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De Havilland Mosquito B.XVI (A04023) 1:72


Mike

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De Havilland Mosquito B.XVI (A04023)

1:72 Airfix

 

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The Mosquito was one of the ground-breaking private projects of WWII, and it contributed a significant effort toward victory against Nazi Germany from its introduction in 1941 to the end of the war and beyond. Initially conceived by Geoffrey de Havilland as a fast bomber, it was not intended to carry armament, simply relying on speed to take it out of harm's way. Numerous versions were considered, but a twin-engine design with a wooden monocoque fuselage was eventually used, with space for four 20mm cannons in the forward section of the bomb bay. It was initially met with a very lukewarm reception from the Air Ministry, as they still clung to their obsession of turreted aircraft, the designs for which became heavy and complex, reducing speed both in the air and through the production line.

 

After some shenanigans that included a mock-up of a turret behind the main canopy, DH were issued with a requirement for a 400mph capable light bomber/reconnaissance aircraft, which solidified as DH.98, and was named Mosquito. Despite having been ordered to stop development work after Dunkirk, DH carried on due to the vagueness of the request, and the prototype flew at the end of 1940. After lengthening the engine nacelles and splitting the flaps to cure poor handling at certain speeds, she flew for the ministry and managed to outpace a Spitfire, pulling away with a speed advantage of 20mph.  Later developments of the Merlin engines that powered the Mossie included two-stage superchargers that gave the engine a substantial boost, with a commensurate increase in performance.  A number of 7X series Merlin variants were fitted to the Mossie, which included the B.XVI that also had a pressurised cabin for the crew’s comfort at higher altitude, and it could comfortably cruise at 350mph at 30,000 feet.  Without the gun pack in the belly, the XVI was capable of carrying the 4,000lb Cookie bomb, allowing it to punch well above its weight in terms of ordnance carriage as well.

 

The Mosquito lines were split between bomber/recon variants with glass noses and fighter variants with the four cannons in the belly and four .303 machine guns in the nose. It really was the master of all things, as it showed when it became a night-fighter, torpedo bomber, and even in its dotage it was well-used as a target tug until the early 60s. The Mossie was even converted to carry two bouncing bombs called Highballs, and always gave a good account of itself, striking fear into the hearts of the opposition. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, which was evidenced by the German Focke-Wulf Ta.154 Moskito, which attempted to recreate the success of the wooden Mossie, but failed due largely to inferior construction and use of an acidic glue, causing delamination of the wings in the air.

 

The Mosquito was mainly constructed by woodworkers that might otherwise have been left idle during the austerity of the war, and it was their skill and ingenuity that contributed to the success of the aircraft, and made it very economical to build using little in the way of strategic materials. Time is unkind to wood however, and very few Mosquitos have survived in airworthy condition, the last one in Britain was lost in 1998 in a fatal crash.  Some day we may get to see one in the skies of the UK again, and there are already a few in the air elsewhere in the world.  Not jealous.

 

 

The Kit

This is a brand-new tooling of a two-stage Mosquito by Airfix, and there are a lot of 1:72 modeller that have been looking forward to it for some time now.  There has been a lot of back and forth on the forum about it over the months leading up to this moment, with some people happy, others complaining bitterly about this, that and the other.  Some folks even accused it of being under scale due to a typo along the way.  Of course there are going to be some issues, as kits – even modern 3D rendered ones – are created by fallible humans with limited resources, so all we can hope for is that the designers at Airfix have done their very best, having based their work on a LIDAR scan of an original at the RAF Museum, with additional help from Ian Thirsk, both of whom get a thank you at the front of the instruction booklet.

 

The kit arrives in a red-themed top-opening box, and inside are six sprues in grey styrene, a sprue of clear parts, a decal sheet and the instruction booklet.  A perusal of the sprues shows that detail is good, especially in the exterior, although there’s limited panel lines etc. thanks to the Mossie’s wooden construction.  The interior is also well-detailed, although to my 1:48 modeller’s eyes, some of the cockpit instrumentation seems a little soft, but that could just be my scale bias.  There is a high part-count at 161, and there has clearly been some forward planning going on judging by the layout of the sprues, but we’ll see more of that when other variants start popping out down the line.

