Revell 1:48 Mosquito B Mk. IV

[AAC]

This SIG looks like some fun so I thought I'd give it a go, I got this kit at a good price on eBay but wanted to do some more so I also got Eduard's 'BIG ED' for it (I like pain ). I've seen this kit built-up and they can look great so I hope I can do it justice, also it appears this kit is disappearing as suppliers seem to be running down existing stock and if I'm correct it would be a shame as by all accounts it's a great kit.

Anyway here are the initial photos.

The box was a bit beaten-up but no damage to the parts (phew)







This is the colour scheme I'll be going for



Here the plastic

There's 2 of these sprues





My photo of the decals was crap so I grabbed this one off the net


And here's the photoetch


That's it for now I hope I can get an update up soon.

[Nige201980]

Welcome abroad mate. good luck with the build looking forward to seeing the build

[AAC]

Thanks Nige for the encouragement, I hope I can do the kit justice.

I decided to build this more or less in the order in the instructions so I started with the bomb bay. While this would be straight forward in an OOB build I've got the PE as well and the bomb bay gets it's fair share.

This update is just to show where I'm at, I bought some PE tools a little while ago to make it easier to work with and they have helped tremendously. A really big difference since my last foray with PE and I've got about five times more than I did then.



More to come, thanks for looking.

[Nige201980]

Great work mate

[Avgas]

Looking good.

[AAC]

Hi all, I've been slowly working away on the cockpit, slowly being the operative word, working with PE can be mojo destroying as everything can take so long! that's why I'm still working on the cockpit

Anyway enough of my complaining here's the update!

This is one of the fiddliest things I've done, part #49 needed to be made into a rack


And this is how to fold it


First get it off the fret without stuffing it up and then bend it!



And all done and when it's installed I bet it'll never be seen again.


Now on with the rest of the cockpit, seats and various other bits folded and glued into place.




I had some difficulty mounting the pilot's seat, Eduard have you remove the kit seat mounts and replace it with some PE, fair enough thought I so I dutifully removed the offending bits and put on the PE bit which was just useless and fell to bits as soon as the glue dried (literally). If I had looked at it and done some test fitting I would have left the kit bit alone. I wondered how Eduard got around this and looked at their photos, well they used a great big post to hold the seat in


I didn't want to use a post so I made a shelf with some styrene sheet and that worked fine and will look much better than the pole!


And this will give you an idea of how it will look like when it's buttoned up.


I'll put all the colour bits and seatbelts on after it's painted and it should look quite nice.

Thanks for looking and as always all feedback welcome.

[Nige201980]

Wow that looks cracking mate great work on the radio.

[AAC]

Just a quick update for those who are following... DISASTER

After putting some colour into the cockpit I started removing the masking tape from the radio box on the very spindly stand and...


Bugger!

Well out with the kit part and see what can be salvaged. I decided to split the PE box and wrap it around the kit part as best as I could. It seems to have turned out OK and when the whole thing is put together it should be fine






Well the office is almost finished and I think the "fix" turned out OK. As always feedback welcome, thanks for looking.

[mick]

great work on the pit

[Nige201980]

Brill work mate

[plasmahal]

Loving the detailed work on this kit.

I think it's the mossie kit i have somewhere in my loft.

[AAC]

Thank's for the comments guys, it's appreciated.

Well that's the first 10 steps completed so I'm calling the cockpit interior done! At Last! I will give it a clear matt coat when the rest of the cockpit is completed before closing it up.

Primer in the interior walls








As always feedback welcome, thanks for looking.

[Aliktren]

I have this kit and I gave up with it a while ago as I couldnt get the fuselage to meet - so let me say, compared to OOB that looks utterly fantastic, however much effort the PE cost you was worth it, lovely job

did your fuselage meet ?

[Willem]

Nice work mate. That cockpit looks fab.

[arilo76]

Really a great work you are doing, looking forward to see it finished.

