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1/72 Tamiya Mosquito


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Hi All

 

As a relief from 1/32 etch minutiae, I thought I'd have a go at something more visible to the naked eye.

 

Enter the venerable 1/72 Tamiya Mosquito

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And, ahem, yes @Simon Cornes, it came with some basic Eduard etch :P

 

Although the instructions start with assembling the full wings, I started with the IP.

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I didn't want to discard the Tamiya part, but chose to enhance it with the etch as it's quite nice

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The surface was removed from the kit part

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Everything was given a coat of anonymous Black, and the dial faces film were secured behind

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Wait, that's a windscreen wiper on there...?

 

Going to be 1/32 fun again.

 

Anyhoo, secured with a coat of Pledge, an overall film of W&N Matt, dials given the Kristal Kleer blob, and the accompanying radio boxes coloured in

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Not much will be seen once it's all closed up and covered in :elephant:

 

 

Comments and suggestions welcome

 

Cheers

Steve

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi All

 

There are a couple of ejector pin marks that might need to be filled...

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But they probably wouldn't be that noticeable with the etch on

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The whole innards were given some AK Interactive AK-2018 Aircraft Grey Green, details picked out, and a Matt coat

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And assembled on the main wing spar

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Not much of this will be seen

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But that doesn't matter as the fuselage closes neatly without gaps

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I'll get it glued and set, then move onto Section 1 of the instructions, the engine pods.

 

 

Comments and suggestions welcome

 

Cheers

Steve

 

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Hi All

 

I've just noticed that I've put on the Tamiya decal harnesses instead of the Eduard Zoom etch items :banghead:

I think I might have meant to save them for an open cockpit build later :whistle:

 

Anyhoo, on with the closing ceremony

 

The bay cover and nose cannon pieces are ever so slightly wide, so if you glue the whole underside of the fuselage together there will be some detail blending going on.

However, if you don't glue from the rear of the bay opening all the way to the nose, they can be fitted nicely with only a small gap in the halves between them

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I drilled out the barrels (mostly successfully) with a pin, a 0,3mm, then a 0,5mm pin drill

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They were then glued in

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That gap is an easier fix than going along the sides.

 

While that sets, I put the landing lights in the wings, backed with a piece of silver foil

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As I had the clear sprue out, I had a quick look at the canopy

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:wub:

 

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What a fit, just like a bought one!

 

That wiper may prove tricky to remove cleanly.

 

Also on the wing, the kit radiator 'detail' was removed in readiness for the etch

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Comments and suggestions welcome

 

Cheers

Steve

 

Edited by ProfSparks
BM changing 'pin pr1ck' to "gentleman's parts"
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13 hours ago, neil5208 said:

Hi Steve, good work on the cockpit. Will you put a back on the radio?

 

59 minutes ago, Gondor44 said:

I would be worried about the hole in the back of that radio set on the rear shelf of the cockpit. Is it visible through the canopy?

 

Jeez, tough crowd :P

 

Must admit I thought about that earlier but was counting on Airfix levels of canopy clarity to hide them :poo:

 

Modesty reclaimed

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Thanks for the reminders, sometimes I slip into sloppy :poke:

 

 

13 hours ago, Bish said:

... nice kit but awful decals.

 

Thick? Non-conforming? Semi-opaque? Silvering? (Nothing that hasn't been said about me                          :dull:                     :D!)

 

 

Comments and suggestions welcome

 

Cheers

Steve

 

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I found them tricky to lay down, kept curlying up and they damage easy. The Mossie was my first Tamiya aircraft and while i was building it i was warned about Tamiya aircraft decals. I had similar problems with one of their 72nd 109's. Fortunatly i have AM decals for most of my otehr tamiya aircraft.

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I built this kit a few months ago and have had no problems with the decals.
Applied to a glossy surface, they conformed well to the contours. With a little help from Mr Mark Softer though.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Sanjuro
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Nice job on the cockpit,  looks good.  The decals for the interior cockpit frame work were a nightmare on mine and refused to lay down despite gently coaxing, gave up and painted framing in the end.  Rest of the decals were okay, but I did the PR version  so not many decals.

 

Great work on yours

Chris

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Hi All

 

On 8/16/2021 at 9:03 PM, Bish said:

I found them tricky to lay down, kept curlying up and they damage easy.

 

On 8/17/2021 at 3:15 PM, Sanjuro said:

I built this kit a few months ago and have had no problems with the decals.

 

On 8/17/2021 at 5:33 PM, bigbadbadge said:

The decals for the interior cockpit frame work were a nightmare on mine and refused to lay down despite gently coaxing, gave up and painted framing in the end.  Rest of the decals were okay, but I did the PR version  so not many decals.

 

Thanks for the info guys, I'll keep my fingers crossed :pray:

 

 

Moving onto her legs, they're straight forward and clip together securely.

