Airfix Wellington Bomber

I’ve added to my collection of models with the Wellington MKII bought from a local model shop. Its possibly the last model I will make for a while as the weather is improving which means I’ll be spending more time gardening, growing the tomatoes and other vegetables.

Anyway, here’s a few more things I’ve learned this time.

• Again read the instructions and make up your mind what you are going to do. This model has lots of bits which (when completed) are hidden away. I was glad I put them in but there’s a lot of areas which could have been painted better had they been done first.
• If possible, don’t put the clear plastic bits on until after you’ve finished painting. In particular, the pilots canopy came with a number of options and I would have used the one with the window open but I stuck it on before painting the fuselage and had to prise it off to paint underneath the window.
• Don’t fit all the little fiddly bits until after you’ve painted it. This model has lots of little fragile bits (mainly the guns) which you catch and break off when turning the model around to paint it.
• Take more care with the transfers. For two reasons: there are lots of very small transfers on this model which easily get lost when you’re putting them on; and the instructions try to make you fit transfers in places where they won’t fit. If you look at the letters on the side of my model, you’ll see they aren’t as per the instructions, there wasn’t space to put them on as indicated.

The other thing I found with this model is that the painting instructions could be better but (unlike the Lancaster) the fuselage fitted together well and was strengthened by the hidden bits inside the model.

Would I do anything different? Yes, if I hadn’t put the transparent pieces on before I painted it, I would have painted the visible members green, I can’t imagine that they were left “bare metal”.