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Airfix 1:24 Mosquito NFII - The All Black(s)


CraigH

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Straight in with the next build and it's for a gentleman who's asked me to build a 1:24 Airfix Mosquito as the NFII variant. Going to be interesting on the paint job but I've a few ideas to liven up black, black, black.

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I decided to start with a double pronged attack on cockpit and engines and the main bugbear that's going to haunt me for the whole of this build soon became apparent.....bloody ejector pin marks. They're everywhere and mostly on visible surfaces:

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So fill and sand is going to fill a lot of space up.

On the engine front it's the same engine as on the Hurricane but times two of course. They went together really easily and a coat of matt black set things up for the first stage.

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The spark plug assembly has those horrid moulded leads for the plugs so off with those and drill through in their place ready for some real wire ones in a bit

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Result? Rubbish! Drilling the plastic has left it too weak so manipulating the wires into place is a no no so I decided to make new harnesses up from turned down cocktail sticks which are much stronger and more rigid than the plastic and just look so much better. It also means that I can attach them with some braided cord then, painted silver, it resembles the real thing.

But meanwhile the engine(s) and cockpit are coming along nicely

Engines gloss varnished, every bolt head picked out in silver with a cocktail stick :BANGHEAD2:, most of the bits and pieces added and the "Rolls Royce" picked out on the rocker covers, they need a few more pipes adding then ready for weathering.

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Cockpit floor and back wall also painted up. I've pre-shaded the areas in shadow then sprayed cockpit green for the wall and gunmetal for the floor. I use Vallejo metallics as I think they're brilliant and the gunmetal here looks fantastic. The fabric/ leather shroud around the control stick still needs painting and the brown colour will be the wooden area where the pilot's feet go. Just some graining to add and a bit of wear. The ejector pin mark at the front of the pic was left un-sanded on purpose. The rudder assembly will cove it nicely...hopefully :rolleyes:

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Hope to post more soon. Thanks for looking. Comments greatly appreciated.


 

Edited by CraigH
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re the black, check out Doogs Models on YouTube (think he's still a member on here?)...he has some very good and easy to follow tutorials on black-basing (currently quite en vogue), and also includes a black black-basing - if you know what I mean?!

 

kind regards

 

Nick

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Hi all. I've been cracking on with the engines and, My God, they're a job of work all on their own! Similar to the excellent Merlin on Airfix's Hurricane but with more pipework included and, of course, two engines, double the work.

The problems with the spark plug assembly from my last edit have been solved. I ended up using the originals and used very thin lead wire for the leads and some very fine, white, wire insulation for the fittings into the engine block. A bit fiddly and multiple revisits to one lead or the other as they have a habit of falling off as you try and glue the next one in. 

Anyway, I've added all the pipework and engine support cradle and everything's painted and varnished with a coat of gloss ready for the weathering.

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It sometimes makes me wonder why we go to all the trouble to get the engines all pristine only to then proceed to take the same amount of time dirtying them up :evil_laugh:

An oil wash of Mr Wauchop's brown gunge with a little gloss varnish in to keep it a bit wet looking kicked things off. After about 1 mins it was blended and reduced around the nooks and crannies, then some fine chipping along the edges of the rocker box covers and the support cradle struts with steel paint and a lot of fine dots came next.

A mix of dark Earth pigment and water was run along the bottom of the rocker covers and left to dry the blended away with a dry brush at the top leaving the bottom quite thick to simulate gunk collection. The air intakes had their lovely metal finsh dirtied and re cleaned with more Wauchop brown. End results are below. Comments. as ever are always appreciated

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Just now, gunpowder said:

I like it. Love the ignition wires , much better than the kit ones.

Thanks so much > I agree the plastic ones just don't work for me. I've also cut them off on the loom for the AI Mark IV radar that I'm fitting at the moment. A few sweaty moments there but it looks like it's going to turn out OK

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I've been cracking on with the engines and getting them into the nacelles so I can complete the piping and wiring. Once they're in I can start to look at the undercarriage assemblies. Oh the nacelles!!! :blowup:

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Ejector pin alert!!

