Alan P Posted July 10, 2021 Author Share Posted July 10, 2021 Thanks for looking in, I'm teetering on the brink of completely losing interest in this build, and it's all down to the stupid canopy. I should have gone with the bomber build Much fiddling about and this is as good as it's going to get. I've used tape strips for the internal framing, and will probably do the same for the exterior eventually. Doesn't look like much from the outside, but hopefully the adjustments I've made are more or less what I set out to get. One thing I was pretty pleased with were the spinning props: I used some acetate sheet and sprayed with enamels to get the blur effect. This is basically the effect I was hoping for - will definitely use this again in future. So - I masked it all up and hit it with Halfords Filler Primer - the conversion builder's best friend! Wow, that's yellow 😎 That'll do. I'm happy with the radiator intakes in particular. So, this is back on track, hopefully more updates this week. Alan 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Headroom Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 You’re coming to the fun bit soon in applying the camouflage! How good a fit were the wing parts in general? (I’ve still got a cockpit to finish first😆) Trevor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted July 10, 2021 Author Share Posted July 10, 2021 18 minutes ago, Max Headroom said: You’re coming to the fun bit soon in applying the camouflage! How good a fit were the wing parts in general? (I’ve still got a cockpit to finish first😆) Trevor Hi Trevor, The wing halves assemble just fine. The radiator faces need a bit of trimming (well, the bit where they slot in, read the instructions VERY carefully!) The nacelles fit together okay but leave some impressive gaps and seams along the outboard wing join and particularly at the trailing edge. Mine needed some filing (yes, FILING not filling, but you'll need that anyway!) to get the nacelle to fit the wing properly. The wing-to-fuselage fit is pretty good but again you might need to do some careful filing to match the dihedral angle. The same is true of the stabilisers, I'd definitely fit them first so they match each other and the tail before fitting the wings, otherwise you might end up with a slightly twisted aeroplane! (I did on the first try!) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaminCam Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 Looking good Alan, the tape framing seems to work well. I love the blurred props and the shot below has convinced me I need there to be a mosquito in my life in the not too far distant future! 56 minutes ago, Alan P said: 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 Glad you didn't shelve it, the canopy is great considering what you have had to do. The home made prop blurs look wonderful and it looks fantastic in primer. Great job fella. Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted July 10, 2021 Author Share Posted July 10, 2021 On 7/10/2021 at 6:19 PM, SaminCam said: Looking good Alan, the tape framing seems to work well. I love the blurred props and the shot below has convinced me I need there to be a mosquito in my life in the not too far distant future! I can't believe it's taken me this long to get round to building one, beautiful aeroplane. On 7/10/2021 at 6:29 PM, bigbadbadge said: Glad you didn't shelve it, the canopy is great considering what you have had to do. The home made prop blurs look wonderful and it looks fantastic in primer. Great job fella. Chris thanks again Chris, the next step should look good too! Started on the drop tanks and rockets, this Mosquito Strike Force was one awesome offensive weapon. I can only imagine how the Kriegsmarine sailors felt when forty of these rocket firing Mossies came barrelling over the fjord accompanied by twenty Mustangs Alan 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 They were probably issued with brown trousers! Totally agree with the above comments on the spinning props and canopy. John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritag Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 I totally agree about the above comments on the spinning props and canopy too. You’ve shown an artist’s eye to represent that prop blur so well Alan. Steve 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted July 11, 2021 Share Posted July 11, 2021 Gidday Alan, don't give up now. I don't know much about the different canopies (I'm a model ship bloke) but it looks good to me. And that prop blur - superb. Please carry on. Regards, Jeff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81-er Posted July 12, 2021 Share Posted July 12, 2021 Your blurred props are fantastic James 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted July 12, 2021 Author Share Posted July 12, 2021 Thank you very much for the support - spinning props are always a bit of a pain in the behind to look reasonable but this is finally a technique that might work long term! Fitted the sleeves for the .303s - all the barrels and seats are by Master of Poland. How good are these! No plastic kit can get this kind of look. Here are some of the accessories: props you've seen, just for show 😉, exhausts in AK Xtreme Burnt Metal, slipper tanks in both Medium Sea Grey and Aluminium for a bit of variation. Was considering doing one in Sky but opted instead for Alclad Mil-Spec MSG to contrast with the GS Mr Color MSG I'll be using for the main paintjob. Just as an aside - I think this is the best way to get natural-looking variation on a finish. Forget all that time-consuming pre-shading nonsense, just use a combination of different manufacturers' paint for any given shade, your shading problems are over And finally: Managed to get the underside primed in Tamiya Fine Surface Grey (still the best primer as far as I'm concerned) just before the torrential downpour began. Will do the topside tomorrow. REALLY pleased with the smooth finish. Polishing back the Halfords Filler Primer gives a great surface for paint. Anyway, I'm back in love with this build so it'll be finished sooner rather than later, thanks very much for the positive comments which greased the wheels of this one 👍 Alan 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted July 12, 2021 Share Posted July 12, 2021 Great to see the primer on Alan. Looking forward to seeing the paint flow now. Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony in NZ Posted July 12, 2021 Share Posted July 12, 2021 Yep super cool Alan.....talk about making a silk purse out of a Sow's ear. Brilliant mate! