#47.5.5 alextheblue...Vickers Wellington Mk1

[alextheblue]

I guess you could say that I'm thoroughly enjoying this SiG. What with the Halifax just finished and the Wellington I've had on pre-order just arriving, one more entry wouldn't hurt!

Designed in the early 1930's, this plane out-flew the other big bombers and was still in use for training purposes after the end of WW2. The distinctive geodetic lattice structure was originally intended for airships and was designed by Sir Barnes Wallace, he of the "bouncing bomb" fame. When I heard that Airifx was bringing out a kit with new tooling, I put my name down on the pre-order list.

Box art



Box stuffed full of plastic



Instructions with the usual brief bit of blurb and dimesions



I'm actually quite a fan of Airfix's instructions. The are quite clear and self-explanatory and unlike many other kit makers offerings, you really can start with step one and work your way numerically through.



This kit comes with a really nice interior. For those that aren't too bothered about going to all that trouble, especially as a lot of it won't be seen, Airfix indicate what parts can be left out. Obviously, I'm going to include every last button, bell and whistle.



There's two options for markings




And the sprues. I tried to get a close up of the material stretched over the lattice structure of the aircraft itself, but it didn't show up very well. I'll try again as I'm taking the progress pics.






Clear parts, which do seem very clear with little or no distortion.



Decals. I believe these too are from Cartograph and they certainly seem to be of good quality .Nice and clear, good colours and not too much carrier film



I really should get a heap more done to my Phantom before I press on with this, but knowing me, plastic will be off of the sprue and stuck together before the weeks out!

Thanks for taking a look!

[Twokidsnosleep]

Always room for another and we are enjoying your presence in the sig just as much
So yep off you go, build a second before I get the wings on my first, no problem, no jealousy...
Good luck with the build
Scott

[Stokesy44]

Gotta love the Wimpey. Built one myself, must be 35 years ago. Happy memories!

Good luck with build Squire.

[demarcation]

Nice choice!!

[alextheblue]

Update One

Thanks chaps for all the kind words. I'm looking forward to this one and funnily enough, this was going to be my original entry to this SiG. Delivery from Airfix was supposed to be May and then it got put back to June and then to July. Luckily, it arrived right at the start of this month and on a plus side, it gave me a chance to build the Lancaster and the Halifax.

I managed to get a close up of the wing to try and show the nice detail on the geodetic structure. Still not a great pic, but hopefully you get the idea.



What better place to start than step one and as usual, this involved the rear of the cockpit and the forward area of the interior.





There's some nice detail on this kit, but the colour call-outs had me scratching my head in a few places. I was fairly sure that the Wimpy had quite a lot of wood in the interior, but the instructions asked for everything to be painted either aluminium or black. Having always chosen to walk my own path in this life, I decided to go my own way with the colour choice.





The instrument panel was painted by hand as no decal was supplied and there's not a heap of after-market available for this kit yet. After my last couple of encounters with decal IP's, I prefer to paint them myself anyway. There's still a bit of chipping and weathering to do, but I'm going to keep this very light.

Just to break things up a little, I moved onto the interior of the fuselage. I'm sure I read somewhere (Airfix Model World, I think), that the interior of the Wimpy was painted a linen colour. The exterior was then painted using a brown dope for weather-proofing etc., and in time this used to seep through and stain the inside. Again, the colour call-outs instruct you to use brick red, but I thought this would be too dark.

So, I started with Tamiya's buff, to give a scaled version of linen.



And then using a combination of red, white and rotbraun (red/brown), I started to darken it in areas, trying to give a slightly mottled effect. My wife walked in whilst I was spraying the initial red and white and screamed, "It's pink!!! You're painting it pink!!!"

Geesh! They just don't understand how we suffer for our art!



I'm kinda of happy with the effect, but I'll wait until it's properly dry before making a final decision. Next, I'll have to tackle that lattice structure. I could cheat and just do strategic areas, but as there's long windows down the fuselage, I want to make sure that I don't miss anything.

