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1/48 Tamiya Mosquito NF Mk.XVII


M4rk

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Late entry but hopefully I can get it done in two months ;)

My subject is a bullnose Mossie, not terribly original but a true night fighter aircraft nonetheless.

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And to show how it is unstarted:

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I'll be doing it from the box with kit markings as a Mk.XVII, with the addition of an Eduard Zoom etch set for a bit of cockpit detail. I've been looking forward to starting this for a while so now I've finished uni I've got the chance to get on with it :D

I've also taken the liberty of making a more fitting GB banner, others are welcome to use it, just host it on your own space please :)

Cheers

Mark

Edited by M4rk
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Started work on it over the weekend. I have been concentrating on the cockpit to begin with as opposed to the wings as Tamiya would have you do. I decided to try the XF-71 IJN Cockpit Green for the interior colour having seen it recommended elsewhere on this site, I'm quite pleased with the result. Detail painting has been done with a selection of Tamiya, Vallejo Model Air and Citadel paints. Not done yet though as you can see.

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The instrument panel and radio and radar scope units are done though. The Eduard etch set is great as usual.

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I'm a bit unsure on the radio and radar scope unit colours though, as Tamiya prescribe sky grey for the box exterior and this seems a bit light to me. Looking at other people's models in books etc. it appears black or dark grey is more common, so I've followed the flock and used dark sea grey for them instead, with a drybrushing of sky grey afterwards. I haven't got any reference pics of a Mk.XVII interior to check unfortunately. I'm happy with them for now though.

Cheers

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Cockpit is now all but finished, just needs assembly to be completed which will be just before the fuselage halves are joined together.

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Next job is the undercarriage and wheel wells/engine nacelles, followed by the wing assemblies.

Incidentally, today I went for a visit to the De Havilland Heritage Centre at London Colney so got to see a few real Mossies up close. It was a great day and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone else remotely interested in Mossies, or aircraft in general for that matter. Certainly gave me a bit of added inspiration for this build!

Cheers

Edited by M4rk
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  • 2 weeks later...

Small update: the cockpit is now finished and installed in the fuselage, I also noticed from the previous pics that a couple of of areas were glossy from excess glue used when attaching the etch parts, so I touched them up with matt varnish. Here is the cockpit fitted into one side of the fuselage, prior to sealing the two halves together:

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Once the two halves were joined and properly bonded together I then set about tidying up the seam line. The fit of the fuselage wasn't perfect but more than acceptable, I think its partly down to the high standards Tamiya set and how it is too easy to just get used to it! :D

Some sections were fine with just some careful wet sanding required, other areas needed some Mr Surfacer 500 and/or some CA gap filling, eventually though I was satisfied with the finish. These pics show where it is at now, I still need to give the nose joint another 'proof' shot of paint to check the join, but I am confident its as smooth as its gona get.

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Some re-scribing was also needed after this but, fortunately with the Mossie's wooden construction nature, panel lines are all but non-existant anyway so it was only needed on a handful of areas.

Currently working on the wings and engine nacelles, pics to follow.

Cheers.

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Cheers Mark, I reckon you'll enjoy working on yours, I'm certainly enjoying this one.

Bit of a non-descript update - the fuselage seam is still ever so slightly visible around the nose but I'm counting on the Alclad microfiller primer to help eliminate this a bit further down the line. I'm content with it for now anyway and it is only really visible at all in good light, so it will do for now :D.

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The engine nacelles are now complete along with the wings and they have been assembled ready for joining to the fuselage. Excellent fit all round, almost no extra work required after cementing as well, but the rear tapered joint on the upper wing surface required a quick application of CA and some sanding to conceal the join. It disappeared pretty easily though so pleased with that.

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Next job: joining wings to fuselage and masking the canopy!

Cheers

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Another update - some more construction work is done, namely the wings and tailplanes attached to the fuselage. The join on both of these areas is pretty good, although a quick skim of Mr Surfacer might be needed on the upper wing root surfaces prior to paint. Nothing drastic though.

This is the first kit I have made that uses wing spars to locate the wings as opposed to short tabs or one-piece lower section as more commonly seen. I'm very impressed with the design work that has gone into this, the alignment is near faultless and the fit very sturdy and secure, Tamiya really spoil the modeller sometimes!

Pictorial evidence of said progress:

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It actually looks like a Mossie now, looking forward to starting the paint work ;).

