1/72 Airfix Vickers Wellington Mk. Ic - No 75 Sqn (NZ) RAF

This aircraft depicts the one in which Sgt James Ward RNZAF was flying on when he climbed out onto the right wing to douse a fire. For this action he was subsequently awarded the  Victoria Cross.

This will be the beginning of my WW II Bomber Collection. I usually build 48 scale but many 48 scale bombers are just to unwieldy for me

The Kit

• Airfix 1/72 Vickers Wellington Mk. IA/C - Kt No.  A08019

The kit has a pretty decent interior, virtually all of which can't be seen, especially in the variant I chose which has the side windows blacked out. Still I decided to fit the parts and paint them jsut for fun. I followed the instructions in the kit for the colours however I've noticed online that many have used different colours for various bits of the inside.

The kit goes together pretty easily. The only issue I had was the with the nacelles which needed a bit of force to get them together. Thankfully the Airfix plastic reacts will with Tamiya's fast setting extra thin.

Aftermarket

• Eduard Wheels
• Eduard Mask Set
• Master Model Barrels
• Ushi Fine Rigging Thread (0.3mm)

 Decals

• Kit decals  -  these are excellent. even the smallest stencils are readable (albeit under magnification) and performed perfectly.

 Paint

• Dark Earth - I first experimented with some dark earth options I ended up going with a Tamiya Mix suggested by Spencer Pollard (and a few others online) , it is considerably lighter than the other options I had. Those being Mr Color, SMS and Tamiya AS22.
  
  
  
  
  
  The  Dark Earth mix I used is as follows.

4 Parts XF 52 Flat Earth
2 Parts XF 3 Flat Yellow
1 Part XF 51 Khaki Drab
1 Part XF 2 Flat White


Note on RAF Dark Earth:
If you choose to lighten this mix for RAF Dark earth for scale effect, be aware that XF-52 has a strong red component to it; we recommend not using XF-2 Flat White exclusively to lighten this mix because it will make your Dark Earth turn pink. Instead, use more warm colors to lighten this, such as XF-3 or XF-59, which will result in a more appropriate effect.


 I think I got the above from Spencer Pollards Wellington article in Model Aircraft Monthly

• Dark Green - SMS - They mark it as FS34097 although the FS paint standard is post war). The bottle I had was from their RAF bomber set. This looked a little to green straight from the bottle so I added about 1 ml of black (they had a camo black bottle in the same set). Once this was mixed in I liked the look so used this.
  
  Prior to spraying I'd enlarged the instructions and printed them out onto self adhesive label paper. I then cut them out, de tacked them and stuck them onto the model.

• Black - Gaianotes German Grey - IMHO pure black is just to black for modelling

• Tamiya Light Gunmetal lacquer for the engine cowl rings
• Vallejo Acrylics for details 

Clear Coats

• Gloss - Mr Color Super clear

• Flat - Gaia Notes Flat 

Weathering

• Shades of the base colours were used for post shading prior to decaling. These were applied  through various airbrush stencils
• Oil paints for the wash
• Coloured pencils for streaks 
• Tamiya Weathering set for the mud on the wheels. I also used one to empathise the raised fabric details 
• AK Interactive enamel products for the internal washes 

Build Thread

• Britmodeller

Conclusion 

This is another great kit from Airfix. They have really  been doing some subjects I'm into lately.  It has great detail for the scale and builds up without any real problems. All up, I knocked this over in about 3 week (I'd estimate less than 20 hrs). I'd like to build a coastal command variant one day.

The Photos

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