+ COMPLETED + 1/48 Tamiya de Havilland Mosquito PR Mk.IV, No. 540 Sqn, RAF

[Icarus]

Good morning.

 

Can I join with this kit, that came as part of job lot I acquired?  I will actually need to repaint cockpit (somehow) and add PE detail, so I'm hoping this counts as not 25% progressed.

 

 

 

Icarus

[Col.]

I'm delighted to see you join us Icarus and particularly with a Mosquito. My only suggestion is that you give your thread title a KUTA tag and post the finished result in our GB's KUTa Gallery to save any ambiguity due to how far progressed it is with the fuselage completed.

[2996 Victor]

Fantastic - I do love a PR Mossie!

 

Cheers,

Mark

[Icarus]

Ok - just getting started with this.  First job was to strip out the cockpit painting, then excise the slightly oddly painted pilot, repaint the cockpit, add some PE seatbelts (no easy task through the cockpit opening) then weather and varnish...

 

 

 

 

 

 

The original builder seems to have gone a bit "off piste" with the building sequence, so now I'll revert to the instructions, and see what (s)he missed.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Icarus

[2996 Victor]

The refurbished cockpit is looking excellent! Very neat painting through the limited space of the opening. Great stuff!

 

Cheers,

Mark

[Col.]

Have you ever considered, or are you currently engaged in, a career in brain surgery Icarus?

[Icarus]

Err - somewhat freakily, Col, I am in fact a surgeon.  Laparoscopic (keyhole) surgery - transferable skills which I have been able to put to use in model making (although the tools, except the good old scalpel, are somewhat different)

 

Icarus

[Col.]

2 minutes ago, Icarus said:

Err - somewhat freakily, Col, I am in fact a surgeon.  Laparoscopic (keyhole) surgery - transferable skills which I have been able to put to use in model making (although the tools, except the good old scalpel, are somewhat different)

 

Icarus

I will not even try to pretend I am surprised to learn this Icarus. Transferable skills indeed.

[Icarus]

Evening.  Being a typical Tamiya model, with relatively low parts count, and fantastic engineering, this is rapidly taking shape.  I have spent quite a bit of time sanding and polishing the joins that the previous buidler made, as they weren't the neatest.  There were also several glue fingerprints.  anyway, this is where we are now:

 

 

 

I will add the canopy, then mask this off - I've "cheated", and purchased a kabuki mask set.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Icarus

[2996 Victor]

7 minutes ago, Icarus said:

I've "cheated", and purchased a kabuki mask set

That's not cheating - that's just plain good sense!

 

Mark

[Col.]

You're making excellent progress with this one Icarus.

 

19 hours ago, Icarus said:

I've "cheated", and purchased a kabuki mask set.

Nah, that's not cheating, that's making best use of the available resources  

[Icarus]

Evening.  Only a little progress this evening.  I glued the canopy components together using sprue glue, then scratched my head to understand the placement of the decals in stage 18.  Finally I realised they are on the inside of the canopy.  This is where we are now - canopy not yet glued onto the fuselage.  

 

 

Thanks for looking, 

 

Icarus.

 

Edited October 13 by Icarus
Typos

[Icarus]

A busy week on the wards, so no real chance to work on this until today.  I've masked it, sprayed on some RAF Interior green over the exterior of the canopy frame (covering the  interior canopy frame decals - still not sure why they are provided by Tamiya, BTW) then black based with Mr Surfacer 1200.  The can was running out, as you can see by the port wing - it will add a bit of modulation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next step - PRU blue.  

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Icarus

[Col.]

15 hours ago, Icarus said:

(covering the  interior canopy frame decals - still not sure why they are provided by Tamiya, BTW)

They represent the sections of framework that was fitted inside the canopy rather than externally.

 

15 hours ago, Icarus said:

Next step - PRU blue. 

My favourite colour of aircraft

[Icarus]

18 minutes ago, Col. said:

They represent the sections of framework that was fitted inside the canopy rather than externally.

Thanks, Col.  However, no-one (apart from me) will know they're there.  Never mind.

