Striking Back (1/72 Trumpeter Wellington Ic)

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

‘Bomb Aimer”, Edward - “Bombardiers” are US(A)AF (or Army of course).  If you’re going to pass as a Brit....

 

I’ve seen the Airfix Wimpey in the flesh (at Telford), and it looks amazing.  Good job I don’t do 1/72, really!

[perdu]

Surely a bombardier is some kind of artillery Johnnie, the chap higher than a gunner but below many variants of other n.c.os. 

 

You'd think we spoke different languages, tssk tssk

 

The new Airfix Wimpey looks likely to make me go back in time to when WW2 was my hobby era

 

It looks amazing

[Cookenbacher]

"Bomb aimer" it is then, authentic and easier to spell, a win win.

 

Although there are few things as fun as speaking into one cupped hand, "pilot to bombardier, pilot to bombardier,"  while zooming the nearly complete 1/72 bomber around with the other.

[Procopius]

 

Quick post. As you can see, we're cracking along. The tailplanes are dry fits right now. I'm not keen on the fact that each tailplane is two pieces, top and bottom, but what can one man do against the universe? I'm also rarely, by which I mean never, a fan of wheel well/landing gear combos that have to be installed in the wing versus molded-in wheel wells -- I think it greatly increases the chance of things being off-kilter.

 

One of my fillings fell out this morning, which was about as fun as it sounds, so I have to stay home from work tomorrow and head in to the dentist to get it fixed. Some rather pleasant news from elsewhere in the country, however, more than makes up for the nagging pain in the side of my tooth. 

 

Also I owe like five people PMs, but I'm badly behind in all parts of my life. 

 

 

 

[amblypygid]

Judging by the evidence of filler, the tailplane roots were the worst fitting part of my kit, though by no means horrendous. I also remember finding the wing root-stubs less effective than I'd expected, but I can't remember whether they were too tight or too loose.

[Stew Dapple]

11 minutes ago, Procopius said:

Some rather pleasant news from elsewhere in the country, however, more than makes up for the nagging pain in the side of my tooth

 

I'm glad - I felt your pain, and I share your consoling pleasure  

 

Wimpy's coming along nicely too.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[CedB]

Owie! I hope the filling gets fixed without too much angst... surely you have something suitable in the stash? Milliput fine?

 

4 hours ago, Procopius said:

Some rather pleasant news from elsewhere in the country, however, more than makes up for the nagging pain in the side of my tooth.

Sorry, I have no idea what this is. Please enlighten me (and I hope it wasn't 'fake news'!)

[tonyh]

6 minutes ago, CedB said:

Owie! I hope the filling gets fixed without too much angst... surely you have something suitable in the stash? Milliput fine?

 

Sorry, I have no idea what this is. Please enlighten me (and I hope it wasn't 'fake news'!)

I'm guessing Mr. P is referring to something that just happened in Alabama...?

 

Tony

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Or rather something that just didn’t happen in Alabama...

[wyverns4]

Sounds about right...

 

That, or the Fiscal Year 2018 Defense Authorization

[HAMP man]

Get a female dentist, they are so much more in tune with the pain and tend to over anaesthetise, this is a strictly personal view based on limited information, other dentist genders are available.

The Wimpey is coming together, crack on, Santa is on his way which will curtail modelling time.

Strickers

 

[Procopius]

5 hours ago, HAMP man said:

Get a female dentist, they are so much more in tune with the pain and tend to over anaesthetise, this is a strictly personal view based on limited information, other dentist genders are available.

The Wimpey is coming together, crack on, Santa is on his way which will curtail modelling time.

Strickers

 

 

12 hours ago, CedB said:

Owie! I hope the filling gets fixed without too much angst... surely you have something suitable in the stash? Milliput fine?

I kind of have a little crush on my dentist; she's a cute Indian woman, very short, with the faintest of accents. (Which just goes to show how ungrateful I am that the universe presented me with a tall, beautiful wife.) She also makes a lot of jokes, (which I appreciate), many about how badly my gums were getting cut up during the surgery (which I didn't). Consequently, my mouth is in a bit of pain now. Women, they always find a way to get you.

 

 

11 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Or rather something that just didn’t happen in Alabama...

Yes, a slight but very welcome detour on our national journey to the bottom. Especially since my late grandmother, whose funeral was, as you know, yesterday as well, was impregnated and married at fifteen by a much older seminary student whose views inclined profoundly towards the regressive, and who beat their children and far, far worse before abandoning her with five of their children and taking the sixth (his favourite) off with him, not to be seen again by them for another forty years. I know it's irrational, but on some level it feels as if my grandfather, who I've never met, but whose malign specter haunted my own childhood, was beaten a little last night as well. And he deserves all the beatings he can get.

