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Another Airfix 1/72 Mosquito B.XVI on the go


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Thought I'd make a start on it. going to be a pure OOB build of ML963 of No. 571 Sqn from the kit.

 

So a really quick post, I'll just get to the bones of it.

 

Cockpit and bombay roof section complete, goes together really easy, MRP interior green airbrushed, then Humbrol 30 for the seats (kit suggests HU163 but I don't have that one) MRP 5 for the black bits. Tamiya tape harness.

DQHDqmy.jpg

 

Fuel tanks are Humbrol 70 

 

xqNgzUZ.jpg

 

 

 

This pic from the Mosquito Wikipedia page show some labels too so have added them in

576px-RAF_Museum_London_082.jpg

 

4w452CG.jpg

 

 

 

Now all closed up and setting

 

CT

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23 hours ago, Cheshiretaurus said:

Cockpit and bombay roof section complete, goes together really easy, MRP interior green airbrushed,

 

Yeah, great start! :popcorn:

I was contemplating a brand of RAF  interior green for another project, the MRP looks great. The Colour Coats equivalent is out of stock at the moment so this might be the way to go.

 

Rich 

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Great start, I was wondering how you will tackle the rear bomb bay fairing ? I am lucky in that I  purchased one back in 2015, a Paragon bulged bomb bay. It is one piece . Having to shave off some of the front to marry up with the bomb bay lip  Part No. C11. Otherwise the fit of the Paragon resin piece conforms well to the fuselage outline particularly the rear fairing. Part C2  is redundant unless making a TT.35 version. It's resin so be careful sanding and cutting due to inhaling dust. I also have two Aeroclub vac form bulged bomb-bay's 1/72 for the Mosquito,although yellowed and bit brittle but good standby's.

 

Nos.105 and 109 Squadron were Oboe equipped aircraft ,the area to the right of the instrument panel and in the nose filled with Oboe equipment. To stop prying eyes on the ground ,both these squadron's  had the nose's overpainted in what appears's to be a darker grey,almost black colour, than the camouflage. I would welcome any detail on this as finding out information is very hard ,the PRO Kew not being accessible for month's. At the rear of the bomb-bay where the camera port is ,Oboe Mossie's carried a stub aerial. 12 inche's wide by 18 inche's deep and 3 and half inche's thick.  Silver finish but open to debate.

 

Hannants are producing a decal sheet X72334 , I have e-mailed them re PF serial numbers. The Percival built aircraft had the fuselage and cowling camouflage sprayed much lower down the side's, this is not showing on their pre-production release. I can only assume that from late 1944 RAF Bomber Command were engaged on more daylight raids and it offered better protection from German fighters ?

Edited by T-21
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18 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

Great start! I'll be following along, if I may?

 

Please take a seat, everyone is welcome to watch me f**K up  I mean build this kit

 

16 hours ago, RichG said:

 

I was contemplating a brand of RAF  interior green for another project, the MRP looks great. 

 

I Started using MRP about 2 years ago, absolutely brilliant stuff! Really smooth, & easy to use. Still use Humbrol enamel & Xtracolor enamel too.

 

 

15 hours ago, T-21 said:

I was wondering how you will tackle the rear bomb bay fairing ?

 

Yes, now I look at that bit they did make a bit of a cock up there didn't they. I was going to do this OOB but I now cant ignore this elephant in the room now I know about it.

 

The doors and fairing are just dry fitted in this pic. I'm going to do mine doors open though.

h9OfrXX.jpg

 

A couple of questions as I have no drawings of a B.XVI

Does the correct fairing extent rearwards to the same distance of the one in the kit?

Would I be correct in saying it is just a case of filling in and smoothing the cut outs on the sides to the line I've drawn in?

Also on the doors, Is it just a case of removing the detail on that rear third?

 

Does anyone have some good drawing of a B.XVI they would like to share?

 

Thoughts that spring to mind are either good old 20th century Milliput or try and expand my very limited skills in Fusion 360 and make a 21st century solution of a new part on the Elegoo Mars?

 

CT is now in pondering mode.

 

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9 hours ago, Cheshiretaurus said:

Does the correct fairing extent rearwards to the same distance of the one in the kit?

Would I be correct in saying it is just a case of filling in and smoothing the cut outs on the sides to the line I've drawn in?

Also on the doors, Is it just a case of removing the detail on that rear third?

Yes,

Yes

Sort of.

The bomb doors were pretty plain on the bombers

The detail on the rear third is doors and fairings for target sleeves, the corresponding detail on the inside needs removing as well and omit parts 3 & 4.

The details down the centreline are latches IIRC, the TT doors were latched shut and didn't open in flight, these should be removed as well.

The external detail over the fwd and aft door actuator mounting points is overscale imho, I'd be tempted to lightly scribe round these protrusions and sand off all the external raised detail on the doors.

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  • 2 weeks later...

A little time work, A little time eating, A little time sleeping, Even less time modelling.......So short post then!

 

Anyway quick update after a wait for some Flory sanding sticks that I had run out of, They arrived yesterday so I opened the draw to put them away only to find 2 packets I already had.......duh!

So my slow progress brings me here. Wings have gone together really well. trailing edges could do with being a bit thinner though if you are listening AIRFIX. tail went on next followed by the engine nacelles. all generally a good fit but one or two unexpected gaps are present that I will need to sort out soon. 

 

So far things look like this:-

32IS7pf.jpg?2

 

V16U5I0.jpg?1

 

I'm going enjoy a beer or three this evening in the 27°C while the Tamiya Extra thin sets. 

