Dorothy

[Dave Swindell]

I've not managed to do much in the way of modelling for quite a while now, so here's hoping one of my favourite aeroplanes and group build deadlines will get me going again. This weekend has seen some preparation work done, model room tidied and workbench cleared so I actually have some space to work, plus much perusing of my mosquito library and googling on the interweb for information on my chosen subject which is:-

 

Dorothy, a DH Mosquito PR IX serial ML897 serving with 8 Group's 1409 (Met) flight based at RAF Wyton, late 1944.

 

There are several published photographs of this aircraft, including this classic from the IWM collection

AIRCRAFT OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE 1939-1945: DE HAVILLAND DH 98 MOSQUITO.. © IWM (CH 14467)IWM Non Commercial Licence

 

Sorting through the stash the following were pulled out for the project

Tamiya's excellent Bomber/PR kit, Eduard etch and masks for this kit, Paragon two stage nacelles to convert it to a PR IX, ADS DH Mosquito part 1 decal sheet which includes markings for Dorothy, and a couple of stencil decal sheets from Aviaology and Barracudacals. Also shown is the nose sprue from Tamiya's NFXIII/XVII kit, parts from which may be used as patterns to detail the cockpit.

 

From the library the following books were selected

Mosquito at war, S/S Mosquito in Action part 1 and SAM Combat Colours all contain photo's of Dorothy, and the rest have good coverage of PR Mosquitos.

 

Some of the best information on Dorothy I only found yesterday whilst googling for digital copies of the images I had, I didn't have much hope of finding any others, but I was lucky and found a couple more very good photo's which revealed several small details and some rather poignant history on some of the airmen that flew her.

 

Mosquito at War has 3 photo's of Dorothy, a crop of the above, one landing at Wyton, and one with LAC Bennett painting a lightning flash mission marking on the nose. On the opposite page are photo's of the famous 105 sqn Mosquito LR503 F for Freddie which had the highest mission tally in Bomber comand of 213 missions. One of the photo's shows F for Freddie after completing operational service whilst on a promotional tour in Canada, Her crew, Pilot F/L Maurice Briggs DSO DFC DFM and Observer F/O John Baker DFC & Bar are shown posing by the nose. They had arrived at Calgary by flying down the main street between the buildings, and after taking off to fly on to the next demonstration, they flew two low level beat ups of the airfield. Unfortunately on the second pass on pulling up to clear a hangar their wingtip clipped  a mast, causing the aircraft to crash and killing them both instantly. Why is this relevant? Well what isn't mentioned in the photo captions is that Both F/L Briggs and F/O Baker had just completed their operational service with 1409 (Met) flight, and Dorothy was one of the regular aircraft they flew!

 

F/O Baker's flight records make interesting reading and reveal some very interesting details, some quite useful for modelling Dorothy.

It would appear AVM DTC Bennett, head of 8 Group Pathfinders flew Dorothy at least twice, and P/O Baker navigated for him on a mission to Chartres in ML934.

Most of the missions are listed as PAMPA's (Photorecce And Meteorological Photography Aircraft) weather reconnaissance prior to raids by Bomber Command and USAAC, but some missions were with or ahead of the main force to update the master bomber on weather conditions, mark and bomb the target, and photograph the raid in progress. Bomb loads mentioned are 4 x 500lb and 3 x 500lb plus green target Indicator. One more detailed entry reads:-

18/8/44            Briggs / Baker            ML897            2335 – 0240       A special trip to bomb and photograph Bremen after an attack by the heavies.The route was to 5410N0545E – Rutenbrock – Bremen – 5400N0800E – 5410N0545E – Base. Bombing was well concentrated, fires were found burning, with smoke up to 25000 ft, and the 4 x 500 lb G.P bombs were dropped at 0105, the photographs being taken at the same time, from 20000 ft.

