Vickers Wellington Mk 1a/c by Realworkingsailor - FINISHED - Airfix - 1/72

[mtaylor]

I wonder if that green bit above the stretcher might have a pillow or a blanket inside?

[realworkingsailor]

39 minutes ago, mtaylor said:

I wonder if that green bit above the stretcher might have a pillow or a blanket inside?

I’ve finally just figured it out! Haha! The key hint I was missing, both of those fittings are located directly below the astro-dome.
 

When the navigator needed to take a sight, those panels would be swung up and clipped together. They would help him steady himself while taking a sextant sight.

Item #91 in this detailed drawing

 

Incidentally, it also explains those box things located in the bomb bay. Apparently they’re an inflatable floatation system, to be used in the event of a water landing.

I need to spend a couple of hours studying this drawing…. 
 

Andy

Edited November 9, 2022 by realworkingsailor

[Canute]

The Nav should have some kind of hand held calculator to do his multiplying and dividing on one side and figure winds on the other. I think they were called EA-6s or some such. We called 'em the whiz wheel.. And a sheet of paper to write up his log, about the size of your chart. Maps are what grunts use to drive on the ground. 😉

 

Where is his sextant? That astrodome wasn't just a place to hang out and dazzle the pilot with the names of the constellations and stars. 😁 Normally, it lived in a box near the astrodome. It was about the size of a box your sneakers/athletic shoes come in.

[realworkingsailor]

35 minutes ago, Canute said:

The Nav should have some kind of hand held calculator to do his multiplying and dividing on one side and figure winds on the other. I think they were called EA-6s or some such. We called 'em the whiz wheel.. And a sheet of paper to write up his log, about the size of your chart. Maps are what grunts use to drive on the ground. 😉

 

Where is his sextant? That astrodome wasn't just a place to hang out and dazzle the pilot with the names of the constellations and stars. 😁 Normally, it lived in a box near the astrodome. It was about the size of a box your sneakers/athletic shoes come in.

Like what this guy has beneath his right hand?

 

I think the sextant was stored under the chart table. My excuse is that I’m modelling the bomber on the ground, so the sextant should be stowed (the chart is out for planning a training/shakedown  flight after some minor engine maintenance).😁

 

Andy

[Rick01]

I don't know if you've been supplied with parachute packs, but if so, here's the positions and order of bailout from a Mk II (unchanged I guess from the Mk I.

.

All very well - unless your bomb aimer manages to pull his ripcord whilst still in the nose! Wireless operator and front gunner bundled him up and threw him out. He ended up with a strained groin,treated by a local Dr and passed back to England by the underground. The rest of the crew spent the rest of the war as POW's.

 

Rick

[Canute]

Andy, yes that's what they used back then for inflight calculations. A circular sliderule with some aviation specific items in the face.

 

In the tanker, my boom operator was responsible for the sextant. I just had to supply him with the settings to put in for him to take his sightings. He read me his results, I plugged them into my calculation sheet and plotted the results. Of course, I cross checked it with my dead reckoning poition, my inertial nav system and later on the GPS. A nice tight grouping, normally. 😁

[realworkingsailor]

Thanks everyone for the kind replies and "likes"!

 

Rick, that's a fascinating document! Yes, the Mk II Wellingtons were identical to the Mk I, with the exception of the engines. Although I don't have parachute packs, it does explain the PE little storage racks that came in the detail set are the stowage spots for the 'chutes (there's one in the photo below above the cot, just forward of the bulkhead).

 

A small update for today. I've been busy working on the other half of the fuselage, picking out all the frame details. All that remains is a little touch up of the base colours. 

 

 

In between detail painting sessions, I've been getting other components ready, things like the second pilot's jump seat, the flares and flare chute, and a couple more PE instruments. I have to make (fold) and paint a couple more parachute holders that sit in the nose of the aircraft, but otherwise, the interior is nearing completion.

 

Andy

[realworkingsailor]

Say goodbye to the interior! All the interior components have been installed and it's time to join the two fuselage halves!

