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

[Crimea_River]

Yep thanks Terry. I thought of that and it should be hidden under that storage bin thingy discussed earlier. Nonetheless, I may hack it off as it may intrude my subconscious.

 

[Airframes]

Don't want any intruders, surely ................

 

[Crimea_River]

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.

 

[Crimea_River]

 

[Wayne Little]

 

[Crimea_River]

Now that I'm down from my high, I've been continuing to research my subject to try and account for as many of the technical aspects in the cockpit as I can. I derive a lot of pleasure from this hobby by not only building a fine kit but also from understanding as much as I can about a subject and replicating partly seen objects as scratch built items. Sometimes I even replicate stuff that can't be seen, just cuz!

To that end, I've been spending some time going through my copy of the F.B. VI manual and have confirmed something that I asked about in post 27. Terry rightly indicated that the box mounted on the bulkhead by the entry door is in fact the map stowage box. The space underneath it is for the observer's parachute and that's probably what's been moulded into the kit floor. Here's a snip from the manual showing this area:

Based on this, I will retain the stowage box and remove the moulded parachute, given that it would likely have been carried by the observer and stowed there only upon his entry to the aircraft and removed upon exit. The moulded stowage box is rather clunky so I will try to drill it out and thin the walls. If that doesn't work, I'll replace it in its entirety.

Of note is the item seen above the stowage box. That's the drift recorder and it slid on rails to allow the mirror to protrude out of a hole that is normally covered by a lid accessed from the inside of the aircraft. The lid and its locking bar can be seen just to the right of the drift recorder and I've since discovered some pics on the net showing the instrument protruding from the hole. The fact that these show the mirror suggests to me that perhaps some crews may not have bothered to stow the unit inside but would rather leave it engaged so that they wouldn't have to deal with the moving it all the time, not to mention creating an unwanted, the temporary, draft when the hole was exposed. Haven't seen this til now!

One item that I'm still unclear about is the reference to the presence of the R1155 unit, along with the Gee set, in the manual. The reader of the manual is referred to Figure 28, partly shown below:

What I don't get is that I think that this unit requires the mast antenna but the Aviaeology literature on my aircraft says that the mast was present originally but seems to have disappeared by the time some later photos were taken. I guess that would mean no R1155? What, would have replaced it? More reading and understanding of this topic is required. Input welcome!

Also, I received the superb Aviaeology decal set in the mail the other day:

This set is out of print and I'd like to thank Terry Higgins at Aviaeology for allowing me to buy this one from his personal stash. As always, the Aviaeology decals come with excellent documentation, both as a printed version as well as a high resolution e-mailed pdf.

Hopefully I'll get some more shots of plastic adds/deletes/mods up soon. Thanks for your interest and patience and, as always, if anyone has anything to offer to help with my musings I would be most happy to hear!

 

[Crimea_River]

While I continue to try to resolve the wireless setup questions above, I did proceed to fabricate the Gee sets as I'm as certain as I can be that they would have been present on this aircraft. The boxes are built up of styrene card cut to the dimensions I measured on the museum Gee set. Once the glue dried, I smoothed the visible surfaces with a fine file and filled some minor grooves with CA. I then propped them into the dry-fitted cockpit to see how they would work out.:

There are a couple of other things to point out in the above pics. First of all, just visible behind the Gee receiver you can make out a bent rod representing the fuel filler tube. This was made from some bendy blue aluminum wire that came with a flower arrangement. Handy stuff. Also, the parachute pack has been removed from the floor in front of the observer's position and the resulting hole was filled with CA glue and smoothed flat. To the observer's right and just beside his seat, I added a scratch-built gun heater duct. This took warm air from the starboard radiator passage and piped it down into the gun bay via the cockpit.

The below pic shows the result of my effort to make the map box look a little more delicate (see the second pic in post #27 for the "before" version). The face of the box was drilled out and the edges were thinned with a scalpel and jeweller's file. I than added the shelf runners with snips of styrene card and ran some stretched sprue on the top. Pardon all the file dust please! Oh, and the rudder pedals also got some thinning treatment as they looked like concrete before. I think they could stand a little more but these will be mostly hidden from view.

That's it for this edition. The next post will likely show some detail being added to the front of the Gee sets. See you soon.

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff Andy, should look the biz when it's all done.
BTW, that 'parachute' pack was the kneeling cushion for the observer in the nose, 'left over' from their B.IV kit, as some common parts are used in the two kits.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Terry. I interpreted it as the parachute as it fits exactly under the map box which is where the observer's chute was stowed on the FB VI. But no matter; it is now relegated to the trash!

By the way, I've been in touch with others who have shared some knowledge on the equipment "on the deck" and will most likely be incorporating that info into this build. Unfortunately, nothing is definitive but it seems we can only do our best to speculate on what the actual equipment might have been based on best available data. More on this later.

 

[Airframes]

That's more or less what I did for the radios etc, working from descriptions, the document you posted earlier, which I also have, diagrams, and various photos showing the R/F unit for the 'Gee', with a similar 'box' alongside, which I believe was the radio remote, as shown on my model below.
There's also the control unit, shown with the red arrow in the second pic.
I've searched for some of the reference pics I saved (the others are in various books), but I must have filed them in some odd place, as I can't find the bl**dy things !!

