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Posted

OK, here is my Airfix 1/48 Mosquito FB.VI that I'll be building for the D-Day GB. The kit was very kindly given to me by Desmojen especially for this build ;)

I will be building it out of the box, apart from the addition of aftermarket decals from Eagle Strike. It will be a 235 Squadron, Banff Strike Wing mossie in EDSG over Sky.

Here's the decal sheet I'll be using...

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More to follow later...

Karl.

Posted

Nice one. The Banff Strike Wing colour scheme is uber cool.... B)

Posted

And some work done...

First job was to give the cockpit parts a quick bit of flat black for pre-shading.

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The cockpit parts are really nice, and I was pleasantly surprised. Airfix can be commended on this one and I decided that with some nice detail painting, and just a couple of belts added, it would make into a nice looking cockpit.

I sprayed all the interior parts with the green, leaving the shading showing through. Once that was done I picked out all of the consoles and instrument panels in flat black. A little dry brushing was then added to parts before a dirty oil wash was applied over the top.

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The seat belts were made with some Tamiya tape cut to length, and the basic buckles made from some fine lead wire.

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The instrument panel was nicely detailed for an out of the box one, but the dial faces are all just blank and slightly recessed. In a moment of madness I decided that I would attempt to paint on some details to replicate dials and things (all fiction, but looks OK!) Once that was done I dropped a dab of Klear on them to make glass faces for them. Overall I was impressed with the final result of it all :)

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Here's all the final cockpit components added together ready for installation into the fuselage.

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More to come soon!

Karl.

Posted (edited)

You have a level of skill that makes me want to hide in a small dark corner...:worthy:

Brilliant stuff

EDIT - I've jut done a double take on the subject matter as I've got 2 Airfix FB.VIs in the stash and didn't spot the level of detail you seem to have achieved, so I got my magnifying glass out.....

sure enough, those little knarled knobs are there on the radio console, the flare rack under the Nav's seat and the boot to the Joystick is on the cockpit floor - maybe the Airfix kits aren't as bad as I thought!!!! And especialy well done at painting it so beautifully now I can see how small it is!!!!! :gobsmacked:

Edited by timbo33
Posted

You didn't copy Brett Green's build, did you? He, too, made the seats brown. I warned him of this, but it was too late. He posts some time after he builds, apparently. The seats and control cable cover should have green leather.

Posted

Possibly, I did have several pics that I found on Google, and one did have the brown seats. I did see that the Tamiya ones and others called out for the green leather seats, but I didn't like that :lol: I like the brown so I did them in that :) Thanks for pointing it out though ;)

Karl.

Posted
Possibly, I did have several pics that I found on Google, and one did have the brown seats. I did see that the Tamiya ones and others called out for the green leather seats, but I didn't like that :lol: I like the brown so I did them in that :) Thanks for pointing it out though ;)

Karl.

Ditto, I've found pics of black leather, brown and green! I went with brown also, mostly because I decided it was the easiest colour to make look leather like! We shall be incorrect together :speak_cool:

Posted

I'm convinced that green leather was the default original colour (much like bus and train seats that I can remember from when I was little), and that any other colours of leather are restorations.

Posted

OK...

I've progressed a little on the Mossie, and here's where I am...

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The fuselage parts are now buttoned up with the cockpit and rear undercarriage in there. The plate on the underside where the guns are is fitted, although that gave a little fight! I had to add a couple of plastic shims in there to attempt to get it to sit at the right height and place. I got there in the end, but there is a gap around parts of it. The nose and guns are also fitted.

The lower plate fit...

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The Cockpit buttoned up...

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I sprayed up the undercarriage parts with some Alclad Aluminium and gave them a wash with some browny/dirty oil wash. I couldn't figure out a decent way of avioding attaching the undercarriage parts at this point, so have had to bite the bullet and attach them. They will be quite a pain to mask around for painting now, but it's something I'll have to live with.

The engine nacelles with undercarriage fitted...

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More playing with these later in the process, but for now they are done and can be masked up.

Karl.

