1/48 Trumpeter Vickers Wellington IC

[Stephen Allen]

Hi David

 

I have mostly used Infiniti self adhesive wet and dry film, stuck to various shapes and lengths of 40 thou and 60 thou plastic. Edges rounded off to avoid gouging. I find this gives more precise control of how you take the high spots off, but has a little more give then, say, metal sanding sticks or those glass files. Foam sanding sticks etc just tend to round everything off, and I use the Infiniti ones when I do, mostly for polishing.

 

I’m sure Tamiya stuff does much the same job. Yes, I am focusing on reducing the highest parts, which are the main spar and the reinforcing strakes, going easier on the geodetic itself - trying not to break through the final layer of Mr Surfacer.

 

Steve

[Stephen Allen]

And today’s exciting instalment of water dripping on a stone! 
 

I have fitted the cross braces to the main legs. The legs will need a lot more detailing, such as replicating the fastening points for the braces, filling out the flat profile in the middle of the ‘X’, brake lines, bolt heads etc etc, but that can wait until the basic job of converting the undercarriage bays to accept the widened gear is completed.

 

As you can see I have reinforced the reverse face of the bay walls with plastic sheet, and drilled through the mounting holes to establish the correct geometry, before deciding on how much of the bay wall to cut away. This comes down to a decision about whether the supporting the braces are also widened, or left as is. At the very least I have to widen the part of the bracing that connects to the main legs and establish a good mechanical join, or the legs will be prone to collapse with the slightest of bumps. The legs will, with the plane sitting at rest, tend to be pushed forward, the braces need to be strong enough to prevent this from happening. The new legs are also marginally wider than the existing cut out in the nacelle, so this will need to be enlarged as well. As always, one step inevitably leads to yet another! But so far, nothing that is a showstopper if you want to try it for yourself. And nothing that involves painful calculation. So far the only really critical limits have been ensuring that the top and bottom of the legs are square, aligned and both the same height and width and this was done easily with a couple of fixtures.
 

I have to design the work to be carried out by an unskilled workforce - me😅

 

Steve

 

[woody37]

Those legs look great Steve, even the way you've flattened the points where the cross members cross, shear brilliance and great solution to the narrow undercarriage problem.

[Stephen Allen]

Initial steps in replacing the braces/retraction arms for the undercart. First I made an extension piece from plastic strip to lengthen the existing brace so that, when installed, it just touches the oleo leg.

 

 

this is cut from the kit piece, so that I can accurately measure where to drill holes for the new brass cross braces, made from small square tube. These have been bevelled on a disc sander, but left longer than the eventual brace to allow easy handling while drilling the holes

 

 

I made up a drilling fixture from the next size up square brass tube, inserted the legs, and hand drilled the holes. I do have a bench drill, but it can’t hold the small drill bit needed for these holes and in any case it tends to flex too much with small drill bits. The fixture is one sided only, so the legs have to be flipped over to drill the holes in the other side. I only use the fixture to start the holes, then remove the pieces to drill each hole through, this avoids damaging or distorting the holes in the fixture. Pretty happy with the overall accuracy, and there is  enough clearance in each hole to ensure that the sides and cross-pieces can all be trued up in yet another fixture when they are glued together. Only single holes are needed on the outside of each piece, as the lower cross brace doesn’t go all the way through.

 

[Stephen Allen]

Skipping ahead a bit, a test fitting of the main undercarriage legs in the modified bays. It turns out that I really only need to cut quite small sections of the sidewalls away to gain clearance for the new legs. Because I have kept the plastic hinge points for the legs I can also glue them securely to each side of the bays, which makes the retraction braces a bit less critical in retaining strength. That being the case I am going to scrap the current brass braces I have made, and replace them with a more scale representation. It all gets largely hidden by the bay doors, but I think I can do better than the current efforts.

 

[elger]

came across this at a museum on the Dutch island of Terschelling just this morning:

 

[Stephen Allen]

Thank you Elger

 

That is actually the best photo I have seen showing how the retraction/support braces attach to the Oleo unit, and how the top half of the unit folds. Very useful!

 

cheers

 

Steve

[europapete]

Great work going on here Steve, will have to print this out and keep in the kit box for future referance. Regards, Pete in RI

[Thom216]

Those gear legs could be a kit all on their own!