 

 

I did add one little extra scratch built detail, not included in the kit, let's see if anyone can spot it!

 

I had a bit of a bit of a fitment issue; there's some cast wiring extending forward from the Second Pilot's Jump seat that interferes with the instrument panel. This didn't make it's presence known until I did a trial fit of the two halves and noticed the nose of the plane wouldn't close.  A little bit of delicate surgery was needed to trim back the offending wires. It really won't be seen, especially after a little paint touch up:

 

 

You can see the now severed cables in the centre of the above photo. I can't imagine that the Second Pilot's Seat was particularly comfortable, it doesn't even appear to have any kind of a back rest. Just a flip up metal stool with a seat belt! 

 

Anyway, after this issue was resolved, it was time to join up the fuselage:

 

 

 

This is best done slowly, one section at a time to ensure things stay in their proper place. There is the inevitable warp in the parts to deal with, but nothing a little green tape and patience can't overcome! I don't recommend gluing in the wing spar until after the fuselage is set. The instructions would have you fix the spar in place before joining the two halves, but I found it easier to leave it "floating" to allow for a bit of flexibility. Now that things are joined, there's no more wiggle in the spar at all. 

 

I will have to do a little sanding, mostly because of a very slight difference in part thickness, and there are a couple spots that need a touch up of filler, mostly around the blanks for the waist windows.

 

Andy

[AJohnson]

It’s like seeing Tutankhmun’s tomb being sealed up, only us on MSW know the jewels and treasures that are sealed inside that fuselage! 🤫

 

Good work Andy 👏

[Rick01]

8 hours ago, realworkingsailor said:

I can't imagine that the Second Pilot's Seat was particularly comfortable, it doesn't even appear to have any kind of a back rest. Just a flip up metal stool with a seat belt! 

On top of the discomfort all you can see from the seat is a part of the instrument panel! I stood slightly back from that position in the Walk Through frame just to get an idea of what my father had experienced - all I can say is "Not Nice". 

 

Rick

[realworkingsailor]

11 hours ago, Rick01 said:

On top of the discomfort all you can see from the seat is a part of the instrument panel! I stood slightly back from that position in the Walk Through frame just to get an idea of what my father had experienced - all I can say is "Not Nice". 

 

Rick

You might get a kick out of poking around through here: https://www.bombercommandmuseumarchives.ca

 

Although primarily focused on Canadian records and experiences, there’s a lot of interesting information available. Personal stories, daily ops reports etc. 

 

Andy

[Rick01]

15 hours ago, realworkingsailor said:

You might get a kick out of poking around through here: https://www.bombercommandmuseumarchives.ca

Thanks for the link Andy - I already know at least one of the stories "Winston Parker". I'm deeply involved with a FB page about Stalag VIIIB Lamsdorf where he was held and am helping set up a web page covering all allied POW's held in Europe during WWII.

 

Rick 

 

[CDW]

Until now, never had any idea that a shade of red was used inside certain British aircraft fuselage. It's the first time I have ever seen it. Looks very interesting and different for sure. Reminds me of the red seen inside ship hulls on the gun decks.

[realworkingsailor]

The red was a result of the dope used on the fabric skin. If you go back to the “Worker’s Weekend” video at the beginning of my log, there’s a mention of the dope colour. 
My camera (and lighting) makes it seem redder than it really is, it’s more of a duller oxide red colour. 
 

Andy
 

[realworkingsailor]

12 hours ago, Rick01 said:

Thanks for the link Andy - I already know at least one of the stories "Winston Parker". I'm deeply involved with a FB page about Stalag VIIIB Lamsdorf where he was held and am helping set up a web page covering all allied POW's held in Europe during WWII.

 

Rick 

 

I just finished reading “Prisoners of the Castle” by Ben Macintyre. All about the POWs kept in Colditz. If you haven’t yet, I recommend it.

