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On 03/05/2021 at 22:06, Max Headroom said:

 

9 hours ago, Tcoat said:

How are the wings and fuselage in yours?

 

Built years ago, scrapped and replaced by a Tamiya 1/48 scale kit.

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On 5/5/2021 at 6:13 PM, bigbadbadge said:

Some amazing info there and have saved that link.  Thanks for posting. 

Chris

Mathematical imbecile that I am, my next headache is to convert full size units into scale 😳

 

Trevor

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Steady progress Trevor.

If you screw your eyes up and stand 20 feet away, it does resemble the real thing. I have another in the stash which will undergo some serious surgery when I feel brave.

It will look quite different to this:

resized_22057c40-99fd-422d-b717-3c1932a2

 

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21 minutes ago, Max Headroom said:

My ability to ‘bodge’ will come in useful 😆

 

Trevor

Big support here from a fully paid up member of the 'if it looks alright, it's alright' school 😂

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12 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

Steady progress Trevor.

If you screw your eyes up and stand 20 feet away, it does resemble the real thing. I have another in the stash which will undergo some serious surgery when I feel brave.

It will look quite different to this:

resized_22057c40-99fd-422d-b717-3c1932a2

 

That looks nice as it is. I’m not checking dimensions and stuff but the only thing with a definite wonk is the canopy. Too tall at the front and if I didn’t do anything about it then it would bug me.

 

If you’re old enough to remember, the kit critic of Aircraft Illustrated James Goulding, drew the plans for this and Revell’s Beufighter and he commented that on the latter, the mould makers had not followed his plans.

 

Trevor

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I've got almost 3 Beaufighters in the stash too. One will donate components to a Beaufort at some point. The other Mossie will not be a Mossie when I've done with it.

The one in the picture was a Canadian release with a vac canopy.

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1 hour ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

I've got almost 3 Beaufighters in the stash too. One will donate components to a Beaufort at some point. The other Mossie will not be a Mossie when I've done with it.

The one in the picture was a Canadian release with a vac canopy.

FYI James Goulding said of the Beaufighter that he had drawn the plans  to show one side of the tail plane flat as this countered the torque on the real thing. The mould cutter overlooked this!

 

Trevor

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I have found an answer to my scaling problems- an online scale calculator!

 

This works for me

 

https://www.ginifab.com/feeds/cm_to_inch/scale_converter.html

 

Hope it works for you too. I’ll be cobbling together those radios in no time :winkgrin:

 

Trevor

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Ok then, with a quick dose of mojo I kept on with the cockpit.

 

First thing was to tackle the radio on the ‘parcel shelf’ on the back. Roughly sketched out with the dimensions. Inner ones are approximately full size and in inches. The other dimensions are 1/32 in mm. 

 

Mosquito


Being a child of the 60’s and when the governments of the day were dithering about metric, added to the fact that I went a whole year when 8 without maths lessons, means that I am equally inept plurally - hence me freely mixing units of measurement. Just don’t ask me how many gallons there are in a kilometre.......

 

Anyways, I cut out a strip of card thus 

 

Mosquito

 

Mosquito

 

and scored across to get the box shape. This was then reinforced on the inside to stop it wobbling.

 

Mosquito

 

Let that dry, box in the sides and then smooth it out. I’ll eventually give it a ‘face’ with more scrap plastic.

 

Next on the agenda was the pilot’s seat. This needed a cushion and arms. I did the cushion with two thick plastic card layers and I then attempted to scratch in some creases to simulated well sat-on leather. Arms were then fashioned to sit on the seat frame.

 

Mosquito


As a last act for now I lightly tacked it all together to see how it was coming along

 

Mosquito

 

Mosquito


Not bad! Obviously there are other lumps and bumps to add, sanding and polishing to do before I waft the rattlecan primer over it all, but overall, good progress.

 

Trevor

 

 

 

 

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Erm, hate to mention it given all the hard work, but the seat pan for the pilot wouldn't have a cushion as the pilot sat on his parachute, the navigator stowing his elsewhere.

 

IF you can retrieve it, you can salvage it for reuse as the cushion on the floor forward of the entry hatch.

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8 hours ago, The wooksta V2.0 said:

Erm, hate to mention it given all the hard work, but the seat pan for the pilot wouldn't have a cushion as the pilot sat on his parachute, the navigator stowing his elsewhere.

 

IF you can retrieve it, you can salvage it for reuse as the cushion on the floor forward of the entry hatch.

Thanks for that. I’ll see what I can do but I’m not hopeful. I guess it’s an object lesson in looking at photos of preserved examples....

 

ho hum!

