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1/48 Tamiya Mosquito F.B. VI "Hairless Joe"


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1 hour ago, Crimea River said:

Moving on, a friend of mine in the UK sent me some aftermarket goodies which took the pigeon a long time to deliver here over the pond:

 

Andy

 

And for Canada Post to do it's job once it had crossed The Pond!

 

 

 

Chris

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Yeah, not sure where the hang up was Chris, though there was a British Airways strike during the 3 weeks it took.

 

Thanks for the likes and comments folks. More soon hopefully.

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A little catch-up.

 

Scratch built fuel gallery added:

 

19101501-jpg.556747

 

The fuel gallery got a coat of light grey. Next came a batch of hydraulic/pneumatic lines. These were made using 0.3mm lead wire individually rolled, kinked over a piece of styrene card and stuck to a piece of masking tape that was held, glue side up, on my cutting matt.

 

19101502-jpg.556748

 

More progress with two hoses added to the front of the fuel gallery and a trial dry fit underway. The aft end of the above hydraulic lines have been bent up as it needs to be fished through a slot I made in the bulkhead there once everything is glued. The bomb rack is loosely fitted, as is the forward bar and hydraulic jack for the bomb doors.

 

19101504-jpg.556750

 

The dry fit revealed an annoying problem in that the gun butts interfere with the hydraulic jacks (circled below). I don't understand why this happened as I used the same kit parts except that I hollowed out the bulkhead and put everything where it's supposed to go. If you look at the photo of KA114 I posted above, the gun butts are well forward of the jacks so I don't know what gives.

 

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The only solution was to cut off the guns again and make them shorter. Below is shown the left gun unmodified and the right one cut and reduced in length.

 

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With guns back in place, a dry fit reveals that the jacks will clear the butts now but they are still close. After double checking placement of all my parts, I still don't know how this would have fit properly in the first place and will check out other Tamiya F.B. VI builds for interest.

 

19101601-jpg.556884

 

With that now done, a major milestone was achieved this afternoon in gluing the pit and bay assembly into the starboard fuselage half. I removed the oleo struts from the door jacks because I KNOW they will break off anyway. The rack that will support the two UBCs was painted aluminum and set in place. It's a bit bulky for my liking but will do the job. Also seen here are pads that I glued to the long range fuel tank mounts. These represent rubber cushions and were painted black. Note also that I did my best to hide the forward interconnecting pipe between the two fuel cells because, according to my references, this equalizer line was at the front of the cells, which is more or less hidden. The bridge I put in the center rib will be cleaned up and painted and the tanks will be touched up.

 

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A side view shows the hydraulic lines now threaded through the rear bulkhead slot and two of the fuel lines connected to the fuel gallery. These two serve the outer wing tanks. Three more lines need to be added: two for the inner fuel tanks and one to the starboard tank in the bomb bay. More stuff will go along this wall including a pressure relief valve and associated plumbing, once I confirm placement using my references.
 

19101603-jpg.556886

 

Flipping things over and looking back at the office, I snipped and connected the spaghetti leaving the back of Junction Box C to the plugs on the back wall. I wasn't overly tidy here as this area will be pretty hard to see.

 

19101604-jpg.556887

 

Back with more soon. Bye for now.

 

Andy

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Thanks for the nods everyone. Work continues at a snails place as I've been busy helping to manage turnover of our Hurricane and associated events. Nonetheless, I did get a little bit done in the bomb bay:

 

19102101-jpg.557562

 

In the picture above, the fuel gallery, in grey, is now fully plumbed. The two lines entering the front of the unit serve the outer wing tanks. The fore and aft lines coming out of the top of the unit serve the starboard and port inner wing tanks, respectively, and the center one in the top comes from the fuselage tank and you can just see how I've inserted the other end into the tank nearest you. Behind the gallery can be seen the vent lines and associated relief valves. The line ends in a opening into the slipstream in the sidewall above the door hinge.

Next came the addition of hydraulic lines and hoses to the forward door jacks:
 

19102102-jpg.557563

 

The hydraulics were a pain and I also need to do the aft jacks. A busy area and a slippery slope when detailing, by which I mean that it becomes hard to justify not doing everything. The port sidewall needs to be attended to as well but this area is limited to the flying control cables and a filler pipe for the long range fuel tank, which I won't be installing. The LR tank, had I chosen to install it, would have come with its own fuel and relief systems adding to complexity but also hiding much of the interior.

 

A day later, I added a pulley and control cables for the ailerons, cables for rudder and elevator and a filler tube for the long range tank.

 

19102201-jpg.557722

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Andy

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18 hours ago, dogsbody said:

Looking great, Andy!

 

Please let us ( me! ) know when and where the Hurricane will be available for public viewing.

 

 

 

Chris

 

Thanks Chris. Delivery is scheduled for next week but it will not be viewable to the public until an unveiling ceremony in the afternoon of November 6 which is open to everyone. There may be a private event Nov 7 and then after that it will be on full time display. Here's what she looked like last Saturday, photo by Regan Clark:

 

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15 hours ago, Thom216 said:

Damn fine work. I'm blown away with how much you're adding into there. It will be a shame to have all that facing the ground!

 

Thanks Thom. I guess that's what mirrors are for! One of the reasons I'm going to this detail is that I learn a lot about the subject and it helps me better understand what will be involved with our restoration of Mosquito RS700.

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So where is this? Nanton, Calgary or Wetaskiwin?

 

As winter is setting in and the weather between up here and farther south can be unpredictable, I may wait until Spring to visit.

