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1-72 Airfix Mosquito (two versions)


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4 hours ago, Max Headroom said:

Looking good! 

 

Have you found much difference in the quality of the 'old' and 'recent' mouldings?

 

Trevor 

 

The older moulding is the better of the two, less flash and less warping. Having said that the new moulding is still pretty good, the flash and warping being only very light and easy to deal with.  

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Yet more progress.

 

The fuselage and cockpit is now complete, glued, sanded and basic scratch built radio added.

 

 

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The nacelles have also been primed with Halfords matt black spray. This being a hard wearing paint that bites into the plastic I was able to sand the raised detail off leaving only a trace in bear plasic of where it once was. The idea is to over spray with alcad for the FB VI, and a mixture of matt black and matt varnish on the NF MkII. The unpainted areas should then show through as panel lines etc.

 

 

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The undercarriage legs have now been sprayed with alclad duralium over gloss black primer.

 

The X shaped part of the undercarriage needs to be made narrower in order for the legs to join correctly and fit within the engine nacelles without bowing.  

 

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Edited by old thumper
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A bit more work done.

 

The assembled undercarriage without mudguard. The X shaped part narrowed to fit nacelle.

 

 

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Wings fitted and ready for spraying. The wings are awkward to fit, the area of plastic that fits inside the radiator was cut down and the wing fitted in ok.

 

 

 

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A coat of Halfords rattle can matt black was sprayed and the raised detail then rubbed off. I shall respray with a varnish / matt black mixture and the impression of the raised detail should show through.

 

 

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Edited by old thumper
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Sprayed the whole model in a mixture of glass black paint and gloss varnish to blend in the marks left by the rubbed down raised detail.

 

 

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The decals were then added with the help of Humbrol decal fix. Unfortunately one set of decals fell apart in the water, fortunately I have two kits on the go so no problem there, oddly I think was the newer decals that fell apart.

 

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The NF MkII together with a Tetsy Fly Mosquito which I built years ago. The Tetsy's raised detail is rather bold, hence why I have rubbed it down on this build.

 

 

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Edited by old thumper
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5 minutes ago, Cookenbacher said:

You always make older kits seem very appealing OT, and this is another great build.

 

The sanding down of the raised detail after priming is a brilliant technique, thanks for sharing that.

 

 

Thanks. It is very kind of you to say that.

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It looks like I am going to call NF MkII finished. I took these pictures this morning. I don't think I will use these pics for the gallery as the strong sunlight shows the model almost as a silhouette.

 

 

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Edited by old thumper
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It looks splendid. I like the 'prime/ rub-down raised detail/ prime' method, it certainly improves the look of the finished kit.

 

Thanks for the tip about the undercarriage, I would have spent a lot of time and effort (not to mention a LOT of swearing) before realising that the X-shaped bit needed modifying.

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3 hours ago, Beard said:

It looks splendid. I like the 'prime/ rub-down raised detail/ prime' method, it certainly improves the look of the finished kit.

 

Thanks for the tip about the undercarriage, I would have spent a lot of time and effort (not to mention a LOT of swearing) before realising that the X-shaped bit needed modifying.

 

 

The X shaped bit or whatever it is called is a proper pain in the bottom.

 

Thanks all for your kind comments. 

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After noticing that the model was missing a few vital components and not being entirely satisfied with it's very featureless matt black finish I decided to go back to the NF II. A little weathering was added to the exhaust and other areas, control surfaces and other areas were given a lick of pledge to break the matt black up a little, a radio wire, wing tip lights and wing mounted radar receivers were all added. I also noticed that the outer chevron of the nose mounted radio antenna is silver or grey in pictures so I sorted that out as well.

I am not the first one to point out how tricky all over matt black is and I won't be the last. I will finally call this one finished now. 

 

 

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Edited by old thumper
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  • 2 weeks later...

A little more progress made on the Australian version.

 

Sprayed the whole thing matt black using a Halfords rattle can, smoothed it down and exposed and removed the raised detail. Added a few bits of scrap decal paper in the hope it will show through the alclad as a different shade.

 

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I quite like the look of the marks left by the rubbed down raised detail, but we will have to wait and see how much they show through as a different shade under the alclad top coat.

 

 

 

Edited by old thumper
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