Mosquito GB - 1:48 Mosquito B.IV, 105 Sqn (GB-J)

[FTS]

Here's my entry for this GB. This is Tamiya's boxing of the Mosquito MkIV in 1/48 scale.

Box and sprue shots for now.

[Deacon]

This is obviously the big brother of the one I am doing.

Will be watching your progress with interest mate.

Alan

[ianf]

Welcome to the Gb FTS you have definitly picked a beauty of a kit, I enjoyed building it many years ago. I look forward to seeing how you get on.

Ian

[FTS]

Well i've made a start on this today. There's still a lot of touching up to do and detail to be added in places.

[ianf]

Nice start FTS. There certainly is a lot of detail in the tamiya kits. One tiny thing on your cockpit floor with the control panel on, the chain guard isn't red its the same colour as the interior. That said I like what I see so far.

Ian

[FTS]

Nice start FTS. There certainly is a lot of detail in the tamiya kits. One tiny thing on your cockpit floor with the control panel on, the chain guard isn't red its the same colour as the interior. That said I like what I see so far.

Ian

I've been using this guys build for reference, along with everyone elses builds and your pictures from Elvington.
http://hsfeatures.com/features04/mosquitobivfd_1.htm

This guy had the wheel red (I hope that's the part you were refering too).

Does everything else look 'reasonably' accurate? On some builds i've seen the Nav seat cushions are brown, and other little things like that. I've just been going with what the instructions suggest and if someone has built a kit in those colours, then I open the paint.

[ianf]

Hi FTS the wheel is actually silver as it is a sprocket for a chain. so if it has no chain guard like tony's it would be silver heres a pic I took last weekend



The seat cushions are green, humbrols 163 is a close match. However the cushions got scuffed and worn and you then get brownish patches showing through! That does lead to confusion! on my kit the seats are green but the photos make them look brown! So I see your dilemma.

Looking at the rest it looks pretty good, remember your building a Mk IV which is much different layout to a Mk II.

But welcome to the minefield of whats right and whats wrong detail wise on any kit

Its still a good start to me.

One last thing the red arrow showing the guard isnt there in real life.

[FTS]

Hi FTS the wheel is actually silver as it is a sprocket for a chain. so if it has no chain guard like tony's it would be silver heres a pic I took last weekend



The seat cushions are green, humbrols 163 is a close match. However the cushions got scuffed and worn and you then get brownish patches showing through! That does lead to confusion! on my kit the seats are green but the photos make them look brown! So I see your dilemma.

Looking at the rest it looks pretty good, remember your building a Mk IV which is much different layout to a Mk II.

But welcome to the minefield of whats right and whats wrong detail wise on any kit

Its still a good start to me.

One last thing the red arrow showing the guard isnt there in real life.

Cheers for that, I see what I need to correct now. I see the bar that goes under the seat is the same colour as the interior, the kit says to paint it aluminium. I do enjoy the research for making an accurate kit. You learn so much more about the aircraft, but my god it can take ages! I spent almost the entire day yesterday getting to the stage i'm at now! The Gladiator, which I made last, just had a black slab for the cockpit, so this is leaps and bounds ahead!

[ianf]

Hi FTS you think your having detail problems! I'm building for a guy who in every sense of the word is MR Mosquito so I cant get it wrong! The shaft in your picture connected to the spocket is silver, there is a second bar under the seat thats part of the seat.

I'm like you, I love learning about the real thing when I build a kit. On this build I'm just lucky I have access to the real thing which is rare I suppose.

Ian

[FTS]

Hi FTS you think your having detail problems! I'm building for a guy who in every sense of the word is MR Mosquito so I cant get it wrong! The shaft in your picture connected to the spocket is silver, there is a second bar under the seat thats part of the seat.

I'm like you, I love learning about the real thing when I build a kit. On this build I'm just lucky I have access to the real thing which is rare I suppose.

Ian

You don't know anyone with a Mk.IV do you?

[FTS]

Todays update;

Bomb bay painted


I decided to go with the decal belts in the end. At a distance I don't think they're that bad.


A lot of clamps required, but the fit is good!

[ianf]

It seems we have all been busy today on the mossies front, unfortuneatly for me you have made the most progress It is looking good and for you the worst is over! I like the bomb bay detail. you won't be long before your at the paint stage.

Ian

[Deacon]

Looking good mate.

Alan

[FTS]

This weekends update.

I've not done as much as I would have liked on this, this weekend. I'll keep doing bits as and where I can during the week, but I doubt they'll be any big updates for a couple of weeks as i'm guarding RAF Brampton, as of Friday, for 2 weeks

After the clamps were removed, filler applied and sanded, and the tailplanes added;


The wings were a fantastic fit with hardly any filler required;



That's all for now.

[Deacon]

These Tamiya kits are ace.

Looking forward to the next update.

Alan

[ianf]

Steve she is looking good, even with two week downtime your looking likely to finish. can't wait to see this finished.

Ian

[Fumbles]

Another great looking Mosquito. Looks mighty fine sofar.

[Craig]

That looks absolutely top drawer!

[FTS]

Well i'm still slowly progressing on with this build. There's very few bits to be added now and shortly it'll be ready for spraying.

I hand painted the frame work on the clear pieces and then covered them with masking tape before fiiting them in place. This was hell of a lot quicker than masking it and then cutting out the framework. The only issue i've had with fit so far was the clear pieces on the side of the nose, other than that, no problems.

[FTS]

I completely forgot to take pictures as i've been doing this. The light grey on the underside has been applied, then it was remasked for the dark grey on the upper surfaces. I then cut out the masks for the green and rolled the blue tack for the demarcation lines. This is the first time i'll be spraying camo, and i've not had to use the blue tack method yet, so i'm learning as I go with this.

[FTS]

I've been quiet of late with this build due to a nightmare moment last week which left me close to giving up with this kit altogether. It wasn't the kits fault, it was the idiot building it that was the problem.

After spraying I removed the masking tape to find that a lot of paint decided that it prefered the tape rather than the plastic! Also the colours were all completely off. The instructions said to use Dark Green, I used Revells Dark Green, which is nothing like the tone of the Tamiya paint which it recommends.


I found a lot of the clear parts had fogged up in places, my fault again for trying to use contact adhesive instead of the contact clear, as I couldn't find it at the time. I won't be doing that again!

Anyway to cut a long story short, i've brush painted over the entire top side and some of the underside. After a bit of mixing i've got the colours to what I feel they should be. There's still a lot of work to do but hopefully i'll make the deadline.

[ianf]

Hi Ft
Sorry to hear you had some problems, but glad your making progress and even if you finish after the deadline put it in the gallery you,ve earned it. It still looks good and at least you have a chance of the deadline mine won't make it still to much to build.
your almost there mate

Ian

[Craig]

Nice save paint still looks very good!

[FTS]

I could call this done, but there's a few bits that I want to work on a bit more and then add the bombs into the bomb bay.





When i'm statisfied with it, i'll get some pics in natural light as the flash brings out all the imperfections.

[Craig]

Very nice indeed! I do like that!