Juhana Britschgi

Hello all, More work done on the subassemblies. The fuselage and wings are perched high on top of a shelf, safe from the cat, and all I've done to it is some filling and sanding - the crack in the fuselage behind the cockpit should be sorted now, along with some other smaller blemishes. I'll just need to apply a bit more primer to those spots to be sure... The Hispano pack is almost done. The ammo chutes are not glued to the feed drums yet, which makes the barrels point a bit here and there. I will lock them in place once the entire assembly is in place. One of the guns is practically loose from the subframe - the long, heavy brass barrels make gluing the guns onto the frame quite interesting, and that's also why the scrubbing sponge is used to support the barrels. Another shot. The cannon doors will be left open, I'm not yet sure about the panel that covers the business end of the guns. Those recoil springs look so good it is tempting to leave that panel open as well, but we'll see. And the Brownings. Those vinyl ammo chutes are just plain horrible, any paint you put on them will crumble away when you handle them let alone twist them so they can be positioned... Some parts are still missing, such as the support bar (?) under the breeches. That had to be sanded quite heavily or it wouldn't fit inside the nose. I've tacked the exhaust stubs to a coffee stirrer, makes it a lot easier to work on them. I shortened them a little, then used thin strips of 0.10 mm lead sheet to create the hollow ends. Black primer followed, and one of the stubs has received different shades of pigments from Tamiya weathering sets. Not quite there yet - the color looks a bit too even, some highlights and lowlights are needed. But it's not like I'm going to cake them with orange rust... The door is pretty much done now. I fixed the lost detail in the door pouches with lead sheet, but that awful glue smear still needs to be tackled... Next up, the landing gear bays. And I promise in the next update the beast will stand on her own legs! Several scratchbuilt additions will be included, such as this junction box. Still needs a flat coat and drybrushing, and obviously the wires. I've made some "ribbed" fuel line by wrapping thin copper wire around a plastic rod, and the non-ribbed lines will be done using solder and me small nuts. 1 mm nuts, to be exact.

Hello again, It just occurred to me there aren't that many parts left on the sprues. I've been working on many different subassemblies, and all the while battling with the white metal landing gear - especially the crossbracing. The join between the crossbraces and the landing gear legs is anything but solid, and if the legs move in different directions (which they do easily since they are not locked in place yet) the crossbraces will snap off. I've used CA gel thus far, but if the problem persists I'll try epoxy instead. And that's not all the parts I've been working on... A hole for the light drilled in the nose cone, cover plate for the antenna hole punched and glued in place. The observer's armor plate now has a glass and a handle. Painting those tiny wires on the machine gun assembly floor was...interesting. The wear and tear on said floor is at least semi-intentional. :-D The main weapons in their current state. Black primer, graphite dust applied with an eye makeup tool, flat coat. I'm not sure if I will add more graphite, the gunmetal look is currently there but quite subdued. The interior green was applied too thickly on the door, which resulted in the two pouches on the left half to lose all detail. No worries, I will correct that either with styrene or thin lead sheet. I have also made a small scuff plate for the door frame, which most probably protected the frame from the metal ladder. The next subassembly that will be completed is the cannons. The ammo boxes and subframes are ready - I tried to go for a weathered look for the wooden ammo boxes. Last but not least, the engine cowlings. Small holes have been opened for the exhaust flange cooling ducts, but they need to be cleaned up once I know what I will be using for the actual ducts. Also, cooling ducts for the fuel pump and spark plugs have been added using 3.2 and 2.0 mm styrene rod, filed to shape and hollowed out at the front. And the cowling fasteners have been replaced with Mastercasters PE items. I've been working on this kit, on and off, for a year now...but it's been worth it!

