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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