Dave T Brown

The 25th Bombardment Group (Reconnaissance) was constituted in the days after D-Day and activated in England in August 1944 to carry out photographic and mapping missions over mainland Europe as the Allied armies pushed east. The Group were designated a Bombardment Group but they did not drop bombs. The 25th used P.R. XVI Mosquitos. The P.R. XVI has no capability to drop ordnance in other words is has no bomb release equipment fitted. They were usually fitted with a long range tank in the main portion of the ventral bay (bomb bay). The two forward cameras were mounted in the forward section of the ventral bay just aft of bulkhead 2 directly under the Navigators seat. the P.R. XVI had the ability to carry 3 additional cameras in the rear fuselage 2 vertical and one oblique. There are additional camera control boxes and their associated junction boxes mounted in the nose of the aircraft ( bomb aimers position for want of a better description) If you send me a P.M. I will let you have some information regarding the layout of the nose compartment, long range fuel tank and the various camera mountings from A.P. 2653J Vol1. That's the maintainance manual so to speak for the P.R. XVI Mosquito. Hope this will help.

With any luck Bob at MDC will be releasing 1/32 Mossie rocket rail mounting stubs, possibly with either Mk 1 or Mk III rails. How do I know this? I sent him the patterns to produce them a while ago. We discussed including the 100 gallon tank guard rail which in reality is made of tubes so any etched brass item will just be wrong as it will be flat in section. 100 gallon tanks and 8 x 25lb A.P. rockets where also discussed however I think he just got too busy.

I've just gone through this with Trumpeter's F-105D where the so called rivet's would, in reality be more like 3/4" dia holes ramdomly placed all over the airframe. I've used thin cyano acrylate to fill them, then sand off the excess a few hours later. I worked in stages i.e. fill the holes / spurious panel lines in a specific area, sand, flash with acrylic car primer, fill any remining defects with cyano, sand then flash again. Then on to the next section. It takes quite some time but for me it's worth it. Bare in mind the cyano gets harder the longer you leave it. Good Luck!

Could do with an RF-101C Voodoo and an A-26K Counter Invader in 1/32. That's my two penneth worth.

1/32 A-26K Counter Invader. 1/32 RF-101C Voodoo 1/32 Blackburn Buccaneer S.2 1/32 Mosquito B.XVI 1/32 Mosquito N.F. XXX

It's the Azure Blue underside that is more flakey ie. much more unlikely than the Med Sea Grey in my opinion. It all comes back to SEAC's interprepation of what role the Mosquito FBVI fitted into. If it was classed as a fighter ( which in my mind it was) then the underside colour from 4th April 1944 would certainly be Med Sea Grey. It must be remembered that the Mosquito FBVI replaced the Beaufighter in most Far East Squadrons and nobody questions the Med Sea Grey on the undersides of Beaufighters in SEAC, and the Beaufighter was a heavy fighter. If it was classed as a bomber then no colour is actually specified but it is highly unlikely to be Azure. In most black and white photos Azure Blue appears quite dark, ( I suggest you look at photos of desert camoflaged aircraft to see this) much darker than the lightish blue in the centre of SEAC roundles (which by the way would be slightly different from aircraft to aircraft). Once again it's worth studying photos as one published photo shows HR493 UX-C of 82 Sqn shows the upper surfaces in Dk Green / Dk Earth, the underside colour is slightly lighter than the light blue in the roundel, Med Sea grey I think.

