Minion's bargain Mossie. Finished!

[modelling minion]

Build has continued at a steady pace and I am still liking the Airfix kit and still enjoying the build. The fuselage halves have been closed up and were a pretty good fit again with just a sanding of the joints required but no filler either top or bottom, but then came time to fit the cannon area and that is not a good fit and will require some filler and then sanding tomorrow;

 

Nothing that some super glue, filler and and elbow grease can't cure.

Even without the armoured glass for the cockpit glazing fitted there isn't a massive amount visible of the cockpit interior;

 

Whilst that has been setting I have also built up the landing gear, all 4 sets! The Airfix main landing gear builds up quite nicely and certainly looks like the real thing and when you have built each set up it is time to fix it into the nacelles, all this went without a hitch;

 

As you can see the interior of the nacelles is bare but to be honest when it is all sealed up you can't see much in there anyway and will see even less when the gear doors are fitted in place, and besides nobody will be picking her up and turning her over to look into the nacelles. I need to do a few touch ups on the gear legs and will be weathering the tyres later. I also now need to make the decision as to which type of Mosquito I will be building the second kit as, if I go with the Mk.XXX then I will need to use the new nacelles but if I go with another standard Mk.VI then I will have a decal problem, hmmmmm decisions, decisions.

 

So I am currently waiting for filler to dry before sanding can commence and trying to decide what to build the second kit as. Thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

 

[PlaStix]

Hi Craig. I hope this Saturday finds you well. Nice to see more progress and it looks like good progress too. Annoying about that step but I'm sure you'll sort it perfectly! The detail is painting up rather well!

Kind regards,

Stix

[modelling minion]

5 hours ago, PlaStix said:

Hi Craig. I hope this Saturday finds you well. Nice to see more progress and it looks like good progress too. Annoying about that step but I'm sure you'll sort it perfectly! The detail is painting up rather well!

Kind regards,

Stix

Thanks mate.

I have indeed sorted the nasty gap around the cannon bay, I have lost some of the raised detail in the area but not all. I have also got the nose cone and Brownings fitted (what could possibly go wrong now!) and have some tidying up to do around it, and that tailplanes fitted, they had a gap all around them but some PPP put paid to that. I shall hopefully get some piccies up later today or tomorrow at the latest.

[Hockeyboy76]

A great start Craig, the pit looks great under your careful painting. 

[modelling minion]

45 minutes ago, Hockeyboy76 said:

A great start Craig, the pit looks great under your careful painting. 

Cheers H, very much appreciated.

[modelling minion]

A bit later than I had hoped but here are the pics of how my Mossie looks at the minute, starting with a view of the completed fuselage;

 

And the sanded and smoothed cannon bay;

 

And the tailplanes with the gap filled by some PPP;

 

I have also finished the wing assemblies and on the whole these went together very nicely with the only exception being the area on the top wings where the rear of the engine nacelle joins to the pen nib shaped part on the wing which needed some super glue to hold it in place and then some filler to sort out the gap, this is how it looks now;

 

The fit of the inner and outer sections of the underside of the wing was actually really good with only a small smear of PPP need along the joints in a couple of places;

 

And that is how she stands at the minute, next up will be tackling the canopy masking which should be fun! I want to get the canopy fitted to the fuselage before the wings are fitted as it should be easier to deal with any gaps without them fitted.

 

So thanks for looking and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

[PlaStix]

Hi Craig. Looks like you are making great headway with your Mossie. You did a great job sorting out the step in the cannon bay area (sounds like a seaside resort in the US!) and it's coming together very nicely.

Kind regards,

Stix

[modelling minion]

Thanks mate, as I say I have been really enjoying this one even with a few fit issues that haven't been too bad at all really.

The masking of the canopy was actually a lot easier than I had feared and I even remembered to do the interior framework! The canopy itself though is not a good fit to the fuselage and needed filler around almost the entire area where it comes into contact with the fuselage, fortunately PPP makes this a fairly easy affair, some of it can be seen in the picture below;

 

You can also see that the wings have been fitted, which resulted in a bit of a gap on the upper surfaces on both port and starboard but the one on the starboard wing was the worst;

 

This has also been dealt with by a smear of PPP and now looks a lot better. Oddly the joint on the undersides was pretty good;

 

So I think the next job will be to get a coat of Medium Sea Grey on both the upper and lower surfaces and hopefully the undercarriage doors if I remember them!

 

Thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

[GREG DESTEC]

Great progress Craig, you are making a fine job of this one. 

 

I do like this kit, and still have mine from about 30 years ago. 

 

keep up the good work.

 

Cheers Greg 👍

[TonyOD]

It's looking great. Forgive my ignorance, but what is this PPP of which you speak? I feel I should get some. 

[modelling minion]

14 minutes ago, GREG DESTEC said:

Great progress Craig, you are making a fine job of this one. 

