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Revell Mosquito B Mk. IV, 1/48 scale


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How exciting it is for me to submit my first build to Britmodeller. Apart from introducing myself last night this is my first submission. Oh my goodness, I'm putting one of my works in the public domain for inspection. Please be kind to me, but be honest as well. If you think it's bad then say so, I've got my hanky out in case. I'll try and be a man and take it on the chin. As they say, if it doesn't kill you it makes you stronger.

I have built several kits over the years but I wouldn't say I'm a prolific builder, I build about four aircraft or AFV every year of scales 1/72, 1/48, 1/35 or 1/32. My latest build is Revell's 1/48 scale De Havilland Mosquito B Mk. IV. Kit no. 04555-0389. Since I returned to modelling about 25 years ago when I was 26 years old, I have tried to improve my knowledge and skills in the hobby. Of course, the hobby does not stand still as manufacturers have continued to turn out ever more impressive kits in recent years, and techniques and skills on how to model them, especially simulating certain effects and weathering that are on the real things, continue to develop and move apace. I have always tried to pick up on some of these ways from here and there and apply them to my models but with my Mosquito build I took this a stage further by following an article in Military Aircraft Monthly on building the very same kit. My inspiration came from Tony O'Toole's article in MAM February 2010 called 'Malta's Maritime Mossies'. Tony's modelled a silver coloured Mossi with the Royal Navy in post-war Malta. Due to the fact I couldn't obtain some of the aftermarket items he mentions I wasn't able to copy to a tee what he's made, but otherwise I followed everything else. I think it's a good idea to follow a build that's been published in a magazine or on the Internet by an experienced modeller as it gives confidence to lesser developed modellers that they are following a good path. Although I've heard other experienced modellers say there often is no right or wrong way in this hobby and instead it's a matter of preference and finding out what works best for you. My build was going smoothly but, wary of what I was reading in the article, I dreaded coming up to the undercarriage as the author had issued warnings about its frailty. I didn't help myself when I failed to follow the sequence in the instructions when I glued both halves of the main wheel wells together before inserting the u/c legs. The instructions show clearly in stage 45 that the u/c is  attached to the wheel well floor before gluing the two nacelle halves together. As a result I couldn't apply pressure to the legs to make them stick in the holes in the wheel well floor. Due to this the u/c was weak and wobbly. I tore them off, they broke, and I had no spare u/c. I had no choice but to change plan and model the Mossie with its u/c closed. What a pity because I was looking forward to the icing on the cake of gluing the entry ladder to the hatch as my very last work before finishing the model. As is common with all kits pretty much these days, Revell did not supply a display stand to model it in flying mode.

I used a Tamiya silver rattle can to paint the main colour as per MAM article.

As with some previous projects, I've failed to get washes to stay in the recesses to give a more 3-d effect and show weathering. I first tried water paint thinned down, let it stay for about 10 minutes, then used a damp cloth to wipe it off the surfaces and leave it only in the recesses. When this didn't work I tried the same with thinned Humbrol oil paint, with more failure. I couldn't get the wash to sit in the recesses but it adhered too well to the surfaces. With this my silver bird lost much of its shine. Whilst I'm trying to represent a working military aircraft that isn't likely to remain looking as good as knew after several uses, the oil paint was not dirtying my model though in a way that looked realistic. Instead it was leaving stains and blotches that didn't imitate anything that would be on the real thing. So I carefully rubbed this off as best as I could without rubbing off the decals. I didn't manage to avoid this entirely but luckily I had spare decals.

Another problem I got was that the stains from the exhaust on the side of the engine nacelles is over done. Tony O'Toole used MIG pigments powder and advises not to over do it as less is more. I don't have MIG pigments but I have Humbrol weathering powder which I was guessing is similar. I am happier with the stains on the top wings as they are lighter in tone and I used my finger to smudge the powder (with a drop of thinner) and draw it in the direction of the airflow. I'd already done the sides of the nacelles and when these were over done I was unable to undo it.

