The Little World

Well, not that heavy – remember that this bomber is twin engined to a pre-war design. But the theatre at the time saw few combat aircraft much bigger.

The Vickers Wellington Ic is decked in a Western Desert night scheme drawn directly from the instruction call-out. The odd wavy top edge to the coal-black under-colour is real, and is seen on many Wellingtons of the period in actual photos. I was delighted to seen that the decals would be few and far between, as this meant I did not have to entirely gloss the paint before applying them – just point and spray the gloss at patches that would hold letters or roundels. The Czech decals released readily and went down very well.

The turrets were a pain – eleven parts each and reasonably difficult to slot in after the rest of the aircraft was done – I will look closely at the Airfix design when I do the Wellington Mk II with Merlin engines.

All told, however, I consider this model a real success. I wish Harry’d had a chance to build it himself, but in any case I think I’ve done him proud with it.