 

Other entries for air tests reveal :-

ML897 was fitted with Monica tail warning device

ML935 was fitted with S.B.A. Gee and temperature gauge

NS747 (PRXVI) was fitted with radio altimeter

The photo's I've found show a long aerial from mid fin height either to the positon of the radio mast (not fitted) or possibly to the rear of the canopy. There doesn't appear to be the trailing aerial mast below the fuselage. The combat colours profile of Dorothy shows two whip aerials on the upper fuselage, but I can't see any evidence of these in the photo's. The photo's do show the fairing  for Monica below the tail.

This left me puzzling over the appropriate radio fit for the rear of the cockpit. The T1154/R1155 as supplied by Tamiya even if originally fitted was most likely no longer appropriate for this time frame. However, the radio fit was usually replaced with combined TR1133 or TR1143 units in the fuselage and the space utilised for Gee nav equipment. This would be logical for the missions flown requiring lone long range navigation, but the info I had said Gee had a 41" whip aerial fitted on the port rear of the canopy, and that isn't visible. After much searching for Mosquito radio fits I found an installation diagram for ARI 5083 and ABK1, it took a while for me to twig that this isn't radio, ARI 5083 is in fact Gee, and ABK1 is IFF Mk III. Note the aerials for both are internal, in the rear fuselage and tailplanes.

So Dorothy would most likely be fitted with :-

Gee with internal aerials

Given her role most likely an Air Position Indicator to assist with DR navigation

Monica Tail warning indicator

TR1133/TR1143 or possibly TR9F housed in the rear fuselage to make way for the above.

One further mystery found yesterday was Dorothy was fitted with a rod aerial on the centre line just in front of the bomb bay, very similar to that used on the NF 30 in this position, was this also related to Monica?

The camera fit is also a bit of a puzzle. The twin windows at the forward end of the bomb bay were there, but appear to have been plated or painted over. The SAM Datafile shows a similar pair mounted immediately aft of the bomb bay with a low oblique on the port side. I can't find any photo's of PR IX's to support this, and the only remaining PR IX LR480 has a camera fit as per PRXVI's, so I'm inclined to go with this.

The photo's of LR480 also show a fuel cooler on the starboard fuselage below the wing, this is quoted as being non standard but I suspect this may not be the case -a head on period photo of BIX ML963 clearly shows the cooler.

I intend commencing the build with parts I know are correct and leave the cockpit details for the time being, so if anyone has any bright ideas on the above conundrums please shout up before I close up the fuselage halves!

 

[Robert Stuart]

Sounds interesting, and will look a little different with those nacelles.  Going to watch this one

[DAG058]

Welcome in! Plenty of resource material there. I'll be following with interest.

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good morning Dave

 I will follow your build too  ..

Regards

Patrice

[Basilisk]

Great effort in getting all this information together. I think it ads a lot when making the model - knowing all the little things which make it a unique aircraft - and it looks you enjoy it getting the puzzle together.

 

I am looking forward seeing it all come together.

Cheers, Peter

[Dave Swindell]

Thanks guys for showing an interest in my ramblings, hopefully I'll be able to keep you entertained for a while. Yesterday saw a start being made, and after making a rod for my own back with comments made on Peter's Mossie build, I thought I'd better bite the bullet and start with the main undercarriage. This is a mixture of kit parts, Eduard etch, and scratch build which I completed this morning.

 

 

It may look like I've made a booboo and assembled the legs without the wheels, but if you look closely you will notice that the axle has been replaced with rod. The kit axle was removed, and the leg ends drilled out with a 1mm drill (there's a convenient recess in the outside of each leg to help with this) then a length of 1mm rod is slid through to act as a replacement. This means the legs and wheels can be painted separately and assembled before installing in the nacelle. Extra V supports were added from rod forward of the oil tank, and the mudguard support crossmember replaced with rod to eliminate the join in the middle. Just noticable on the forward side of the legs above the door guides are the rollers for the door closing cables, short lengths of thin rod being used to represent these. The undercarriage doors were pushed open as the undercarriage was lowered by the curved framework on the front of the legs, and closed by cables at the front and rear which were tensioned by springs

Especially for @Basilisk, and just to prove it can be done, the incorrectly located kit port retractiion jack has been relocated to the starboard side. Not quite as easy as I first though, as the jacks are handed. I had to cut off the mounts at each end of the leg and rotate them through 180 degrees, and also trim the mounting block at the rear end to get it to work, but it is do-able - although as Peter commented, hardly noticable  when installed!

