1/48 Trumpeter Vickers Wellington IC

[Stephen Allen]

Just one photo this evening. This is a template to help form the internal door that sits behind the forward turret. In the real aircraft this was made from canvas tightly laced to a frame. I assume it helped to cut down on the drafts that would otherwise have blasted around the turret gaps and through the forward fuselage, especially after the fuselage sides were cut back to improve the firing arcs. Happily, this easily fits through the opening for the bomb aimer’s screen even after the fuselage is closed up, so I don’t have to worry about placement and detail etc until much later in the build. I doubt it will be visible, except to block the gaps around the turret, so no need to go overboard on fine detail.

 

[Stephen Allen]

The ‘main spar’, or at least my representation of it, in place, together with the rest bunk folded up against the fuselage.

 

 

Progress on the internal fit out below. The seats are hardly accurate, but only the tops are visible through the side windows. I will add seat belts. The radio gear is quite nice and fills a hole. It’s just a slog at the moment to get fittings installed so I can start closing the fuselage up.

 

[Stephen Allen]

Some fiddly bits for the cockpit. I had nearly forgotten that I had the small Eduard etch set. I think I score extra points for actually managing to fit all of the tiny levers, though I will get points knocked off again for random placement!

 

 

and a harness for the seat. Nobody has yet produced a set that shows the straps flung back and dropped to each side as they would be before the pilot straps in.

 

 

Here are a couple of photos to show why bothering about too much internal detail aft of the cockpit is pointless. Its really just shapes and shadows.

 

 

 

I taped up the fuselage to align the interior as the instrument panel set in place. Underneath, you can see that the area forward of the bomb bay is going to be a problem - short gluing surfaces, flimsy sections and a ready desire for misalignment at the slightest provocation. I think the answer here is both discrete internal reinforcement and, in places, filler sections rather than forcing the halves shut. 

 

[Stephen Allen]

More preparations for sealing the fuselage up. I am pretty sure that the Wellington I am depicting didn’t have a ventral turret, and would have had the turret ring sealed with a fabric cover over stringers. Even Wellingtons built without the turret kept the ring structure, and the turret mechanisms were later re-used for Coastal Command Leigh Light installations. I am using the kit’s turret base to seal the hole, but mounted against internal tabs that will leave it slightly recessed into the fuselage. This will let me glue stringers to the base, sand them flush with the outside of the fuselage, then cover the hole with a circle of thin tissue paper, or decal paper, cut slightly larger than the hole. This will give the cover a more realistic appearance -  I hope.

 

 

[Stephen Allen]

A couple of final details for the interior. Opened up kit pedals, and a mildly detailed control wheel. The kit wheel lacks the the prominent brake lever, so this was added from some scrap photo etch, flattened copper wire and plastic rod.

 

 

 

I have glued the interior into the starboard fuselage halve now and have been working to improve the fit of the two halves. This is mostly done by removing slightly raised sections along the mating surfaces. The section behind the Astrodome is typical. These don’t seem to be due to any deterioration of the moulds, they are just evidence of poor mould preparation.

 

 

The fit is better, but not perfect. There will be quite a bit of filling, and each section will need to be carefully aligned when gluing. I do use liquid cement, but also use small dabs of superglue to act as a kind of instant clamp to keep problem sections aligned while the cement sets.

 

 

Trumpeter didn’t bother moulding a consistent recess around the lower entry hatch opening

 

so this needs to be carefully cut in.

 

That’s pretty much it for the fuselage. I am going to mask the turrets again to protect the clear bits as I close up then finish the fuselage seams. Poor design means the turrets have to be mounted at this point rather than later, unlike the much more thoughtfully designed Airfix kit. Oh well!

[mahavelona]

It's really great to see this building up. The interior is so complex!

[Stephen Allen]

And now we are going to hide that complex interior by assembling the fuselage halves! I masked the turret transparencies again using Eduard masks, then covered over the painted frames and turret rears using strips of plain photocopying paper, attached to the Eduard masks and each other with Tamiya tape. Why so elaborate? Well, the paint applied to the highly polished clear plastic hasn’t got a great grip on the surface, so directly applying masking tape and leaving it for any length of time would probably lift it off. The way I have masked the turrets avoids that problem. One final step before applying glue will be to slip a couple of slivers of non stick baking paper between the turret tops and the fuselage - this will hopefully prevent any glue from soaking into or through the masks. Gluing this together ain’t going to be fun - wish me luck!