  • Like 1
Posted

I've got two words - Su - Perb... :speak_cool:

Always a tricky point, doing undercarriage. I think if I was doing what you've done I'd have sprayed up the nacelles first and then you've just got to blend in the joins....no easy answer though...

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

OK... about time for an update here!

For some crazy reason I suddenly started re-scribing an area of the mossie fuselage, and the next thing I knew I was doing the whole thing. For some reason such a simple re-scribe job seemed to take me forever to get done :shrug: dunno what I was playing at, but it's done now.

The main construction is all done and there was plenty of filling to do around the wing roots, where the engines joined the wings, and a few sink marks around the whole thing. All that is completed now, and I'm working on the canopy. I have no clear sprue for the kit, so was provided with a falcon Vac-form replacement canopy. Never ever done any vacform before, let alone a canopy, so was all new to me. After seeking a little advice on them I was off and running. It's really thin and after a dip in Klear it came up lovely. No real dramas cutting it out, except a little trepidation when actually starting to cut it! :lol: Now it's done I am adding some of the internal canopy framing that isn't represented on there by using painted strips of decal sheet.

Here's the overall picture as things stand...

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a little look at some of the re-scribe results...

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And the work in progress canopy...

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Been a bit slow on it as I've got bogged down after the scribing escapade and bored myself of it. I'd taken a few days away from it and now I'm getting back at it. More to follow soon!

Karl.

  • Like 1
Posted

Excellent build. I,ve got an airfix FBVI on the go at the moment and your pictures are a real inspiration.

There is, however, one thing that bothers me. Strictly speaking there was no Banff Strike Wing on D-Day as Banff airfield was not handed over to Coastal Command until 1 September 1944. At that time 235 squadron was based at Portreath, where, in June, it had begun converting from Beaufighters to Mosquitos. D-Day stripes woulld have been applied and were still carried when the squadron moved to Banff. Also, ther was no "Banff colour scheme". 235 and 143 sqadrons carried the Coastal Command Scheme, but 333 (Norwegian) Squadron carried the standard Night Fighter Scheme.

So a 235 Squadron Mossie would be an excellent choice of subject for a D-Day build, but a "Banff" Mosquito would be outside that period. I also like the EDSG over Sky scheme and will be building a 235 Squadron aircraft using the Kits At War sheet.

  • Like 1
Posted
Excellent build. I,ve got an airfix FBVI on the go at the moment and your pictures are a real inspiration.

There is, however, one thing that bothers me. Strictly speaking there was no Banff Strike Wing on D-Day as Banff airfield was not handed over to Coastal Command until 1 September 1944. At that time 235 squadron was based at Portreath, where, in June, it had begun converting from Beaufighters to Mosquitos. D-Day stripes woulld have been applied and were still carried when the squadron moved to Banff. Also, ther was no "Banff colour scheme". 235 and 143 sqadrons carried the Coastal Command Scheme, but 333 (Norwegian) Squadron carried the standard Night Fighter Scheme.

So a 235 Squadron Mossie would be an excellent choice of subject for a D-Day build, but a "Banff" Mosquito would be outside that period. I also like the EDSG over Sky scheme and will be building a 235 Squadron aircraft using the Kits At War sheet.

Dunno then :shrug: One for the mods to ponder then :lol: Mish, Andy, over to you :wicked::lol:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway... some more work has progressed on it, and regressed too :S (What?, I hear you say?!)

The Vacform canopy was finished off, and all of the internal framing was added using sprayed decal strips. The canopy is now fitted and ready for masking up after a quick lesson in fitting vac canopies yesterday :) Also, at the same time, it was decided that the undercarriage should go, to make the painting stage far easier... after some pulling, yanking, wobbling, and general fiddling, the undercarriage was safely removed without breaking (thanks Jen ;) ) I can now easily spray without trying to mask up all that undercarriage :D

So, here is the progress...

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Nice clear canopy :D

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And here is the regression...

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So, not a lot done, but I'm back on track and raring to go! More progress soon (and hopefully no more regression! :lol:)

Karl.

Posted

Beautiful looking build so far. Cockpit and (removed) u/c are just fabulous.

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