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

[Eric Mc]

That is looking really nice.

[dogsbody]

7 hours ago, amblypygid said:

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...

 

Looks a bit better in place:

 

 

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:

 

And the rear fuselage:

 

And the ensemble

 

 

Thanks for looking!

 

That photo in the link you posted is labeled wrong, While that is a Monica aerial, it's mounted on a H-P Halifax, not a Lancaster.

 

 

Chris

[amblypygid]

On 3/30/2018 at 5:16 PM, dogsbody said:

That photo in the link you posted is labeled wrong, While that is a Monica aerial, it's mounted on a H-P Halifax, not a Lancaster.

 

So it is; shame on me for not noticing and simply believing what I read without thinking. (Something I regularly chastise others about at work...)

 

Poor Gerty has been neglected again, but that was simply because my early test fitting had showed me that the fit of the guns would be tricky. For the rear turret, Trumpy provide a simple mounting with holes drilled through which one is supposed to insert the barrels; of course this is a tight fit and even tighter once some paint has been applied. So I feared damaging the guns, but in the end some care and attention was all that was required to get a reasonable fit (and the tooling provides for decent alignment that would otherwise be a source of frustration to the ham-fisted such as I.) The front turret was more straightforward, being a twin mount, but I made life a little harder for myself by gluing everything but the turret glazing in position, and then having to attach the glazing without knocking the barrels out of alignment.

 

But I got there without too many mishaps. So, here's where she is - effectively done apart from some weathering. Incidentally, to give an idea of how firm the tooling is, the port wing has never been glued in place, it's held on only by friction and a relatively thin layer of paint. I figured that this would be helpful for when I need to rearrange my cabinet or transport the model somewhere. Apologies for my amateurish efforts to get a light background (love the spiral binding!)

My weathering mojo is definitely lacking right now, and I don't want to screw things up at this stage, so she might languish in the cabinet for a while longer as I build up my mojo levels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christ, there's some silvering on those stbd codes, I've never noticed that before.

 

Thanks once again for feedback and following.

[CedB]

Looking very nice Chris

Apart from the blasted silvering of course. Been there. No doubt you'll get some helpful comments but I would try to cut the carrier away - that way you get the pleasure of throwing it in the bin (the carrier, not the model). I've also tried pricking and applying MicroSol / Daco strong. Always a pain. YMMV.

[amblypygid]

Some tentative pricking will hopefully do the job...

[Eric Mc]

I ran into silvering problems with the codes on my Wellington as well, if that's any consolation.

[amblypygid]

A problem shared is a problem halved doubled (in this case). I think it's always a possibility, given the geodetic surface texture, though this is the only place where I've noticed it. I've stabbed it and doused it in Microsol; while doing so I noticed that it looked a little like it had folded very slightly, which might well be the reason for the silvering. While I wait to weather, it may well be time for me to move on to the next of my 100 Group subjects, which will be the Halifax III "Jane" of 462 Sqn:

 

 

But all in good time; there are a few other projects that need to cleared off the bench first.

 

[TheBaron]

That has turned out very nice indeed Chris - you must feel pleased with such fine results.

[amblypygid]

Thanks, mate, that's very kind of you to say. I am pretty happy with it; there are some things I'd do differently but it's a very good kit and there were no real dramas. I'd get another, actually; wouldn't mind doing a Coastal Command version one day. But I really should concentrate on what I have already in the stash!