Mosquito PR.XVI as MM312 of No.140 Squadron on 7th June, 1944

[mark.au]

Hello all;

 

Here's my recently finished Mossie.  The WIP explains a few of the decision points such as how I painted the D-Day stripes around the S/N, and the weathering choices I made along the way;

 

 

I'm not going to claim this is my best work, it isn't.  The pics aren't my best either - I just could not get the White Balance just right.  But nonetheless here's the finished article.  I built the kit more or less straight out of the box, the only real exception being the addition of seatbelts made from Tamiya Tape and foil. The paints I used were Tamiya for the D-Day stripes and Hataka (Red Line) for the PRU Blue; the decals were from the kit.  I found this an interesting kit as it was a mix of old and new tooled parts, while t's not nearly up to modern standards it builds up into a reasonably nice finished piece.  It definitely looks like a Mosquito to me.

 

My subject aircraft, MM312 was only a month or so old at the moment I've modelled it, which was early hours of the morning of 7th June, 1944.  It had just completed back to back sorties over France, the second of which was a night-time sortie.  The composite pic below includes one of the actual photos (which I found on the UK's National Collection of Aerial Photography site) taken on that sortie by MM312 over Lisieux, in Lower Normandy.  MM312 went on to have a very busy time though June to August but was lost in September, 1944 when one of its Flashbombs exploded prematurely; its pilot that night, F/O H. Flight demonstrated excellent airmanship in being able to bring it back to base.  There's more details in the piece on my site.

 

Anyway, without further waffle, here's the pics...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers;

Mark.

[kapam]

An excellent Mozzie!  You've done an awesome job!

Moreover, your love for the subject (and its history) really shines through.

[mark.au]

5 hours ago, kapam said:

An excellent Mozzie!  You've done an awesome job!

Moreover, your love for the subject (and its history) really shines through.

Thanks mate, the history is the driver for me to the point where I find it hard to get into a project without a backstory.

[Homer]

Congratulations on a fine piece of modelling. 

[mick b]

Lovely result from an old kit. 👍

 

Mike

[GREG DESTEC]

Hi Mark,

 

I think you have produced an excellent Mosquito from the Airfix kit. I built this one sometime ago and was disappointed with the end result. The "new" tool parts were somewhat iffy in detail and fit. Not that you would know that from your model. 

 

well done 👍

[DaveyGair]

Wow! Lovely job of one of my favourite WW2 aircraft. I had this kit but moved it on when I decided to stick to 1/72nd scale, the 1/72 one still builds into a nice model and so, it seems, does it's bigger brother.  Great paint and weathering.

 

 

Davey.

 

 

[Baldy]

Super job Mark - really does look the part and love the history side of it too. I'm the same - I get hung up on finding out about the subject - buy books and hunt for hours for information and eventually - build fewer models!

 

Cheers

 

Malcolm

[bigbadbadge]

Mark that Mossie looks flippin gorgeous fella.  The Airfix kit builds up very nicely and am very impressed with the cockpit details too. 

You have done a cracking job and created a wonderful model, the weathering looks fantastic and it's great to see you got some staining on the Tailplanes.

Excellent work 

Chris

[Gary Brantley]

I love it! 🍻  What a beauty, and it really makes me want a Mossie in my display!   Great job Mark!  

[RMCS]

Superb 

[Alan P]

It's really well done, the exhaust staining is spot on and really adds to the overall look. Like how you carried it on to the stabilisers as well, excellent attention to detail 👍

[mark.au]

13 hours ago, Baldy said:

Super job Mark - really does look the part and love the history side of it too. I'm the same - I get hung up on finding out about the subject - buy books and hunt for hours for information and eventually - build fewer models

Got that tee-shirt.  Currently struggling with finding the necessary inspiration for the next project.  
 

15 hours ago, GREG DESTEC said:

I built this one sometime ago and was disappointed with the end result. The "new" tool parts were somewhat iffy in detail and fit. Not that you would know that from your model. 

Thank you Greg.  The kit was a bit of a disappointment and the resulting finished article a little compromised.  The fit was challenging in places and the overall result soft.  But the finished article still looks very much like a Mosquito and I’m happy it’s on the shelf now.

 

Thanks to everyone for the likes and comments, all much appreciated.

[PhantomLover]

That is a stunning build! 

[Mig88]

Beautifully finished!!

 

Miguel

[wellsprop]

Well that's stunning, the exhaust weathering in particular! 

[F-32]

Very very impressive work

[opus999]

Beautiful work Mark.  It looks so realistic!

[IvanP]

Outstanding model! Congrats!

 

Ivan

[bobster]

Nice job on the Mossie, back in the day. I was looking for some tips on this kit as I had it languishing in the Garage for maybe 10 years.....where did the time go! I built and painted the cockpit assembly and then it was left stalled in the box. I dug it out last week and decided this is its time, I hate having kits part started, so this one will be OOB with inspiration from your build log 👍. Cheers!

[marvinneko]

Comparing this older build to your latest ones... your artistic growth is stupendous!

[georgeusa]

This is a superbly finished Mosquito.  Just a delight for the eyes.  Thanks for sharing.

[mark.au]

Always nice to see an oldie come back for another visit. Thanks for the kind words, @bobster, @georgeusa and @marvinneko.

 

18 hours ago, marvinneko said:

Comparing this older build to your latest ones... your artistic growth is stupendous!

 

Thanks, David. I think there was a step change when I switched paints to artist acrylics and began mixing my own colours.

 

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 09:57 PM by mark.au

[bigbadbadge]

Great to see this one back again Mark, looks fantastic.  I am building this kit at the moment, doing the same aircraft. 

Chris

[David121spain]

Wow, I did this kit several years ago, and you've made it soooooo well !!!