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Tamiya Mosquito FB VI - 3/22 - Figure painting completed


Bstarr3

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Those gun bays look fantastic. On the subject of the bombs I assume the wet transfers were after market or did they come with the kit?

You've also convinced me to buy the kit, mine just arrived in the post all the way from Japan. Thanks for the inspiration, and the dent to my bank balance .!!!

 

Going back to your engines. What paint did you use on the brass piping. I have humbrol copper as well as Tamiya copper and brass , but both look really grainy compared to your results.

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The gun bay looks fantastic. I wish Barracuda had the gun chutes out when I built mine. They really do make a difference.

 

Carl

Thanks, Carl. Yeah, they do make a big difference in the look. Eduard also makes a brassin gun bay, but honestly the detail in the kit parts seems more than adequate to me. I could see using the brassin engine if you wanted to have a super detailed engine to display,but otherwise I feel that AM resin for this kit is unnecessary

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Those gun bays look fantastic. On the subject of the bombs I assume the wet transfers were after market or did they come with the kit?

You've also convinced me to buy the kit, mine just arrived in the post all the way from Japan. Thanks for the inspiration, and the dent to my bank balance .!!!

 

Going back to your engines. What paint did you use on the brass piping. I have humbrol copper as well as Tamiya copper and brass , but both look really grainy compared to your results.

Cheers, Tim. It seems that I've inspired quite a few people to buy or get to work on this kit - I'm glad. You won't be disappointed. I'd love to see a WIP when you get around to it.

 

The transfers are HGW wet transfers. Same company who makes the fabric seatbelts. They are pretty spendy - $20 - but come with a complete set of stencils for the whole aircraft, including cockpit. I used a combination of those and Airscale decals to dress up my front office some.

 

My aftermarket for this kit is Master brass gun barrels, which imho are always worth it, the transfers, eagle decals (several reviews say that masks or AM decals are a real necessity here) and the Barracuda resin ammo chutes.

 

The kit instructions call for Tamiya's metallic brown and copper for the engine plumbing - two different colors for different pipes. I did it all in copper, using plain old Testors square bottle enamel copper, thinned with Testors enamel thinner about 50/50, sprayed through the airbrush. No primer.

Edited by Bstarr3
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Brian you're extremely kind with your comments my friend.

 

I'd second Gaz too. I've used the hgw wet transfers a couple of times and do plan on using them on the Tamiya Mosquito once the time comes, but from personal experience I've had the carrier film bed down so well a couple of times that i just gave up on pulling the film off by fear or nicking the paint below. Might have been because i used solvaset to make sure they bed down really well and that stuff would eat through bone.

Since I've used the sol/set treatment they've worked relatively better!

Karim

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Thanks, Karim. I use set/sol as they're all I've got. I definitely think I used too much, and put too much on the edges. I think the real trick with applying these is to cut them so there's a good amount of extra film around the edge of the marking, and to make sure that the softener goes down only over the marking.

 

Does anyone want to weigh in on whether MRP is good for applying decals without gloss coat?

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Small update from this evening. Finished painting up bomb bay side walls and hatches (also trying out a new photo background)

 

20180212_230104.jpg

 

And installed the internal bombs. This one will also have two wing mounted 500lbers.

 

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Loaded for bear! (Or, you know, whatever - Nazi prison guards)

 

20180212_230223.jpg

 

I think I'm going to install the sidewalls, leaving the armatures for closing the doors off for now. Less stuff to snap off while handling the whole plane. I'll mask the bays for painting, and install open doors at the end along with wheels and their bay doors. Does this process make sense to anyone who's done this kit?

Edited by Bstarr3
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A few more pics. Got flaps installed, which was pretty hassle free.

 

20180213_203733.jpg

 

Then assembled the bombbay sidewalls. These had a pretty un-Tamiya fit. They just sort of sit there and don't quite approximate wop with the other fuselage walls. I'm hoping that as I build up all the bay door supports and so forth it will add rigidity to the structure.

 

20180214_005810.jpg

 

The cannon barrels went exactly as I'd hoped. They are the Master turned brass barrels. I gave them a good soak in burnishing fluid, let them dry for about half an hour, then lightly buffed them with a soft paintbrush. Just the right amount came off for a gun metal like sheen. The only problem I identified, which you can only tell if you're looking straight down the barrel, is that the muzzle bore didn't seem to take the burnishing, so it's still bright brass.

 

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And here are the .303 barrels getting the same treatment

 

20180214_005831.jpg

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Great work!  Ive found that the blackening fluid can be delicate. Depending on what is being blackened, Ive found it sheds right off of some things and sticks to others. If it wasnt so tight, you could try sanding in there which usually makes the blacking fluid stick better.   Looks like its gunmetal paint for the bores! 

