Airfix Wellington(the new tooling)

[Paul J]

I have made some in roads on the kit I just recently bought.  The help I  need is what colour should the bomb bay be if its in Coastal Command colours seeing as several were transferred from Bomber Command.?? Were they all the same? 

[FatFlyHalf]

Sorry, I don't know. 

My solution to this dilemma would be to build it bomb-bay doors closed, and then it can be any colour you like inside !

😉
FFH

[Paul J]

If I base it on the colours quoted in the kit instruction, would that be close enough. The quoted colour on the instructions is Humbrol 56 . I've used a silver which is what the Wellington at Brooklands looks like. Basically the whole geodetic frames look to be natural metal. So maybe I've answered it my self. But I wanted to ask just in case the bay was  black like all the other bombers were.

[SimonT]

I don’t know much about Wellingtons nor Coastal Command, there are a few images like https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Wellington/Coastal-Cmd/pages/Vickers-Wellington-VIII-RAAF-458Sqn-based-at-Foggia-Italy-Jan-1944-IWM-01.html that seems to show light internal doors.

[brewerjerry]

Hi

    if you can check the aircraft serial number, if it came direct from bomber command i would do it black, if it was converted for coastal command, asv etc , i would use the undersurface colour , but this is just my guess 

     cheers

       jerry 

[Troy Smith]

13 minutes ago, Paul J said:

Basically the whole geodetic frames look to be natural metal.

I'd suggest aluminium dope/paint, as this was very widely used on British aircraft interiors apart from the cockpit.

 

16 minutes ago, Paul J said:

I've used a silver which is what the Wellington at Brooklands looks like. Basically the whole geodetic frames look to be natural metal. So maybe I've answered it my self. But I wanted to ask just in case the bay was  black like all the other bombers were.

I'd have thought black myself,  you might want to edit your thread heading to early war Wellington bomb bay colour, black or aluminium?

 

HTH

[dogsbody]

I have another Welly question. On the Airfix kit, the the fuselage floor/bomb-bay roof is just cross-hatch structure, is there is open space between the two areas. 

Is this how Wellingtons wee built? When the bomb-bay doors were opened, wouldn't that create a huge draft of air in the fuselage?

I would have thought that the floor would at least have been covered with plywood.

 

 

 

 

Chris

[Finn]

Here is one with the inside of the doors being the sade colour as the exterior but the bay looks black:

 

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205207658

 

here is a Bomber Command Wellington being loaded, the bay is black but a few chips in the paint can be seen showing the earlier shiny colour:

 

 

Jari

[Paul J]

Thanks for the feedback. In addition to my model, I  am planning to do a 304 Polish  Squadron example, probably  as a 1C and after a repaint of the black overpainted in white that I  guess happened when the unit became  Coastal one after transfer from Bomber. It will have the standard green dark earth camo topsides

 As a reference to this, I  am using the Mushroom  publication that has a colour photo of a mark 10 on the rear cover, but earlier marks seem to have worn the same colours with white. So, with this in mind, I feel it could be either black or aluminium finish in the bombs bays. What do others here think?

[Paul J]

5 hours ago, dogsbody said:

I have another Welly question. On the Airfix kit, the the fuselage floor/bomb-bay roof is just cross-hatch structure, is there is open space between the two areas. 

Is this how Wellingtons wee built? When the bomb-bay doors were opened, wouldn't that create a huge draft of air in the fuselage?

I would have thought that the floor would at least have been covered with plywood.

 

 

 

 

Chris

The 'cross hatch' you refer to is the geodetic construction devised by Barnes Wallis. (You may already know this)It does seem to have been very draughty with the bay open as you say. Having just visited  Brooklands where  the well known R Robert of Loch Ness fame resides, I had a good look at it but neglected to get pics of the area in question. What struck me was there was nothing between the crew and the outside except the fabric covering! There is another fuselage there that is open to walk  through but the floor is totally covered. I can see where Airfix got all the info needed to produce the internal detail of the kit.

[Tigerausfb]

Hi, I have several pieces of slightly mangled Vickers geodetic structure in the shed, all painted a dull silver, Humbrol 56 would be not quite there but near enough. Humbrol 11 well matted down would be closer.

 

Andrew

[Potato Pete]

19 hours ago, dogsbody said:

I have another Welly question. On the Airfix kit, the the fuselage floor/bomb-bay roof is just cross-hatch structure, is there is open space between the two areas. 

Is this how Wellingtons wee built? When the bomb-bay doors were opened, wouldn't that create a huge draft of air in the fuselage?

I would have thought that the floor would at least have been covered with plywood.

 

 

 

 

Chris

I emailed the chaps at Cosford after they rolled out their restored Wellington and they said (with just a hint of suggestion...) that the floor was indeed plywood with inspection hatches to check the bomb load.

 

Pete

 

[Geoffrey Sinclair]

304 squadron formed on 22 August 1940 and flew Wellington Ic from November 1940 to April 1943 when they were replaced by Wellington X which in turn were replaced by mark XIII in June which were in turn replaced by mark XIV in September.

 

Transferred to Coastal Command and moved to Tiree on 10 May 1942.  According to its summary of events it picked up 7 replacement Wellingtons in the first few days of May 1942, it should normally have 20 on strength.  Last bomb raid 27/28 April, last leaflet raid 3/4 May, first anti submarine sorties 18 May, but did send some aircraft on the 1,000 bomber raids.  There would be the need to fit radar, then comes any fitted with Leigh Lights.  What were Coastal Command camouflage requirements May 1942 to June 1943 for day and for night operations?

[Paul Lucas]

24 minutes ago, Geoffrey Sinclair said:

What were Coastal Command camouflage requirements May 1942 to June 1943 for day and for night operations?

For Wellingtons operating in the Anti-submarine role, Temperate Sea Scheme upper surfaces with White under surfaces to Pattern No.2 with the TSS being phased out in favour of Extra Dark Sea Grey only from January 1943.