Jeff Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 VERY happy to be of some sort of service, not often I can shed any light on stuff... Mosquitoes are kind of my thing..LOL 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF Posted October 9, 2018 Author Share Posted October 9, 2018 Meanwhile, the radios were totally wrong. This plane would have had Gee with the big receiver and transmitter buried in the fuselage. Plenty of references out there. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF Posted October 9, 2018 Author Share Posted October 9, 2018 Painted. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF Posted October 10, 2018 Author Share Posted October 10, 2018 Installed! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF Posted October 10, 2018 Author Share Posted October 10, 2018 If anyone needs it, here are the boxes in 1/24 scale for the Gee radios. This JPEG SHOULD be actual size but the dimensions are also on there. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF Posted October 10, 2018 Author Share Posted October 10, 2018 Hey Jeff, do you have any pictures of the inside of the side and upper engine cowlings? another part of this kit with no detail whatsoever. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF Posted October 10, 2018 Author Share Posted October 10, 2018 Took an hour and a half to fit the fuselage together with the cockpit. Another hour to mount the tail and stab. It's all pre painted in the base medium sea grey. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harv Posted October 11, 2018 Share Posted October 11, 2018 ........Harv 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 On 10/9/2018 at 8:35 PM, PeteF said: Hey Jeff, do you have any pictures of the inside of the side and upper engine cowlings? another part of this kit with no detail whatsoever. Sorry, Peter, I was a way for a bit, let me see if I can source you one.... I 'might', not sure though.... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF Posted October 12, 2018 Author Share Posted October 12, 2018 So here's a story that sums up model building...I am very close to out of the medium sea gray paint that the entire Mossie is painted in. I pre-painted all the assemblies then am re-painting the areas that I worked on so as to avoid hangar rash and to have a good position to paint each large assembly...so far so good. I have an old Paasche H1 that I finally replaced the needle and air cap (need the best possible spray to do the camo green) so it's been spraying the Vallejo paint better but generally I have had good results and a smooth finish but have had the spotty issue of the nozzle clogging or the paint being too thin. So I'm sitting there yesterday, carefully trying to conserve my last paint...squeezing the bottle to fill the cup on the airbrush and there was some clog or something and it suddenly came out and I sprayed about 1/3 of the remaining paint onto my pant leg (thank goodness for water-based paint!). In the rush to clean my pants I set the airbrush down and spilled out half of what was left in the cup...I had added some thinner and flow improver but was interrupted by the spill. Finally got my pants sorted and went back and shrugged and added some thinner and flow enhancer and a bit of the precious paint. Mixed it up and it sprayed like unicorn tears. Absolutely perfect opacity, spray pattern, consistency...it was just perfect...better than I have ever had it spray. Uh but I have no idea how I'd mixed it to do that...d'oh! It must be said though, I've had absolutely no problems with lumpy, rough or bumpy paint on the exterior. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GusMac Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 Ah, serendipity Pete. Finally get the perfect result and no bl***y idea how to repeat it. Been there before. Result does look beautifully smooth. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF Posted October 12, 2018 Author Share Posted October 12, 2018 Lots of fiddly detail bodywork. Had the metal landing gear (for the tail wheel) and absolutely couldn't get it to glue together. Finally used too much kicker and CA and ruined it. Remounted the metal strut but the rest is the plastic gear. Meanwhile, scratch built the metal frame here that's under the fairing. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocRob Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 Hi Pete, I often use Vallejo Model Air on my planes and tanks and get very mixed results while spraying. Clogging is an issue, but it seems to build up slower if you spray more continous. To me reducing the pressure is another way of reducing the clogging effect, because less particles of the paint dry on the needle with less air flowing by. Flow improver (also Vallejo) never did the trick for me. But back to the star of the show, your Mossie is looking great and I like the enhancements of the originalr kit, made by you. I more than once locked my eye on my Tamiya Mossie while reading this. Cheers Rob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF Posted October 13, 2018 Author Share Posted October 13, 2018 Thanks Doc. I’m going to really work on the mixture for the dark green camo because it should have a spray pattern on the tighter end of what the H1 can do. I have used photos of the Tamiya kit and some of the aftermarket parts for it as some of my references. That kit looks pretty darn accurate and detailed to me. There doesn’t seem to be much of a need to scratch build all the bits this kit lacks. I’m into the hundreds of hours on this thing (I estimate it’s over 300 hours of build time to date) and now that it’s buttoned up, not much of the cockpit detail is visible (even without the canopy and framing on). