Restoring an old 1/72 Airfix Wellington

[Brigbeale]

I vaguely remember building a Matchbox 1/72 Wellington when I was a teenager - was it really that long ago??

It was among the models my brothers smashed while drunk

i kind of have a strange modelling habit whereas I purchase older kits requiring attention to strip and rebuild.

I found this Wellington at a very good price after being outbid on 4 others on eBay.

it was in a reasonable condition, minus propellers, guns, tail wheel, 1 rear wing and rear turret.

I put it in the freezer to aid disassembly.

The dismantled parts have been soaked in a bath if Dettol to remove the paint.

Fuselage paint removed - wings and engines soaking

More to follow........

[rob85]

Christ, this looks like a challenge! Well done for taking it on though, breathing life into someone’s old forgotten kit.

 

Rob

[Brigbeale]

Call me weird, soft or whatever, I had to save it going to landfill

[Marcin Wojciechowski]

I have already refurbished several models myself and a dozen are waiting for refurbishment.  I am very happy when someone renews such vintage models, giving them a new life.  So far I have renewed two F-104G Starfighter Matchbox, two F-104G and J Starfighter in 1/144 scale Revell ex Crown, F-14A Tomcat Italeri, and BAe Hawk Mk66 Italeri.  I keep my fingers crossed and I support your project :).

[Brigbeale]

I purchased some decals for it.

just looked at them and saw they are for a Mk1A/1C.

The kit is a MkIII.

Looks like a side window conversion is required to make a Brooklands Wellington.

Edited July 21, 2020 by Brigbeale

[Martian]

35 minutes ago, Brigbeale said:

Call me weird, soft or whatever, I had to save it going to landfill

You're weird! but then I must be too as this sort of thing is right up my street. Following,

 

Martian 

[Brigbeale]

Just now, Martian said:

You're weird! but then I must be too as this sort of thing is right up my street. Following,

 

Martian 

I didn’t mean literally!!

[Martian]

7 minutes ago, Brigbeale said:

I didn’t mean literally!!

You should be a bit more careful when talking to Martians or indeed any other aliens. Very few of us have English as our first language. 

 

Martian 

[Shorty84]

No problem with being a bit weird, its the "normal" people I fear most Having restored some of my old builds too it is nice to see others doing the same.

 

Cheers

Markus

[Brigbeale]

Here’s another of the 10 restoration models

Matchbox Beaufighter Mk10

i think whoever built must have been sniffing the glue!

Other restoration Modals are;
Short Stirling

P-47 Thunderbolt(Razorback),

De Havilland Vampire,

De Havilland Sea Vixen,

Gloster Meteor,

P-38 Lightning

F-16 Falcon

Sea Harrier

Fairey Battle

[Jonners]

What a great idea. Go for it. 

 

I’ve tried a few different fluids for stripping paint from models (oven cleaner, brake fluid etc) and I’ve got a dismantled Aeroclub Gamecock sitting in a bag of Fairy Power Spray right now; is Dettol any more effective than these other options? It certainly looks to have done the trick on the Wellington, but that’s a lot of stinky Dettol! Mind you, the Wimpey will be virus-free...

 

Jon

[Brigbeale]

2 hours ago, Jonners said:

What a great idea. Go for it. 

 

I’ve tried a few different fluids for stripping paint from models (oven cleaner, brake fluid etc) and I’ve got a dismantled Aeroclub Gamecock sitting in a bag of Fairy Power Spray right now; is Dettol any more effective than these other options? It certainly looks to have done the trick on the Wellington, but that’s a lot of stinky Dettol! Mind you, the Wimpey will be virus-free...

 

Jon

Dettol is the only liquid I’ve tried. It does enamel paint brilliantly. The black was enamel as it blistered up (similar to normal paint and paint stripper - which would probably eat the plastic). The green and brown were probably acrylic as they just softened and I used an old toothbrush to get the paint off. 
One strong note though - wear gloves. I didn’t and it made my fingers look like I’d been swimming for a month!

 

This suggestion by TallBlondJon was taken from my Phantom post in the Ready for Inspection section

 

If you plan on removing the paint over the decal, airbrush cleaner might be a bit strong - try any supermarket all-purpose cleaner, they take off Tamiya acrylic perfectly and wont damage anything else. I use Tesco Everyday All-purpose Cleaner and soak for about 12 hours to clean old acrylic paint jars, but I notice its not currently available 

 

A radical plan could be soak the entire tail in such cleaner - hopefully the decals will float right off, then just repaint and re-apply. Or maybe it will all be a disaster!

[bbudde]

Yep, just my case. Like that style.  Looking at some sort of junk and a vague mental picture of what it could look like in the end develops autonomously in your head.

Cheers

[Brigbeale]

The wings and engines stripped.

Spent most of last night scrapping off the excess glue and replacing the raised panel lines where required.

One wing is ok built but the other had a sag towards the end which I should be able to straighten.

