Striking Back (1/72 Trumpeter Wellington Ic)

[825]

16 hours ago, CedB said:

 

For fast laundry folding I suggest you put this on Mrs P's Christmas list. Sorted.

 

Mrs 825 got me one of these as a sort of joke Christmas present after seeing Sheldon on the Big Bang Theory use one.  Backfired a bit as it's absolutely brilliant for folding shirts, t-shirts and jumpers. My wardrobe has never looked neater. 825 junior got one too. His I still in the cellophane wrapping. I uppoe students don't need to fold things up.! 

[Procopius]

19 hours ago, CedB said:

For fast laundry folding I suggest you put this on Mrs P's Christmas list. Sorted.

A quick look in British Explosive Ordnance p143 shows these might be Aircraft Illuminator Flares which were 'brown over-all'. Doesn't say what sort of brown, sadly. Great reference though.

 

Ced, you are a font of useful information! I think you've sorted my flares, and possibly my folding.

[Procopius]

Obligatory photo of my kids:

 

 

Today another two-year-old at school told Winston his scrotum was called a "dangle", and to his tiny, undeveloped pea brain, this is the funniest thing on earth. He'll rush into a room, point to his crotch, and announce "this my dangle!" proudly and then emits a deep, unearthly belly laugh. He may be possessed.

 

Fortunately I was able to do a little modelling tonight to take my mind off my possibly-possessed son (as I've mentioned about a jillion times, when I was younger, my parents did think I was possessed, for realsies, and they had me exorcised. My own father told me he wasn't speaking to me, but to the demon inside me, at one point. Curdles a fellow slightly, let me tell you) so let's see what was accomplished.

 

I affixed the interior to one side of the fuselage, finally, after adding quite a lot of stuff that'll never be seen, a huge time suck if you spend any amount of time building a big 1/72 multiengine bomber.

 

 

 

I believe the flares are 4.5" photoflash bombs, which should have black bodies and red tails. I painted the inside of the archway after I took this photo, if you're worried.

 

Then I closed it up for a test fit. Oh, I finished the turrets, too (sort of).

 

 

Given the demarcation line on the Wellinton aft, I firmly believe the tail turret is black. 

 

 

The nose is trickier. I suspect (but wish that it were not so) that the nose turret is DG/DE. We'll figure something out.

 

THE ROYAL AIR FORCE IN BRITAIN, MAY 1942. © IWM (TR 11)IWM Non Commercial Licence

 

OTOH, this one seems to have black framing.

 

ROYAL AIR FORCE 1939-1945: BOMBER COMMAND. © IWM (CH 2714)IWM Non Commercial Licence

 

But damnably, there's this:

 

 

Harrumph.

 

 

Anyhow, the way Trumpeter has engineered this is kinda frustrating. The fit so far is great, which is nice, given how much crap is in the fuselage, but they've made it to be built in subassemblies, so that (I guess) you finish the wings and maybe even paint them before attaching them to the fuselage. Like the Airfix Lancaster, the gear must be built in the down position and added before the wing is closed up, a design decision dictated by Satan himself, as he sat upon on his throne in Hell. The way the wings connect to the fuselage is a little wonky, too: a sort of plastic block is glued to the fuselage by two tiny pegs, and then the wing halves go over it; it doesn't strike me as particularly resilient, but I could be wrong. I'm curious to see how Airfix will handle it.

 

And because the turrets have to be fitted before you close up the fuselage (they lock into little grooves), things like this can happen:

 

 

Fortunately this should be an easy fix, for now. But it's not a great design choice. Sticky-outy bits break off with alarming ease.

 

In any case, since we have to start putting the wings together, I sprayed the three-piece (plus several landing gear parts that will need to be trapped within) bays and the bay doors Colourcoats Night Bomber Black:

 

 

 

 

Once we sort out the turret situation, we can close up the fuselage, and then we'll really be cracking along. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cookenbacher]

Nice job on the interior PC, I'm enjoying it while I can before everything is closed up.

[Killingholme]

Just a thought re the front turret. Perhaps the apparent presence of DE/DG might be because the aircraft in question were originally finished in the early 'low demarcation' bomber scheme- the camouflage extended down the whole fuselage sides? Perhaps when the fuselage sides were repainted black the turret framing was left alone.

 

Just an idea. Don't accuse me of spreading #FakeNews....

[Killingholme]

12 hours ago, Procopius said:

Colourcoats Night Bomber Black

 

Hahah, you let someone convince you there are different shades of Black! My wife pulls this same trick on me when we go clothes shopping...

[perdu]

Someone is bound to take you up on this

 

I'll sit back and watch

 

 

The interior

Got it looking realistic here PC, shame about the machine gun 

[Stew Dapple]

2 hours ago, Killingholme said:

 

Hahah, you let someone convince you there are different shades of Black! My wife pulls this same trick on me when we go clothes shopping...

Will, the RAF believed there were different shades of black too; 'Night' was made from carbon black and ultramarine pigments and is not pure black. Colorcoats just copied the RAF recipe.

