Wellington

[/img]Hi all. I thought you might be interested in a little project I have going at the moment, building an approximately 1/4 scale Vickers “Wellington” Bomber, using the geodetic construction of the original. I spent 5 years (and counting) researching it, with numerous visits to the Brooklands museum archives, and then a further 18 months turning my junk-filled powerless garage into a workshop. Building the jig on which the fuselage will be built took a further 6 months, and during that time I learned to use CAD (Computer Aided Design); and built and commissioned the CNC router which will shape all the temporary bulkheads on the jig, whose function are to ensure the curvature of the geodetics are correct.

I’ve recently started making actual parts, for the two FN5 turrets, which will traverse and elevate/depress via RC. If I can build it to satisfy the LMA, and under the scale-weight, then I hope to fly it. If it’s too heavy, or the LMA scotch it, then it’ll be a static model. The turrets took a full year to draw even in CAD, and are full of moving parts with pretty close tolerances to get everything to fit.

This evening I’ve been air-brushing the four Browning MG’s ALclad “gun-metal” – nice to see some almost-finished bits after so long preparing! Attached are a few pictures. If there’s any interest, I’ll add a few more:

This is the geodetics and associated fittings I’ll be making in aluminium. Although it bears some close similarities with the original, it had to be completely redrawn as whilst it’s possible to scale the alloy channel, bolts and rivets can only be miniaturised so far!

The router enclosure. A right bugger to build, endless tinkering to get it running well.

The turret as it will appear on the model, the turret-ring is nearly a foot across, and if it flies, I hope to have an FPV camera in it with a gunner’s-eye view.

The turret as it will appear without the cupola, the guns will elevate, depress, turret travers, and the gun-sight will remain parallel to the guns as per the full-size turret as it does so.

The fuselage jig in the workshop. This is designed to rotate and be lockable-offable at any point in rotation, so working on all sides/top/bottom should be easier than if I had to move the whole shooting match out of the workshop. It will also eventually serve as the basis for the wing-jig later on.

Finally, the Brownings as of a week ago, unpainted and test-fitted dry. The “working-parts” of the guns can be pulled back with the cocking lever, and fly-forwards via a spring concealed within. The top-cover also opens. These were drawn by me in CAD and 3d-printed in nylon using stereo-lithography. The parts for the turret will be made from 3d printing, chemically-etched brass, and milled alloy/nylon.

Well, there you are, hope you find it interesting. Apologies for the duplicate pic I couldn’t get rid of it!