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Finally got a bit of time for modeling.   First up are the wing radiators.  Unlike the relatively cumbersome radiators on the Lancaster, DeHavilland engineered a very elegant solution by installing the radiators in low drag housings on the inner wing leading edges.   Tamiya offers decent photo etch for the radiators but I opted for aftermarket.  

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RB's photo etch is very nice but more importantly, they include very nice PE carburetor inlet screens (part L3).   For some weird reason, Tamiya opted to replicate these very visible screens in clear plastic!  Not a good solution IMO.   RB's service and pricing were first rate, they are highly recommended for anyone building the Tamiya Mosquito. 

 

Next up, I went back to the bomb bay.  I'll be doing a lot of extra work in this area but most of it will be once the fuselage sides are installed.   However, I just received some very nice photos that show the FB.VI bomb bay in detail (thank you Anthony!!!) and based on these, I was able to add a few more details at this stage of the build.  

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More paintwork is required for those hydraulic lines at the base of the pic.  The ends will be relocated once the wing is mated with fuselage. 

 

After this was done, I completed assembly of the wing.   Tamiya provided a very strong internal framework that is screwed together.  No chance these large wings will be working loose!  

I also added the upper portion of the engine firewalls.   They come with very well detailed coolant lines.  

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I hit the firewalls and coolant lines with a few oil washes to replicate the typical grunge found in these areas.   Still a work in progress. 

 

Lastly, I also added a wash to the upper wheel wells.   This is another area on aircraft that tends to be pretty dirty.   I also applied some grey / brown pastels in this area.   More work will be done here as well but so far I'm pretty happy with the way the weathering has brought this pretty basic area to life. 

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Lastly, I dry fitted the wing to the fuselage.   Did I mention that this model is big?  

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Here's the full bomb bay, in all of it's glory.   Interesting that a Mosquito could haul the same payload as a B-17, at a higher altitude and much higher speed.   Very impressive engineering going on here. 

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That's it for now.  Thanks for looking! 

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Outstanding work in that bomb bay!! Still thoroughly enjoying following your thread, and I just learned something new about the Mossie. I had no idea that they could carry the same payload as a B-17! You hit it on the head, the engineering in that plane was highly advanced. Of course, it did not hurt that the entire airframe was made out of wood! She must have also been significantly lighter than the B-17. With the twin Rolls Royce Merlins and a wooden airframe, that is an amazing speed advantage! Of course, I would not want to light a match in one of those aircraft! 😉  Thanks so much for your wonderful work and exhaustive research into this fabulous, historic aircraft!

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Just a somewhat boring update.   Been working on sub-assemblies, just killing time with busywork so I don't have to deal with the engines, which for some reason, I hate building.   

 

I've completed the engine nacelles.   Unlike the rest of the Mossie, these were fabricated from conventional metal with the only exception being the wooden frame work that the cowling sections were secured to.   Tamiya's attention to detail is amazing.  They provided PE ribs with all the holes included.   They also included the leather pouches that contained the landing gear down-locks and some sort of "T" handled tool that was secured in one of the wheel wells.   Very nice stuff.   I sprayed these with AK Extreme Metal Matt Aluminum with a touch of flat white added.   I first used these paints on my F-51D Mustang build and am very impressed.   Sprays on great, looks great and is very durable.   Don't mind the pin marks on the aft section of the nacelles, they won't be visible when everything is buttoned up.  Still need to weather the interiors of these.  Might try a light coat of Tamiya Smoke and see how that looks. 

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I also started work on the fire wall / engine bearing frame.   More work to do on these.  One nice thing is that Tamiya included some extra plastic to protect that fragile landing gear strut.   They instruct you to cut it off just before final assembly.  Nice touch!

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Lastly, I completed the engine oil tanks that are installed in the forward part of the wheel well.  Tamiya even provides decals for these tanks.  I'll be adding some oil lines to these once they are installed. 

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That's all I've got for today, thanks for looking!

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Thanks guys!

 

Still looking for reasons not to start building the engines.   To kill more time, I did some weathering and installed the interior fittings to blank off the wing openings in the engine compartments.  Like the firewall, these are metal, finished with aluminum lacquer, so they got a coating of the AK Matt Aluminum.  After it dried, I painted the wooden sections that the cowling was secured to.  I then hit the bits with various color washes to highlight the very nice detail and add some filth. Both the wheel wells and engine compartments on combat aircraft were typically filthy.  Want a good example of this?  Open the hood of your car.  In addition to the washes, I used some dark grey pastels.  Still much more to do but I like the look so far. 

