Matt, as always, stellar explanation and outstanding correction. I had to really look close to see the pipe cuts as I mistook them for scale welding seams. Still looks fabulous any way you slice it! (pun intended ) Try to look at the bright side. With all this practice on the Airfix methodology, you should have no problem with your Typhoon when it arrives.

Matt,
After reading through your last post twice, I can't tell you how glad I am to be a strictly 1/48 scale modeler Actually, to tell the truth, I'm amazed at your ability to see through all those fit issues and problems, and then solve each one. Surely, you deserve an AEROSCALE for your efforts. Come to think of it, you can have two.

Joel

Thanks Joel, I tried to make it as clear cut as I could, but I knew it might take some rereading to really understand.

I used to say the same thing about scale, but the large kits kept getting nicer and nicer and here I am now.



Sorry guys, I didn't get to the bench - I was busy; photos by yours truly.


Sorry, to be clear I took these photos this Saturday at Geneseo







The wife and I


Geneseo airshow - it's on again tomorrow but it's a grass field and it's supposed to pour so I don't know how much flying will get done.

Matt, did I mention how much I am really starting to hate you!! LOL What a way to rub my nose in it! You lucky SOB. To be that close to the real thing, I am sooooooo envious! And you have the other flying Lanc up that way as well.
Would you add a small snapshot of that last picture with the finished Mossie. You can sign it if you would be so kind, that way I can show the craftsman with the model.

I was lucky to see it for a second time flying and yes, the Lanc is about 15 minutes away from my house. I see it flying almost every weekend, but with it going to the UK for two months it's going to be a quiet summer. Luckily the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum is "Canada's Flying Museum" so most of their collection flies. They're currently restoring a Bolingbrook (Canadian Blenheim), TBM, and Grumman Tracker. Their most recently completed restoration also flew at the airshow I went to on Saturday - a Westland Lysander. They also just received an actual D-Day veteran C-47 which they will return to its D-Day markings. They already have a DC-3 painted in Canucks Unlimited livery that flies regularly.


I'll post more photos as I process them. Now I'll get back to the model table!

Also - things devalue quickly when I sign them, but the customer is always right.

When I bought my 1/24 Airfix Mossie I decided to go ahead and buy some Paragon resin for it. I don't know why I just felt it might not be available for very long. I was right. Shortly after buying the stuff Neil bailed again. It sounded like the second time that he was producing parts he was going to be doing it on a temporary basis until he found a new job.

Got the resin wheels, exhaust set, landing gear door set, nose gun chutes and IFF lenses. Glad I did. Especially the LG door set. The kit ones have zero detail on the inside and the gear legs don't have the cable rollers. Neil's resin is very nice. Too bad he's bailed.

Do you use Facebook? https://www.facebook.com/pages/De-Havilland-Mosquito-FB26-Ka114-Appreciation-Page/380660158677093?fref=ts

There are a few good pics of the Merlin's in all their glory. Plumbing etc.

For information's sake - neither do the SAC ones. I know they're just metal reproductions of kit parts, but in case anyone was wondering.


Anyways - time for an update. A lot of work, but not much to see.

So the problem is this - you know when you've bought a sub sandwich and there's simply too many fillings to close the bun? That's essentially how the front of the Mosquito's fuselage turns out. It's a real struggle to get it to close on the top and bottom seams. This is a common problem with this kit for a number of reasons. I got this one to close up, but when I went to attach the nose, it only fit for 3/4's of the circumference.

The bottom left didn't fit at all.



Note that the top half of the gun bay fits nicely for the most part.



The interior conforms to the bulkhead as it should - so it's not a warped part



You really get a feel for how bad it is here. You'll note this causes a problem for the cover of the cannons on the bottom of the fuse



This is as nasty as the step to the nose



To make matters worse - even where the cover fits, it's way too thick to sit flush





and that's without the other half of the shroud installed (part 14B)



So I discussed this at length with Chukw and we bounced some ideas back and forth. I was concerned that simply sanding the step down would ruin the line of the nose if I kept the sanding far enough forward to not interfere with the fit of the crew door. We agreed the best approach was to use a spreader to widen the top of the lower nose to fit better at the top and then sand down the step that would be left on the lower quarter.

A piece of sprue from the kit did the job.



I engineered it so it didn't put any strain on the left hand side of the lower nose (right side in the photo) which was glued on 24 hours earlier. It's also installed against the bulkhead so there's no movement as the part pushed back to it's natural position. The harder the part pushed on the rod, the more the rod pushed back essentially.



And here's where we stand at this very minute:



Now there's a very minimal amount of sanding to do and we're golden! Now I'm working on the lower gunbay cover. I'll get to that as I progress.

