1/24 scale DH Mosquito for rubber power.

[Prosper]

I haven't advanced things much today. I fixed flanges to the front and rear of the main section, to provide location and gluing area for the nose and tail sections. The separate bomb bay has made this part of the work slower and more vague than I'd hoped. Now for the first time I can see how the bulging bomb bay looks in relation to the whole fuselage. When I made the bay I thought it was too 'bulgy' - but now I think maybe its not proud enough. I'll go thru the (inadequate) photos I have of this feature - see if there's some sneaky way I can actually derive a measurement, rather than just relying on 'how it looks'. As for the fairings front and rear that blend it with the fuselage, I'm still not sure how those might be made.

Stephen.

[Prosper]

I'm marking time here - working but no forward movement. It's to do with the bulging bomb bay, BBB, which is causing more trouble than I could have guessed. I re-shaped the mould, but I think I've got it wrong again; playing with paper patterns . . . sketching . . .

As for obtaining sound measurements from the few relevant photos I have - no luck except that I did notice an angle which I could measure (hadn't thought in terms of angles) - but when applied to my drawings and moulds it appears impossible. Come to think of it I only have one real clue: a book I have says that the 4,000lb bomb was "a tight fit", and the internet tells me that this bomb was 3ft in diameter. The internal width of my balsa fuselage shell at the bomb bay is 42 mm, and this scales up to 39" on the full-size aeroplane. 1 1/2" to spare either side, when the bomb is winched in by armourers off a trolley, in the field. I think that counts as a tight fit .

Stephen.

[Prosper]

Yesterday I was still on the BBB. The extra curvature makes for a more difficult shape for balsa sheet to conform to, so I cut two long relief slits along the wood, and when bound to the mould these overlapped a good deal - the overlapping is where the dashed lines are. I also tackled the rear fairing. This has slight double curvature, but I made what I think will be a usable moulding. It seems to me that I won't be able to fix either the BBB or the front/rear fairings, until the basic fuselage has its tissue covering in place.

I also finished the fusealge tail section by fixing the two frfomers in place. This allows me to assemble and fit the tail surfaces. I hope to take some photos tomorrow. The photos here show various bits of tailplane/elevators. There is balsa sheet added to the elevator balance horn, top and bottom. This is intended to stop tissue sag. The sheet started as 0.8mm but was glued in such a way that most of it is sanded away.

[Prosper]

At last some foreward movement. It looks as if this bomb bay doors pair will work. The balsa is very light tho', and given that this is what the model will land on, I think some internal reinforcement is indicated. Note that the bomb bay trespasses into the nose section. That's where I'm going next - the nose section can't be glued to the main section until I've got the nose glazing sorted out, and some kind of instrument panel, internal detail sort of stuff.

The tail surfaces are done, subject to some final finishing. Unlike the nose, I think I can now fix the tail section to the main fuselage section.

Stephen.

[Konrad]

Stephen,
I really like this kind of detailed build! Thank you for taking the time to annotate and post such detailed photos of your builds.

[Lastwoodsman]

Looks great Stephen!   Long live the  "core" ...

Lastwoodsman
Richard

[OZPAF]

We are so used to seeing your extremely detailed build descriptions that it is easy to forget how much time you must spend documenting it. So thanks Stephen - interesting techniques and tools really make your posts. The tail assembly looks very Mossiesh!

John

[Kelly]

The tail assembly looks very Mossiesh!

Reminds me of a photo of a Mosquito that downed a V-1. The aircraft flew through the fireball, singeing the aircraft and burning off the control surfaces' fabric. No idea how the pilot managed a safe landing.

Fantastic work as usual John!

[malc]

This one?
Prosper, your Mossie is looking fantastic, always enjoy seeing your progress!
(Following the full size rebuild in the UK too).
Malc.

[dputt7]

  Stephen, beautiful work as usual! Thanks for sharing.

[Prosper]

Fanx muchly for the kind comments fellas. Yes, the write-up does take time, and could probably take more time if I really tried to explain myself properly (I often think that my explanations of how I've done something must read as baffling gobbledegook). However, time is something I fairly often have, to dispose of as I wish - something I'm very thankful for.