 

Last night's bedtime reading threw up an interesting titbit, although all the photo's of Dorothy note her as a PR IX production records indicate she was actually built as a BIX. This might explain why I haven't been able to make out any evidence of PR cameras in photo's.

The other photo of Dorothy on the IWM site, below, doesn't appear to show any camera immediately behind the bomb bay, or an oblique camera on the lower port side. There could still be one in the standard position in the rear of the fuselage compartment, and as per yesterday's post about the Bremen raid, there must have been at least one camera fitted so I'm going with this position now.

 

ROYAL AIR FORCE 1939-1945: BOMBER COMMAND. © IWM (CH 14466)IWM Non Commercial Licence

 

Interesting points in this photo are:-

Air temperature thermometer immediately below the bomb aimers window

Bomb sight mount visible in nose ( I've seen another shot with the bomb sight fitted)

Rod aerial on centreline immediately in front of bomb bay referred to yesterday is visible behind & below Group Captain Donaldson's left arm. G/C Donaldson (centre) was Wyton Station commander. F/O John Baker is on the left, and F/L Maurice Briggs is stood between them. To the right of the G/C is Squadron Leader (later W/C) Nigel Bicknell DSO, DSC Commander of 1409 (Met) Flight who also flew Dorothy - He was flying it with a Cpl Harrison when the first IWM phot was taken. Whether the Sargeant is a promoted Cpl Harrison I don't know, but he doesn't appear from his badges to be aircrew?

 

 

 

 

[Col.]

Reading a history behind the choice of subject always makes projects more interesting and you've certainly done some serious research here. Backing all that up with some quality modelling skills helps of course  

[Dave Swindell]

On 28/02/2017 at 9:13 PM, Col. said:

Reading a history behind the choice of subject always makes projects more interesting and you've certainly done some serious research here. Backing all that up with some quality modelling skills helps of course  

Hi Col,

This project has been in the offing for quite a number of years, but the "serious research" has only been in the last week or so and mainly consists of skimming through books in my library and googling stuff, so nothing really original here. It's mainly a case of looking at stuff, making assumptions and checking them out to see if I'm right (occassionally) or spouting drivel (usually, but I do my best to prevent this becoming public!) Sometimes you get lucky - finding the blogs on F/O John Baker was a lucky hit on a google image search.

 

Last nights "research" consisted of much thumbing through Ian Thirsk's excellent Mosquito book, initially looking for images of the fuel cooler under the starboard wing to see if I could establish a pattern (didn't, but did find them on TIII's, FBVI's PRXVI's, BIX, B35's  and others, but aslo absent on the above marks as well - so it wasn't mark specific, engine specific, role specific, or as far as I could tell theatre specific. Some of the photo's without show what appears to be a mounting plate with 2 blanks for inlet/outlet pipes, so there appears to have been provision for fitting the cooler on later airframes.)

Whilst on the lookout for this I also found references to the mystery aerial under the nose in front of the bomb bay.

On an NF30 its referred to SCR 729, which is Rebecca homing but googling this shows a different style of (directional) aerial, so I suspect this is mis-identified.

It was also noted on a TIII and referred to ARI 5025 which is IFF and much more plausible. With the receiver in the rear compartment it means I only have the small control box to mount on the starboard cockpit side.

 

As to quality modelling skills, we'll see about that, there's a long way to go and plenty of time for disasters!

