2TAF RAAF Mk.VI Mozzie - 464 Squadron

[Mick Drover]

Finally, a perfectly good excuse to build a Tamiya Mosquito.

 

I picked this kit up at our local swap and sell in 2021 for a good price with the inclusion of a True Details resin cockpit set. I've since sprung for a few more items to accompany the resin set. I'm not sure if I'll use the Yahu panel as the resin item should look nice with some crappy painting.

 

It'll be a Mk.VI  marked as SB-J from RAAF 464 Squadron flown by Flight Lieutenant Jack Palmer and his navigator Flying Officer Jack Rayner while the squadron was on task with 2TAF. The two Jack's were quite proficient at busting trains during their service with a typical load of four 500lb bombs plus the destructive power of .303 machine gun and 20mm canon rounds.

 

A few pics of what I've got to work with.

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Col.]

That's a nice box of goodies you have there Mick

Great to see a train-busting Mossie in our GB

[Wings unlevel]

Great subject.

[Mick Drover]

First job to do before any painting and major assemblies go together is to get the True Details resin cockpit cleaned up and installed where needed. The set is designed to accompany the excellent Tamiya parts and as such many of the parts are a direct replacement or addition to the kit plastic.

 

The only real work that needs to be done is the removal of the left and right side wall detail so the overlays can be placed. Now that these are in place I can get onto priming and then painting the lovely details. The most difficult part was removing the resin from the casting blocks, there is some fine detail that needs to remain. I managed to snap the centre instrument panel leg and a small corner of the left detail inlay. Nothing a bit of CA hasn't fixed.

 

With regard to the panel, I'm leaning towards the Yahu item as the resin part as some very recessed instruments that will be hard to get paint into. I'll think I'll do up all three and see what looks the best; kit item with decals, resin with detail painting or Yahu drop replacement.

 

Some actions shots below.

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

 

 

 

The resin item here is the sanitary tank; very polite.

 

 

 

I'm pretty sure this is a fairly old set though it's holding its age well.

 

 

 

[Hewy]

Great start mick, the resin cockpit looks the part , it'll  be good to see this come together , I'll  be joining the gb with the same kit later today, also with a few bits and bobs , that I've been collecting for a while ,so if i get bogged down yours will be a good reference

[Col.]

There looks to be a nice level of detail across those resin parts. For the instruments I usually paint the dials white, let that fully dry, then paint in gloss black but before that dries use a toothpick or similar instrument to rub the black off any detail and allow the white to show through.

[Mick Drover]

1 hour ago, Col. said:

There looks to be a nice level of detail across those resin parts. For the instruments I usually paint the dials white, let that fully dry, then paint in gloss black but before that dries use a toothpick or similar instrument to rub the black off any detail and allow the white to show through.

G'day Col. I'll give that method a shot. I've seen it done before so shouldn't be too hard. The only issue I've got with resin is the depth of the gauges.

 

I'll post up photos of my results.

 

Cheers

Mick

 

 

[Mick Drover]

3 hours ago, Hewy said:

Great start mick, the resin cockpit looks the part , it'll  be good to see this come together , I'll  be joining the gb with the same kit later today, also with a few bits and bobs , that I've been collecting for a while ,so if i get bogged down yours will be a good reference

G'day Hewy. Good to have you along. It's a lovely kit considering it's age.

 

Have you got a scheme chosen?

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

[Hewy]

1 hour ago, Mick Drover said:

Have you got a scheme chosen?

 

Yes mick its from the modelmaker decal sheet a collection of polish mkvi's

 My choice has Part Invasion sripes and sky spinners and codes

[trickyrich]

wow look at all that lovely AM stuff!!! 

 

Will be a great build to follow.

[Pappy]

22 hours ago, Mick Drover said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great subject and a flying start.

 

Personally, I would be inclined to cut out all the boxes and attach directly, then add the scratch cables. I would trace around each major part and transfer the outline to cardboard to use as a locating template first. Looking forward to the painting,

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

[Mick Drover]

7 hours ago, Pappy said:

 

Great subject and a flying start.

 

Personally, I would be inclined to cut out all the boxes and attach directly, then add the scratch cables. I would trace around each major part and transfer the outline to cardboard to use as a locating template first. Looking forward to the painting,

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

Thanks Pappy.

 

Spent the afternoon (Sunday) getting the main colours onto most of the parts; the interior green is Mr Color lacquer. In addition to the painting, off camera there's been prep work happening for the lovely resin wheels. They've even got the side wall labels which will pop nicely with some deft paint work. Sorry no pics but I'll put some up when done...should be in the next day or so.

 

 

Of course down the rabbit hole I've gone trying to find the aircraft/s that the two Jack's flew. I've downloaded the 464 Operation records from the Imperial War Museum and it reveals in just November and December of 1944 they flew at least four different airframes. The one that I've been able to cross reference a code with is NT236 SB-K, so that's the one I'm changing to. I can't find concrete evidence that says they flew SB-J or the specific code of the aircraft.

 

Now with some firm info I've designed the codes and roundel masks that I'll cut. Note that the sizes aren't correct yet as I've only done up the line work. I also need to do the fin flashes,

 

Cheers

Mick

 

 

[Col.]

