Coen's Answer to Spring, build a Mosquito.

Coen · Post by **Coen** » Fri May 01, 2015 11:49 am

So Spring is rumoured to have come to my little part of the world. Though there may be no snow left on my lawn, the woods surrounding my house is still full of it and probably will be for several weeks yet.
To honour both the end of a really annoying winter, my buddy Nige, and the brave pilots of the RAF I'll be jumping in on this SIG
I don't know a tonne about the Mossy, but what I've been told by Nige and from what I've been reading, it's one of the coolest and most bad assed planes from WWII.
Not quite a tiger in the sky... in my eyes that's the Strumovik, but maybe a panther ... cool!

So on with the build. I started off first thing this morning and decided right off to build the Mk. VII version of the plane from my kit. I liked the camo and the build options. No real reason other than that. I painted a similar scheme on a spitfire a few weeks ago and I really liked it, so I want to do it again.

Obligatory Sprue shots.

Not much in the way of sprues, but some of them are well laden with parts. So it may not be the simplest of builds, we'll see.
There will most likely be 5 or 7 of these kits being built for the SIG as it's supposedly a good kit.

The first step ... engines.

The next is part of the wings...

That's about as far as I got so far before I had to deal with kids, breakfasts, and laundry.
More to come.

Nige201980 · Post by **Nige201980** » Fri May 01, 2015 12:12 pm

great start mate youll prob have this finished before i get mine lol

LordFarnswaller · Post by **LordFarnswaller** » Fri May 01, 2015 12:14 pm

oh a Tamiya one, very nice

hold the phone, Coens building another plane! holy flaming cattle prods from the planet wibble

pmarshall · Post by **pmarshall** » Fri May 01, 2015 2:46 pm

Can't go wrong with the Tamiya Mossie.

Schoof · Post by **Schoof** » Fri May 01, 2015 5:24 pm

now i know where to get the correct colour call outs from

burnie43 · Post by **burnie43** » Sat May 02, 2015 8:05 am

where are you putting the mud Mike??
Mark

Coen · Post by **Coen** » Sat May 02, 2015 10:31 am

Ha ha ha!

As is with most Tamiya kits, this kit falls together without much fuss. I'm glad I only played $35 for the kit as I built this thing up to it's completed sub-assemblies in about 6 hours. It's just waiting for paint on the interior bits and pieces then I'll assemble the main parts and begin painting the exterior.
I've already dry fitted it all and there's no gaps or steps on any of the joins. Superior fit.
Again, I'm glad that I only paid $35 for the kit. It was an enjoyable build but I barely remember it. I like just a little more bang for my buck.
It's my only ding against Tamyia really. They can make fantastic kits like this one that anyone can build. With reasonable accuracy, but a lot of the time they're so expensive that only those of us with more disposable income can afford them.
They make a kit that anyone can build but only few can afford.
How does that grow your business?

Anyway... enough of that crap...
Here's where she is right now... I literally knocked it together during a hangout and while watching some Star Wars Clone Wars.
All in all, good fun, if but short.

Now I have to start to paint all the sub-assemblies and begin gluing it all together.

Nige201980 · Post by **Nige201980** » Sat May 02, 2015 11:27 am

Really fast work mate glad your enjoying it buddy.

DaveTheMinion · Post by **DaveTheMinion** » Sat May 02, 2015 11:49 am

Looking good so far.

To be honest I think its a cracking looking kit for the price, and I can see some areas where you could really bring it to life with some scratch building, might just get me one and put my money where my mouth is....

jbellos1 · Post by **jbellos1** » Sun May 03, 2015 12:01 am

Fabulosity!

Looks like this is a great 1/48 scale kit. Looking forward to your treatment of it.

Filmman586 · Post by **Filmman586** » Sun May 03, 2015 12:12 pm

Awesome Michael!

Goose · Post by **Goose** » Sun May 03, 2015 3:22 pm

I'm really impressed!!! you've got children (what I don't have yet), a job, a family life and you manage to build so much stuffs (armour, planes...) in so few time... i should recalculate my day on day routine to manage to build a bit more and a bit more quickly..

congrats Mike, keep up this great work

Goose

Coen · Post by **Coen** » Sun May 03, 2015 3:25 pm

Thanks fellas!

All I have done now is the interior painting and I just put the Ultimate dark dirt wash on the interior. I'm off doing yard work for the rest of the day so I won't get much else done.

