1/24 Airfix Scale Mosquito build

[Grunhertz]

Beuatiful

[Drifter]

Awesome Pete. How did you paint the guns? I have a problem where Tamiya primer wont really stick the brass, and chip very easily.

[DocRob]

5 hours ago, Drifter said:

Awesome Pete. How did you paint the guns? I have a problem where Tamiya primer wont really stick the brass, and chip very easily.

Hi Drifter, you don't have to paint the barrels necessarily. If you use burnishing fluid on the cleaned and grease free brass barrels you get a blackening effect, which is controllable and matte in finish. The other good thing about that process is, that you don't add the thickness of Colour to the surface and the details maintain.

Cheers Rob

[PeteF]

7 hours ago, Drifter said:

Awesome Pete. How did you paint the guns? I have a problem where Tamiya primer wont really stick the brass, and chip very easily.

I painted them...should have painted them apart rather than assembled and they are somewhat brittle. Then rubbed them with graphite.

[Drifter]

3 hours ago, DocRob said:

Hi Drifter, you don't have to paint the barrels necessarily. If you use burnishing fluid on the cleaned and grease free brass barrels you get a blackening effect, which is controllable and matte in finish. The other good thing about that process is, that you don't add the thickness of Colour to the surface and the details maintain.

Cheers Rob

Of course, primary school science. Damn, thanks Rob. What do you use?

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, Drifter said:

Of course, primary school science. Damn, thanks Rob. What do you use?

I started to use burnishing fluid from Uschi, but since it's a small bottle and I also use that bluish liquid for blackening white metal tracks for tanks, I found that stuff in a store for tiffany lamps for some Euros per liter. That will last for years .

Cheers Rob

[PeteF]

Lots of work done. I looked at Kermit Week's Youtube walkaround of his mosquito and did a tubing harness for the bomb bay.

Finally completed the bomb bay and finished the top of the wing weathering. Next I have to do the stencils and weathering on the bottom before tackling the bomb bay and gear doors.

The struts for the bomb bay doors are meant to actually slide so they can be positioned right. At every step, I made sure they were free and when I finally painted them, one seized up and broke...sigh. This thing has a lot of broken parts that are glued back together in it

I also had to fill the dent in the wing from where my light melted it. I was able to re-use the roundel mask to fix that. 

[harv]

.......Harv

[Drifter]

Wow, thats just stunning.

[Clunkmeister]

On 10/8/2018 at 8:32 PM, BlrwestSiR said:

I can completely agree with you there. My Tamiya Mossie stalled after I made a mess of the belts. I ended up ripping them out and putting new ones in. It was only then that I felt up to finishing it.

You're doing a great job and I'm looking forward to seeing paint on her.

Carl

My BOAC Mossie is stalled out on the belts as well. I had finished what seemed like 2 months of tedious Profimodeler PE work and then along came the belts.   I just lost my cool and calmly placed it all in the HK box for later

[Grunhertz]

That looks lovely 

[PeteF]

12 hours ago, Clunkmeister said:

My BOAC Mossie is stalled out on the belts as well. I had finished what seemed like 2 months of tedious Profimodeler PE work and then along came the belts.   I just lost my cool and calmly placed it all in the HK box for later

It's probably fortunate that I got the pilot's seatbelts before I got the kit. I was still all enthusiastic and happy when I did those. But once I realized I had to do the Navigator's belts, I put that off for over a month and swore the whole time I was doing them. Only good thing was that I had the experience of the first ones so the second went a bit quicker.

[Mikester]

Amazing work!

[PeteF]

Lots of fiddly stuff finished. I knew the gear doors would be a pain...and they were. This whole "glue the hinges to the part, then hope it all aligns right in an impossible to reach space" thing is for the birds. 

The bomb bay doors were interesting. In the kit they had a single door per side if it was displayed closed and two doors per side if it was displayed open...again, something like 12 hinges and 4 struts that would all have to align perfectly AND the "two" doors are actually supposed to look like one door when you're done (bangs head on desk).

Got the fiddly bits done on the gear including the brake lines and door protector bars. Also wired the back of the doors...going to probably wire the fronts. The gear door mechanism was cables and springs basically pulled by the gear retracting. All that stuff is visible on a real plane.

Have a weathering and stencil decal marathon coming up on the bottom but there are nearly no un-built parts left on this plane.

Oh and I've been dreading painting the canopy...that's next.

 

[Martinnfb]

Those streaks and sot are extremely convincing ! Love it !

[Grunhertz]

That looks lovely again

[Peterpools]

Pete

Just lov’in the build and the details in the bomb bay are perfect! 

Keep ‘em comin

Peter

[PeteF]

Ugh, I'm so disappointed. One of the ludicrous things about this kit is there are three choices for Navigator's side window...depending on where the plane was built dictates the "bulge" on the side. But none of those apply to the planes modeled by the kit. At any rate, the side of the canopy has to be added to an existing lip in the rest of the canopy. Turns out that not only is that lip difficult to cleanly mount the side piece to but it is completely visible. Looks like a huge step and that's the place you have to glue the side on.

After painting, the step was visible and looked like crap. I had to go back and do more filling, sanding (always what you want to be doing on a clear canopy) and "thicken" the frame on that side considerably to hide it. After hundreds of hours of trying to make this thing as scale as I can, I have to kludge the canopy frame to hide a toy-like and unnecessary kit conceit.

The canopy is just set on the model in the last picture.

Blah.

[PeteF]

The canopy looked odd to me (not realistic) so I used some umber wash in the corners and along the glass parts of the frame. Spent a while redoing the offensive frame to show more plastic. Happier with it now.

Also showing the big lip.

[Drifter]

Pete, being too harsh on yourself. I understand you want it 100% perfect, but if you did not mention it, I would no have noticed it. This is by FAR the best 1/24 Mosquito build I have seen to date.

[DocRob]

Nice recovery, In the end it will be "only" you to see that canopy area with that level of critizism. All the others will see, like Drifter said, the best BIG Mossie out there.

Cheers Rob

[Sir Desmond Glazebrook]

Sterling work, Sir. My compliments.

 

[Uncarina]

Pete,

I do feel your pain. I am confronted with a 1/24 Typhoon canopy that’s cracked, with no response from Airfix or Alleycat. In your case, I just bet you can find clear plastic packaging out there with a section that matches the shape you need. Then you can use the kit part as a template. Hope this helps!

Cheers,  Tom

[PeteF]

4 minutes ago, Uncarina said:

Pete,

I do feel your pain. I am confronted with a 1/24 Typhoon canopy that’s cracked, with no response from Airfix or Alleycat. In your case, I just bet you can find clear plastic packaging out there with a section that matches the shape you need. Then you can use the kit part as a template. Hope this helps!

Cheers,  Tom

Weird, I had a fast reaponse from Airfix for my replacement wing. Try this email: customercare@hornby.com. The person I dealt with was Lynne Stirrups. Nothing worse than a broken vital part!

[Jackster]

Just read the whole thread Pete, fantastic work and very inspiring. This kit has been on my radar for a long time, even though like you I have just returned to modelling for the first time in 30 years or so. Seeing your sterling work has given me the nudge I need to source a kit I think. I quite like the way a lot of detail has to be added, this is where a lot of the appeal lies. Thank you very much and good luck with the rest of the build.

Cheers

Kev