Thanks for taking a look!

[Twokidsnosleep]

Gheeze that is really nice interior detail with the lattice moulding...I like what you did with your painting, I like it a lot
Keep at it, will be another great build

[Les0012]

This kit looks exceptional, watched a kit review on it a couple of days ago on the toob, seriously thinking about getting one.

Its looking real good what you have done so far (not to sure about the PINK tho) just joking.

Les

[alextheblue]

Gheeze that is really nice interior detail with the lattice moulding...I like what you did with your painting, I like it a lot
Keep at it, will be another great build

Thanks Scott! After having spent most of the afternoon painting up the lattice interior, it's initial attraction is starting to lose its shine somewhat!!

[alextheblue]

This kit looks exceptional, watched a kit review on it a couple of days ago on the toob, seriously thinking about getting one.

Its looking real good what you have done so far (not to sure about the PINK tho) just joking.

Les

I'd defo recommend it Les, it's a great kit, no issues so far. As for the pink, I was a bit shocked at first, but it's growing on me. Having said that, it looks a bit different now!!

[alextheblue]

Update Two

After "Pink Gate", I thought I'd crack on with the interior and paint up all the lattice and then apply a wash to tone it down a bit. First up, mask the interior to paint up the "visible" areas in dark sea grey.



A couple of bits of the interior needed attention. One of the seats was broken and an interior door had a huge EPM. Even I couldn't overlook this one!



I realised that I had missed a bit. The fuselage around the front turret needed some trimming as the early versions were a slightly different shape. I always get a nit nervous when I have to take a knife to a kit to modify it. I'm a bit heavy handed (after years of boxing and martial arts, I have very little feeling in my hands), and I always think I'm going to end up cutting it in half!!




After an afternoon of eye-wateringly close-up work, the lattice was all painted up with aluminium from VMA metallics.



And the interior is starting to come together bit by bit. Still not too happy with my wood effect. First time I've tried it in 72nd scale and I'm not convinced it looks right. Oh well, as the well worn adage goes, you're hardly going to see it anyway.



Dry fitting bits of the interior as I go. I've heard that the fit on this kit can get a little "tight" once a layer of paint goes down. So far everything seems to fit pretty well.





Next raft of "bits" goes onto the production line. All primed in Ultimate grey and the oxygen tanks have had a bit of detail added (this will need tidying up).



Now, I wonder if I can fit a headband to my binoculars and wear these instead of my glasses!!!

Thanks for taking a look!

[Twokidsnosleep]

God, LOOK AT THAT INTERIOR!!!
Oh sorry, was I shouting
I would want to do a cutaway fuselage, that work needs to be shown

[alextheblue]

God, LOOK AT THAT INTERIOR!!!
Oh sorry, was I shouting
I would want to do a cutaway fuselage, that work needs to be shown

Sorry did you say something?? I was deafened by someone shouting!!

You're right about the cutaway, but I'm not sure I have the know-how or skills to pull it off. I will defo be taking plenty of pics though!

[alextheblue]

Update Three

Bit of a long update this, so please bear with me. For anyone contemplating buying this kit, hopefully some of the things I cover may be of help. By the way, if you are thinking about buying this kit - don't just sit there, do it!!

After the last update, I painted up and fitted a few more bits to the interior.






I decided to then set everything to one side and let everything fully cure, dry etc.

Next up was the wings and from the instructions, I thought I had spotted a potential problem.



The first step is to attach both sides of the nacelle to the brace before slotting the whole thing into the lower wing. You then add the upper wing and this forms the "missing" panel for the engine nacelle. I thought that trying to marry up so many different angles might cause a problem, so I dabbed on a bit of PVA and tried it all out. It was quite a faff and nothing really seemed to line up. You squared off one bit and something else would pop out line. I then tried just attach one side of the engine nacelle to the brace, drop this into the wing and then add the second half. It was still a bit fiddly, but for me it seemed to work a bit better. This is what I was then left with.





