Airfix 1/24 Mosquito Banff Strike Wing
By Andrew Thorne
This has taken a month and around 120 hours to complete, mainly because I kept adding scratchbuilt details. I added under fuselage ID lights made from the clear lens of an LED chopped up just above the electrode, painted silver and inserted into a hole. The landing lights had reflectors made using the old plug molding method. I also plug molded the recess parts that go in the nacelles above the undercarriage legs. The cockpit has a new navigators back armour plate with the fuel control panel added. I used resin wheels from Barracuda which are excellent. The nose guns have been replaced by the Master brass ones. Its the first time I have used these and they are gorgeous. If you add one thing to this kit, these guns should be it.
Moving on to the Merlin. I added the Automatic Boost Control unit from scratch. This is quite a large unit that is missed from most if not all Merlin engine models. It sits on the top of the supercharger. I added some control linkages. On the rear of the cylinder heads I added the compressor to one and the RPM cable to the other. The rest is as it comes from the box with the exception of HGW belts and good old airscale compass and drift meter decals. Oh yes I also reshaped the props and spinners a bit!
© Andrew Thorne 2016
This article was published on Thursday, March 24 2016; Last modified on Saturday, March 26 2016