 

 

 

[Rob K.]

Just spend my early Sunday morning cup of coffee reading through this interesting build. What a great project and admire the attention to detail. Super build report and thread. Very enjoyable to read through. Good luck with the glueing the two fuselage halves successfully.

 

Looking forward to the next update.

 

Rgds,

 

Rob

[MikeC]

On 5/14/2025 at 12:27 PM, Stephen Allen said:

a harness for the seat. Nobody has yet produced a set that shows the straps flung back and dropped to each side as they would be before the pilot straps in.

Amen to that.  I try and vary the placement, but with PE it isn't easy, which is why I prefer the fabric-type harnesses such as HGW.

 

This is an interesting thread, look forward to seeing more in due course.

[Fred piket]

Stephen, I admire your persistence. Your eye for detail is amazing. The levers, the harness the bulk walls, they are all amazing. They are so fiddly but you managed to get them exactly right.. my eyes can't manage that anymore. My utter respect for your build and effort, it makes my builds look amateuristic.. I will follow your build and good luck!

[Stephen Allen]

Thanks Fred.

To be honest, I am entirely dependent on the use of an Optivisor for all the detailed stuff, as my eyes aren’t what they used to be either.

 

I have now completed the gluing of the fuselage halves. Mostly, it was a case of just going slowly, one section at a time, using liquid cement, and focusing on alignment in preference to anything else. It’s easier and better to fill slightly recessed lines than carve or sand off chunks of plastic to eliminate steps and misalignments. I used one of the cockpit transparencies, meant for a different version, to keep the fuselage aligned around the cockpit opening.

 

 

The two worst areas for alignment were, as expected, the extreme upper nose, where rather than forcing things together, I resorted to filling the remaining gap with superglue, and the section underneath between the bomb aimer’s window and the bomb bay. This latter took both superglue and internal reinforcing before it gave up. There will be a lot of filling in this area.

 

 

 

I have also completed the internal bulkheads for fitment behind the front turret. Not totally accurate, but basically invisible.

 

 

And to cap off a busy night I watched the British Pathe newsreel clip on ‘Operation Oyster’, the daylight low level raid by No.2 Group on the Philips factory at Eindhoven. What a raid, and what fabulous action camerawork capturing the aircraft flying below tree top level on the way in and out. And then this arrived in the mail today!

 

Have had a quick look at the contents and all I can say is ‘Wow!’  Anyway, next comes the ‘Battle of the Seams’.

[Stephen Allen]

The seams have had a chance to dry out and stabilise, and the process of trying to eliminate them has started. We all do this differently, and the method I use borrows from everything I have read from what other modellers do, along with some adaptations of my own. I chose the area in front of the cockpit screen, as this is one of the two most prominent on the airframe. The seam line was a little recessed, and there were wider gaps right at the front. I use Tamiya easy sanding CA as my filling medium as I have found that it hardens to a consistency pretty much identical to kit plastic, and scrapes and sands just like it as well.  It sets a lot faster, even without accelerator, than sprue goo or putty.
 

After the CA has set, I start by using a steel scraper, then progress to a rigid steel sanding stick, then use 400 and 600 grade foam sticks for a final sand. No point going finer at this stage. My object is to preserve, as much as I am able, the overall contour of the fuselage. I am using the spare cockpit canopy to check how much I am taking off, so I don’t go too far, and I tape off each side of where I am working so I get early warning if I am diverging too much from the centre line. It’s slow work, one scrape at a time then check under raking light. Once I’m done with the sanding I use a bit of Mr Surfacer 500 to check for remaining hairline cracks, deformations etc. I remove most of this with either a cotton bud dipped in Mr Color Leveller Thinner, or a gentle sand. At this stage I am just trying to get most of the seams done. I leave a bit of finishing at the extremities for after I fit canopies, clear screens etc, so these can be blended in. The cockpit opening is a bit rough, and may need both straightening and a bit of shimming for a good fit.