It's been quiet on the modelling front for a while, and some setbacks hit the project - not surprisingly concerning the landing gear. I ended up getting the white metal undercarriage by SAC, and while it is sturdy the X- and A-shaped cross-braces are a real pain to glue in place. Even the slightest flex in the main legs will cause the CA to lose its hold... So, I will glue the landing gear to the firewall without said braces at first and handle them later. Right, here we go again. I've been working on some small details, which is a good way of avoiding the landing gear bay detailing. For some reason I don't particularly look forward to it, but I reckon once I start adding bits and bobs it will be OK. Time-consuming, though - hydraulic lines, electrical wires and junction boxes and brake detailing... Two of the four bombs in their current state. I will apply some oil dot weathering on these, followed by a flat coat. Maybe a shot of all the four bombs in different stages of weathering next time - shiny, with oil dots, blended and finished. The fuselage fuel tanks, ready and weathered. Machine gun bay doors. The kit door was a one-piece affair, so after taking a couple of deep breaths and measuring a few times I sawed the part in half. Some internal bracing and a simple locking mechanism was added, now they're just waiting for the interior green. I've rarely seen the observer's additional armour, but I thought I'd scratch-build one anyway. Still missing: the handle, hinges and the glass. Handle will be bent from wire and shaped by adding CA, and the window will be cut from clear polystyrene sheet and liberally coated with Klear. And finally the main weapons - brass barrels by Master assembled and added, waiting for a couple of layers of black primer (from a spray can) and liberal rubbing with graphite dust. If anyone is going to use these barrels in the future I can tell you the fit and finish of the machined parts is excellent, but especially the photo-etched parts that wrap around the barrel or the gas plug in the Hispano cannons need to be heat-treated. The parts are so exactly measured that if you don't get the parts to wrap around cleanly there will be gaps and other irritating fit issues, like in my case. I just hope the less than stellar work I made will be mainly unvisible...

What I'd do is leave the ammo feeds black, just highlight the visible ammunition and maybe add some drybrushed highlights with aluminium/steel. And that's in fact what I aim to do with mine when the time comes. I don't recall seeing the ammo feeds in any other color but black in period photos. And you're right, Paragon Designs is no longer producing resin for the Mossie. You might find the ammo feeds on eBay, but last time I looked the auction ended on the wrong side of £40...

Some light scratching this time around, although the word "scratching" still reminds me of Rockit by Herbie Hancock. Engine nacelle aft bulkheads. The hole has been opened and a small bracket for the undercarriage door closing cables was added. Firewalls - only a couple of stiffening ribs have been added, some more details will be built on the other side. And they shall be painted interior green. Roofs of the wheel wells. Cabling and plumbing to be attached, so far only the top mounting brackets for the undercarriage door closing springs have been added. The port side top cowling - this will be left open, and I felt I needed to add some detail to the otherwise so bland surface. The main landing gear in their current state - note the lack of paint in the braces, this was totally intentional to get a strong bond. Luckily the kitchen doesn't reek of Tamiya Extra Thin any longer. Faintly visible are the turnbuckles for the u/c door closing system... There's still lots to be done, but I think once the landing gear has been dealt with the remaining sub-assemblies won't be so time-consuming. Who knows, the mid-July deadline might even be realistic.

Another Sunday, another update. The engines are now done, but let's see how many times the plumbing has to be adjusted and reattached when fitting them into the nacelles... Basically everything apart from covering the engine in yogurt and sprinkling it with icing sugar has been done. Primer, basecoat, clearcoat, wash, flat coat, drybrushing and dusting with Tamiya weathering sets, which the lady of the house finds hilarious as they resemble her eyeshadows. "Dahling, should I go for burnt metal blue or orange rust tonight?" The nacelles have been painted and dirtied up as well. And I also tackled the pitot tube, I could have tried drilling the moulded-in tube in the kit, but that would most probably have gone horribly wrong. So, I snipped the end off the kit tube, drilled a hole and fashioned this new endpiece using Albion Alloys micro brass tubes. And yes, my hands are a bit dirty. The wheel sidewalls need to be a tad darker I think, I'll fix that before installing them. But they have the well-worn, used on a wintery, muddy airfield look I was aiming for. I added brake lines to the main legs using solder and micro brass tube, the legs obviously need to be painted... Also visible are two of the brake line connectors that will be glued on the wheels. And that's all for now. I will try to complete this monster by mid-July, there's an airshow + model competition I'm aiming for then. It will definitely be interesting to see a real flying Hurricane in WWII Finnish Air Force colours.

