<-- Mosquito FB.VI - Twin Engined Aircraft of WWII

Looks like a minor setback Terry

Yes, it hasn't broken completely, just a crack and a surface stress mark, and should easily bond together when the fuselage is cemented together.

Glad you fixed that.

Brittle stuff.

Easy fix for you terry..

Yep, should join easily. It was caused by the pressure needed to drill through the very thick plastic on the door, which, as can be seen in the pics, has the internal detail moulded in. It's around 3mm thick in this area !

Cool... another Mosquito! The crack may have also been caused by the drilled holes being too far apart.

No, it happened when the last hole was drilled. I left a gap between the upper holes, so that one of them could be enlarged to allow access to a thin razor saw. when enlarged, the pressure caused the crack, due to the curve of the fuselage.
Funnily enough, exactly the same thing happened when I drilled out the door on a 1/32nd scale Mossie ....

Whilst waiting for the final coat of clear gloss to dry on the NF.XII, I've moved back to this build, and done a lot of planning and measuring, in preparation for fitting and detailing the cockpit, as there will be a combination of kit parts, one or two resin parts from True Details, the Eduard PE instrument panel, some home-cast resin parts, and some scratch-building, all of which has to fit precisely, to allow the fuselage to join easily.
I've also started work on some of the external features, finishing the door aperture, sinking recesses for the signal lamps, and opening the aft tactical camera port.

PIC 1. The main cockpit components have been assembled, in order to check alignment and level with the door aperture. Bearing in mind that this kit was first released in 1980, the detail here is very good and, overall, better, and more accurate than the 1998 Tamiya kit.
PIC 2. With the fuselage halves taped together, depressions for the signal lamps have been countersunk, and a card template taped in place, and the window for the rear-facing tactical (Strike) camera scribed. The external detail is raised, and fairly feint (state of the art nearly forty years ago), and Tamiya's much more modern kit definitely has the edge in this department.
PIC 3. The window aperture was first scribed, and then a series of small holes, with a larger central hole were drilled.
PIC 4. The holes aided the cutting out of the aperture, which was then filed to shape, slightly over-size, to allow the glazing to fit. The window will be glazed with a disc punched from a sheet of clear plastic, later in the build.
PIC 5. The hatch has been engraved, and will be tidied and improved, once the fuselage halves have been joined. The bomb bay and cannon bay doors will also be engraved at that time.

Next step is to prepare the kit instrument panel, ready for fitting the pre-printed Eduard PE parts.
Back soon with another up-date, once there's something worthwhile to show.

Very nice Terry. Are you sure that the FBVI had the strike camera?

Thanks Andy, and yes, most of the FB.VI variant operating in NW Europe had the strike camera, and those in 140 Wing, 2 TAF (Previously 2 Group) definitely had them. Look at pictures such as the attack on the Amiens prison, and in the top of the frame the tail wheel can be seen. These pics were taken by this camera, which focused by a mirror arrangement to 'shoot' aft, recording the strike on the target.
As I mentioned earlier, when the 'Operation Carthage' Mosquitoes dropped their wing tanks, the cameras started 'shooting', recording beautiful, low-level pics of the Danish countryside (but none of the strike on Shell Hus! ) as the tank jettison circuit had accidentally been wired to the same circuit as the strike cameras !!

Moving on, and work has started on the instrument panels. Considering the original release date of this kit, the detail on the main panel, and the fuel systems panel, is quite good, although, inexplicably, there is a 'slot' in the latter which shouldn't be there, and given the quality of the detail on the other parts, such as the radios and control column, there aren't any rudder pedals.

PICS 1 and 2. The instrument panel and fuel systems panel as provided in the kit, the latter part of the starboard fuselage half.
PIC 3. Filing off the raised detail, ready for attaching the Eduard pre-printed PE parts. The switch panel at the right will be retained.
PIC 4. The main panel in place, with the 'overlay' panels for the Blind Flying Panel and auxiliary instruments fitted on top. The engine instrument panel at left has yet to have the 'overlay' panel fitted.
The auxiliary 'overlay' was a b*gger to attach, as it just would not stop swinging to the left, as capillary action, fighting against the BFP above it, kept on moving it !
I just had to let it settle, as, when I tried to add a tiny drop of CA, and 'swing' the 'overlay' into position, it either stuck to the tip of the needle I was using, or to my finger, or both !
However, once the cockpit is assembled, and the canopy is fitted, this slight misalignment shouldn't be noticeable. I'm undecided whether to use the PE parts for the fuel panel, or just fill that slot and paint it - decision time tomorrow !

That's all for now, but I hope to be back soon with another up-date.

Thanks Terry.

The instrument panel looks great! Even the molded kit parts that you sanded off look good.

Thanks Wojtek and John.
I was very tempted to leave the instrument panel as it was, and use some decals and paint, as I've built about three of the Airfix Mossies over the years and, with a bit of patience and careful painting, the panels come up really nice - and that rectangular recess makes mounting scratch-built undercart, bomb door and flap levers fairly easy. But, as I'd ordered the other Eduard panels, I thought I'd give one a try on this model first.
I've got the remaining fascia panel in place now, and getting ready to paint the rest of the panel and bulkhead, having first given the bulkhead a coat of yellow paint, and applied a disc-shaped mask to this to create the gas detector patch on the interior grey-green.

I'll be back on this soon, but first, I want to start on the decals on the NF.XII.
Thanks again for our interest and kind comments.

Lovely work so far Terry!

Thanks Hugh.

Done a little bit more on the instrument panel, with the bulkhead painted, showing the gas detection patch, and the bomb selector switch panels and other areas painted black.
This will be given a satin clear coat, to contrast against the main panel. Mosquito panels could be semi-matt black, or have a 'crackle' finish, which was more hard wearing, or could be a combination of both.
The 'grainy', satin finish on Eduard coloured PE panels, disliked by many, is a fairly good representation of the 'crackle' finish used on the Mossie (and other British aircraft), so in this case it fits in quite well, although I may tone-down the sheen a little when I glaze the instruments.
The newly painted areas will have the switches etc picked out in the relevant colours, but the undercart and flap levers etc will not be made and fitted until the last minute.
I will, however, have to scratch a very rough representation of the rudder pedals, and fit these before fitting the panel to the cockpit floor.
They only need to be the basic shape, as once fitted, they're almost hidden from sight, so I'll only be making simple 'square U' shapes.
The pics show the bulkhead painted dull yellow, with a circular mask in place to create the gas detector patch, and the bulkhead painted, with the mask removed, and the beginnings of painting the rest of the kit panel.

Feeling a bit stiff in the arms and shoulders, having been out and about in a cold wind today, so I'm not doing any more until tomorrow.





.

Looks great Terry. I'm sure you're aware of what the rudder pedals look like but just in case....

Doin' good Terry.