 

 

In happier news, my Haynes Manual on the Wellington came, and it is GREAT. I had sort of adopted the snobbish position that the Haynes Manuals were rather lightweight texts on their subjects, but as a modelling reference, it's superb. I wish I'd had it when I started the kit.

 

 

[Procopius]

23 hours ago, amblypygid said:

Judging by the evidence of filler, the tailplane roots were the worst fitting part of my kit, though by no means horrendous. I also remember finding the wing root-stubs less effective than I'd expected, but I can't remember whether they were too tight or too loose.

I seem to have been a bit luckier than you, then, as the fit is jolly nice on mine.

 

Yep, all glued in. IDGAF, as the kids say. Some work needs to be done to fix the seat of the port aileron.

 

 

All in all, though, fit was excellent on mine; the wings clipped into place and one could almost have gotten away without glue...but almost is not the same as actually not needing glue, I hasten to add.

 

I did a fair amount of sanding to soften the rib detail atop the wings, but even so, it's still very prominent:

 

 

 

Anyway, more later, as I need to get to bed. Back in the office tomorrow and all. 

 

[Stew Dapple]

Well it takes a lot to make my family look normal, Edward, but somehow your family consistently does it  

 

Glad your tooth is sorted. Kudos to your dentist for even being able to make jokes about how badly your gums are being cut up, but I suppose practice makes perfect  

 

Oh yes, and the Wellington is coming along very nicely indeed. 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

I too have a crush on my dentist.  Just as well; I married her 15 years ago!

 

The Haynes Manuals vary as modelling references - the Lynx one, for instance, is great if you’re building a Mk.8, but less so for a 2 or 3.  On the whole, though, they are excellent.  I just wish they’d get down to Yeovilton and write Sea Fury & Sea Vixen volumes to accompany the Swordfish book.

 

Your family story wasn’t written by Mark Twain, by any chance?

[Procopius]

On 12/14/2017 at 12:40 AM, Stew Dapple said:

Well it takes a lot to make my family look normal, Edward, but somehow your family consistently does it  

Yes, it's unfortunate. My mother's standard defence is "what's normal?" but both my youngest sister and I agree it isn't whatever's happening at any given moment within the leafy and alarmingly toroidal branches of our family tree.

 

On 12/14/2017 at 5:25 AM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

I too have a crush on my dentist.  Just as well; I married her 15 years ago!

I trust you proposed by slipping the ring over your uvula prior to an appointment? No, don't disabuse me of this. I've long believed there's nothing the Royal Navy can't do, and I don't want you spoiling it.

 

On 12/14/2017 at 5:25 AM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Your family story wasn’t written by Mark Twain, by any chance?

Alas no. Most of it is too cheap, dumb, and venal for Twain to touch. In any case, I am determined to preserve my children unsullied by the myriad curses of my family, which surely must be to some extent a product of upbringing, rather than genetics. Will I fail? Oh, probably. My mom had the same dream, but I do think I'm willing to go a little further on that front. 

 

Here's Winnie; some children have a stuffed teddy bear, he has an Su-15 Flagon to protect himself from nasty old Korean jetliners.

 

2017-12-17_11-14-45 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Anyway, tonight I got downstairs and did a little more work in between watching episodes of The Sandbaggers, which really doesn't get enough credit.

 

20171218_224458 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I also did the collector rings, using Aluminium as a base, followed by clear blue and then clear orange. The photos don't capture it well, but in different light they look different:

 

20171218_221530 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

20171218_221520 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

And yes, I left the front part of the rings unsullied. Don't worry.

 

I used my Grex Genesis XN for all of this, as it has the smallest needle of all of my airbrushes (0.2mm). When I first bought it, it had a sticky trigger and I had to send it in to be refurbished at the factory, and ever since I've felt like it's kind of finicky and am loathe to use it. It did okay here, but I don't know that this is the best brush to showcase the brand. Fine detail brushes all feel pretty much the same to me. 

 

20171218_221301 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I hand-painted the tailwheel (and airbrushed the masked mainwheels) and I think this is the best I've ever done at brushpainting a wheel. All downhill from here.

 

20171218_224423 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Then I used the rest of the Tamiya Rubber Black in the brush to undergird the windows and get them ready for priming.

 

20171218_225701 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Unfortunately, despite lining everything up with its respective pegs, the oil cooler air scoops are caddywumpus:

 

20171218_225719 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

The scoops are separate parts; I should not have added them until the cowls were on. Alas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hairystick]

21 hours ago, Procopius said:

...in between watching episodes of The Sandbaggers, which really doesn't get enough credit.

I totally agree here PC! Brilliant television indeed.