The wings are now on! I'm beginning to think I will mask the exposed areas and apply primer (from a rattle can) now, and prime the rest of the major components such as engine gondolas, gear doors, bomb bay doors and nose panels separately. I really don't feel like masking the landing gear especially if all the horror stories I've heard about their flimsiness are true. That's a 1 euro coin on the wing... Now, it really would have been easier to do the hydraulic lines and connectors when the bulkhead was not yet attached to the fuselage, but there you go. Here's what I ended up with, the dangling pipes will either be extended and run to the bomb door jacks or go to the hydraulic reservoir once that's in place. The wheels are from Mastercasters, I had some serious doubts about the vinyl tires supplied with the kit. Well of course the ROLLS ROYCE had to be highlighted... I've seen these covers in black too, but decided to go with a brighter theme. Main components of the engines are now glued together. The one on the left has already received a heavy-ish black/brown wash, more weathering with drybrushing and dusting still to come once all the other bits and bobs are in place. Having no airbrush and therefore no Alclad I've found the Mr Metal Color range to be the next best thing. The copper paint didn't cover all the necessary areas though, must have been sloppy working from my part. I've corrected that problem now. And there's no way anything this bright will be fitted on the plane! Now, as everyone who has tackled this plane knows, the ejector pin marks can be a real pain in the <dingaling>. Especially in the engine and landing gear bay, there must be something like 20-25 nasty round circles in each of the four halves! I tried using filler first, but that didn't work for me. There's precious little room for sanding between the braces, so I ended up scraping the problem areas smooth with a #10 blade. Some touching up is still needed, but a bit more work and a coat of Mr Surfacer 1200 should be enough.

Thanks for the comments - looks like I'm on a roll, here's another update. I tweaked the tail wheel assembly a little. The polystyrene rods represent the braces from the rearmost bulkhead to the stabilizer spar, but I don't think they will be visible unless someone looks at the tail really closely. But I know it's there. The yellow lump of Milliput has been painted interior green, the mudguard is also resting on a blob of Milliput. Complete assembly - the fit of the cover needs some tweaking still. Of course I managed to maul the vinyl wheel when removing it from its sprue, but the damaged spot can be hidden. In some builds I've seen the wingtip painted silver under the navigation light cover, but in this scale that's a bit too much for my liking. Medium sea gray it is then, with the "bulb" painted using transparent red/green+smoke over silver. And like I mentioned in the previous post, the ID lights are now a bit darker, and more pleasing to my eye. There's some overspill of red paint here, but the ID lights will soon be masked and the frames will receive the same primer and basecoat treatment as the rest of the plane. The well-worn finish of the bomb bay is also visible here. I'm getting slightly worried about painting this beast though, but I'll deal with that when the time comes. We'll see how something this big will look when brush-painted.

Yes, I am still here. I've been taking my time with this one, I know, but I hope the end result is something I can look at and know I did my best. The fuselage and the wings have now been assembled, but not yet mated. First I'll tackle the hydraulic lines and other decorations in the front bulkhead of the bomb bay... I decided to include strengthening strips to the wing, I managed to dig up some references for them. Now, I am still not sure whether Pickard's plane had these or not, so call this artistic license. The strip on the top of the wings has been cut from .005" styrene sheet using 200% enlarged drawings from Dave Brown's book as templates. The inside of the wing structure was painted white, but I added quite a lot of oily gunk. Not a lot of it will be seen once the fuel tanks and guns are in place, though. The wing topside strengthening strips were from .005" styrene as well. I will have to sand them back quite a bit, though. This area was the most problematic one regarding the fit of the fuselage halves. Putty, sand, add some more putty, sand... And this after extensive dry-fitting. The rings on the ID lights suffered quite badly in the process, so I replaced them with new ones. I will repaint the lenses as well, the current ones are too bright for my liking. Transparent yellow/green/red mixed with Smoke should give them a more subdued look. The instrument panel broke loose during the fitting, filling and sanding - hopefully it is now locked in place. The wires will be attached once the wing is in place, as will the GEE receiver which I built. The more I look at this the happier I am with the result. But there's still a lot of finetuning before the fuselage and wings are ready for primer. And I'll try to post the next update a bit faster.

Thanks - the wingspan will be around 69 cm. I'm still trying to figure out where to put the beast when she's ready...