Moment of truth. I put the upper wing in place and lined up the panels of the nacelle, fully expecting there to be some horrendous gaps. Thankfully, I was completely wrong. It all lined up like a dream and I'm sure a better modeller than me will get an even better fit. I must take my hats off to Airfix and give credit where it's due, as this is a fantastic piece of engineering. The way that everything lines up means that any gaps and wonky fit is all hidden inside the wing. Genius! At first, I thought they had just over-engineered everything, but once it's all together, you can totally see why they have done it this way.




Happy that it was all going to go together well, it was time to glue everything up. The wing halves are such a good fit, I only needed three clamps to hold everything in place.



The real test though is when you come to fit the firewall. Being round, the slightest deviation in fit will just be exaggerated further round. Again, I needn't have worried as it was a perfect fit. They are only friction fitted and no glue has been applied yet.



Time to put the wings to one side and get that interior finished up. With everything fitted, it's just a matter of scrapping off the relevant areas of paint and fixing it in place.






And that's the interior pretty much finished. There's a couple of bits that need weathering. A small bit of tidy up and one last part to fit and it's done. So far, it's been a dream to build and bearing in mind the number of parts, it went together without a single problem. The only thing I'm disappointed with, is Airfix's lack of imagination when it comes to the colour call-outs. Everything was either black or aluminium, with the odd bit being interior green. I tried to do as much research as I could, but a lot of this is my own interpretation, with a dollop of artistic license thrown in as well. Hopefully it gives the right overall "look".

I dry fitted the two fuselage halves so many times, I was confident that there wouldn't be any problems now that the interior was finished, but I thought, there's no harm in checking!



Phew! I've finished, you can wake up now!!!

Thanks for taking a look!

[Twokidsnosleep]

Truly awesome, love the details

[DRUMS01]

This one is really neat! The interior of the plane is awesome....

Nice work so far....

[Stokesy44]

Beautiful work on the interior mate. I really like the subtle surface texture showing the geodetic structure underneath. Should look beautiful under paint.

[InvalidUsername]

Cracking work on that interior!

[Quax]

I only have 4 letters to offer

Omfg

That is all
Paul

[Twokidsnosleep]

I only have 4 letters to offer

Omfg

That is all
Paul

well put and well deserved
A great build so far so good

[Kevthemodeller]

Looking good mate

[alextheblue]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments, it's always very much appreciated!

Update Four

Strictly speaking, this should be update 3.5 as it's only a small one and not very interesting at that.

As I have have a want to do, I almost cocked this build up in majestic fashion. I finally got the interior finished and having shot a shed-load of pics, I sat down to button up the fuselage. As this kit has been such a good fit, I was determined to really take me time and line it up as carefully as I could. With copious amounts of tape, bands and clips I set about the task and after much dabbing and stroking with a Tamiya Extra Thin brush, I was finished. Sitting back, I admired my handiwork. Not a bad job, even if I do say so myself. Looking at the fuselage, I should only need a slight smear of filler here and there.

But all the while there was this little voice nagging at me that I had forgotten something. The rear wheel-well, that's it, there's a part that needs to go in there. Checking the instructions though, I breathed a sigh of relief as I noticed that this part goes in after the fuselage is joined together. But still that voice nagged. Maybe I've missed something to do with the interior, there was a lot of detail after all. Again I referred back to the instructions and after careful perusal of each step, I was confident that I hadn't missed anything.

And then the voice in my head stopped nagging and instead, started to shout!!

"Hey pillock!! I'll tell you what you've forgotten!!!"

My heart started to race as I held my breath. I waited for the yelling voice to continue..................

"Do you want to know what you've forgotten????"

Of course I do, please tell me I begged.

And then it dawned on me..........

THE FLAMING WING SPAR!!!!!!!

i furiously wrenched off the lid of my TET bottle and started to wipe away at the now joined seam, praying that it would come apart without causing too much damage.

