Mozzie, Airfix 03019

[Uncle Pete]

 I'm about to get cracking on a 1/72 Airfix Mosquito (kit number 03019) and wondering if anybody out there has built it and knows any kit-specific pitfalls I might run into.  (My ragged assembly of the impossible undercarriage in a Lancaster springs to mind).  In my current stage of inexperience I can use all the warnings I can get (but I'm determined to get good at it).  I had a butchers at YouTube but it didn't spit out much of use. 

[mike romeo]

The Airfix Series 3 Mossie is a nice kit, but there are some things to be aware of.

 

The fit of wings to fuselage is very tight; it's difficult to get these to sit at the right dihedral so its worth doing some work here.

 

The main gear legs are well detailed, but quite fiddly.  When assembling the gear, ensure that locating holes are opened up so that the bits seat correctly and securely.  If you don't, the gear is unlikely to fit well when you attempt to close the nacelle halves.  The fit of the rear stays is particularly tight and some thinning of the gear well edges on the nacelle halves may be required.

 

Ensure the gear assemblies are completely dry before you muck about with fitting them in the nacelles, or a disaster will ensue.

 

You have to fit the gear assemblies before joining the nacelle halves.  This can be vulnerable to mishandling and complicates painting.  If you can work a way to enveigle the gear legs in later, that would be good (but looks like it would be difficult).

 

Nacelle halves are handed.  Be sure you're attaching the right bits together.  Trust me: it's not as obvious as it looks

 

The cockpit is not well detailed; the rear shelves of the cockpit need building up.  Lots of scope for scratchbuilding if that's your bag.

 

Also, note that the wing location lugs are quite visible in the cockpit.  The front of these can usefully be cut down.  Make sure any cockpit detail does not impinge on the remains of the wing attachment lugs.

 

Despite the above, I love building this kit.  Just remember to follow the instructions and dry fit everything before committing to glue and you'll be fine.

 

Have fun!

 

Regards

 

Martin

[Uncle Pete]

Thanks, Martin, that lot looks like it will be very helpful and prevent considerable cussing.  I guess the only thing to say now is, "Hold my beer!'  (I notice in your bio you prefer 1/72... I do too but in my case it's because at that small size I can get away with fudging the details a bit!)

Edited January 16, 2018 by Uncle Pete

[Graham Boak]

I second Martin's comments on watching for the nacelle pairings (use the wing halves as a guide), and the difficulties in getting the undercarriage to sit right.  If you care about such things, the canopy has been criticised as being a bit long and the wheels a bit small (I think - it's a long time since it came out).  You could get replacement wheels with brakes on one side or both, and with tread.  Possibly no longer available, but worth looking for.  Falcon did a vacform canopy but they were generally made to "fit the kit" so I don't know whether or not it is corrected.  Look for it in Hannants under Squadron.

 

I don't know what the current production runs look like, but it is a fairly old tooling now so there may be some wear.

 

 

[Uncle Pete]

Thanks, Graham.  Modifications like you suggest are probably beyond my humble skills.  I'm still at the point where I say, "Near enough for rock n roll."  If it looks okay from 2 meters (1.5 if you haven't cleaned your glasses properly) I can live with it.  Of course, if I ever get my skills to improve that distance will have to be reduced.  It's a race between advancing age and reduced eyesight and dexterity and enough time to practice!

[Max Headroom]

I would suggest that you could detail the cockpit. I built the Mosquito a few years ago for a Group Build. It was all detailed using plastic card and Tamiya Tape (and a lot of Google photos!).

 

 

 

 

In my experience the wings were a sloppy fit, but by using tube cement (remember that?!) they fitted like gloves.

 

The undercarriage. Oh dear. Horribly fiddly. I’ve built this at least theee times over the years since the first release and failed every time. So I built them all undercarriage up.

 

Trevor

[Seahawk]

1 hour ago, Graham Boak said:

 Falcon did a vacform canopy but they were generally made to "fit the kit" so I don't know whether or not it is corrected.  Look for it in Hannants under Squadron.

Most of the Falcon sets are still available and you get much more for your money than with the Squadron Signal sets.  The trouble is that a lot of the kits they are designed for have been superseded, in some cases long since, by better offerings.  In some cases they did correct errors but IIRC not in the case of the Mosquito.

 

https://www.hannants.co.uk/search/index.php?adv=1&product_category_id=&product_division_id=&manufacturer_id=8008&product_type_id=&code=FNCV&scale_id=956&keyword_search=&setPerPage=25&sort=0&search_direction=0&save_search_name=&save_search=

 

The Mosquito fighter canopy is on FNCV02.

[Uncle Pete]

Putting ctrl C, ctrl V on the photos, Trev...  Those supermarket loyalty cards might finally come in handy.  I'm not really looking forward to the wings... getting a dihedral just so is something I find to be a bit of an ig-pay.  I was delighted to see they're putting proper wing spars in the bigger of the more modern kits that make it impossible to get wrong.

[Martin BH]

As above I had a real problem getting the wings to fit, made the Tamiya kit as well which was a pleasure.

[Uncle Pete]

Thanks for the link, Seahawk, but like I said to Graham, that's a bit ambitious at my stage of the game.  Trevor's plasticard modifications look doable, though... Worst comes to worst the interior is all but invisible anyway.  So far, none of my completed models have ventured out of the workshop for inspection by the general public... They sit on a shelf that's just for me.  I reckon it'll be about five years before I have enough confidence to put a picture up on a forum like this!