Tidy progress on both kit parts and artwork Mike  

[Mick Drover]

On 1/31/2022 at 2:28 AM, Col. said:

Tidy progress on both kit parts and artwork Mike  

Thanks Col.

 

I'm well into the painting now with the first lots of colour where it's needed. So far it's been Mr Colour British Interior Green over black as the shadows followed by a lightened version if the IG with buff. That was followed by oils and then I'll go back over it with an even lighter version before getting into the detail painting.

 

A few items in progress with a requisite taped together shot with the workshop mascot.

 

 

 

A start on the dropp-offy things.

 

[Hewy]

This is looking really well mick, top work👍

[Col.]

Tasty interior paintwork Mick  Your method gives great results.

[81-er]

Very nice progress Mick. I really like the weathering you've done on the cockpit

 

James

[Mick Drover]

5 hours ago, Hewy said:

This is looking really well mick, top work👍

 

3 hours ago, Col. said:

Tasty interior paintwork Mick  Your method gives great results.

 

1 hour ago, 81-er said:

Very nice progress Mick. I really like the weathering you've done on the cockpit

 

James

Thanks fellas.

 

It's been a stinking hot and humid evening here in Brissy with a brief storm. It's not been conducive to painting so only a bit of work with the airbrush done this evening.

 

The before and after of the gear bay roof. The left side has the oils applied and tidied up and the right side is the next step in the process where the lighter version of the IG has been applied in a very thin application. The shadows are still prominent in the nooks and crannies. The next step will be the detail painting for the conduits and then highlighting the edges with a lighter colour.

 

 

You get the idea with the rear bomb bay bulkhead and drivers seat. Bancroft the workshop mascot for scale reference. Again, detail painting to come and that will be the next update.

 

 

 

 

Ooops, missed a bit of leather brown on the left arm rest. 

 

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Col.]

Seems we're at opposite ends of the weather spectrum here in the UK with winter storms and power-cuts to you there Mick. All is looking grand regardless though

[Mick Drover]

18 hours ago, Col. said:

Seems we're at opposite ends of the weather spectrum here in the UK with winter storms and power-cuts to you there Mick. All is looking grand regardless though

Cheers Col, I don't mind the cold but cold here is nothing like what you folks get. If it gets into teen temps here the warm gear comes out!

 

Now that I've got the detail painting happening in the background I've been getting the paint masks ready. In my hunt for information I've found that many of 464 squadrons had codes that were very similar in size to the 36"type C1 roundel. I've found quite a lengthy discussion here on BM regarding codes being of the 24"variety however, not the case for the 464 aircraft. If anything the codes are a wee fraction smaller than the fuselage roundel.

 

Of course any thoughts or suggestion are more than welcome.

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

Almost ready to cut and with correct sizes.

 

 

 

Edited February 2, 2022 by Mick Drover

[Bertie McBoatface]

On 1/28/2022 at 2:59 AM, Mick Drover said:

four 500lb bombs plus the destructive power of .303 machine gun and 20mm canon rounds.

 

I'm confused. I thought the cannons lived in the bomb bay where the bombs weren't. 

[Bertie McBoatface]

6 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

 

I'm confused. I thought the cannons lived in the bomb bay where the bombs weren't. 

 

I'm not confused anymore.

 

"First flown in 1942, the Mosquito FB Mk.VI fighter-bomber was intended for ‘intruder’ strike missions, and became the most numerous and widely-used Mosquito variant. Based on the F Mk.II day fighter version without Air Interception radar, it retained the formidable armament of four Browning 0.303 in machine-guns in the nose and four Hispano 20 mm canon in the belly. But it was also given a bomb-bay behind the cannon, which enabled it to carry two 500 lb bombs internally (with fins cropped to fit) plus another two under the wings. "

[Mick Drover]

9 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

 

I'm not confused anymore.

 

"First flown in 1942, the Mosquito FB Mk.VI fighter-bomber was intended for ‘intruder’ strike missions, and became the most numerous and widely-used Mosquito variant. Based on the F Mk.II day fighter version without Air Interception radar, it retained the formidable armament of four Browning 0.303 in machine-guns in the nose and four Hispano 20 mm canon in the belly. But it was also given a bomb-bay behind the cannon, which enabled it to carry two 500 lb bombs internally (with fins cropped to fit) plus another two under the wings. "

You got it Bertie.

[stevehnz]

11 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

But it was also given a bomb-bay behind the cannon, which enabled it to carry two 500 lb bombs internally (with fins cropped to fit) plus another two under the wings. "

Not so much "given a bomb-bay behind the cannon,", the cannon only took up the front half of the bomber version bomb-bay, leaving the rear half for bombs, just like its bomber brethren.

The Mosquito is coming along really nicely Mick, cockpit look great.

Steve.

[Mick Drover]

On 2/3/2022 at 11:39 AM, stevehnz said:

Not so much "given a bomb-bay behind the cannon,", the cannon only took up the front half of the bomber version bomb-bay, leaving the rear half for bombs, just like its bomber brethren.

The Mosquito is coming along really nicely Mick, cockpit look great.

Steve.

Thanks Steve. Plenty has happened since.