Tamiya 1/32 scale De Havilland Mosquito

As you might expect from a large-scale Tamiya kit, details abound. These are just some of the parts that make up the pilot and navigator stations. Although a bit difficult to detect, the armored bulkhead for the navigator is molded in clear plastic to allow for the vision port. Note the photoetched-metal instrument panel sections that hint at the detail to come.

Beautifully molded switches and instruments mark many of the black boxes included inside the airplane. Numerous decals are provided for installation all over the airframe — pay attention to the instructions because they are easy to miss.

No visible area of the airframe lacks detail in the kit. The instrument housings molded onto the rear of the instrument panel look great, and provide a ready platform for those wishing to add wires and other details.

The front of the instrument panel looks odd until you realize it is merely structural detail. The panels actually sandwich photoetched metal, clear plastic, and decals.

After cleaning many parts for my Mossie, the only part that required anything more than routine scrapping and trimming is the navigator’s Gee receiver (parts K50 and K51).

Wait! Don’t reach for you sanding sticks. These bumps may look like ejector-pin marks, but they're all supposed to be there.

Tamiya’s Mosquito is the heavily armed FB MK.VI version, so this Mossie carries a big bite. Both the 20mm cannons in the belly and the .303-caliber machine guns in the nose require lots of rounds, supplied by detailed multipart ammo boxes.

The engineering of the kit is first-rate throughtout, and Tamiya cleverly molds the wheels so there will be no difficult to clean up seam through the tread. All of the little pieces in this picture that look like bits of the Hulk are actually individual tread moldings.

The core of the tire is two pieces incorporating the sidewalls. Then you add a series of tread blocks, eliminating a center seam. Brilliant!

Let the painting begin! Don’t forget to place mask the rear-view port behind the navigator’s station. Tamiya supplies masks for both sides of the clear-molded armor plate.

There’s an awful lot of green in this big cockpit, so I tried to get as much variation in tone as I could. I started by pre-shading the interior parts with Tamiya black green (XF-27).

Then I sprayed all of the interior parts with a light coat of Tamiya cockpit green (XF-71), leaving the pre-shading faintly visible. Random patches of a lighter green, Tamiya sky (XF-21) followed.

Here’s the main cockpit structure after painting. I assembled the nose bulkhead to the cockpit, but not the instrument panel structure (part K20), so I could still paint the backside of the part.

Here you can see the effects of the multiple shades: The cockpit definitely appears to be RAF interior green, but it’s not overwhelming.

The next step is to highlight the lowlights as it were — in other words emphasize the shadows and recessed detail. I flowed a thin, dark mix into all of the lines, nooks, cracks, and crevices. I love using Flory Models washes for the ease and speed — important for deadlines!

I started painted all the myriad interior parts, including the seat cushions. These were base-coated with Tamiya black green (XF-27). Then, I added squiggles of Tamiya dark yellow (XF-60) to break up the monochromatic parts.

While I had dark yellow in the airbrush, I painted the cables for the cockpit sides. Tamiya suggests yellow (XF-3), but excellent photos of a restored Mosquito included in the kit show them to be black. In the interests of adding a bit of color I went with “bland” yellow. I didn’t worry about masking — later washes will take care of the clips in the middle of the cables.

Detail painting and dry brushing should help show off the marvelous detail in the cockpit — and break up the large expanses of black and dark gray.

Tamiya layers decals, clear plastic, and photoetched-metal faces to produce the instrument panel. On the sheet, the decals look odd because they are printed in reverse. You apply them like normal decals to the back of the instrument panel ...

... and they look like instruments-under-glass from the front. Unfortunately, one of the decals went MIA somewhere on or near our kitchen counter; I substituted layered paint. The panels look  messy at this stage, but don’t panic …

... once you apply the photoetched-metal front panels, they look outstanding!

Here’s the finished instrument panel.

A group shot of many of the interior subassemblies finished and ready for installation. I’m not a big fan of photoetched-metal seat belts, but these worked well. Tamiya includes two thicknesses of photoetched metal — a thin fret for parts that require bending and a thicker one for those that don’t. Another bit of great engineering.

Here’s a close up of some black boxes circa the mid-1940s. The beautiful detail includes a photoetched-metal cover with ventilation holes. I did not apply the “oscilloscope” decal to the Gee receiver, since it presents the equipment as “on” and I thought that painting the screen a dark, iridescent green would be more accurate for a grounded aircraft.

Here’s a close up of the seating arrangements. Don't paint the fire extinguisher red — that didn’t happen until after the war.

Assembling the cockpit shows just how tight the quarters are inside a Mosquito.

There’s plenty of sidewall detail, most molded separately for better detail and ease of painting. I added drops of Tamiya clear (X-22) to the instrument faces to represent glass wherever they weren’t already molded clear.

The cockpit and other interior assemblies click into place, before the fuselage goes together around it all easily.

Don’t forget to paint edges and backs of parts — there are some sneaky ways to see into the interior!

Tamiya includes two fully detailed Merlin engines. Once again, thoughtful engineering shows up with construction jigs molded to properly align the cylinders.

The jigs are placed on the ends of the engine block — be careful to keep glue away from them.

This step ensures correct placement of the cylinder heads, an important step if you plan to install the cowlings using the included magnets.

The fully assembled engines display awesome detail. Magnets inside the cylinder heads will ensure the cowlings fit properly but remain removable.

Each engine has quite a few parts — here’s one engine finished, with parts for the second shown ready for assembly.

