Airfix De Havilland Mosquito B.XVI 1/72 New Tooling A04023

[iggie]

Freshly arrived today from Airfix Towers is the new tooling of what can be considered to be De Havilland's finest aircraft in it's ultimate form, the B.XVI.
The box art portrays one of the two schemes included in the boxing climbing above clouds, and is very attractive.
Instructions are the now usual Airfix fare, printed largely in grey-scale with the usual red and green highlights, plus even some yellow now!
Options appear to be limited to undercarriage up or down, and bomb bay doors open or closed. There is a pilot figure provided but intriguingly no navigator/bomb aimer...
Four bombs are provided for the bomb bay if you choose to have the doors open.
Elevators and ailerons are moulded integrally with their respective horizontal stabilisers and wings, as are the flaps. The rudder however can be set to your desired angle. The instructions helpfully tell you to use the wing parts as temporary jigs for assembling the undercarriage rather than trying to bodge them together in time honoured fashion!
The detailing internally looks to be more than sufficient, and will come up nicely I suspect with some dry brushing and washes. Externally, such panel lines as are present are very restrained (possibly the most restrained I've seen on recent Airfix offerings) and with careful painting should look good.
The plastic seems harder than some recent releases, and the boxing merely states that it is manufactured by Hornby Hobbies with the Margate address, but no mention of India at all; could this be a UK moulded kit?
Decals for two schemes are provided: 109 Squadron, Wyton 1944 or 571 Squadron, Oakington 1944. The 571 machine has some nice historical notes regarding some replacement panels that do not match the overall camouflage, a nice little touch. The decals are by Cartograph so no concerns there!
Overall, an impressive looking kit and one that looks like it'll build up very nicely. I'm sure that there will be some inaccuracies debated for those who can see them, but it looks like a Mossie to me. The lack of positionable flaps, ailerons etc is possibly a bit disappointing but at the price point it is probably understandable and also could be fixed with some simple surgery.

[PaulBradley]

Thanks, Jim - it does look very nice!

There's an excellent video over on the Airfix Youtube channel in which designer Paramjit explains his philosophy - it's very interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GigldyHXE6E

I especially like the idea of building the u/c on a jig. The additional notes look to be very helpful, too. There's a designer with his modeller's head on!

[PTB11]

That looks like a first class kit.

[Chuck E]

Lovely, innit. Mine just arrived an hour ago. What a super kit. Just off to start mine. A good year for De Havilland Aircraft. Vampire F3 next.

My bench is clear and ready to go.

[ShaunW]

What an excellent release from Airfix. I've always preferred the bomber/PR versions of the Mosquito. Personally I'd be content with a bit of rudder on and then cutting out and re-positioning the elevators to give the model a more candid appearance, which I often do as a matter of course whether or not those control surfaces are provided as separate items. Thanks for the review, Chuck and I look forward to seeing your build.

[beany]

Thanks for the review, Chuck and I look forward to seeing your build.

Yeah, and Jim's review is quite good too

[TeeELL]

Shawn,
notwithstanding ‘modellers licence’, most aircraft with manual flying controls have a lock, applied as part of the ‘after shut down’ checks. The lock holds the flying controls in a neutral position preventing them from damage if exposed to winds. I confess to having applied some ‘rudder’ on my current build!

[iggie]

Shawn,
notwithstanding ‘modellers licence’, most aircraft with manual flying controls have a lock, applied as part of the ‘after shut down’ checks. The lock holds the flying controls in a neutral position preventing them from damage if exposed to winds. I confess to having applied some ‘rudder’ on my current build!

Indeed, and if you read Jack Currie's superb book 'Mosquito Target' there is a case where a Halifax took of with the control locks still in place, only to crash when it wouldn't pull up enough; utterly tragic.

Thanks for the review, Chuck and I look forward to seeing your build.

Yeah, and Jim's review is quite good too

[rmontesb]

Thanks for the review. Too bad Airfix decided not to include the bombardier figure. Multi-colored instructions, and decals for more than one version are well-received improvements. Looking forward to see build reviews for this kit.

[rmontesb]

Lovely, innit. Mine just arrived an hour ago. What a super kit. Just off to start mine. A good year for De Havilland Aircraft. Vampire F3 next.

My bench is clear and ready to go.

Wish my workbench stays as clear and organized as yours; mine is always clogged. I guess it is a very well organized mess.

[ShaunW]

Thanks for the review, Chuck and I look forward to seeing your build.

Yeah, and Jim's review is quite good too

Ooops. Sorry about that Jimchuck

[Chuck E]

Lovely, innit. Mine just arrived an hour ago. What a super kit. Just off to start mine. A good year for De Havilland Aircraft. Vampire F3 next.

My bench is clear and ready to go.

Wish my workbench stays as clear and organized as yours; mine is always clogged. I guess it is a very well organized mess.

This is at the beginning of a new build. It doesn't like that for long.

[Chuck E]

The pilot looks about 5' tall. The whole aircraft looks very slim compared to other kits. Time for a measure up.

[beany]

The pilot looks about 5' tall.

Make him the navigator then...

[AndrewR]

The pilot looks about 5' tall.

Make him the navigator then...

Angus Lennie was 5' 1", so that would be perfectly in scale.