The nose glazing has eaten lots of it - time, that is. The first picture shows a collection of plunge-mouldings which are failures. Now, my plunge-moulding failure rate is nowhere near that bad as a rule - I would hope for a useable item on the 1st, 2nd or 3rd attempt. Here though the subsequent mouldings were about getting the shape right. Most of these in the pic go back to the time circa posts #83-88.

Yesterday I decided to  get serious. I cut the nose off the balsa nose-section mould, and make a seperate plug to plunge the nose glazing. I think it was the 3rd try I got something useable.

I also reinforced the nose using a circle of plastic card, cut from a plunge-moulded nosebowl like the one to the right of the fuselage nose in pic 2). That plunge-moulded item is a reject - I've kept it just in case a use for it emerges. The reinforcing ring projects slightly from the balsa, making a step. The rim of the nose glazing dome has paper, wetted out with CA, fixed inside it. These aids to location/stiffness have finally allowed a decent fit (he said ). Before these additions the very thin transparent PET and the light balsa nose were impossible to match up - they wouldn't keep their shape.

The final picture shows: (1) My attempt to use one of the reject nose mouldings to fashion the external frame around the bombardier's flat panel. Very fiddly. The inside rim of this frame has been cut out, shaved with a scalpel, and finally shaped with (2) a very sophisticated machine tool. Oh okay, some abrasive paper wound round a bamboo skewer. I made this to shape/enlarge holes in wing ribs after the wing has been assembled. 3) Ouch! Blisters. 4) Thin paper strips, cut to a specific curve, were held inside the rim of the nose glazing bowl and wetted out with thin CA. Two layers. The CA bonds well to PET.

[Prosper]

Some while back I thought about the side blisters on the cockpit canopy. Oh no - another fiddly little plug to be shaped. Then it struck me that ju-ust maybe the plug I made for a 1/18th scale Spitfire XI (reconnaisance: side blisters), might be adapted. In fact it needed no adaptation. The PET for all this transparency work comes from Tesco - cinnamon swirls, if you have to know . For these blisters I should have made a female mould to plunge thru, but was too lazy and used a pre-existing shape - it was the hole immediately behind/below the moulded blister, and was cut for a Gipsy engine nose cowling (¿Leopard Moth?). The material is hardboard.

Stephen.

[Crabby]

Stephen, in the most affectionate way possible, I have to call you out as a modeling maniac. I should know I am also a modeling maniac. During post romantic interludes my loving wife will often murmur into my ear " lover, of what are you dreaming?" If she only knew it was how was I ever gonna mount that wing into my new Jet Hustler. All my stuff would be expressed directly to the curb, and I would be on the corner forever warming the hands over the 55 gallon drum. Oh woe is me the modeling maniac lover with the sticky fingers!

[Prosper]

I have to call you out as a modeling maniac . . .

No, not at all, not at all. That's where you're dead wrong. Y'see, I can handle it. I'm in control. Y'see, I can stop modelling any time I want - it's just that I've already opened this kit and it would be dumb to waste it, wouldn't it? After this one kit I'm going to stop. Easy enough. Or . . . maybe just stick with the simple stuff - chuck-gliders can't be any harm, can they . . .

Right, enough of that nonsense. Addicted - Ha! Today I reshaped the Mosquito canopy plug to get it closer to what I perceive the correct shape to be. Once again, lots of photos in my research collection, but few of any use in showing the canopy. I have a Squadron/Signal 'Walkaround' monograph, but the closeups involving the bomber-type canopy are of an American (I think) recce model, which was quite different with large lumps and bumps all over it. My modified plug is a bit asymmetric because I went too far in one spot - but I think I'll use the canopy I plunged from it, because the canopy is removeable, and I can just replace it later on, if I feel the need. I'll take some pics tomorrow if I can.

Stephen.

[Crabby]

Hi Stephen I can appreciate the care you are taking with the canopy. For me it's a critical part of the plane's look. Did I ask if whether or not you're gonna use your pendulum control?