Despite using Future floor polish to try and make my clear parts as transparent as possible I think the result is disappointing. I also found some of the clear parts were a poor fit.

[I'M GOING TO HAVE TO LEAVE IT FOR NOW AS I CAN'T FIND HOW TO LOAD MY PHOTOS FROM MY INHOUSE PICTURES FILE. WHEN I CLICK ON THE TAB 'INSERT OTHER MEDIA' THE CHOICES ARE 'INSERT EXISTING ATTACHMENTS' or 'INSERT IMAGE FROM URL', AND NONE OF THESE SEEMS TO WORK TO GET TO MY PICTURES. MAYBE THERE ARE INSTRUCTIONS SOMEWHERE ON BRITMODELLER TELLING HOW TO DO IT BUT I DON'T HAVE THE TIME NOW TO GO LOOKING, IT'S ALMOST TIME FOR MY BED]. I'LL RETURN SOON.

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Hello Sir! Sounds like you're having the same photo fun I had, until the excellent John (aka Bullbasket) put me right...

 

First, you need to upload your pics to a hosting site -dunno what your 'in house' one is, but I had stand-up furballs :boxing:with Photobucket and Flickr before John suggested Village Photos today, and that one couldn't be simpler. Also, it probably helps if you re-size larger images down to 920x690 (John's recommendation) before uploading. Then copy the 'share' (direct) URL for the desired image from Village and don't bother going thru the 'Insert other media' route -just Paste the link(s) into your post and voila!

 

Full saga at the bottom of this page if you want. HTH; looking forward to seeing the 'Skito in all its glory soon as!

Edited by AngstROM
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34718126611_ed59602c52_s.jpg34718209521_976b5d7375_s.jpg34718126661_14f24054bf_s.jpg34718126531_0d7833d215_s.jpg34718126471_f1da3b785a_s.jpg34718126431_a8342f95ee_s.jpg

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Hi AngstROM

Thank you for the advice. I had never heard before about Village Photos (strange name for a photo hosting site). I've tried and failed to use that site last night and today (in case tiredness was a factor last night), and when it claims that loading photos is a 'breeze' - its own word - then I feel dumb and helpless - I thought, Village Photos is making me feel like a village idiot. I presume that users who have turned to Village Photos rather than the more well known Flickr and Photobucket have done so for a reason, presumably they had problems transferring their photos from those two well known sites to Britmodeller. I then searched to see if my fear was founded and it didn't take long to find messages by forum users getting angst with using Flickr and Photobucket. Going back to Village Photos, I clicked on Help but found it referring to steps and features that did not appear to me. For example, I couldn't find my portfolio cover image after I'd created a portfolio, nor could I find other features mentioned in Help such as the yellow box that starts with "Drag image files here". Failing that I'm turning to Flickr, a site I haven't used for years but I had success loading photos onto it in the past. So cross my fingers and hope to succeed.

Edited by JHF
To enlarge images.
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I've managed to load thumbnails of my images of the Mosquito, which I thought at first hey-ho it's working, but I find they are near useless because I can't enlarge them. 

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After the photos turned out as thumbnails at first I clicked on editor to see if I could enlarge them. I've managed to enlarge them, but now they are quite blurred, whereas the original photos on my internal picture file are sharp. Oh dear, I'm not having any success.

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I'm stuck with as to how to load photos from a photo hosting site like Village Photos or Flickr? Can anybody help me please?

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Hi, i use Photobucket.

photobucket_zps50aigvb5.jpg

 

once you have loaded up you pic, click it with you mouse and a new page opens up of the pic. on the right side, there are some tabs, i click the one that says IMG and it turns yellow with the words " copied" appearing.

 

all i have to do is to hold Control+V on this page and the entire link is copied. The image will appear on your post. i usually load up pic which are computer monitor friendly size , ie 1024 x 768 x 1028 x 960.

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