1/48 Airfix Mosquito B Mk XV1 

by Nick England

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I’ve always thought the Mosquito was one of the cooler WW2 planes, and having bought the Airfix kit, I decided to go for the bomber version as the nose window Mossies look best to me. As I’m going to hang it flying in my studio, I decided to make it with the bomb doors closed and undercarriage up. It’s built out of the box.

After considerable struggling and dry fitting of the cockpit and painting of the interior in cockpit green, the fuselage went together, and then the wings and engines. After a bit of filler between the wings and fuselage, the assembled kit was primed with Citadel white skull.

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The plan was to airbrush the kit, and I’d decided to try out the Xtracrylix range from Hannants. I just couldn’t get the mix right, and my airbrush was playing up. The first attempt poured watery black paint all over the model! Giving in to impatience, and not having a good stock of paint, I decided to brush paint it. The undersides are night black, and the camouflage is RAF dark green and ocean grey. The Hannants acrylics brush paint well, but next time, I’d definitely use the airbrush. Once the paint was dry, the decals went on, and I sealed it with a Hannants Xtracrylix flat varnish.

The side and front windows went on, and then, the canopy. Through the wonderful resources and tips of this website, I now know I should attach a masked canopy first of all, and then paint, but I did it the other way round. The masking was very time consuming, and after that, it was brush painted.

Weathering was a hodge podge of an oil wash, using raw umber and black oils, and a charcoal powder in washing up liquid mixture sludge for the panel lines. I also streaked a bit of it over the wings. A final seal of flat varnish, one of my wife’s hairs for the antenna rigging, and the kit was finished. It took around 3 months on and off.

There are faults, definitely, but it’s a learning process. This was my second attempt at an aircraft after a 24 year gap in model making, and I’m still learning a lot about building something that looks realistic. I have a way to go yet, but I’m happy with the way this turned out. I hope you like it too.

Cheers,

Nick

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Photos and text © by Nick England