My prayers were answered as it slowly started to prise apart and not too much of the plastic had started to melt. I attached the offending article and set about joining the two halves of the fuselage again.





In fairness, it went back together quite well...considering what a numptee I am! There's a small step on the underside between the bomb-bay and the rear wheel, but some filler and sanding will take care of this.

One day I'll learn. If you think you have checked everything...check it again!

Thanks for taking a look and apologies for the lack of photo's and the horrendous abundance of unnecessary words!!

[digger303]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments, it's always very much appreciated!

Update Four

Strictly speaking, this should be update 3.5 as it's only a small one and not very interesting at that.

As I have have a want to do, I almost cocked this build up in majestic fashion. I finally got the interior finished and having shot a shed-load of pics, I sat down to button up the fuselage. As this kit has been such a good fit, I was determined to really take me time and line it up as carefully as I could. With copious amounts of tape, bands and clips I set about the task and after much dabbing and stroking with a Tamiya Extra Thin brush, I was finished. Sitting back, I admired my handiwork. Not a bad job, even if I do say so myself. Looking at the fuselage, I should only need a slight smear of filler here and there.

But all the while there was this little voice nagging at me that I had forgotten something. The rear wheel-well, that's it, there's a part that needs to go in there. Checking the instructions though, I breathed a sigh of relief as I noticed that this part goes in after the fuselage is joined together. But still that voice nagged. Maybe I've missed something to do with the interior, there was a lot of detail after all. Again I referred back to the instructions and after careful perusal of each step, I was confident that I hadn't missed anything.

And then the voice in my head stopped nagging and instead, started to shout!!

"Hey pillock!! I'll tell you what you've forgotten!!!"

My heart started to race as I held my breath. I waited for the yelling voice to continue..................

"Do you want to know what you've forgotten????"

Of course I do, please tell me I begged.

And then it dawned on me..........

THE FLAMING WING SPAR!!!!!!!

i furiously wrenched off the lid of my TET bottle and started to wipe away at the now joined seam, praying that it would come apart without causing too much damage.

My prayers were answered as it slowly started to prise apart and not too much of the plastic had started to melt. I attached the offending article and set about joining the two halves of the fuselage again.





In fairness, it went back together quite well...considering what a numptee I am! There's a small step on the underside between the bomb-bay and the rear wheel, but some filler and sanding will take care of this.

One day I'll learn. If you think you have checked everything...check it again!

Thanks for taking a look and apologies for the lack of photo's and the horrendous abundance of unnecessary words!!

Did exactly the same thing myself Mine didn't go back together exactly as it should have. It was either that or the internal bulk head was slightly over size. Shrug... done now.

[Twokidsnosleep]

One month remains in the sig, so you only have time for like five or six more planes
viewforum.php?f=662

[alextheblue]

Did exactly the same thing myself Mine didn't go back together exactly as it should have. It was either that or the internal bulk head was slightly over size. Shrug... done now.

It's such a pain in the posterior! I think i must have a built in self-destruct button, as I;m always doing stupid things to cock-up a build!

One month remains in the sig, so you only have time for like five or six more planes
viewforum.php?f=662

I don't have three or four kits in my stash!

Does an early production Tiger 1 count as a bomber?? It doesn't have bomb-bay doors, but it does have an escape hatch you can drop grenades out of!!

[alextheblue]

Update Five

Extremely slow progress with this one, but I'll get it finished in time. I'm still putting the stencils on the Phantom and it's proving a real time sapper!!

In between the "No Step", "No Push" and all the cautions and warnings, I am getting a bit done to the old Wimpy. I've grown bored of filling and sanding seams, so I put some primer down to check my progress. Ultimate grey of course.




Can't believe I missed this!! If the gap was any bigger, I could operate helicopter tours to view the bottom!!



Bottom and sides have been sprayed black, courtesy of Mr Hobby Colour Aqueous. I haven't used these paints for a while and I've forgotten just how good they are. Silky smooth and they give a beautiful finish.