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Terry the input I've received places an IFF receiver next to the Gee receiver. I'm leaning toward omitting the R1155 despite the paragraph in the manual. The giveaway would be the presence of the mast which is not seen in any of my reference pics.

 

[rochie]

Good stuff Andy.
Although not for my builds, i am always impressed by your dedication to getting the finest details as correct as you can

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Karl. For me that's part of the fun, and sometimes frustration. Amazing how much is still unknown.

 

[Airframes]

Definitely not the 1155 if no mast present, and would look like the set-up on my model.
With the Gee R/F unit and other fittings, the 1155 wouldn't fit anyway, and by this time, the radio had been updated to VHF, and also had the 'fighter' type channel selector - hence lack of mast, using either a whip antenna, or the internal aerial.
I still can't find those darn reference photos - some of them are "somewhere" on my hard drive, and others buried in the 10 or more books I have on the 'Mossie'.
However, I did find one of the pics I saved when researching for my NF XII and FB.VI builds, which was for a 1/32nd resin set for radar (two types) and radio / Gee equipment, which (sort of) confirmed what I'd seen in pics and drawings. The radio remote is on the left, inside the red bracket, in the pic below, and next to it is the R/F unit for the Gee.
What I described as a control unit, next to the Gee box on my model, is, I believe, the receiver switch control panel for the I.F.F. and this time I've found the pic !
This is also shown on the Gee installation diagram, and the one on my model, a last minute addition as the model was almost finished, is a very basic representation, based on the one shown in the installation diagram.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks again guys.

Terry, what was hanging me up is the fact that the FB VI manual says that the R1155 was installed along with Gee as described in detail in my post 29 and shown again above midway through post 46. It shows explicitly in the manual that the R1155 was mounted centrally on the wing deck with the Gee receiver to it's left.

At any rate, I'm not going to install it though I don't know what radio equipment would have replaced it unless all comms went through the TR1143 mounted in the depths of the fuselage out of sight.

EDIT: By the way, that box above the Gee indicator in your pic is consistent with documentation I received from a friend stating that it is the IFF controller only his info has it mounted on the starboard side. There was a switch panel associated with the Gee indicator and the manual diagram that you posted earlier has this located where that IFF controller is in the pic above. Grrrr....

 

[Airframes]

Yep, I know the problem. I spent many, many hours, over a number of weeks, trawling through photos, diagrams and drawings, and some modelling articles, including looking at after market accessory parts that didn't identify what the equipment actually was,, although it matched what I was looking for, trying to find a definitive answer. I ended up being totally flumoxed by the various TR and SCR numbers and derivatives.
This was even more complicated when Canadian built Mossies were illustrated, which were, or could be, equipped with American - sourced radios, instruments and some other items, and many close-up photos,showing the cockpit externally, looking in, lacked detail of the Mk in the captions.
The fit of the 1155 certainly seems to have been used, in the early days of 'Gee', and, of course, continued with some of the B.IV and PRU aircraft, including later PRU variants such as the Mk.IX, and it was certainly fitted to at least early FB.VI models - the mast is the indicator of this - and here lies part of the confusion, if that's the correct term in this instance.
Eventually, I relied on info I'd gleaned from those Mosquito crews I knew (now all sadly passed on), who's descriptions tallied with the layout of the two, rectangular boxes on the spar 'shelf', with 'Gee' alongside, seen, even vaguely, in some photos, and which corresponds with the internal, or whip aerial which would indicate VHF radio.
My conclusions were that, if it's a 'standard' FB.VI, without the aerial mast, then the two rectangular boxes, one of which (port side) is the Gee R/F unit, should be the layout.
If it's an earlier FB.VI, with the radio mast, then it could have the 1143/1155, or the 1143 and Gee, or a combination of whatever - only detailed photos / info could perhaps solve this.
Of course, the role / unit and operational area can also have some influence. as radio frequency range may dictate whether HF or VHF radio is required, and then more complications could arise, depending on variant of the radio, for example 1155, 1155A etc, , and whether there are one or two antenna wires !
Bottom line for me, unless there is photo evidence to prove otherwise - if there is no aerial mast, and it's a FB.VI in the 'standard' role (eg with 2 Group / 2 TAF, rather than 'specialised roles, such as Banff Wing) then it's virtually certain that VHF radio is fitted, and most probably, the 'two boxes' type.
Note though, that it could be VHF, with Gee, and employ the American SCR 522A/542A sets, ( pic from manual below) which retained the mast, but without the wires or wire attachment, similar to, for example later Spitfires, the size of the 'boxes' being more compact then the 1155, but slightly larger than, and mounted in similar fashion to the equipment mentioned above. But, from what I've learned to date, this was fitted to Canadian built aircraft, and possibly / probably Mossies in service with the USAAF only
I'm still looking though my references, a bit at a time, to see if I can fin the pics i based my conclusions on.
EDIT: Forgot to add - yes, the Gee IFF controller is shown starboard side, where the fuel gauges are, although I haven't seen any details on it, and assume it's a small unit, within the panel where the gauges are. as it would only be a couple of switches / relays - and, on checking, that switch box is related to the Gee.

 

[Crimea_River]

We need a book on this stuff Terry, written in layman's terms. Thanks for the info my friend.

Below are the few photos of Bannock's rig that can be found on the net. None show any clues as to antennae.