realworkingsailor

As always, thanks to everyone for their generously kind comments and continued "likes"! Not being a regular airplane model guy, it's reassuring to know I am at least doing this model a modicum of justice! I have been intermittently busy these last few days, of course the pre-Christmas craziness does tend to interfere with model building. I've been slowly picking away at the landing gear doors. It has been an interesting challenge and I'm not totally sold that the Eduard parts are as good an upgrade as they could have been. There are a couple of issues, the first being the mounting isn't the strongest; a tiny tab on an thin flexible strip to hold the doors. Secondly, the instructions once again are not as clear as they could be. An interpreter of Egyptian hieroglyphics has an easier job of it. Eduard could at least add one or two detail shots to indicate that the little metal tab sits in an almost invisible tiny slot, and also clear up exactly how the annoying little strip is actually supposed to be glued to the underside of the nacelle. Finally, once again, someone didn't read the tape measure correctly, and the Eduard doors are too short to completely cover the landing gear bay opening. It's not too noticeable, if you didn't look too closely, but as the building, I know it's there. Were I to do this model again, I would be more inclined to keep the kit supplied main landing gear doors and use some of the Eduard parts, specifically the interior framing to, up the detail level. Oddly enough, there were no issues with the tail gear doors. But there again, just three little tabs to hold each door in place. The last major components to be assembled are the bomb bay and bomb bay doors. This has kind of brought the build full circle, as these were some of the very first parts I assembled way back when, and carefully stored away for when the time was right. The bomb beams were slotted into place perfectly after the cases for the buoyancy bags were installed. I had hoped to have things wrapped up by Christmas, but I have run into another of those annoying snags. This time, I've run out of aluminium paint. *sigh*. Not sure why that is, as there really wasn't a lot of the plane that colour (compared to the amount of black, brown and green paint I used). As usual, supplies have run out when I was in the middle of painting the bomb bay doors. Looks like I will have to put in another order for supplies, but I won't be doing that until after Christmas. Too much going on and I need to spread the holiday bills out a little bit! 🤪 Andy

If you’re still brainstorming for ideas, this kinda intrigued me: Mid 18th century landing craft. Photos from pp 30, 31 of the book “Ship Models, The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario”. Not sure if any plans still exist, but it struck me as an interesting subject. (It’s not a yacht! 😁) Andy

Have you tried Walthers? https://www.walthers.com/products/accessories/scratch-building-supplies/plastic/manufacturer_name-plastruct_inc Andy

Thanks! No stressed skin on this old bird, just old-school doped fabric on a metal frame. The fabric was layer directly on the wing frames, whereas the fuselage had wooden battens between the fabric and the frame. One of the advantages of the Wellington design, there wasn’t as much weight given over to the plane construction, so it could carry a larger payload; the Mk 1c was rated for 4500 lbs of bombs. Yeah, Airfix has done a great job with the detail in the mouldings, way better than the earlier offerings (I remember building their Wellington Mk III back in the ‘90s, there’s no comparison). Andy

Thanks, everyone, for your continued kind remarks and likes! She's got legs! While the main landing gear struts are from the kit, the main wheels and tail wheel/wheel strut are aftermarket from Eduard/Brassin. There is no real difference between the resin and styrene tailwheel castings, but the main wheel replacements have the "Dunlop Aero" stamp on the sidewalls, whereas the kit supplied wheels don't. The main wheels themselves actually snap fit into the strut, so they can spin, but they include a flat spot to simulate the weight of the aircraft bearing on the tire. The left engine is just dry fit for the moment. I'm going to leave the remaining panel off to show off some of the parts, as if the ground crew had some work to do on the engine (probably some adjustments to the timing, as the distributor was located on the right side of the engine). I have a little touch up work yet to be done on the engine paintwork and the left engine can be glued in place. Following which I can begin working on the landing gear and bomb bay doors. Andy

Looks great Kevin! You should be proud, you’re doing an awesome job! Andy

Was the prototype one continuous bent pipe or was it joined segments? Have you considered trying Plastruct tubing? If it was a segmented pipe, they also make elbows (90 and 45) in a variety of sizes: https://www.plastruct.com/collections/tubing-amp-fittings-2/butyrate#MainContent Otherwise you could try gently heating and bending some solid styrene rod of the correct diameter. I’ve done that before by gently holding it near a hot soldering iron until it becomes malleable enough, but not too soft to melt into goo. Andy

Although I foresee more fiddly bits with the landing gear and bomb bay doors, I’m too close to finishing to let something like that hold things up! 😁 Andy

