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

[Airframes]

Oops !
You're right Andy - I need to get some new reading glasses !
I can only suggest then, that Parts F36 are indeed the ammo tanks for the beam guns, although the location of all of these doesn't quite match the period pic.

 

[Gnomey]

Great work so far Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Hugh.

Terry, rightly or wrongly, parts F36 are supposed to be parachute packs. Trumpeter have provided lots of these and instruct the builder to mount them at the locations of the parachute racks. I assume this is probably incorrect as I believe that each crew member brought his one and only parachute on board and stowed it in one of the several racks provided for them. In addition, an empty plane wouldn't have the parachutes in it in my opinion.

As to the gun mount, I'm still a bit puzzled on this one and can't find a good pic of the actual installation. If I'm to believe the instructions in the earlier post, the 303 fits through the "goal posts" on the mount and through a hole in the glazing and the grips are mounted offset from the gun at the semicircular tab. But if part Q11 is indeed some sort of grip and trigger for the 303 then it seems this whole mount formed some kind of mechanism whereby the gun was linked remotely to the grips with some kind of lever arrangement. Can anyone confirm?

Eduard's detail set doesn't make this clearer. They just provided parts to enhance the mount:

On the other hand, Eduard does provide a proper ammo tank for the beam gun and this appears to replace the two "trash bins" that Trumpeter provide.

This one better resembles the installation seen on the period pic so I'm going to scratch build a pair like this as these will be seen through the window.

 

[A4K]

Nice work Andy, and agree with Terry on the gun control handles (part Q11) - atleast that's what they look like to me.

 

[Donivanp]

Nice work indeed. The silvering shows it must have been a really good radio show, What lurks in the harts of modelers, Only the Shadow knows!
So here's a question, Why was the aircraft nicknamed a "Wimpy" always wondered?

 

[fubar57]

If I may, as I'm here. The Wimpy character in the Popeye comics full name was J. Wellington Wimpy though I've never found out what the "J" stood for

 

[Donivanp]

If I may, as I'm here. The Wimpy character in the Popeye comics full name was J. Wellington Wimpy though I've never found out what the "J" stood for

Well I knew Wimpy was a Popeye character, "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today", but I didn't realize his name was Wellington. Now it makes sense. Thank you.

 

[Wayne Little]

Progress looks good Andy...

 

[Luftace43]

Read through your entire build thus far, it is looking very nice Andy. I will be following along with interest.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks comrades. Not much happening on the build at the moment but I did get a session in last Friday to attend to the bare bulkhead separating the bomb bay from the nose section. This wall will be clearly seen through the open entrance hatch and so deserves some treatment. The warren truss stiffeners were added using styrene rectangular stock and the step up into the cockpit was cut from card. The latter is made of wood on the real aircraft and so will be painted as such.

The rather poor representation of the camera was cut off the bottom of the cockpit floor and will be replaced with a better looking example that was supported from a frame off the floor in reality. First, I'm trying to confirm whether or not my rig would have had the thing in the first place. George kindly provided an excerpt from a reference which states that "An F.24 type camera, for both day and night photography, was mounted either in the nose or in the rear fuselage". The giveaway would be the clear perspex square under the camera lens. Trumpeter does provide one in the nose but I have not been able to confirm its presence on this particular aircraft as all pics of it are from above. The only somewhat useful pic of another Wimpy on the squadron that I have found is the one below but it is very small and even with gamma adjustment I can't see the window which, if it was there, would be a square piece of perspex to the right of the ladder.

But even if I could prove that it wasn't there, I have no idea where it would have been mounted in the back so I think I'll just go ahead and install one in the front.

Searching the net, I found this

which is labelled as a Lancaster installation (note the hint of geodetic framing though!?) but which very much resembles what I would replicate on my bird unless someone has better info.

 

[Donivanp]

Good stuff and and great paint work.

 

[Lancaster630]

looking good there

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys.

 

[SANCER]

The tone of the wood is very realistic, you are putting your essence with the extra details, I'm attentive to see how you make that camera.
Bien hecho y muy interesante. Saludos amigo.

 

[Gnomey]

Looks great so far Andy!

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff Andy - can't help with the camera I'm afraid.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Wayne Little]

 

[fubar57]

Very nice progress

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Geo. Except there ain't any...