The wings have been built up complete with drop tanks, nacelle top cowling suitably shortened for the later two stage engines and the port side undercarriage mount modified for the new retraction jack location.

This was relatively straightforward, just razor saw through the end of the bar at the rear of the well, score along the join with the well roof, snap it off, slide across to the other side of the well and re-attach.

I've also backed the landing lights in the wing with bare metal foil, and removed the pour stubs from the new engines. The castings look like the the intention was that the rear was moulded to fit into the recess in the kit cowling underside, but unfortunately there was too much resin there leaving a gap in the joints at the sides. Rather than thin out the underside of the kit parts or file the tops of the cowlings to fit it was easier to cut the moulded raised section off completely so that the rear of the cowling just butts up to the kit part as per the standard kit nacelles.

 

 

I've also filled out the rear of the carburettor air intake around the indents for the tops of the undercarriage legs, more work will be needed here on the rear of the firewall when I get the nacelles shortened and attached. The single stage cowlings have been filled with milliput and are being worked on for another project whilst still attached to the nacelle rears to facillitate handling.

 

 

Once they're polished up the engines can be cut off and Dorothy's nacelles progressed.

[Dave Swindell]

A bit more progress to report on the modelling front, the nacelle rear sections have been cut off, cleaned up and stuck together. The undercarriage assemblies, cowlings, nacelles and wings were then dry fitted to check alignment and fit, all appears good so far.

 

 

The needle style props as per photo's have been assembled and fit neatly on the Paragon cowlings exactly as per the kit.

 

 

Masking tape used to align and secure the cowling to nacelle joints for checking. These will be secured with drops of superglue on the inside and rechecked without the tape before more glue is applied to finish the joint

 

 

Elevators and rudder have been separated from tailplanes and tailfin. A fine razor saw was used along the line forward of the hinge line separating the balance area of the elevators and rudder, then gentle cutting with a new blade along the hinge line from both sides on the elevator and on each half of the rudder. The knife was angled into the hinge line at about 45 degrees from the elevator or rudder so that you are cutting into and under the surface of the tail fin and tailplanes. Don't use too much pressure, do lots of cuts, and alternate the same number of cuts each side of the tailplanes. After a few cuts start flexing the elevator/tailplane or rudder/tailfin joint along the hinge line. Again, dont force it, if it's still stiff keep cutting. Somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 way through it will start to flex easily and the two parts will separate along the hinge line leaving  some extra plastic on the leading edge of the elevator/rudder and a groove along the hinge line of the tailplane/tailfin. The leading edge of the elevator/rudder (after assembly) can be rounded off to a D section with sanding sticks, and the groove cleaned out with a round needle  file. This cleaning up doesn't need to be too precise, just enough to allow the control surface to be offset to the desired degree and fit snugly together.

 

 

[Robert Stuart]

Great progress Dave - those nacelles do look good (repeating myself)

[nimrod54]

Lovely work Dave, you have made a really nice job of the undercarriage legs.

[TheBaron]

Immaculate research Dave. A pleasure to read that, even before alighting on the excellent progress you're making with the kit. This is sure to be a cracker!

Tony

[Dave Swindell]

On 04/03/2017 at 11:52 AM, Robert Stuart said:

Great progress Dave - those nacelles do look good (repeating myself)

Still working on them Robert, insides to detail but I'm happy with the fit and outline.

On 04/03/2017 at 7:20 PM, nimrod54 said:

Lovely work Dave, you have made a really nice job of the undercarriage legs.

Practice John, done a couple of these before!

On 05/03/2017 at 3:00 PM, TheBaron said:

Immaculate research Dave. A pleasure to read that, even before alighting on the excellent progress you're making with the kit. This is sure to be a cracker!

