danimalmagic

Hi all, the plan for last week was to get the engines finished in the body work and fitted to the wing. This proved anything less than straightforward as I will explain, it was one of those weeks when you need another par of hand as the size of the Mossie makes things a little more tricky. The first thing to do was finish off all the remaining pipework in preparation to fitting of the engines bodywork. With that done I needed to assemble the struts for the landing gear, these again have been sprayed with decanted Tamiya AS-12 bare metal finish to match the landing gear parts. I have been using AS-12 and TS-17 gloss aluminium on this project and I have to sat they hold up very well compared to using Alclad, certainly far better than using the Tamiya bottle metallic's, I just decant straight into the airbrush bowl. With that done I could glue together the engine nacelle halves, this actually proved to be quite tricky as getting everything to align properly was quite difficult. The engine parts are so delicate that a great deal of care has to be taken, this was made even more difficult by the slight warping of the two nacelle halves. You also have to get the landing gear struts mounted at the same time while aligning the shaft that fits to the hydraulic cylinder. They pulled together as expected but need a little help while the glue went off, lots of elastic bands and spring clamps. The engine assemblies were left to dry for 24hrs from there I filled the join, as with the fuselage this took a couple of applications to get it right. Con't

Hi there, have a look at the following images, these are just a few of my reference, if you look on line you will see all sorts of variations with the copper pipe work, I just took the best detail from the images I had, I suspect it all depends on time line, wartime or post restoration.

Thanks Peter, i don't know where the week went, surprisingly time consuming. Thanks for looking. Danny

Mounting frames and some more of the copper piping, I spent a while looking at various images of the piping on the Mossie. Some have all copper and others are a mixture of copper and painted green pipes and steel, after some debate with myself I just did the main larger bore piping loop in copper finish. The good thing about debating with yourself is you always win. There is still a fair bit more pipework to add but this will be done when the engine halves are together so they were next, same interior green with a wash. Next the main gear assemblies, I was hoping to add these after painting but due to the way it goes together they have to go in now. With that done I could set the engine and gear in place. As you can imagine there are lots of other bit as pieces to assemble while glue and paint dries, I have managed to get the internal fuel tanks done in advance. That is my weeks work, it is surprising how fragile the engine framework is and it takes a fair bit of subtlety and care to get it all together. It also does not help that the large engine bodywork halves are warped a little, it will all pull together on assembly it just made it a little more difficult to set the engine bulkhead in place. The plan for next week is to complete both engines and piping and fit them to the wing then move on to the bomb bay.

Hi all, first thing this week was to get the wing fitted to the fuselage, it took a few test fits to get it right but the fit itself is very good, no large gaps to fill as you might expect from a larger scale kit. Fuselage to wing Fit. I did find one thing that may be an issue and that is the large gap under the tail elevator body, I need to find an image to see if there should be a gap there, if not it will be easy enough to fill. Next up I got the major parts of the engine assembled and began detailing, these engines turned out to be quite a little project on there own. I done the same with the rocker covers and used a white mig wash to highlight the Rolls Royce. Engine blocks have had a black wash around all the bolts I have dry brushed with a light sand shade for the Tamiya weathering set. External engine parts fitted. Con't

Thanks guys next update shortly.

The other and main drag for the week are the pin marks, there are a lot of them and some are rather large and are on visible surfaces, I will not bore you all with every one but here are some examples. I have filled all the ones that are visible with Mr Surfacer 1000, I pretty well use this as a filler for everything as it leaves a smooth finish. I have also had to do the same for the places where the sprue joined, some of these points are huge, Airfix use seriously chunky moulds. The kit obviously can be displayed with the engine panels off so these had to be done as well. The bomb bay has been painted and I have added a wash there is loads more to do in this area in the coming weeks, fortunately the ghastly pin marks here will be covered up by the bombs and fuel tanks. The radiator has also been pre painted and assembled to the wing. A view of the office, more to do here once the wing is in place. The next step is to set the wings in place, I have test fitted and it looks good so I am hoping that it will be relatively straight forward. Once that is done I think the main task for next week will be the Merlins, each one of those is quite a project on its own. A slow week but its sorting out the minor issues that get you every time. Thanks for looking. Danny

Hi all, a real niggly slow week for me as I will explain. I started off with the assembly of the Sutton Q Harnesses, it has taken just over two and a half days to completely finish these, very fiddly work. Fixed to the seats, I have manipulated a little to get them to drape around the seat. With that done I could fix the fuselage halves together, this took a bit carefull trimming to fit properly. As always there is a seam or two to fill. The same can also be said for the wings and rear elevator, you normally get away with this on smaller kits. Cont'd