 

Trevor

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Have you thought of asking Tamiya to sell you the cockpit sprue from their 1/32 Mosquito, I did that with a 1/32 Revell Spitfire. Perhaps you’d think that was cheating or too easy., I’m happy for any help I can get these days.

Stay safe.

 

John

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55 minutes ago, Biggles87 said:

Have you thought of asking Tamiya to sell you the cockpit sprue from their 1/32 Mosquito, I did that with a 1/32 Revell Spitfire. Perhaps you’d think that was cheating or too easy., I’m happy for any help I can get these days.

Stay safe.

 

John

 No I didn’t know that! Part of the fun though is being *ahem* bespoke 😂

33 minutes ago, Paws4thot said:

That's starting to look like a Mosquito cockpit, unlike Revell's mouldings.

 

Thanks for that. Long way to go yet though, not least trying to rectify the goof with the cushions.

 

Trevor

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  • 2 weeks later...

Right then, where was I? Oh aye the seats. @The wooksta V2.0 pointed out the seat was wrong. Of course I had used a preserved example as a reference, specifically the TT.35 preserved as a PR.XVI at the USAF Museum. The cushion you can plainly see on the pilot’s seat is there because there’s no parachute to sit on 

 

Obvious when you think about it!
 

However, I’ve decided that I’m keeping the Navigator’s scatter cushion where it is, partly because it was glued solid and also it adds some interest to the area.

 

So off came the back armour for reclamation with most of the rest binned

 

Mosquito


A new seat bottom was cut from card stock and unlike last time, I decided to have one continuous rim, as I had discovered that three separate pieces were a tad fiddly.

 

Mosquito


After 10 minutes I had cobbled this together....

 

Mosquito


So that was me back to where I should have been in the first place!

 

What next then? I decided to tackle the seatbelts. Obviously, I could ha e gone down the aftermarket route, but I wanted to see what I could home brew. I have a stock of wine bottle top foil from the time before screw tops became a thing. Incidentally, who wants to put the top back on a bottle? Once the bottle is open and as far as I’m concerned, it gets emptied 🍷

 

I then spent the next hour or so googling and looking for suitable photos. In the process I discovered that many of the aftermarket seats have cushions on the seats 🤣 so it’s just not me then.

 

Working out things by eye I have arrived at this.....

 

Mosquito


It may not be 100%, but I’m pleased. The foil is nice and malleable, so some ‘artistic draping’ was achieved. The merest dab of superglue at each end, ensures that they stay in place.

 

Also visible on the pilot seat is the handle on the left-hand side. Seat adjuster? Anyway this is a suitably chopped tail wheel off a 1/48 Eduard 109. On the other side is a little lever. No idea what it does, but the basis for my version was a starter handle off said 109 kit. Leftover bits and bobs from old kits are ideal for this sort of thing.

 

And finally for now, the slow boat from Oz arrived with a little prezzie, namely the cockpit canopy 👍

 

Mosquito

 

As a bonus, it comes with a bomb aimer’s glazed nose, cheek windows and circular windows for the cameras on PR.  variants. The replacement glazing is on stout but crystal clear plastic. One downside is that the cheek windows are a straight swap for the kit parts and therefore share the same incorrect profile. I may just use the kit parts for those windows, sand them smooth and then mask up the correct shape afterwards.

 

The canopy is lovely. There is a subtle difference (I think) in the rake of the windscreen. It’s certainly not as angular sideways on. I may still use the kit part as a mule for fabricating the glazing frame. However, that is a long way down the pecking order and cockpit is still soaking up the modelling time.

 

Anyway, until the next instalment.

 

Trevor
 

 

 

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15 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said:

Hi Trevor

Great job on the seat remake and belts look good.  I didn't realise they still did the canopy as I have been waiting for them to come up on Ebay and losing !!!

Great work 

Chris 

I literally googled 1/32 Mosquito canopy and came up with this

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274722801396?var=0&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338343596&toolid=10001&customid=eb%3Ag%3Avms%3Aeb%3Ap%3A274722801396%3BCj0KCQjw16KFBhCgARIsALB0g8LH8KbsYlPzCv5Ul9IH-3RBRCGKcluO0yhzetvdg3s4uWvuOXvuNtkaAm7dEALw_wcB&gbraid=0AAAAADmMgii7n-HrJCLcNSq_dyMOe29ZA&gclid=Cj0KCQjw16KFBhCgARIsALB0g8LH8KbsYlPzCv5Ul9IH-3RBRCGKcluO0yhzetvdg3s4uWvuOXvuNtkaAm7dEALw_wcB

 

Trevor

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