 

Anyway, PRU blue now now on - as usual, Xtracolor PRU blue, which lays down beautifully. 

 

 

 

 

There is some colour modulation, which is somewhat obliterated by the camera flash - it is more obvious on the ventral view, where the flash isn't reflected. 

 

I will need to leave it for 24h to harden before decals, so I'll get started on the RAF Mustang that I'm also contributing to this group Build.

 

Thanks, for looking,

 

Icarus

 

 

[Col.]

1 hour ago, Icarus said:

Thanks, Col.  However, no-one (apart from me) will know they're there.  Never mind.

It's your model to build in whichever way you find enjoyable

 

1 hour ago, Icarus said:

Anyway, PRU blue now now on - as usual, Xtracolor PRU blue, which lays down beautifully. 

 

 

 

 

There is some colour modulation, which is somewhat obliterated by the camera flash - it is more obvious on the ventral view, where the flash isn't reflected. 

The clean lines of the Mosquito suit a single colour such as PRU blue. Looking great

 

1 hour ago, Icarus said:

I will need to leave it for 24h to harden before decals, so I'll get started on the RAF Mustang that I'm also contributing to this group Build.

 

This is excellent news and a shark mouthed 112 sqn. machine is always a sight to behold

[2996 Victor]

Your Mossie is looking gorgeous in its PRU blue (I must give the Xtracolor range a try-out), this build is really coming together beautifully!

 

Cheers,

Mark

[stever219]

2 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

Your Mossie is looking gorgeous in its PRU blue (I must give the Xtracolor range a try-out), this build is really coming together beautifully!

 

Cheers,

Mark

If you haven't already done so you could also try Resolution Hobbies' Colourcoats range (formerly by White Ensign Models and Sovereign Hobbies), very good colour matches for MAP and BS colours.

[2996 Victor]

1 minute ago, stever219 said:

If you haven't already done so you could also try Resolution Hobbies' Colourcoats range (formerly by White Ensign Models and Sovereign Hobbies), very good colour matches for MAP and BS colours.

Many thanks - I've tried some of the Colourcoats paints and I was most impressed.

 

Have Resolution Hobbies taken over the Colourcoats range? I must have missed that

 

Cheers,

Mark

[stever219]

17 minutes ago, 2996 Victor said:

Many thanks - I've tried some of the Colourcoats paints and I was most impressed.

 

Have Resolution Hobbies taken over the Colourcoats range? I must have missed that

 

Cheers,

Mark

You're welcome!

 

Yes, Resolution took over from Sovereign late last year/early this year, but it's still owned by a BM member (sorry I'm having a brain fail and can't remember who @ present!).

[2996 Victor]

16 minutes ago, stever219 said:

You're welcome!

 

Yes, Resolution took over from Sovereign late last year/early this year, but it's still owned by a BM member (sorry I'm having a brain fail and can't remember who @ present!).

Thanks! I knew Jamie was giving up Sovereign, but not that the range was being taken over. Great news!

 

Cheers,

Mark

[Icarus]

Now on it's (substantial) undercarriage - fun building these structures, and again brilliant engineering from Tamiya.  I haven't added the undercarriage doors yet, as these might accidentally get knocked of during decaling (which is the next step...)

 

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Icarus

Edited October 21 by Icarus

[Col.]

Nice paintwork

[Icarus]

Decals now on (I waited, to do these at the same time as the Tamiya Mustang III build I am also doing, as both looked very old, and I suspected they would be a surgical challenge!).  Just like the Mustang, these decals were extremely fragile, and needed a bit of reconstruction.  Thankfully the large roundels were ok, but some of the others were very temperamental.  Anyway, this is how things lie now..

 

 

 

 

I will add another gloss varnish layer, then weather both the Mustang and this build at the same time.  Hopefully then on the final stretch for both - including the satin varnish and removal of canopy masks, which I suspect will be more successful for the Mosquito build (kabuki mask) than the Mustang (old vinyl ones).  We shall see...

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Icarus

[Col.]

Another fine progress update on this beautiful subject.