Thanks guys! Looks like the left engine cowlings have the same issue. I really shouldn’t be surprised, but knowing there’s a workable fix, I’m a little less disappointed. Of course, if I was to leave the middle cowling open to view the engine, I wouldn’t have to bother with the fix…. Until some wise guy thinks to check with a measuring tape… hmm…. Andy

Thanks everyone for your words of encouragement and suggestions. I am pleased to report that we are now flying on one engine... no propellor, but we've got an engine! The insert is barely noticeable, it's located at the seam on the engine cowling at the 11 o'clock position. This seam is by design, as the engine cowlings are composed of three separate panels. A little weathering and some Dullcote and things will be just fine. Onwards! Andy

I have some thin strip, I believe 0.010”x0.060”, that should work. I don’t think I have to split the piece, the latch detail is only on one end, the other just has some raised bumps suggesting interior hinges. I’ve glued the piece with the latches together, so the gap is now on the other side compared to the photo above. All I will need to do after inserting my filler is hide the seam. I hope 🤞 Andy

Well, this is somewhat disheartening... I think someone didn't measure right, or rounded pi wrong.... Eduard... I'm looking at you! 🤨 Oh, yeah, and those engine mounting brackets.... Yeah... that's not gonna happen either, that's a level of finicky that I am ill equipped to deal with (in regards to tools, patience and sanity). I will attempt one more time on the other engine (maybe it will be easier if I change the order of operations a bit and do the brackets first before installing the fin ring. I dunno... We shall see. In the interim I have this problem now to solve as well. Time to break in to my styrene stash. Hopefully this won't fix won't end up looking too ugly...... Andy

According to the box info, this one was in the Battle of France (given the red/white/blue fin flash was located on the rudder itself, French fashion), but if it survived that one, I'm sure it was involved in the other. For lack of a better descriptor, it's a cute little kit and I'm looking forward to getting in to it. I will build it mostly out of the box, but seeing as there's parts for different versions, I may mix and match a little bit here and there. I'm thinking of taking a few liberties with the paint job, I prefer the sky green underside over the black and white, and I'm going to attempt to restore the yellow outer ring to the fuselage roundel. More on all that when the time comes! Thanks everyone for the kind comments and likes. I'm getting back underway with the engines, now that I can get the various components primed and painted. First up the right engine: After fitting the fin ring, there are various plumbing pieces on the top, which I think have some function with the supercharger, as well as the carburetor located underneath: Next up is to add all the finicky little engine mount brackets, and then the cowlings. I plan on displaying this engine with the cowlings closed, so any errors made when figuring things out will be hidden. I've already begun picking at the left engine. Out of the factory, for whatever reason, the left engine had a longer exhaust pipe than the right. Later on the right engines also received this extended exhaust pipe, and later still both engines received the hedgehog-like diffuser found on the Bristol Hercules engine (hedgehog like the animal, not the ASW mortar). Andy

Thanks, guys, for your kind comments! And thanks to everyone for the "likes"! So, a bit of good news, I few supplies showed up today, including a can of Tamiya primer, yay! I needed some wider masking tape as well, and I got a set of RAF figures to help "flesh" out my plans for displaying my Wellington. Some time in the new year I will look into getting the RAF bomber resupply set and.. I... uh... HEY! What's that in the top right background?! How did that get there?! Sigh..... ah well.... 🙄 Andy

Thanks, everyone for the continued "likes"! Just another small update to show that progress is still being made. The nose and tail turrets have been built and installed. Depending on how I weather the plane, I may yet need to add another coat of Dullcote when all is said and done, so I have not yet fixed them permanently, and I may leave it that way. They fit quite snugly into place (they're not going to randomly drop out), and, although they're not designed to rotate freely, I'd rather maintain a little flexibility. When I painted the clear parts I made a conscious decision to avoid using primer (despite the fact that I had run out, I never planned to in the first place). To a degree the opposite inside of the "glass" is visible, so instead I used a silver/aluminium base layer, followed by a black top coat. This allows the inside to appear "metal" rather than primer grey, as well through incidental handling, the silver on the various rivet heads and sharp areas became visible as the black was slightly worn off, giving it a bit of a weathered look in places. I've seen a few prototype photos where the black paint appears to have been fairly well worn off (chipped or otherwise blasted off), so a little silver highlighting is not uncalled for. I followed the same approach for the cockpit canopy (although with a brown top layer), to the same effect. I will hold off on that installation as well, until the last moment. Andy

