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Minerva's Wimpy (1/72 100 Group Wellington)


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That would be brilliant, Ed, thanks. Brass wire is one of the basic materials I need to get, although I have a supply of brass pins that will probably suffice for small aerials. I tend to throw out any scrap materials that don't have immediately obvious use as my storage space is limited, but there's probably some PE that I can use somewhere.

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Thanks, Gordon. I also have a 8 Group theme for future exploration (AntB's Stirling thread here has me thinking about 7 Sqn) though I suspect I'll be a little burned out on the RAF heavies by the time I've finished 100 Group project, in which case I'll tackle some local USAAF units first.

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  • 4 months later...

Poor Gertie has been languishing on the shelf for four months while I dallied with a Dornier and then played around with some other kits. But she's back now. Taking stock, I realised I wasn't quite as far along with the build as I'd thought. The bomb bay was still exposed and the engines had yet to be assembled. A moment of panic then ensued as I thought I'd lost key parts to both engines, only to discover that I'd glued them securely to the wings (idiot). The turrets also need building up but the plan was to add those at the very end, given how vulnerable they'll be to damage while handling (and there are already quite enough small parts to dislodge). Some of the extra aerials also need to be done, most noticeably the Monica aerial just below the rear turret. Finally, re-perusing my limited but very helpful references (thanks, Ed), it's pretty clear that the 192 Wimpeys all had faired-in nose turrets, to which I'll need to ponder the best approach. 

 

In the meantime, I got cracking with the engines and got them on (except the collector rings). Trumpeter kindly went to the effort of making the main cowlings on a special (presumably slide-moulded) sprue, but then put the attachment point inside the rear edge, making it very difficult to get a clean join on the model. The upper intakes are a two part construction (front & back), but the lower intakes are also two part (left and right) and as a result are not the greatest representation of the real thing. They're not shown in this photo (taken in poor light, sorry) but you can make out the filler that I found necessary around the base of the upper intake. Looking at it again this morning, the profile of that intake looks too rectangular, to boot. 

 

88c4370d-b49b-4ae0-b64c-0c364455d86b.JPG

 

No, I don't know what those bloody great strakes below the flight deck are supposed to represent. I haven't glued the wings in place yet, so I foresee some sanding in their future.

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Thanks, Beard. Unless I'm missing it, though, that looks like the blanked-off nose seen (I believe) in many OTU airframes. I can't find a photo online to illustrate, but the 192 references show that the gap at the rear of the front turret (where it curves inwards before it meets the fuselage structure) was smoothed off. I'm guessing that it was a canvas screen of some sort, though the clearest photo in Confounding the Reich (pg 103 in my copy) appears to show some chipping where it joins the turret; whether that's on the turret frame or indicative that these screens were at least part metal, I don't know.

 

My initial plan is to use putty to fill the gaps, but I'll need to check what will be visible through the turret and the local glazing. Or invest in some black Milliput.

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Had some visitors for the weekend, so a quiet one modelling-wise (though weekends tend to get devoted more to airbrushing as it's the only time I can really get both good light and not disturb people with the compressor, anyway).

 

Here's a good picture of what I'm looking at replicating around the nose turret:

150_Squadron_Wellington_crew_Tunisia_WWI

 

You can see that the fairing is very smooth and there is no perceptible gap between it and the turret. As it happens, the Trumpeter turret splits at that point, which makes my job rather easier. 

Trumpy would have us install the turrets before closing up the fuselage, as a ring at the turret base fits into a groove in the fuselage. With a little bit of sanding, it's possible to click the turret base into place in the sealed up fuselage, so that's not a problem. Since I'm planning to add a load of putty, I then painted the rear part of the turret black so that the grey putty wouldn't be visible (also prevents accidental glimpses of the undetailed back of the IP), and glued that into place. Then Humbrol filler to fill that gap, though I think it will take two goes to deal with potential shrinkage (and I'm cautious about the warning on the filler not to use too much at once lest it damage the plastic).

 

I was intrigued by the blade antenna present just behind the bomb aimer's window in that picture. Then I realised what it was...

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  • 4 weeks later...

