1/48 Wellington Mk. III of 425 Squadron - "Starting to Finish"

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Crimea_River said:
Hi all, back to show a bit of work I'm doing on the old Wimpy while waiting for the next GB to start. With all the above excellent info on the floatation bags and other details, I'm ready to plunge into detailing the bomb bay. You may recall that I bought a fairly expensive and, dare I say, over-the-top PE detail set from Eduard to replace Trumpeters's rather simplistic take on all the truss work in the bay. Here are the contents of the PE sprues with some of the bits already removed for assembly:

View attachment 679274

The discussion above reveals that Eduard didn't supply enough of the packed flotation bags as there should be 14 in total (I'd say 4 down each side and 6 down the middle) and so I'll need to scratch build a couple which shouldn't be too hard. I started by dividing up the bomb bay into sections using a Sharpie based on where the trusses go:

View attachment 679271

Eduard wants us to install the bags first but I decided to leave these until the trusses are installed so I can better figure out exactly where they should go. So, there are two trusses and you can see the outline of one left on the sprue above. These each fold into two layers between which go dozens of individual uprights and diagonals featuring nice lightening holes. Each of these needs to be folded into a square C-channel shape and then glued in. The there are tiny gusset plates that get folded over and that secure these members in place and most of these have such tiny attachment points that they break off easily and get lost but more on that later. Here is one of the partly assembled trusses with the Trumpeter part below it. A vast improvement, yes but VERY finicky work, even for me.

View attachment 679272

Another view:

View attachment 679273

This all requires incredible patience, steady hands, plenty of gel-CA glue, and a somewhat demented mind so if you have all those requirements, then go ahead and buy this aftermarket tinker toy. If not, save your money!

I'll post more in a day or two on some of the other details I mentioned above.
Click to expand...
But i does look incredible
 
Thanks guys. I expect my return to this project will be brief as I plan to start on a B-25 for the next GB which starts Sunday. Then a week later I'll be off to Ireland and will meet up with Evan and Gerry for a pint or 5.
 
Here's a bit more on the fiddley PE process for these trusses.

Here's one of the open bays awaiting the insertion of the various bits that make up the internal structure. Note all of the haphazard tiny "teeth" along the top edge which are barely being held in place by a filament of metal.

22072801.jpg


These teeth are supposed to remain in place until all of the internal bits are glued in and then they are bent over and glued in place. You can see some of them circled in the below pic from a previously completed bay. Alignment is pretty hard and so they are not always straight.

22072802.jpg


Great in theory but, in reality, most of these things are prone to breaking off during handling and so I've tried to collect as many as I could find and stick them onto a piece of tape to prevent them from escaping. The tape can be seen in the above pic in the background at top right. Here's the tape removed to give you an appreciation for how small these things are:

22072803.jpg


Many of the members to be inserted in the structure consist of multiple joined parts that need to be folded into N-shapes. Below is one that comprises three struts, one of which has had the flanges folded over to make the channel shape. For this I use flat pliers which luckily is the perfect size and thickness for the job.

22072804.jpg


Once folded, the part looks like this:

22072805.jpg


And now comes the really fun part - jimmying the delicate piece into the truss. In the center is the piece seen above, partly on its way in. The ends need to be lifted over the flanges of the bottom stringer and then maneuvered into position and this takes several tries. To the right of this piece is one already installed and awaiting glue.

22072806.jpg


There are many more parts to be fit into this truss and then I'll be rewarding with having to make the second one. I might try a different approach than what the instructions say for that one to make fitting easier and to minimize all those small bits flying off.

See you later.
 
Oh my, your frightening me Andy. I'm currently trolling my way through both of your threads related to this build with a mind to build my own Mk 1C Wimpy in the next GB. What I've read and seen and what your doing...................well, its just amazing, mind blowing, awesome and SCARY. :D
 
It's really small stuff, I would try it witth soldering with the low temp solderingtin and a small iron, so, if neccesary you could corrected it with just a litlle bit heat
 
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