When I wrote my book "Mosquito FBVI Airframe, Systems and RAF usage" I tried to get to the bottom of this very question. I have photographs of 82 sqn Mosquito FB VI's in the standard Med Sea Grey / Dark Green (as they left the factory) with SEAC roundles, the white theatre ID bands on the wing, tailplane and fin, aswell as aircraft that are obviously Dark Earth / Dark Green upper surfaces and a light underside colour. It really is a question of finding a photograph and then taking the plunge. Here is the paragraph from the book referring to SEAC aircraft. "This consists of the Temperate Land Scheme of Dark Earth and Dark Green upper surfaces. Definition of the under surface colour used on Mosquito FB VI within S.E.A.C. is open to interpretation, depending upon which duty or type of aircraft the Mosquito FB VI is perceived. Air Force Orders (India) A.F.O. (I.) 69-70 dated 4th April 1944 was issued on the Camouflage Colourings and Markings of Aircraft, part of which states “(ii) All Fighter Aircraft will be camouflaged in accordance with the temperate land scheme as follows:- Upper Surfaces – Dark green and dark earth. Under surfaces – Medium Sea Grey Tactical Markings – Nil Code letters – Sky (iii) Day Bomber Aircraft. Upper surfaces are to have the ‘temperate land’ scheme. (iv) Night Bomber Aircraft. Upper surfaces are to have the ‘temperate land’ scheme.†The report makes no mention of under surface colour for day or night bomber types. If the Mosquito FB VI is perceived as a “Fighter Aircraft†by HQ Air Forces S.E.Asia then an under surface colour of Medium Sea grey can be definitely defined as medium sea grey. If however the Mosquito FB VI is classed as a “Day Bomber Aircraft†by HQ Air Forces S.E.Asia then the under surface colour, being undefined is open to interpretation. Some sources claim that Mosquito FB VI’s received sky blue or azure blue undersides in accordance with a report issued in 1942 which mentions the under surfaces of Day Bombers serving overseas as sky blue or azure blue. Using this as a rule of thumb it would feasible to assume that Liberators, used in the day bomber role by Air Command South East Asia (ACSEA) also had their under surfaces re painted sky blue or azure blue but the scheme for these aircraft is known to be Olive drab upper surfaces and medium grey under surfaces. A report on a tour of S.E.A.C., Sept – Dec 1944 by Mr J. G. Fisher of I.C.I. acting on behalf of Air Ministry DSM throws further light or confusion depending on how it is viewed on the colours applied in theatre. His report states “ Colour schemes in this command are controlled by an Air Force order India, of March 1944, consolidating various other orders on the subject. The main difference from UK practice was the combination on upper surfaces of day fighters and bombers of Dark Green and Dark Earth in place of Dark Green and Ocean Grey. This led, in most cases to complete re – camouflage of upper surfaces, and so long as this colour scheme is operationally necessary there is no avoiding at least overspraying the Ocean Grey with Dark Earth. A more serious general observation arises from the many Grey colours. In some instances it was felt necessary to re – camouflage the undersurface of an aircraft because the shade of Grey was incorrect or had faded.†There is no mention in his report about Azure Blue. Looking at the few photographs of camouflaged Mosquito FB VI’s within A.C.S.E.A. the under surfaces appear much lighter than azure blue, I am therefore drawn to the conclusion that they retained the Medium Sea Grey under surface colour in which they where delivered. The speed and cost of the repainting also draws me to this conclusion and I warrant that the only paint the most aircraft received in theatre would be the Dark Earth covering of the Medium Sea Grey on the upper surfaces only. It is also possible to find photographs of Mosquito FB VI aircraft still carrying the original standard night fighter scheme with white SEAC identification bands and SEAC national markings, so a definitive camouflage scheme is impossible to define for this theatre of operations. Due to the accidental loss of Mosquito’s in this theatre of operations which has been covered earlier in this book a new scheme of overall Aluminium was introduced in early 1945 for all Mosquito aircraft irrespective of mark or duty. On the 27th January 1945 A.C.S.E.A issued an instruction for all aircraft of Eastern Air Command except four engined bombers and night fighters to carry the identification markings already applied to Thunderbolts with effect from 1st February 1945. The markings consisted of 28 inch bands across the wings, mid way between root and tip, 18 inch bands across the tail surfaces. The 17 inch band applied to the cowling of Thunderbolts was interpreted as painting the spinners on other aircraft types. A note on the accompanying drawing stated “ Stripes and numbers (A) for uncamouflaged aircraft will be Identification Blue ( for camouflaged aircraft white. On February 3rd the Air Ministry urgently telegraphed A.C.S.E.A. to insist “ Stripes should not, repeat not, extend on to the control surfaces†this was to prevent any control balance problems. It is however possible to see Mosquito FB VI aircraft where the bands continue across the rudder. The national markings applied where 32 Inch diameter SEAC roundels on the upper wing surface and fuselage sides and a 24 inch square SEAC fin flash. The roundels are 32 inch Identification Blue outer and 12 inch diameter SEAC “White†inner. SEAC “White†is four parts White to one part Identification Blue. The fin flash is a 12 inch strip of SEAC “White†and a 12 Inch strip of Identification Blue."

Bob MDC is probably not going to thank me for letting you all know that I supplied him all the info to produce the guard rail. If there's enough interest he may well go for it. SORRY BOB!

Mosquito FB VI's have type specific rocket rail mounting stubs. No other Pylon type, as they are refered to on the first post on this thread, will be anything like the ones used on the Mosquito. I'm pretty sure Bob at MDC is in the process of casting some Mosquito specific rocket, rocket rail & mounting stub ( Pylon) sets.

Contacted Bob at MDC and will be sending him the masters.

I scartchbuilt the mounting stubs for my Mossie FB VI, made a mould and poured some. It is worth noting that the front and rear mounting stubs are different. I'll drop Bob at MDC a line and see if he's interested in producing some from my patterns, that's if I can find them.

I've used the MDC Typhoon enhancements in the Revell kit and found them excellent.

http://www.largescaleplanes.com/Photostory/DavidBrown/Mossie/mossie.php This is the correct link for those interested in seeing my efforts converting Revell's old Mossie into an FBVI.

Regarding reference material for the Mosquito FBVI may I recomend Mosquito FBVI Airframe, Systems and Wartime R.A.F. Usage written / complied by myself back in 2009. Some of you may have a copy. It was reviewed here on LSP http://www.largescaleplanes.com/reviews/review.php?rid=331 I was making / converting Revell's Mossie into an FBVI that was also posted on LSP here http://www.largescaleplanes.com/Photostory/DavidBrown/Mossie/mossie.php and collected a large amount of info which at the time was damn near impossible to get hold of. I was approached by Neil Robinson and asked weather I would be prepered to put all this info in to a reference book, which I duly did however in the end I wish I had used another publisher but that's another story. Since compiling the book I've found out even more about parts of the FBVI including the correct final standard of radio fit as very few Mosquito FBVI's had the T1154 / R1155 combination. Mark Gauntlett produced the colour art work in conjunction with myself. Now although all the artwork shows only the Port side of the aircraft and there is no nose art shown all of the aircraft shown in this section were chosen because I had photos of the subject. We took great care to show the correct prop blades, aerial fit and other small differences on each aircraft in the colour artwork section which is something I'll bet very few of you will probably have noticed. There are quite a few of late Banff Strike Wing aircraft included showing aircraft with the "VV" code of 235 squadron rather than the earlier "LA" codes assciated with this unit. I strived to make this a useable but very accurate book however the publisher cut some corners which in my view detracted from how I had hoped the book would look. Such is life. I hope you appreciated this book and it hepled some of you and will continue to be a useable reference to those who build a 1/32 Mosquito regardless of which manufacturer makes the kit .

I'm really looking forward to the B XVI (Twin stage Merlin) being released. I hope it comes before any of the fighter variants.