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

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Wayne. Was able to confirm the fin dimensions posted above using our own Mossie and set about cutting the rudder away and shaping the fin. Now will be out of town til the weekend so no further work til then.

Watch this space....

 

[Crimea_River]

Some additional progress has been made on the vertical tail section but first I thought it might be useful to post a diagram of the dimensions I verified on our actual sample in Nanton and overlaid on the figure from the Osprey publication mentioned earlier:

With the exception of the height issue, all the dimensions matched the Tamiya tail exactly so repairs will be confined to fixing the height issue and placement of the top rudder hinge.

As mentioned earlier, the modified shape of the fin was traced by measuring down 2.2mm from the top of the rudder using a vernier gauge and then tracing the shape to be cut using the other fuselage half placed in the slightly lowered position. Using this method, the port side was then roughly cut and filed to shape along that line. Shown below is the newly cut port side with the new cut for the lower horn balance started. To the right is the starboard side with the newly traced cut line from the port half.

In the photo below, the port rudder has been cut away and the starboard fin has been reshaped. Using the port side as a template, the horn balance cut for the other side was made and then the starboard rudder was removed.

The two rudder halves were glued together and a copious amount of surface primer was applied to both sides so that the "starving cow" look of the ribs could be toned down. Below can be seen the first sanding.

With a coat of primer applied, the rib effect has been greatly reduced with just a hint of the ribbing now showing. This test coat also reveals that some further work is needed in the corner of the horn balance to sharpen the joint.

Leaving the fin for a minute, I want to catch you up on something I did a few weeks ago. If you go back to post 101 you can see a picture of the part that represents the back of the 20mm gun butts and the moulded support structure. Unfortunately, that part does not reflect reality as the support structure was, in fact, an open truss structure and the hangers for the middle guns were not present here, these being located on a similar truss further forward. In hopes of making this look a little better, I removed the material between the lattice work, leaving the part as shown below.

This piece will be visible through the open bomb bay and I will continue to clean it up and modify it with added details. The two center cannon butts will be cut away and resupported in a manner yet to be decided.

On a separate note, Terry has been very kind to purchase and send me a vac-firmed canopy and brass gun barrels but these have not yet shown up in the mail. I think the dog sled broke down near Winnipeg. Hopefully these parts show up this week!

Thanks for looking and also for your comments.

 

[rochie]

Great attention to detail Andy

 

[Airframes]

Great work there Andy.
I hope those parts show up soon - maybe the Pigeon met a head wind, and stopped off in Greenland for a week !!

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks gentlemen.

I managed to do some more as another continuous snowfall throughout the day prevented anything else from getting done. The gun mount was cleaned up some more and the guns removed. The mounting bar was cut away and replaced with two different diameter styrene rods. A couple of other small detail bits were also added and these will have some pneumatic lines added for the cocking mechanisms. The frame, when complete, will be painted black.

Here's the starboard side showing the completed cockpit and the beginnings of a cleanup in the bomb bay. If Tamiya had moved their ejector pins up a half inch, they would have been behind the roof and invisible. As it is, these are now being filled and smoothed. The moulded "fuel gallery" will be cut away and replaced with a scratch built one that protrudes further out. Wiring aft of Junction box C in the cockpit has been bent away at the moment. When the cockpit is cemented in, these will be cut and routed to the bulkhead connectors.

Here is the pit with the additional boxes and more wiring added. The wiring mentioned above will be attached to the connectors seen on the left. Some more random wiring will be added on the right side but this can be done with the pit glued to the starboard half.

Thanks again for following and for the encouragement.

 

[nsmekanik]

That really captures the look in there Andy, well done.

 

[Wurger]

Well done Andy.

 

[Airframes]

Nice !

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys.

 

[fubar57]

Very, very nice adjustments. The world's postal system is bizarre to say the least. I sent Jan a set of decals and they arrived within 10 days; a continent and ocean between us. I sent Andy some decals and these took just over a month to be delivered; a 10hr drive on a good day

 

[Wurger]

At least it was delivered. I sent a parcel on previous Saturday to a city of 170 km from my town ( a 2hr and a half drive on any day). It took them five days for getting it there. But they haven't brought it to the sendee and even didn't leave a delivery notice in the mail box. If I haven't been tracking the package we never found out it was there waiting for picking up.

 

[Wayne Little]

Postal service seems to be the same the world over......

Great detail Andy.

 

[Airframes]

I hope the parts arrive !
In the past, it's taken an average of 9 days, including weekends, from the UK to Canada / USA.
I checked with the company I use, Mail Boxes Inc, who are closer to me than the nearest Post Office, and they confirmed that the package would have been collected, by Royal Mail, at approx. 16.00 hrs on 19th September.
Three weeks seems a heck of a long time, so I'm hoping that maybe the strike by British Airways pilots at the time I posted the package, may have caused the delay.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Parts not here yet but fingers crossed. They are nowhere near holding me up at the moment and I have my doubts that I'll even finish this build by Dec 1. Busy times with our Hurricane now virtually complete and getting ready to ship to Calgary for it's rollout party in November. Heading back to Wetaskiwin tomorrow to see what will hopefully be the first startup of this aircraft in over 74 years. Calgary's Hurricane on the Move

In the meantime, "another day's useless energy spent"....

The ammunition boxes for the outer cannons will be visible through the support lattice so I set about scratch building the visible surfaces using styrene card.

The outer gun butts have been reconnected and some scratch details added to spruce them up. The ammunition boxes will be glued in just fore of the support truss which will effectively hide the bogus fuel tanks.

Thanks again for watching.

 

[fubar57]

Pretty spiffy Andy

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff.
If the package doesn't arrive, i'll do it again Andy.

 

[Crimea_River]

No you won't Terry. You've done too much already. Do you have a way to track the delivery?

 

[Wayne Little]