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Airfix SEAC Mosquito - restarted after long hiatus


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After finally finishing my Tamiya Mossie, I was in a bit of a mood to do another. I have always rather fancied the silver finished Mosquitos from the SEAC theatre and picked up the recently re-issued AIrfix 1/48 scale Mosquito PRXVI, which has one of these as a decal option (684 Squadron in India).

A kit review and sprue shots can be found here in the review forum.

I also found some terrific reference photos from the the Imperial War Museum here, including a great colour shot of one of 684 Squadrons Mosquitos in flight. I was very taken with the roundel blue spinners, so while the painting guide has these as silver I will finish mine in blue.

I started this a couple of weeks ago, so here is progress to date.

First off I decided to get the job I like least, the canopy, sorted first (at the same time as I was finishing the canopy on my last Mossie).

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It didn't take long clean up and test fit the cockpit and assorted other bits.

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First for painting, spinners and propellers. The roundel blue is left over form the too dark batch of blue that I mixed for a BAe Hawk T1 last month. Too dark for that, but I think it will be fine for this as the theatre markings.

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Then painting and assembling the cockpit and wheels. All brush painted acrylics, including a touch pf dry brushing and weathered with a wash made from raw umber acrylic mixed in floor polish. Seatbelts from Tamiya tape.

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That's it for this weekend. A test fit of the wings make it clear they may be challenging.......

Edited by SimonL
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And it's the weekend again. Bit of rain today today thanks to the cyclone up north, perfect weather to stay inside and avoid working on the garden.

There seemed to be a couple of bits missing from the cockpit, that were present moulded into the sides of the old fuselage that is also included in the box, so I hacked these off, tidied them up a bit and stuck them on. Probably not 100% accurate, but it makes the cockpit look a bit busier. They are the unpainted items in the photo.

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Here is the cockpit all finished before being hidden in the fuselage.

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Tail wheel painted and weathered before being inserted into one fuselage half.

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And then the fuselage all buttoned up. Took a bit of wrangling with, but finally managed to get it all lined up. Plenty of tape and I will leave it to one side overnight.

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Edited by SimonL
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Well overnight turned into a week.

As expected the wings were a challenge. Not sure why I couldn't get them to fit, I think it has something to do with the curvature of the fuselage. Funnily enough they appeared to fit the "old" tool fuselage better.

I got them to fit as best I could, but they left a significant gap at the front wing roots.

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I then used bits of spare plastic from the "old" tool wings in the kit to make some shims to fill the worst of the gaps.

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It's worse on the underside :-(

Out with the filler next.

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as I'm working on mine I noticed that in addition to the gap issue when I dryfit the upper wings to the fuselage there is actually significant anhedral; I'll try to fix it by adding a little strip of styrene to the slot. Did you have this issue as well?

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Yes, that's one of the reasons why it looks worse underneath! Rather than add some plastic to the slot, I sanded the top part of the wing (to also reduce the gap at the front). I think your idea might work pretty well - wished I had thought of that! I then taped them up to dry after gluing and that seems to have done the trick. Maybe next time.....second thoughts, there won't be a next time. My next mossie will be a Tamiya kit.

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  • 1 year later...

While fossicking around in my stash I found this sad old beast sitting looking sad having languished for almost 2 years.

 

I did a bit of sanding of the seams, and while it is not great, I think it's at least worth finishing.

 

When I last worked on it I had completed the undercarriage, I took the opportunity to add some detail left over from a long dismantled Tamiya kit (dismantled by my then 18 month old son). 

 

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The nacelles took a bit of convincing to go together.

 

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A quck dry fit check to see how it looks.

 

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Ok, now I am feeling a little more enthusiastic.

 

Attaching the nacelles and external fuel tanks to the wings was fun, they seem to fit only where they touch with plenty of gaps left for filling! I will need to find my old tube of Tamiya filler, I think this is a job beyond Mr Surfacer....

 

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After several rounds of fill, sand, fill and repeat it was getting hard to see where things needed to be done, so with the weather being nice and still out today I sprayed the model with a rattlecan of Tamiya Fine Primer. Surprisingly it doesn't look that bad (I am not seeking perfection here, just an approximation).  Just a little rescribing needed and a touch here and there of Mr Surfacer.