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The burnishing fluid I got is this: 

 

https://www.megahobby.com/products/photo-etch-burnishing-fluid-ammo-of-mig-jimenez.html?utm_medium=googleshopping&utm_source=bc&gclid=Cj0KCQiA2Y_UBRCGARIsALglqQ0LUuAvF4zJ-ar0ENlfIaarZTFmamV7L76g_jaxPxxZkqrWmaISvjQaAhSHEALw_wcB

 

It appears to be a solution of some type of acid that interacts with the finish on the brass, turning it black.  I've seen online that it's the same as the chemical used for gun bluing (although not living in America I'm not sure how easy that is for you to get either)

 

I agree with Brian - the finish is nice, but it's quite delicate.  When I first handled it I saw that it began flaking off.  I had planned on using gunmetal pigments again like I did on the plastic parts of the guns, but seeing how fragile it was I decided to try lightly buffing it with a brush, and that worked well so I left it alone.  Yeah, the problem with these tiny PE parts and brass barrels is that they're really hard to sand.  I used self- etching primer on the kit PE, which seems to have done a nice job of priming those parts - haven't had any difficulty with paint adhesion.  But for these I thought I'd try the burnishing solution instead. 

 

This bomb bay has really been a bugger for me.  First I've spent an inordinate amount of time just looking at it, and trying to decide how I was going to proceed with assembling, masking, and painting.  I initally decided to leave the doors and actuator arms off and just tape over the bay itself.  So I installed the sidewalls without following the kit instructions to put the arms on first.  Now I've decided that the open doors can actually just be built into the masking, so I'm working to install them.  I got the idea of leaving the doors off til later from Brett Green's book.  What he did not mention is that, while possible, it's quite tricky to get those arms onto the sidewalls in the right alignment after they're already on the kit.  I've got them on, but I'm still not sure if they're right, or symmetrical from side to side.  So, we'll see. 

 

Finally, another question: the kit instructions call for the inner surfaces of the engine cowling panels to be painted AS-12, or bare metal silver. Since there were some other inaccurate color callouts on the gear bay, I was wondering if this is accurate, or interior green?  I can't seem to find any pictures of the inside of the cowling panels on a real plane. 

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Big update today. First, here is completely finished ordinance bay with doors on.

 

20180217_145635.jpg

 

20180217_145622.jpg

 

I would recommend not doing it as I did. If you want to leave the doors off, do so, but make sure all the struts,arms, and supports are attached as per the instructions.

 

I will be modelling a plane with individual stack exhausts that has had the dampeners removed. I painted the side cooling panels in aluminum. I will temporarily apply the dampeners for painting the camo, leaving the bare metal when they are removed, as in the pictures.

 

20180217_145427.jpg

 

Cowlings all buttoned up. I will say, the fit is not perfect. I'm hoping it cleans up a little after installing the spinners on front.

 

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Insides of the cowlings panels. I tried to make the lower ones pretty dirty from oil stains, as I imagine they were.

 

20180217_145533.jpg

 

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Cockpit framing dryfitted

 

20180217_150531.jpg

 

Nose cone dryfitted

 

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And the most disappointing part of the kit - why Tamiya? This intake screen could so easily have been done in PE, like the radiators. Why do it in clear plastic?

 

20180217_151041.jpg

 

And another update on the brass barrels - I would say using burnishing fluid to blacken the barrels has not been a successful experiment at this point. The surface was inconsistent, and inconsistently camm off when I tried to clean it. It may, however, have roughened up the brass to the point that it will take paint now. What do people usually do with these? I've used resin barrels before but not brass.

 

 

20180217_150927.jpg

 

Anyway, getting very close to the end of the construction phase of this project. Once the canopy and propellers are done, the next step will be masking the gear and bomb bays before starting on final surface prep and priming...

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That's some great progress you've made. I agree that the screens for the cowling are the worst part of the model. Still don't know why they did them that way. RB Productions make replacement ones in PE. They're well worth it and are easy to use.

 

For the brass barrels, I use an etching primer on them and then paint them in the usual way. Gunze make one in clear called Mr Metal Primer.

 

Carl

Edited by BloorwestSiR
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Thanks Carl. I am aware of the RB product, but it only comes along with the replacement radiator screens, which I've already used the kit parts. I'm just going to make the best of the clear kit part.

 

Thanks for the tip on Mr Metal Primer. I'll have to get some. For now, I'll probably just use therattle can etching primer that I used for the kit PE. It went very well for that. I might try decanting it into the airbrush so I get a good thin coat, and don't lose all the detail I payed for

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