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted July 12, 2021 Share Posted July 12, 2021 Gidday Alan, I'm glad you're back on deck (a naval expression) with this one. If I may, a technical question on the aircraft itself (and apologies if you've answered it earlier), the nose guns and belly guns - which are are the .303s and what calibre are the others? Regards, Jeff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted July 13, 2021 Author Share Posted July 13, 2021 13 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said: Gidday Alan, I'm glad you're back on deck (a naval expression) with this one. If I may, a technical question on the aircraft itself (and apologies if you've answered it earlier), the nose guns and belly guns - which are are the .303s and what calibre are the others? Regards, Jeff. Thanks Jeff, I'm half Navy myself 😂 The four .303s are mounted in line abreast on the tip of the nose and protrude from the front. The belly guns are four 20mm cannon. It was a pretty devastating broadside given the tight concentration of fire. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 Gidday again, thanks for the info. I thought that might be the case, as it makes sense to me to have the heavier guns closer to the centre of gravity, less weight in the nose. And yeah, I wouldn't like to be on the receiving end of that lot. I built a 1/72 P-61 Black Widow a couple of years back, and she had similar fire power - four .50cals in the turret and four 20mm in the belly, in about the same location as your Mozzie. Your model continues to look good. You'll never wrench me away from model ships (a passion of mine for over 50 years now) but I might be tempted to dabble in a Mozzie myself one day, or maybe a Beaufighter . . . Keep going with this. Regards, Jeff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Headroom Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 This now looking like it shouldn’t be messed around with! Looking forward to the camouflage. Trevor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted July 19, 2021 Author Share Posted July 19, 2021 Latest progress on this despite the punishing temperatures in my shed: The rockets took literally all day, thanks to some very odd build progression and tooling by Special Hobby. They make Kitty Hawk seem simple. The rocket rails themselves are fine, being one piece mouldings, The rockets are six parts each but the attachment points of the parts to the sprues, especially the fins, seem deliberately engineered to create the most painstaking cleanup possible. I double-stacked them using some plastic strip to make the stirrups for the lower of each pair. The existing moulded stirrups for these had to be scraped and sanded off. It looks close enough, even for 1/32. Though this set of eight rockets and launchers is probably the most cost effective solution for aftermarket 1/32 RP-3s, if you can afford the photoetch/brass competitors, go for it! The guard rails were an improvisation by groundcrews to prevent jettisoned slipper tanks from impacting the rockets, so I improvised mine as well. The patterns were in the Aviaeology Banff Strike Wing PDF for 404 Sqn. Since some of the detail had been lost through sanding I used my old fave Tamiya tape to recreate it. As an added bonus, the first coat of Medium Sea Grey is now applied. I'll keep you in suspense for those photos! Well it's 39C in the shed right now so that's a good time to avoid modelling for the moment! Alan 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted July 19, 2021 Author Share Posted July 19, 2021 If anyone was following my Tornado EF3 build earlier this year, you might remember a Beaufighter I was building alongside. This is as far as I got with it: Sadly the decals didn't work out so well - a combination of the old and knackered kit decals and the Xtradecal serial numbers which just refused to go down even on the gloss finish. So it's just languishing in an unfinished state. If the Mossie comes out ok I hope it will be able to join its Coastal Command sibling on a shelf somewhere! Alan 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted July 19, 2021 Share Posted July 19, 2021 Nice work on the Mossie with the tape that is a cracking idea I must remember. The rockets are looking good to, six pieces per rocket !!! Good to see the Beau again Alan what a shame the decals wouldn't settle. Have you tried using a diluted Klear , using 60% klear to 40% water the decals can be taken off the backing as normal and floated in place on the klear on the model, pressed down and they should stick okay . I got the idea from @stevehnz and it's a great one. Hope it's not too hot in the mancave fella, I remember the extremes when modelling in the loft. Chris 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted July 19, 2021 Share Posted July 19, 2021 I just caught up and the Mossie looks great. Nice surface finish, rockets and props. I can't see a lot wrong with the Beau from here, but if you're not happy then it's best to leave it for now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul J Posted July 19, 2021 Share Posted July 19, 2021 Coming along nicely I like the two tiered rocket rails! You are not the only one suffering in a hot shed!!!!!☀️🔥 32 c in mine today! Need a 🚿 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted July 19, 2021 Share Posted July 19, 2021 For Alan @Alan P, this is what Chris @bigbadbadge is talking about, a very good idea for decals that won't settle and all sorts of other decal woes. Steve. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted July 22, 2021 Author Share Posted July 22, 2021 Thanks very much chaps. On 7/19/2021 at 8:25 PM, stevehnz said: For Alan @Alan P, this is what Chris @bigbadbadge is talking about, a very good idea for decals that won't settle and all sorts of other decal woes. Steve. Good idea, I used Klear for decals for ages but then came away from it because it was too gooey, never considered thinning it So that's a good tip to use @stevehnz Paint is on Used up my entire final stock of Gunze Mr Color MSG and RAF DG but it was worth it. But of course there was one lousy gap in the masking and it's very visible 😠 ...aaand I've run out of matching paint On the plus side, it's almost finished Alan 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81-er Posted July 22, 2021 Share Posted July 22, 2021 Shame about the gap in the masking, but the paint job and shading look fantastic James 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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