stevehnz Posted May 28, 2017 Share Posted May 28, 2017 (edited) I'm late off the rank again, story of my modelling life it seems, though I have been plodding away at this for a week or so now. I was mentally stalling on a cockpit for this, the way too simplified one that Airfix gave us was more than I could live with but scratch building cockpits is something I loath, even simple ones like I've come up with, however, it all seemed to come together over the last couple of days & I can see some momentum on this now. Sprue shots, I seem to have missed a photo or two along the way, but nothing too involved. The landing lights were backed with silver foil before the wings were joined up & as shown in this shot, the fuselage was taped together so I could glue the wings in place & get the wing dihedral, all 1 degree & 4 minutes of it the same(ish) each side. I chose to do it this way so I could then tidy up the wing root area in the cockpit before assembling cockpit to the fuselage. Checking the cockpit fits & temporily installing the wee men so I could show my kids how cosy a Mosquito cokpit was, their Great Uncle was killed on Mosquitos in 1943, he sat in the right hand seat. I confess to to making Rrrrrr noises & flying movement with it while I had it like this. Not that it shows but I've also been knocking back the rivets & raised detail with some very worn 600 grit wet & dry paper so they're still just there but not too obvious. All apart again & painting the internal grey/green in the appropriate places, ay least thats what the photos I was looking at indicated & I'm happy enough with that. I did have thoughts of firewalls in the engine cowlings & all sorts of silliness but soon got over that ;). I also did some fiddling with the undercarriage to see if I could place it in the wheel bay after assembly. By cutting the bottom section out of the main leg location hole, I think the answer is yes. a trial fit seemed to go OK. I really need to join the engine /undercarriage units so I can build up some tropical carb intake filters on them, all the RNZAF ones had these as far as I can tell, & I could see trying to do that with the U/C in place was inviting disaster. I really just need to put some seat harnesses in the cockpit & I can join eveything up. Back to work tonight but futher happenings on this later in the week I hope. Still four weeks to go by my reckoning. Plenty of time. Steve. Edited June 9, 2019 by stevehnz replace photos with ones from Flickr 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyTiger66 Posted May 28, 2017 Share Posted May 28, 2017 Great progress Steve I have happy memories of this kit, it really looks the part when it's together and it is a very enjoyable build. I'm with you on cockpit detailing; I need something on my shelves, no time for that at the moment ! It looks like you'll have this together quickly. Looking forward to the next instalment Best regards TonyT 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAG058 Posted May 28, 2017 Share Posted May 28, 2017 Nice progress Steve and Welcome. Better late than never eh?! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandboof Posted May 28, 2017 Share Posted May 28, 2017 Enjoying this Looking forward to more Martin H 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted June 1, 2017 Author Share Posted June 1, 2017 (edited) Just a small update with this, but for me some good progress. Apart from the cockpit, the bit that was bothering me was the tropical filter carb intakes. I did have some Paragon ones that would have gone on Ok but as The Wooksta said on a thread once, they're a bit flat & reference photos did show them to have more belly than the Paragon ones, so I amputated the kit intakes & got to with some bits of sprue I'd glued together. & came up with something like these, still in the rough & will finish they on the morrow when the glue had dried. The decals for this build arrived today from Old Models I like the look of them, good density & registration. We'll see how they go. I've also got the cannon tray & tail planes on, plus some filler, the wings were pretty good, the fuselage less so. Still got three weeks to go, hopefully not too much of that rubbing down filler. Steve. Edited June 9, 2019 by stevehnz giving The Wooksta capitals. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandboof Posted June 1, 2017 Share Posted June 1, 2017 Nice progress Will interested to see how the decals go . Looking forward to more Martin H Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted June 14, 2017 Author Share Posted June 14, 2017 (edited) Long time between updates sorry but not 'cause I've been slacking, just not finding time for photos, photobucket & posting. After the last post it was just more detail painting & tidying up joins & seams. The fuselage was a mixed bag, much of it not bad but a bad sunken bit at the front of the bomb bay needed a lot of filling & reshaping. I have also cut out the Squadron canopy I got from Jays models & decided to use the wheels from them too, they at least have some tread detail on them & way cheaper than the resin ones I'd have had to get from overseas, quicker too. I modified the U/C by cutting back the locating stubs a wee bit & lowering the height of the front sockets in the wheel bays which have raised rims, I also cut away the bottom part of the rim so I can slip the U/C in & out with little hassle Constantly doing little bits got me to the stage I could lay some paint on the model proper. Using my tin of Hu11 which has given such a nice finish in the past but found its gone a bit gludgy ( scientific term for overly viscose, ) so had to take some from tin & thin it. It still went on quite nicely & after the paint had dried a bit I couldn't resist the next