And the build goes on, the moment when the fuselage halves will be glued together is approaching fast. But there's still some details to finish before that. I think I'll take a short Mosquito break after the fuselage and wings are together - maybe build a 1:48 model straight out of the box. The starboard fuselage wall, some wiring added. The wire bundles connected to the two junction boxes haven't been glued together yet, that will have to wait a bit. Like in many other builds I've seen on the 'Net I sanded off the dodgy detailing on the top of this box and added my own. The switches are from partly flattened 0.4 mm solder, the IFF destruction switches and engine extinguisher switches are from 1 mm styrene rod. Painting stripes on the extinguisher switches was a royal pain in the <dingaling>. The port wall, again with some added wiring and an oxygen hose for the pilot. The hose is slightly flexible, originally intended to be used as radiator hose in 1:24/25 model cars. Not visible in the picture is the brass tube endpiece on the hose. The engine control rods in the kit part were quite strange-looking, so I replaced them with 0.5 mm brass rod. The bulkhead between the nose compartment and cockpit, with some decals from the spare box. Slightly grubby but hopefully not too much so... The radiators look pretty good if I say so myself. The kit part grid details were sanded down, black paint followed and the photo-etched steel grilles (by Radu Brinzan) were attached using Humbrol Clear. The rear wheel mudguard, surgically removed from the tailplane and painted in Vallejo Steel. Grub and mud to be added...

Slow and steady progress. The cockpit floor subassembly is now more or less done, only the observer's oxygen hose needs to be added - will do that once I get the rubber tube I ordered. Also, the seat belts need a little tweaking to "sit" more naturally, but they had only just been glued in place when I took the pictures. Some scratchbuilt parts under the pilot's seat: landing gear emergency pump and switch (the pump still needs a small piece of solder to represent tubing), and the vacuum pump control switch between the seats. The fuel cock and cutoff switch panel is scratchbuilt as well. As is the GEE display unit and its mounting - the wires still need to be trimmed and glued to their correct endpoints. Braces behind the pilot's seat and observer's armor plate have also been added. In this picture the fuselage looks like it has a bad rash, but that's just the oil dots. I like this filtering technique, and it's the easiest way for me to add some tonal variety to large surfaces since I don't have an airbrush. And even if I did I'd have nowhere to use it. Once the children grow up and move I will definitely commandeer one of their rooms for modelling purposes... The end result. Still needs some work, but I was aiming for a well-worn, cruddy look. That's all for now - the updates may be few and far between, but I will finish this kit eventually, be in no doubt about that. :-)

Actually that was just the flat coat acting up... I've yet to master applying the Army Painter flat from a rattle can. Sometimes the finish is smooth and flat, sometimes a bit grainy.

More work done in the cockpit. Something that's very characteristic for this kit are VERY small tolerances - if part A is inserted into a hole or notch in part B you can forget a clean fit if there's ANY paint whatsoever in the wrong place. And as I'm using an assortment of hairy sticks for my paintwork there can be quite a thick layer of paint in the wrong place... Scratch, sand, refit. The instrument panel is done. The dials are a bit more shiny than the surrounding parts, so I decided not to use Klear (or rather our local corresponding product) to represent the glass on the dial faces. This should look reasonably convincing. The seat cushions have all been scratched a little to create a more worn effect. There is some very subtle color variation there as well, but it doesn't show very well in this picture. The cushions have been "polished" by rubbing them with a slightly greasy finger after the flat coat was applied. And if someone happens to peek inside from the open door from a low angle, the observer's seat shows some wood grain... I know, most probably nobody will ever see this but it was pretty fun to do. Some blemishes need to be sorted out though. This is what the office looks like now. Weathering and a flat coat have been applied. The first D'oh! moment of the build was when I realized I had not painted the wires in the rear bulkhead before I installed the self-made engine control rods... Fortunately the rods could be slightly bent to make the painting possible. The control column together with the added elevator link tube is now in place. The handle only looks good from a distance though, working with thin copper wire was a lot harder than I thought. Patience, old padawan. Patience. The pilot's seat in its current state. No cushion for the pilot to sit on, as far as I know they had their parachutes to sit on. Of course seat belts will be added, assembling them is like a small kit in itself - but I can already tell they're going to look great, they're from RB Productions. The back cushion looked really strange, so I added quite a lot of padding using Milliput.

Regarding the downward facing lights, Dave Brown's book has 1:48 scale drawings which show the lights as well. I definitely recommend that book, it has a wealth of information - although especially the drawings are sometimes quite small. http://www.sampublications.com/books/aviation-guide/mosquito-fb-vi/prod_35.html