A Separate Little War - Strike Wing Mosquito FB.VI

[Troy Molitor]

What Anthony and Tom have already mentioned.  Brilliant looking Mossie.  

[John1]

Thanks very much guys, appreciate the compliments!   

 

Not a lot of progress to show lately, all I've done is to complete the props.   Tamiya gives you two blade options, the original "needle" blades and the later, wider, "paddle" blades.   These wider blades were retrofitted on Mosquitoes later in the war and gave a bit of performance boost vrs the early props. 

 

For a small assembly, there is a fair amount of paintwork required.   The spinners were shot with Colourcoates Medium Sea Grey.   It would have been nice to have KK-Q sporting later post-war spinners that some 333 Squadron Mossies had that were painted in the colors of the Norwegian flag but no such luck.  The blade tips were painted white, followed by Testors yellow with a touch of orange added.   Once dry, the tips were masked off and the remainder of the blades shot with a mix of flat black with about 25% dark grey.   The blades on these aircraft weathered just as much as the rest of the airframe so I did my best to replicate this.  I then sprayed a very diluted coat of tan over the blades.  Finally, I removed the masks over the yellow tips and applied Flory's "dark grime" wash.   This stuff really allows you to grunge up a part and you've got the ability to dial it back as much as needed or if you aren't happy with the final results, just wipe it off entirely and start again.    I also applied this wash to the spinners.   As you can see in the picture I posted a few pages back, the spinners got as dirty as the rest of the aircraft. Last step was to add some scratches to the leading edge of the blades.  I tried to keep this restrained.   Although these aircraft were flying off of some rough bases, the pictures I've seen don't show a huge amount of wear.   I used a silver artists pencil for this.   I love these, so much easier to apply fine scratches, etc compared to paint.   

 

So anyway, that's it for tonight.

 

 Thanks for looking! 

Edited November 17, 2020 by John1

[Uncarina]

Great job! I suspect many people are missing a weathering opportunity with propellors, especially the front vs. back sides, so your thorough approach really pays off.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[John1]

Thanks Tom!   Not much progress lately, I've been on the road for work, just returned a few days ago.   Just adding some small details and continuing with the weathering.   One addition was the system of bungee cords that opened and closed the main landing gear doors.   Instead of complex and heavy hydraulics, the British opted for another simple (and lightweight) solution.  They used a series of bungee cords to keep the doors under tension.   When the gear was lowered, it would simply push the doors open and they would remain firmly against the landing gear legs while under tension.  When the gear was raised, they pulled the doors closed.  Quite simple and again, it worked perfectly.   I used very thin stretched sprue for the bungees. 

 

The bungees run around brown "bakelite" rollers on the leading edge of the gear legs.  I think I'll install mounting bolts on that center spreader bar.  The bungee connections look a bit bare. 

 

Another picture of the landing gear.   Got the props press fitted in place.  

At the rear of the door, we have a similar system.  In this case, I'm not sure if they are bungee cords or wire cable.  Either way, they each connect to a heavy duty spring in the wheel bay that keeps the doors under tension.

 

And lastly, just tweaking the weathering.   Added some scratches to the 20mm gun ports and cowlings / inner leading edges.  The gun port scratches will get toned down with some additional pastel "soot". 

 

So that's it for now.   Thanks for all the interest, enjoy the rest of the weekend!

[MikeMaben]

[Uncarina]

Exquisite John! Your attention to research, detail, and love for the Mossie really shows in your work. Bungee cords for the doors, rubber blocks for shock absorbers: great testimony to the KISS principle!

 

Cheers,  Tom

[Rockie Yarwood]

Excellent build and finish, John! Your weathering is spot-on.

 

Cheers,  Rockie

[John1]

Thanks very much guys, I appreciate the compliments.  It makes posting these update very much worthwhile.   

