(WIP) 1/32 Tamiya Mosquito

Incredible. Can't wait to see this build progress. I really enjoy these big kits. 

That is outstanding. Really looking forward to seeing the rest. I must say, Tamiya certainly seems to be raising the bar on kit quality, engineering and detail.

My, that cockpit is looking good for sure. Looks to be a great build coming up, I'll keep track of this one. 1/32 is a fun build, not so hard to see for us old dudes. LOL!

Max

Great work, will be definately following your build!

Toshi

Looking forward to watching this come together.

I've done a Tamiya Coursair and am now working on a Mustang, both had the same system for the instrument panel.  It works great, except that Tamiya's transfers can be horrible. . . My Mustang instruments were near disaster when the transfer fragmented when applying.  I got most of them mostly in the right spot though, and it looks not too bad.  So watch out for those transfers :) 

Gorgeous!

Thanks guys,

Little bit of progress on the Merlin V12 engines. Took over two hours just to put together one of them - easily 60+ individual parts to assemble - some of them seemed just for the sake of it but the detail is nice for a stock engine. Compared with a resin 1/48 scale Merlin V12 for comparison.

The kit has an extremely intricate bracket mount and firewall section for the engine to sit in. It actually came with plastic jigs to help assemble the engine properly - removed afterwards once complete. Again, the attention to detail and quality of this kit is quite amazing.

One of the really neat parts of the kit is that there are actually small magnets installed inside the piston heads on the engine. These correspond with magnets on the inside of the external engine panel covers - so they can be removed easily to show the detail underneath. These are included for both engines and the nose panel covereing the machine guns and canons, really good idea.

Fantastic job on the Merlin engine.  I've built two Tamiya 1/35 P-51 Mustangs.  The Merlins on the Mustang kit looks very close to the ones on the mosquito kit.

Toshi

Some really great work here so far, love the look of those engines. Look forward to seeing more.

With the spousal-unit out of town I've had a chance to put another big session into the Mossie today. Mostly on fitting the two halves of the body together with the various bulkheads, assembling the second Merlin engine and doing a little bit of painting and detailing.

Having an almost fully assembled fueselage, it is strange to look at the box and feel like I haven't even made a dent in this kit, there are SO MANY PIECES.

The gun assembly in the nose went together well and the ammo belts out of the main box was fun to put together. I only broke one Browning barrel off and will fix that much later in the build. The nose cone fits well as does the magnetized cover panel that will sit on top of the guns.

The two fuselage halves went together almost perfectly. The rear half slotted together seamlessly (literally), and there was just a little bit of massaging of the bulkheads to get the nose section to snap together.

I have a little bit of cleaning up to do around the edges and where bulkheads join - mainly because I'm often a little too liberal applying superglue, but nothing a sharp Exacto and some sandpaper can't touch up...

The Merlins were fun once I had got overt how many hours it took to assemble them. There was only a little bit of colorful language as a few small parts found themselves on the workshop floor and had to be searched for.

Still having a lot of fun with this kit. Might take a week or so off before I attack the engine mounts. They are pretty intense, but looking forward to doing the exhausts, coolant tanks and piping that goes around the engine - a lot of color to add there which will really bring it all to life I think.

Quick update on the Mossie:

Airbrushed and detailed much of the firewalls, engine mounting brackets and piping/plumbing around the Merlin. It took a couple of hours just to mount the plumbing and engine mounts for one side but as expected it all went together beautifully. I got caught out in a few places where I had got ahead of the instructions or tried to do things in a different order to make my painting more efficient - was able to solve with some delicate brute force in a few places and lessons learned for when I tackle the second engine.

The engine itself actually screws into the firewall with two small threaded metal screws. They thread into two bolts that were strategically placed inside the engine during its assembly. Quite nice that it is so secure in there with about four other ball-socket type joins in the plastic. The Merlin is most certainly not coming out!

I estimate I am nearing the halfway point on this kit with about 50 hours into it and the box is still completely full of parts and sprues, it looks like I havent even started. The landing gear and bomb-bay assembllies look nice and complicated. That will certainly be a job for next week...

Really nice work there, love the detail your putting into those engines.

Great work on the engine details and mount.

Toshi

Put in a lot more work on the Mossie over the weekend and last few days. Was able to get the other engine mostly finished and mount both inside their permanent homes in the wings.

The wings were pretty cool to put together and actually have threaded screws to join them to the main cross section. Again everything went together perfectly and looks like it will fit just great into the main fueselage section eventually, yay!

Finally starting to feel like I've actually used some of the parts out of the box. There are still a LOT there but I guess that will be the bomb bay, landing gear and flap mechanisms. Also the canopy framing looks mighty complicated with lots of small parts that I'm already scared of breaking...

Anyway, here are a few pics.

This is the only part I've found so far that didn't perfectly fit. There is a tiny gap on the fuselage side fo the engine root where it didn't quite slot together. There are so many different parts that make up the contact surface and no matter of brute force, filing or filing could make it fit flush. I've filled it with liquid plastic and once it cures will sand it flat so should come up just fine in the end.

I think the engines look pretty cool now that they're secured into the wing. Such a neat aircraft

Where the magic happens!

What do you guys think so far? Any tips/feedback?

I think you're doing a fantastic job!  I also like your work bench and TV.  The magic always happens at the work bench!

Toshi

Tips?  You should be giving me tips!  Very nice work there.  Can't wait to see more.

Mike

Work has been this busy this week but managed to spend a little bit of time on her.

Had my first major mess up at the weekend - painting the landing gear while the assembly jigs were still in place. The paint dried and, of course, stuck the jigs in place. I got two out but the other two snapped off inside the landing gear. Drilled them out as much as I could with a hand drill but could only get in a centermeter or so. Shortened the corresponding legs by the amount I couldn't drill out and manged to get them all to come together properly. Completely my fault, should have removed the jigs but they made such nice grippers to hold everything while I painted it... rookie mistake.

The wings are not secured to the body of the aircraft and it's starting to look like a mosquito!!!

I'll attack the bomb bay and the canon assembly this weekend. The landing gear turned out to be really rather simple. I've weathered it with cold blue but I don't love how it's come up so may clean it up and have another go. Am finding that many of the small internal decals on the oil and coolant tanks are coming off with the Mig washes - never had the problem with the washes I've mixed myself so might go back to the DIY method and try and salvage the small decals - nothing major but interesting...

Few pics from this evening:

Splendiferous!

You recovered well with the jig mishap, it's coming along nicely. I really dig the exhausts. THe mosquito is one of my favorites 

Excellent recovery.  It's coming along beautifully!

Toshi