Restoring an old 1/72 Airfix Wellington

[wombat]

I have this kit in the stash and no intention of building it, should you need any spares. Or is that cheating?

[VT Red Sox Fan]

I am really enjoying this--this is also turning out great!  Best, Erwin

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

Great progress.im very impressed , especially with the use of 3D printing. I have an Airfix B17 and a Lanc I made some 20 odd years ago. I've done a bit of repair work on both, mainly to try out different techniques for new builds. Mixed results, but a good learning process.  Found a Short Sterling I made around the same time.. now where did that deal sheet go to? Lol. 

Edited July 26, 2020 by Col Walter E Kurtz

[JohnT]

Found this thread this morning and appreciate your thinking here, especially on the 1959 moulding of the venerable Airfix Wellington. Way back in the mists of my childhood my uncle built me one of these as well as the original Airfix Lancaster and several others as I was too little to build myself.  Oddly the old box tops are vividly retained in my memory. It was the second boxing which was between 1960 and 1963 so I would be about 8 years old. I had started doing my own messy builds by age 10. The Wellington was much treasured and I loved her shape and grace. All fondly remembered on my 67th birthday today. 
I’ll tag along on this one if I may.  The Dettol bath is a new one on me but every day you learn something new. Mind you 3D printing might just be a “bridge too far” for me. Jings if I close my eyes I can still smell Airfix magazine open at Alan Hall latest article and the pungent smells of balsa wood, dope and Mums filtched talcum powder 

[JohnT]

13 hours ago, wombat said:

I have this kit in the stash and no intention of building it, should you need any spares. Or is that cheating?

Go on - you should. Even if just to put our first world muttering about modern kits into perspective. It’s a 1959 moulding and almost at pensionable age. Do it as a homage!

[wombat]

I built one before in the eighties as a youngster. Opened up the bomb bay and scratch built the interior of it, the first time I ever went off piste in fact. I have the trumpeter 1/48 in the stash waiting for me to have proper amounts of time for a big kit.

 

i suppose I could throw it together to practice airbrushing on. 

[Brigbeale]

18 hours ago, wombat said:

I have this kit in the stash and no intention of building it, should you need any spares. Or is that cheating?

I wouldn’t want to rob you of parts of a complete kit in case you change your mind.

However, could I ask you for close up pictures of the tail wheel, propellers and decal sheet?

[Brigbeale]

5 hours ago, JohnT said:

Found this thread this morning and appreciate your thinking here, especially on the 1959 moulding of the venerable Airfix Wellington. Way back in the mists of my childhood my uncle built me one of these as well as the original Airfix Lancaster and several others as I was too little to build myself.  Oddly the old box tops are vividly retained in my memory. It was the second boxing which was between 1960 and 1963 so I would be about 8 years old. I had started doing my own messy builds by age 10. The Wellington was much treasured and I loved her shape and grace. All fondly remembered on my 67th birthday today. 
I’ll tag along on this one if I may.  The Dettol bath is a new one on me but every day you learn something new. Mind you 3D printing might just be a “bridge too far” for me. Jings if I close my eyes I can still smell Airfix magazine open at Alan Hall latest article and the pungent smells of balsa wood, dope and Mums filtched talcum powder 

Happy Brithday.

I agree the Wellington is a graceful looking aircraft

[junglierating]

On 7/21/2020 at 9:01 PM, Brigbeale said:

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

Nope admirable  BZ 

[Brigbeale]

Hi everybody’

Last night I sanded the side windows on the fuselage smooth and refitted them. These will be filled around the edges and re-scribed with the fuselage lines to blend in. As for the windows above the wings, I looked at a few pictures to see where they stopped and finished and also pictures of the new tool Wellington from Airfix. I pencilled them on the fuselage to get an idea of the look. Using the fuselage lines as a guide, one side is slightly narrower height-wise than the other. When I cut it out, and fit it I can adjust it to look even - hopefully!

I also checked the cockpit canopy for fit and found it was wider than the fuselage opening that it fits into. I found adding a piece of plasticard between the fuselage halves widened the opening enough to make it fit properly. I only added card immediately in front of and behind the cockpit. The rest will be blended in with filler.

I also re-printed the engines on my 3D printer.

