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A pair of civil Mossies


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G'day All.

One of my interests is the field of models of ex. military types used for civilian purposes post war, such as freighters, survey and mapping and spraying etc. A case in point is Mosquito B35 EC-AKH. She was bought by one Rodolfo Bay Wright with the intention of setting a record for a flight from England to South Africa This did not happen as the lure of flying 2 tons of lobsters at a time from Africa to Spain seemed more profitable. When the first batch apparently died on the trip her owner decided to take her to America to sell. While landing in Kenora Canada she suffered a brake failure and was damaged. While the owner who was a Spantax pilot, arranged for repairs, the airport manager who must have been a tidy freak had a hole dug and the Mossie was bulldozed in. A dig was arranged in 2008 yielding some parts to be used on Jerry Yeagen's Mosquito rebuild. My model uses the Matchbox Mk IX kit which provides the B-35 Canopy and glass nose (painted over in this case), the open exhausts and paddle blade props. The B-35s bulged was done by my usual plastic card and bog method. The colour photos and story were from the Nov/Dec 2009 issue of Warbirds Magazine. CF-GKL was built from the Airfix kit with few mods, consisting of a couple of camera ports drilled in the fuselage and glazed with Krystal Kleer. The decals are by Thunderbird Models and make the whole thing possible, without them there is no way to do this . CF-GKL represents one of a number of Mosquitos and a variety of other Surplus types used by Kenting Aviation and Spartan Air Services on mapping contracts throughout the vast frozen wastes of Northern Canada.If Mr Thunderbird is listening, I would love a set to build a Spartan example.

Trev.

27320600395_71d9a3b536_k.jpgIMGP7811 by Trevor Putterill, on Flickr

27287340276_46df6deb57_k.jpgIMGP7812 by Trevor Putterill, on Flickr

27045657130_a2c5960ae7_k.jpgIMGP7814 by Trevor Putterill, on Flickr

27320577485_faa4324da4_k.jpgIMGP7810 by Trevor Putterill, on Flickr

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Very curious, but very interesting to see civilian Mosquitoes.

I did not even know they were civilian versions of this great and

relatively aggressive fighter or fighter-bomber.

But it is very interesting to discover them.

Many thanks for making me a little less dumb.

Great work anyway.

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Polo

We will never know everything but the use of ex military aeroplanes for civilian purpose is an interest of mine. I have seen Civil owned Mustangs towing targets for the army and Catalinas flying oil search missions etc. There are a great number of models that can be made of aircraft doing jobs they were not designed for and I hope to get around to building some more of them.

Trev.

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Very curious, but very interesting to see civilian Mosquitoes.

I did not even know they were civilian versions of this great and

relatively aggressive fighter or fighter-bomber.

But it is very interesting to discover them.

Many thanks for making me a little less dumb.

Great work anyway.

you may find the BOAC wartime use of interest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Mosquito_operational_history#BOAC

Between 1943 and the end of the war, Mosquitos were used as transport aircraft on a regular route over the North Sea between Leuchars in Scotland and Stockholm, in neutral Sweden. Earlier, Lockheed Hudsons and Lodestars were used but these slower aircraft could only fly this route at night or in bad weather to avoid the risk of being shot down. During the long daylight hours of the Northern summer, the Mosquito was the safer alternative.

To ensure that the flights did not violate Sweden's neutrality, the aircraft carried civilian markings and were operated by crews who were nominally "civilian employees" of British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). They carried small, high value cargoes such as precision ball bearings and machine-tool steel, as well as Diplomatic Bags. Important passengers were also carried in an improvised "cabin" in the bomb bay. One such notable passenger was the physicist Niels Bohr, who was evacuated from Stockholm in 1943 in order to join the British Mission on the Manhattan Project. The flight almost ended in tragedy since Bohr did not don his oxygen equipment as instructed, and passed out. He would have died had not the pilot, surmising from Bohr's lack of response to intercom communication that he had lost consciousness, descended to a lower altitude for the remainder of the flight. Bohr's comment was that he had slept like a baby for the entire flight.

IWM-CH14393_Mosquito_205127017.jpg

also

http://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/383856-boac-mosquitoes.html

http://www.ww2f.com/topic/44743-unique-boac-mosquito-relic-emerges/

some were used as racers post war

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234994702-172-world-wide-airways-mosquito-racer/

moss_left-rear2.jpg

http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac1/austcl/VH-KLG.html

This Mosquito began life under a conctract for Mark FB40s, and it would have been serialed A52-62. In the event it was completed as a Mark PR 41 in 1948 and given the new serial A52-324. After being in storage for four years it was sold to A. Oates, DFC to compete in the October 1953 London to New Zealand Air Race. Since its sponsor was the spark-plug manufacturer, it became VH-KLG. Unfortunately it ran out of fuel on the way to the UK to start the race, and ditched off the coast of (what was then) Burma. My shots show it at Mascot just prior to starting off, whilst the lower rare shot by Max Mead (courtesy of Ron Cuskelly) shows it at Cocos Island whilst en route.

VH-KLG3.jpg

great pair of Mossies as well Trev

cheers

T

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Troy

I have the sheet for CF-FZG and I would love to model VH-KLG, but like so many other projects, I am at the mercy of the decal makers. Once upon a time, I would have pressed on and done the lettering by hand. It would not look too flash but in the absence of anything else, I would have been happy with the result. In this sophisticated age, we wait for someone else to do it for us. There was also a mob in Sydney named World Wide Airways that operated two US registered Mossies post war on survey work but these were stripped and burnt in the late 50s. Another modelling subject but these too would require some fancy script to duplicate the company titles and that is far beyond my abilities.

Trev.

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If Mr Thunderbird is listening, I would love a set to build a Spartan example.

Trev.

I'm with you on this one, I really like the look of the Spartan machines, they had a long & interesting career too.

Steve

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A really super looking pair of Mossies and fascinating back stories. You really do pick some interesting subjects. Oh for the days when you could pick up a surplas Mosquito or two for a few quid. If I remember correctly I think an ex-Spartan Mosquito is currently being restored in Canada.

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Meatbox 8, I think that the ex Spartan Mossie was to be restored in Spartan colours when the project was first begun but un fortunately all that has changed. Something appeals to me about the idea of a Mosquito at great altitude and ploughing through the frigid air , mapping that vast land.

Trev.

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  • 2 months later...

Great looking models Trev, and it's nice to see the decals used! The Spartan Mossies are actually on my to do list as I've always liked them as well. The only bugbear is that they used the two-stage Merlins which I believe only came out in the Airfix kit (or was it Matchbox??) so I was looking at maybe releasing them with resin engines, unless someone knows of some already available?

Cheers,

Andy

Thunderbird Models Ltd

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