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

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Thanks Paul, Dave.

Well, I think I'm done! The last couple of days saw the addition of the last few bits of dangly parts and some further weathering. I'll show a few detail shots of these last few additions and then post some finished shots tomorrow.

The wheel well door had these retraction cables added. There should be some at the front as well but these thread around the gear struts and may be hard to see anyway. If I'm in the mood, I may yet do those as well.




The upper wings around the radiators got a bit more of a weathering/wear treatment. The metal bits got some paint chips which I made with a silver pencil and I blotched the paint a bit where there would have been plenty of foot traffic.



The formation lights were done with old bottles of Testors metallic green and red, which I've found to be ideal for these applications.



Finally, the radio aerials were added. This time, I tried a suggested to me by Mike Grant (Migrant) at the last model show. I used stretched sprue but not the styrene stuff from the model trees. Rather, I used the vinyl sprue to which model tank tracks are attached. The beauty of this stuff is that it stretches very thinly and maintains its elasticity so it's easy to keep taut. At first I attached the ends to the mast with CA glue then inserted the opposite ends into holes drilled into the leading edge of the vertical and port stab. While holding the end taut, I dabbed on some CA and accelerator then let the end go. The elastic nature of the vinyl took all sag out of the wire.




As I said, I'll try to get a batch of finished shots up tomorrow. See you then.
 
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Thanks guys. Just remembered that I need to do something about the screens on the intakes.The kit ones look goofy so not quite done yet. Pics later.
 
Beaut work Andy, and I, too, will have to try that antenna wire thing.
Just one point re the weathering / feet marks; the red-outlined rectangle with the 'X' is the cover over the radiator housing, with the outlined area meaning 'No Step'. This was a thin alloy cover, and would not be stepped on. However, the airframe itself got quite dirty, with grime, dust, oil stains etc being attracted by the fabric covering, very apparent in close-up photos of the real thing, and exhaust staining in particualr had a definite, clearly visible pattern. In both scale models and painting pictures, it's a very difficult thing to replicate without it looking contrived or overdone.
The first thing Air Cdr Ted Sismore said when he saw my 'Shell House' original painting was "Excellent old boy, but the aircraft is too clean"!
 
Thanks guys.

Terry, very true observations and of course I did not intend to create footprints in these areas but rather the impression that there was plenty of maintenance work going on here as you've pointed out. Now, as for those intake screens, I'm rather stoked as to how my home made ones turned out so here's how I did them:

This first picture shows one of the unpainted screens in place on the model. Photos of the real screens show these to be almost transparent due to the fine wire used in the mesh so I was not happy at all with the kit-supplied examples.



The transparent nature of the real screens gave me the idea to use some clear plastic with the wire pattern scribed into it. The below picture shows the kit-supplied screen and the scribed transparency prior to cutting it to shape.



Next, I cut a strip of my versatile aluminum foil tape and carefully applied it around the rim of the transparency.



Next, it was glued to the model and small attachment bars were cut from stretched sprue and added as well.



When all was painted, it looked pretty good methinks.



And that's it! I'll post a series of finished pics shortly.
 

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