[woody37]

Brilliant progress Steve

[Stephen Allen]

thanks folks.
 

Someone with both 3D printing design capability and an ability to do so in a suitable material, could easily make this into a correction set. White Bronze for preference please!  For convenience sake the set would include corrected bays and properly sized wheels as well. A stick on template could deal with the need to widen the nacelle opening. We’ll find other stuff to alter and correct as we go along, chuck those in too!  
 

I suspect the market would be limited for something of that sort, for a ten year old kit where most folks look at the surface detail, look up the derisive commentary and call halt before they get anywhere near the undercart. 

 

 If someone does decide to do it, please, can I finish this one before you release it?😂

[europapete]

That is a good idea, I bet there are quite a few ( including mine!) in peoples stashes awaiting the right time and accessories. 

HEY ALI! get designing will ya! 

[Stephen Allen]

Back to the homemade version. I remade the retraction legs in plastic strip, with brass tubes for the horizontals. I have added a bit of detail to reflect Elger’s excellent photo of the real thing, though not everything. This part of the undercarriage will only be seen, if at all, from below, and is largely hidden by the doors when they are fitted, so no point modelling what can’t be seen.

 

The hinge points on the main legs are made from strips of aluminium cut from a disposable foil tray, the kind you use for roasts or barbecues. Helpfully, different brands come in different grades of aluminium sheet, from quite flimsy to quite sturdy - these are at the sturdy end.
 

This stuff is very thin, cuts easily with a scalpel or razor blade, drills, sands and forms easily, retaining its form because it has very little spring to it.

 

 

 

Using the undercarriage bay to locate everything, I put some .45 mm. brass rod through the drilled points and the legs, wiggled it about to true it all up, then used thin superglue to stick the braces and the hinge points together. Sounds straightforward, but it needed some wiggling  and some rebending of the hinge points to get everything lined up and true. The rod will be cut to length and stays in the hinge points to give it strength.
 

I think the braces and the method of attachment should be enough to stop the main legs from any tendency to collapse forward. Next up I will glue the braces in the same side of the bays as the main leg, glue the other bits and pieces in the bay and do some detailing and painting before it all gets closed up.

 

[Stephen Allen]

It occurred to me that it might be a good idea at this point to see how much the nacelle openings for the undercarriage need to be opened out to allow the new undercarriage to fit through. Happily, the answer is ‘not very much’. The openings have a very thin flat on each edge. I ran the edge of a pencil along the outer edge of the flat to provide a guide to how much can be taken off without changing the profile of the opening.

 

 

If you remove the flat up to the pencil line, using a file or sanding stick kept vertical, you end up with enough room for the new wider undercart to fit reasonably comfortably and no alteration to the external profile. Happy days! I may even be able to use the kits etched sidewalls, with a small bit removed for where I have cut back the plastic bay sides for the wider legs and braces. This would simplify assembly as the etched sidewalls also include the mounting points for the doors. The use of the etched walls in the kit is a bit oddball, a case of mixed media for its own sake.

 

 

 

[Stephen Allen]

Life has intervened in this build for a while in the form of a removed gas wall furnace and the need to fill the subsequent hole in the wall. Anyway, I have managed to make some progress, installing the undercarriage into the modified bays. I concluded that the kit supplied etched bay walls were not worth the effort of modifying, so I ditched them and cemented the modified undercarriage and the remaining kit parts directly to the plastic sides. I have test-fitted the bays to the wings and as a result will be doing some further minor trimming of the outsides so that they only sit on the locating tabs, and don’t press against the inside of the nacelles anywhere else. If they do, then the wing’s alignment and dihedral may be distorted. Once attached, I can work up some sidewall detail and make new attachment points for the doors. Oh, and detail the undercarriage itself.

 

 

 

 

[bigbadbadge]

A cracking catch up , they look absolutely fantastic,  great work and what a difference it will all make to the look of the model.

Chris

[Stephen Allen]

A bit of progress on the detailing of the undercarriage with the addition of the prominent bolts around the thickest part of the legs, and the beginnings of the brake lines. The bolts are just 0.6mm punched discs - my smallest hex punch is 0.8 which is noticeably too large.

