David's Postwar Matchbox Mossie NF - Dropping out. Sorry.

[DavidWomby]

I'm going to be hard pressed to complete this on time but I'll have a go.

I'll do the Mbox Mosquito as either an NF30 or NF36 in postwar service. I haven't decided on the squadron yet but there are some nice choices open to me.

This is an original Mbox issue kit, so here are the multicoloured sprues.



I am fortunate to have some Paragon 100 gallon wing tanks in the stash and, better still, some Magna resin shrouded fish-gill type exhausts. I believe these were unique to the late Mossie nightfighters and the Sea Hornet although similar style exhausts were put on the Lincoln and Shackleton.

David

[DavidWomby]

I've made a small start.

I decided to glue the halves of the radome onto the respective fuselage halves. I find that if the nose is in halves, this technique often gets me a better fit than assembling the fuselage and radome separately then sticking the radome onto the fuselage.

I also added a rear bulkhead in the fuselage and some boxes to busy up the cockpit. I used a seat from the spares box to replace the pilot seat as it needs a higher back than the Mbox seat. That's about all I will do in the cockpit as the canopy is very thick and I will be putting two crew in there too.



You can also see in the pic the Paragon wing tanks and the Magna exhaust shrouds.

David

[Old_Tonto]

Good look David. You don't see many of these late model Mossies so it will be great to have one in this GB.

[ShaunW]

Nice one, a proper classic Mossie kit teamed up with some decent accessories. I agree, with two crew figures in there and under that thick glazing, there probably isn't much point in spending too long decorating the office and instead the time can be put to good use building her up.

[Martin R]

Good start, David. I built the Matchbox Mossie earlier in the year and thoroughly enjoyed it, so hope you have as much fun.

regards,

Martin

[Titan]

Great choice of kit David and good to see another mozzie being built in here.

Regards
Mark

[DavidWomby]

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone.

Some progress today. The cockpit is finished and the fuselage is closed up. I'll put the crew in later. I used some decals for the instruments. They're for a P-51 and P-38 but look good to me.





I almost forgot to install the tailwheel which is pinned between the two fuselage halves but remembered just in time. I have drilled holes in the wing undersides for landing lights and opened up the slot for the stand. The engine halves are glued together and I opened up the chin intakes which Mbox moulded solid. This improves the appearance a lot. One is visible in the lower left of this pic.



David

[Jagewa]

Oh yes, very nice, opening the chin intake, does make a big difference to the nacelle look.

Cheers
Jim

[PaulBradley]

Very nice, David.

[DavidWomby]

Not much progress today. I had hoped to get the wings and tailplanes on but stuff around the house took priority. I am off out of town tomorrow so there'll be no more progress this week.

I filled and sanded down the fuselage and I added the engines to the upper wings. They needed some filler on the top where the cowlings meet the leading edge but not a lot. They needed a bit more filler at the rear where the nacelles meet the trailing edge. The undercarriage doors fit quite well in the closed position.



David

[PaulBradley]

Oooh - an in-flight model. Nice!

[DavidWomby]

Not much progress recently but the wings and tailplanes are on and the joins are filled but not yet sanded.





David

[PaulBradley]

Getting there....!

[ShaunW]

Oh yes, that is starting to look the part David.

[DavidWomby]

Looking closely at pics, it seems the Mosquito bombers with the two-stage Merlins have a small intake on sides of each nacelle but for some reason many of the nightfighters don't. So I removed the part shown.



I also found the post war gilled exhaust shrouds I planned to use will not do. The ones I was going to use were for a Sea Hornet but it turns out they are shorter/have less gills than the ones used on the Mossie. I do have one set of Mossie ones in a set of resin two-stage Merlins made years ago by a French company called Hi-Tech. They look a bit skinny but at least the length is right.

David