That must have been a very nasty surprise to run into those gaps Matt. Glad to see you found a solution to the problem.

Thanks for pointing out the problem (and its solution) so clearly Matt. Great work!

Michael

Matt,
Congrats to you and Chuck for coming up with a excellent fix.

As for the issue of the gun covers, it once again proves that if the manufacture designs a hatch or cover to be both open or closed, it really doesn't fit in the closed position.

Joel

Thanks Gents! I'm much relieved.




It's a sad day for a model company - especially one as established as Airfix - when Trumpeter does something better than you. All of my Trumpeter builds have removable panels sitting in place and one of them I can't even get back off because it fits so well.





Glenn
I'm guessing from your lack of reply on here that you're away from the office - but let me know if you didn't get my latest email regarding the gun fairing.

Matt,

Great work. It is very impressive!

Well done on the fix

duh nuh dun nuh duh nuh dun nuh duh nuh dun nuh duh nuh dun nuh Maaaaaask mannnnnnnnnn

Ahhh progress


Today's update will be a step by step (get that song out of my head pls) on shimming.

The problem here begins with the Nacelles. They're one of the few parts that have a means of fitting positively and squarely - a series of walls in the bottom of the wing aligns everything with no room to move. Mine lined up with the top of the nacelles at the rear of the wing, but I hear that's not always the case.

The problem is that there is an unsightly gap on either side of both nacelles.





It's in a place that would be frustrating to fill and sand, so I elected to shim with some stock styrene.

First you'll need to find the thickest stock that will fit.

IIRC for this case it was .015



Now, slide the shim to one end of the hole it's going to fill. Then slide it through to the other end.

Now that we know how much we're going to lay down, slide it to one end and mark the other





I'm using sheet and not strip because with a square of sheet I essentially have a handle. If I used stip, it might fall up into the wing (in this case) and rattle around the plane for the rest of its life.

Now with your sheet cut for length and a reasonable height so you can maneuver the piece, insert it into the gap. You'll likely need to dip one corner in, slide it to the intended end and then drop the other end down, gradually feeding the length of the plastic in as you go.

End result;



Now apply your favorite plastic cement and the thin styrene becomes a little more like putty, it will squeeze out lengthwise and close the gap better as well as expand width wise a little to join to both surfaces.


The gap you're dealing with changes in width?

Not a problem, do as above but before gluing add a second layer of shim measured the same way as above.(look carefully and you'll see a smaller shim in front



Once dry - shouldn't take long at all, take a knife at right angle to the piece and it will cut off easily. Voila no more gap and at worst - a tiny little bit of filling you would've had to do anyway.









In other news, remember this?




After fitting and fixing and repeating, it was still too thick, the gap due to the fuselage offset was too wide and the fairing was too long regardless.


Separated to sand down some length - I couldn't do this at the rear of the panel when it was in one piece because of the rivet marks which I didn't want to rescribe.



Used my Mission Models chisel and my dremel and thinned and thinned and thinned...



Do they fit? They do, but you'll have to wait and see.


Also - update on the fuselage step;



It feels good once you have it done well.

Some nice tips and tricks I'll have to remember here Matt,

Matt,
I use a similar method of fitting sheet plastic to fill long voids with literally no bottom for any sort of filler to push against. As you said the shimming is much neater with a lot less sanding. Once dry and I cut it flush, I carefully run a 2nd coat of Extra Thin along the sheet, as the inside seam never was properly glued. Once that dries, I carefully sand, then apply a thin bead of Vallejo White putty to blend everything together. The Vallejo putty doesn't need any sanding once it dries if you wipe it correctly with a damp Q tip right after you apply it.

Joel

I hope you wont need to my friend.






Yes it would be a bad day if the inside of the sheet got glue on it too - capillary action would pull the glue up out of the seam and in this particular case, you'd end up having to sand .010 of sheet styrene off the inside of a nacelle.


:-( we can't find Vallejo products this side of the border.

Looking excellent Matt! But you knew that already Just watch what your doing now, I don't want to see Typhoon sprues making their way into the Mossie build! lol Have you peeked inside yet?

Matt, surprisingly I think they heard your grumblings about the big rubber tires with the Mossie. The Typhoon is back to the big plastic ones.

It is in view, but I have not opened the box - it's still sealed. My wife has made sure of it lol. So I annoy her by sitting with it when we settle down to watch TV at night.





I saw that, and frankly I was annoyed - I refuse to believe they didn't know better when they made the Mosquito. Besides, I could have hid them better on the Typhoon! (I saw that in Brett Green's book, not in the kit which I haven't opened Sleuth.)


It's back on it's wheels, wing's on and fits much better this time than last.

Nice work enjoyed looking at all the details of your kit....

Thanks Anthony, thanks for joining us here on Aeroscale.