DeHavilland Mosquito FB Mk VI by Danstream - Tamiya - 1/48 scale - PLASTIC

[Danstream]

Hi all,

here I would like to start and share with you my new build of the wooden wonder De Havilland Mosquito 1:48 scale. The kit is the old, but still very nice Tamiya of the FB Mk VI (Fighter-Bomber).

Since long time, I wanted to build a model of this aircraft because of its fame and because of its remarkable design. For me, this is the first Mosquito build as a grown up modeler if I exclude the ancient Revell 1/32 kit that I built when I was a kid. 

 

To start my build, I followed to the letter the Tamiya instructions which called the engine nacelles as a first step:

For added 3-D effects, I just thickened the frames of the nacelles and added few interior details. The white panel shown on the inside walls is an artistic license of mine having used a piece of thin styrene to hide annoying ejection pin marks which I didn't want to fill and sand. In the following, the nacelles are shown completed:

They are test fitted with the wings and with the main undercarriage struts to check that no interferences with the new added parts are present:

I was a bit puzzled by the way the main undercarriage is supposed to be assembled. If I follow the Tamiya steps, I am going to get the large wheels in the way when I will have to finish off and paint the truss structure. Actually, it is desirable to be able to install the wheels only after everything is assembled and painted. To resolve this issue, I removed altogether the molded plastic wheel axles and replaced them with a brass tube 1.6 mm dia. that can slid in and out as shown in the picture.

Once trimmed in length, the new axles could be slid in place to install the wheels at the most convenient moment. Without the wheels in the way, I could assemble and finish the undercarriage structure properly and fit the brake lines made of lead wires. I also drilled lightening holes in the supports of the mud fenders to add a little, but nice detail. Here the completed undercarriages are posed within their locations on the lower wing halves which have been painted interior green.

I read that to improve commonality of parts, the real undercarriages were not handed, but I left them as they are intended in the kit because their modification it would have been a complication for me. Finally, the nacelles were glued in place and the half wings were completed. The undercarriages are now ready to be painted.

Not much, but that's all for now, thanks for having you following,

best regards,

Dan

 

[Egilman]

Nice work....

[king derelict]

Another great build starting. Lovely aircraft 

Alan

[Canute]

Great start, Dan. Love those Mossies.😄

[davec]

Great start! I will be following along.

 

Dave

[Dave_E]

I’m in. 🍿🥤👍😀

[Danstream]

Hi, thanks for your feedback! Unfortunately, the progress with my build is quite slow, so I am updating my WIP just to show that it is still going on. I started with the parts for the interior of the cockpit.

Actually, there are quite a number of parts and the best way to proceed is to take the necessary time for each of them. For the seat belts, I also bought the Eduard P.E. fret shown above and that contains them. With the seat belts, there are also a number of other details that are a welcome addition, including a plate with the name of the aircraft. However, when I tackled the instrument panel, I realized that this is colored with a blue tint instead of the usual black.

I checked several reference photos and I never found that tint. It looks to me quite odd that Eduard opted for such a strange color. At any rate, I don't like it and I prefer not to use it. The problem is that I already sanded down the instrument details in the original kit part so I cannot use it anymore. I need to shop around for a suitable replacement. Meanwhile, I started to add few details to the kit parts. It isn't my intention to superdetail the cockpit, but I am adding just few things that might be visible through the Mosquito closed canopy. For example, this is the addition to the radio compartment:

Here with some colors and the radio boxes:

Not much, but this is all for now.

Cheers,

Dan

 

[realworkingsailor]

If you just want to replace the IP, try Yahu models. Here’s an example from a Canadian retailer:

 

https://thunderbirdmodels.com/en/132-aircraft-accessories/446-yma3210-yahu-models-132-mosquito-nf-iifb-vi-instrument-panel.html

 

They’re relatively inexpensive, and ready to use.

 

Andy

[Danstream]

5 minutes ago, realworkingsailor said:

If you just want to replace the IP, try Yahu models.