On the left is the trial one using a 0.4mm nozzle. The middle and right ones are printed using a 0.2mm nozzle. The middle one has a removable brim which aids adhesion to the print bed to keep it in place while it prints. The right one is after the brim has been removed.

These are about 12mm in diameter.

Edited July 27, 2020 by Brigbeale

[Brigbeale]

I managed to cut out the side windows.
I used an old cd case to make the windows as it was approximately the same thickness as the fuselage.

I had both windows in but I had an idea of fitting thin strips off my 3D printer where it primes the nozzle by printing a straight line down the side of the build plate. I wasn’t that happy with the result and removed them and the window as the clear plastic was too badly marked from the glue.

Then the light bulb clicked on... print the geodetic frame and that’s what I did. This may enable me to use a piece of clear lexan,which was an off-cut of a shell on my son’s RC car, as it’s thinner.

The photo shows the clear plastic in position before I removed it. I’ve still to make the replacement.

Edited August 1, 2020 by Brigbeale

[Brigbeale]

I also purchased this off eBay today.

😊😊😊😊

Edited July 29, 2020 by Brigbeale

[wombat]

I suspect you could sell 3D prints of the geodesics to members here in quite sufficient quantity to cover the cost of buying these     old relics, and then some!

[stevehnz]

12 hours ago, Brigbeale said:

I also purchased this off eBay today.

😊😊😊😊

 

Pretty much a blank canvas. I admire what you're doing with this, I'll look forward to the Sunderland getting it's make over in time.

Steve.

[Brigbeale]

Hi everybody,

I put the geodesic grid over the window by placing masking tape over the opening and taking a rubbing of it. I then drew it heavier on the tape and placed the geodetic over the tracing and marked it out. I then snipped it out and glued it into the fuselage half using Tamiya extra thin. I then used the tracing on the tape to cut out the lexan sheet and file it until it fitted the opening. 
I’m happy with the result.

Only problem is, I printed off two geodesic grids - but I’ve managed to lose one somewhere🤨. Oh well, I’ll just print another couple.....

Edited August 1, 2020 by Brigbeale

[Brigbeale]

Printing in progress

Edited August 1, 2020 by Brigbeale

[bigbadbadge]

Fantastic idea and great work.

 

[Bell209]

There's something satisfying about re-doing these old wrecks. I have two on the moment one I'm happy with, the other not so much.

[Brigbeale]

6 hours ago, Bell209 said:

There's something satisfying about re-doing these old wrecks. I have two on the moment one I'm happy with, the other not so much.

You can put pictures up if you want, I don’t mind other pictures in my thread

[Brigbeale]

I spent another couple hours tonight fitting the other geodetic grid to the other fuselage half - I found it after I printed the replacements. It was on the floor near the display cabinet. 
Odd thing was I’d just vacuumed the floor prior to taking the dog for a walk. When I came back, there it was.........🤷🏻‍♂️🙄

I also cut out the window on the starboard side of the nose and added some geodesic (good word that!) and then cut the diamond shaped window in the port side.

 

Edited August 1, 2020 by Brigbeale

[Bell209]

16 hours ago, Brigbeale said:

23 hours ago, Bell209 said:

There's something satisfying about re-doing these old wrecks. I have two on the moment one I'm happy with, the other not so much.

You can put pictures up if you want, I don’t mind other pictures in my thread

Not keen to steal your thread but if you want to look, they're here:

 

 

[Eric Mc]

I built the old Airfix Wellington not too long ago. It wasn't a full rebuild but it was a completion of a model I had started to build sometime in the early 1980s. With a bit of care, it produced a half decent result.

 

 

 

[Brigbeale]

What a superb looking Wellington. 
👏👏👏👏 

 

[Eric Mc]

Older kits can be very rewarding. A lot of the multiple parts and complexity in modern kits, especially in 1/72 scale, is to me, a bit of a waste and really serves to ensure that the retail price is high. My aim these days is to complete models in such a way that they look OK from the normal distance one would look at it if it was a display table somewhere. As a result, I am less interested in minute internal detail and am more concerned in getting a decent paint finish.

[AdrianMF]

I must say it's a bit bizarre seeing a 1950s moulding mixed in with 3D printing! Looking forward to more of this one...

 

Regards,

Adrian