Airfix Vickers Wellington GR Mk.VIII (A08020) - 1:72

[Paul A H]

Vickers Wellington GR Mk.VIII (A08020)

1:72 Airfix

 

 

The Vickers Wellington was a twin-engined medium bomber that entered service with the RAF in 1938. It served throughout the Second World War before finally being retired in 1953. Although the Wellington hasn't quite enjoyed the profile of some the RAF's heavy bombers such as the Lancaster or Halifax, it was produced in far greater numbers than either and made a vital contribution to the Allied war effort. It is popularly believed that the Wellington was designed by Barnes Wallis, inventor of the famous bouncing bomb. While it's true that the geodetic structure was invented by Barnes Wallis (albeit originally for airships), the Wellington was actually designed by Rex Pierson, Vickers' chief designer and father of the Vimy biplane bomber. Although superseded in the night bomber role by heavy bombers, the Wellington proved adaptable to other purposes, such as those of Coastal Command. The GR Mk.VIII was converted from the Mk.Ic for reconnaissance, anti-submarine and anti-shipping purposes. The Wellington was the only British bomber to be manufactured throughout the war.

 

Airfix's released this kit in 2018, continuing their policy of replacing old kits from their back catalogue (their original kit was released when the Wellington could still be considered relatively modern!). As was the case with their Whitley, it was inevitable that a Coastal Command version would follow at some point. Inside the red top-opening box adorned with the usual high-quality Adam Tooby artwork are eight frames of grey plastic and a single clear frame. The mouldings are clean and crisp, with fine surface detail and delicate rendering of the characteristic surface texture of the Wellington. 

 

 

 

 

The assembly instructions are divided into over 100 stages, which gives a good indication of the level of detail Airfix have managed to pack in to this model. The interior in particular is very detailed - on a part with their earlier Shackleton. Interior details include full crew stations for the pilot, wireless operator and navigator, as well as the ubiquitous Elsan chemical bog. The interior structures reflect the geodetic structure of the Wimpey and will occupy many fruitful days of modelling time to assemble and paint. If you don't have the time or patience for this labour of love, have a gander at the preamble to the instructions. Here you will find a diagram highlights all of the finely detailed parts that will be completely invisible to the human eye once that fuselage has been cemented shut, and which can therefore be omitted or simply painted the same colour as the rest of the interior. I know which option I'll be taking!

 

Once you make it to step 29 of the instructions, it's time to fit the wing spar and cement those fuselage halves together. There are different parts to use depending on whether you wish to finish the model with the bomb bay open or closed and the landing gear up or down. As a result of all of these options, even something simple such as the assembly of the engine fairings occupies fourteen steps of the instruction manual. The interior of the main gear bays are nicely detailed though. Once the wings have been assembled, the ailerons can be fitted as well as the engine firewalls and the landing gear legs. Before the engines themselves can be fitted, the instructions skip ahead to the rest of the flying surfaces. the rudder and elevators are all separate parts, which introduce the option of posing them in different positions. The instructions then return to the engines. Although each nine-cylinder Bristol Pegasus engine is moulded as a singe part, they are nicely detailed. 

 

 

 

 

 

With the main structure of the aircraft complete, the bomb racks, complete with six depth charges, can be added. The nose and tail turrets can also be assembled and fitted at this stage (or the glass nose if building HX379), each of which is nicely detailed right down to the .303 inch Browning machine guns. All of the fuselage glazing can be fitted in place from the outside of the fuselage at the end of the build, which is a bit of a bonus. The main landing gear wheels are fitted next. These feature nicely rendered flat spots, so your model won't look like it's on tiptoes once finished. As this is the Gr. Mk.VIII version, there are lots of antennas to fit to the fuselage top and sides, as well as unders the wings and forward fuselage. A crew access ladder is also provided. 

 

 

Two options are provided on the original decal sheet, with a further two on the Kits-World sheet:
⦁    Vickers Wellington GR Mk.VIII HX379, No. 172 Squadron, RAF Chivenor, Devon, UK, October 1942. This aircraft is finished in the Temperate Sea Scheme.
⦁    Vickers Wellington GR Mk.VIII HX485, No.38 Squadron, RAF Gambut, Libya, late 1942. This aircraft is finished in the Mediterranean scheme of Dark Earth and Mid Stone over Black.
The decals themselves look thin and glossy.