The propellers are multi-part assemblies; however, Tamiya keys the individual blades with molded flat spots for alignment.

There is a gap on the backside of each blade, but it's easily eliminated with a bit of filler. I only bothered to that on one prop, because I plan to leave only one spinner removable.

There are a handful of areas that require filler, mostly to eliminate ejector-pin marks.

All of the Mosquito's control surfaces are separate, although their angles are fixed by sturdy tabs.

A substantial center section supports the core of the model. Screws are included for assembly.

Tamiya provides plenty of hints and tips … sometimes molded right on the plastic. Note the arrows explaining where to open holes for underwing stores.

The complicated wing assemblies fit well. This photos shows the basic interior of the gear wells and the center section of the weapons bay. Note the magnets installed near the intakes at the leading edge of the wings; they allow the lower intake cover to be removed to access and remove the engine cowlings.

A portion of the interior is also included with the wing center section.

Just like the full-size Mosquito, Tamiya’s kit is designed to have the wing mount as a single piece through the center section. All of the parts fit securely, despite the fragile appearance.

As expected, fit is very good. No filler is needed for any of the tail surfaces.

Whe a kit fits this well, I often use the assemblies themselves as jigs to construct components. Here I have placed all the interior framework of the canopy on the model for assembly prior to painting.

Here’s the internal cockpit framing after gluing. Note the flare pistol mounted on the roof.

The Mosquito has quite a bite. Shown here are the .303-caliber machine guns for the nose and the 20mm cannon for the belly, along with all the supporting structure and ammunition containers. Also shown are the bomb racks and 500-pound bombs. Tamiya includes four bombs, but I plan to use only the two under the wings, so that the rack detail in the weapons bay is visible.

Tamiya offers several options to pose the weapon bay doors: all doors closed, some doors open, and all doors open. Some options require cutting some or all the doors apart. If you select fully open, the centerline is not scribed the full length on the door's interior.

No need to worry though, because there is a fully engraved line on the exterior of the doors. A few swipes with a sharp knife blade and you can separate the doors easily.

More ingenuity from Tamiya — photoetched-metal plates ensure the guns are aligned properly during installation. Simply slide them over the barrels and allow the glue to set.

Once the glue is dry, the plates slip off.

One of the Merlin engines looks like it's ready to be fired up once paint and oil washes have been applied.

The engine bays are crammed with detail. Keep track of which engine you’re working on because a number of the parts are handed.

Keep the instruction's close at hand when installing the pipes that run in and around the engine mount, paying attention to which items are drawn passing in front of each other. Hopefully this close-up will help.

Once the plumbing in installed, the engine can be mounted using two machine screws. The screws' heads will be cleverly hidden by equipment mounted to the firewall later.

Mounting the oil tank covers one of the screws. Now the whole assembly can then be installed in the nacelle.

The fit is perfect. Everything just clicks into place, including the sturdy rear bulkhead.

The top of the gear bays show plenty of detail. There's a "shelf" inside the mounting slots — don’t forget to paint all the way up to them.

An assembled nacelle displays perfect fit to the wing and the sturdy slots ensure correct alignment — it’s hard to go wrong with most of this kit.

If you aren’t planning to leave an engine exposed, you don’t need to install anywhere near the number of parts included. I found out I didn’t even need the cylinder heads for instance. Basically, you only need to attach the parts that allow a continuous join from the firewall to the prop shaft.

Now that the engines are mounted, it’s time to finish up the rest of the wing assembly in preparation for joining it to the fuselage. That includes adding the remaining detail to the shelf behind the cockpit.

The props are beautiful. I fully finished only one because the other will be hidden behind the spinner. I applied a wash of Flory Models' dark dirt to the prop hub, leaving the prop boss — the cylindrical part — clean, and sprayed random streaks of Tamiya dark gray to weather the blades. Usually, for prop tips, I spray yellow over white. This time, I spraying yellow over light grey to give them a slightly weather-beaten appearance.

Here’s a little trick I’ve learned: If a small part has a sprue connection that doesn’t interfere with the glue join, leave it there as a handle. You can remove it after the glue dries.

Only after installing all of the framing during my lunch break at work did I notice the back of one of the many detail parts in the cockpit is visible. Not having any paint available, I had to cheat.

Office equipment can be a handy addition to the workbench; luckily this unpainted part was actually a black box.

Voila! No more bare plastic.

A final closeup of the cockpit before the top goes on. Notice how tightly packed all the radio gear is — and it all fits like a glove!

The wafer-thin cowlings demand precise fit. Here, one of the wing inserts looked to be a tad out of place.

Test-fitting proved there would be a problem.

A bit of corrective work on the corner with a motor tool solved the problem.

The kit magnets do indeed hold the cowl panels. I figured I could put them in place during painting, but no such luck — a trial shot from the airbrush blew them off the model. What to do to cover that engine?

Turns out business cards aren’t only useful for free lunch drawings ...

Cut and taped together the card form a sturdy shield for the Merlin.

The Mosquito looks as though it's wearing a plaster cast on its engine, but it should block stray paint.

To mask the camouflage, I photocopied the pattern to match the model and cut the copy into sections. I attach these to the model with rolls of tape to lift the edges of the paper slightly off the surface.

The raised mask produces a fine, feathered edge. You have to be careful about where you point the airbrush to minimize the overspray that goes under the edges of the paper. Keep the brush perpendicular to the surface.

Models masked this way always look a bit odd as they head into the paint booth, but this method helps people like me who can’t airbrush a tight pattern freehand.