1/48 Tamiya deHavilland

Mosquito FB Mk.VI  

by Kursad Albayrak

--------------------

 

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. 

Click on images below to see larger images

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result, the Mosquito, which was one of the last piston-engined front line combat aircraft of the Turkish Air Force, was withdrawn from service during 1953.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. 

Click on images below to see larger images

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.

Click on images below to see larger images

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.

Click on image below to see larger image

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

  • Cutting Edge resin seats

  • 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. 

Click on images below to see larger images

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

Photos and text © by Kursad Albayrak