Progress might be halted for a week or so now though as I am moving out of my Uni house to a more permanent place, but once done I can look forward to more accessible modelling time :D

Cheers

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Mish, the harnesses are from the Eduard Zoom etch set for the NF.II/FB Mk.VI. To be honest I am not sure they are strictly accurate for this mark of Mossie, especially considering I have just read that night fighter Mossies supposedly only had a lap-belt for the observer. I haven't come across any decent interior reference photos of a bull-nose Mossie though so I have employed a bit of artistic license ;).

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  • 1 month later...

Gotta get a move on with this really, haven't managed to do anything for the past few weeks due to moving house and starting a new job, but I finally have my new modelling desk set up so I can carry on with the Mossie :D.

Primed with XF-20 Med Grey then pre-shaded with Vallejo Black Grey

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Followed by starting the camo paint, for the MSG I decided to try the new Tamiya RAF colours, so XF-83 was used. Having compared it to the Xtracrylix version of MSG, it's significantly lighter and has a more blue-ish tint to it, no idea which is correct but I prefer it so it will do for this model ;).

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I also started painting the canopy as well. The Eduard masks were carefully applied (what a time saver this is for a multi-panel canopy like this), then XF-71 was sprayed onto it. I decided against using the kit decal strips for representing the internal framing visible from the outside and have instead decided to spray the whole lot on the outside, mask off the relevant frames with Copydex, spray the rest of camo paints then probably carefully gloss up the frames that should be internal with Klear or such like. Not sure how well this will work yet, we will see! Here is the canopy sprayed with interior green and having had the 'internal' frames Copydex'd up.

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I hope to get the dark green sprayed tomorrow, followed by the black undersides the next day.

Cheers

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I did the same as you for the internal canopy framing on my Mossie and can report that it works well. I didn't gloss them though. I assume that is to make them look like they're behind glass?

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I did the same as you for the internal canopy framing on my Mossie and can report that it works well. I didn't gloss them though. I assume that is to make them look like they're behind glass?

That's the idea yeah, as I believe they are actually internal framing only on those sections.

No time for laying paint on tonight unfortunately but I did get time to mask it up with white-tac in preparation for the dark green. Here is how it looks tonight, I just need to fill in the bits to stay grey with Copydex, which is tomorrow's job:

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Cheers

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Thanks Mish.

Further progress tonight; slapped some Copydex onto the MSG areas to mask them off, here it is before the glue dried. Looks like some kind of dodgy winter camo :cold:

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Once that dried, I re-touched the pre-shading on the still exposed sections before then going over with Xtracrylix RAF Dark Green. This sprayed really nicely, plus the addition of some flow aid vastly reduced the usual needle clogging so really happy with how this went :D

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Only about a week left now so best keep the pace up if I want it done before the 7th! :boom:

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The copydex thing is interesting. Does it just peel off when you want to remove it? And does it mark the paint underneath at all?

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Yep it just peels off as a rubbery skin with no residue left on the paint surface. Only problem is it grabs onto the white tac and can then be a bit tricky to pick free from it, but other than that its great stuff for masking off complex areas quickly and efficiently. Its also handy for sealing up gaps and holes on masking-tape when used over complex-curves when the tape can wrinkle up etc. I use it for all my camo-masking jobs now ;)

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Yep thats the shizzle. I can't take credit for the idea, some other chap (I can't remember who unfortunately) suggested it on these forums over a year ago and I tried it on my Mk.I Spitifre. It works brilliantly and I use it all the time for masking now ;)

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Yep thats the shizzle. I can't take credit for the idea, some other chap (I can't remember who unfortunately) suggested it on these forums over a year ago and I tried it on my Mk.I Spitifre. It works brilliantly and I use it all the time for masking now ;)

Useful tip indeed! I did wonder about this, as I used humbrol maskol many years ago and it smelled the same as Copydex but was purplish in colour. So looks like it is the same stuff! (minus the tint)

thanks for the tip

T

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Further evidence of the Copydex method now :smartass:

Set about removing it all tonight to see how the painting went, starting with the rear stabilisers. Here is how the Copydex peels off:

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One of the rear stabs with all Copydex/white-tac removed:

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Followed by the rest of the upper surfaces

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Pretty pleased with the outcome of the painting so far, the pre-shading has worked better for me than before with camo. There are a couple of blemishes that will need touching up, but they can wait for now. You can also probably make out the faint shiny marks left by the white-tac, strange this as I thought white-tac was less greasy than blue-tac (which I've used before), must be cos I used cheapo stuff :blush: . This is the left-overs from the Copydex removal job :lol: :

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Anyway, I was so pleased with the paint work on top I decided to cover it all in tape and Copydex again :analintruder:

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All ready for the black undersides, which hopefully I'll get a chance to do tomorrow.

Cheers

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