I've assembled them with a loose side so I can get the wheel on

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Once painted Vallejo VA 71.082 Aluminium, given a light dirty wash, and a coat of W&N Matt they look the part

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The tanks on the forward strut were painted in Vallejo VA71.039 Hull Red that turned out more like Hull Brown, but with  a couple of 0,5mm strips of tape they'll not be seen much anyway

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The housings are a good fit and sit neatly onto the lower wing half, the legs can be just squeezes in and secured with some deft glue placement once the underside has been painted.

 

 

Comments and suggestions welcome

 

Cheers

Steve

 

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  • 1 month later...

Hi All

 

Wings on without any drama

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As it happens, I'd left the cockpit assembly with the wing spars loose between the fuselage halves when I closed her up, so there was a teeny bit of wiggle room to get the wings on and lined up without gaps or need for filler.

 

A coat of Tamiya XF-83 Medium Sea Grey 2 (RAF) followed with Pledge on the pertinent parts and she's ready for the top doing

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Ah, yes the top.

As has been noted, the colour Tamiya chose for the interior framing decals bears scant resemblance to a cockpit colour

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So I decided on a plan.

Score the sides of the decals, paint them in the cockpit colour of choice, stick them in paint side out, done.

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This is where reality decided to deviate from the plan.

Much swearing was heard, many thin pieces of painted decal were ruined, and the optional side window was stove in whilst clenched.

Add to this the window repair being botched with a TET incident, and you have a recipe for SOD.

 

However, sessions on the other WIP 196 etch soon brought me back for a New Plan.

0,4mm strips of masking tape, again painted cockpit green, Pledge'd to the inside in lieu of decal

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A couple of nights later

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The Eagle eyes amongst you will see the far side canopy damage, but I'll endeavor to hide it in future pics.

 

 

 

 

And no, I'm not going to try to remove the molded on windscreen wiper and replace it with the etch part.

 

 

 

 

 

Comments and suggestions welcome

 

Cheers

Steve

 

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10 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

The framing looks quite crisply moulded. I'm curious to know why you didn't mask the windows and spray the inside of the canopy. I'm guessing it was the small size of the thing?

Hi Bertie, yes you're right, the interior framing is well outlined, and anyone with a modicum of patience should be able to mask it off and spray it.

However, as I have an aversion to masking even the outside of a canopy, I figured there would be more tears if I tried to wrangle tiny bits of sticky static tape neatly round the inside of a ping-pong ball.

 

I've the Eduard masks for the outside, and I suppose they could have been pressed into service at a push, perhaps next time.

 

 

Cheers

Steve

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57 minutes ago, ProfSparks said:

I have an aversion to masking

So do I! My models often sit for days waiting for me to master my distaste of the process long enough to mask even a simple cockpit. Unfortunately, decaling is also something of a bind!

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Just had a catch up with this & thoroughly enjoyed it, having several of these Tamiya Mosquitos in stock, it is good to see one built. I do like the look of the etch, & although I'm not a habitual etch user at all, I can see some heading my was before long.  After the comments about the Tamiya decals & I'll confess to not having used many of them, but did wonder if this might be useful.

Steve.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi All

 

On 10/7/2021 at 9:39 AM, Bertie Psmith said:

Unfortunately, decaling is also something of a bind!

I quite like decals, something therapeutic about the process and the gradual transformation

 

On 10/7/2021 at 11:01 AM, stevehnz said:

After the comments about the Tamiya decals & I'll confess to not having used many of them, but did wonder if this might be useful.

Steve.

Hi Steve, I've been using a Pledge solution with mostly good results for a little while now. Occasionally I'll get ahead of myself and suffer user error, but it's certainly effective.

 

 

While masking up the canopy, I popped the side window out again (the dots are to indicate which way round the pieces of tape go), and as if Tamiya had been forewarned of my tribulations, there is a substitute bulged pane included

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On it went, and the masking completed by covering in the gaps that are interior frame

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Attached with a mix of Kristal Klear and Pledge

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Underside also masked with a range of media

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I struggled getting Tamiya XF-81 Dark Green 2 (RAF) on, it didn't want to sit right or spread. Usually they're excellent, but as this was bought as part of a paint collection, it could be quite old. Do they go off?

 

Anyhoo, some time with the worms

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And a session with Tamiya XF-82 Ocean Grey 2 (RAF) that went on just lovely, the worms came off again

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There were a couple of places where I must have pressed down a little firmly on the upper/lower demarcation worm

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But overall I'm happy with the scheme. The gun nose is just held on with Maskol.

 

I'll give it a couple of days to harden fully, then get a protective Pledge coat on.

 

 

Comments and suggestions welcome

 

Cheers

Steve

 

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I've just spotted this WIP. I'm currently building the Tamiya B IV version which looks quite similar but does have a few differences - no windscreen wiper for example.

 

I've also not followed the instructions and the undercarriage is in pieces while the wings are attached to the fuselage, the cockpit is on and the primer is done. I hope to assemble the undercarriage and stick it in place after painting the whole thing.

 

Yours is looking really nice.

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