 

Your wife was right

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Killingholme]

19 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

Will, the RAF believed there were different shades of black too; 'Night' was made from carbon black and ultramarine pigments and is not pure black. Colorcoats just copied the RAF recipe.

 

Your wife was right

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

PC, that interior does look good. We know it's all in there.

(Never to be seen again, though, obviously).

 

I'll go with Killingholmes' 'demarcation' change idea.

That is of course the same aircraft in the top (B&W)

photo and the bottom (colour) photo. Nice pictures.

 

"Become an armourer they said. Lots of fresh air and exercise they said. Hrrumph!"

[Procopius]

My grandmother passed away on Friday, so I'll be a pallbearer on Tuesday. As if Friday wasn't emotional enough, we had to take Grant to the hospital for a battery of tests on his little kidneys, which included an IV line and a catheter being inserted into him, poor little guy. The look of sheer betrayal on his tiny face as they put his catheter in will haunt my dreams. 

 

However, all this suffering wasn't entirely without purpose, as it seems that Grant's kidneys are working well, and that things may even be on their way to sorting themselves out naturally, which means we've...expended thousands of dollars on something that was never a problem to begin with? Oh dear.

 

More exciting for all of you, though, we closed up the Wellington's fuselage tonight!

 

 

 

You'll also note the forward turret is now Dark Earth. 

 

I also added the one-piece closed bomb bay doors:

 

 

There's no provision for opened doors, but the bay itself has a fully detailed interior. Go figgy.

 

It would also seem not enough of the turret was painted:

 

 

Somehow this escaped my notice until now.

 

I also began work on one of the complicated little landing gear wells, which must be positioned perfectly on pegs in the wing or nothing will look right, and I won't know until it's too late. No pressure.

 

 

The gear bay still has a roof part to add as well.

 

I apologize for the terseness of this, but it's 1AM here right now (only time I have to model lately) and I don't doubt Winston will wake us again at six in the morning, and Mrs P isn't a morning person. (Or a night person. And she needs a nap at midday, too.)

[Pete in Lincs]

Cue the music, Queen, under pressure.

Parenting! The good times will outweigh the bad ones. Over time.

One morning you will awake late and panic because the kids have slept in.

In a short time you'll struggle to get them out of bed in the morning.

Nowadays I rarely sleep past six on a weekend .

[amblypygid]

Sorry to hear the news about your grandmother, PC.

 

More happily, glad to hear the news about Grant! And the Wimpey is looking fine. I don't recall any major issues with the undercarriage assembly on mine, other than the annoyance of having to do it before painting the wings. 

 

 

[06/24]

Hmm, don't know where to begin.

 

1. Very sorry to hear about your grandmother. Please pass on my transatlantic condolences and save some for yourself too.

2. As I said elsewhere, Grant will have no recollection of his misfortune when he is older, so you need have no worries on that score.

3. Sleep. A precious commodity. And a very goldilocks one, either too much, or too little, is never right. As 06/24minor woke me at 5:45 am on this otherwise lazy Sunday morning, it will be evident I can offer no succour on this one. Terrible parenting it may be, but after 13 years of this I now understand why some kids get a TV in their room

4. Wimpey looks splendid. How you can model that late and not make mistakes I don't know,. But if it works for you! 

 

Bravo @Procopius, it sounds like your little family has been through the mill this week. But here you are, entertaining your loyal fans. 

 

Take care buddy.

 

J

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Having no children myself, alas (my wife & I didn’t meet until too late: we got married in our 40s), I can offer only theoretical support.  But I understand it does get better.  I might adopt the word “dangle”.

 

On the colour of front turret, the interior green of the... well... interior of the turret doesn’t help; what we’re seeing as DE/DG on the frames sometimes looks like IG on the inside frames.  I think you’re not going to be catastrophically wrong either way.

 

I’ll lay you money that Airfix’s Wimpey will have a spar that runs through the fuselage.  It’s been their default setting for a lot of recent models, and it works well; strong, unambiguous, sorts any di-/an-hedral angles.

 

Exorcised?  Holy crap.  Says more about your Dad than you, I think.

 

Coming along nicely, Edward

[CedB]

Condolences on your bereavement Edward - my thoughts are with you.

Good news about Grant - as you know you have to do all you can in these circumstances even though it may appear to have been unnecessary; imagine how you'd have felt if you hadn't and it all went wrong. They the things we do for our children are expensive. Most parents spend a small fortune on toys that get left in boxes after a few minutes play. And then there's all the clothes and shoes. Bless 'em.

I second all the comments on sleep - they'll get you into an early morning routine and then sleep in. Luckily, I think, I've just managed a couple of 9am lie-ins! We shall see if it lasts...

Great progress on the Wimpy. It looks as though the closed doors are represented though - there are LOTS! Probably why there's no open option - and you know what I think about PE AM; madness!

 

1 hour ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Cue the music, Queen, under pressure.

Thanks goodness for punctuation!

 

[woody37]

A dangly 😅

 

lovely work on the Wimpy, it’s coming together well. 