One upper engine cowl is out of line with the lower half. The wing goes between them so it may not notice - I didn’t notice it before stripping. I might try straightening it.

Basic engine detail. Hmmm.........
 

[Brigbeale]

14 minutes ago, bbudde said:

Yep, just my case. Like that style.  Looking at some sort of junk and a vague mental picture of what it could look like in the end develops autonomously in your head.

Cheers

I’ve been eying up a B-29, but I don’t think the wingspan will fit in my Ikea Detolf display cabinets

[bbudde]

21 minutes ago, Brigbeale said:

I don’t think the wingspan will fit in my Ikea Detolf display cabinets

In 1:72 it's about 60cm, I think. Yes, a beast that can cause storage problems but anice looking one. Mabe wheels up somewhere else?

Cheers

[Brigbeale]

14 minutes ago, bbudde said:

In 1:72 it's about 60cm, I think. Yes, a beast that can cause storage problems but anice looking one. Mabe wheels up somewhere else?

Cheers

I don’t think the wife would allow me to hang it from the ceiling above our bed

Edited July 22, 2020 by Brigbeale
Autocorrect

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

This looks a very interesting thread.. like your style sir.!looking forward to the finished results..

[jackroadkill]

This is genius - I never knew that this sort of thing was a possibility.  I'm learning a hell of a lot from you guys.  I'll follow this.

[Brigbeale]

Tonight I’ve glued the wing and clamped it in slightly the opposite way of the sag.

While that’s drying, I decided to jump the gun a bit and re-do the landing gear. It was glued in the retracted position, but at least they were there. One pair of wheel-bay doors are missing. The gear On one side unfortunately broke as I was attempting to free it. The other side only lost the end of one leg.

I have an app on my iPad called Shapr3D. I find this easier than Tinkercad for reverse engineering things like this.

i took the measurements and sketched it out, drew it in Shapr3D, sent it to Cura (slicing software), put in the 3D printer’s sd card and printed it out.

seems ok compared with the original.

The wheels look very narrow so I’ll print some wider ones.

Edited August 16, 2020 by Brigbeale

[Brigbeale]

 I didn’t get much done last night due to a lovely headache brewing.

i placed tabs down the centreline of the fuselage to get the two halves to fit together properly as the join was stepped one way then the other (maybe from the moulding or, more likely, the way they were glued together. The underside, especially the bomb bay doors, was concave along the seam. 
A trial fit seems to have remedied this.

The port wing is now straight. This was done by placing pegs around the ends while the Tamiya extra thin was still pliable with tape around the centre and a g-clamp to use just enough pressure to push the bend out. This was clamped against a flat surface and left overnight. I’m happy with the results.

 

 

Quote

 

 

Edited July 24, 2020 by Brigbeale
Wrong photo

[Rizon]

On 7/21/2020 at 10:01 PM, Brigbeale said:

Call me weird, soft or whatever, I had to save it going to landfill

I completely agree with you there - can't let these models die alone among kitchen garbage!

 

I also love the restore models - mostly my own ones that were built when I had lesser skills. My Airfix Wellington has already been restored. There is a RFI thread here somewhere.

 

As for the paint removal: I prefer brake fluid, as it is the least pungent option and only small quantities needed, as the oil sticks to the surface. Also has the added advantage of loosening the glue joints. A word of caution is however to not leave the plastic too long in contact with the brake fluid (not more than 2 days), as it leaches out the plasticiser and the plastic starts to be come brittle.

 

R

[Brigbeale]

Thanks for the info. 
I’ll have to give that a try on another old model I had in a box of spares/repair kits.

[Brigbeale]

Rizon

I found your post after some searching and glad I did.

Excellent restoration

Edited July 24, 2020 by Brigbeale

[Brigbeale]

Hi everyone.

After cleaning excess glue from the inside of the fuselage halves, I spent the rest of last night searching for a replacement tail turret - which was missing from this model.

I came up with nothing on the Internet. I 

I also looked at my spares box which contained a vac formed sheet from a 1/72 Lancaster (The Revell one from my collection which was missing the front turret clear part).

The turrets were too big on that sheet. 
I also checked the excess clear parts from the Halifax. They were still too wide.

I then decided to measure  it out and design my own with the thought of making my own vac formed one.

i went to put the vac formed sheet away and noticed the tear shaped radar bulge for the Lancaster. If I put it vertically and cut it down it would make a passable replacement.

i cut it out first and measured up the turret mount and fuselage. 
I then designed a shell on Shapr3D and printed out a prototype to see if it fits. I tried a 4 windows in first but it came out a bit wobbly as the photos show.

I’ve redesigned it without the windows and its looks better so I’ll reprint it.

The prototype fits the fuselage ok but needs a little fettling either in the redesign or filing/sanding it to shape.

I intend to make a gun mount and make the two guns from scratch.......

The round part in the second photo is a trial print of a Pegasus engine from Thingiverse resized to fit the engine cowlings. It didn’t print that well (just recognisable) but I’ll change the nozzle to a finer one and see how that comes out.