I saw a technique in a magazine where someone used darker colours of the camo in order to create a marbling effect. I know this is fairly standard stuff for aircraft modelling, but it's still quite new to me and I'm having fun experimenting with it.

Chose red/brown and dark green, as I'm using Mr Hobby colours for the camo.







It's at this stage that I realised that I only have the dark green and not the dark earth, so after a quick visit to eModels, this is rectified.

As a slight distraction whilst I'm waiting for the paint to be delivered, I thought I'd quickly knock up the Dragon Wirblewind from my stash. For somebody that is supposed to be an armour builder, I've only built a King Tiger and finished off a Panzer IV so far this year. Time to put that to rights!



Thanks for taking a look!

[digger303]

interesting to see how that marbling goes.

I have one of those Dragon Wirblewind ( only $40 ) up for sale and not a nibble yet it looks a great kit. Puzzles me !

[alextheblue]

interesting to see how that marbling goes.

I have one of those Dragon Wirblewind ( only $40 ) up for sale and not a nibble yet it looks a great kit. Puzzles me !

Got to be honest, I wasn't sure about the marbling. The theory is, the red dope painted onto the fabric would "leak" into the camo, but as most of the pics of Wimpys that I've seen are black and white, it's hard to tell.

That's a great price for your Wirblewind and it is a great kit.

C'mon on you mean lot, someone buy it!!

[alextheblue]

Update Six

My resupply of paint from eModels arrived, so it's onto the camo!

I'd kind of decided to use Mr Hobby Aqueous paints for this kit. I've used Vallejo Air RAF colours for my other two bombers and whilst I realy like the paints, I'm not convinced with the colours. The green looks a tad too bright to me and the dark earth is too, well, brown.

Here's the colours I used from Mr Hobby.



I would normally paint the whole plane with the dark earth and then mask up for the green. The downside with doing it this way, is that you are doubling up on the layers of paint in some areas and I was quite keen for the marbling to show through, albeit very faintly. First the brown....




Then the wiggly worms........boy, I loath doing this bit.



And then the green.







A few areas of touch-up needed, but these will be taken care of with the post shading and weathering. I've probably gone too heavy and killed the marbling, but it does show through in some areas. I only wanted it to be real faint anyway, especially at this scale.

Once dry, I'll give it a couple pf coats of gloss and then get the decals down.

Thanks for taking a look!

[digger303]

interesting to see how that marbling goes.

I have one of those Dragon Wirblewind ( only $40 ) up for sale and not a nibble yet it looks a great kit. Puzzles me !

Got to be honest, I wasn't sure about the marbling. The theory is, the red dope painted onto the fabric would "leak" into the camo, but as most of the pics of Wimpys that I've seen are black and white, it's hard to tell.

That's a great price for your Wirblewind and it is a great kit.

C'mon on you mean lot, someone buy it!!

[gaz45]

Awesome work there mate the interior looks great

[Kevthemodeller]

Looking good, she's really coming together

[alextheblue]

interesting to see how that marbling goes.

I have one of those Dragon Wirblewind ( only $40 ) up for sale and not a nibble yet it looks a great kit. Puzzles me !

Got to be honest, I wasn't sure about the marbling. The theory is, the red dope painted onto the fabric would "leak" into the camo, but as most of the pics of Wimpys that I've seen are black and white, it's hard to tell.

That's a great price for your Wirblewind and it is a great kit.

C'mon on you mean lot, someone buy it!!

You must have sold it now after my great sales pitch!!

Awesome work there mate the interior looks great

Thanks gaz. I loved putting that interior together. Unfortunately my eyes didn't!

Looking good, she's really coming together

Thanks Kev, final stages now!

[alextheblue]

Update Seven

Just small updates now. I suddenly realised that I'm away for week or so at the end of next week, so I don't actually have until the end of the month to get it finished. Plus I have my entry for the Cold War GB to finish!

