1/72 Valom Vickers Wellesley

I have a soft spot for early war British bombers. I bought this kit many years ago and have always hesitated to build it because it is a prime example of the old school limited run kit. It kept calling me from its home on a shelf in the garage, so I decided to build it.

First, a short history. This plane was designed and built to meet a pre-war British requirement for a general service aircraft. Several major aviation companies submitted designs, including Vickers. This plane was designed by Barnes Wallis, who would later design several successful British bombers using the innovative geodesic design. This was the first plane Barnes Wallis designed using this new aircraft structure. The RAF liked the plane, but were concerned about the strength of the structure, so a prototype was subjected to an extensive series of strength tests, which it passed with "flying colors". It was clear during the testing that the Wellesley was superior to the other entrants. As the testing wrapped up, the RAF changed the requirement to a bomber and approached Vickers to determine if they could change the design to meet this new requirement. Barnes Wallis felt that cutting a bomb bay in the fuselage would weaken the structure, so he designed "bomb panniers" that would act as underwing bomb bays. The long wings on the Wellesley gave it a phenominal range, and it made several exceptionally long distance flights early in its service. In once record-breaking flight, Wellesleys flew from Ismailia in Egypt to Darwin, Australia in one hop. Just prior to the start of WW2, several squadrons were assigned in Africa and Southeast Asia to counter Italian incursions in the region. On the second day of the war, Wellesleys were heavily engaged against Italian targets in East Africa and Southeast Asia.

I finally decided to build the Wellesley because of the interesting camouflage that it carried. These planes carried the standard European camouflage of dark green/dark earth over black. When they first arrived in East Africa/East Asia, it was unclear how long the deployment would last. Instead of painting a desert scheme in permanent paint, they approximated desert camo using a "distemper" paint. I wasn't completely sure what that was, but I soon discovered that it was a paint that could be easily removed when they planes re-deployed to England. To create a desert scheme, a distemper tan paint was painted over the green of the standard camo. The planes were deployed much longer than planned, so the tan soon became very worn. A contemporary description of the planes said they were "very tatty, patched, and unkempt". I thought this might be fun to recreate. I created the camo in the same way the RAF did. I painted the plane in the standard dark green/dark earth over black. I then used "washable" tan paint created for armor modellers. When it was dry, I used water and a stiff brush to wear away some of the paint.

The model was enjoyable, even though it was definitely of the limited run type. Not my best build, but I think it came out OK. Cheers.

6 additional images. Click to enlarge.