 

Sitting home today (burning "use it or lose it" vacation time), I figured I'd turn my attention to the crew door.   One thing that I personally didn't like about the design of the Mosquito was the crew door.   I honestly can't see how the pilot and nav could have bailed out in a hurry through such a small and awkwardly located opening.  That being said, I'm not sure what else could have been done given the layout of the cockpit, except perhaps to enlarge the door a bit.   The crew did have the option of going out the overhead escape hatch but I'm guessing they probably would have hit the horizontal stabs.   I suppose this explains why most Mossies that went down took their crews with them. 

 

Anyway, the kit door is pretty decent but was a bit basic.   I decided to add a few details.  First up, I hollowed out the canvas pouch that was used to hold the landing gear locking pins during flight.  The kit part is molded to the inner door surface as a solid lump.  I also added two tiny little drawstrings from fine stretched sprue.  I then scratchbuilt the cover and locking handle assembly.   Simply a bit of carved sheet plastic, two bits of plastic rod for the handle and a bit of PE scrap for the door strap.   I thought about sanding off the emergency hydraulic pump handle and the red emergency door jettison handle since both are simply molded into the door's inner surface but decided to just give them a black wash to try to replicate the handles being separate from the door.   I think they came out ok.   I also added some scratches to the  hydraulic pump handle and the door locking lever.  After all was done, I added a dark brown wash to certain areas, applied the propeller warning and door locking decals and called it a day.   Nice way to keep myself entertained for an hour or two on a cold New England morning. 

 

It looks pretty crappy close up but from normal viewing distances, it will be ok (I did touch up the brown leather strap after taking these pictures). 

 

 

Thanks for looking, don't let the door hit you on the way out!  LOL...  Am I funny or what?

 

 

[MikeMaben]

Looks great John   Yeah that hatch on top 'was' the emergency escape hatch.

Why else would it be there?  Bailing thru that tiny door would have been sure suicide.

[Uncarina]

The door looks great, just another part of the build that takes it to a whole new level, one of the very best Mossie builds I’ve seen.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[John1]

4 hours ago, MikeMaben said:

Looks great John   Yeah that hatch on top 'was' the emergency escape hatch.

Why else would it be there?  Bailing thru that tiny door would have been sure suicide.

 

 

Actually, correct me if I'm wrong Mossie experts, but the door was the mandated exit route for bailing out.  

[John1]

Nearly at the end folks, I'm sure you'll be as glad as I am.  Next up is the upper escape hatch.   As I had cut this out of the kit canopy, I figured I'd need to display the removed hatch somewhere on the completed model.   First off, here is a great picture of the real thing courtesy of Anthony:

 

 

The hatch has a very simple locking mechanism.  A single handle, connected by a cable to 8 rotating metal tabs that hold the hatch in place.   Move the handle and the tabs all open simultaneously. 

 

Using a spare canopy, I cut out the hatch by drilling multiple small holes and then using the blade of my X-acto knife to cut out the hatch.   A bit of sanding and I'm all set. 

 

i wasn't going to do anything detailing to this part but since it's a cold, rainy day and I had nothing better to do, I decided to try to replicate all the bits of the real thing.   I started off with using thin plastic rod that was sanded flat on one side to represent the framing.   I then added the handle, cable, pulleys and locking tabs from various bits of stretched sprue, scrap PE, shaved bits of plastic rod, etc.  All up, I think I added approx 45 parts to this.   The warning labels came from the Barracuda stencil set.    I honestly think that this came out pretty bad.  I rushed things and will probably have the hatch displayed outer side up so these details won't be visible that much.   That being said, I guess it looks better than not having any detailing added.  

 

 

 

So that's it for now, thanks for looking.

[Anthony in NZ]

Your workmanship and attention to detail is simply amazing!

 

Thanks for sharing what you are doing here....awesome!

[Uncarina]

John, pretty impressive, especially considering the size!

 

Cheers, Tom

[Dpgsbody55]

Very impressive.  I really like that door. Great detail!!

 

 

Cheers,

Michael