 

I do like this kit, and still have mine from about 30 years ago. 

 

keep up the good work.

 

Cheers Greg 👍

Thanks Greg, for an older kit I am really impressed with it and have been enjoying the build. It is not as good as the Tamiya one but that is hardly surprising given the amount of time between them but if I see another for a decent price I would certainly snap it up.

7 minutes ago, TonyOD said:

It's looking great. Forgive my ignorance, but what is this PPP of which you speak? I feel I should get some. 

Thanks Tony, PPP is Perfect Plastic Putty (or something like that) and is produced by Vallejo. It comes in a squeezable tube which has a nozzle on the end and you apply it to gaps such as those around my Mossie's cockpit and whilst it is still not set you can use either a wet finger or cotton bud to smooth it into shape and remove the excess, saves a lot of waiting time and sanding which as we all know can lead to knocking other bits off.

[TonyOD]

1 hour ago, modelling minion said:

Thanks Tony, PPP is Perfect Plastic Putty (or something like that) and is produced by Vallejo. It comes in a squeezable tube which has a nozzle on the end and you apply it to gaps such as those around my Mossie's cockpit and whilst it is still not set you can use either a wet finger or cotton bud to smooth it into shape and remove the excess, saves a lot of waiting time and sanding which as we all know can lead to knocking other bits off.

 

Sounds great. I've only ever used Humbrol filler which needs sanding back, as you say there's the danger of knocking bits off but also sanding detail away. My Pe-8 has been a fillfest, the filling and sanding was generating so much dust that I had to wear a mask and used a vacuum cleaner to clear out some of the dust that had accumulated inside the fuselage.

[modelling minion]

32 minutes ago, TonyOD said:

 

Sounds great. I've only ever used Humbrol filler which needs sanding back, as you say there's the danger of knocking bits off but also sanding detail away. My Pe-8 has been a fillfest, the filling and sanding was generating so much dust that I had to wear a mask and used a vacuum cleaner to clear out some of the dust that had accumulated inside the fuselage.

It is definitely worth investing in Tony. It has it's limitations but is absolutely great for eliminating gaps along wing roots etc.

[stevehnz]

Great progress on this Craig. A bit big for me but it's a Mossie so I'm keen. It is looking really good, that cockpit is a stunna.

Steve.

[modelling minion]

3 hours ago, stevehnz said:

Great progress on this Craig. A bit big for me but it's a Mossie so I'm keen. It is looking really good, that cockpit is a stunna.

Steve.

Thanks Steve very much appreciated.

Your are right mate, the Mossie looks good in any scale although 1/48 is as big as I would go.

[Hockeyboy76]

Great work dude. Time for paint!

[modelling minion]

1 hour ago, Hockeyboy76 said:

Great work dude. Time for paint!

Cheers H, yes time for paint, might get some pre-shading done today hopefully.

[PlaStix]

Great to see this one is progressing Craig and looking good too! Good luck with the pre-shading. I'm looking forward to seeing some paint going onto your Mossie.

Kind regards,

Stix

[modelling minion]

5 hours ago, PlaStix said:

Great to see this one is progressing Craig and looking good too! Good luck with the pre-shading. I'm looking forward to seeing some paint going onto your Mossie.

Kind regards,

Stix

Thanks mate, a bit behind schedule but I have done the pre-shading, not as neat as I would have liked but I think I mixed the paint too thin and it spattered a bit at times, we will have to see what it looks like under a coat of medium sea grey, assuming I have some that is.

[Hewy]

Lovley job on this oldie  but goodie craig👍

[modelling minion]

7 hours ago, Hewy said:

Lovley job on this oldie  but goodie craig👍

Cheers Glynn, as I have said previously I have really enjoyed building this one.

[modelling minion]

A lot later than I had hoped (got distracted by a Messerschmitt, as you do) but it is update time.

Not a huge update I am afraid but I have actually finished the medium sea grey, there were a few more little bits of filling revealed after the first coat so a second one was required in the areas that filler was needed.

So this is how she looks at the minute, starting with the uppersurfaces;

 

The pre-shading is just about visible so I will have to careful to not be too heavy handed with the dark green. It is a bit more visible on the under surfaces;

 

So the next job (109 permitting) will be to mask off ready for the dark green, which I hope to have done in the next day or two.

 

Thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

[GREG DESTEC]

I was wondering what was happening with this one 😏

 

looks good 👍

[modelling minion]

1 hour ago, GREG DESTEC said:

I was wondering what was happening with this one 😏

 

looks good 👍

Thanks Greg, yes I am guilty of being distracted by my 109.

I shall try to concentrate on getting this one finished before I do anything else on the 109, try anyway.😏

[AdrianMF]

Sometimes I think the Mosquito is just too perfect an airframe to build. You need something ugly and unstreamlined to hold your attention, like a radial engine or a turret!

 

Regards,

Adrian