Happy New Year! The Mossie is now complete. Since the last update, stencils were applied to the non-invasion stripe areas, weathering to the exterior was applied and the landing gear, doors and various doodads were attached. The canopy was also cleaned up.
The kit decals were used for the stencils and they worked well. Maketar included the crosses on the wing radiators in their mask set so I used those instead of the decals to avoid dealing with the large film area. The masks actually worked perfectly. I only applied gloss clear to areas receiving the decals.
For the panel lines, I used a fine pencil for the underside and heavily thinned Tamiya X-18 black as a pin wash for the topside. Panel lines are sparse on the wooden wonder.
A thinned Tamiya Red Brown and Flat Black mix was airbrushed onto panel lines and in the engine and exhaust areas. Photos show major exhaust grubbiness and I tried to replicate the effect. The engine areas received an extra treatment of oil and exhaust stains by brush. Chipping and scratches on metal areas were applied with colored pencils. Alclad Matte was the final flat coat.
As for final thoughts on the Mosquito, it's an impressive plane and looks great in the Coastal Command livery. Speed, firepower and payload are certainly on display when looking at the completed beast.
Regarding the kit, Tamiya simply did a fantastic job. Everything is out of the box except a few decals and the masks for the markings. The engineering of the various assemblies is thoughtful and precise. One weak area in my view is that the fit of the snap-on and magnetic engine covers is a bit sketchy. I was not able to get them perfectly oriented without them falling off or shifting position. You'll see some gaps in the photos. It's not an issue of course for those that want to display both engines.
It's definitely the best engineered and most-detailed kit I've attempted and I'm very happy with how it came out. It was by far the longest build I've done and I'm ready to return to 1/48 scale for a while.
Enjoy the photos!