 

A bit bit too late, but I tend to slice the bottom bits off the turrets so I can slide them in last to avoid breakages. For example, on the lancaster, there are ammo boxes protruding below, so I’ll cut them off and glue them to the fuselage.

 

The joys of being a parent. It’s the most wonderful and tortuous experience life brings often ranging between the two in 10 minute cycles 😂

[perdu]

Losing your grandmother, a bad time for you PC, condolences young sir

But finding out that Grant is GOOD is very much better, even if he and Winnie work hard on your sympathy muscle sometimes

 

In further news, I think you made the right decision to 'brown up' the turret, this is going to be a very lovely Wimpey

[HAMP man]

Hello PC,

It's been a long time since the child was the age of yours, and despite my cack-handed attempts to do the right thing she has flourished, and constantly surprises me that I had anything to do with the R&D. 

Whilst I have no idea who you are, other than making assumptions from the personal asides you include in, what for me, are your stellar and enjoyable musings about aircraft and this side of the pond, I do empathise with a fellow member of the BM tribe.

Life comes in a series of acts, some long some short, and the only way you can identify their duration is by looking back.

Loving the build, as always.

Strickers

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Happy to hear Grant is better. Sorry about your grandmother. Ive not met many SWMBO’s that are morning people. Your bomb bay sounds a bit like the old monogram B-17 they gave you a bomb rack, bombs, but sealed doors ? I guess you could carefully saw them open? Good luck on the Landing gear ? 

Dennis

Edited December 11, 2017 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[Cookenbacher]

So sorry to hear about your grandmother PC.

 

But glad to hear that Grant is doing well after his ordeal.

 

The Wellington is looking great all closed up and providing a bit of solace to us all.

[TheBaron]

Tough times at Procopius High; sorry to hear of such travails in the run up to the holiday season Edward.

 

Draw as much vicarious pleasure as you can from PC minor and major trashing their presents and wincing at the taste of chocolate liquers.

 

Most important of all: buy yourself some small guilty present, a talisman for the stoic within.

 

un peu de calme et d'oubli....

 

[Procopius]

14 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

I’ll lay you money that Airfix’s Wimpey will have a spar that runs through the fuselage.  It’s been their default setting for a lot of recent models, and it works well; strong, unambiguous, sorts any di-/an-hedral angles.

Looks like you're right. I espied this on Facebook today:

 

 

I was going to get one before, but I've revised that to at least one.

 

14 hours ago, 06/24 said:

Terrible parenting it may be, but after 13 years of this I now understand why some kids get a TV in their room

Today I lured Winston upstairs to be dressed by playing Stinky and Dirty on my Kindle Fire and slowly walking backwards to his room. 

 

12 hours ago, woody37 said:

A bit bit too late, but I tend to slice the bottom bits off the turrets so I can slide them in last to avoid breakages. For example, on the lancaster, there are ammo boxes protruding below, so I’ll cut them off and glue them to the fuselage.

Top tip, Woody! Duly noted for the other two Wellingtons I have.

 

4 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Tough times at Procopius High; sorry to hear of such travails in the run up to the holiday season Edward.

For many years, my mother had Ferris Bueller's Day Off (which was filmed near where I live -- I used to drive past the house in this scene almost every day) confused with Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which ensured I was forbidden to watch either during the impressionable stage of my youth. 

 

 

 

Thanks everyone for the kind wishes regarding my grandmother. 

[Procopius]

I've never yet encountered a kit, no matter how well engineered, where I didn't have to shlop (technical term) large amounts of filler along the center seam.

 

 

The bombardier's window in the nose is just a dry fit, but it's quite snug, though it seems a tad wide.

 

 

 

 

Up top I'm using Mr Surfacer to try and be subtle about things (and also in the vain hope that it would reveal no gap once applied and dried):

 

 

 

The landing gear bays are now assembled, and they're stooging around in the box like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and likely to meet an end equally awful, sticking out like they will for most of the rest of the build once the wings are closed up. 

 

 

Worried that the landing gear might miraculously make it to the end of the build without getting sheared off, Trumpeter settled upon exceptionally elaborate ailerons, involving seven pieces per, not counting the wing halves:

 

 

Yeesh. 

 

There is of course also the issue of the overemphasized fabric effect on the wings; at present my plan is "hope Airfix does it better".

 

22 hours ago, 06/24 said:

4. Wimpey looks splendid. How you can model that late and not make mistakes I don't know,. But if it works for you! 

 

I forgot to answer this earlier, and my secret is...I do! Tons! I'll probably snap all the gun barrels off within the next seventy-two hours. 

 

Tonight Mrs P made a truly incredible amount of chili to feed my mom (my dad, a notoriously finicky eater, doesn't eat chili), my sister, and my stepgrandfather, in one of those untelegraphed moments of genuine human sentiment she sometimes has. Her maternity leave ends tomorrow and she's back to work. My mother-in-law is in town to watch the kids for us. Gonna be a long week. 

[amblypygid]

I'd forgotten about that aileron construction. One does wonder who decided that it would be a good idea to create an elaborate construction that prevents the modeller from making any adjustment to the aileron.