 

 

 

Chris

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Chris, the pic was taken at Wetaskiwin. It will be shipped to Calgary next week to be displayed at the Hangar Flight Museum by the airport.

 

Thom, yes. I worked on the Merlin for that Hurricane and am also helping to restore a Mosquito.

 

Anyway, another quick update: The port half of the fuselage is now done with the bomb bay details shown the other day now painted. Pilot's sidewall now has rudder trim cables, oxygen hose, intercom wire and lights added. All the PE was done many moons ago but I don't remember if I showed it before.

 

19102401-jpg.558034

 

The fuselage halves have since been glued together and I'll post some pics when the clamps and elastics come off.

 

Andy

 

 

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Then I will plan trip to Calgary for sometime next year. While I'm that far south, I may as well hit Nanton up at the same time. I haven't been there in many years.

 

 

 

Chris

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55 minutes ago, Crimea River said:

Make sure you let me know when you plan to come down. I'll give you a cook's tour of the Mossie work.

 

You bet! I'll give plenty of warning.

 

 

Chris

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That bomb bay is amazing on so many levels. Great job!

Edit: I guess I need to find some fine midge-tubing then, because what you used there, looks great.

 

Let's see, I have a few fly-fishing mates that I can bother 🙂

Edited by Christer A
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Thanks everyone. Control wires are stretched sprue. Other tubing is mostly 0.3mm lead wire. Some 0.4mm and a smattering of 0.2mm

 

With the fuselage together now, here are a few pics showing how much of my handy work is now hidden:

 

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There's a bit of filling to do along the seams as you can see and I'll continue to tweak these until all signs of the seams disappear. 

 

While the fuselage was curing,  I turned elsewhere and decided to tackle one of the fiddly undercarriage structures. I don't like that Tamiya designed these parts such that you are forced to clamp the wheel into the struts. The moulded axle traps the wheel making it necessary to paint everything before assembly.

 

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The mudguard got a little more real by thinning the supports (they were just sheet aluminum in reality) and drilling lightening holes. Here one side has received the treatment.

 

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Here's the assembled structure. The plastic axle was cut off and the pillow block was drilled out to receive a 1/16" brass rod, shown here loosely fitted. Once the glue has set on all this, the axle will be pulled out for later installation with the wheel,

 

19102503-jpg.558213

 

Thanks for your continued interest and for the comments everyone.

 

Andy

 

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  • 5 weeks later...

Things have been crazy busy over the last 6 weeks and I have found limited time for attending to my project. Now that things have settled, I hope to be able to spend more time on my Mossie. So, to catch us up, the fuselage halves have been joined (actually done several weeks ago) and so the cockpit can now be seen fully assembled for the first time:

 

19102701-jpg.55848919102702-jpg.55849019102703-jpg.558492

 

With that done, attention turned to the wheel wells. Tamiya's firewalls are wanting and leave plenty to the imagination. Me being me, I could not let this go so I built up the bulkead with details made of thin styrene sheet. Left is how the kit is provided and right is the start of the build up. Yet to be added are oil lines and various hydraulic lines.

 

19111001-jpg.560277

 

Yesterday, I attended to the rear bulkhead of the nacelle which, as provided in the kit, is bare of any detail and shows an ugly seam down the center. The plan is to cover the area with a very thin piece of sheet styrene cut to the contour of the bulkhead and so I created a template using masking tape cut to the shape needed.

 

19112701-jpg.562242

 

I then removed the tape and used it to cut the styrene sheet to the correct shape. Below at left you can see how the nacelle looks before the mods. At right is the one side glued in along with a scractch-built support for the springs that help close the doors. The springs will be added once the nacelles are glued to the wings. What looks to be a crooked cut is in fact correct as the bulkhead needs to follow the taper of the rear wing spar, to which it is attached.

 

19112702-jpg.562243

 

In studying the wheel well details from pictures and the manuals, it occurred to me after some bouts of confusion that there is something not right with the well details provided by Tamiya. The revelation occurred when the manuals confirmed that the undercarriage for the Mosquito was interchangeable and that the hydraulic retraction jacks were on the same side, regardless of which nacelle they were installed in. Unhelpfully, the B35 manual says that the lugs for the jacks are on the "right-hand side of both bays" whereas the FB VI manual says they are on the left. So where is your head pointed when you say left and right? This is why we use the terms "port" and "starboard"!

 

uc-jack-b35-manual-jpg.562258uc-jack-fbvi-manual-jpg.562259

 

Careful study of my reference pics shows that, indeed, the jacks are on the starboard side each nacelle and I marked the wing parts accordingly (below) so that I would not get confused again. Because Tamiya made the undercarriage and well details mirror imaged, I will need to modify the starboard bay and undercarriage to reflect that the jack is on the other side.

 

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Here are the modified undercarriage parts with the jacks now on the same side. I had to cut the jack and lug off one, flip it over, and move it to the other side.

 

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This was an interesting revelation for me and something that I did not pick up on for my earlier Revell model, which also got it wrong. Hope I didn't bore you with all this! Thanks for looking in.

 

Andy

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Superb work. I have this kit, plus a couple of their 1/72nd scale cousin's, so will keep this thread as a reference if you don't mind!

 

:goodjob:

 

Davey.

Edited by DaveyGair
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I don't mind at all Davey and am flattered that you feel it is worth it.

 

Chris, that well is missing a lot of parts, most notably the oil tank and all its plumbing. I have plenty of reference pics of both wells. The best ones can be found here and if I had read the accompanying text earlier, it would have saved me a lot of head scratching about the incorrect mirror imaging of the undercarriage and bays. Fortunately, Tamiya got it right on the 1/32 scale kit.

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