Mosquito B Mk IV - FINISHED - Revell - My next non-ship project

[Old Collingwood]

8 minutes ago, Roger Pellett said:

Very nice job painting the crew member.

 

Roger

Thank you Roger.

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

Evening all,    next on the build  - let me introduce  my dad  working up on a ladder, just assembled waiting on paint/weathering.

 

The figures come as seperate pieces  - torso, right and left legs, arms and seperate heads  so they can be multi position.

 

OC.

[Edwardkenway]

He's better looking than you😋 just a tad pale, did he have a late night?😁😏

It's gonna look great when you are done 

[Old Collingwood]

8 minutes ago, Edwardkenway said:

He's better looking than you😋 just a tad pale, did he have a late night?😁😏

It's gonna look great when you are done 

Thanks mate.

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

Right then a few layers of paint - shading/highlighting  and top coat  - here we have dad up the ladder.

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

Evening all,   a small amount of poregress  -  I have built the  ammu  bench, its designed  I assume to put the ammunition onto belts  ready to be fed into the wings in Spits  and under the belly in Mossie fighter/bombers,   so I have decided to pack it in the trailor  as it been kept there while the crew have been dropped off.

 

OC.

[popeye the sailor]

you've made some great progress OC.......jeep and equipment look super      figures are coming along really nice as well!    

[Old Collingwood]

6 minutes ago, popeye the sailor said:

you've made some great progress OC.......jeep and equipment look super      figures are coming along really nice as well!    

Thank you kindly Denis,   with the work bench  - I assume that is what the vice/ammo feed device was for?

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

I foregot to mention,  I  have also been battling with a fiddly little thing in the shape of an extinguisher  frame  to support Two bottles, these need to be built up using the two sides first and held in place by a cross pole,  would it stay in place and glue  - not a chance, it kept falling away, anyway after about Ten Million tries  I eventualy got it to stick  enough to attach the top handle and bottom section.

I then left it well alone to set.

 

OC.

[mtaylor]

It's the fiddly bits that make us pull our hair out or what remains of our hair.    

 

Wouldn't that loading table have been in the armory or at least a hanger?   I would think that on flight line, there would be lots of dust and/or rain.  

[Old Collingwood]

3 minutes ago, mtaylor said:

It's the fiddly bits that make us pull our hair out or what remains of our hair.    

 

Wouldn't that loading table have been in the armory or at least a hanger?   I would think that on flight line, there would be lots of dust and/or rain.  

I'm not sure Mark,   I have seen photos where they are re-arming  out on the field, I assumed it was something to do with that.

 

OC.

[Kevin]

lovely work, its going to be a very fitting tribute

[Old Collingwood]

22 minutes ago, Kevin said:

lovely work, its going to be a very fitting tribute

Thank you kindly Kevin, I appreciate that.

 

OC.

[Egilman]

2 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

I'm not sure Mark,   I have seen photos where they are re-arming  out on the field, I assumed it was something to do with that.

 

OC.

They had two different crank devices for dealing with machine gun ammo, one made up the belts, (which is what that one looks like) and one to load the belts in the magazines that were not removable from the aircraft...

 

Unfortunately, the belting board would be in an ammo shack and nowhere near the actual aircraft..... The ammo would be carried to the aircraft in standard ammo cans or drums in a trailer, the feed chutes would be attached to the device, and the belts of ammo cranked into the magazines..... spare ammo would be loaded in 200 rnd ammo cans (.30 caliber) & 50-75 rnd cans (.50 caliber) basically each can held one belt.... Fighter aircraft usually got one 200 rnd belt per gun so they were loaded by hand from ammo cans... Bombers with huge 600 rnd boxes were loaded with a cranked device from a drum.... Prior to that they used individual ammo cans loaded in racks...

 

They would have several of those at the airfield my friend, but it wouldn't be in a trailer on the back of a jeep....

 

EG

[Old Collingwood]

11 hours ago, Egilman said:

They had two different crank devices for dealing with machine gun ammo, one made up the belts, (which is what that one looks like) and one to load the belts in the magazines that were not removable from the aircraft...

 

 

 

They would have several of those at the airfield my friend, but it wouldn't be in a trailer on the back of a jeep....

 

EG

Thank you for explaining that, I was confused about the bench, so I thought best to just pop it in the trailor - like its just being taken back to the hanger.

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

Evening all,  I finished the extinguishers  (talk about fiddly)  plastic  so fragile  it breaks as much as breath on it.

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

I have found this pic on the net  showing one of the ammo tables  - lookes like ammo belts were made  uisng the device on the bench before putting into magazines/box.

 

Perhaps the device connects a row of loose bullets  onto a feed system?

 

Not relavent to Mossie but could have been for a Mossie Fighter/bomber  or  Spit on the field at the time  (hence why its put  in the back of the jeeps trailor - been picked up or dropping off near a Spit)

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

A group pic of all thats built so far.

 

OC.

