Wellington build and re-build

[Robin Senn]

Hello together

While I have been an avid reader and actually an active user of all the information contained in this thread, it was just now that I thought I could contribute.
I have gotten my hands on a already started kit of the Wellington at the end of 2020, and started in February 2021 with the project. I have used a lot of Steve's KnowHow and experience presented in this build, and thought I would share some pictures and information about the build in order to show some appreciation for the helpful information contained in this thread.
I have now finished the basic build and am in the process of covering the model.
The same as Steve I have also installed flaps and bougth the Vortex cowls. The landing gear consists of a pair of Electron50 mechanics with Oleos and wheels of unknown proveniency as they came with the started kit.
As I am not a big fan of two stroke engines because I went with 2 OS GF40 gas fourstroke engines. A bit oversized, but they are running very reliably at low throttle. My dream would have been to use two Saito FG33R3 radials...but alas, the budget....

Anyway, I hope to have it finished and ready for maiden early summer this year and will hopefully able to share a video of it.

Bestregards

Robin

[stuart knowles 1611]

That looks fantastic! Please keep posting as you go forward.

[Manish Chandrayan]

Fantastic work Robin. Is the fuse planked as in with traditional strip planks?

[Robin Senn]

Hello thogether

Thanks for the feedback guys. I will gladly share the progress of the Welly, especially as ithe build is now going into the felt "final lap".

@Manish: As mentioned the build was already started when I took possession of it. At that time the fuse was mostly done already. When inspecting it, I found a mix of planking with whole balsa sheets on the flat sides with strip planking in increasingly narrower strips the tighter the radius of the fuselage got on top or bottom. I added only the stringers and the planking around the bomb bay to the fuse....next to some corrections i made, because the original builders build philosophy didn't match mine...

Anyway, in the meantime I did cover the whole plane. Before covering I sealed and sanded all surfaces in contact with the covering material and treated them with additional hot sealer (Deluxe Materials Cover Grip) for a better adhesion.
I thinned the cover grip 50/50 with water and added some red color for better control of application. (To the great amusement of my daughters about Daddys "pink" plane...)
All originally fabric covered surfaces were covered with last reserves of olive Solartex, while the "aluminium" surfaces of the cowls were done with Oracover covering. Everything will be painted afterwards, but having the different surfaces showing a different texture goes a long way even for a semiscale build like this one.

I also attacked the necessary but mostly despised (by me) job of soldering up the wiring harnesses and connectors. A lot of cabling goes into the wings. Each wing contains 4 servos (Throttle, Ailerons and 2x Flaps) and in addition there are the ignition kill switch, the electrical landing gear and the ingition battery leads. All going from the front fuselage into the wings. Lots of cables and solder joints to be made up and tested thouroughly before they all go into the deep and inaccessibly hollows of the fuse and the wings.

I will keep you posted

Greetings Robin

[Robin Senn]

Kind of didnt work with the picture attachment. So here we go again.

[Timothy Huff]

Should there not also be provision for servo's for gear doors or do these plans not have them? Lovely looking Wellington btw!

[Robin Senn]

Hello Timothy

Thanks for piping in. And yes, there are no working gear doors intended by the designer of the plan. Tony has drawn them in a fixed postion to hide the gear a bit when retrcated. But I do not intend to install them as they look a bit goofy with the gear retracted.
Seems I am not the only one feeling like that, but from what I could glean from other builds nobody installed them.

And actually with the gear in up position and the underside painted black the gear does dissapear quite nicely. Maybe I will update them after having some flights with the Welly under my belt...but first fly she must...;-)


Greetings Robin

[Manish Chandrayan]

Thanks for the additional information Robin. She's coming along nicely.
What retracts are you using?
I must restart my Wellington. Kind of relegated currently after starting with the tail feathers. Is your fin removable or fixed?
Keep up the good work

[Robin Senn]

Hello Manish
Glad your are following my build. I am happy to share as much information as possible, as we are not all as adept at building as Tony Nijhuis is..and dont get me wrong on this..he is adept..;-)
Anyway, I use the Electron 50 retract mechanics with a RB45 control unit. I am not sure about the oleos and the wheels, as i got the whole build second hand and already started. I made the fin and rudder Assembly removable, as my hangar space is height limited and the fuse with the fin measures almost 90 cm in height. Unfortunately I didnt take detailed pictures when fitting the fin and rudder, but I opted for a two point attachment. THe main attachment went with the main rudder spar and I added a front support by a central support in the fin with a dual aircraft ply attachment to hold the front down.
I hope the pictures do tell the story. If not feeel free for details.

Greetings Robin

[Manish Chandrayan]

Nicely done there Robin.
I have followed Steve's example and added a captive nylon bolt to the front of the fin leading edge. Once fixed on to the fuse I can tie it down with a matching nylon wingnut . Rest of the arrangement is similar as well where the load is passed on to the carbon tube and and at the rear the fin trailing edge spar is secured along with the tailplane spars tied together with ply plates

[Robin Senn]

Hello together

@Manish: Yes, I thought about doing it that way too, but as the fuselage was already started the access to the wingnut was obstructed. So I went with the external srew in the fin.