 

Sorry for the dark pictures, I was losing the light when I took them.   Note the exquisite plastic spring.   Tamiya truly has done some wonderful work here. 

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I also did the same for the nacelle interiors.  

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And for the fire wall assemblies. With the engines installed, a lot of this will only be visible at a sharp angle, or hidden completely.  

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That's it for now, thanks for looking

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So my build is still motoring on.   As much as I dislike engines, I need to get this phase over with so I've started building them.   The Tamiya Merlins are absolutely fantastic.   I'm not a fan of displaying engines on models but these are so nice, I feel like I need to.   As another plus, the cowling panels are held on with magnets so if I don't like the look, I can always button up the nacelles.  

 

Each engine is around 30 parts, including 4 PE.   Great detail, especially the supercharger.  Another fun fact - later in the war, Rolls Royce introduced a two-stage supercharger that provided greater power at higher altitudes.   The extra hardware required the later version Mosquito's cowlings to be lengthened.  However, since the fighter bomber variants pretty much conducted their business at lower altitudes, they were never upgraded the newer motors and longer cowlings.  

 

Here is the first engine.   Completely stock so far.  I'll add some wiring / piping once it's installed in the nacelle. 

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Dry fitted in the engine supports.  When it comes time to permanently install it, you are provided with a couple of screws to keep it secured. 

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And dry fitted into the nacelle.  There are many more cooling lines to be added. 

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One note - the cylinder heads are only tacked on.   The real ones had prominent Rolls Royce markings stamped on them.  I'm guessing Tamiya couldn't include these due to copyright issues.    So I i opted to go with Barracuda's very nice update set. 

Edited by 11bee
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On ‎6‎/‎23‎/‎2020 at 10:34 PM, 11bee said:

Another fun fact - later in the war, Rolls Royce introduced a two-stage supercharger that provided greater power at higher altitudes.   The extra hardware required the later version Mosquito's cowlings to be lengthened.  However, since the fighter bomber variants pretty much conducted their business at lower altitudes, they were never upgraded the newer motors and longer cowlings.  

 

Cowlings were slightly deeper as well to accommodate the supercharger intake, easy way to tell if it's a 2-stage Mosquito, it will have an intake below the spinner.

 

Not that it's relevant to your build, but later mark night fighters got 2-stage Merlin's.

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12 hours ago, barkin mad said:

 

Cowlings were slightly deeper as well to accommodate the supercharger intake, easy way to tell if it's a 2-stage Mosquito, it will have an intake below the spinner.

 

Not that it's relevant to your build, but later mark night fighters got 2-stage Merlin's.

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Alway figured someone would have released a resin conversion kit for a Mossie night fighter.  If not the later ones with the larger cowlings, at least an earlier version with the original cowls.   I guess not....

Edited by 11bee
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Paragon Designs did 2-Stage resin engines (P32011) probably v.rare by now. They actually did a fair bit of 1/32 conversion/upgrade stuff for Mosquitos. Wheels, rockets & rails, drop tanks, paddle props, flaps, bulged bomb bay, bulged camera bay, bomber & PR style canopies, full resin & vac conversions to an FB.VI and XVIII. Presumably all based on the old Revell kit.

 

 

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Still plugging away on the motors.   The Barracuda valve covers are a nice upgrade.  Very reasonably priced, perfect fit and very well cast.  Typical Barracuda! 

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So both motors are now complete.

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Next up is a coating of semi-gloss black.  To that, I added a dark brown wash, some pastels and started highlighting some of the nuts and bolts with a silver artist's pencil.  Have a lot more detail painting and weathering to do here. 

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I've added the ignition housing on the motor above.   At this point, I think I'm only going to add details to one motor.   I highly doubt I'd ever have both cowlings off the finished model. 

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So I'm pretty much done with the engines.   I'll be leaving one Merlin partially exposed, the other will be sealed up in it's cowling.   In retrospect, I could have saved some time and effort by only assembling the basic engine parts and skipping the painting stage entirely.   Oh well..    I've added some bits to the Merlin that will be partially exposed.   Tamiya did a fantastic job recreating the motor but they left off all the wiring and the various oil and coolant lines, of which there are quite a few.   I just don't have the time (or skills) to replicate every single hose and fitting on these motors. I added the ignition harness (on each side and the top), as well as a selection of lines and pipes.   I simply want to make this engine look "busy" when it's installed.  After all this, I added additional weathering with pastels, a few oil washes and picked out various nuts and bolts with a silver artists pencil.  Here are some pics of the modified engine with the stock one so you can see the additions.    

