S/L Plonk Gets A Wimpy

[Uncle Pete]

Is it just me or does anybody else find a “honeymoon effect” with kits?  I open a kit up and throw myself into it with great vigour, sticking and painting, painting and sticking, and the enthusiasm tails off as the kit nears completion and working on it becomes a bit of a chore while I start eyeing the pile of unbuilt kits in the stash with a new hunger.

 

Coincidentally I’ve been divorced four times…

 

This Wimpy languished on the bench for a month, 90% complete, 90% painted among a little heap of antennae, gun turrets, props, spinners and wheels while I couldn’t motivate myself to run it over the finish line but last week I finally got around to final assembly and touch up.  It’s the 2018 Airfix with all the highly detailed but ultimately invisible interior, satisfying to make but disappointing to see vanish when the fuze was closed up.  As we all like to say, though, “I know it’s in there”.

 

Squadron Leader A.C. Plonk, VCR, MOT, SOB and bar, has been transferred from the Shepherds Bush Air Force in London to the Buckley Air Force in North Wales and is now a bomber boy.  This is his current aircraft.

 

 

The boarding ladder, by the way, is just leaning in place... I've yet to figure out how to attach it properly without introducing a massive and ugly blob of glue and/or positioning it too high or too low.  The instructions called for painting it silver but having seen pictures of WW2 bombers with yellow ladders I thought the hi-viz had a bit more zazz.  On the subject of yellow, I forgot to paint the tips of the props.  Too late now, I find that difficult enough even when they're in a position where I can actually handle them.  If you've seen my builds before you'll know I'm not very good at it but, dammit, I'll show them to somebody and the members here are the only people I know who are unlikely to remember a pressing appointment when they see me select "pictures" on my phone.  You pros are very indulgent of my efforts and for that I thank you... Reminds me of when I was 17 and playing on bands with musicians my dad had played with in the 40s and 50s.

 

The bomb bay and wheel bays came out not half bad.

 

 

But efforts to see even the map table inside merely reveal flaws in the paint job.

 

 

I know the windows are supposed to be blacked out but I thought it would look more interesting if I left them clear (alright, clearish!)

 

I think I can say it passes the "Two Metre Test", although if you've just cleaned your glasses it might be 3 metres.

 

 

And while I'm not sure an RAF crew would park it without centering the turrets and control surfaces, Squadron Leader Plonk is a casual type of guy.

 

I also suspect, looking at the numbers, he's also a Cornish pirate... "AAR"!

 

 

Now maybe I'll get around to finishing that Me 109 I started in August.  Not long after I'd cut the painting handle off the pilot's bum the Wellington shouldered its way into the queue.

 

Thanks for looking and any tips you can give me will probably be futile but I'll continue to build to the best of my limited ability.  It's probably the best 1:72 Wimpy within a 50 metre radius of my house...

[Farmerboy]

You do make me smile Uncle Pete, l love you approach to modelling and you are not alone in suffering the honeymoon effect, lovely wimpey maybe a satin or Matt finish would be more appropriate.

[Uncle Pete]

2 minutes ago, Farmerboy said:

maybe a satin or Matt finish would be more appropriate.

I know... But I like 'em shiny!

 

[dbay133]

Very nice.  I would be well happy if I had produced to your standard.  W|ell done.

I also can relate to the 'honeymoon effect', I suffer quite often. 

Graeme

[IanC]

Yep, kits are like marriage. Good fun at the start but sooner or later you're eyeing up something with more detail and better decals.  

[Timmas]

I was feeling a bit glum today having just returned home after abandoning a visit to see my elderly mum who's in hospital (again). I gave up after sitting in a massive traffic tailback caused by a road closure due to a vehicle accident. And then I read your post Pete. It's cheered me up no end knowing that there are other folk here who suffer a similar thing from time to time. It takes me so long to put kits together that I often seem to get them 95% complete and I start to lose interest. I'm looking at a nearly finished model on my desk right now. It just needs a couple of aerials glueing on, along with a pitot tube and the canopy, but I'm losing interest in it and thinking 'what's next'?

 

Your Wimpey ain't bad actually. I would agree with Farmerboy though...that a matt or satin varnish would really finish it off nicely.

[exhausted]

Funny story and nice work. I love this aircraft, and I see you put a lot of love into it. 

 

Those issues can be corrected if you just use some thinned paint and a little bit of gloss. You should paint the prop tips

[Work In Progress]

It would also be the best Wellington within 50 metres of my house, so well done. 

 

Do you glue the props in then? I never do that, it;s just so much easier to be able to slip them out for cleaning a model or moving it to a show or a club night. And reduces the risk of breakage as if a blade catches on something it will either rotate out of the way or the prop will fall out rather than snap.

 

If you haven't glued the props in then there's a neat trick for adding the yellow tips...

[Jonners]

'Honeymoon effect'! Now I know what I suffer from (in modelling terms...). I think I have a chronic affliction.  Quite impressed that it only lasted for a month in this case, though; that's quick work in my modelling world right now! One day...

Jon

[Uncle Pete]

On 1/9/2020 at 10:07 AM, Work In Progress said:

Do you glue the props in then?

I like to have them able to rotate if they're engineered specifically to do that.  It never occurred to me to just slip them on.  I usually mask the tips for the yellow... My freehand is atrocious.  I probably won't act on it but, out of curiosity, what's the neat trick?

On 1/9/2020 at 6:15 PM, Jonners said:

(in modelling terms...)

As long as you keep it to the modelling... I can't afford to give away any more houses!

[janneman36]

I have same symptoms but only my wive seems to have some difficulties with my new hunger...she is still for monogamy🤨

Nice build though and great story..AAR!

 

cheers, Jan

[kapam]

On 1/8/2020 at 9:03 PM, Uncle Pete said:

Is it just me or does anybody else find a “honeymoon effect” with kits?

Right with you on that!  Probably explains why I have a fair number of partially-complete builds.

But every now and then I'm known to get back to a project, to clear the hurdle that stopped me in the first place.

Nice Wellington - good to see it reach the RFI stage.