[lmagna]

I could certainly be wrong OC, but the picture looks like an almost primitive forward operational field, possibly in N. Africa or France. Almost certainly not in the UK. Under those circumstances working outside on the flight line would probably be much more common. The tent in the background is probably "home" and is the most advanced structure in a hundred miles!

 

Based on all of the cups laying on the ground this table may have been the mess hall as well.

[Old Collingwood]

Just now, lmagna said:

I could certainly be wrong OC, but the picture looks like an almost primitive forward operational field, possibly in N. Africa or someplace. Almost certainly not in the UK. Under those circumstances working outside on the flight line would probably be much more common. The tent in the background is probably "home" and is the most advanced structure in a hundred miles!

Thanks Lou,   with the bench being uncertain   it could always be left out of the Dio,   it does seem puzzling to me why this stage would not have been done in preperation for flight  (probably many many boxes of them)  in the hanger.

 

OC.

[lmagna]

This picture says that it is "Ground crew and armourers of #85 Squadron refilling .303 ammo belts at Lille-Seclin France 1939-40. The planes are Hurricane MK 1s.

[lmagna]

13 minutes ago, Old Collingwood said:

it does seem puzzling to me why this stage would not have been done in preperation for flight  (probably many many boxes of them)  in the hanger.

They probably didn't even have a hanger! A few days here and a few days there and retreat again. Remember France didn't last long after the "Phony War". 

[Old Collingwood]

5 minutes ago, lmagna said:

They probably didn't even have a hanger! A few days here and a few days there and retreat again. Remember France didn't last long after the "Phony War". 

I see, so the bench is probably not  for Mossie use  or use on a normal base  with full facilities?

 

OC.

[lmagna]

3 minutes ago, Old Collingwood said:

I see, so the bench is probably not  for Mossie use  or use on a normal base  with full facilities?

Under the same circumstances why not? You get the work done in one way or another. By the looks of the table in the pictures it is not something you moved from place to place unless there was really a need. If you look at the picture I posted which is almost certainly taken at almost the same time as yours, you will see open containers in the far left of the picture on the ground. These containers look very much like the containers we sometimes received when we were operating from forward locations for hot meals. The cups on the ground are also missing in my picture.

 

Again I could be wrong, but I do not remember seeing any field in the UK that looked THAT primitive. Yes, they were dispersed and many times used grass fields for takeoff and landing but I don't think the crews were living and operating out of tents, even though they certainly did some maintenance while outside in the parking areas. 

 

You are trying to do a UK scene and would have to take that into consideration. If you were doing a Mossie operating from a remote temporary location then possibly the scene would be the same as the pictures. I personally would probably relocate the table somewhere else and only have gear that was highly mobile and needed for flight operations in sight. Remember, it would probably be brought out to the aircraft ready to go, or if it was more involved they would tow the aircraft to the place where it could be done properly.

[Old Collingwood]

Thanks Lou, the table will be left out.

 

OC.

[Egilman]

Ok, what your looking at in those pics are "Armorers" (anyone they had available) making up ammo belts.... Now one must understand that the British by 1936 were using the disintegrating belts in all their machine guns un aircraft as were we and the germans...  Also note, they are doing it by hand.... they have no device to assist them... It's not difficult.... Take two clips place them together and insert a round into the ring that is formed, once the round is inserted and snapped into place, the ring stays together, add another ring half and round and you could make up belts as long as you wished...

 

The machinery for making belts was not something that went to forward bases, Such was reserved for established airfields. I believe OC that your depicting such an airfield? so the machinery would be there, but it still wouldn't be near the aircraft....

 

But it's neither here nor there by 1944 there was no threat of attack in southern England except for V weapons aimed at the cities your bomb carts, starter cart and oil browser would all be equipment at a regular RAF station and most of the time wouldn't be present at a forward airfield.... I've included some shots of arming fighters during and just after the Battle of Britain.... As you can readily see, there is no ammo handling and assembly gear around when loading aircraft ammo, they are hand loading it form ammo boxes....

The fields depicted include North Weald, Yeovilton and others....

 

That was a piece of equipment that just wasn't around the aircraft....... and you would only find it at full service airfields....

 

That's my story and I"m sticking with it... {chuckle}

 

EG

[Egilman]

45 minutes ago, Old Collingwood said:

Thanks Lou, the table will be left out.

 

OC.

Ah, I guess while I was off researching you came to your own conclusion on your own... Good Show.... Yeah, your right, full service base is where you would find such equipment... (and not near the aircraft)

[Old Collingwood]

Thank you EG  for further clearing that up,   it wont be an issue as there is enough going on  to keep the Dio busy, so one table will not be missed.

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

Evening all,   here we have  "Number Two"   completed along with his Ervin  Jacket.

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

Evening all,   a bit more progress today  - I am managing one figure per day,   project today  was an other  ERK,   this chap is carrying a Jerry can, I had to do a little bit of fettling  as the kit way was just to glue the can onto the bottom of the hand - but I thought that looked silly, so I cut the middle bar out of the handle  but just left a bit of it showing, then I pushed the hand lower in between the handle and glued it there,  this way it looks like he is actually carrying it.

 

OC.