 

Andy

[CDW]

2 hours ago, realworkingsailor said:

I just finished reading “Prisoners of the Castle” by Ben Macintyre. All about the POWs kept in Colditz. If you haven’t yet, I recommend it.

 

Andy

I had a dearly departed friend who was a B-17 tail gunner. He survived being shot over Europe down 3 times! The third time he was captured and spent the remainder of the war in a German POW camp. He never talked much about it, but he sure could pound down Wild Turkey. I always imagined it was his pain killer for everything he had seen and gone through during the war. A very successful road and bridge contractor.

[realworkingsailor]

3 hours ago, CDW said:

I had a dearly departed friend who was a B-17 tail gunner. He survived being shot over Europe down 3 times! The third time he was captured and spent the remainder of the war in a German POW camp. He never talked much about it, but he sure could pound down Wild Turkey. I always imagined it was his pain killer for everything he had seen and gone through during the war. A very successful road and bridge contractor.

 

Both of my grandparents were teenagers living in occupied Holland during the war.   Early one morning (sometime in ‘43, I think) an RAF pilot parachuted in to my grandmother’s backyard in Dieppenveen (just outside of Deventer). My great grandfather got in touch with the Dutch resistance to get him out. My great grandfather gave the pilot a change of clothes and afterwards escorted him on the train to meet up with another contact (look normal, don’t talk or make eye contact with anyone). Eventually the RAF pilot made it all the way through Holland, Belgium and France and finally made it to Spain to be repatriated. RAF policy at the time required that any returned pilots could not be sent over enemy territory in order to protect the people who helped them escape. Usually this meant “flying a desk”. The pilot in question didn’t particularly care for this and continued to bother his superiors to return to flying duties. Eventually they relented, some time in 1944, as the danger to the civilians was much reduced as the liberation of Europe was progressing. Sadly the RAF pilot was shot down again over the Friesian islands, this time fatally. My family didn’t find out about this until many years afterwards.

 

I’ll see if I can find the name of the pilot online, but I found my great grandfather listed here:

 

https://wwii-netherlands-escape-lines.com/helpers-of-allied-airmen/dutch-helper-list/dutch-helpers-by-selected-cities-and-towns/dutch-cities-chaam-to-fijnaart/deventer/

 

The second name on the list, Nicolaas   Ankersmit. The name of the house should be Uiterwaard, (sounds kind of like “Aardvark”, but with a “d” instead of a “k”) not Viterwaard.

 

Andy

Edited November 16, 2022 by realworkingsailor

[realworkingsailor]

Thanks again, everyone, for the kind comments and "likes", and you're all especially welcome to share any experiences of the war, family, friend or personal. There's so much history that's gone undocumented, or poorly documented, and in the grand scheme of things, little time left to find out about it. 

 

For my next update, she has wings! We're flying' now!

 

 

 

All of the elements went together quite well, a little patience and some green tape and there's hardly a seam to be seen. If the triangular patch for the waist window seems a bit more pronounced, it's due to a little Tamiya filler that was needed. The blank insert fit more like a window piece should, rather than right and tight. A small nuisance but Airfix could have done better, considering how well, for the most part, everything else has gone so far.

 

On the rudder, the first little bits of external PE have also now been applied:

 

 

Some tiny sticky-outy brass bits representing what I think are supposed to be balance weights. The original casting was a rather crude blob, and didn't compare nicely at all with the prototype. One slight modification, the Eduard instructions require the complete removal of the blob, but this leaves precious little gluing surface for the PE bits (literally the 0.050" thickness of the PE sheet). My approach was to trim down the cast on piece, leaving a little triangular tab on which to glue the PE replacement. I was also able to thin down the plastic to a little less than half the original thickness. This results in a much more secure attachment point for what is, after all, a very vulnerable detail.

 

I should mention that as per the instructions, the landing gear should also be attached, but with all the additional PE and a load of painting yet to come, I've skipped over that step, and I'm likely to skip over a few more, (such as the turret installation and the bomb bay details in order to make things easier for painting. I worry that masking these fragile details might cause them harm as well as increase the risk of paint getting in places I don't want it to! 

