mandoman
Airman 1st Class
I popped back in to give one of my unusual reports from the Homo-Stupidicus of the forum. I think I actually got most of this one fairly, to almost not quite badly done. As usual, I found my self shredding decals at the end. Lucky for me I have a plethora of RAF WWII decals from previous builds. You can only tell the decal isn't right by the color. The large letters on the side of the Wellington were suppose to be a bright red, like the "D", however, even though I was ridiculously careful, pampering it along, barely moving it while I dripped water on it to loosen it from it's backing.........the (^)^Y) "BL" fell to pieces when I tried to transfer it to the model. Now, I was able to find the exact same letters, in that exact same size, but the red color is much darker. Soooooo, I just did the other side of the plane (which I only now noticed I didn't photograph) exactly the same. Man, I thought I was home free, until.......the stupid little number decal on side two shredded to pieces, just like the "BL" on side one. Once more, I had the one letter "x", and an eight, and nine in the exact same size and type from another RAF model, but once more, those were dark red. So, the lettering on one side is bright red, but on the other side is dark red, until the last two numbers in the string, which I managed to get into place without shredding.
Okay, enough of decals. Let's talk about turrets. More specifically, machine gun turrets on the nose, and a$$ of the plane. I never realized before this model how much trouble it is to keep the dang machine gun barrels from getting swiped, and snapped off. I now believe this to be due to the immobile properties of the turrets, and guns. If the turrets were meant to be able to pivot, well, let's just say that I wouldn't try it on mine. The guns were designed to glue into one spot, facing at one angle, and the resulting breaks (I believe) were due to this lack of ability to pivot up and down. I have done several other bombers with turrets that I had no problems with, and in every case the turrets could turn, and the guns could pivot up and down. I think one of the machine guns on the rear turret was the only one that did not get snapped off. The other rear gun barrel I was able to glue back into place. I had, at one point, glued the two front machine guns back into place quite nicely, but alas, they both got knocked off again before I completed the build. I found one of the barrels, and am waiting until it is the last thing I have to do to finish this model, before I glue it back on. The other front machine gun has gone awol. I couldn't find it anywhere. That's weird, as I can usually find something that big, but it seems to have fallen into the black hole of my basement floor.
The only other problem I had was with the two long, clear strips, that are the side windows over the wings. While masking one of them, I snapped it in two. Fortunately, and much to my relief, it is nearly undetectable after painting, as the break was directly prior to a window post. I'll stop ranting now, and here are a few pics. Please note the two machine guns on the rear turret, and the lack of any machine guns on the front turret. Does anyone know of an after market source for machine guns?
Okay, enough of decals. Let's talk about turrets. More specifically, machine gun turrets on the nose, and a$$ of the plane. I never realized before this model how much trouble it is to keep the dang machine gun barrels from getting swiped, and snapped off. I now believe this to be due to the immobile properties of the turrets, and guns. If the turrets were meant to be able to pivot, well, let's just say that I wouldn't try it on mine. The guns were designed to glue into one spot, facing at one angle, and the resulting breaks (I believe) were due to this lack of ability to pivot up and down. I have done several other bombers with turrets that I had no problems with, and in every case the turrets could turn, and the guns could pivot up and down. I think one of the machine guns on the rear turret was the only one that did not get snapped off. The other rear gun barrel I was able to glue back into place. I had, at one point, glued the two front machine guns back into place quite nicely, but alas, they both got knocked off again before I completed the build. I found one of the barrels, and am waiting until it is the last thing I have to do to finish this model, before I glue it back on. The other front machine gun has gone awol. I couldn't find it anywhere. That's weird, as I can usually find something that big, but it seems to have fallen into the black hole of my basement floor.
The only other problem I had was with the two long, clear strips, that are the side windows over the wings. While masking one of them, I snapped it in two. Fortunately, and much to my relief, it is nearly undetectable after painting, as the break was directly prior to a window post. I'll stop ranting now, and here are a few pics. Please note the two machine guns on the rear turret, and the lack of any machine guns on the front turret. Does anyone know of an after market source for machine guns?