 

 

Conclusion

 

It's about time we had a decent Wellington in 1/72 scale, and Airfix haven't disappointed. This kit is more subtle that Trumpeter's effort, more detailed (and hopefully easier to build) that MPM's kit and altogether more modern than ye olde Matchbox kit. The interior is stupendously detailed, the surface texture is just right and the overall shape looks pretty good to me. With this kit, I think Airfix have delivered the definitive kit of this important aircraft. Recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of 

[stever219]

I have the Mk. IA/C version of this kit and it is a pleasure to put together.  The only real criticism is that Airfix have moulded the bomb bay roof and forward bulkhead as open frameworks when both should be plated over (imagine what the 150 mph + drought would do to the nav’s charts with the bomb doors open😖🙄).  Apart from that this kit is light years ahead of the competition and I can’t wait to get my grubby paws on an example or two of this version.

[Aeronut]

11 hours ago, stever219 said:

I have the Mk. IA/C version of this kit and it is a pleasure to put together.  The only real criticism is that Airfix have moulded the bomb bay roof and forward bulkhead as open frameworks when both should be plated over (imagine what the 150 mph + drought would do to the nav’s charts with the bomb doors open😖🙄).  Apart from that this kit is light years ahead of the competition and I can’t wait to get my grubby paws on an example or two of this version.

I noticed the over ventilated fuselage when I got my Mk1a, which is why I took a good look at the Wellington being restored at Cosford.

Is it the cabin floor or bomb bay roof that needs skinning?

The answer from Cosford is that the bomb bay roof has a fabric skin which I replicated by using pieces of the thin (3 thou?) plastic sheet you can find acting as seperators in the sliced meat/cheese you can get from certain German discount supermarkets.

[stever219]

38 minutes ago, Aeronut said:

I noticed the over ventilated fuselage when I got my Mk1a, which is why I took a good look at the Wellington being restored at Cosford.

Is it the cabin floor or bomb bay roof that needs skinning?

The answer from Cosford is that the bomb bay roof has a fabric skin which I replicated by using pieces of the thin (3 thou?) plastic sheet you can find acting as seperators in the sliced meat/cheese you can get from certain German discount supermarkets.

Thanks Aeronut, that’s brilliant!  I’d wondered about only having the central walkway area represented in the kit and I’d thought that the rest of the cabin floor/bomb bay roof would also have been formed of plywood (or similar) sheets but that these had been removed from Airfix’s reference aeroplane and had been “missed” somewhere in the kit design phase.  I’ve got some damaged 5- and 10- thou plasticard that’ll probably fit the bill.

[Jeepboy]

My goodness, haven't kits moved on. 

 

There is no comparison between this and the original Airfix offering.  Remember the old black plastic kit that gave you a shell of an aircraft, sticks for guns and shapeless blobs for guners.

 

Such a big part and fun aspect of this hobby is the research and adding the little extra touches to show that the modeller knows a little about the subject and has the skill to add that little bit extra.

Edited February 9, 2020 by Jeepboy

[Navy Bird]

OK, you've sold me. Where is my PayPal?  

 

Cheers,

Bill

[stevehnz]

2 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

OK, you've sold me. Where is my PayPal?  

 

Cheers,

Bill

Woo Hoo, a Wellington Bill build to look forward to.

Steve.

[TonyOD]

Just picked one up for a shade over 20 quid, Amazon Prime Day was just too much to resist. I really like the look of this kit!

[Cometracer]

It's an excellent addition to the Wellington kits out there.  Airfix is really doing us proud and thanks for the review.

[Murph]

On 2/9/2020 at 4:48 AM, Aeronut said:

I noticed the over ventilated fuselage when I got my Mk1a, which is why I took a good look at the Wellington being restored at Cosford.

Is it the cabin floor or bomb bay roof that needs skinning?

The answer from Cosford is that the bomb bay roof has a fabric skin...

 

Does that mean that the roof structure of the bomb bay is covered by the fabric and not visible?

 

Regards,

Murph

[TISO]

On 26/02/2022 at 22:23, Murph said:

 

Does that mean that the roof structure of the bomb bay is covered by the fabric and not visible?

 

Regards,

Murph

On the following film at 19:17 you can see bombing up the Wellinton

 

 

[Murph]

Thank you very much.

 

Regards,

Murph

[Maginot]

Very tempting... some moths just escaped the wallet. I suspect that crediting Barnes Wallis with the design of the Wellington has much to do with a certain line in The Dam Busters (1955); "Well, if you told them that I designed it, do you think that might help?"

[Ptmvarsityfan]

Have the Merlin version and the 1c ordered, superb kits! Very glad to see the review above, especially that RK "Rex" Pierson was given due credit for the design, Wallis designed the structure but was not the designer of the aircraft. Mitchell is rightly credited with designing the Spitfire but was not the structure designer who is now forgotten sadly, some inconsistency in the historical memory!

Cheers, Paul