 

As far as the rear bomb bay fairing is  concerned Ive been trying my hand at 3D printing one but without much success, I can loft a fairing in fusion 360 easily now, I can 3D print it easily. can I get it to fit? no chance! eventually I think I resort to the milliput option like others have done so.

 

So not that much to report in this post

 

Thanks for looking, Beer time

 

CT

 

 

 

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On 8/26/2021 at 1:26 PM, Cheshiretaurus said:

going to be a pure OOB build

 

No working nav lights in this one then CT? :D

 

On 8/27/2021 at 11:16 PM, Cheshiretaurus said:

I was going to do this OOB but I now cant ignore this elephant in the room now

 

Well that resolution lasted a long time :whistle:

 

10 minutes ago, Cheshiretaurus said:

Beer time

 

🍻

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31 minutes ago, Fritag said:

 

No working nav lights in this one then CT?

Funny you should say that, I have been playing with a microcontroller and LEDs a few months back and had some strobes and beacon running on a test circuit. But i think that will go in another build sometime. 

 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TOOGOO-Attiny85-development-Arduino-Digispark-black/dp/B075XDVMJV

 

35 minutes ago, Fritag said:

 

Well that resolution lasted a long time 

 Try as I might I dont think Im capable of an OOB I have to fiddle.

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43 minutes ago, Sturmovik said:

Is the line on the right fuselage side a reinforcing strip? 

Yes, it was introduced on all Mosquitos after W4050’s back was broken when the tail wheel became stuck in a rut whilst taxing at A&AEE.  The fuselage was swapped with that of W4051 whilst repairs that are still visible today were carried out.  The hatch below the strip gives access to air and oxygen bottles and to some items of electrical and radio/navigation equipment.

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Quick question regarding the wing leading edge light. Airfix have provided a blank part on aircraft that didn't have the light, but did those aircraft have any trace of of this panel? or was it just non existent and pure wood all the way along to the wingtip?

 

In other words should I just just blend this completely in?

 

uFe3671.jpg

 

 

CT

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21 minutes ago, Cheshiretaurus said:

Quick question regarding the wing leading edge light. Airfix have provided a blank part on aircraft that didn't have the light, but did those aircraft have any trace of of this panel? or was it just non existent and pure wood all the way along to the wingtip?

 

In other words should I just just blend this completely in?

 

uFe3671.jpg

 

 

CT

Blend it in completely, the landing lights in this positon was a late war mod, prior to this it was a plain leading edge as per the port side.

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9 minutes ago, Dave Swindell said:

Blend it in completely, the landing lights in this positon was a late war mod, prior to this it was a plain leading edge as per the port side.

 

Thanks that's what I was thinking,

Blender mode - On

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15 hours ago, stever219 said:

Yes, it was introduced on all Mosquitos after W4050’s back was broken when the tail wheel became stuck in a rut whilst taxing at A&AEE.  The fuselage was swapped with that of W4051 whilst repairs that are still visible today were carried out.  The hatch below the strip gives access to air and oxygen bottles and to some items of electrical and radio/navigation equipment.

Almost correct, but the above implies it was fitted to all Mosquitos except W4050 in it's original form, which is not the case.

It was introduced after the above event (24th Feb 1941), but it was quite a while after the event and only applied to new build Mosquitos or conversions, few if any of those built without it were retrofitted with the reinforcing strip in service as far as I can determine.

If you look closely, there's photographic evidence of quite a few B.IV series II airframes in service without the reinforcing strip, and all series I Mosquitos with short chord nacelles were built without the reinforcing strip. Early T.III, F.II, NF.II PR.II and PR.IV were all completed wihout the strip ie all W serials, DD serials, DK serials and some DZ serials.

It appears to have been introduced in late November / early December 1942 after B.IV DZ379, but before DZ411.

The prototype PRVIII and NFXV both fall in this range, but were conversions of the B.IV airframes, whether they had the strip when built is unknown, but the conversions were completed with it.

Basically, if you're modelling a Mosquito in service prior to 1943 and you don't have evidence to the contrary, it shouldn't have the reinforcing strip.

 

Edit:-

@Cheshiretaurus - above not applicable to the new Airfix kit, all these would have been built with the strip.

Does apply to some of the schemes in the Tamiya kits though, both the B.IV's, the NF.II and possibly the PR.IV would have been built without the strip.

Edited by Dave Swindell
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Bit more of an update,

 

I've blended in that leading edge landing light blank, blended in as many seam lies as I can.  Ive also decided my fusion 360 skills are not yet up to the job of making a fairing, at least one that fits so settled for old school Milliput and to keep practicing on the CAD.

 

Bit of black primer over it to see how it looks, (might need a little more work there)

 

Dvg3xPX.jpg

 

Canopy and nose glazing fitted with UV glue and here is the latest state of play.

 

nvIaDxm.jpg

 

PmrXDHm.jpg

 

Canopy masking next 

4M9xUmV.jpg

 

 

CT

 

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Little more progress in the paint preparation today, got as far as the primer

 

 

With the masking complete I went over the frames with MRP Interior green.

2IFrH3W.jpg

 

LGauQ89.jpg

 

 

Then MrSurfacer 1500 from the rattler 

MBof2YM.jpg

 

YbyzJK0.jpg

 

Theres a few bit I need to work on, Ive lost part of the rear fuselage access door detail, so need to rescribe that also the join between the rear fairing and the main fuselage is a bit soft so might dare to put a scribe line around that to sharpen the area up.

 

I'll let the Primer dry for a couple of hours before doing much more.

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