Jump to content

Wellington mk II Z8370 PH-Y


Recommended Posts

went ahead and painted them black. it's just not clear enough if a colour was used other than black, so I'm playing it safe. I agree about the 500lb bombs, Hovering.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

This weekend I worked on the wings. This included the undercarriage bays.

DSC_3659.jpg

I think the kit's bays are needlessly complicated, but in the end they work fine. Very little can be seen, especially since I painted the interior black.

DSC_3660.jpg

After the undercarriage bays were complete, I assembled the wings and added the Alley Cat engines.

DSC_3664.jpg

DSC_3665.jpg

The fit of the resin engines was not as good as I had hoped, but not as bad as I feared.

DSC_3666.jpg

Based on Patrick Earing's thread of last year (http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=234911647) I was fearing the worst, but with my example the fit is not as bad. One engine is a fraction smaller than the other with mine, and as a result, the smaller one which I fitted to the right wing doesn't fit quite as well as the left, but hopefully it's nothing some filling and sanding won't fix.

Although I'm not nearly in the painting stage yet, there's something I'm wondering about. In some (not all) pictures it looks as if there's something going on with the serial number. In some pictures, it looks as though the area of the serial number has been masked off and as a result the camouflage colours are showing through. However, the "masked" area seems twice as long as is necessary. This picture shows it most clearly:

04.jpg

The area seems to be lighter than the black, but then again also not the same colour as the camouflage above it. The effect (whatever it is) is less noticeable in this picture from a similar angle:

03.jpg

But from in front, it seems that it's there again:

01.jpg

What do you think is going on?

Edited by elger
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Elger,

I think it might just be a different 'sheen' on the paint and how it is picking up the low sun, since it is very apparent around the squadron codes/side of the fuselage.

However, there is a dingy release tear off patch there too... so it may not have been repainted... or if they were purposely a different colour?

wellington1f.jpg

wellington2.jpg

Greg

edit: info from 4+ Wellington and Ken Delve collection

Edited by hovering
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Elger,

I think it might just be a different 'sheen' on the paint and how it is picking up the low sun, since it is very apparent around the squadron codes/side of the fuselage.

However, there is a dingy release tear off patch there too... so it may not have been repainted... or if they were purposely a different colour?

Greg

edit: info from 4+ Wellington and Ken Delve collection

I think you're right about the sheen. It would explain why it doesn't appear in photos from a different angle. It would make my life easier too :)

Edited by elger
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

A rainy weekend with time to work on the wings. I managed to fill the gaps of the engines with thin styrene strips superglued to the resin, and filling the rest with more super glue. After sanding, priming to check the progress a few times this was the result

DSC_4104.jpg

I used a scribing tool to re-add some of the panel lines

DSC_4103.jpg

I also added wing navigation lights that are missing from the kit.

DSC_4108.jpg

Next weekend I will hopefully have time to work on the flaps. But before that, I couldn't resist dry fitting the main components and getting an impression of what it would look like assembled!

DSC_4099.jpg

Thanks for looking!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Its looking singularly impressive! Thank you for sharing this build with us; I for one am thoroughly enjoying it!

Martin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Temporary setback.

My girlfriend is scared of spiders. There was a spider on the wall. Normally I like to escort them out using a piece of paper and a drinking glass, but it was out of reach. At this point in time, my girlfriend was standing on the couch, quite terrified. So I got out the vacuum cleaner. I switch on the vacuum cleaner and move the other couch so I can reach the wall. The couch knocks into the tv - the tv on which the Wellington fuselage is resting. The place where I've been putting it for the last few months, and about which for the last few months I've been thinking every time "I really shouldn't put it there, it's not safe".

My girlfriend yells "the plane!" I look over, half a second later, and on the floor I notice the fuselage is standing nose up against the cabinet. I switch off the vacuum cleaner. I move over. The rear turret has wedged itself into the rear fuselage which has been cracked open. A barrel is missing, but I see it on the floor. I carefully pick up the plane. I hear things rattle inside, somewhat reminiscent of Lego. I remove the rear turret. The navigator's table falls out. More pieces are loose.

