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As my little De Havilland project draws to an end, I'm starting a new project. This is one that's been percolating through my brain for a while: a set of 100 Group aircraft. The release of the DK decals set last year helped, and about this time last year I also picked up a Trumpeter Wellington X, but until the other day I hadn't realised that the two could go together. I have two other projects in mind, both based on the bases local to my house in WW2: Bassingbourn for the USAAF and Gransden Lodge for the RAF. As it happens, this Wellington has a nod towards Gransden Lodge as well, as although the decal sheet depicts a 1944 aircraft from 192 Squadron, the squadron was formed (and operated Wimpeys) at Gransden Lodge in early 1943. Now, I don't know much about the Wellington, and I'm not sure what modifications were made to the 100 Group aircraft; my references for 100 Group ops are rather silent on the matter, at least with respect to visible external alterations. Therefore, the intent right now is to build straight OOB. The Trumpeter kit has good detail, I understand, so I see no real need to get any etch or resin parts. The de rigueur sprue shots (many are duplicated, so I've only shown one where that's the case).

"How easy it would have been for National Socialist Germany to misuse its superiority in the air just as Great Britain has always done at sea. But in Poland, Adolf Hitler gave the world proof of his military leadership. The Luftwaffe followed his orders and attacked only military targets." -- SS-Standartenführer Toni Winkelnkemper, Der Großangriff auf Köln. Ein Beispiel (Berlin: Franz Eher, 1942) (trans. Randall Bytwerk) "Suddenly two German planes appeared from nowhere and dropped two bombs only two hundred yards away on a small home. Two women in the house were killed. The potato diggers dropped flat upon the ground, hoping to be unnoticed. After the bombers had gone, the women returned to their work. They had to have food. But the Nazi fliers were not satisfied with their work. In a few minutes they came back and swooped down to within two hundred feet of the ground, this time raking the field with machine-gun fire. Two of the seven women were killed. The other five escaped somehow. While I was photographing the bodies, a little ten-year old girl [Kazimiera Mika, actually aged 12] came running up and stood transfixed by one of the dead. The woman was her older sister. The child had never before seen death and couldn't understand why her sister would not speak to her..." -- Julien Bryan, "Warsaw: 1939 Siege; 1959 Warsaw Revisited" "If people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked people would have it all their own way: they would never feel afraid, and so they would never alter, but would grow worse and worse. When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard; I am sure we should—so hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it again." -- Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre "I keep thinking of Winston Churchill down at Westerham, full of patriotism and ideas for saving the Empire. A man who knows you must act to win. You cannot remain supine and allow yourself to be hit indefinitely." -- Sir Edmund Ironside, Diary entry for 27 July 1939 It's always a struggle to pick out a kit these days, because I know I'll have pathetically little time to work on it and it will take ages and ages, and do I really want to build it for that long? But sooner or later you either have to get off the pot or do what you sat on it to do, so here we are. I decided to build the Trumpeter Wellington Ic I have in my stash, one of three of their Wellington kits I own, and given my current build rate, it will likely be finished around the time the presumably infinitely superior Airfix one comes out (though most Airfix kits these days seem to come complete with one clanger in the box, cf. the Harrier GR3 tail or Hurricane canopy and wing panels). I'll be building Wellington Ic R1593 OJ-N "for Nuts"/FIREFLY of 149 (East India) Squadron, whose motto was Fortis Nocte; Strong By Night. The squadron served as both a night bombing unit in the Great War (flying the delightfully ungainly-looking F.E.2, a personal favourite) and in World War II, where it flew a whole panoply of types: Heyfords, Wellingtons, Stirlings, and Lancasters. After the war, it flew Lincolns, Washingtons, and Canberras, before finally disbanding in 1956. R1593 was damaged beyond repair during a raid on Bremen on 14/15 July 1941, when she was coned by searchlights at 8,000 feet and hit hard by flak. Skillful evasive maneuvers by her pilot, Sergeant (later Warrant Officer) Donald Anthony "Tony" Gee (23/1/1920-7/10/1942) brought the aircraft down to 2,000 feet and enabled her and her (miraculously unhurt) crew to struggle back to Mildenhall, where she crash-landed. Sadly, Warrant Officer Gee was killed in a flying accident on 7 October 1942 while instructing on a training flight in Wellington Ic R1801 from 28 OTU when a piece of fabric tore off the wing while the aircraft was airborne. He was 22, had flown 37 missions over enemy territory, and left behind his wife Irene. The kit decals are a rather voluptuous, if not alarmingly sensual, red, and the codes are a rather anemic, unhealthy looking exceptionally pale grey (roughly the colour of the late Christopher Lee's flesh in Dracula...possibly drained of their vital essence by the roundels) which is why we're building N-Nuts off a Techmod sheet, rather than the kit option of a 301 ("Ziemi Pomorskiej") Squadron aircraft of the Free Polish forces. Also, I generally like nose art. N-Nuts in life. My workbench is as clean as it's gonna get. Let's get going.