 

Andy

 

[ccoyle]

22 hours ago, realworkingsailor said:

Sadly the RAF pilot was shot down again over the Friesian islands

 

Not a wartime recollection, but I did walk from the mainland to one of the Frisian Islands (Baltrum) back in 1980. Such an excursion is known as a Wattwanderung to the locals.

[Rick01]

I always feel that the option of a clear Perspex side should be available, just to display the intricate work that goes on inside the model. Check this out https://www.arcair.com/Fea1/201-300/Fea206a-Wellington-Hill/00.shtm

 

Rick 

Edited November 17, 2022 by Rick01

[realworkingsailor]

Thanks everyone for the comments and likes!

 

Work has begun on the engines. The Wellington Mk I, Mk Ia and Mk Ic was equipped with a 9 cylinder Bristol Pegasus engine, the main production variant producing just over 1000hp. Versions like the Mk II used Rolls Royce Merlin X, the Mk III and Mk X versions used variants of the Bristol Hercules developing up to 1600hp. A small number of Wellingtons (the Mk IV variant) even used Pratt And Whitney Twin Wasp engines. As there were only 200 or so built, photos of this variant are hard to come by. Both the Hercules and Pegasus engines had forward mounted exhaust manifolds that formed part of the streamlined engine cowling. I imagine this was designed to provide for improved cooling, but it makes for easy spotting as the exhaust pipes emerge from the from of the engine, as opposed to the P&W variant where the exhaust pipe emerges from the cowling behind the engine.

 

The aftermarket Eduard/Brassin Pegasus engine kit is very intricate and well executed. Compared to other resin kits I've built in the past, there is only a minimum of flash, and most of that is concentrated on the moulding "pins" rather than the parts. Crucially there are no air bubbles in any of the parts (an annoying side effect of working with resin that can only be fully avoided by the use of a vacuum chamber). 

 

 

There are multiple resin castings that make up the major components as well as some PE brackets for both the engine mounts and exhaust manifold. 

 

A quick side by side of the engine castings shows the major step up in detail:

 

 

They really make the kit supplied parts almost toy-like in comparison. For what it's worth, the detail level in the kit parts is not a big deal after assembly as the kit engines would be largely hidden by the engine cowlings anyway, so there's no need to bash Airfix for any perceived shortcomings. One could happily assemble this entire kit out of the box and produce a perfectly acceptable model.

 

I do have one criticism of the Eduard upgrade and that has to do with the propellor shaft. They're too short. A trial fit with the propellors shows that the shaft only protrudes as far as the propeller hub. There's not enough to allow for the mounting of the spinner (kind of important if you want the propellers to spin freely). I will probably cut them off and replace them with an appropriately sized, and adequate length of brass wire. In the long run, that might prove a bit more durable too.

 

 

Painting and assemble has begun. Each engine differs slightly between left and right, it's probably a good idea to assemble one at a time, rather than building both and risking getting mixed up. In this case, I'm going to build the right engine first. I plan to display this engine with the cowling closed, so any "learning mistakes" will be hidden away (also there was a wobble in one of the cast on pushrods, so that will be hidden too). That spidery looking thing in the photo above is the intake manifold which mounts behind the cylinders. Next up is the PE brackets for the exhaust manifold. The instructions say to paint them black, but I will probably chemically blacken them instead. I think it will make for a nicer effect.

 

Andy 

 

 

[realworkingsailor]

A small progress update.

 

The propellor shaft lengthening has been a success. I ended up using some 1/16" brass rod that I just happened to have kicking around. It's a little bit thicker than the cast propellor shaft, so I did have to drill out the prop hub, but otherwise everything has worked out (prop spins freely, and there's more than enough to glue on the spinner). I blackened the new shaft as well as the exhaust manifold mounting brackets (fiddly tiny fold-y pieces):

 

 

There are three brackets required per engine.