[Uncle Pete]

Cheers, Martin.  Maybe I'll get a Tamiya kit for myself if this one doesn't go so well.  On the other hand, if I did get the Tamiya and that doesn't go well either, I'm out of excuses.  All the advice I've already received has burned away most of the excuses.  "it's a dodgy-fitting kit" was the only one left!

[Max Headroom]

@Uncle Pete glad to be of service. The cockpit mods were done by squinting at lots of photos and ‘bodging it’!

 

Trevor

[Uncle Pete]

@Max Headroom  If I give it a whack it'll be simplified from your version.  I'm still patting myself on the back for making safety belts for the recently built (then knackered in the final painting) Blenheim which are now invisible due to the glass fogging over completely when I sprayed varnish on it.  On the bright side, I was able to use the now-knackered plane for decal practice... I'd never used the setting solutions before.  I was surprised at how well they work.  Slipping the decal around to get it just so is a breeze and the look is an order of magnitude better.

[SledDawg]

Here are a couple of cellphone photos of an Airfix Mosquito I recently completed, pretty much OOB. It makes up into a nice model!

 

Ditto on Max and Martin's comments regarding assembly. I finessed the landing gear problem by building it wheels up . I also did some basic cockpit detailing that looks remarkably like that pictured. For the all-black scheme it adds a bit of color to have an aircrew in there! But, true about the wing mounting and the handedness of the nacelles - I barely avoided the latter trap before the superglue set.

Another thing I did was to mount the props on lengths of brass tubing that extends into the nacelles. Since I was doing wheels up I wanted to be able to remove them when dusting, etc. Even so the tail antenna has gone... will have to repair.

 

I made the wing azimuth and elevation aerials (hard to see in the photos) out of lengths of .010 steel guitar strings, drilling holes straight through the wings and supergluing in place. (I'm a player and have unlimited supply of old strings - find a mate who plays and ask him or her for the old ones next time they are changed.) The wire of the top 3 strings of an electric guitar is generally between .008 and .017, bendable and robust, keeps it's shape better than some brass. Good for some antennae, pipes, pitots, etc. The wound lower strings are also good for some pipes and cables. They can be quite sharp though, so be careful! The radio antennae are from stren fishing line. Wing lights cut out, painted and lenses from a few coats of Kristal Klear, though white glue works in a pinch. 

 

I made the display out of a wood base I found at a craft store, painted black from a rattle-can. I found a Luftwaffe aerial photo of the 23 Squadron base someplace online, as well as the Squadron emblem. My wife helped join them and resized in Paint.net, printed and glued in place with a couple coats of clear ModPodge. The support wire is a length of silver coat hanger bent to shape, mounted on a notch gouged in the bottom of the base.

 

 

 

Edited January 22, 2018 by SledDawg

[Uncle Pete]

15 hours ago, SledDawg said:

I finessed the landing gear problem by building it wheels up

So happy to hear I'm not the only one beaten by the undercarriage, Dawg, I've gone wheels up.too so I'll be building a stand at some point.  It also forced me to paint the crewmen, something that I normally wouldn't attempt.  I managed to get their Mae Wests and leather jackets with pinkish blobs for faces... I draw the line at attempting eyes and moustaches, though!  I'll be gluing the props in place since they'll really get in the way while painting.  Guitar strings are handy for lots of applications... I've used them for lead-outs in C/L models in the past.  I have a workshop full of jewellery-making tackle so I have plenty of assorted wire to mess with (and a guitar in a corner that I don't play any more, having gone deaf).  As far as snapping off skinny parts while dusting, I've managed to avoid that by dusting with a large but very soft artist's paintbrush.  I've been messing with the wings to get them to seat in the sockets but they're a bit reluctant.  All in all, I'm not really chuffed with the kit but I'll soldier on.

 

@MaxHeadroom  I blagged your interior idea, thanks again.  The kit already had a mysterious black box behind the navigator's seat so I added a shelf and bulkhead with another mysterious black box (made from bits of scrap balsa left over from attempted R/C builds) behind the pilot.  I might even shove in a couple of  pinheads just to give it a bit of a "look" rather than just plain black.  Probably a bit unsettling to the purist but, as I like to say, it's near enough for jazz... It's not like the model shelf in my workshop is the RAF Museum!

 

@mike romeo  Trevor's added shelf effectively hides the wing lugs from view but I painted the ends of them interior green just in case.  Thanks for the tip-off... It wouldn't have occurred to me until it was too late.  As I said to Sled Dawg, the wings are proving a bit of an ig-pay to fit and they're promising to keep me out of the wife's way most of today... If I can get the dihedral right, I'll fly it to CUba to buy a celebratory cigar!

[stevehnz]

Have a look at the Mosquito section of the De Havilland GB from last year, my build for details of how to make the undercarriage fit in afterwards, & I think it was AdrianMF's build for a great way to do the interior wing roots & cockpit.

Steve.

Edited January 24, 2018 by stevehnz
Add links to builds mentioned.

[stevehnz]

I've added links to the builds mentioned to my previous post . Don't worry if you can't see the photos in my build, it's all in the description. Th at worked well for being able to slip the U/C in afterwards.

Steve.