Anyway, another big step (at least for me) has now been finished. The two OS fourstrokes have now found their final position and the fitting of the cowls has been done with minimal cutouts. While I was looking at some custom made Krumscheid mufflers to keep the cutouts down and the appearence up, I found that the OS stock mufflers looked not too bad altogether. I think I will save myself some 400 Swissfrancs for the moment.
I also intend to clean both mufflers thouroughly and treat then with high temperature paint before final installment. Painted black the would blend in quite nicely, or maybe some copper tone to simulate those pinecone type flame dampeners of the original.

Next task now is to have mixed up some color samples for the RAF dark earth and RAF dark green. And then the wait begins until the weather is warm enough for spray painting.

Greetings Robin

[Robin Senn]

Hello together

Here a small update on the Wellington. While I have meanwhile received the spray cans with the correct colors, I am still waiting for some warmer and at least semi calm weather for spraying the Wellington.
The weather is generally quite agreable for the season, but the eastern winds are still blowing forcefully and I am mostly slope gliding at the moment until calmer weather comes and I will revisit the flying field.
In the meantime a lot of smaller detail works have been finsihed (Fueling openings, wing attachment screws, some cowling detailing, etc. , etc. )
Also I did some quick and dirty mock ups for the gun turrets. With some help from the internet, milimeter paper, Balsa Wood, carbon tube and some paint I created some facsimiles of the Browning Mashineguns and the interior of the two fraser Nash Turrets.
It is definitely "squint scale" but they will look the part from 2 meters or in the air...;-)

Greetings Robin

[Scott Edwards]

A word of caution with the Vortex cowls. They are made in two pieces (front and rear) and glued together. I have a pair of Laser 180's in my Welly, which like you, required a hole in the cowlings. Where this hole cuts the cowling join, it significantly weakens it.

On my third flight, one of the cowl fronts broke away quite spectacularly. Thankfully it landed OK and the other cowl was about to do the same thing. The joint is brittle, and the vibrations will break the join very quickly.

I got a replacement set, and made a plywood ring like a large "C" that fits inside the joint. I then put about 10 small screws from the outside front cowl half into the ply ring. This has held up for about 15 flights, but is starting to show signs of fatigue.

When at Cosford I noticed Falcon Aviation (Paul Dudley) now makes some bespoke glass cowls for the Wellington. Not cheap, but jolly solidly made. If my current cowls give up on me, I will get a set of these next.

[Robin Senn]

Hello Scott

Thank you very much for the heads up in regard to the Vorte cowls. It came just in time, as I was preparing the cowls already for painting. I will have to decide how to reinforce them. I think I will reinforce the joint with a good amount of epoxy and glass/carbon for now.

Could you give me a link or Mail to Falcon Aviation? A search in the web just brought up some private jet companies....;-)

Greetings Robin

[Robin Senn]

Hello together

Spring has arrived and the painting has begun. Finally some colors different from Olive Green appear on the plane...even if the majority of it is black...;-)
Admittedly I have underestimated the amount of paint this rather big model is using up and have run out spray cans with custom made "Dark Earth" color. The dark green was just enough, but I ordered another can anyway.
These custom color spray cans are rather expensive, but as I do build models like this one only once in the decade they are still cheaper than a professional spraying system.

The fuselage looks a bit crinkled after letting the 2K paint cure in the spring sun. But experience shows that well cured 2K paints have no issue with a bit of carefully applied hot air to tension the covering again. Just give it a week or two to completely cure and reach final hardness.

I havent sprayed the cowls yet, as they are undergoing some strenghtening as advised by in his answer Scott above. Cant have them dissaemble in flight, cant we?

Anyway, weather will turn bad during this week, so spraying will be reduced to small items like the gun turrets and such.

But I will keep you updated.

Best regards

Robin

[stuart knowles 1611]

Could you give me a link or Mail to Falcon Aviation? A search in the web just brought up some private jet companies....;-)

I may be wrong but I thought that they were on the Kingfisher Aviation stall

[Tony Collins 1073]

This may hopefully be what you want Stuart.
https://www.yell.com/biz/falcon-aviatio ... y-3761872/

[Scott Edwards]

Could you give me a link or Mail to Falcon Aviation? A search in the web just brought up some private jet companies....;-)

I may be wrong but I thought that they were on the Kingfisher Aviation stall

SORRY ! Yes, my error, very sorry. They were with Kingfisher Aviation, proprietor is Paul Dudley.

[Robin Senn]

Hello together

Thank you all for your input. It is appreciated. I will have a look at Kingfisher aviation in regard to the fiberglass cowls.

I am now in the process of reinforcing the joint of the vortex cowls with epoxy and glassfiber. Should hold up for the first few flights. If the Wellington survives the maiden and the next few flights improvements are in order.....but alas, first i has to survive those intial flights..

Greetings Robin

[Scott Edwards]

Hello together

....but alas, first i has to survive those intial flights..

Greetings Robin

It's not a difficult plane to fly at all, mine is a standard build, 20Kg with two Laser 180's.

Mine has a strong swing to the left on take off, and the rudder is a bit rubbish. Make sure you have a strong steerable tailwheel. It has no flying vices at all, very stable. I found the roll response very sluggish, so added a bit of opposite expo. It cruises around very happily on low throttle, but if you drop from about 1/4 throttle to zero it drops very quickly, so a slow throttle action is good for landing.

The biggest problem and chance of damage is actually transport. The wings are big, heavy and fragile. Mine (just) fits into a Mondeo estate, but it's a heck of a squeeze !