GB-40 1/48 Vickers Wellington Mk. III - Heavy Hitters III

Looks great so far Andy!

Thanks Hugh. A long way to go.

Great research

Thanks Geo.

Well, the rear turret is a fiddly affair with all that ammo spewing out of the box. None of this stuff is provided with the kit and It's in full view through the glazing so I couldn't ignore it. First of all, the gun mounts along with the modified chutes were installed. I then hand painted the interior framing around them in a dull aluminum colour. Two rings of rod were then cut out and glued at the hinge points after which a 4 belts of PE ammo were CA glued in place. I then began scratch-building the box details around the belts.



In this next shot, you can see how visible all this stuff is. Unfortunately, my plan of carefully brush painting the plates you see here didn't pan out and I had to remove some of this as I just couldn't get my brush at everything.



Here's how the glass house and tub look so far after I managed to paint the new stuff. The horizontal bar is a rack which elevates the guns and the two rams, provided in the kit and seen just in front of the tub seat, are supposed to connect to the rod. Trumpeter didn't quite go that far with the parts so I extended the oleos and coated them with my chrome pen. These will eventually connect to the rod once the turret is assembled.



Before I assemble the turret, I still need to install a gun sight, the control yoke, the gun butts, and some seat belts.

That's enough for now. I'm going to go away and uncross my eyes.....

Done good there Andy.

Good job, I do not appreciate any problem with painting. Working on those little pieces and adding details made at home is always fun. It looks very good, Andy.

Nicely done Andy.
It may be too late to help, but I've just found a series of pics I took in 2016 of the Wellington rear turret, and part fuselage section, under restoration at Duxford. These show the interior, and also the internal fuselage frame work and 'hatch' leading to the turret.
If you think they might help, let me know, and I'll e-mail large copies to you.
A 'forum size' example of the exterior is shown below.

Great pic Terry

Too late for my build but yes, please send me a set Terry.

Your wish is my command - off to do it now.

Thanks Terry.

Nice work regardless Andy

Having now compared pics with what I've done, it's clear that I placed the ammo box a bit high up. May fix depending on mood.

Great work so far Andy!

Thanks again Hugh.

So I managed to sum up the courage with the help of a couple of classes of Pinot Noir and got this damned turret finished, more or less. Having studied Terry's pics, I determined that one of the problems with how I left it was that the box at the front floor of the turret was moulded a little low. I duly cut it off and raised it with a slice of thick card and then also added an additional plate that I missed (both seen at right below):



On the inside, frames were extended from the gun mounts to the roof of the turret using bits of card and stretched sprue. Also, brackets were extended forward and a bar was strung across to serve as the gun sight support.



With the added and modified parts painted, I glued the front turret glazing in place with Testors Clear Parts Cement. I'm not keen on the bare aluminum look but I need to go with the reference pics in this case. I will paint all the outer parts black though.



From the gunner's point of view, you can see the added gun sight and the 4 gun butts. The barrels were cut from the butts and these will be installed near the end of the build.



Back to the engines now with a bit of a tricky assembly sequence. The fit of the parts requires that the cowl flaps be installed to the nacelle first, followed by the engine and finally the nacelle cowls. I would have preferred gluing the cowl flaps to the cowl itself and then slipping the whole thing over the engine but, alas, that can't be done. This left the problem of how to make sure that the cowl flaps, which are missing a segment to allow for one of the air intakes to fit and are therefore easily flexed, would ultimately line up with the rest of the cowl when glued in place. To remedy this, I taped the flaps to the cowl , making sure that the circumference lined up and that there were no steps and then glued the flaps via the 3 provided tabs to the nacelle with CA.



Not sure that makes sense to you but it does to me!

I'm really doubtful now that I'll get this beast done before the end of the month but will do my best to advance it far enough to maybe be able to finish it with a small extension of time. I'll know better as we get closer and after more bench time but in the meantime, thanks again for the interest and help.

I don't know much about the turret details, but the mere fact you are installing details into a clear part is very gutsy Andy. Having said that, it looks excellent. I can see details of the apparatus inside that look very realistic and detailed.

A marvellous effort in other words.

Just a beauty

Thanks guys. Michael the concern with the clear parts is real and I use CA in tiny amounts applied with a toothpick. I always make ure that the glas faces down and that the CA fumes can escape upwards into the open air so as not to fog the glass. Closure of the turret is done with clear part cement.