1/72nd New Airfix Mosquito converted using Freightdog Models parts,...... Part 2 (PR.34 & PR.XVI),.. **FINISHED**

[KevinK]

17 minutes ago, tonyot said:

Lucky you! I sent them pics and every number that I could see on the box,...and on the bag that the parts were in.... but they refused to deal until I found a tiny number underneath,..... I had to find a magnifying glass to read it! I dare say I`ll hopefully receive the part next week,....... bought 4 kits,..... mould problem in 2 of them! Looks like I`ve been unlucky this time. 

 

Tony, this is appallingly arrogant behaviour by Airfix. The pictures alone should be sufficient to establish that their product is faulty.

 

To be honest, this puts me off buying ANY Airfix product, if this is the way they treat customers. In contrast, I have found the Eastern European producers much more willing to acknowledge errors and fix a problem. Airfix will lose business - mine at least.

[tonyot]

15 hours ago, KevinK said:

 

Tony, this is appallingly arrogant behaviour by Airfix. The pictures alone should be sufficient to establish that their product is faulty.

 

To be honest, this puts me off buying ANY Airfix product, if this is the way they treat customers. In contrast, I have found the Eastern European producers much more willing to acknowledge errors and fix a problem. Airfix will lose business - mine at least.

I have to admit,..... the last few time I have had to contact Airfix for after sales help they have not been very friendly,.......  which is a shame. BUT,.... the replcement fuselage arrived this morning,.... so at least I can get on with the model now.

[tonyot]

Hiya Folks,

                 As I said above to Kevin,.... the replacement fuselage half arrived this morning,.... so it was swiftly painted up inside and I got on with the build of the PR.34 conversion. The hole in the side of the rear fuselage was drilled out and the resin insert put in place,..... while the hole behind the bomb bay was opened out towards the rear slightly so that the resin insert for here lined up with the hole in the resin belly replacement part ;

 

The fuselage halves were then joined and the resin bulged belly replacement part was added,...... it might not look like it,.... but it was in fact a very good fit indeed;

 

Last night,..... while watching telly I got on with the wings and nacelles for this model, which are just the same as for the PR.XVI model,..... and these and the tailplanes were fitted next;;

 

 

And here are both models together;

 

Cheers for now,

                      Tony

[AliGauld]

19 hours ago, tonyot said:

the fuselage was badly warped and I struggled attaching the forward fuselage sections

I had the very same issue and was very surprised that all the reviews were so positive.

A bit of perseverance and it came out ok.

Thanks for the heads up on the short shot fuselage. Checked mine and it appears to be fine.

Absolutely loving your work yet again.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[AliGauld]

18 hours ago, Learstang said:

which will hopefully be out some time next year

Will be looking forward with baited breath for this one.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Beard]

I'm glad to hear you got the replacement fuselage half and are making progress.

 

I fancy a PR34 so I'll need to keep an eye on the Freightdog website.

[bigbadbadge]

Good to see it arrived and you're able to carry on Tony.

@KevinK I emailed Roden re a broken part in my BE2 kit and never got a reply at all!

Great work on these Tony

Chris

[tonyot]

4 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Good to see it arrived and you're able to carry on Tony.

@KevinK I emailed Roden re a broken part in my BE2 kit and never got a reply at all!

Great work on these Tony

Chris

Cheers Chris,....... sorry to hear about the Roden part,....I`ve never had much luck with Trumpeter or Roden either to be fair.

 

5 hours ago, Beard said:

I'm glad to hear you got the replacement fuselage half and are making progress.

 

I fancy a PR34 so I'll need to keep an eye on the Freightdog website.

Cheers Beard,....... I think  Colin will have them ready this month some time. 

 

6 hours ago, AliGauld said:

I had the very same issue and was very surprised that all the reviews were so positive.

A bit of perseverance and it came out ok.

Thanks for the heads up on the short shot fuselage. Checked mine and it appears to be fine.

Absolutely loving your work yet again.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

Thanks Alistair and sorry to hear your Shack was poor too,...... I must dig it out again and have another go. Glad your Mossie is OK,.... I had a problem with the canopy on another,.... it was rough and almost looked as it it had been sanded with a rough file. 

Edited November 6, 2021 by tonyot

[tonyot]

Another update,....... the models have been sanded now and almost ready for their PRU Blue finish;

 

PR.XVI;

All sanded and with its tail and spinners sprayed red using  Humbrol rattle can,....... this one is going to be a USAAF aircraft and I would like to finish it as NS659/N of the 654th BS/ 25th BG at Watton which had slightly different star and bars than normal and I think it wa called Camilla? I have a set of decals from Ventura, but no instructions for them,..... so I`m piecing together photos from various sources and I`ve found three so far! 

