Desert Wellington

The Wellington is something of an unsung hero of RAF types from World War II.

- Trevor Pask

The aircraft was the mainstay of Bomber Command in the first two years of war, and was one of the few means with which Britain could take the war back to Germany during that period. Despite being designed in the 1930s, and having an almost completely fabric covered   structure, the aircraft was so useful that it remained in production and service until 1945. In the later war period it was mainly employed in training duties and in less demanding theatres, but despite this history, it has been quite poorly served by the kit manufacturing industry.

Until the arrival of MPM’s kits, first released in 2002 and also boxed by Italeri, it was difficult to construct an accurate 1/72 model of the aircraft. Airfix, Frog and Matchbox had all attempted kits of the type, which while good by the standards of the day they were released in, were all completely outdated to modern eyes. Along with some other classic types such as the Typhoon, the Wellington suffered by being a popular British type in the early days of the injection moulding industry. Well-known aircraft were typically among the earlier subjects a manufacturer tooled up for. As moulding techniques moved on, these original kits were soon outdated, but the expense of retooling was often prohibitive and so the original kits tended, and still tend, to remain in production for years. Investment in new toolings frequently has to go to new kits in order to expand a manufacturer’s range, so commonly the more famous a subject was, the older and cruder a kit the modeller had to work with. Eventually most subjects get a new moulding, but because it was a classic British type, the Wellington was ignored by the French, American and Japanese manufacturers, so this process of gradual updating was slower than usual.