Coen · Post by **Coen** » Sun May 03, 2015 3:43 pm

Goose wrote:I'm really impressed!!! you've got children (what I don't have yet), a job, a family life and you manage to build so much stuffs (armour, planes...) in so few time... i should recalculate my day on day routine to manage to build a bit more and a bit more quickly..

congrats Mike, keep up this great work

Goose

Actually goose, I have kids and a family life. I've been retired since 2001. So I have a lot of free time, and I'm lucky enough to be young enough to enjoy it.

Nige201980 · Post by **Nige201980** » Sun May 03, 2015 4:09 pm

Cracking work so far buddy.

Kingdan · Post by **Kingdan** » Sun May 03, 2015 5:22 pm

Coen · Post by **Coen** » Thu May 07, 2015 12:55 pm

Thanks

She's all built up and ready to seam fill then paint now. I still need to fix the paint colour on the fuel tanks in the bomb bay, but I can do that later.
I'm also still worried that I messed up that canopy. I won't know for sure until I unmask it later. It's only on with white glue so I can yank it off and repaint it if I have to.

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Thu May 07, 2015 1:24 pm

Slick and quick, just like a Mossie. Looks great!

Nige201980 · Post by **Nige201980** » Thu May 07, 2015 3:25 pm

and there she is beautiful mate

burnie43 · Post by **burnie43** » Fri May 08, 2015 6:16 am

I just love these aircraft!1
Great job, love the figures Mike
Cheers
Mark

qeialto · Post by **qeialto** » Fri May 08, 2015 8:57 am

Love the Mosquito and you are giving this nice bird the honour he deserves!!

rwsmith14 · Post by **rwsmith14** » Sat May 09, 2015 4:31 am

Cockpit, equipment and Crew look outstanding !!

Joesdad · Post by **Joesdad** » Sat May 09, 2015 8:20 am

Yep, that's a Mosquito, and a fantastic one to boot. Looks like you're getting into aeroplanes my Lord? And that can only be a good thing....

Coen · Post by **Coen** » Sat May 09, 2015 10:00 am

Thanks Fellas

wally · Post by **wally** » Mon May 25, 2015 10:09 am

Nice work on your Mosie Coen. It seems like you are pretty close to the painting stage. Looking forward to see camo pattern on it.
Keep up good work.

Coen · Post by **Coen** » Mon May 25, 2015 5:03 pm

Actually it's been primed and painted three times now.
I'm having trouble with the masking.
A combination of typical crap Vallejo air paint and trying to use the kits paper masks.
It's not going well.

Coen · Post by **Coen** » Wed May 27, 2015 10:28 am

I haven't been doing a whole lot of modelling lately. It's warm, sunny, and there's work to be done around the house. So I'm usually too tired to get at the bench most of the time.
I did get some done though.

The mossy is all primed and base coated. She's just waiting for here decals to arrive.
She'd going to be marked up as "New Glasgow". She's a Canadian mossy that was named after a town here in my province. I managed to find some decals for her.
The trouble was finding reference photos of her. There's not many.

There are several of the Canadian Mossies, all named after the city or town that raised the most money to fund her construction.

KB161 “Action Canada.”

KB162 “New Glasgow Nova Scotia, Canada.”

PL19529 “Moose Jaw Saskatchewan, Canada” and PL19534 “Saskatoon Saskatchewan, Canada”

I don't know if there were more or not, once I found New Glasgow I focused on her and finding her markings.
I actually found markings for almost all of the birds above on one set. So very cool

As I said, she's all primed and base painted and I've gloss coated where all the decals go. Once they arrive I'll add them and seal them in. Then start the rest of the work. I found the decals right here in Canada so they shouldn't take too long to get here,... a week or two maybe.

Oh... if you're wondering about the black landing gear... Canadian Mossy's had that... don't know why, but we didn't have the shiny metal gear.
So I've repainted those now.

I had a hell of a time with the masking and painting of this thing. I've never done it using the paper masks in the kits before, they're tricky to get used to. I also did my first attempt at fading some of the paintwork. I don't like it, but with time I'll get better at it I'm sure. That's the point though isn't is.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » Wed May 27, 2015 1:53 pm

She's looking real purdy mike, paintwork looks good to me

Nige201980 · Post by **Nige201980** » Wed May 27, 2015 2:15 pm

Love the idea of the Canadian Mossie mate and she is looking sweet mate i think you've done a cracking job on the paint too.