couple of shots, Canopy not quite painted yet, & nose cone just sitting in place. I can see it will come together quite quickly now. My next break should pretty much see it there. I modded the engine nacelles by gluing the prop shafts in place so the props can slip on later, something I try to do with all my models now. Notice the wing tip lights eh? I wasn't going to bother with these until I noticed that the RNZAF Mosquitos & I believe most other, only had the front ones where there was just enough meat to do them rather than front & rear as are marked on the Airfix Mosquito. Feeling pretty happy with this now. Steve. Edited June 9, 2019 by stevehnz 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandboof Posted June 14, 2017 Share Posted June 14, 2017 Nice clean finish Steve Like the nav lights Martin H 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAG058 Posted June 14, 2017 Share Posted June 14, 2017 Excellent progress Steve, It looks like you'll make the June 24th deadline! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted June 15, 2017 Author Share Posted June 15, 2017 7 hours ago, DAG058 said: Excellent progress Steve, It looks like you'll make the June 24th deadline! Thanks, to Martin too, yes, I think I'll be OK for the deadline, barring some sort of calamity. Fingers crossed. Steve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted June 15, 2017 Share Posted June 15, 2017 Impressive progress Steve. Glad to see it's going to be finished in time. Kind regards, Stix 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyTiger66 Posted June 15, 2017 Share Posted June 15, 2017 It looks great Steve The vac canopy makes a lot of difference. The silver finish is looking excellent. I may be wrong, but I can't help thinking that the Airfix Mossie looks more like a real Mossie than the Tamiya Mossie Looking forward to the next instalment. TonyT 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted June 25, 2017 Author Share Posted June 25, 2017 (edited) The final update for this one as I'm calling it finished. The decalling went well, the Old Models decals were a joy to use & snuggled down into a dilute Klear solution very easily, they handled well & while not the thinnest, they seemed to conform well, the fuselage roundels & codes conformed to the reinforcement strake on the starboard side most convincingly. The colours had good density, the white showing no see through. They have a very slightly stippled finish, part of the printing process I guess which may not be to everybodies liking but when they're the only game in town for some subjects, then I can live with that. They responded very well to the Klear so not silvering at all, especially on the B & C of the codes which are all clear film in their centres. Once the decals were on I gave them a clear coat & proceeded with attaching all the little bits liable to be knocked off while handling, aerial, exhausts, rocket rails, nose cone with vulnerable machine guns, undercarriage & finally undercarriage doors, as well as the canopy which I'd finished painting. This is not fully correct for a Mosquito having too many frame lines but that was as the Falcon canopy was, so they were all done rather than leave some undone & unfinished looking. The black screen surrounds were correct for the RNZAF birds, possibly more should have been black too. The few photos I could find showed a pair of rocket rail but no rockets in many cases so I included these. The aircraft I was modelling which is preserved in a private collection near where I live & which I've been privileged to visit & sit in, is shown like this in a somewhay grainey photo I found. I did think the codes in the decal set were a bit too big but the RNZAF Mosquitoes showed a variety of code styles which changed over their service life so I'll stay with these for now. Cut off time for this build is in just on twelve ours from now & I'm hoping to get some better photos in daylight tomorrow morning our time, still within the limit & try to get them up. here is what I came up with. I'll put these in the Gallery too in case my plans get interfered with, there is a new lounge suite (don't ask ) due in the morning so anything could happen. All things being equal, they'll be replaced. Mission accomplished, new photos in the Gallery. Steve. Edited June 9, 2019 by stevehnz 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nimrod54 Posted June 25, 2017 Share Posted June 25, 2017 Lovely build Steve, well done on getting her finished. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyTiger66 Posted June 25, 2017 Share Posted June 25, 2017 Great stuff Steve, the Mossie looks superb, well done in getting her in on the last day ! Nice decals and as I've said before, I like the canopy a lot, more so with framing. Those nose guns are very fragile, I know only too well . Make sure to keep it out of the way of the furniture chaps in the morning . TonyT 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandboof Posted June 25, 2017 Share Posted June 25, 2017 Great to see your Mossie done Steve Martin H 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAG058 Posted June 25, 2017 Share Posted June 25, 2017 She is a beauty Steve, great work! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted June 26, 2017 Share Posted June 26, 2017 Very nice! And a good tip about fitting the undercarriage later. The silver scheme looks good too, although it seems a bit odd on a wooden aeroplane... Regards, Adrian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyot Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 What a beauty,..... great to see a Mossie in post war Kiwi colours. Cheers Tony 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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