Good day all. This post is for all, but mostly for my friends over the pond.
I did managed to get my hands on a old Revell Mosquito. I want to build as a MK IV gun fighter. The problems are that I cant get AM stuff here in the states. Ive been in contact with Warbirds USA, but Dan tells me he is out of stock of all and he no longer does buisness with Warbirds UK. Ive tried emailing WB UK but the adress seems to be bad (timsah@onetel.com) and in undeliverable. I want to get:
C3201 solid gun nose
2.C3202 2 stage cowling set
C3204 or C3206 vac. cannopys
I was thinking mabey someone over there could find out any info for me, and possibly send the items to me. I would send an international money order to you before hand including shipping costs. Let me know, OK.
Now I have been in touch with Neil who owned Paragon through a britt modeling forum . He does have a few of the resin cockpit sets left as well as wheels. I`m in the prosses of getting those. So ANY help from any of you would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance…Harv
It might pay you to have a look on Large Scale Planes, forum.largescaleplanes.com. Several days ago Vasko Barbic (aka timsah,) the owner of Warbirds, had a thread about his new place (he parted company with MDC earlier this year.) There’s also a thread, today, about Mastercasters, which has something to do with him, and it’s from Jay Lafferty. I think that Radu Brinzan has dealings with Vasko, as well, and you’ll find him on Britmodeller, among others.
Oh, and sorry to be a smart----, but I think you mean an F.B.IX Mosquito (or later,) if you plan to use the two-stage Merlins; the F.B.VI (the usual subject) only had single-stage Merlins, and the kit’s a B.IV, already.
Edgar, thanks for the help. NO, your not being a smarty. I dont know squt about mossies. So any help or avice would be great. So your saying the kit cowlings are correct, even for the fighter version?..Harv
On (most of) the early bomber/fighter Mosquitoes, the cowlings were identical; on the very first P.R. versions they didn’t extend beyond the trailing edges. The reason for the replacement wheels is that the mould makers were conned by photos of the early versions. There were brakes on one side only, with plain spokes on the opposite side, and the wheels weren’t handed, so, from one side, you’d see just spokes, while, from the other, you’d see plain hubs. Seeing the spokes, the pattern-makers assumed that they were the same on both sides; ergo, you have a model of an aeroplane with no brakes. Later marks had brake shoes, on both sides, so there were plain hubs on both sides. “Errors,” like this, were commonplace, years ago, and modellers just corrected them, and moved on, without all the histrionics that we get, nowadays, from so many “experts.” If you’re well versed in a particular aircraft type, an error will shout to you, while another will pass it by (rather like rivets on a Spitfire’s rear fuselage; early a/c had domed rivets, while flush rivets were introduced during the Mk.V production run.)
Incidentally, don’t be tempted to try for a wood grain effect; the wood was covered, entirely, by Madapolam cloth (a superior type of Egyptian cotton,) and, likewise, the cloth was covered by, at least, 7 coats of paint, so no sign of weave, either.
I converted this kit many years ago, made my own plugs and vac formed the canopy and nose, installed 4 hispano canons in the forward bomb bay , and 4-303’s in the nose. Was at Canadian Forces Base Namao in 1974, when they converted a for real Mk-IV into a Gunslinger. It is now on display at the Air Museum at the City Centre Airport in Edmonton Alberta Canada.
Edgar I find that info very interesting. So… for weathering purposes would the paint chip off and if so what would the correct colour be underneath? What parts of the Mossie was metal - engine cowlings?
Paint doesn’t chip off fabric, but, with over-enthusiastic handling it might wear; however all of the access panels were easily accessible (under the wings, for example,) so only screwheads should have shown much damage, and even those should have received some attention, on the anti-shipping a/c, to stop salt corrosion.
The normal wartime sequence was known as “Scheme Z,” which entailed two coats of half-strength red dope, followed by three coats of full-strength, all brushed on, which, as well as filling the weave, partially glued the fabric to the underlying wood. These were followed by a sprayed coat of anti-u/v silver (to stop the fabric from rotting due to the sunlight,) then the camouflage colours were sprayed on top of that. Only the engine cowlings, ailerons, and elevators were metal; even the droptanks were wood.