¹⁄32

Tamiya Mossie: A Plastic Wonder?

Now it’s time to start working down under and that means putting the 20mm cannons, the bombs and the fuel tanks in place. Even the bay doors are multi-part affairs assuring accuracy wherever possible. But it’s the undercarriage that Tamiya have outdone themselves.



Last year, I built their F4U-1A Corsair and like previous entries into their 1/32 series, they supplied those “like ‘em or hate ‘em” rubber tyres. Personally, I think they look ok even though they’re not weighted, but the thing that makes them a pain in the neck, is the mould seam line that is virtually impossible to remove, especially between the treads which in that case was a diamond pattern. This time, however, Tamiya have played their ace. This time, they have come up trumps. Each weighted tyre now consists of no less than 14 separate pieces of styrene. There’s an inner carcase on which you attach the sidewalls and then ten individual tread segments that interlock with a Swiss precision meaning no seam lines in any way shape or form, just a pair of beautiful black circles.