Modelcraft (Revell) DH Mosquito B IV.

[Sabre F-86]

Started working on this a few days ago, no  photos yet, gotta clear some space (looks like a bomb went off on my desk). The Modelcraft repop does not  have the clear sprue, they replaced that with vacuform, not bad either. But they forgot to keep the wingtip lights so  I'll be rebuilding them. The styrene in this kit has to be the most brittle I've ever seen. I'm doing various mods to it, the landing gear bays need a lot of work to look right, gotta be very careful when cutting or it literally spalls off in slivers. The cockpit is pretty meh, doing a rework of that using a Tamiya 48th kit as my pattern. 

 

Soon as I get some space cleared, I'll post some picks. 

[Erwin]

It will be interesting to see how you build it.

 

I don't do anything extra with mine.

Just using the kit parts.

Edited June 27 by Erwin

[Sabre F-86]

Have the cockpit roughed out, next will be the various radio boxes, side panels, throttle/mixture, wiring. The landing gear is coming along, The bogus detail in the wheel wheel is gone and the wheel bay is opened up. This model is missing the retract piston which runs from the break point on the inboard lock strut down into the wheel bay top. Added the bulkhead at the aft end of the nacelle, and duplicated the ribbing and stringers on the inside of the nacelles. I used some air drying clay to make up the reflector and lights for the landing lights. First go was pretty rough, gonna try again tomorrow to get a smoother inside finish. I've separated the elevators and rudder, going to offset them a bit. 

 

So far, the fuselage and nacelles come together quite well but the wings are a whole other story. All four pieces are bowed, so first things first was to install a spar from the root out almost to the wing tip. By dint of lots of test fitting and sanding with an 8 inch mill file, Ive got them to come together, and be straight. The Wheel bay box is in place, working on the interior details for that. Once I get a clean set of lamps I'll be ready to close up the wings. I ground out all the interior detail to the cockpit and filled in the two indentations on either side where the wing fits. So far, test fitting of the tailplanes and wings shows a nice clean tight fit. 

 

I'm using the Tamiya kit as a pattern. Interesting thing about that. They did put in the retract struts. But the struts as modeled would do nothing at all, running from the break point on the lock strut down to the base of the same strut. In other words it'd just do nothing, instead of forcing the lock strut to bend. There's a nice video of the Canadian Aviation Museum testing the starboard gear on their new built Mossie. 
 

 

Still trying to clean up my desk enough to make decent pics. Maybe tomorrow. 

[Sabre F-86]

Had some time today, did some research on the radio TX/RX sets, found some great photo and more importantly, dimensions. Had to rip the cockpit interior out, didn't notice the slight difference in the notches on either side, so it ended up glued in skewed to one side. Quite noticeable since you are looking down through the canopy top. Also found some good detail pics of the interiors, got some more bits to add.