Thanks, just found it here in the Netherlands (1/48 scale) at less than 5 euro. I just ordered it, together with an 'in action' publication about the Mosquito (you know, just to achieve an amount worthy of the order).

Cheers,

Dan

[chadwijm6]

Love these. I'll follow along 😁 

[king derelict]

19 hours ago, Danstream said:

you know, just to achieve an amount worthy of the order

That’s always my downfall. You have to make the postage worthwhile 😁

Great start 

alan

[Danstream]

Hi,

I went on with the cockpit parts. I eventually received the super nice Yahu replacement for the instrument panel which is shown here glued to the other kit parts:

I have added three prominent control levers in the center of the panel made of thin aluminum foil to complete the appearance of the IP. These are the cockpit parts that are now basically completed:

Differently from the instrument panel which was a disappointment, the Eduard seat belts worked fine and added a nice level of details to the kit seats. These are the same parts seen from another angle:

This time, I am going to depict a used aircraft, so I added some grime and dirt by brushing on some pastel powder. Now the parts are basically ready to be assembled, but before I will spray a mist of matt clear to uniform the finishes and mute the glint of metallic parts. On the underside of the cockpit, we have the ceiling of the bomb bay which I also started to color. I first sprayed a black primer followed by a light coat of colors that let the black to be seen through (although not very visible in the picture):

I will finish the bay by adding some more weathering effects to it. Presently, I am preparing the fuselage halves that need to have some of their annoying extractor pin marks to be addressed.

That is all for now, thanks for following,

Dan

 

 

[king derelict]

The cockpit details look great. 

[realworkingsailor]

Looks great Dan! I’m glad the Yahu IP worked for you!

 

Andy

[Old Collingwood]

Lovely work,  the  cockpit area  was my fave  part  when I built the  Revell  version  some years back.

 

OC.

[Danstream]

4 hours ago, king derelict said:

The cockpit details look great.

Thanks Alan! Glad that you like it.

 

3 hours ago, realworkingsailor said:

Looks great Dan! I’m glad the Yahu IP worked for you!

Thanks Andy! Yes, the Yahu IP was a great addition. After you mentioned it, I got a light bulb switched on.

 

1 hour ago, Old Collingwood said:

Lovely work,  the  cockpit area  was my fave  part  when I built the  Revell  version  some years back.

Thanks OC. I also liked this one, with few additions I easily busied it up. However, the Mosquito has a closed canopy, but I am confident that something will be anyway visible.

 

Cheers,

Dan

[CDW]

Very nice start, Dan. Looking forward to more.

[mtaylor]

Wonderful work.   I do have a question... it appears that only the pilot had an armored seat correct?   Seems odd if true that only one would be armored.

[Old Collingwood]

5 minutes ago, mtaylor said:

Wonderful work.   I do have a question... it appears that only the pilot had an armored seat correct?   Seems odd if true that only one would be armored.

There  was one  in my  Revell   kit   - 

 

OC.

[Danstream]

@mtaylor, @Old Collingwood, I also have interpreted the plate where the backrest of the navigator is located as an armored plate. I even made some chipping on the edge of it. However, even assuming so, the head of the navigator was not protected. But I have seen such an arrangement also when I built the interior of the Beaufighter where the pilot seat backrest stopped at the shoulders height.

Cheers,

Dan

[Danstream]

Dear all,

a short update with nothing exciting, but I needed to complete some necessary activities in preparation for closing the fuselage halves. One very tedious task was to address the many ejector pin marks on the fuselage inner sides. Then, the interior was furnished and some 'fantasy' cabling was added:

The two halves are now ready to receive some black paint before the interior green. Meanwhile, I finished to weather the bomb bay with the application of some black and brown Tamiya panel liner:

It turned out quite OK when inside the fuselage, although I must say that little of it will be seen because it will be covered by the structures that will held the bombs and half of it will be hidden by the doors of the cannons bay:

In the nose, I am replacing the Browning machine guns muzzles with the very nice Master brass additions:

I will glue them in place later on, probably after the application of the camouflage. I am not going to detail the gun bay and probably I will close this compartment after having glued the muzzle definitively in place. Finally, I am posting a picture of the completed cockpit tested inside the fuselage to show how much of it will be visible:

That is all for now, thanks for following,

Dan

[Old Collingwood]

Some lovely  progress  there, will  you be leaving the  entrance  hatch open  to allow  some  views into the  cockpit?