 

Speaking of the exhaust manifold, I've been having a little fun getting that piece ready. On the prototype these manifolds appear to be unpainted, for obvious reasons, and I wanted to replicate a little bit of the heat action on the metal. Airfix would have you simply paint them a "gun metal" colour, and Eduard says to paint them "stainless steel".  My approach was to first paint the cowling a silver/aluminium colour. For the second layer I dry-brushed some Floquil brass. I drew this very thin coat down almost the full depth of the manifold. This was then followed by a dry brushed coat of Floquil copper. I tried to keep this focused more along the front of the manifold. Overall I think the effect works:

 

 

It's not quite as red as it appears in the above photo (and that large silvery area on the right is a result of the natural light). For the most part I'm satisfied with how things are going so-far, I may add another thin dry brush coating of blueish gunmetal colour, but I'll do a trial first on some scrap before I commit.

 

Andy

[realworkingsailor]

In between messing with the motors, I've been also slowly getting things ready for painting. Installing the numerous windows has been fairly straight forward. As I discussed way back at the beginning, I will leave these clear so there's at least some view of the interior. Although the window is not glued in yet, the bomb aimer's window had a little extra PE framing to be added. 

 

 

I've seen a few up-close images of this area on the prototype and the framing is quite prominent. I'm surprised that Airfix didn't include that detail, but I guess for simplicity it was omitted. 

 

I do intend to model the aircraft as it may have appeared on the ground, bomb bay, crew entry and cockpit windows open. I was worried how I was going to be able to effectively mask all these areas. Thankfully there are many options on how to finish the plane, and plenty of extra parts.

 

 

I figure with a little bit of poster putty I can secure some of these parts in their proper openings, temporarily, to make masking off these areas easier. The landing gear doors fit rather snugly, so there's no need there. The crew hatch just needed a little modification of the mounting tabs and it slotted in nicely. Only the bomb bay is rather loose.

 

 

One of the areas requiring careful though was how to paint aircraft while showing the cockpit windows open (side window slid back). Following the convention of installing the windows, masking and then painting, I would have been left with a large, unsightly grey square where the window would sit (the recess just behind the canopy in the above photo). For whatever reason, beyond the two option of windows open or closed, Airfix provided a third canopy, probably for a different variant model. Anyway, this will be a sacrificial canopy to safely cover the cockpit. I've also made up some styrene plugs to cover mounting holes to be later occupied by details I'm worried will be too fragile, or at risk of getting snagged while masking/painting (spray paint will exploit any weakness in masking are droplets could end up anywhere inside).

 

Things are quickly coming together, and I was just taking stock of what parts were left on the styrene sprues. (Not many!)

 

Andy

 

 

[popeye the sailor]

hi Andy....such a superb job your doing!    your log is quite informative also.......being an American bomber nut,  it's amazing how much info is out there!  really cool upgrades too! 

[realworkingsailor]

Hi Popeye! I was feeling very liked this morning, now I know why 😁

 

Glad to have you aboard, and that you’re enjoying learning about how the other half did things. 
 

Thanks for the kind words, hopefully I can live up to all expectations!

 

Andy

[popeye the sailor]

I've never done a Wellington.........Lancasters and spitfires are the only British planes I built in the past.    any plane can be it's own rabbit hole  ...just depends how far you wanna go.

[realworkingsailor]

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

Edited November 26, 2022 by realworkingsailor

[realworkingsailor]

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

[Charter33]

Green over brown or brown over green? The answer is 'Yes, either way.' Which ever the way, you're displaying it brilliantly... keep up the excellent work! Really enjoying this build!

[mtaylor]

3 hours ago, Charter33 said:

Green over brown or brown over green? The answer is 'Yes, either way.' Which ever the way, you're displaying it brilliantly... keep up the excellent work! Really enjoying this build!

I'd say the answer is "yes" also but without the qualifiers.  Let the viewer decide.  Almost like asking "which came first  ... the chicken or the egg?".