Airfix 1:72 Mosquito AO3019 series 3

[Max Headroom]

On my last example the legs were also malformed and twisted.

 

Here are my resin replacement wheels against the kit ones. 

 

 

What this doesn’t show is how narrow the kit ones were.

 

Trevor

 

[Graham Boak]

If you are replacing the kit wheels (and why not) I believe that you need to check not only the use of tread, or not, but also the presence of a disc brake on one side or on both.  Sorry but I don't recall when these changes took place, but believe early aircraft (such as the NF Mk.II offered in the kit) should have smooth types and one brake (not sure which side), whereas postwar examples would have tread and two brakes.  I suspect that the other wartime options (Mk.VI and Mk.XVIII) would both have smooth tyres too.  Hopefully someone with the real gen will clarify/confirm/correct as required.

[stevehnz]

9 hours ago, Hhhalifaxxx said:

Just my tuppence worth on the Airfix Mosquito:

 

If you follow the instructions you'll have to install the undercarriage before joining the nacelle halves, and then these to the wings, and therefore prior to attaching the wings to the fuselage, which makes the whole assembly prone to damage. Also, each undercarriage group (starboard and port) has two leg elements, right and left, both with inward-turned strut halves that are to meet at the midline. This also applies to the axle holding the wheel halves.

 

Now, this is awkward engineering: it is hard to have all those half-struts meet precisely and still give some rigidity to the undercarriage groups. So I opted for the following: (1) measure the distance between each leg to its counterpart and cut fine plastic tubing (or thick stretched sprue) accordingly; (2) shave off all half-struts and drill small holes where they came out on each leg, to accept the plastic tubes. (3) do the same for the half-axles, and place a tube through the assembled wheel and tyre, with each end glued to the corresponding place in the inner side of each leg.

 

In addition, shaving off the attachment point of the assembled undercarriage group inside the nacelle halves allows one to install them after the wings are joined to the fuselage and the nacelles to the former, making things much easier to assemble and paint.

 

(Sorry for my clumsy writing: I hope I can make myself understood.)

 

I did something similar when I built this kit last year but without resorting to scratch building part of the undercarriage. Description here, & the missing Photobolluxed photo below.

Steve

[Work In Progress]

13 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

If you are replacing the kit wheels (and why not) I believe that you need to check not only the use of tread, or not, but also the presence of a disc brake on one side or on both.  Sorry but I don't recall when these changes took place, but believe early aircraft (such as the NF Mk.II offered in the kit) should have smooth types and one brake (not sure which side), whereas postwar examples would have tread and two brakes.  I suspect that the other wartime options (Mk.VI and Mk.XVIII) would both have smooth tyres too.  Hopefully someone with the real gen will clarify/confirm/correct as required.

I am not the expert anyone would look for on this subject but it is a fair old can of worms.

As evidence I note that Ultracast makes five different types of Mosquito wheel/tyre sets, sadly in 1/48 and not in 1/72, but their website does show the variety of permutations.

http://www.ultracast.ca/Aircraft Accessories - 48 Scale - Mosquito.htm

 

Probably everyone on here knows this, but for any Mosquito beginners, note also that the type of wheel with a brake drum one side and visible spokes the other side is not fitted in a 'handed' configuration. One of the Ultracast pics shows this well. This makes it pretty hard to tell whether a given airframe has double brakes from a photo if the photo is taken from the starboard side.

[brewerjerry]

Hi

    Just a random thought, 

  

presumably  

 

any bulged bombay or any two stage merlin engined mosquito would have double brakes fitted, 

  due to the weight/ power

 

   likewise presumably any sea mosquito would have double brakes ? 

   

     Or is my thinking flawed ?

 

        cheers

          jerry

( with no whirlwind thread drift  ) 

    

 

[FinnAndersen]

26 minutes ago, brewerjerry said:

...

any bulged bombay or any two stage merlin engined mosquito would have double brakes fitted, 

  due to the weight/ power

...

Looking at a picture in the ultracast link above, it shows a two stage Mosquito with spoked wheels, so yes, it's never easy

 

/Finn