 

 

 

This is the boring but essential bit of the build.

[Stephen Allen]

All in all the fuselage seams proved to be easier to clean up than anticipated. The seam area pictured below,  between the crew access hatch and the bomb aimer’s screen, is the hardest. Here I have glued in the rather ill-fitting diamond shaped clear piece provided in the kit. This is actually a completely unnecessary insert, as the real panel was not transparent, only having a small downward facing ID or signalling light in the centre. Trumpeter could have simply scribed the diamond panel in to the main fuselage halves and left a hole for the light itself. Another needless complication caused by kit designers who don’t really understand the airframe they are depicting, or how to interpret the plans they are following. Anyway the ‘window’ bit is glued in and, once dry, I’ll sand and fill until  flush, then I will cut a new panel from very thin plasticard and glue it over the window bit. Why? It will end up much neater than just using what’s there.

 

Next step is to begin test fitting and fettling the real clear parts.

[Stephen Allen]

And so to my first ruined part. I like using liquid cement to glue transparent parts, as it provides a good bond when you know you are likely to have to do some filling and sanding to fair the transparency. I usually get away with it. Anyway, I started my transparency work with the large picture window on the starboard nose. Despite using minimal quantities of Tamiya thin, it still wicked away from the seam, down a couple of bits of geodetic structure and on to the transparency. It didn’t actually flow onto the window parts, but it did did change the colour and tone of the silver paint, so off it came. Luckily I have the  Rob Taurus vacuform clear parts, so I was able to replace it, this time using Gator Glue, an acrylic style white glue which dries clear. The replacement fits well - better than the kit part - but needed a bit of clamping to conform to the slight curve. And now I know NOT to use Tamiya thin on the long side windows. Live and Learn. 

 

 

 

Next cab off the rank will be the bomb aimer’s screen. Trumpeter would have you glue the supporting structure for this directly to the clear part, like so.

 

 

This sounded like a good recipe for ruined clear part number two, so instead I am going to glue these pieces directly to the fuselage, then put the transparency over them. As long as I get the positioning right, it should look better and be less risky than the method above. To do this I need to attach longer sections to the bottoms of the F10 parts. I will trim them for a slight overlap then do some test fitting and marking so I get them in the right place.

 

 

[Stephen Allen]

And here are the frames installed in the fuselage. That’s also a nasty gap on the crew entry door. I’ll make a shim and close it up a bit. I don’t want it too perfect though.

 

[Stephen Allen]

Bomb Aimer’s screen installed. Everything lined up well, but its a ‘fit where it touches’ proposition.

 

 

I will be using tiny slivers of kit plastic to fill the worst gaps, before I do any putty work or further sanding to improve the fit and look.

 

 

Here’s one of the slivers in place. Doesn’t quite fill the space but it will help to support the small amount of putty needed to help fair the screen in.

 

 

and here’s another on the opposite side, bottom left of the photo. That’s all for tonight as I’ve had enough of close-in work with glue and clear parts for the time being. More to do tomorrow!

 

 

[pacificmustang]

Great to see this build progressing again. I’m about 95% through my build, (I didn’t correct the undercarriage) and had the same issue as you with the bomb aimers  window. I was beginning to think it was something I had done, so good to know it’s a kit problem. My fix for the diamond window bad fit was cutting out that whole section and replacing it with cut clear plastic from a CD cover. A fix forced on me by the kit window catapulting from my tweezers to ………well, somewhere! I then just used the circular mask from the Eduard mask set to mask the small circular window and faired in and painted the rest.

I hope you glued the bomb bay floor solidly to each fuselage side. This is required for a solid wing fit. I didn’t glue one side on mine which caused that side  wing to flex, until I went back and flowed blue into the bomb bay join.

Bruce 

Edited May 25 by pacificmustang

[Stephen Allen]

Hi Bruce

 

Yes, the bomb bay is solidly mounted to both sides. Can I ask, are the wings permanently on when attached or can they still be wriggled loose? I ask, because while it is tempting to paint the aircraft with the wings detached, I’m a bit concerned about gaps at the joint if I do so. I could modify the joint box to eliminate the click stub, but then I would be concerned about the strength of the joint.