 

The engines fitted into the nacelles really well and the remainder of the pipes and wiring fitted well although it's a little fiddly at the end. The hardest bit was getting the automatic fire extinguishers into place, next time I'll definitely fit the first before the engines go in. The interior of the nacelles is painted cockpit green then washed with a light brown wash with some gloss varnish in to mimic the film of oil that always clings around these enclosed spaces. Later I'll finish it off with some darker, sootier deposits on the inside to show the engines actually got used!

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As far as the undercarriage goes, I had a look through the instructions and did a few mock ups and realised that the undercarriage is either down  and fixed or tucked away in its housing which was a dissappointment. As this model is to be made "in flight", I wanted to have the undercarriage fitted but retracted but that's not an option. Therefore, although I've built and painted all the assemblies, they're not going in :sorry:

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On a better note I'm compensating by really going to town on the cockpit area. I've got to be careful because much of the reference material is for various variants, mainly the FB VI and I'm building an NFII so a lot of the cockpit controls present on the fB variants don't appear on the NFII

I've built up the control panel area which is one part that differs between variants. The NFII had no bomb gear controls but did have separate assemblies for the early AI IV radar. The link wires between the separate boxes was of the horrid plastic kind so I took them off and replaced them with real wire ones

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The decals fit individually onto the clear plastic backing plate but they fit on the front which seems a bit daft. They also don't want to stay put as they're so small so a bit of crystal clear adhesive was needed

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After the instrument panel was painted, and weathered the dials fit in from behind. I then put a drop of gloss varnish on the face of each dial to make sure it stayed and also to give a lens effect.

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I painted the interior of the radar hood with a green nail varnish to try and reproduce the green iridescence from the CR tube at the base of it

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Finishing the nacelles next and more work on the cockpit. Thanks for looking

 

 

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Total focus on trying to get the cockpit finished. The Airfix kit doesn't include the pilot's relief contraption so I fashioned one out of a bit of sprue and some lead wire wrapped around a wire core. It sat in a sling assembly on the pilot's seat....don't know how the poor navigator coped :yahoo:

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Starboard cockpit side next. Again, the plastic wiring has been replaced with real wires. The dials are drybrushed in aluminium and the faces filled with gloss varnish to give a lens effect

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On the port side I've added some wiring taken from reference photos of the NF Mk 11(there aren't many) and added some Airscale cockpit placards and some little aluminium tubes painted black and some lead wire glued inside. The then look like the lamps found on many Allied aircraft. Sequins look just like the anchor points on the wooden fuselage. More lead wire wrapped around a soft wire core gives the pilot's oxygen pipe

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Now for the bit I've been dreading, fitting the Sutton harnesses. Not normally a problem if you're not fitting the crew in there but, in this case, I am! I like to drill through to get the anchor points for the leg straps then use wire loops through the eyelet of the strap to give realistic anchorage. I got them fitted and took the opportunity to do a little rusty chipping on the seat armour plate. I've weathered the belts with a mix of burnt umber and lamp black oil paints let down to a wash with turpentine

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Now for the good bit :help: I'm no expert at figures but they're painted, surprise expressions and all and I've got to try and get the harnesses around them. The navigator was a no go. There was simply no way I could make it fit so I've worked on the premise that he's constantly out from his perch looking in the RADAR for targets so he can't do that with is harness on. Therefore it's to the sides of him ready if needed. Pilot wise I had a little more success and even managed to get the pin & post arrangement in there too. I've taken several snaps from different angles to try and show the fittings

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I downloaded a few authentic WW2 charts from the web and shrunk them to size to busy up the office a little

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That's about it for now. Next is the reall job, getting the thing in the fuselage and making it all fit!

As always, thanks for looking

 

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Just a quick update today after spending 3 hours sanding the seams of the fuselage. Went together OK except for the join right under the tail fin which needed a bit of filler. The crew looking nicely ensconced

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Few wires poking out to tidy up.

I've also got the wings together and the Nacelles on. Boy are they a tight fit. I was really struggling to feel how they went in and the instructions aren't too clear. All glued in though. It's ridiculous how far back I have to take the camera now to get a full shot of the wings in, it's one big model.

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Lastly, while I've had time spare waiting for things to dry, I've sorted out the radio transmitters and receivers

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Hispanos and Brownings next then...wings will meet fuselage!

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