I think lettering/decalling has got to be one of my favourite parts of any build. The moment a model is given an identity it gains a story and a reflection of history. I feel the same way whether it be a piece of model railway rolling stock, or a ship, or an airplane. Today, that part of my build has been accomplished, and for the first time, my Wellington model (although still incomplete), actually IS something. The Airfix supplied decals are of fairly good quality. The decal film was a little thicker than what I'm used to with some model railway suppliers, but since the surfaces are reasonably flat (and the decals reasonably large), it wasn't an issue to get the lettering to sit down nicely. That being said, a gloss coating is absolutely necessary to achieve good results. I like that Airfix included a number of technical stencils to go along with the main lettering, as tedious as it is to apply them. I don't remember these stencils being included in the Airfix kits I made many many years ago, so I'm glad they've made that improvement. Once the decals have had a chance to completely dry (and I've conducted a thorough close inspection for bubbles), I'll go ahead and seal everything up with a shot of Dullcote. I'm still working on getting some more primer, the main issue I've run into is shipping fees. I got most of the paint for this model from Sunward Hobbies in Toronto (they have pretty good service, and I'd recommend them), the problem is that their free shipping starts at orders of $60. Seems a little ridiculous to pay the price of a can of primer to ship a single can of primer. So how to make up the $60? Well, I've been looking at making a little diorama for this plane, since I'd noticed Airfix also makes an RAF bomber resupply set. Unfortunately someone bought the set that Sunward had in stock the day I ran out of primer. It seems I have no choice but to wait until they restock, hopefully that won't take too long... In the mean time, there's a couple of small jobs I can do, such as the gun turrets. But I have to wait to finish the engines, bomb bay, bomb bay doors, landing gear (including the aftermarket wheels) and landing gear doors. Oh, and some bombs too.... Andy

Thanks Kevin! No worries, glad to have you join in! Andy

Hi Kevin, things are on hold for the moment. As you’ve noticed, I’m currently busy on my Wellington bomber project. I’m hoping to wrap that one up by around Christmas, and then I expect to get back to making progress here. (If I don’t get sidetracked with something else🤪). Andy

Looks great Kevin! Those gantries really turned out nice. I wonder if you might get a good effect by lighting your crosses indirectly. Say for example making them out of acrylic and gluing a red LED externally at the base, or behind, and letting the internal refraction do the work. It’s just a thought, I’m sure you’ll figure it out and it will be as spectacular as the rest of your build so far. Andy

Well, I ran into a small snag today. Nothing that can’t be surmounted, and it doesn’t require any steps backwards (deconstruction etc.). No broken or lost pieces, or anything like that. As I said, just a teeny tiny snag…. I was getting back to working on the engines, and I went to prime the cowling parts, got part way through and the can sputtered….spat….wheezed… aaaand that was it. The last gasps of propellant slowly sissled out of the nozzle. Dang it! Outta primer…. Nuts (or something to that effect). A frantic search of the usual hiding spots turned up nothing. The dregs of the can didn’t really coat the parts well, and I decided to clean that off with a few dabs of lacquer thinner, so I ended up right back where I started. I guess I’ll have to get on with decaling…. Thanks again everyone for the kind comments and likes. Your encouragement is most appreciated. Andy

You’re talking to an old hand when it comes to decals😉😁 I have some Testors Glosscote and Dulcote on hand for just such an eventuality (as well as Microsol setting solutions). And as for weathering I do have these: I have all kinds of things hidden in my stash… 😁😁 Andy

Thanks everyone, although I had hopes of a more philosophical discussion regarding stripes, I still appreciate all the kind remarks!😁 Well, nerves wracked, or otherwise, the masking tape came off this afternoon. Big sigh of relief, it worked: Very little touch up to do, and most of that is on the engine nacelle forward ends (and those parts are only yet held on by poster putty, so easy to fix). I'm very happy with the way it turned out, hopefully the experts will agree. The sacrificial canopy and window masks will stay on for a while yet, at least until after the decals are applied and sealed. I can't express how relieved I am, and I can't believe how close I am to finishing. Still a bit of work to do on the engines, and other small details, but I think this is now the single largest task behind me. Whew! Andy PS Hopefully We get some brighter weather soon, it's rather dull and gloomy right now, not good for photography.

So this now begs the existential question: Were RAF aircraft brown with green stripes or green with brown stripes? Something to ponder over. All masked up and ready for the black. (Sitting in my improvised, cut-down, Triscuit crackers box paint stand 😁) Andy

Hello everyone, thanks for all the likes! A small-ish update for today, first paint has been applied. Always a bit nerve wracking (Have I forgotten anything? Is this masking enough? Hopefully this works🤞). Anyway, worries aside, it was time: This feels like a mail order modeller's worst nightmare... "What can Brown do for you?" A little bit more curing, and it will be time to mask up for the green camo pattern, and bring to an end this horrible UPS ad... Andy

You can get away with a little bit more when brush painting, but, yeah, you’re apt to get better results if you use a properly compatible thinner. Andy