a slight adaption of the running BoB pilot from airfix's old RAF crew set. I put a pilot in the cockpit (not included) plus 2 old matchbox crew in the turrets. These 2 are almost impossible to see which may be why Airfix didn't bother with crew. The pilot adds to the kit though. Enjoy and let me know what you think

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I do like those engine rings! 

(Should have mentioned earlier that the wing chipping was done using a small sponge. The exhausts with Mig dark rust pigment..... another relic from my big tank days)

[T2B]

You have done a marvellous job and I really like the diarama displays you have. 

 

But you dont have to be a 1:10,000 to reveal the interior as I did it on a build last year and did a full build thread on it.

 

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But recreating the geodetic framework on the exposed fuselage would require that special modeller which I'm not! 

[Peter s]

On the contrary. That is a rare model indeed! I'd be amazed if even 1 in 10,000 would pull that off. I wondered about expanded metal mesh to replace the frame? I used to have similar stuff for making bedstead armour on T34s. if you remember chemistry class the stuff in the Bunsen tripods are similar

[T2B]

I pondered trying to produce a geodetic framework but decided it was far beyond me.

 

But thank you for your positive comment but really the thought of doing it is far scarier than the reality or actually doing it. Having the main wing spar as part of the build process in the kit makes it so much easier.

 

I did a similar reveal with the Shackleton MR.2 a year or 2 earlier which also has a build thread here. Feel free to have a look and comment if you wish? 

[Peter s]

I remember your Shackleton well. Funnily enough it's one of my favourite planes... I grew up under the flight path to Glasgow airport (btw I noted a few "wees" in your new Wellington build thread) and I used to see them come in regularly.... You heard them ten mins before you saw them. I haven't done one yet. In part it's because when I do one I want to do it really well and the plain grey scheme will need a lot of tricks to make it interesting.   I've a coffee mug full of flying hours so if/when that resumes im getting one. In the meantime I'm still trying to do the perfect coastal command Beaufighter (also plain grey). I've done a few but never quite done them well enough. 

[T2B]

The Shackleton was one of my last builds using brushes and Humbrol enamels before diving in and converting to airbrushing and a host of other new skills. I have often wondered about doing it again with my new skills but with so many other good kits to challenge me, I'm not sure I could commit to all that work again. 

 

And if you were an Airfix member before the club was suspended you can remedy your flying hours, I've just recent found that out and cashed my stash in for 3 kits. But sadly the Shack is a Series 11 and you can only get upto Series 8 with 48 Tokens! 

[Peter s]

The Shackleton was one of my last builds using brushes and Humbrol enamels before diving in and converting to airbrushing and a host of other new skills. I have often wondered about doing it again with my new skills but with so many other good kits to challenge me, I'm not sure I could commit to all that work again. 

 

And if you were an Airfix member before the club was suspended you can remedy your flying hours, I've just recent found that out and cashed my stash in for 3 kits. But sadly the Shack is a Series 11 and you can only get upto Series 8 with 48 Tokens! 

Thanks for that tip! How do you redeem? 

I keep going back to certain kits to try and do "the perfect...." Apparently a form of insanity is attempting to free hand a perfect circle. I do Beaufighter and A4/b instead ☺

[T2B]

To dedeem you need to have been a member at the time when the club was suspended and unable to renew. You'll also need a Flying Hours Passport.

 

But the Airfix Beaufighter is a beauty (pardon the pin) and I really need to get round to doing mine, maybe before the new Beaufort arrives? Not too bothered about the A4/b though. 

[T2B]

Duplicate Post Deleted! 

[Peter s]

To dedeem you need to have been a member at the time when the club was suspended and unable to renew. You'll also need a Flying Hours Passport.

 

But the Airfix Beaufighter is a beauty (pardon the pin) and I really need to get round to doing mine, maybe before the new Beaufort arrives? Not too bothered about the A4/b though. 

I THINK I redeemed the last lot about the time the club ceased. I'll check if I have a passport.

 

The Airfix Beaufighter is my favourite twin prop. The Blenheim is equally good but given that you get all the parts for both fighter and bomber versions in the box I've always thought it would make more commercial sense to recognise that in the instructions, provide decals for both versions and not have separate fighter and bomber releases. I've wanted a Beaufort for years so that was ordered as soon as I saw it. If you've seen my posts on the top gun A4 I'm a big fan of the A4b as a quick cheap jet which (canopy apart) builds really well. i find it a fun build it you don't worry about accuracy. I think it's a good copy of the one displayed in the intrepid air museum but it seems that's a very none standard aircraft. I read that a lot of museum A4s are a bit weird. The kit armaments are very limited so I've ended up playing with a lot of aftermarket bits. I did one with a nuke on the centreline.