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 Peter, ask and ye shall be given..... this is the best I can do...... this is the Bob Jens' bird it is a B35 that was flying out of Victoria BC.... I hope this is what you were thinking of.... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF Posted October 13, 2018 Author Share Posted October 13, 2018 Awesome thanks so much! Relatively straightforward ribbing. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF Posted October 13, 2018 Author Share Posted October 13, 2018 Goodness...the Vallejo air dark green is so thin, it took 20 coats to get this green this opaque. To get a fine edge took some extreme thinning and lots of time so this minimal bit of camo took over 3 hours! I've painted entire planes in a fraction of that. I used half the paint I mixed on test spraying and cleaning sprays...crazy. Super smooth finish though but it’s going to take a full day to camo the wing. And no, this scheme most certanly was not masked and painted with hard edges on any operational Mosquitos of this era. I n fact, other than a general gudeline, the standard pattern was applied with significant variances...especially in how far down the sides of the plane it went. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 The hard edge soft edge debate goes on... I am of the opinion that the soft edge is the way to go, although there are 'experts' out there that tell me differently, somewhat vehemently at times... I am also in the free hand camp as well, and my reasoning is that when repairs are made in the field most often when paint is required, I certainly would say that the crews didn't have masks to work with, and the paint usually looks the same, soft edge.....so I am in total agreeance with you, and for the record, I have painted all my Hurricanes, Spitfires and Mosquitoes, in the free hand soft edge mode....and to me they look just fine..... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF Posted October 14, 2018 Author Share Posted October 14, 2018 One of the points of confusion is photos. In many cases the painters used an extremely thin spray pattern so from 20 feet away, the line looks hard edged. The New New Zealand built Mosquitos are a great example of that, Closeup there’s a soft edge, far away it’s hard to make out. Closeup though, on all my reference photos, there is definitely a spray pattern. I have seen closeup photos of individual Typhons and Spitfires that appeared to have been masked but it’s pretty rare and for sure with this “night fighter” standard mossy scheme, they are not only soft edge but knda messy to boot. Also, it’s clear that each factory where each plane was finished had a different way of painting them so there are more variables. Spitfires will drive you nuts because they changed schemes like 6 times from 1940-41...and then there’s the field or MTU repair variable. I know some factories had heavy “masks” that they laid over the wings to show where to paint. But even that was only usd sometimes in some factories. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 That is the best explanation I have read, that is exactly the way I see it and have read about, the hard edge looks way too perfect for my personal liking, and I am only speaking for my personal liking, but again, I know guys will say it has to do with scale effect at 1/72, or 148 or even 1/32 a sharp edge is what is required due to the scale of the model..... believe me I have heard it all many times, and sometimes not very politely...... but beauty is in the eye of the builder, Peter, I totally agree with your assessment, and besides if I bought a mask for ever Spitfire and Mosquito I have in my stash, Cathy would have a mask for me! a death mask ! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF Posted October 14, 2018 Author Share Posted October 14, 2018 Lots of fiddly pencil lines of green (and 5 hours) later. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harv Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 Man, your nailing it !.......Harv 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grunhertz Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 Nice one that's coming on nicely 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 26 minutes ago, harv said: Man, your nailing it !.......Harv No kidding! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peterpools Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 Peter Wonderful progress on your Mossie. Air brush work has always been my favorite part of any build and different colors from the same paint company will mix at different ratios and pressures. I've gotten in the habit f keeping all the paints used on a project in a separate containers and write down: Which air brush I used, working PSI and thinning ratio. Just seems to help down the road in keeping everything consistent and easy. A, the old hard line/ free hand cammo discussion; certainly discussed as much as Mustang wings. I straddle the fence and once in a while free hand free hand but prefer to use worms. For 24th scale, free hand is the way to go and 32nd scale can use either. I tend to roll my worms a bit so there is a bit of a feather. Looking real good Keep 'em comin Peter 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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