 

cheers

 

Steve

[pacificmustang]

2 hours ago, Stephen Allen said:

Hi Bruce

 

Yes, the bomb bay is solidly mounted to both sides. Can I ask, are the wings permanently on when attached or can they still be wriggled loose? I ask, because while it is tempting to paint the aircraft with the wings detached, I’m a bit concerned about gaps at the joint if I do so. I could modify the joint box to eliminate the click stub, but then I would be concerned about the strength of the joint.

 

cheers

 

Steve

I. was concerned that once clicked in, I wouldn't be able to then disengage them, but worry not Stephen, its a bit of a loose fit and you can remove them again easily

 

Bruce

[Stephen Allen]

Thanks Bruce, that’s good news. I know now I can at least try the fit and decide what method to adopt afterwards.

 

cheers

 

Steve

[Stephen Allen]

The cockpit transparency fits quite well at the sides and along the windscreen, but the rear section will need some work. The  top runners for the side opening windows also need extending forward on to the transparency, while the lower runners need a bit of shortening at the front ends as they end and fair back into the fuselage along the lower quarter windows. At the moment the transparency looks stuck on rather than built in.

 

 

 

While I am in the business of closing up the fuselage, I added the fabric and stringers to the redundant ventral turret position. It’s just tissue paper attached and reinforced with some acrylic glue, then a layer of lacquer varnish.

 

 

 

Finally, spacers added to the side window strips. They fit really well top and bottom, but were a tiny bit short lengthways. 20 thou plastic card added to take up the slack at the rear of each strip. They fit best with the fore edge close-fitted to the fuselage and the spacer at the rear

 

[pacificmustang]

It's also worth your while getting the astrodome fit sorted before fitting the wings Stephen, not after as I did . The astrodome on mine was a very sloppy fit

 

Bruce

[Stephen Allen]

Thanks Bruce

 

I have trimmed the fuselage support lip for the astrodome back, so the highest sections of the lip at the centreline are removed. This allows the ‘dome to sit down in the fuselage without gaps at the sides or rocking side to side. It’s the little things like this that remind you that you are building a Trumpeter kit, not Tamiya! 
 

You have made a beautiful job of your Wimpy. 
 

cheers

 

Steve

[woody37]

On 5/21/2025 at 7:30 AM, Stephen Allen said:

The seams have had a chance to dry out and stabilise, and the process of trying to eliminate them has started. We all do this differently, and the method I use borrows from everything I have read from what other modellers do, along with some adaptations of my own. I chose the area in front of the cockpit screen, as this is one of the two most prominent on the airframe. The seam line was a little recessed, and there were wider gaps right at the front. I use Tamiya easy sanding CA as my filling medium as I have found that it hardens to a consistency pretty much identical to kit plastic, and scrapes and sands just like it as well.  It sets a lot faster, even without accelerator, than sprue goo or putty.
 

After the CA has set, I start by using a steel scraper, then progress to a rigid steel sanding stick, then use 400 and 600 grade foam sticks for a final sand. No point going finer at this stage. My object is to preserve, as much as I am able, the overall contour of the fuselage. I am using the spare cockpit canopy to check how much I am taking off, so I don’t go too far, and I tape off each side of where I am working so I get early warning if I am diverging too much from the centre line. It’s slow work, one scrape at a time then check under raking light. Once I’m done with the sanding I use a bit of Mr Surfacer 500 to check for remaining hairline cracks, deformations etc. I remove most of this with either a cotton bud dipped in Mr Color Leveller Thinner, or a gentle sand. At this stage I am just trying to get most of the seams done. I leave a bit of finishing at the extremities for after I fit canopies, clear screens etc, so these can be blended in. The cockpit opening is a bit rough, and may need both straightening and a bit of shimming for a good fit.

 

This is the boring but essential bit of the build.

 

I haven't heard of the Tamiya sanding cement before, so thank you for the tip, seams are the pain of every build! Great progress

[Stephen Allen]

Neil

 

It’s good stuff but strangely difficult to find here in Oz. Mine comes from NZ. I am guessing that it does in the tube what other modellers achieve by mixing CA with baking soda or microballoons - haven’t used either of those methods myself.

 

Steve