JediBoer · Post by **JediBoer** » Wed May 27, 2015 5:07 pm

She looks damn fine Sir!

Coen · Post by **Coen** » Sun May 31, 2015 10:35 am

Thanks Dudes

The decals arrived from Ultracast and I gotta say they were awesome. Nice and easy to work with.
Unfortunately, when I was looking at the details on the decal sheet, I noticed that the Mossy that I want to build is a different modification than the one that I have. The New Glasgow had either a bomber's dome on the nose or the radar nose.
I can't find a reference of her being a gunplane.

Aw well. At least I know now, and if I ever want to rebuild her I know what I need before hand.
I just went ahead and marked her as a WHAT IF New Glasgow with the guns.
I also missed the yellow band that goes around the base of the tail. When I masked it off and painted it, the mask leaked and there's a crooked bit.
So I'm not too impressed with that either.

Next is the gloss coat and then washes.

Nige201980 · Post by **Nige201980** » Sun May 31, 2015 11:45 am

She is looking sweet mate loving those decals on the nose.

Joesdad · Post by **Joesdad** » Sun May 31, 2015 1:05 pm

She looks smashing my Lord, the fading is great. I in agreement with Nige, loving them dec's

panzerman · Post by **panzerman** » Sat Jun 06, 2015 7:13 am

Coen,
Wow! That was a blitz build. Top notch building and painting. Love the pilot figures....yyou know I love populated planes...hahahs. Keep having fun Brother.
Bill.

Coen · Post by **Coen** » Sat Jun 06, 2015 9:48 am

Thanks fellas, and thanks Bill. It's always great to see ya here buddy.

Coen · Post by **Coen** » Sat Jun 13, 2015 5:43 pm

She's all glossed and washed now.
I'm just waiting for the dullcote to dry them I'll start a dot filter.

Ultimate Dark Dirt.

And off it comes...

I'll echo Paul's sentiments... Mossy's are cool planes, but not very interesting to build. There aren't a lot of features to them. Panel lines, rivets etc.
What makes mossy's cool are the stories and the pilots. Not so much the plane I think.

Nige201980 · Post by **Nige201980** » Sat Jun 13, 2015 9:54 pm

She beautiful mate that's what's mossies are simple and BEAUTIFUL and graceful but I get what you mean.

Coen · Post by **Coen** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 4:37 pm

Thanks Nige.

I figured that after three days that the matte coat is cured, so on went a dot filter.

That's about all so far today.

The differences are small, but I can see them.
I plan on hitting a few more spots with some fading with pastels, then the soot and oil stains.
After that I'll peal the canopy mask and see if I have to repaint that.... I hope not.

Nige201980 · Post by **Nige201980** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 5:06 pm

Looking good mate.

JediBoer · Post by **JediBoer** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 5:41 pm

Just love the subtle effect of the dot filter, Michael! Skill is not in my box yet. How do you know which dot colors go with which camouflage colors?

Danta2er · Post by **Danta2er** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 8:39 pm

JediBoer wrote:Just love the subtle effect of the dot filter, Michael! Skill is not in my box yet. How do you know which dot colors go with which camouflage colors?

Agreed, your input would be appreciated Michael

Coen · Post by **Coen** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 11:06 pm

I usually pick colours that will either lighten or darken the paint beneath.
For example... If the colour is an olive green I'll use some dark green dots and some yellow dots to offer both faded and shaded areas.
I'll also add a few white dots to add a bit of variety and bleaching to some spots.
I'll add black dots near panel edges and burnt sienna dots as well to act as a grease/rust streak.
You can see some of this in the pic above with the dots all over.

I'm also calling her done.
The only thing that I really don't like is the canopy. It's total crap. It doesn't want to sit properly either. Silly thing.
Oh well.
The next one that I build will be better... That's what I keep telling myself. Haha.
I'll post reveal shots in the reveal section in a bit.

JediBoer · Post by **JediBoer** » Tue Jun 16, 2015 8:15 am

Coen wrote:I usually pick colours that will either lighten or darken the paint beneath.
For example... If the colour is an olive green I'll use some dark green dots and some yellow dots to offer both faded and shaded areas.
I'll also add a few white dots to add a bit of variety and bleaching to some spots.
I'll add black dots near panel edges and burnt sienna dots as well to act as a grease/rust streak.
You can see some of this in the pic above with the dots all over.

Thank you for the advice Michael!

/JB