Jump to content

Another Mosquito


desmojen

Recommended Posts

My first one though!

Not built a Mosquito since I was a kid, so I jumped at the chance to build one for a friend. He plans to give it to his dad for Christmas so a nice easy OOB quick build.

Obviously I wanted to use the Tamiya kit, but everyone seems to be out of stock just now, so I appealed on here for help. Russ leaped in to the rescue and offered me his, in exchange for a Hasegawa Harrier GR7. Many thanks Russ, your kit is in the post today!

I have a Tamiya Mossie in the stash (the fighter version) and regularly take a peek at the contents. It looks really good on the sprue, but once you start putting it together it really shines, talk about fall together!

It's beautifully engineered and an absolute pleasure to work on so far.

Over a few evenings this week I've put the cockpit and bomb bay together. All I've added is a set of seatbelts. I'm not sure why so many modellers replace the interior to be honest, because apart from the miriad of ejector pin marks it's very complete.

291648860.jpg

And here's the bomb bay, shortly to be loaded with four 500 pounders.

291648870.jpg

Jen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice start Jen! That cockpit and bomb bay look fantastic for OOB, although your good paintwork makes it! I take it it's 48th?

Anyway, can't have enough Mossies in my opinion. Like you I've not built one for years, and I think it was the Airfix 1/72 one... must put that right soon I think!

Karl.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My first one though!

Not built a Mosquito since I was a kid, so I jumped at the chance to build one for a friend. He plans to give it to his dad for Christmas so a nice easy OOB quick build.

Obviously I wanted to use the Tamiya kit, but everyone seems to be out of stock just now, so I appealed on here for help. Russ leaped in to the rescue and offered me his, in exchange for a Hasegawa Harrier GR7. Many thanks Russ, your kit is in the post today!

I have a Tamiya Mossie in the stash (the fighter version) and regularly take a peek at the contents. It looks really good on the sprue, but once you start putting it together it really shines, talk about fall together!

It's beautifully engineered and an absolute pleasure to work on so far.

Over a few evenings this week I've put the cockpit and bomb bay together. All I've added is a set of seatbelts. I'm not sure why so many modellers replace the interior to be honest, because apart from the miriad of ejector pin marks it's very complete.

[Jen.

It looks like a good kit, Jens. I have a 1/48 Monogram Mossie in the stash, but haven't done more than look at it. Those Japanese kits look pretty good, right down to the mechanics at the wing join. Im sure your pals dad will like it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a Tamiya Mossie in the stash (the fighter version) and regularly take a peek at the contents. It looks really good on the sprue, but once you start putting it together it really shines, talk about fall together! It's beautifully engineered and an absolute pleasure to work on so far.

Jen.

Delightfull things to put together aren't they? Looking good Jen :) .

This is the only colour pic I could dig up, but at least it is the right 'plane + right bombs you were enquiring about elsewhere. :pilot:

mossiebombs.jpg

B)

Edited by Neil
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Delightfull things to put together aren't they? Looking good Jen :) .

This is the only colour pic I could dig up, but at least it is the right 'plane + right bombs you were enquiring about elsewhere. :pilot:

B)

Although thinking about it, I would hazzard a guess that the "Mk.1 Little-Black-Dog" would of probably been considered a highly optional weapons fitment ;)

B)

Edited by Neil
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Delightfull things to put together aren't they? Looking good Jen :) .

This is the only colour pic I could dig up, but at least it is the right 'plane + right bombs you were enquiring about elsewhere. :pilot:

mossiebombs.jpg

B)

Nice pic. I likes it. Love the little doggie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Had a nice quiet day off today and spent most of it assembling and sanding the airframe. The fit of everything was spot on - except the canopy. Why is it that the one bit you can't do much with has to be a bit iffy?

So all was sanded, no filler anywhere by the way, so I decided I wanted to start painting. Then I realised I had to fit loads of bits before I could get on :lol:

I had to put decal strips inside the canopy to represent the internal framing which was a bit fiddly to say the least. While that was drying I went down the post office and got all my outstanding parcels and things sent off.

When I got back, the canopy was ready to fit so on it went, along with the side windows and nose cone. All of these were masked with Bare Metal Foil and then I sprayed them with interior green. This revealed a few little gaps, which I duly filled with PVA.

On to the exciting stuff! :nerd:

I sprayed the rough places that were to stay Ocean Grey, having first pre shaded in a few places (not many places to preshade on a Mossie!) This was then weatherd off a bit before masking for the green.

I decided to use a new method for this. I got some masking film from a stand at Telford. Using the ever useful full size Tamiya painting guide as a (ahem) guide, I cut out the camo shapes with scissors. It was then simplicity itself to apply these to the model.

291862538.jpg

The fuselage I did with tape simply because it's easier!

I then added the green and shaded as I felt I wanted to.

291862561.jpg

I'm happy with the result and it was a lot quicker than faffing around with Blu-Tack!. You could argue that it is a bit too hard edged I suppose, but I think RAF aircraft generally had pretty tight edges to their camo, and at 1/48 scale I am happy that you can get away with a hard edge to represent this. At this stage the preshading and weathering always looks a little harsh, especially with flash photography.

Black belly tomorrow then! :D

Jen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

for oob that really is amazing - can't wait to see the finished article and all I can say is Jen from this and the rest of your works you are very talented.

is it just me that would be very scared moving between flight eng and bomb aimers positions and having to stand on the hatch in flight?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

is it just me that would be very scared moving between flight eng and bomb aimers positions and having to stand on the hatch in flight?

Caleb,

There was an inner "door" in the cockpit floor which opened inwards so the Nav/Bomb Aimer would have been walking on this, not the external hatch door. The inner door is actually in the 1/48 Tamiya kit.

HTH,

Ian

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wo-ooh black belly, bam-ba-lam :headphones:

Heheh, sorry. Ahem, tonight, I have masked and painted black.

291998623.jpg

Masking is a mixture of Tamiya tape and my 2" automotive tape.

291998618.jpg

So how do you shade black? Yeah, I asked myself that too. Thinking back to my car refinishing days, I could recall that to darken black, you add blue. So, I took my trusty H77 Tyre Black and added some dark blue to it in order to make a dark black for preshading (yes, preshading on black - stay with me here....)

Next, I added straight H77 to the cup and sprayed the whole thing with that. You need to go steady, because obviously if you get full coverage you'll lose the pre shade. On the other hand, if you're not careful it will be patchy and look crap.

Next up I lightened the colour with a medium blue. The idea being that it wouldn't change the tonal value as much as straight white would. This was used in a reasonably random fashion to highlight things.

Finally, a highly thinned mix of H77 was sprayed over the whole to blend it together. I think it's worked quite well, but I'm open to feedback! :)

291998619.jpg

Jen.

Edited by desmojen
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...