 

OC.

[Danstream]

19 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

Some lovely  progress  there, will  you be leaving the  entrance  hatch open  to allow  some  views into the  cockpit?

Thank you OC! Yes I am planning to pose the hatch open, I saw that you can peek inside and appreciate some nice details from there.

Dan

Edited May 6 by Danstream

[Old Collingwood]

7 hours ago, Danstream said:

Thank you OC! Yes I am planning to pose the hatch open, I saw that you can peek inside and appreciate some nice details from there.

Dan

Looking forward  to that  Dan.

 

OC.

[Danstream]

Dear all,

these are last steps with the fuselage interior. I added the gunsight to the cockpit and these are its last images before enclosing it in the fuselage:

The fuselage interior was painted black and then mottled with the interior green. The cockpit posed with the port half:

And with the starboard half:

The first important milestone, the fuselage is now buttoned up:

With few additions, the parts of the kit allowed to fabricate a nice and detailed cockpit. The last piece of equipment glued on the edge of the coaming:

The bomb bay with the false breeches of the four cannons now looks like this:

For @Old Collingwood, I tried to take a picture of the cockpit seen through the open hatch, but it is not in focus:

That's all for now, thanks for following,

Dan

[king derelict]

Beautiful detailing work Dan. It looks great

Alan

[Canute]

Excellent work on your detailing, Dan.

[JKC27]

Glad I found this build log - I have this kit, just no idea when I will get to it.  Hope I can make mine look even close to what you have going on.  Great job!

 

Our local museum is working on restoring an old Mossie, along with our Lancaster bomber.

[Danstream]

@JKC27, thanks for your compliment, I hope not to disappoint you.

Very interesting that you have a Mossie being restored at hand. It could turn out to be very useful 🙂.

Regards,

Dan

[Danstream]

Hi,

this post is dedicated to a problem that I had once I mated the fuselage halves and wanted to install the canopy included in the kit. Actually, the canopy of the kit is very well made with a very clear plastic, but unfortunately it was found accidentally separated from its tree. Consequently, the plastic in the vicinity of the gate was torn off and stress cracked in the bulk of the part as shown below:

The depth of the of the frame at this location is very narrow and once painted it is not enough to hide the offended area. After some attempts to sand and polish the defect, where instead of improving I worsened it, I decided that the canopy had to be binned and replaced. After a search on the web, I bought two vacuum-formed canopies produced by Squadron.

I must say that I never used these types of canopies and I was uncertain about their quality. The bag contains a blister with two canopies, but only one of them is usable for the model I want to build (i.e. the standard type).

My doubts were associated with the very thin material used and with the necessity of precisely separating the canopy part from the rest of the blister. However, according to some articles, these canopies with their thin thickness are supposed to be even better than the original kit parts. For cutting, as prescribed by Squadron, I used a fresh X-acto blade making multiple passes with minimal pressure while the canopy was supported by a blu-tak plug pressed inside it. I first practiced on the bulged canopy before proceeding with the good one. At the end, the cutting and subsequent trimming fortunately turned out to be quite precise:

Next, the gluing operation followed. According to Squadron and to most of the articles that I read, the most suitable glue to be used is the Micro Kristal Klear. The glue had to be thinned with water to decrease its viscosity and allow it to penetrate by capillarity in the gaps between the canopy and the sills:

 

I brushed the thinned glue along the gap cleaning the excess with a wet pointed cotton swab. Because the thinned glue shrinks a lot when cured, this process has to be repeated as many times as necessary to satisfactorily fill the gap and obtain a fairly strong bond. So far it is going fine, but I will be able to see the quality of the result only when I will brush some paint over the joint.

That's all for now,

best regards.

Dan