 

Note - excuse the horrible spark plugs sticking out.   They will be completely covered by the exhausts and at best, you will only be able to see the ignition wires.

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I'll probably still do some additional weathering but for the most part, I'm finally done with this step!   That's it for now, thanks for looking and for my American friends, Happy 4th of July, Happy Birthday America! 

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Actually got a bit of extra modeling time today.   Got the starboard engine mounted in it's support frame.  Once installed, I added the large oil tank to the backside of the firewall, some additional coolant lines and a few other bits of hardware.   I'm amazed that all these winding hoses and pipes mate exactly in the right spot.   Tamiya magic at work!  I'll be doing the final painting and will then add a few final details to the engine.  At that point, I'll finish up the nacelles.   

 

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Doing my best to replicate the grunge found on operational engines.  Supposedly those Merlins leaked oil heavily.  Don't use modern pictures of "warbirds" as guides for weathering, those birds are meticulously maintained and often times, completely cleaned after each flight.  Operational Strike Wing Mosquitoes were flown hard and all maintenance was done outdoors in the harsh Scottish weather.  I highly doubt those hardworking crew chiefs spent much time worrying about accumulated grime on those engines. 

 

Still more weathering to do.

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Now that the engines are mostly behind me, I can get back to the fun parts of the build.   I'm gradually getting the nacelles ready to be glued together.   Before that happens, I need to add some additional details and weathering for the wheelwells.  Right now I'm focused on the area aft of the engine firewall.   Here's a nice picture that shows this area:

  

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This is a restored Mosquito bomber version in the RAF Museum.  Just note that there are a few detail/color differences between this and a WW2 vintage FB.VI.   Picture is from the awesome walkaround file on LSP (   https://www.largescaleplanes.com/walkaround/wk.php?wid=123 ).  I've had a hard time finding detail pictures of certain parts of the Mosquito.  This is probably the best resource I've found on the net.  In addition to great detail shots, it's got a wealth of text that explains what you are looking at.  Well done Max Otten!  

 

In the picture above, note oil feed lines at the bottom of the oil tank and running up the strut to what I assume is the oil transfer pump. Also note some additional hydraulic lines.   I added these lines, tanking account some differences between this example and the Tamiya kit (the oil feed pump is on the opposite side of the Tamiya kit and some hydraulic lines are different.  Here is what I've added so far:

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I've also added additional grunge to replicate oil leaks and built up filth.  Aside from the engine compartment, the wheelwells are typically the dirtiest area of any aircraft. 

 

Here are some additional pics to show you my progress.

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And lastly the aft section of the wheelwell.   Weathering still in progress but note the exquisite springs that Tamiya provides.   This was a trademark of the Mossie.  Instead of complicated (and heavy) hydraulic pistons or other mechanical devices, DH attached the aft end of the landing gear doors to heavy duty springs with a length of wire.   Simple, light and it works. 

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So that's it for now.   As always, thanks for all the feedback and thanks for looking! 

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5 hours ago, Slartibartfast said:

I don't comment much but I check everyday for updates to this thread.  I very much enjoy watching your work coalesce into the finished state.

 

Thanks very much, that means a great deal.  I'm glad some folks are interested in this build!

 

No building today but just for S&G's I dry-fitted one of the nacelles to the wing.   Perfect fit, no need for any putty and if I was inclined, I could probably skip gluing it and it would lock firmly in place.   Wheelwells are an area that most kit makers skimp on.   To their credit, Tamiya did a fantastic job.   Between the PE ribs and the smaller detail parts, they are pretty much 75% of the real thing, which says a great deal about the quality of this kit.  Many other manufacturers give you a rectangular box with nothing but a few semi-defined shapes molded in place.  I've still got some additional bits to add but I really like they way they look.   If I get close enough, I think I can catch a wiff of avgas and motor oil!  

 

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Notice how the gear door retraction springs anchor to the rear wing spar.   The gap aft of the spar is per the real thing.  

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And a view of the upper surface.  Just note - this is the un-detailed engine that will have the cowling panels glued in place. The other engine has the additional parts added to it.   I'm glad I opted to leave one engine exposed, it would be a shame to cover all this great detail.

