Nicely done Matt

" So I annoy her by sitting with it when we settle down to watch TV at night."
Oh great, now I have tears in my eyes from laughing so hard first thing in the morning!


[/quote] (I saw that in Brett Green's book, not in the kit which I haven't opened Sleuth.)[/quote]

Darn, I got busted! I thought I would catch you in the old "yeah I saw that" trap. Too quick for me buddy!

I was doing it again last night, she shot me a look and said with exasperation "Why are you doing that? I'm going to tell Glenn" in my best creepy whisper I told her 'it's too late'




I'm married and I've dated women, I can smell a trap a kilometer away.

Sorry guys, I was on vacation last week so I only have an update for you now.


The wings are on! Permanently.

Either I'm doing this all wrong, or I've found another area where the kit is poorly engineered. All the parts fit in theory, but the actual exercise of putting them together isn't the smoothest. amongst other issues, the pilot's armor is once again in the way.

Here it is in one easy step:





If you look at the bulkhead here, you'll see the fit is perfect with no gaps. So there shouldn't be any problem right?





Same at the back with the bulkhead that has the hole in it.



Here's the first issue - which has nothing to do with the width of the fuselage. If you install the wing as directed, when you go to swing the rear of the wing up, it wont clear this tab here or the matching one of the far side. These support the rear of the bomb bay sides. If you slot the wing in rear first and swing the front up, you wont clear the matching tabs on the front of the bomb bay. I ended up losing the top half of the rear ones.





Here's the width problem. This photo doesn't show it as clearly as I thought it would - but there's a massive gap on either shoulder right next to the two seats. You can see clear through.



Back to shimming...

The positionable flaps might seem like they're not fitting right - but play with them. They slide back and forth about 1/16th of an inch.





At least she's standing



With the Tamiya 1/48th counterpart.





Back to the shimming. There's also a gap over the wing that needs to be fixed. I couldn't raise the wing any further. I put more pressure on the wing and fuse joint but back off when I felt that I was going to bust a seam somewhere.

I marked the length of the void on the widest sheet styrene that would fit.



Slotted it in, gluing as I went from front to rear. I discovered it was far too easy to push the styrene clear inside so I tried a different approach with the other side.



This time I cut the shim to length, but left it attached to the sheet so i could control it. After gluing the sheet was cut off.



Before I can fix the cannon shroud or attach the sides of the bomb bay, I have to assemble the cannon pack.

Pay close attention to where the braces attach to the cannons. I almost messed this up the first time through.



Credit where credit is due - these 9 pieces are holding together while dry fitted. I wish the whole kit was like this.



Alclad gunmetal is one of my favourite colours. Dry brushed with Tamiya's German metallic gray







Since the cannon shroud was being installed, there was no point in using the beautiful master barrels. To make up for this, I used some of Radu's grommets to cap off the ends of the barrels.







Dry fitting of the bomb bay sides showed they didn't fit well because the wing sat low and the locking portion of the tab on then end was taken off by the wing. Careful sanding and constant checking lead to a perfect fit.









Like wise the shroud took a ton of sanding and thinning. It will still need to be filled before paint.



At least it sits flush now.



Further assembly of the cannon pack was required in order to check the fit of the upper half of the shroud



These do not align well on their own. I glued them to the brackets once I had them in place - otherwise it would be a nightmare to fit.

They didn't want to go past any of these bulkheads



In the end I removed all those bulkheads to help the fairing sit flush. It turns out that the Mosquito is like the Typhoon's engine covers - they're not meant to be in place with all the detail on. If you want this shroud on the bottom, don't build the bulkheads. I left the rear one on because it can be seen from the bomb bay.



To test fit, I determined how far back the upper shroud sits from the front and blu-tacked it in place. Then I moved the cannons forward and found no fit issues.



This is when I glued the guns to their mounting brackets



The fit is now fine. Note the brass grommets.



I would recommend gluing the ammo chutes together AFTER gluing the top halves to their ammo crates. The fit is finicky


I used square stock to fill the void on the side of the fairing, sanded it flat after it was glued in place.



sheet stock was also used to flush up the front fairing with the rear (I cut them apart, they wouldn't line up when attached.



Now she's really looking like something







Just a little more to go before paint. I have to wait for a hobby store to open - I'm 100% out of putty - then fill some spots, sand, prime and then.........PAINT!

The Mosquito is putting up a fight but you seem to be winning Matt. Looks great,

Hi Matt. Magnificent job you're doing here!

What do you think about the rumours that this kit was meant to be issued in the 70's along with Airfix's other 1/24 kits now that you're well into the build?

I can't help but think, that, perhaps this was partially tooled by Airfix at that time and then shelved for whatever reason... Fit and assembly issues like the one's you're experiencing could have been worked out in 3d CAD prior to tooling had this been a more recent design.

A comparison of the instructions for the Mosquito and the Typhoon kit shows just how different these two kits are in terms of engineering. This makes me suspect these kits were created years, if not decades apart, Airfix only recently acquiring the time and resources to finish the Mosquito kit and bring it to market.

Highly doubtful. The detail is fantastic, but besides that - it's based on the recent restoration out of Australia. It has parts that I've only found in that aircraft. Owning the 24th scale Spit, I can assure you this is light years ahead. Even if it fits like Airfix of old.

It is true that Airfix did contemplate releasing a 1/24 scale Mossie back in the 70s, but they released it in 1/48 scale instead. The real pity is that the Mossie wasn't (I guess) designed by the same guy that designed the Typhoon!

