Cannon detail on Mosquito NF Mk XII aircraft

[Jim Kiker]

Hi all,

 

I am working away on my Tamiya NF XII and have another unanswered question.  Were the ends of the cannon barrels  in the belly protected from the elements outside? I am talking about the exposed openings for these guns such as painted patches, tape on the ends of the barrels, corks, etc.  I have come up with "zip" so far for the NF Mk XII from 85 Sqn only.  Thanks in advance for any light you can shed.

 

Cheers, Jim

Edited December 6, 2021 by Jim Kiker
Spelling correction

[Graham Boak]

The usual act would be to place a patch, either pre-prepared (if such existed) or a doped piece of fabric, over the opening for the guns.  I can't claim to have seen this on Mk.XIIs specifically, but it would be very surprising if no such protection was employed..

[Jim Kiker]

Hi Graham,

 

Thanks for the input; I thought it was a common, if not mandatory, practice as well.  On the other hand, finding any indications of it has been difficult at best!

 

Regards, Jim

[72modeler]

Very interesting query! At first I thought that since the 20 mm muzzles were so far recessed in the gun ports and since the Mossie had a pretty high nose up angle when on the round, that such protection might not be needed, but the Beaufighter had much the same style of gun port and nose-high sit, and there are good number of photos that show doped patches either over each individual gun port or all four, but many of those  photos were of coastal command or strike aircraft and might have needed protection form salt air.  Long  story short- I didn't see a lot of  Mosquito fighter version photos  that showed 20 mm gun ports clearly enough to speculate. The best one I could find showed  evidence that all four  gun ports were covered with one doped patch, but I was unable to attach the link to it. 

Mike

 

 

Edited December 6, 2021 by 72modeler
corrected spelling

[FinnAndersen]

I've seen a very few photos that showed some sort of cover over the muzzle openings. I've not seen patches like those used on Beau's.

 

The cannon was very widely used and it seems probable that some sort of standardised cover was available.

 

/Finn

[Peter Roberts]

Hi Jim

 

Sorry for the late response - the below is a photo of a Mk XVII from 456 Sqn courtesy of the AWM (ref UK1448). 

 

 

It looks like it was the practice at 456 to apply a large covering over the area of the four guns, as there doesn't appear to be any delineation between gun ports.

 

Other photos of Mossy fighters suggest individual coverings were used for each gun port, so the practice may have varied from Squadron to Squadron.

 

Certainly the painting of the covers varied, some in the lower surface MSG, others in a darker colour (red dope?) and others in a lighter colour (as above - fresh MSG? Sky?)

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/obburbridge-pmjxtkvrm 

 

Not sure if the link above has worked (edit - yep seems to work ok) - an article in The Times on Branse Burbridge (11 Nov 2016) with a photo attributed as being an 85 Sqn Mosquito. Looks like 85 may have used a darker dope - possibly dull red (?)

 

I agree with Graham, unlikely the cannon weren't covered if going on ops. Though you could always build it as fresh back from ops  free of covers (?)

 

Hope that helps (a bit 🥴)

Edited December 7, 2021 by Peter Roberts

[Scooby]

Yes the did have the patches installed, I have a lot of nose art photos of 418 NF squadron Mossie’s and you can clearly see the patches on them.