PeteF

Sprucing up and adding some access panels by printing them out, spray mounting them to the back of aluminum tape, gently punching them from the back and sticking them on.

An old 1/48 scale Monogram Spitfire vs the tail of this kit.

Thanks, viewing this on an iPad with a shattered screen, it would probably have been more obvious on a better screen!

So are the flaps wood or metal? I read conflicting things.

Hey! Some recognizable plane parts!

I'll probably still make a hint of it by masking it, building some primer up and removing the mask so I have a line to add some weathering to

Wow...just wow!

Interesting that it was the same kit that got me back into modeling...though hardly at the same level as you sir!

Ah, good to know before I get the new wing. Pity though, the wing lacks detail.

More cockpit work including a frustrating but eventually successful attempt at little toggle switches. Eventually made a panel of thin styrene, marked and punched dents for position and cut small bits of lead wire and CA glued them in place. Then used side cutters to cut them to the right length. The airfix panel and tubes on the starboard cockpit were pretty good otherwise. Needed a couple of more wires from my reference. Added the oxygen hose I made a while back and some more fiddly detail t the port side. Hose isn’t attached here.

Cockpit side panel work.

Drew the plane codes and sent to a friend who might be able to cut these as masks. Got the Montex masks for the rest. This plane was in 487 New Zealand squadron, served in the Amiens raid with a pilot with my last name and both he and this plane survived the war. The pilot went on to do gunnery training in Spitfires and returned to New Zealand to his postmaster job and the plane was struck off charge in 1945 after serving 487 squadron RNZAF, then 464 squadron RAAF and back to 487 RNZAF before being SOC 12/20/45.

Plumbing. A bit larger than scale but pretty accurately placed.

Thanks to the show "James May Toy Stories" where he built a 1/1 scale "Airfix" Spitfire, I knew that Airfix had a stock of old models from which you could order parts. Two emails and one phone call later, a new Mosquito upper wing is coming from the UK! Very efficient process and happy they had the part from a kit that had been out of production for 6 years.

Whoops, I fatally damaged my wing. I overheated one side and it distorted back 1/4". Noticeable and makes the flaps not fit. Going to have to contact Airfix and see if they have a replacement...d'oh! Meanwhile, worked on some smalls.

The wing was level on the bottom but because of the taper at the top, the effect was several degrees of anhedral. There should be a couple of degrees of dihedral just outside of the nacelles with the center section being flat.

There aren't many panel lines on the wooden Mossy wings but there are some noticeable bulges from the spars. Used aluminum tape and built up primer for most of them (tape removed) but left the outer leading edge bulge since that is prominent in photos. Also started trying to change the kits anhedral to dihedral (yes, with a torch). Also working on ordinance.

Cannon pack.

Crikey, the finished model is going to be huge#

Decided to use the kit cannons as is. I ordered brass barrels for the .303s since they're prominent.

Thanks, I'll look in to those. Got the exhaust installed.

Thanks for the kind words. Actually I'm finding that I'm struggling with the same issue I used to have with modeling which is the basic assembly. I'm using too much glue, having trouble filling and leveling the seams and breaking parts that don't naturally end up where they should be. I find that the intermediate years have taught me a lot about painting and detailing and have given me a much greater subject matter understanding (which makes it easier to interpret photos and diagrams into actual parts) but I still can't seem to do basic things like cut a piece of styrene pipe straight or make a little "box" that is symmetrical. There seems to be a finite "resolution" to how fiddly of things I can accurately make. I'd be hopeless in 1/48 scale LOL.

All plumbed. Two airplane parts!

Finally some bits that are starting to resemble an aircraft.

Test fit with and without the shroud.