GB-43 1/48 Mosquito FB.VI - Aces' Aircraft of all Eras

[Crimea_River]

Cheers Tim.

The camouflage to date. The MSG has been thinly applied to the upper surfaces to the rough camouflage pattern and dappled with even thinner MSG cut with a drop of white. The Dark Green has been free handed in a patchy fashion for a start and will be gone over again with thin tonal variations when I get the pattern done. I can only do so much at a time painting this way.

Recall that the visible portion of the fin in the earlier photo appears to be Dark Green, despite the standard all grey colour applicable to this scheme. The Aviaeology decal set documentation notes this and offers four suggestions for this:

1. An all green fin/rudder, possibly due to a repair and repaint. I discounted this option.
2. An all green rudder/horn balance with grey fin. I discounted this as well.
3. A camouflaged fin/rudder which was a replacement from a MM*** series FB VI. It's noted that this series, as well as some TIII's, had some non-standard camouflage applicaitons. That may be true, though I've not seen any evidence of this in my photo collection. I'd love to see some if anyone can point me to it.
4. Same as 3 but fin only. I went for this option because I think it looks better and it seems to me more likely to replace just a rudder than a whole vertical stab. I was inspired by the below pic of a B. XVI from 109 Squadron, which looks to be a very oddball scheme. Pic credit - Neil Hutchison.

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff Andy, and I agree with your conclusions. Makes sense the that a replacement rudder, probably from a bomber version (or whatever was "in stock") would account for the camouflage pattern discrepancy.
I once had a car like that - it was red overall, but the hood was blue, the trunk was black, one door white and one door green !!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Terry. The camo on ML980 looks like the standard bomber scheme but with MSG in place of Ocean Grey. Which opens another possibility - using OG instead of MSG on the rudder. Hmmmmm.......

 

[Airframes]

Could well be - possibly the right choice too. Very interesting !

 

[Gnomey]

Great work so far Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Hugh

I'm having some interesting feedback from another forum about the fairing for the tail warning radar. I've come across very little detail on this installation until it was mentioned that the fairing is for a "Type F Equipment Transmitter" which is purported to be a signalling light with a motorized flasher drive mounted by the Observer's feet in the cockpit. A photo of the installation on HJ711 restored by Tony Agar is included and here it is:

More on this here: Mosquito HR339 1/48 Fund Raiser | Wings Over New Zealand

I've gone back to my reference pictures and have been able to confirm in many cases that the fairing is indeed accompanied by the hollowed out portion of the tail cone. Regardless of whether or not the light was installed (I will chose not to do so) it looks as though I will need to redo the detail I made and hollow out the tail cone a bit.

Stay tuned.

 

[Crimea_River]

Here is one photo that I've been able to dig up showing this area:

From the Gordon Permann collection:

Close-up:

 

[Airframes]

Interesting. Never noticed that before, and I've seen Tony Agar's Mossie a few times.
Info I have normally states that the fairing (apparently without the 'tunnel') is for the 'Monica' antenna, and below this, near the tail light, the infra-red source for the Type F or Type Z I.D. system. Depending on Mark and role, there could also be a 'Rebecca' antenna, forward of the 'Monica' antenna, inside the fuselage.
There are sketch drawings of these arrangements in the book "Aircraft of 100 Group", and although these are specific to those aircraft, as far as I'm aware, the 'Monica' antenna, at least, was standard fit.
In the pic you posted, with enlargement, I think that's the IR source for the Type f or Z I.D. system, but of course I could be wrong.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Terry. I have the book you referred to and agree but do you have any more info on those types of ID systems?

 

[Airframes]

I don't think so, but there may be some basic info in a couple of my books - I'll see what I can find.
The infra-red source mentioned for both Type F and Type Z equipment was an infra-red lamp, similar to those fitted to the nose of late Lancasters, and as far as I know, was simply a lamp with an infra-red 'pass' filter over the lens, allowing only the infra-red band to be visible to a suitable IR detector. This would appear, to the naked eye, as a very dark red, almost black, lens, as seen on some security video camera set-ups.

 

[Crimea_River]

Further digging. I've been through my IPC many times and no did so once more to see if this detail is shown. Sure enough, the detail refers to a lamp and the mount in the cockpit is called up as a "Plate, Flasher Unit":

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff.
So this would be the I.R. identification lamp, which could be identified by other Mossie crews, using their IR night glasses.

 

[Crimea_River]

That's one view Terry. An extensive discussion on this topic can be found here.

Regardless of purpose, it was obvious in any case that I needed to go back and modify the detail on my tail cone. I left the protruding fairing and reshaped it a bit to make it a bit more squat and then carefully carved the concave part using a cylindrical bit in my Dremel. Unfortunately I didn't get a pic of this step but below can be seen an interim step whereby I am building up the flange with paint.

I toned down the AEAF stripes by scratching them a bit and overspraying with very thin light grey shot from 6 to 8 inches away.

The camo is essentially done, barring some minor touchups. The canopy is the kit part covered with tape and lightly glued in place with PVA to protect the cockpit from overspray. As you can see, I have decided to go with my speculation that the dark rudder horn balance suggests a replacement from a bomber-camo'd machine so it's been sprayed with Dark Green and Ocean Grey. Prove me wrong!

Happy New Year and thanks for looking!

 

[Airframes]

Interesting discussion there, and the modifications are looking good.

 

[Wurger]

 

[rochie]

very nice Andy, i really like the look of that

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks gents, appreciated.

 

[Gnomey]

Looks great so far Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Hugh. Some minor corrections to the demarcation made and gloss coats started. Pics when you all behave yourselves.

 

[fubar57]

Love it. That rudder is a real talking piece now