This
kit was built from the Tamiya
1/48 scale Mosquito FB VI kit for
my friend Slobodan who is leaving Indonesia
after 7 years of duty here.
After
Yugoslavia
broke up with the Soviet Block (Warsaw Pact) in 1948, it began receiving
significant military aid from the west, mainly from the United States and Britain.
Initial batches consisted of surplus equipment left over from the World War
II, such as propeller-driven aircrafts. In the early 50s, more modern weapon,
including jets, were delivered.
As
part of the British and French
military assistance, the Yugoslav Air Force received nearly
150 DH Mosquitos,
including 46 FB.VIs, 60 NF.38s, and some T.IIIs. These remained in front-line
service, particularly as naval bombers equipped with LETOR-2 torpedoes, until
early 60s when they were withdrawn from the inventory and left to rot at various
airbases.
None
of the wooden Wonders survived
because they were quickly cut up for heating by the troops guarding the
airbases during the harsh Balkan winters.
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The
fit of the kit is as expected from Tamiya. Detail is very good. I did add some
detailing for the cockpit such as seat belts, wires, and yellow-black lines in
the cockpit areas. Since the markings of the Yugoslav AF is not included in the
kit, I tried to make my own decals but failed to produce the correct colors and
registers. Using the clear ones resulted
in a too transparent decal. My friend Slobo came to the rescue with decals from
Aeromaster, albeit one that
supposed to go with YAF Il-2
and Yak-1.
This
is the second time I painted my
models using enamels. Usually I prefer acrylics such as Tamiya to
do the job, but I want to try the Revell RAF WWII color set. I was too lazy to get the matching color from
Tamiya line. Bad idea. From
my first attempt which was a disaster, I learned
to overcoat the enamels with Future (3 layers worth). Left to dry for about
2 days, I oversprayed it with Tamiya clear. To my horror, the Tamiya Clear ate through the Future layer
making it wrinkle worse than an orange
peel. At first, I felt hopeless and left it there for months because of other
kit projects.
Then
Slobo called to tell me that he was leaving
Indonesia in 3 months. I took a look at the kit and suddenly felt that the aircraft was
salvageable. I immediately resanded
the paint in the damaged area, mostly the upper wing areas. Perhaps after having
been left for several months, the enamel had
dried completely and was smoothed
very easily. Voila, the mosquito was
revived.
Another bout
of laziness almost ended
up in another disaster. The mosquito's canopy consists of many frames,
some with different sizes. Usually l go with Tamiya's masking tape, but the
frame lines in the clear parts are very fine. I was having a hard
time finding the correct pane and frame lines. I read about the
bare-metal-foil/BMF method and thought it was a good time to try. From the how-tos
that I read it looks very easy. True,
the masking process was quite fast, the frame lines were easier to spot, and the
cut produced straight lines.
From
the beginning of the process, I already suspected that lifting the BMF can be
very difficult due to the thinness and adhesion, and I thought, well, if
the paints and coatings are thick enough, it will help the BMF from tearing
to pieces. Wrong , wrong , wrong!
I
had to endure hours of peeling and scraping the BMF with my scalpel blade. Even
after getting a sizeable area that I thought can be peeled easily with a tweezer,
the BMF always tore apart. It probably took me 8
hours to remove the BMF. After that I realized that the adhesive's residue was
fogging the clear parts. Luckily, Tamiya's new compounds helped me restore the
shine of the canopy.
The
rest just followed through
smoothly. I used a very "organic" material for the antennas. I hope
you all enjoy the end result.
Philip
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