GB-67 1/48 Mosquito P.R. Mk. XVI - Twin Engine in WWII

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Thanks much guys. Today we achieved fuselage harmony after first painting the last few bits like the cameras and rear mud guard.



One trick I've used over the years is to take advantage of joints that will be hidden and applying large beads of CA glue with accelerator to act as clamps while the Tamiya liquid cement cures. This allows me to move on without all those clamps on the way. Below is the bomb bay, which will be closed up and you can see the dabs of CA in a few spots along the joint between the fuselage and bomb bay roof. I only painted the cameras and surrounding areas black so that the limited view through the glass panels will be suitably dark.



Fuselage together:



I also punched a couple of yellow disc decals for the armoured bits - Observer's fold down piece and the pilot's back rest. The decal for the latter tore but I'm fine with that. Chalk it up to wear from the pilot's jacket.



Now that the halves are together I'll also fine tune the modified fin as it's a bit too blunt on the leading edge near the top. I also plugged the hole for the pitot tube and filed a new hole further down. The seam looks messy at the moment as some of the ink form my pen marks bled into the glue. All will be fine.



Another assembly I've worked on are the undercarriages. The mud guard supports had the lightning holes drilled out which makes for a nice touch I think and everything got a shot of Tamiya XF-16 Flat Aluminum. Contrary to the instructions, I assembled these without pinching the wheels between the two halves as this makes for much easier painting. Once I'm done fiddling with the legs I'll cut off the axles, drill holes in the bosses and insert the wheels with a brass rod.



The fiddling I referred to is to modify Tamiya's gear door fenders, which represent an earlier style, to make them look more like this:



Just need to add a couple of pieces of stretched sprue or wire. Back after the weekend with more. Thanks for looking in and for leaving likes and comments.
 
Thanks very much guys. A bit of bench time yesterday got me smoothing the fuselage joints. I also finally finished gluing on all the little Dzus fastener spring plates that were omitted from the resin engine cowls. These still need to be filed down a bit and then tested under a coat of primer. I also glued on the horizontal stab and the bomb bay covers. The fit on the latter was a bit of a struggle but it will look OK when I'm done with it.



Now for the canopy. The bulged side panels needed for the P.R.XVI are not included with the kit and these pose a fabrication challenge that I'm not prepared to launch into right now. My Mosquito spares box has three styles of side panel. The red circle below shows FLAT side panels, the blue shows TEARDROP panels, and the yellow features a pretty inaccurate BULGED side panel.



The bulged panel would be needed for the P.R.XVI and other pressurized versions but the bulge should be carried over the entire clear part to the corners of the frame. Here's the real version, though it's a bit hard to make out:



Another modeler I'm referring to made his own be creating a mould and heating some clear plastic over it with heat. It took him multiple tries and I just don't have the stomach for doing all that now so I'm going to settle for using the inaccurate panels in the yellow circle that were supplied with the Tamiya F.B.VI kit.

Thanks for looking in and I hope to post more during the week.
 
Thanks guys. Doing some experiments with clear cement applied to the teardrop side panels to see if I can coax a bulge shape from it. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, I did a test shot of the engine cowls with primer:



Results are mixed. The ones on the left need more thinning down with a file and some dried CA that oozed out from the sides is evident, which is ugly. Others are not too bad.

The fin has also been cleaned up and test shot.



Just a tad more smoothing needed here.

Thanks again for stopping by.
 
Looking good Andy.
For the bulged side windows, try the soda bottle "conversion" which I experimented with, and would have worked if my hands hadn't given up working properly.
Some soda/pop bottles have "bubble" ridges around the base, and if carefully cut to match the canopy aperture, they're ideal to make the "blown" side windows. It'll probably take a couple of attempts, but it can be done.
Look for the smaller bottles, I think mine was a 500ml "Fanta" bottle.
 
Clever!
 
Thanks guys.

Airframes Terry I remember you mentioning that thanks. I also need to come up with a solution for the astrodome and I recall you mentioning clear plastic pill seals.

Nothing to report today but thanks for the interest.
 
Andy, if you think you can trim out the blister (or complete roof panel) from the Airfix PR.XVI kit, I'll send it to you, as I've "binned" the "633 Sqn Mossie project I stared way back.
Pic of canopy part below - the bulged side windows were used on my B.XVI Tamiya conversion.


 
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