Again Matt, very well done on the fixes, I have taken notes She is looking good

Well, let's hope the "airfix of old" problems are nicked in the Tiffee kit

One would almost think you broke down and peaked at the Typhoon there Matt! But since a lot of posters had commented on the Tiffie's engine covers, I will assume your resolve is standing strong (along with your wife's ever watchful eye ). The Mossie is looking fabulous Matt! It has been such a pleasure and learning tutorial to watch you go thru this process. You are indeed the master!!

Matt,
Outstanding progress. You're getting to be a real "old pro" at shimming with card stock, just another tool of the trade.

I haven't tried the Alcad II Gun Metal yet, but sure looks like it's a vast improvement over the Tamiya Gun Metal.

Once you glued the wings into position, the flaps still move in two planes. It does look rather nasty when the flap slides under the wing panel next to it. Will you be gluing the flaps in a permanent position at some point?

Looking forward to finally seeing some paint on your build.
Joel

It's written right into the ADH book Glenn - there's a whole chapter on it! I would have thought you would have read that by now.




They do - they rotate but you can also pull them towards the tailplane. When you push them into the wing the gap isn't noticeable. I will leave the flaps operational so that Glenn can play with them while making airplane engine noises.



Trust me, I'm also looking forward to getting some paint on it. It's a daunting amount of paint though.

Very funny guy! I'll have you know I make some of the very best airplane noises after 26 years in the AF! LOL. Yes I did read the chapter, but was still trying to see if you were going to slip up somewhere along the way, when the wife wasn't watching, and take a peak. You KNOW you want too! Just busting your chops Matt.

I will not succumb to peer pressure. I'm waiting until the Mosquito is finished before I open the Typhoon box! I have a second one on its way.

I'm building something simple next though. A nice clean Tamiya kit of some sort.

I have an extra Tamiya "Buzz Bomb" in the stash. You can't get much simpler than that! I applaud your will-power and resolve Matt!

Matt,
I commend you on your fortitude. I don't allow myself to open any kits unless I'm actually starting them. It's not so bad once you get use to the routine. It's just like being a reformed smoker (I've been cigarette free for 20 years now), I don't hold a cigarette, so I'm not tempted.
Joel

I haven't forgotten about you folks - I'm filling and sanding. It's almost time to put on a tinfoil hat, I'm going a little cross eyed.

Lot of work, not much to show for it.


Also - if you're going to build one of these kits, another note; the flame shrouds are not designed to go on with the exhausts, it's one or the other. I mention this because you attach the exhausts before you install the cowls and it would be miserable to figure this out too late.


This kit suffers from horrible instructions.


The Typhoon is similar in that you can't build it like an old Revell kit or the newer Tamiya stuff - you either build the detail and leave it open or you dont even build the kit parts and cover it all up. If it were my kit - I would have purchased it with the intent to build everything and install all the detail parts, but leave the cowls on sometimes. I'd be pissed about now.

Ever wondered why we do this? Self torture? Masochism? Just plain doing it because it can be done?

I still have to come to terms with the fact that once this build is done (or nearly done) I'm shipping it off, never to see it again.

That's okay, I doubt I'll be on speaking terms with in upon completion. I've never had to dremel a seam before this kit.

Matt,

Just read through this thread. Excellent work I must say. She's really coming together. Too bad you have all those seam issues to deal with.

Looking forward to seeing you get this one to the finish line.

Cheers,
Dave.

Looks great! I've always been a fan of the mosquito. Two months ago, I saved up my money to buy the kit, but when I got to the store, triumphantly clutching my moola in my hand, I found out that they had sold out of it, and also found out that it was out of production!!! So I kept my moola and bought the typhoon instead

That's one of the reasons I took this build on - I wouldn't get a chance to build it any other way.

I just finished getting rid of 9 ejector pin marks on the inside of the crew access door. The build is really starting to come together, the port engine is all buttoned up and it's really starting to look like something.

I'm just waiting on paint so I can start painting.

Hi Matt, great progress on your build and impressive how you dealed with all the problems, it seems you left that more or less behind you.Not every kit falls together and the end result is worth the extra work you have put in.

All the Best

Bernd

Well kids, the end is in sight. We're all filled, sanded, primed and ready for paint.

I chose not to prime the whole damn thing for a number of reasons.

I was going down my checklist of things to finish off, and I went to assemble the crew access door (okay, I went to paint it - forgetting I had already painted it). The damn thing had NINE ejector pin markings on it - it's barely bigger than a quarter!

I finally built my own powered ejector pin sanding tool and posted a write up of the process here to tackle this problem. This kit has so many of these it's almost offensive.


Here's the door for reference;



Disks were punched to fill the holes (yes they're deep enough) then they were sanded down, primed, sanded, primed, sanded until you couldn't see them anymore.

I used Alclad filling primer because Mr. Surfacer is a pain to get here in Canada. It works okay and is already thinned for airbrushing, but I wouldn't rant over it the way people do about Mr. Surfacer, so I'm sure I'm missing out.

All of the seams were sprayed and checked, some were puttied again.....and again. Now we're ready for paint. Literally waiting for it to come in.


Remember this?



And then this;



Well, now...(gun cover just sticky tacked on - this is my masking technique)







Crew access hatch, this took hours to get sanded out;



Some spots still need a little work. The wingtip fit was terrible to begin with. I'm surprised it came out this well.





Forgive the mess

Mess forgiven, the Mossie looks too good to worry about that