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

Thanks Luis. Knowing me, at some point the "madness" will become tiring and I will stop, just wanting to get the model done and to move on to another project. I have yet to receive the Eduard PE bomb bay detail set which is yet more fiddly stuff.

Waist gun mounts are ready for paint. Handles added and mould marks trimmed.

Great work so far Andy!

Thanks guys. I found out the that those gun mounts are Frazer Nash FN-56 units with offset operation. If anyone has more info or pictures of this setup I'd love to see more.

I've got a book called "Air Gunners" or something like that. I'll see if its in there

Sorry Andy, it just shows the various FN turrets even though the book is called "Gunner An Illustrated History of WWII Aircraft Turrets and Gun Positions"

Thanks Geo. The Googler came up dry as well except for a reference from a Bomber Harris dispatches listing.

Nice work Andy.

Very nice work. Especially the scratch built items !
What would the intended use be for lead wire or is it actually solder ?

Thanks Graham. I buy it from a specialty model supplier UMM. I asked around at hobby shops here and no-one heard of it. Not sure what other uses there are. I hunted for solder in town but smallest diameter I could get was about .7mm. That's what the cables on the starboard inner nose are made of.

I did some snooping on the interweb and it turns out it's used for fly tying. There's a sporting goods place called Cabella's near here. They sell it in sises .015 to .030. I would imagine it's the same stuff. I have mountains of different gauge copper wire but it's a bit unwieldy to work with. Lead would be a snap, I'll check it out. Never heard of it before. I always thought when people mentioned lead wire they meant fine solder wire ?

Wow, thanks for the tip. The smallest size you mentioned there works out to 0.4mm. I have .2 and ordered .3 and .4. I have a Cabella's near me as well and will check it out.

Interesting indeed. While I was searching I came across a Fine Scale Modeler article that said cut the eyes off #22 or #24 fly hooks and use them as anchors for antennae and biplane rigging. Great for us with extra large thumbs. $2.98ish for a pack of 25

Eyes would scales to just under 2 inches long for 1/48.

Time for another instalment in our detailing saga.

Continuing on the starboard nose section, the Flight Engineer's seat got my attention next. Here's the kit part:



And here it is after I got my mitts all over it. The square support bar was replaced with round stock and the seat bottom had a square cut out and a backing added.



The seat was then installed in the fuselage. This is actually supposed to be done when bringing the fuselage halves together as there is a pin that inserts into the bulkhead behind the pilot. Heck with that says I. Rather, I used the mark where the bulkhead ends that I previously scratched with a scalpel and cut the support bar to suit. It's not like I want the seat to operate. Behind the seat you can see a bit of grey wire that represents a cockpit heat hose.




Here's the finished seat all painted up and drybrushed with silver. Above the seat you can see that I wired the panel with some fine 0.2mm lead wire. The leather pouch has been finalized and the triangular frame in front of the seat was made from round stock to represent the folding foot rest.



Moving over to the port side, I began work on the MkXIV Bomb Sight components. First, though, I had to add yet more wiring bundles to represent the spaghetti coming off the instrument panel being routed to the bowels of the aircraft. Receipt of my replenished supply of lead wire yesterday allowed me to move ahead with this step. The wiring was rather conveniently tucked behind the camera out of sight.....



A great reference for the Mk XIV Bomb Sight unit can be found here for those interested in the details. I found it invaluable for making the parts and for routing of connecting tubing and wires. The major piece, besides the sighting head itself, is the "Computor" which looks like this:



Using the dimensions provided in the linked reference, I fabricated the unit from built up card, round rod bits for the knobs, and brass wire. Below are the results, with apologies for the blurry pics:



With Andy Donnelly's Celtic Show on CKUA playing in the background, I set about installing the Computor components this evening. The cylindrical object on the left is the air dryer. Between it and the finished Computor is a small panel containing the main valve and filter unit and a wack of tubing and wiring which I replicated as much as possible from diagrams and schematics in the linked document.



A bit more wiring is yet to come here and then it will be on to the sighting head itself, which will be a bit of a tricky scratch build. Here's what that looks like:



See you soon!

EDIT: Some more good reference pics at this site: CloD - Wellington Sperry T-1 Mark XIV bombsight - Fórum Brigadeiro Nero Moura

Beaut work there Andy. Later versions of the computer had colured buttons, but it seems that at this period, these were as you have portrayed them.
Here's a side view of the sighting head, which may be of use.

Thanks Terry. If I'm not mistaken, that view is more from the top. The lattice arm with the projector light on top is mounted on the port side and moves in a vertical plane.

It's a wonderful scratch job Andy. (so far)

Both in the Flight Engineer's seat, and in the Computor unit, the latter was beautiful. =D>
The lead wires (welding wires), of different diameters, have simplified and improved the work of detailing our airplanes !
Qué VIVA el spaghetti!