Thanks guys, really looking forward to building this one, I can hear the Merlins calling. Thanks for looking. Danny

It has surprised me just how long it took to get this far, the Airfix kits have seriously thick sprue joins so each part once clipped needed a little bit more effort to clean up than usual. With that done I mounted the various parts to the side walls, I managed to find a suitable decal for the compass in the spares box. Test fit. Tail and fuselage bulkheads. Lastly for this week was the Sutton Q harnesses. Very fiddly and time consuming but I think they will finish of the cockpit nicely, I just need to join all the parts together. That is it for now. Regards Danny Attree www.modelmasteruk.com

Hi all, the next project on the bench is a commission build, it is for the new release Airfix Mosquito. I have the original release in the stash so while I had a chance I compared them to see if there was any difference. From what I can see they are the same with just different decals options, the new release includes decals for the IP gauges which is a really nice touch. The first release allows you to do a specific night fighter but those parts are included in the new one as well. I have worked out it should take around ten weeks to build, it will be a strictly OOB build with just one after market addition and that is the RB Productions Sutton Q Harness. I could of used the figures in the kit but they never look right to me. I downloaded the new Tamiya Mosquito Manual as I use Tamiya Acrylics and it made it easier to get the right colours. The only exception to this thus far is the cockpit green, Tamiya recommend XF-71 but this looks to dark. I did a bit of research and found that the older 1/48 kits had a mixture of the following to make up the green, XF-5:1, XF-65:1 and XF-21:3. I mixed up a test batch and it looks spot on and a fair bit lighter than XF-71. As normal I have started with the cockpit, I have applied a coule of washes and the seat is dry brushed a little. The same for the seat. Taking shape. The IP was quite simple and made better by the new decals. Cockpit complete for the most part, there are other parts to add but these cant be done until the wing is on as that provides the rear bulkhead for the cockpit. Cont'd

Yes, not the easiest of kits and time consuming. Still the gut picked the kit up yesterday and was over the moon. Thanks for looking. Danny

I must admit I don't miss my two stroke days, the AR-125 was grim to say the least, I learnt quickly that Honda were the way to go, my MBC 125 was a great little bike.

I built the Dax the other year, a superb kit, here she is. http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=44986&hl= Thanks for looking Danny

Sounds much like the First UST RRR Fireblade, i bought a new one when I was 21 and i loved it, spat me off more than once, went on with the Blades until the 2004 model then got me SP-2. Thanks for looking. Danny

Thanks Jim, this was the toughest bike kit i have done to date, very fiddly work. Thanks for looking. Danny

Sounds like quite a machine, I think I will stick to my SP-2.

I did put in a fair amount of extra hours that is for sure. Danny

I must admit I would love a go on one. Danny.

Thanks Joe.

Exactly that, 750cc two stroke in a frame that bent like a banana, not very stable, if you have a good one in the garage they are worth alot of money. Thanks for looking. Danny

Job done. Thanks for looking. Regards Danny.

Engine in. Handle Bars and wheels on. The exhausts were pretty tricky with tiny mounting lugs, I drilled these out straight away and mounted with some small steel pins. Body work painted, finished with Tamiya pearl lacquer, a big thanks to Tom Calbury for supplying the replacement decals. Final assembly. Con't

Well that is the new workshop up and running with my first project completed, this kit was made in 1973 so the same age as me. I have never built a Heller kit before and it has some difficulties that is for sure, the instructions were somewhat vague for the exact position of some parts so quite tricky to assemble and quite fragile. It took two weeks to complete and here are a few images of the build up. There were a great number of chrome parts but the fork legs were not one of them, I used an old telescopic aerial to make those with some steel welding wire to give them some strength. Lower fork legs sprayed with Alclad Aluminium. I used some kitchen foil to replicate the jubilee clips either side of the Carb's The engine was also sprayed with Alclad Aluminium. The rear shocks came with no spring just a piece of wire and a mandrel to form your own, I decided that using a a proper spring would be the way to go with more welding wire for strength. Con't

Thanks Martin, it was certainly not a project to be timid with, the corrections to the fuselage had to be done otherwise it would have been pointless to build, in saying that I had the odd nervy moment as it is not a cheap kit. I had tried painting black like this on a smaller scale and it worked well so it was just a case of being a bit bolder, good thing about filters is they put on very little paint so you can always start again if you are not happy. Thanks for following. Danny