Neil

Ok, cheers chaps. I may not bother with the masks then, will probably stick to masking it up with strips of tape as usual. It's just that I have never tried any of those masks out.

Sad day indeed. Will always have fond memories of them when they were at Coltishall too. You off to Coningsby this weekend to see them off?

Not too bad, Mossie stuff has gone well (there's a surprise!). Yup, should be here Monday, pop over any time you like. Seen that there is a fair bit on the Jaguar in Aircraft International, more next issue too apparently. They should of asked you to write a bit ....

Anybody here used the Eduard paint masks for the Mosquito? Never used any paint masks before (always masked them with strips of tape before) and am thinking of trying these one's out. Do they fit the window panels nicely etc etc ? These ones: http://www.eduard.cz/products/pdf/nex/ex029.pdf

Ta again, peeps. I take all the pics using a Canon Power Shot A70, a simple digi camera ('cos I am simple) but I always take them using one of those dinky little tripods, about 8" high when fully extended, and I use a few seconds delay on the timer. Just press the buton, leave the camera alone, and when the shutter operates there is then no camera shake. Lighting is from overhead fluorescent tubes on the workshop ceiling. If I need more height for any shot I just stand the tripod on a pile of books.

That is brilliant, superb stuff!!

Nearly, but not quite. They did consider using them against the Tirpitz but it obviously never happened. They were eventually shipped off to Australia (618 Sq.) after being modified with tropical intakes, 4 blade props and arrestor hooks for carrier operations against the Japanese. That didn't quite happen either and the War ended, and I think most of the airframes were chopped up or burnt or sold to locals.

Blimey, interesting stuff! Last time I was at the Mosquito museum, must be 10yrs or so back, they had one of the Molins guns on display next to the Prototype Mossie I think it was. Big piece of kit! Must take another visit there one of these fine days ....

Spiffing stuff Mike. As a suggestion, don't glue the pilots seat in until the whole model is assembled, painted and decalled etc, it sticks up above the cockpit/fuselage side and can easily be knocked and damaged if you are not carefull. (That's why I left mine out anyway!). Just a thought

Cheers chaps. Sprayed all the white areas which will become the invasion stripes, no pre-shading on these bits as I want to try and make look slightly 'newer' than the rest of the camo etc. I will be giving them a slight oil paint wash with some Paynes Grey eventually though. Prop hubs have a coat of Sky and the tips are Yellow, just need a coat of Black on the blades. Undercarriage legs were painted in Humbrol Matt Aluminium (the Metalcote stuff) then given a liberal coat of thinned Tamiya Matt Black (acrylic, so it does not 'lift' the Humbrol Aluminium) which seeps into all the nooks and crannies. Once dry, the legs were then dry-brushed with the Matt Aluminium again, the aim was to try and give a sort of used look to them by painting them this way. Drop tanks were also given a coat of the Matt Aluminium with a couple of coats of Kleer on top to give a slight sheen to them. Realised today that I have none of the Green or Grey camo colours, and looking into my crystal ball I can envisage a trip to Hannants in the very near future to rectify the problem ....

Nope. You could be thinking of the fighter variants, e.g. FB 40's,

All of the main components are now together, must say that the Tamiya kit is a breeze to assemble. I will probably leave the intake guards off, it appears that they were not always used from looking at pics, and it seems that this aircraft did not have them. I will also be using the narrow blade props, not the paddle blades, of all the pics of FB XVIII's that I have, they all have narrow ones.

Just line them up by eye .... Aussie one would look nice, with those blue and white roundels and Azure blue underside.... :whistling:

Ah .... in my haste I forgot any text didnt I !! Dark grey areas on the nose are about a dozen coats of paint, to give a slightly raised effect to simulate the armour plating. Not strictly necessary to be honest, a few scribed lines would be ok. Also added front and rear bulkheads to the undercarriage bays, and extra struts on the door guides are short lengths of stretched sprue (although, to quote an often used phrase, check your references because not all of them had them). Also added the door cable rollers on the front of the u/c legs and holes in the mudguards and brake hoses from copper wire.

Which version are you thinking of doing Mike? UK or Aussie based?

Thanks 'peeps. Mike, the cockpit is the CMK one though I did not bother with the resin panel in the end. Instead I used the film instruments with the photo etched dial faces, fixed to the Tamiya kit panel after removing the detail on it first. Anyway, a few more pics....