Vickers 290 Wellington 1A N2980 (1939), N2980 is the only surviving Brooklands-built Wellington. During a training flight on the 31st December 1940 she developed engine trouble and ditched into Loch Ness. She was rescued from Loch Ness in 1985 and is now displayed appropriately at The Brooklands museum. She is one of only two Wellingtons to survive, and the only one to serve as bomber, including The infamous Heligoland Bight raid on the 18th December 1939. Pics thanks to Frank Bell.

Good day, gentlemen! It's my last model in this year. I used 3 sets of etched details from Eduard and added some handmade items.

Italeri have something special for us this month, a fantastically detailed 1/72 Scale Vickers Wellington Mk.IC with subtle geodesic patterns on the body of the kit to represent the underlying airframe used in the famous real life aircraft! For full details, please see our newsletter.

Can anyone tell me how accurate the Warpaint Wellington drawings are? I'm a glutton for punishment and recently acquired a Maquette Wimpy 1c for £5, the fuselage looks quite accurate but the wings are longer than the Warpaint drawing, as for the nacels, well....start again. Oh and the transparent bits are not transparent at all but I already have Falcon set to replace them. Should be fun when I get around to it, Thanks, Neil

Hi all I am currently building Trumpeters Mk 1c Wellington an I have a question regarding the cockpit. The kit has two control columns and rudder pedals but only one seat. Also all the pictures and you tube videos I have seen only show only one. Anyone know why Trumpeter have put two in the cockpit? Mick

Hi all, Had bit of a quiet time on the modelling front this year, was getting a bit tired of trying to detail 1/48 kits so decided to go old skool for a bit of fun and build a classic old 1/72 Airfix kit. I bagged a Wellington on ebay and this has been the most enjoyable kit i've built in ages, which I guess is the point of the hobby! Put a tiny bit of detail in the cockpit and did a bit of weathering, only downside was the decals, very fragile and one of the codes broke up - (the letter K if anybody has a spare!). Anyway, here she is, got the bug for Bomber Command now... And finally, the wonderful box art!

Vickers Wellesley, one of those forgotten types from the unfashionable side of modelling. Here's the very first boxing that I will be using for the build: Typical Matchbox kit, basic but accurate to the eye. I'll add a few details but won't be going rivet crazy - actually theres very few rivets in the design as it is a smaller brother to it's more famous stablemate the Wellington and shares it's fabric covered geodesic structure. As befits the simple kit it's appears a simple build: Schemes are two similar green/brown birds differentiated by their engines. Option 1 is a standard short cowl Mk1, but option 2 is more interesting as it is a form generally associated with just 3 aircraft of the Long Range Development Unit that flew from England-Egypt-Australia with the longest leg being 7300miles (in 1938!). But to confuse matters the kit decals arent for one of these 3...but more on that later

From a time when etched brass , resin , and detail sets in general were unheard of , comes the old 3 colour Matchbox Wellington. I loved the Matchbox kits when i was a kid. I must have built and "crashed" most of them! Roy Huxley's artwork was always very inspiring to a young model maker. I probably built about 3 Wellingtons , but i always did the coastal command one. This time i will be building the Mk.X. I am really looking forward to this , no extra details , nofancy pre shading etc , I may not even use the airbrush. Well here we go. Heres that fantastic artwork And the back , complete with little window to see the contents The 3 colour parts! And a stand , yes a stand! Why do we not get some of these things in todays kits?

Hello All, I thought I would pitch in with an MPM Wellington because - it's classic Bomber Command and - I have one in the stash, bought from Hannants London second hand pile several years ago. Here are the parts: It's a curiously unloved kit, with issues (to my knowledge) of: * Undercarriage bay too narrow for undercarriage * Turrets are messed up/mislabelled * Canopies too wide * Lots of others, including "it isn't the Trumpeter kit", which by all accounts is excellent, albeit with its own flaws Here's some sticking together (including separate cylinders!) that hasn't engaged the brain: "Hey I'm a model fighter guy and I've just stuck 30 parts together - is it time for the paint shop?" You can see that the undercarriage strut is too wide for the wheel well. You can also see industrial sanding to the wheel wells to clear the top wing half, and more sanding to thin the trailing edge - it is in itself quite thin but the joining surface rises up a few mm before the edge, preventing the edges from meeting. Pressing on regardless, I took the liberty of assembling the rear turret (checked the number call outs many times). It's too small for the rear but it fits really well at the front: Here's where I got to today: Note that I have drilled out the landing light ports. You can also see that the wheel would never fit in the well when retracted - good job I'm modelling with gear down! Next up will be an interior - I want to represent all the crew positions visible through the windows, but I don't want to go overboard. Thanks for looking, Adrian

Pics from Rich Ellis at The RAF Museum Cosford.

Hi, New book on Wellingtons, Mitchels and Mosquitos is coming soon. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bomber-Aircraft-305-Squadron-White/dp/8361421807/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398769124&sr=8-1&keywords=bomber+aircraft+of+305+squadron Regards Robert

I never got around to buying Bloody Shambles III but suspect there is not much in it about Wellington ops in India and Burma. Does anyone know of any 99, 215 or 221 Squadron Wellington lost to either Japanese aircraft or Japanese AA fire? If there was such, could I ask for the details, please?

Can anybody help me out with the colour of a Mkiii Wellington bomb bay? The instructions say silver but I have seen other people do it in black. Brody