"You and your stupid fear of spiders" I say, feeling guilty as soon as I say it. I should not have been keeping it on the tv. My girlfriend retreats to the other room. I carefully pick up a small piece here and there from the floor, and move them with the plane to the table.

Very, very carefully I break open the fuselage, starting from the rear, where the turret had been wedged in. It's a clean break, from back to front. A handful of parts fall out.

No parts missing.

Clean break.

I walk to the other room where my girlfriend is reading something on her phone. "It was 100% my own fault", I say. She knew, but was glad I said it.

Back in the living room, the spider is still on the wall. I switch on the vacuum cleaner and suck up that little sweetheart.

The model will be ok, will take me about a day to fix up. Who would ever want to actually finish a model anyway?

Edited by elger
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What drama! I feared for the plane from the first sentence! And so eloquently written. I'm glad the spider bought it, your girlfriend didn't get the blame and the damage to the precious plane was only light. It could have been so much worse.

All the best with the repairs,

James

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Happy to say that the fuselage is back together

DSC_4217.jpg

working on the flaps and bomb bay doors. Almost ready for paint. Update may take a while because I'll be going to a wedding in Wales next week, and after that we're moving house. Hopefully I can get back to work soon though :-)

DSC_4214.jpg

thanks for looking

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good work, you'd never know it had suffered cat.4 damage at the hands (legs??!!) of a spider!!

I hope the weather improves for your trip to wet Wales. I've been thinking of building an ark here rather than my models recently!! :D

Keef

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

And we're back!

The move is over and the wedding in Wales was lovely - there was some rain but not in the wedding day itself. The surroundings and the couple were beautiful.

dsc5758editbw-001.jpg

(By the way, my girlfriend is the photographer http://traciwhiteweddingsblog.wordpress.com/)

Some years ago my friend Tom, the groom, asked me if I could build a model of a P-47 for his grandfather. His grandfather had joined the RAF and his unit was to take part in the allied attack on Singapore which never materialized because by that time the Japanese had surrendered. I had a lot of fun building that model and I had heard that Jim, Tom's grandfather, was very pleased with it. So 3 weeks ago I finally had the chance to meet Jim and see the model again which is prominently on display in his living room. Jim was very grateful and immediately insisted that I have a whiskey with him. He had quite a few stories to tell and it was a very rewarding experience.

Anyway, the Wellington moves on to the painting stage!

DSC_6270.jpg

I started by painting the yellow for the deicing strips. I've toned them down a bit since. Since taking this picture I've also painted the main colours: dark earth (6x xf 52 + 3x xf 59 + 4x xf 62) and dark green (XF81). For the underside I used Vallejo black, mainly because I had run out of Tamiya, but in the end the paint went on very nicely. Vallejo is a lot more vulnerable to scratching and chipping so I've sealed it with some Future, hoping it will protect it somewhat.

This weekend I hope to get the decals on. I don't have a good camera at my disposal unfortunately, so pics will follow when they're on!

Edited by elger
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, there's some paint on

DSC_7289.jpg

As said earlier, Tamiya for the upper side, Vallejo black for the underside.

DSC_7290.jpg

I had read that the Alley Cat decals were difficult to work with. This had worried me because I needed to cobble together the markings for Z8370 from the conversion set's decal options. I have to say I was extremely pleased with the Alley Cat decals. They reacted very well to Solvaset / sol and conformed beautifully to the surface.

DSC_7294.jpg

One snag though, I discovered as I test fitted the tail plane. AAARRRRGH!!!!!

DSC_7295.jpg

I thought I'd been very clever using the various decals supplied with the conversion set, but I had failed to realize that the letters from one of the options was actually too big. I had arranged them according to where the original kit part was supposed to start, but as you can see, the larger tail plane from Alley Cat covers part of the letter. I considered my options for a bit, but decided quickly that I would just use the mk 1c tail planes. Removing the letters and then replacing them with painted ones would be too much work and I would like to have this thing done at some point.

DSC_7297.jpg

Perhaps some mk IIs weren't equipped with the larger tail planes? Wishful thinking :-)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...