**** DONE: GB-49 1/48 Mosquito B.XVI - Favourite A/C of WWII

[Airframes]

The fuselage halves are joined, and the joints sanded and polished. There's a slight gap immediately aft of the entrance hatch, but this will be mostly covered by the front fairing of the bulged bomb bay, and any remaining gap will then be filled.
The Airfix bulged bomb bay h.as ben fitted, and awaits some filling along the joints. I'm not totally convinced about the shape of the front fairing of this, but there's not much I can do about it, and hopefully it should pass inspection.
The pics show the progress so far, along with the gaps in the bomb bay joints. These will be filled with plastic strip or stretched sprue, and sanded to blend-in with the fuselage.
Next step is to make and fit the fuel cooler intake fairing, probably using a cut-down and re-shaped exhaust shroud from the kit, not needed for the B.XVI, and then move on to the canopy, and see what can be done with either the Airfix or the kit parts.

 

[fubar57]

Cockpit looks great Terry

 

[rochie]

Good stuff

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

Thanks all. More soon ....................

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far Terry!

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Hugh.

The gaps around the Airfix bulged bomb bay have been filled with plastic strip, stretched sprue and, for the small gaps, CA. When set, this was all trimmed, filed and sanded smooth, blending in to the fuselage. The differences in colours make it look a bit rough in the pics, but once primed and painted, it should be fine.
As mentioned earlier, I felt that that the forward fairing on the bulged bay wasn't quite ight, being rather too blunt and "square" at the edges, therefore it has been filed and sanded to a slightly more rounded appearance - still not quite right, but better than it was "as provided".
There should be a fuel cooler inlet fairing on the B.XVI, beneath the starboard wing, obviously not in the kit parts, it being a B.IV, so one was made, by cutting down and filing and sanding to shape one of the kit exhaust shrouds. This was then cemented in place, and two small depressions countersunk into the side. Sealing of the joints and final clean-up has yet to be done.
Pics below show the work to date.
Next step is to tackle the canopy . I had hoped to use the Airfix B.XVI canopy, but further test fitting shows that too much work would be required to get it anywhere near a reasonable, but far from perfect fit. Therefore, the kit's B.IV canopy will be used, with the Airfix B.XVI side windows and, although the aft section frames are not 100% accurate for the later style canopy, it should look acceptable enough.
Back, eventually, with a further up-date .............

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Very good Terry and I agree that something looks odd with that bulge. The fuel cooler fairing looks like a candidate for paint before the wings go on,

 

[Airframes]

Thanks chaps.

Andy, I had considered cutting off the fairing for the bulged bay, moving the "bulge" slightly further aft, and then moudling a new fairing using Milliput.
But after measuring and re-checking everything, I realised that this would also involve altering the rear fairing, and a lot more work all round. I might, however, try to improve the "curves" some more, as I'm still not totally happy about the appearance. I also need to seal the gaps around the inside of the entrance hatch.
To clarify for others what we're talking about, the pic blow shows the front fairing on the B.35 at the DH Museum, and note how much more "rounded" it is, compared to the blunt, almost flat depiction of the Airfix kit part.
(Note that the bar across the entrance door was not present on wartime Mossies, and the latch handle was normally just plain wood at that time, not the post war yellow / black stripes shown here.)

Fortunately, the Tamiya kit allows the wings to be "plugged in" and removed fairly easily, so this will be a great aid when it comes to painting.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

The whole bulge seems to be a bit too deep Terry, which would add to the problem. I don't think I have any scale drawings to confirm though.

 

[Airframes]

You're right Andy, it's too deep and too blunt, and "flat fronted".
I've now filed and sanded it to a more acceptable shape, although of course it's still not 100% accurate. I'm currently re-engraving the bay doors and the edge frames, and should have some pics posted later tonight.

 

[rochie]

Good progress though Terry

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Karl.

The fairing is now as good as it's going to get, and a thin coat of matt white has been brushed on to check for gaps. Although there's still a bit of a blunt edge where it meets the fuselage, there's not much more I can do about it, so it's staying as it is !!
The gaps in the entrance hatch have been filled with plastic strip and trimmed to shape, and a rough coat of interior colour applied to check the work. This needs to be sanded back, some more re-shaping done, and re-painted.
The camera hatch transparency has been fitted and will have the joints sealed and painted over, as this hatch was not on the B.XVI.
A third recognition lamp has been added, and all three lamps countersunk. These will be painted and glazed after the main painting has been done. Earlier Marks had a single lamp just aft of the bomb bay, but with the bulge added, the lamp was moved in line with the other two.
The kit provides the part for the tail-warning antenna fairing, not used on the B.IV, and this has been fitted and awaits clean-up and the joints sealed.

Pics below show how things look, and I hope to get some more done tomorrow - hands are aching after all the filing and sanding !

 

[fubar57]

Nicely done

 

[Wayne Little]

Real nice progress Terry.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

Started work on the nose cone and canopy, but need to re-think things, as explained later.

The B.XVI nose glazing didn't have the frame at the top edge, so this needed to be removed and the area cleaned and polished. The canopy was also slightly different, in as much as there was less rear internal framework, so again, this had to be removed from the Tamiya canopy.
Although a fairly straightforward task, the kit frames were engraved, not raised, so care was need when scraping and sanding.
The nose glazing was not a problem, but things went slightly t*ts up when removing the canopy frames - a stress fracture caused a couple of cracks to appear in the canopy roof !!
This may have been due to pressure of my fingers, holding the canopy, or maybe due to the "T-Cut" used for polishing making the part brittle, or a combination of these . But whatever, I now have to decide whether to try to use the Airfix canopy, or use a spare Tamiya canopy from another B.IV kit ( a Rob Taurus vac-formed canopy will replace this when built ) and live with the frames in place.
I'll have a bit of a fiddle with the Airfix canopy before deciding, but at the moment, I'm leaning towards using the Tamiya part, and ignoring the slightly inaccurate framework - I don't want to risk damage to a second canopy, so the frames will remain !
The captions to the pics ell the story.

Pic 1. The frame to be removed from the nose glazing. There's also a small frame beneath the flat bomb aimer's panel, which will also be removed.
Pic 2. Scraping off, ready to be polished using "T-Cut" ( car body colour restorer ).
Pics 3 and 4. After polishing.
Pic 5. The canopy frames ( arrowed ) being removed.
Pic 6. Oops !
Pics 7 and 8. How the Airfix canopy looks. Some work would be needed to successfully blend this in to the fuselage, so I'll think carefully before deciding what route to take.
Pic 9. The redundant camera hatch has had the joints filled and sanded, and will be painted over with primer and the finish coats.

Once I've decided what to do with the canopy, I'll post another up-date. Meanwhile, thanks to all for the continued interest, and I'll be back soon (ish).

 

[rochie]

Nice progress Terry, shame about the cracked canopy