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That's it for tonight, thanks for looking! 

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Small update - I've gradually been adding some extra bits to the starboard engine, which I plan on leaving partially exposed.   So far, I've just focused on the inboard side.   At this point, I've added approx 10 additional bits, ranging from a cylindrical (filter?) housing on the forward engine bearer, to the yellow high voltage cable that runs off the side-mounted generator, to multiple small diameter hydraulic and instrumentation lines.  Again, I'm not attempting to replicate every single fitting / line perfectly, I'm just striving to generally represent the cluttered nature of the Merlin engine.   Here's a shot of the real thing.  Note also, this is a modern warbird, which may not be completely accurate and certainly is much cleaner than engines on operational aircraft. 

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Here is my "enhanced" motor (sorry for the poor pics, I was losing the light as I took these):

 

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It does appear that the exhaust heat shields will cover the spark plugs.  I'm going to remove the plugs and just leave the bottom part of the leads which should be visible.  Probably a big improvement, given those plugs are pretty "rough". 

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I'll add my standard disclaimer - I'm still in the process of incorporating a few more bits and still need to finish my final painting / touchups / weathering.  

 

Lastly, I stumbled upon this nice picture of a 333 Squadron Mosquito online.  It's painted in the Coastal Command scheme of Extra Dark Sea Grey over either Sky or Medium Sea Grey (can't tell which from this B&W picture).  Note the Norwegian flag on the nose, the very dark framing on the canopy and the rough finish and multiple touch-ups around the MG ports.  Also note that this aircraft had the mesh "snowscreens" removed from the carburetor intakes.  

Norwegian Mosquito - airmen  333 Squadron .

 

That's it for now, thanks for looking. 

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I'm on to the landing gear and wheels.   One thing I've found about these 32nd Tamiya kits is that Tamiya appears to be responsive to modeler's feedback.  As each new kit comes out, they've continued to reduce the "toy" features like moveable control surfaces, landing, gear, etc.   They also have improved the wheels.   Previously, they offered nothing but vinyl tires, which are hard to paint and impossible to show as bulged.   With the Mossie, they took a much different approach.   See the instructions below:

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Some might argue that this is overkill but given the large size of the tire, the deep treads and the fact that they were significantly bulged on the real thing, it's an excellent solution.   Assembled, it looks great and there are no seam lines to have to deal with.  Here are my tires, as they stand currently.  Still tweaking the weathering.  Also, it's hard to see in the picture but I added a slight bronze tone to the wheel assembly (along with some grease stains on the hub) to replicate discoloration due to brake heat.   

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Next up is the landing gear.   Still a work in progress.  Note the alignment jigs that Tamiya provides to keep things in their proper place during assembly.  A very nice touch.

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The small diameter wire guards on the front are amazing.  A very complex bit of plastic and they come together perfectly.   Fun fact - to simplify production and save costs, DH opted not to go with a conventional hydraulic oleo shock absorber.  Instead, each landing gear housing was filled with approx 10 hard rubber blocks stacked vertically.  This acted as the shock absorber.  Quite a novel solution, not sure how well it worked for a hard landing though.  The brown cylinders shown above are bakelite rollers (a type of plastic resin) used as guides for the landing gear door bungees - more info on this later. 

 

Lastly, I completed the landing gear retraction hardware.   Nice stuff, includes the hydraulic lines, no need to break out the cooper wire.

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That's it for now, thanks for looking!

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I would image Mosquito pilots were taught firmly to grease it in.  Solid Rubber has low hysteresis so dampers aren't required but that same lack of hysteresis doesn't provide much travel.  It would be easy to break things on a hard landing.  This assumes all the pads are of a single formulation and don't have molded features to provide travel.

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On 7/15/2020 at 1:09 PM, Slartibartfast said:

I would image Mosquito pilots were taught firmly to grease it in.  Solid Rubber has low hysteresis so dampers aren't required but that same lack of hysteresis doesn't provide much travel.  It would be easy to break things on a hard landing.  This assumes all the pads are of a single formulation and don't have molded features to provide travel.

 

Definitely an interesting choice.  Not sure if the designer felt it was superior to conventional landing gears or needed to save weight or reduce complexity.   I do know that when the Mosquito evolved into a carrier based variant, they replaced this with a standard oleo type shock absorber built by Lockheed.    I'll dig up a diagram of this landing gear and post it.

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