 

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Edited by SimonL
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Had I seen this thread when it first appeared I would have advocated using the original FBI. VI wings from this kit and butchering the two-stage engine cowlings to fit.  The newer wing parts, with engraved panel lines (including the spar caps above and below), are poorly moulded and, as you have discovered, an appallingly bad fit.

 

The spar caps can be better reproduced by applying a strip of 5 thou plasticard cut to fit between the engraved panel lines, or masking off and applying a thick-ish layer of paint over the area.  Have a look on the web for photos of, for example, TJ138 at Hendon and you'll see what I mean.  There is a barely-visible ridge along the wing above and below the front spar position.  Similarly the joint between the fuselage halves is covered by a very fine external strip.

 

The blue that you've used on the spinners looks about spot on (I concocted something very similar for my 42 Squadron SEAC P-47D).  Good idea to salvage the Tamiya undercarriage too: the Airfix parts aren't too bad but the Tamiya parts look better and they did at least provide the oil tanks.

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Thanks Steve, I'll note that advice for next time (nooooooo, there will not be a next time!). Right now I just want it finished :-). Hopefully the blue hasn't all dried up as I can't remember how I mixed it!

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Moving along quite quickly now. After dealing with a few bits that needed some filling and sanding, another coat of primer and then a couple of coats of Tamiya TS17 from a rattle a rattle can. Luckily there was some the roundel blue left, so I masked up the various areas of the airframe that needed the blue theatre bands.

 

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Once that was done, I brushed on a coat of floor polish. While waiting for that to dry, I finished the canopy by painting the "internal" framing, which was a bit interesting to do. Just placed the canopy and propellers on the airframe - looking good.

 

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Edited by SimonL
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Thanks Keith.

 

So onto the decals at which point I discovered I had screwed up the tail theatre bands:banghead::badmood: They are painted too far "inboard". Oh well, too late now.

 

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Whioe the aircraft likes nice being shiny, from the photos the finish was actually quite "dull". After a bit of dirtying with some water colours I used the last of my Humbrol Mattcote to seal them in. I followed this up with some brushed on Tamiya XF 86 Flat Clear.

 

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So close to being finished! Just a few bits and pieces to go.

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That's really rather nice. It's a shame there aren't more of these built up online. I know how fashionable it is to build Tamiya, but with some fairly modest modelling skills this kit does build up alright, and surface detail on a Mosquito is almost non-existent anyway.

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34 minutes ago, SovereignHobbies said:

That's really rather nice. It's a shame there aren't more of these built up online. I know how fashionable it is to build Tamiya, but with some fairly modest modelling skills this kit does build up alright, and surface detail on a Mosquito is almost non-existent anyway.

 

I think that SimonL is doing a great job with the model, but those trenches on the late type wing that Airfix provides are simply terrible.

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6 minutes ago, elger said:

 

I think that SimonL is doing a great job with the model, but those trenches on the late type wing that Airfix provides are simply terrible.

 

They're a bit heavy, but I'd personally rate filling them in as fitting well within the "modest modelling skills" area :)

 

Or, to be blunt, if one is bothered enough but unable to fill them in, then it's unlikely it'll be the panel lines that spoil the finished model. That's not meant to sound elitist at all, but filling panel lines is pretty easy and on a Mosquito there's no real need to scribe much back in. If that exercise is beyond the skills of the modeller, then it's likely that they're quite novice in general and won't be executing a world-beating paint job etc either.

 

I honestly don't really see the big deal. Jason C's two stage Merlin nacelles are very nice, but the Airfix kit is still a fairly simple way to get a very presentable late mark Mosquito without overly taxing the average modeller :)

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21 hours ago, elger said:

 

I think that SimonL is doing a great job with the model, but those trenches on the late type wing that Airfix provides are simply terrible.

 

21 hours ago, SovereignHobbies said:

 

They're a bit heavy, but I'd personally rate filling them in as fitting well within the "modest modelling skills" area :)

 

Agreed, they are rather trench like,, and if I had my time again.....I would have bought a Tamiya one :-)

 

But as indicated above I just wanted to get it finished, if only as a "representation". 

 

Anyhow, all done bar the undercarriage doors, next lot of photos will be in RFI. Thanks for following and the helpful commentary :-)

 

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