[AAC]

I have this kit and I gave up with it a while ago as I couldn't get the fuselage to meet - so let me say, compared to OOB that looks utterly fantastic, however much effort the PE cost you was worth it, lovely job

did your fuselage meet ?

Thanks Aliktren, I haven't gotten as far as joining the fuselage yet however I've done many trial fittings and I can see it will be tight (read gap) but I think it won't be too much of a problem, I'll probably join the seam a bit at a time.

Nice work mate. That cockpit looks fab.

Many thanks Will, it's getting there, slowly.

Really a great work you are doing, looking forward to see it finished.

Thanks Antonio, me too I think this will look quite good when done.

[AAC]

Well 13 steps completed (mostly) just have to glue the forward section together. I didn't use all the PE as some of it won't be seen and other times the kit parts looked better. Anyway you guys can let me know what you think

This is what it looks like before it's put together.





And this is what it will look like completed.




And a bit of an idea when the canopy is on, at lease it fits.


All in all i think it's turned out well even though it's taked so long to get this far. As always feedback welcome, thanks for looking.

[AAC]

It's time for a long overdue update The cockpit is all closed up, just the canopy & clear nose section to be added. I've completed the tail section and joined it to the forward section. The wings are built but I haven't joined them yet and won't till I get all the seams sorted and there's been alot to do on that front

Here are a few update photos.




This will give you an idea of what it will look like with the wings attached, I'll just have to work out how to close the gaps


I'll keep soldiering on and I hope I can finish in time

Thanks for looking and as always all feedback is welcome.

[AAC]

Well time's almost up and I'm nowhere near finished Sorry Nige but your going to be one non-Tamiya mozzie short.

I will finish, eventually, I'll ask one of the nice fourm moderators to move this thread out into the public so any of those with a passing interest can keep looking

[Nige201980]

Don't worry about it mate finish when you can.

[Novorus]

Well their you are looking great, will be looking forward to watching this one to be sure

[AAC]

Well it seems that I've been a bit remiss on this one and haven't updated it for a while (almost 4 years!). The truth is I had a love hate relationship with this kit and nearly binned it quite a few times. This was my fault and not entirely the kits, while the kit had fit issues I think I bit off more than I could chew by doing so much PE which we all know can be a mojo killer.

I had forgotten about this thread until @HighestAce PM'd me about this, otherwise I probably wouldn't be posting this . Anyway, I persevered and it's now finished and while it's not brilliant, I'm quite happy with it

Now from where i left off (I think) I had to fix a rather nasty starboard wing root gap. Now I can't remember if I caused this or it was the kit, so I'll say both and move on. So out with some plasticard to fill in the gap.




Next up a few ejector pin marks, also Eduard would have you us PE here however the amount of effort to add it and with the wheels in, you'd never see it, even with a torch!



Here the PE makes sense, it's tight on top



This step Revell would have you build the nacelles on the wing but i though (correctly) that would make cleanup much harder, so I did them separately.




The kit also comes with some engines if you want to have the nacelles open, I didn't but I used them as they hold the exhaust in much better than just gluing the pipes on, if anyone does build this I'd recommend doing that too.

Now it was time to finally attach the wings, always a fun bit in building a plane It did need some (quite a bit) of styrene filler to make it look seamless and was quite effective.





Then on went some primer and it finally started to look like a mozzie





And now the cammo and it's really looking the part now.





And this is the fella who was driving it when it wore these markings, the plane was later destroyed in an accident which killed both the pilot and navigator.



Then it was on with some clear and the decals which went down without any trouble or silvering.






Then it was time for the last few jobs to finish her off, the undercarriage, rear wheel (which i broke) and navigation lights.




To fix the rear wheel, a staple was pressed into use





Then it was time to finally remove the masks after a semi gloss coat was added.



Unfortunately as the model had been sitting for so long and had been sanded so much, sanding dust had gotten inside




But from a distance you don't notice it so that's the way it's staying. And here it is finished.







I hope you have found this of some interest and as always any comments or feedback is welcome.

PS. @Nige201980 I finally finished it