 

I hand-painted the tailwheel (and airbrushed the masked mainwheels) and I think this is the best I've ever done at brushpainting a wheel. All downhill from here.

Take your hat off! That is superb accuracy and especially so at this scale.

 

[CedB]

Very nice work on the metal bits PC. And that tailwheel - perfect!

I hadn't heard of Grex before but their 'tag line' looks a bit suspicious? 'The Evolution of Perfection' eh? Doesn't that imply they've not got there yet and that perfection maybe achieved at some point in their future? Obviously it's just me; they no doubt had innumerable focus groups testing the concept before they adopted it. Probably.

Sorry to hear that the oil cooler air scoops are caddywumpus but full marks for vocabulary, as usual

[amblypygid]

29 minutes ago, CedB said:

I hadn't heard of Grex before but their 'tag line' looks a bit suspicious? 'The Evolution of Perfection' eh? Doesn't that imply they've not got there yet and that perfection maybe achieved at some point in their future? Obviously it's just me

 

No, not just you, Ced. I find it a) implies they've reached perfection and are now heading off for pastures new; b ) indicates that they are clearly well up themselves and should therefore be treated with a deal of mistrust, and c) inclines me to suspect that they don't really understand the principles of evolution.

 

That is a neat tailwheel, though!

[TheBaron]

1 hour ago, Procopius said:

The Sandbaggers, which really doesn't get enough credit.

Quite right PC. I missed it when it originally aired (being a callow Cold War schoolboy distracted by Blake's Seven and That Girl with the Kate Bush Hairstyle in 5th Year) but discovered this gem a couple of years back and back and was instantly gripped. The US-British relationship within it was interesting as well. Shades of Britmodeller!

 

Can those coolers be persuaded away with a scalpel blade for relocation, even with some Milliputian repairs at all?

Tony

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

It might easily be photo distortion, but your "caddywumpus" photo - the one from nose-on - makes the port wing look as though it has significantly more dihedral than starboard...?

[Cookenbacher]

I dream of painting a tail wheel to that standard.

[Procopius]

6 hours ago, TheBaron said:

That Girl with the Kate Bush Hairstyle

There's a game I play with myself called Kate Bush Hairstyle Or Character From The Broadway Production Of Cats? I rarely win, but I relish the challenge.

 

43 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

It might easily be photo distortion, but your "caddywumpus" photo - the one from nose-on - makes the port wing look as though it has significantly more dihedral than starboard...?

Christ, why would you even say something like that! It's photo distortion...I hope. It must be, mustn't it? I'll fret about it the rest of my day here at the office.

 

7 hours ago, CedB said:

I hadn't heard of Grex before but their 'tag line' looks a bit suspicious? 'The Evolution of Perfection' eh? Doesn't that imply they've not got there yet and that perfection maybe achieved at some point in their future? Obviously it's just me; they no doubt had innumerable focus groups testing the concept before they adopted it. Probably.

I think they're an American brand, primarily -- supposedly more premium than Badger, and they pioneered a lot of the pistol grip-style brushes one now sees. 

 

7 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Can those coolers be persuaded away with a scalpel blade for relocation, even with some Milliputian repairs at all?

Milliputian is good. I'm not sure how easy to extract they'll be, as I foolishly clamped them down (it's a butt join) and liberally used Tamiya Extra Thin. But one never knows.

 

7 minutes ago, Cookenbacher said:

I dream of painting a tail wheel to that standard.

This one fortunately has a very nice deep recessed line delineating the separation of tire and hub, and the paint was already thinned for the airbrush...a lot of it was dumb luck. But I don't particularly care how dumb my luck is as long as it's good.

[Procopius]

Slight update -- installed the downward identification light, masked it, and painted black around it, then added another underside window of uncertain function (possibly the window for the downward facing F.24 bomb damage assessment camera, though of course...no camera), masked it, and painted it. Put some perfect plastic putty in the gap between the front windscreen and the fuselage, and oh yeah, tore the oil cooler intakes off with my bare hands and reattached them in more congenial locations. I'll need to do a little filling and sanding tomorrow once the TET dries. The dihedral looks okay. Hopefully we can get primer on this weekend -- I have Thursday off work to go see Winston at his cultish private school (Montessori, but Mrs P teaches there, so it's free), and then Friday off for my bi-annual dental checkup, so I feel my odds are decent. Why the indecent haste? I'm hoping to do a Blenheim buddy build with @06/24 come the new year, and I'm off to Michigan on the 29th, so I only have so much time. Also I'd like to finish the year with at least ten builds.

 

 

[Stew Dapple]

I'm tantalisingly close to getting ten completions myself this year, but I don't think I'll make it, to my shame. I shall look forward to your buddy build with Jon though

 

Cheers,

 

Stew