After a coat of Tamiya gloss X22, I put the decals down and it was here that I realised that I had made an error. What a surprise! At the rear of fuselage there is a trapezoid shaped opening on each side and in the instructions, you can either fit a blank panel, or there is a clear piece that you can add instead. Well, because of the detailed interior, I opted for the clear part.

In doing so, you can't actually fit the complete identity markings on the side of the plane. The two options that are included with the kit are for the early versions of the Wimpy where these "windows" are actually blanked off. Doh! Completely my mistake and yet another example of me not checking ahead. Still, I think I got away with it!! Not!!!!

I also attacked the underside with Tamiya's NATO black and dusted it on to try and simulate dry-brushing. It's not hugely noticeable, but it does help to break up the black a bit. I also fitted the bombs in the bomb bay and the wheels to the landing gear.









It's been a bit of an enigma how to weather this one, as you don't have any of the usual panels, panel-lines and rivets etc. I'm just trying to highlight the high and low points of where the fabric is stretched over the air-frame, so this won't be quite as heavily weathered as my usual efforts.

Thanks for taking a look!

[Twokidsnosleep]

We are at the same spot in the build
"to weather or not too weather...That is the question. Does one suffer the slings and arrows of stuffing up the build so close to the completion with clear and washes or does one playith the chicken and leave it all merry and bright..."
I ahh, may need a bit of a vacation....cant wait until the weekend

Keep on building mate, she looks good

[Stokesy44]

Looks great. The structure is really showing up, especially on the underside.

Re the weathering, a wash will give the surfaces a worn look if you wipe it off in the direction of flight, just leave enough on to dirty her up - maybe try different colours as you wipe to give a fade as well as dirt. Also, how about a very light sander buffer on the geodetic structures just to take the edge off the paint where the structure shows through?

It looks great already anyway!

[alextheblue]

We are at the same spot in the build
"to weather or not too weather...That is the question. Does one suffer the slings and arrows of stuffing up the build so close to the completion with clear and washes or does one playith the chicken and leave it all merry and bright..."
I ahh, may need a bit of a vacation....cant wait until the weekend

Keep on building mate, she looks good

"Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!"

Well, effing great bombers at least! I used to hate the weathering stage, but I've learnt that if you take it slow and do a small bit at a time, you can't really go wrong. At the very worst, you can re-prime it and start again!

Looks great. The structure is really showing up, especially on the underside.

Re the weathering, a wash will give the surfaces a worn look if you wipe it off in the direction of flight, just leave enough on to dirty her up - maybe try different colours as you wipe to give a fade as well as dirt. Also, how about a very light sander buffer on the geodetic structures just to take the edge off the paint where the structure shows through?

It looks great already anyway!

Thanks Stokesy!

This is one of those builds where nothing looks totally right. I tried a bit of very light dry-brushing, but that didn't look right. The buffing and sandy helped, but still wasn't quite right. Having said that, I never think my weathering looks quite right!

Thanks for the tips, much appreciated!

[alextheblue]

Update Eight

Well, I'm going to call that done. Apart from the odd touch up here and there, I've reached the stage when every fibre is calling out to me to stop. The weathering has been a challenge on this one, but Stokeys made some great suggestions, which helped. Thanks bud!

I gave it a dark dirt wash and took most of it off, and used a highly diluted solution of NATO black to add highlights on the underside and dirt and grime on the top. Of the three kits that I've built for this SiG, this has been my favourite. The fit was good, but the detail was excellent. It's an interesting subject to build and it looks like it belongs next to my Lancaster and Halifax.









Just need to get some better pics posted for the reveal and I think that's me done for this SiG. I'm away from next Friday and I might struggle to get another finished in five days. On the other hand............

Thanks for taking a look!

[Tomcat64]

Fantastic work mate - love the way you've managed to get the detail on the black surfaces to show through

[Kevthemodeller]

Great stuff mate she's looking fantastic