 

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Construction begins with the interior, and just like the bigger Tamiya kits it is built up on the bomb bay roof, which also has a pair of spars moulded-in, onto which the front and rear bulkheads are mounted along with the cockpit floor that tapers to a rounded tip in the nose.  The aft cockpit bulkhead, radio box and Gee box at an angle, together with tubing across the front of the spar and the two seats are added, the pilot getting a much more salubrious seat, while the navigator gets shoe-horned into the rear on a more basic two-part seat.  The instrument panel has its rear portion fitted from behind with a representation of the rudder pedals, and cylindrical blocks at the rear of the panel to depict the backs of the dials, while the dials are covered with an instrument decal and plenty of setting solution to help it settle down.  A simplified control column slots in front of the pilot, with clear bombsight in the nose for the navigator in his alternate role.  Fitting the fuselage internal fuel tanks involves flipping the assembly over to insert the twin bags in over a central spine, then the assembly is flipped back and the spars slid into place on the port fuselage half.  Here there are painting instructions for the moulded-in details, which are pretty good for the scale, and the interior green also makes an appearance in the tail wheel bay along with a small bulkhead to hang the tail-wheel off later.  The other fuselage half is painted while you have the interior green out, then the fuselage halves are joined up, with an insert that accommodates the bomber hatchway and circular window, which is clear, as you’d expect.  Behind the bomb bay is a small insert and another clear round part, and behind the dinghy bay on the top spine is another circular insert, this time in grey.  The rudder fin is moulded into the fuselage, but the rudder itself is a separate part, so you’re able to deflect it as you see fit, while the elevator fins are two parts each, but unable to be deflected unless you get the razor saw out.  Detail on the flying surfaces is excellent however, and there is a slight sink-mark at the root of one elevator, so check your example and smear a little filler on before you get too far.

 

The complex landing gear of the Mossie is made up using the lower wings as a template or jig, but without gluing them initially, which is made abundantly clear in the diagrams along with the use of lilac to colour the parts.  Each leg is made from two halves, with the cross-braces joining them together, and the mudguard resting on two points plus the oil tank high up on the legs.  Here there are some of the door-bumper frames missing from the moulding, but as it’s missing on some of the larger scaled kits too, it seems churlish to complain, but some have and will.  The over-thick mudguard would be an excellent candidate for thinning or replacing with a PE part due to the limitations of injection moulding, and a little wire can be used to replicate those delicate bumper parts if you’re so minded.  This is done twice, one for each nacelle, and includes the two wheels, which have a flat-spot moulded-in and separate hubs.  They also have block tread, which is quite well done, although some have complained about the blocky-ness of them.  I quite like them personally, and they’ll look great under paint.

 

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With the landing gear temporarily removed, the wings are made up with their landing lights under the wing, and a couple of holes drilled if you’re fitting the drop-tanks, then the topside is glued on, with a completely clear tip so that the wingtip lights blend in well.  I had a little smile when I saw those on the sprues, and another when I saw the P and S engraved on their tabs.  If you’re a bone-head like me, I remember that Port is Left because it has the same number of letters.  Keep It Simple Silly (KISS).  Another bit of clever engineering takes place with the six exhaust stacks, which have three pipes per part and interleave to create the correct number for each side, with a handed box behind them that also have arrows pointing up and forward engraved on the rear so you don’t get them confused.   They slot into the lower nacelle cowlings, with the upper section standing proud until the rest of the cowling is put in place.  The nacelle halves are painted interior green where the moulded-in ribbing is, and there are front and rear bulkheads for the bay, and an axle for the prop at the front, then they’re closed up, have the chin scoop insert and a pair of small exhaust outlets added into recesses, plus the larger intake made from two parts slotting into a hole in the bottom.  If you’re planning on leaving the bay doors closed, chop off the door hinges before fitting the single bay door.  The bays can then be glued into the underside of the wing, with more green paint in the roof.  Now for some more fun engineering!  There are two “spare” parts in the sprues that have the work MASK in raised lettering on them, and guess what?  They’re masking parts.  You can tape, Blutak or tack-glue them in place around the hinges (they have cut-outs), and paint with gay abandon and no concern about your hard work in the gear bays getting ruined.  Cool, eh?

 

Before the wings are slid onto the spars, you should paint and install the radiator cores, which are again covered with arrows to ensure you put them in the correct way.  How thoughtful.  The landing gear, their bay doors and the props are installed on the nacelles now, with the prop made from front and back spinner plus a single part comprising all three paddle-bladed props, which is glued carefully onto the axle, with yellow printing showing where best to put the glue to leave you with a spinning prop. All this is doubled up of course, and if you’re not paying attention you could get confused between the wings like I did briefly whilst flicking back and forth in the instructions.

 

There is a choice of open or closed bomb bay doors, with the simplest being closed, which requires just one part depicting the two bay doors.  For the open option, there are door operating rams front and back, two bomb racks running perpendicular to the bay, with different-shaped pins ensuring you put them in the right place.  The longitudinal bomb carriers lay over the ladder-racks, with another scrap diagram showing the correct angle of the rear pair, which are in the nose-down position to fit the bombs into the cramped bay.  The bombs are simple two-part bodies with a stabilising ring added at the rear and some stencil decals included, which always improves the look.  The open bay doors are fitted with a curved part in the rear, then glued in place on their hinge points upon the actuators.  An optional pair of medium-sized slipped tanks are on the sprues for you to use if you want and have remembered to drill out the flashed over holes earlier.