 

I needed to look through all of the IWM’s online photos of Wellingtons before I found a photo which appears to show that the brake lines are handed port and starboard. All the diagrams in the two references I have only show the starboard gear, as do the photos of the Brooklands restoration. (Note to self, when photographing preserved aircraft remember to include any feature that might be handed or not handed.)

 

The brake lines are loose fit only at this stage, as I need to manufacture some clips or binders to hold them closer to the gear. The placement and number of these seem to vary, perhaps as ground crews repaired or maintained the aircraft and discarded anything that wasn’t essential, got in the way of their tasks, wasn’t available from stores or slowed tasks down. I’m using ModelKasten 0.2mm elastic line for the brake lines. I should really be using a larger diameter on the legs below the small tube guides I have made, but there are limits to my insanity. I will leave the lines long until the wheels are fitted, as they have to be curved around and then fitted into the fixed part of the wheel rim.
 

You can see I also have to do some joining up of the top sections of the gear where I had to cut it - I think a bit of thick superglue will bridge the gaps. Really, the bays themselves will be both dark and difficult to see when fitted, so I don’t plan to waste much effort on them.

 

Interestingly I have found that both CMK, and an outfit called Royale Resin both did replacement undercarriage bays for this kit. And both chose not to correct the dimensional issues with the undercarriage itself.

 

[Thom216]

Man, this is Master Class work!

[Stephen Allen]

I think the undercarriage itself is now finished. Thin self adhesive foil makes up the 1940s equivalent of zip ties for the brake lines. I have also added a second run of lines across the bottom of the ‘X’ frame, using thin wire. From their position I would expect these to be the balance lines for the air in the stanchions - Wellingtons had hydro-pneumatic undercarriage so that it could be adjusted for load. If you can’t really see them that’s good, as they are not prominent. Various bolts have been added to the axle holders and extension struts, and the safety rods to the outside faces of the legs. Finally, towing eyes to the axle holders. Next stop, a bit of frame detail to the bays.

 

 

[Stephen Allen]

I fitted the undercart bays to the lower wings. A bad moment when the newly detailed undercarriage legs wouldn’t fit through the opening. Fortunately a bit of trimming and wiggling helped them through. 
 

Fitting the bays allowed me to build up a bare minimum of detail. I used some Tamiya PlaPaper to create some low relief detail for various lightening holes and the scalloped framing at the outer edges, some copper wires for a couple of prominent pipes, and evergreen strip for frames. This further fills up an already quite small space, much too small for the new gear to actually retract, but once hidden by the doors and in shadow I hope it will be sufficient. Must clean the fuzzies out of the bay before I paint.

 

 

 

[woody37]

Wow! not only the widening, but the additional detail to what was already there is a feast to look at!

[bigbadbadge]

The bays and legs look utterly superb,  what cracking work.

Chris

[mick b]

Rather late to seeing this superb WIP, brilliant work so far Stephen (your Captain class frigate was phenomenal) and great to see this being built considering you don’t seem to see many completed and Trumpeter should be praised for at least producing something fairly accurate 😁

 

Mike

[Stephen Allen]

Thanks Mike

Yes, the kit has attracted a fair share of criticism, but someone must be buying them as they are always available at reasonable prices. I did dismiss the thought that someone might develop a correction kit, but the further I have gone, the more I think that such would be possible. Leaving the undercarriage bays and wheels aside the only thing that needs to be done to the base kit by the modeller is a tiny bit of scraping or sanding of the opening in the lower wings. Surface detail is a matter of taste and application of elbow grease.  A new bay, undercarriage and wheels would be well within the design and production capabilities of the like of Aerocraft or Metallic Details and, given the way that Trumpeter attaches the assembly, its a drop fit.

 

I am buying a ton of stuff at present for a forthcoming build of the old Monogram B-17G, and if there is a market for big hunks of 3D for that, surely someone could profit by giving the Wimpy a bit of love?

 

Just a thought!

 

Steve

 

 

[Stephen Allen]

Progressing on to the doors. The kit doors are fine, just needing some work with a fine chisel to remove or minimise the ejection marks on the inside faces. With the original mounting points on the kit supplied etch not used, I used plastic rod and strip to depict the retraction mechanism and add new mounting points to the doors. I will trim the mounting blocks back a bit, then its time to do some painting.