 

 

This view shows the resin Freightdog flat bomb bay doors, oil cooler intake and tail wheel, plus the drilled out camera ports in the rear fuselage;

 

 

PR.34;

         All cleaned up and with the Freightdog resin bulged camera belly, oil cooler intake and tail wheel  all fitted. My mate Lee (thanks again mate!) gave me a set of the large wing tanks which were developed for the PR.34,..... so it would be rude not to use them! I`m not sure about where he got them,..... but I thik that Freightdog `may' have had some in the range at some time,...... they definitely do them in 1/48th scale.  I`m aiming to do this model was a post war 58 Sqn aircraft,..... I`m still researching this though; 

 

 

And the tanks have now been fitted,...... with its bulged belly and large wing tanks,.... the PR.34 is quite chunky but purposeful looking;

.

 

So today,.... as Jessie would possibly say,...... I will mostly be brushing PRU Blue onto models,........!!

 

Cheers

           Tony 

Edited November 7, 2021 by tonyot

[tonyot]

Further to my last.... I have found some instructions for the USAAF Mossie;

 

I was correct in assuming that NS659 was named Camilla,..... Ventura state that the spinners were Roundel Blue,..... which I prefer to be honest,..... but photos suggest that they were PRU Blue and later repainted red;

 

 

 

Here is a photo of `Camilla',... note the star and bars retains the stencil marks and the D-Day stripes under the rear fuselage have been overpainted;

 

Some more pics of USAAF Mossies,.... the first confirming red spinners on some aircraft,.... as I thought;

 

I do like the nose art on this one,.... shame there were no decals out there,...... there are some USAAF PRU Blue and Black painted Mossies with nice nose art too,.... if any decal manufacturer does a sheet,.... I may be tempted to build one.

 

I did this one in 1/48th scale;

 

Another colour pic;

 

This one is another option on the Ventura sheet,..... note the post war codes applied to deter low flying;

 

Some more useful reference pics;

 

PR.34,......

              I was tempted by this aircraft of 13 Sqn based in the Middle East,..... and may build this one at a later date;

 

This is also a useful reference photo for a PR.34, showing the camera layout;

 

This pic shows the much larger wing tanks used on the PR.34;

 

Of course Freightdog provide for a PR.34 of 540 Sqn on its decal sheet,...... seen here, with a photo of the real RG245,..... BUT it has extra camera ports in the bomb bay doors;

 

And here is a similar aircraft,.....

 

With another PR.34 from the same era from 58 Sqn;

 

 

Many PR.34`s had the later style PR nose glazing, as seen here;

 

And as yet,... Freightdog do not include this nose in their set,..... although the photo of DH-S alongside the decal instructions above does show that it at least was fitted with the the earlier style original nose glazing,.... as seen below on this famous B.IX,.... which is another Mossie that I would like to model;

  

 

However I wanted to find a PR.34 wearing earlier roundels,..... and I have found an aircraft that I think fits the bill,.... which appears on pg.147 of the Haynes Manual on the Mosquito,...... featuring RG206, OT-T of 58 Sqn after it had crash landed in Morocco in 1947. I`m not sure about the colour of the spinners though,..... which appear to be lighter than the PRU Blue airframe?

 

Cheers

        Tony

 

 

Edited November 7, 2021 by tonyot

[tonyot]

Another update,...... got the first coat of PRU Blue on the models;

 

 

EDIT,...... I tet fitted thewrong canopy to the Mk.XVI,...... should be a flat top, not a bubble,

. 

Cheers

           Tony

Edited November 7, 2021 by tonyot

[tonyot]

Another coat of PRU Blue applied, the correct flat top canopy test fitted (without side bubbles yet) to the Mk.XVI and the demarcation between the blue and red slightly altered after viewing a reference photo more closely;

 

I`ll apply a coat of enamel varnish tomorrow and then get on with the propellers and undercarriage, Also the canopies have have been sanded and polished to remove the frame lines and I`ll add some internal frames using stretched sprues.  

Cheers

           Tony

Edited November 7, 2021 by tonyot

[bigbadbadge]

Great backround information Tony and they certainly look lovely in their PRU blue and red.

Great work fella

Chris

[mark.au]

Oh! be still my beating heart…. All those beautiful PR Mossies… where’s my credit card?

