1/48 Mosquito B Mk IV - Heavy Hitters II GB

[Airframes]

Thanks Andy. On the FBVI, and earlier 'bomber' canopies, the smaller, rear frames, were internal and tubular, visible through the canopy as 'thinner' frames.
When I built the Revell 1/32nd scale kit as a PRXVI many years ago, I used the kit canopy, with stretched sprue fastened to the inside with PVA and small 'dabs' of liquid cement. On the FBVI conversion, I've moulded a canopy, but it will be very difficult to fix internal frames, so I'll probably use wire, pre-formed to the internal contours, and fixed to the cockpit rim.
I believe the Tamiya kits include decals for the internal frames on the BIV and FBVI, but thinking about it, from what I remember, the late-series PR and bomber canopies, like your museum example, had a 'blown' rear section, without the internal, tubular frame, unlike the earlier BIV to BXVI.

 

[Crimea_River]

Possible. Still, I'm just going to go with the use of paint to replicate the frames at this scale.

 

[destrozas]

andy impressive work with your work you have detailed graphical information rather than how to make improvements in aircraft, this work anger along with the plow to the dossier for when you the one I have on hold because it is a reference big shot.
I'm fascinated with this work

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Sergio.

I have a 4 day weekend with lots to do but hope to make some good progress on this build. Thanks for your patience everyone.

 

[Crimea_River]

Spent a few hours this weekend mostly prepping for painting - still. The model has a few areas that need attention and at the risk of boring you, I'll show you some spots that I've had to go over, in some cases a few times.

Both engine nacelles had these gaping holes where they meet the wing. Although these will be partially covered up with the flame dampers, part of the holes would still remain exposed so I had to repair them.

This is the same area after filling with plastic and filing and sanding. It could have used some touch up scribing prior to this picture being taken but I'll attend to that after the flame dampers go on. Some of the other areas have had the scribing touched up.

Below is the outer surface of the starboard nacelle which did not have the same problem as on the inner side. Nonetheless, the longitudinal seam needed some a piece of plastic card as a filler and the primer shows this area to be now acceptable. By the way, the big holes that you see where the prop goes are there because I neglected to install the exhaust stubs before closing the nacelles. I though these would not be needed since they would be hidden by the flame dampers but, after gluing the nacelles together, I realized the stubs would be seen through the open end of the dampers so I decided these need to go in. My first attempt at installing these from the outside resulted in the stubs disappearing into the hole and rattling around. So I had to dig the rescue hole to get the stubs out!

At Terry's suggestion, I sanded down the pronounced ribbing on the rudder and I think that this was the right decision. Thanks for the tip Terry. The rudder trim tab needed an actuator which Revell omitted so this was easily replicated with plastic card.

The underside of the nacelles proved to be a challenge because the landing gear had to be installed before the halves went together. This resulted in the seam being difficult to get at to fix, especially since I went and installed the delicate wire landing gear door guides. However, after carefull sanding with a thin coffee stir stick, I was able to get behind the tight areas and get a smooth seam.

I also got the resin tires finished:

Finally, I detailed the crew hatch. The pic below shows the hatch freshly cut off the sprue and you can see that there's a massive ejector pin mark that had to be filled. In addition, the latch was molded as a simple blob so this was promptly filed off so that a replacement could be made.

Here's the hatch before painting and you can see how much detail was added. The kit-supplied glazing was chucked out and replaced with a punched piece of clear plastic which was then build up with clear cement. In this pic, it is masked with Tamiya tape. The latch was made with sprue, card, and a piece of an old watch.

Here's the hatch with paint and the warning stencil decal applied. The close up is very brutal and reveals some of the clear glue that I tried to trim back from the window. I think I'll go back over this and touch it up a bit but overall, I'm pretty happy with it.

Before painting, I still need to install the dampers and replace the pitot tube so it will be a few days yet. Thanks fro your patience and continued interest everyone

 

[Airframes]

Very nice work indeed Andy ! Looking forward to the next installment.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Wildcat]

Yep, good stuff mate!

 

[Crimea_River]

Cheers gents.

 

[T Bolt]

Very nice Andy

 

[Gnomey]

Nicely done so far Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Still slow going as I discovered another omission by Revell. The flame dampers on the real Mossie had some small bypass ducts along the top. Seems Tamiya did them but I'll need to scratch something for mine. Guess that's the tradeoff for paying 25 bucks less than the Tamiya kit.

 

[Crimea_River]

Here's how I fixed that issue. The first picture below shows, at the top, the as-supplied exhaust shroud and the one in the clamp has a length of round plastic rod glued on. The rod was scraped and filed flat to the half diameter before gluing it on. I had toyed with the idea of using a piece of wire insulation cut in half lengthwise (piece can be seen in the pic) since this option wold have provided the true hollow nature of this duct, however it proved too difficult to cut and would have been a pain to glue on.

The disadvantage of the rod was that I had to hollow out the intake with a drill which was a tricky operation. Below are two completed shrouds.

And here's how they look glued to the model.

This evening, I picked up some new Tamiya RAF colours for the topsides and plan to squirt on the upper camo this weekend if I don't end up working on the real Mossie instead. Thanks for your continued interest everyone.

 

[Wildcat]

Good work Andy!

 

[Airframes]

Good work there Andy. I wish I'd seen this before you started though, as the later damper had the duct internally, just showing the front of the open 'pipe' inside the damper. Could have saved some work !

 

[Crimea_River]

Later, yes, but almost every pic I've seen of the B MkIV has this style.

Thanks for the comments guys.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

Your right Andy, but BIV srs ii had the same damper as the FBVI, and it's not always noticeable in pics. But what the heck, it looks the biz !

 

[Crimea_River]

I replaced the pitot tube with a bit of brass tube and copper wire. I had cut the plastic one off long ago as it would not have survived the handling. Also, a coat of Ocean Gray has been squirted on. This revealed a few scratches and flat spots that I'll need to remedy before continuing.

 

[Airframes]

Neat pitot, and I like the way the rudder ribs have been done.