Tony

Research is the thief of good modelling time, Tony. Found a facebook group for ships from my dim and distant past which has occupied most of this weekend, lots of photos for the models I'll probably never build, and some original builders plans I hadn't got for my collection so I can not build them with accuracy. Progress will be resumed shortly, however, to keep you entertained in good old Blue Peter fashion, here's one I prepared earlier:-

 

 

[CliffB]

I'm finding it fascinating to see the amount of background information that you have aquired on Dorothy, Dave.  Great work on detailing the model too (especially in 1/72).  Keep up the good work!

 

Cliff

[Dave Swindell]

On 06/03/2017 at 6:58 AM, CliffB said:

I'm finding it fascinating to see the amount of background information that you have aquired on Dorothy, Dave.  Great work on detailing the model too (especially in 1/72).  Keep up the good work!

Cliff

The internet is a great waste of time research tool!

I'm doing better feeding the carpet monster at the moment, detail parts are being distributed at about a 2:1 ratio C/M vs model, he's developed a taste for U/C door retraction springs.

The critical question today has been "will it be quicker to make a new one, or find the lost one?"

The answer being "if you're going to spend time looking for it, it will inevitably have been quicker to make one"

They're not difficult to make, just fine copper wire wound round brass rod, then stretched and cut to length, but I did drop a few in the process.

Here they are installed:-

Cowlings are attached to nacelle rears, front and rear U/C bay bulkheads have been lined with card to eliminate varving on the resin and join lines. Eduard etch added to the rear, there is a liner for the front but you can't see it for the oil tank once the u/c is installed so I didn't bother. A bit of cleaning up to do once the milliput has set then they're ready for the bays to be painted.

 

[TheBaron]

Looking very smart! 

Tony

[Dave Swindell]

Thanks Tony, been doing a bit on the cockpit detailing, photo update next week, I'm off for a long weekend to visit parents and home club model meet.

[TheBaron]

Looking forward to it Dave. Have an enjoyable trip!

[Dave Swindell]

Well, that's Mum's jobs list sorted for another month, back home and a bit more progress to report on Dorothy. Research leads me to believe she would have been fitted with some form of Gee, but the exact fit can't be pinned down. Tamiya's NFXIII/XVII kit provides a Type 62 Indicator Unit plus an R1355 receiver and another couple of boxes which I suspect are to do with the radar fit. Both the Indicator unit and receiver would be appropriate for Dorothy, and the whole Gee/AI VIII setup plus fighter control column I want for Joan, another Mosquito project in the planning. So, equipped with a Sylmasta casting kit and digital scales, and after cleaning up the required parts I had a go at making a mould and casting spares. I've tried moulding and casting before with limited success, but I was quite pleased with the results from this kit, not perfect but quite usable.

 

 

This build on Scalemodels.ru threw up a few interesting images on the first couple of pages, a couple of different layouts for Gee equipment plus a painting of F for Freddie doing a beatup of the main street in Calgary referred to above. I'm erring towards something like the TT35 layout with an extra control panel and Air Position Indicator. I feel the latter would also be a likely fit given the long range/pathfinder type missions being flown requiring precise navigation.

[TheBaron]

That casting looks good from here. Nice job! 

Tony

[Dave Swindell]

2 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

That casting looks good from here. Nice job! 

Tony

Cheers Tony. There's a few little bits missing/air bubbles in some of the castings, but the mould came out well so it's just a matter of mixing another batch of resin to get some more. I've got enough good ones for current needs I think.

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good morning Dave

 Very good job so far

 

Patrice

[nimrod54]

Great work on all that cast detail Dave. I must have a bash at casting some small parts one day. My only attempt at casting anything was this paper weight which was used for a regular £1 bet with a fellow co-worker on who the F1 winner would be, but was used for other sporting occasions throughout the year too.

 

 

Apologies for the thread drift.

[Dave Swindell]

1 hour ago, nimrod54 said:

My only attempt at casting anything was this paper weight

My gran used to do paperweights like that with flowers out of the garden in them!

[MickE]

Good progress and nice detailing with the springs.

 

Mick