Vickers Wellington Mk. III
British WWII Medium Bomber

MPM, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Glen Porter

 Special Hobby's 1/72 scale Wellington Mk.III will be available online from Squadron.com
 

A Brief History

Designed in 1935 by Barnes Wallis, the Vickers Wellington was initially designated a heavy bomber until the four engined heavies began to be issued.

The main early war variant was the Mk. Ic with Bristol Pegasus engines. To guard against the possibility of the Pegasus engines being in short supply, three other Marks were put into production with different engines - the Mk. II with Rolls Royce Merlins, Mk. III with Bristol Hercules and the Mk. IV with American P&W Twin Wasps.

The main difference between the subject of this review, the Mk. III, and the Mk. Ic, other than the Hercules engines was a four gun rear turret, the FN 4A and later FN20A.

The Model

This is the third Wellington by MPM but the second, the Mk. X, was released by Italeri. As both have been reviewed here on Hyperscale previously, I won't go into a full description here. The review of MPM’s Wellington Mk. Ic may be found by follwing this link http://www.kitreview.com/reviews/wellingtonreviewbg_1.htm
The Italeri Wellington Mk. X can also be viewed at http://www.hyperscale.com/reviews/kits/italeri1252reviewbg_1.htm

Whereas the MPM Mk. Ic came in a very flimsy end-opening box, the Mk. III is in a much more substantial top-opener which will allow safer storage over long periods.

Compared to the Mk. Ic, this kit has a new fuselage sprue, marked A, although it is the same as that in Italeri's Mk. X. All Mk. IIIs had the triangular waist-gun stations and as far as I can determine, none had the cabin windows. However, you still get the cabin windows but two blanks are supplied to fill these in. Care will have to be taken to hide the seams without losing too much detail. The Mk. IIIs had the four-gun rear turret and this means a slight difference at the rear of the fuselage. The two tail-plane halves on the Mk. Ic sprue have been moved elsewhere.

Sprues B, C, D and E are straight out of the Mk. Ic kit and have all the Mk. Ic parts still on them including the Pegasus engines and cowlings plus the two-gun rear turret. Three new sprues are supplied marked (lower case) c, d and e. These have all the special Mk. III parts such as Hercules engines and cowlings, Rotol wooden props and FN20A four-gun rear turret. The Hercules engines are just two piece assemblies without the separate cylinders as in the Mk. Ic kit so they will be easier and faster to build. The four-gun FN20A has less clear parts and will also create less problems.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

The Mk. Ic had a window on either side of the nose. A diamond shaped one on the port side and a larger rectangular shape to starboard. This Mk. III kit has these windows but my references show neither in photos or plans in the 4 Plus book on the Wellington.

There are only three resin parts and initially I thought MPM had made a mistake and only supplied one hedgehog exhaust so I consulted the 4 plus book again and guess what? MPM got it right. The plans of the Mk. III show a hedgehog on the inner side of the starboard engine and a straight through pipe on the port one.

The other two resin bits are the front parts of the exhausts where they come out of the collector ring.

The decals for this kit are typical for Aviprint, good register, minimum carrier film and nice colours. There are three options on the sheet, one British, KO-P of 115 Squadron, 1942 and two Canadian, VR-Q of 419 (Moose) Squadron, May 1942 and KW-E of 425 (Alouette) Squadron, end of 1942.

All three are in standard Bomber Command colours with the second Canadian having some variation in scheme and markings.

This is a very good kit of a long overdue subject, perhaps not for beginners but not difficult either and a big improvement on any Wellington kits that have come before.

I am told that MPM intend to bring out a Merlin powered Mk. II and a Pratt & Whitney engined Mk. IV so perhaps we will see some of the Coastal Command versions as well although some may be released by Italeri or Special Hobby.

I also hear that Trumpeter is about to release some 1/72 scale Wimpies but, as their kits vary from very good to not so good, we will just have to wait and see.

Highly Recommended.

Thanks to MPM/Special Hobby for the review sample.

Review Text Copyright © 2007 by Glen Porter
Images Copyright © 2007 by Brett Green
Page Created 03 June, 2007
Last updated 24 December, 2007

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