 

There is a pilot in this boxing, although he’s a little soft and is doing the usual “hands on lap” pose, as he’s only a single part.  There’s no nav/bomb aimer though, which is a shame.  With him in place (or not) the canopy is made from the main section with bulged side panels as separate parts, so take care in choosing the correct glue for these parts so you don’t fog them up.  It should fit snugly in the cockpit aperture thanks to lugs front and rear, then you can add the observation windows at the side of the bomb aimer’s nook, and finally put his main window in place on the nose.  Then it’s a choice of raised or lowered tail-wheel and a probe in the rudder fin, and that’s it.  It’s worthy of note that a lot of Mossies had a grooved anti-shimmy tail-wheel, so check your references and see what you can do if it bothers you.

 

 

Markings

As usual with Airfix 1:72 kits of this size, there are two decal options, both wearing the same upper camouflage, while one has a night black lower with high demarcation for operations in darkness.  The daylight schemed Mossie also has a few replacement panels on the upper wing that haven’t yet been matched to the paintwork, so remember to mask those off while you’re painting.

 

  • Mosquito B.XVI No.571 Sqn., No.8 (Pathfinder) Group, RAF Oakington, Cambs., England. Sept 1944
  • Mosquito B.XVI No.109 Sqn., RAF Wyton, Cambs., England. 1944

 

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Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas.  The inclusion of instrument decals and plenty of stencils is good to see at this scale, as I believe that these details add lots of visual interest to a model.

 

 

Conclusion

A new Two-Stage Mossie in 1:72 will make a lot of modellers happy, and while it’s not perfect (what kit is?), it’s a good-looking, well-detailed model of a beautiful aircraft, and the dramatic box art will draw in a lot of impulse purchases.  It’s also nice to be reviewing a Mossie again, even if it’s not in my own preferred scale.

 

Very highly recommended.

 

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Review sample courtesy of

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16 hours ago, Rudolf Korachkin said:

what about the price for both kits?

We don't generally do prices - and in this digital age, it's a piece of cake to find out what they are if you're so minded.  Not my scale though, so I'm keeping out of the "which one should I get?" argument - which incidentally, should be carried out in a separate thread, with a link to this review if you want :yes:

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2 minutes ago, PhantomBigStu said:

Can’t remember if this was answered before the thread descended into anarchy and declaring the kit unbuildable but can this be built as Photo recon one out of the box with or without mods? 

 

Stu, 

Cautiously I would say 'yes' as the transparent sprue includes a new canopy with upper bubble and clear Camera parts to install in flashed over fuselage holes - (warning) there may be more too it than that. 

I would personally study many references and compare them to Mike's lovely images above prior to making your decision. You can always purchase the new Freightdog AM items which have been personally tailored to fit this kit. 

Cheers.. Dave  

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1 hour ago, Rabbit Leader said:

 

Stu, 

Cautiously I would say 'yes' as the transparent sprue includes a new canopy with upper bubble and clear Camera parts to install in flashed over fuselage holes - (warning) there may be more too it than that. 

I would personally study many references and compare them to Mike's lovely images above prior to making your decision. You can always purchase the new Freightdog AM items which have been personally tailored to fit this kit. 

Cheers.. Dave  

Hoping you might say that, had a eBay order refunded and got injured over the weekend so a trip to the local to pick this up when I can make it would go down nicely… :)…though a nagging voice is going wait untill the decals actually exist….

Edited by PhantomBigStu
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@PhantomBigStu, I’ll bet my stash that the bomber parts sprue (pictured above) will be replaced by a dedicated PR sprue in the near future, so you could always hold out and wait for that. There’s plenty of other kits to build in the time being! 
Cheers.. Dave. 

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25 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

@PhantomBigStu, I’ll bet my stash that the bomber parts sprue (pictured above) will be replaced by a dedicated PR sprue in the near future, so you could always hold out and wait for that. There’s plenty of other kits to build in the time being! 
Cheers.. Dave. 

Yep, 80% likely Airfix announce it in jan with the decals I want in box…..99% likely I still buy it anyway knowing that 

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  • 1 month later...

My kit arrived with two parts loose in the bag, and one which is completely missing, all three were from Frame "F". The missing part is number 32 and is one half of a main wheel, the two loose parts were numbers 36 and 37, both of these are undamaged thankfully.

 

Frame F as received.

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Part 32 missing

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Parts 36 and 37 loose.

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Edited by Bern
Clarification
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