 

Nice work Tony, I’m enjoying this thread.

[heloman1]

Looking good Tony. I doo like the red fin Mossie. Glad Airfix eventually came to the party with the replacement fus, part. Can't understand their anxt over you request!!! Looking forwards to the finished models.

 

Colin

[AdrianMF]

59 minutes ago, heloman1 said:

Can't understand their anxt over you request!!!

I guess they can use that to trace back to a manufacturer/machine/date/operator and decide who to shout at. Would help if the reference/batch number was big enough though - if a 1/72 modeller can't read it easily, what hope casual buyers have?

 

Anyone remember the "packed by No 6" slips you used to get in FROG kits?

 

Nice PR Mosquitos. Love a bit of PR blue!

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

 

[Gondor44]

25 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

 

Anyone remember the "packed by No 6" slips you used to get in FROG kits?

 

 

Danger Man ParticK worked for FROG!

 

Gondor

[tonyot]

Thanks for the kind comments fellas!! I`m a bit puzzled to be locked out of a B-17 post where I cracked an innocent joke,...... this B-17 post was purporting to depict a Hawaiian Depot scheme,...... but with no photo`s,..... so I posted that it looks more like an arctic scheme in a blizzard! Seems somebody took offence! T`was only a joke!

 

Hey,..... ah well ,..... here is some more progress on the Mossies,.....

 

Using my wife`s old school compass set from the 1980`s,...... I have marked out circles for the painted out RAF roundels on the PR.XVI  and also a circle on the fin,...... then I have filled them in,..... the roundels using RAF Blue Grey (I need to apply another coat yet!) to represent the darker shade seen on some aircraft,....... and also PRU Blue for the fin ,ready to receive its white letter `N' later. I was unsure about whether it had such a background or not,..... but I`m pretty sure I can just make it out on one of the reference pics I have. I also represented the painted out D-Day stripes by adding some white to the PRU Blue for the lighter shade seen in reference pics;

 

 

And here are both models together,..... now with their propellers added and gloss varnish applied;

 

 

Cheers

         Tony

[bigbadbadge]

Oh mate that sounds funny, I wonder why you were locked out ??? Very strange .  

The Mossies look great fella,  like the old painted out roundels and invasion stripes.

Can't wait to see the decals going on.

Chris

[tonyot]

Hiya Folks,..... got the decals on this morning,..... the PR.34 decals were made up from the spares box and generic codes and serials sheets;

 

Cheers

          Tony

[Beard]

They're looking most excellent.

 

I've managed to get hold of a XVI and am looking forward to starting it (once I've finished the Spitfire 22, Tempest V, Fulmar, Meteor, Beaufort and Canberra that are currently cluttering up my dinning table). I won't make as good a job of it as you have mind.

[bigbadbadge]

A couple of crackers there Tony .  They look splendid,  cracking work. 

Chris

[David H]

Tony, i'm doing a PR34 in 48th scale using the Brengun conversion, DH-C from 540 Squadron.

 

The hole that gets drilled into the L/H fuselage flank- What was it for? Was it optically flat, or curved to match the fuselage cross section?

 

-d-

[tonyot]

40 minutes ago, David H said:

Tony, i'm doing a PR34 in 48th scale using the Brengun conversion, DH-C from 540 Squadron.

 

The hole that gets drilled into the L/H fuselage flank- What was it for? Was it optically flat, or curved to match the fuselage cross section?

 

-d-

I`m pretty sure it was a camera port and so should be flat mate,........ an oblique mounted camera. 

[tonyot]

5 hours ago, Beard said:

They're looking most excellent.

 

I've managed to get hold of a XVI and am looking forward to starting it (once I've finished the Spitfire 22, Tempest V, Fulmar, Meteor, Beaufort and Canberra that are currently cluttering up my dinning table). I won't make as good a job of it as you have mind.

You`ll enjoy it mate, but check the parts for any short shot areas,..... I was painting the interior areas while still on the sprue,.... strted doing the second fuselage half and got a proper shock!!! 

And you`ll do a good job,..... just take your time!

 

4 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

A couple of crackers there Tony .  They look splendid,  cracking work. 

Chris

Cheers Chris,..... yeah I think I`m pleased with them. I`ve alo started adding decals to my 1/144th Hastings,..... had to use Xtradecal blue stripes for the cheatline as there aren`t enough decals provided on the kit sheet,.....and the blue is a bit light too,.... so replaced the roundels as well!!