My
latest model is the 1/48 Tamiya deHavilland Mosquito FB Mk.VI, finished in the
markings of Turkish Air Force, circa 1949.
The
"Wooden Wonder" had surely been on the Turkish military's wish list
for a while during WWII, but
no examples could be obtained until 1947, when Great Britain held a "fire
sale" of literally thousands of war-weary surplus aircraft for very low
prices. Here was an opportunity, and Turkey purchased 132 FB Mk.VI's and
10 T Mk.III trainers between
January 1947 and April 1948. They were based in Izmir and Diyarbakir, and later
served in Malatya as well, primarily tasked with anti-shipping attack and light
bombing.
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The
service of Mosquito in Turkish Air Force was rather short. Turkey's entrance
into NATO prompted a steady flow of F-84G's, particularly after a NATO study
found that the Turkish Air Force was hopelessly outclassed and stood no chance
against modern jets of the Soviet Union. The harsh Turkish climate was not
friendly to the wooden structure of the Mosquito, either. Several Turkish
Mosquito accidents were believed to have occurred because of humidity-caused
failures of the Mosquito structure in flight. As a result, the Mosquito, which
was one of the last piston-engined front line combat aircraft of the Turkish Air
Force, was withdrawn from service during 1953.
As
it is quite common with aircraft in service during this period, no examples of
Mosquito remain in Turkish museums. The Mosquito, like the Spitfire, Hurricane,
Fw.190, Blenheim, B-24, He-111 and many other legendary aircraft that once wore
the Turkish flag for the defense of my motherland, faded into the yellowed pages
of Turkish military aviation history without a trace.
The Model:
As
far as 1/48 kits of the Mosquito go, Tamiya's offering can not be beaten.
Exquisitely detailed
surfaces and great engineering make this kit a Tamiya classic.
The
idea of building the kit out of the box (with the exception of the propellers, of
course-read on) was quite tempting, but I liked the look of dropped flying
surfaces. I used the resin control surfaces from the Verlinden gun bay set.
These are very well moulded, and highly recommended to every modeler who wished
to build an "all hanging" Mosquito like I did.
The
cockpit detail was adequate, but I didn't like the Tamiya seats. I decided to
use the inexpensive
True Details resin cockpit and Cutting Edge resin seats. For its price, the True
Details cockpit is a great addition, and Cutting Edge seats are simply great,
just like anything else from that magical establishment.
I
carefully cut the flaps and elevators using a razor saw, and sanded the edges to
a reasonable
thickness. (See photo) I then proceeded to fill the edges so that the internals
of the wing would not show from the sides of the flaps; and installed the
Verlinden control surfaces. I chose to drop the elevators as well as flaps, but
kept the kit rudder as it is.
An
important obstacle to building a Turkish Mosquito is the use of
four-bladed propellers. |
Like
many surplus Mosquitoes sold to foreign countries after the war, Turkish
Mosquitoes were also equipped with four-bladed propellers when they were
refurbished by Fairey. An obvious option is the Verlinden Sea Mosquito
conversion set designed for the Tamiya kit, but buying the set only for
the propellers was not an option. I chose to use resin copies of the
four-bladed propellers that came in an old Paragon night fighter
conversion kit. (See photo) These propellers were designed for the Airfix
kit, and the spinner diameter seems to be somewhat different. I added a
styrene sheet shim at the end of the spinners, and slightly enlarged the
spinners to fit on the Tamiya nacelles. After some work, the four-bladed
propeller obstacle was finally overcome. |
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I
changed the mud guards with resin offerings from Ultracast. Ultracast products
are extraordinarily well designed and moulded, and these simple parts improve
the look of the undercarriage substantially-highly recommended.
In
the end, I ended up using the following aftermarket items:
-
True
Details resin cockpit
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Cutting
Edge resin seats
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Verlinden
resin control surfaces
-
Ultracast
resin mud guards
-
TallyHo
Mosquito stencils decal sheet
Painting & Markings:
Turkish
Mosquito FB Mk.VI’s were painted with aluminum dope, and after experimenting
with different metallic finishes, I decided to go with Testors Metalizer Flat
Plate Aluminum for this project. Considering that Mosquito was made of wood,
using multiple tones of aluminum would have been incorrect, and I sprayed the
entire model with paint, sealing with Testors Metalizer Sealer without buffing.
The propellers were painted black. In contrast to the normal British practice of
painting the propeller tips black, the photos of “6745” that I had showed
completely black propellers.
It
is amazing how a simple tip you read on a modeling magazine or a discussion
group can change the enjoyment you derive from the hobby. For me, this honor
goes to the “sludge wash” technique introduced by Mr. Randall Dieck and Mr.
Paul Boyer in Fine Scale Modeler-what a great idea! In my eyes, this simple tip
justified years of subscription fees to FSM. I will not detail the technique
here, you owe it to yourself to look it up and learn. Anyhow, I used the
“sludge wash” technique to highlight the few panel lines on the Mosquito’s
wooden skin, and used acrylic black and Tamiya smoke to weather fuel tank caps,
inspection hatches and the nacelles, covered with soot from the smoky Merlins.
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On
to the markings: Detailed photos of Turkish Mosquitoes are hard to come by.
Working from photos I recently acquired, I noticed the fuselage numbers were
painted using the standard RAF style for the period. I made the Turkish insignia
from solid white and red decal sheets by Tauro, and used Carpena RAF code number
decals for the fuselage serial. The Turkish flags came from a 1/32 F-16 sheet by
Kedi Decals, a small Turkish decal line started by a close friend.
While
the aircraft carried only the last two digits of the Turkish military serial
number on
the fuselage sides, the entire four-digit serial seems to be painted on the
sides of the nose, and I printed these numbers on decal paper using my laser
printer. Finally, Mosquito stencils
by TallyHo improved the look of the otherwise bland, aluminum aircraft by adding
more detail.
The
finished model depicts Mosquito FB Mk.VI numbered 6745, based in Izmir during
1949. It sure feels nice to have completed yet another model in my “scale
Turkish Air Force” lineup, and the next project in the pipeline is another
rarely modeled WWII era aircraft in Turkish colors. We’ll meet again when it
is finished!
Many
thanks go to Turhan Gungor of the Istanbul Aviation Museum Plastic Model Club
for his invaluable help with research materials, and Scotty Battistoni, modeler
extraordinaire, of Meteor/Cutting Edge for his help with the resin four-bladed
propellers and spinners.
Kursad
Washington
D.C., USA
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