Cockpit mostly finished, almost ready to close everything up.

You aswell, huh ......? Looked at the instructions again, noticed that I have not given specific measurements for part '8' either (oops .... ). This pic should help, you can just make it out below the front left of the canopy.

Drewe ...... I will pop the cheque in the post ...... :whistling: In all seriousness though, I'm looking forward to seeing this completed, it's such a unique looking thing with those whacking great wing tips and overall one-colour scheme. Really something. Edit: one thing I forgot to mention on the instructions, make sure the access hatch on the nose sits toward the upper surface.

I've never really known what Deep Sky looked like either to be honest, does look very blue. I have always been under the illusion that it had a 'grey' tinge to it (but that probably stems from the fact that the only pics I have seen are in b/w. .) That is going to look pretty good when finished!

Your guess is as good as mine, I'm open to any suggestions.

Always a bit of a bugger trying to determine colours from B/W pics isn't it? . Will probably do it a sort of grey primer I guess, as suggested in the SAM book. A little clip showing footage of Molins and rocket armed Mosquito's (I have the full video of this at home somewhere, but can I find it ....? ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ-a8U1QWUw

There's no 'h' in there .... A few more of the bits that will be added, the replacement resin nose bits which have the added external armour plate (apparently something like an additional 900lb of armour was added to the FB XVIII, around the nose and inside the engine cowlings) and the Molins gun barrel and fairing, and the replacement underfuselage section which is used instead of the bomb doors. Also shown is the vac-form canopy which has a bulged window on the starboard side only (not too clear in the pic) which were peculiar to the FB XVIII, TR33 and some overseas FB Mosquito's. Have blanked off the two outer 0.303" gun ports in the nose cap, with discs of 10 thou plasticard.

About time I built another model, and here we have the rather lovely 1/48 Tamiya Mosquito kit which will be converted into an FB XVIII 'Molins' Mosquito. It is going to end up as NT225, 'O' of 248 Sqn, June 1944. Couple of pics of the real aircraft below...... Have chosen this one because some of the overall finish detail is a little 'different' to normal, and I am following the description of this aircraft from the SAM Combat Colours No.6, de Havilland Mosquito Day & Night Fighters. So, unless anybody can tell me otherwise, the aircraft will be finished as listed below: General finish of Dark Green & Medium Sea Grey Nose and underside forward Molins fairing appears to be in possibly Grey Primer (certainly a different shade to the rest of the camo scheme) Spinners are thought to be in Sky Underwing drop tanks in Silver/Aluminium Leading edge of port tailplane in Grey Primer (?) Area around port tailplane root, where it joins the fuselage, in Red Dope Aircraft letter 'O' in Red with thin White outline Also note that only two 0.303" guns are fitted in the nose. In the past whenever I have made an aircraft with Invasion Stripes, I have always tried my best to get all the stripes even and straight. However, looking at pics of aircraft from that time, this is certainly not always how they ended up! So this time I will do the stripes a touch uneven and out of true just slightly in a few places (if you look at the underside pic above you will see what I mean). Made a start by Dremmeling off the cockpit sidewall detail in the kit, and replaced it with the sidewalls from the CMK FB VI cockpit set. Have also chopped off the kit nose which will be replaced with my FB XVIII Molins set. Have to say that the CMK cockpit does look quite nice, and I will also be adding a few more wires etc to the cockpit sidewalls. Not quite decided what to do with the instrument panel yet, CMK supply a resin panel and also an etched panel with the film instrument faces etc, will decide which one to use very shortly. The flaps and elevators will also be repositioned so the kit parts were cut off and will be replaced with resin ones. Just to complicate things, the underside of the inboard resin flaps will be removed with a Dremmel and the underside inboard flaps from the Molins conversion will be added instead. This is because the Molins inboard flaps were reinforced with external strengthening strips, and you can just make these out on the resin flap sections below (and also in the underside pic of the real aircraft above). The resin elevators are actually taken from one of my TR33 Sea Mosquito sets, so the enlarged horn balances will need to be sanded back to standard size when fitted. Mosquito ......

Have been curious about these kits for a while, never actually seen the contents of one before. Looks like it is going to take a fair bit of work Phil. Made a good start with that cockpit though.