Not a lot of progress, buy she's finally made her way under the nozzle. I dread masking this camo; my first thought was to use Parafilm and cut it to shape on the model, but it turns out Parafilm has a shelf life, and mine is really not at all adhesive. Then I remembered that I'd bought some Magic Putty. The problem I've seen with the putty is that it settles and spreads, so I stretched it out as thin as possible and I'm going to work section by section, rather than trying to mask the whole airframe and spray it all in one go. That will extend the painting process, though, as I can only airbrush at weekends. However, for a first time, it seemed to work pretty well.

 

resized_4107ec64-e240-45fe-beeb-9a80e763

 

Pretty happy with that, actually. The green wasn't the easiest to spray but I think has come out OK

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Blu & white tac always seem to leave stains to me, even if I varnish before applying them. Maybe I have inferior brands. This putty stuff seems pretty good, and it's reusable to boot. Plus, if I'm bored, I can roll it up and bounce it off the wall like the Cooler King

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  • 1 month later...

Cripes, more than a month has passed. But I finally put down the rest of the camo and the night undersides. Still some touch-ups to do, but getting close to decalling now.

 

resized_a61c87dc-ccc4-4a58-9e44-d48979df

 

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I need a bigger piece of paper!

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Thanks, Ced. Under the strong and direct light in the first picture, the dark earth (most obviously) looks patchy, but in an obviously airbrushed way, rather than a more naturally faded airframe. I definitely have some touching up to do around the engines, and also on the starboard fuselage, where the night/camo demarcation masking wasn't quite as neat. Once I'm happy with that, I'll prep for decalling, which shouldn't take too long.

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Looking very nice,......  for the fabric `fairing' behind the turret (added to stop a draught in the fuselage and to make the aircraft a little more streamlined) I tried Micro Kristal Kear which looked OK,..... and also used Tamiya tape,.......but I would use filler next time. Looking forward to seeing the finished model,

Cheers

           Tony

 

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Thanks, Tony & Martian. Last night covered the touching-up followed by a gloss coat. I've been using AK's Intermediate Gauzy Agent for the last few builds, and I really like it. It's very forgiving of hairy-stick painting, so saves me the pain of cleaning an airbrush.

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Yes (though mine's been on the go for 18 months nearly). I've got the easier job, this is a very easy model with decent accuracy. Certainly good enough for me, at any rate. I don't know why I've been so neglectful of this at times, every time I come back to it, I think what a lovely aircraft the Wellington is.

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Filled with the Easter spirit (advocaat?), and on the back of about three hours of sleep, I launched Good Friday by getting around to something I've been thinking about since starting the model: scratching the rather tiny Monica aerial. (Monica was the tail warning radar). Pictures of Monica are not common; presumably it was a) not an area commonly photographed closely, b ) sensitive material, and c) no longer extant once the RAF realised in 1944 that the Luftwaffe was detecting Monica emissions and using Flensburg to home in on bombers. Here's a photo (not of a Wellington installation, obviously, this is a Lancaster!):

http://world-war-2.wikia.com/wiki/File:Lancaster_Aircraft_Tail_with_Monica,_Circa_1943.jpg

 

I've not really tried to scratch build much before, and certainly nothing of this sort of size. I figured that, since it'll be sticking out of the back, I'd best make it from flexible material so that it has a chance of absorbing the inevitable impacts, so I opted for a bristle from a bottle-brush for the antenna pole, and short pieces of fine EZ-line for the arrowhead antenna. The end result isn't really that close, but this is pretty tiny...

1affe2a6-0a56-4c87-9008-a44c464d146c.JPG

 

Looks a bit better in place:

resized_2c71ca99-cd9b-45dd-9dac-d2afc8e6

 

 

Finally, some shots of the decalling. I've partly applied the first matte coat, but didn't cover the decals as I wanted them to set overnight.

 

Here's Gertie dwarfing a MiG-21:

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And the rear fuselage:

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And the ensemble

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Thanks for looking!

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Thanks, Beard. DK are damn good value, too; I can't build all of the schemes (I think the two Mosquitoes are mutually exclusive), but it should be feasible to build most of them. I just need to find a reasonably priced Academy or Hasegawa Liberator...

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