1:24 MOSQUITO FBVI & NFII

A wooden twin that could do everything

The de Havilland Mosquito came about as a fast unarmored bomber of plywood and balsa, and it was the light shell structure that gave it the speed with which it long did not have to defend itself. The combat version FB Mk.VI turned it into an attack machine: four machine guns of 7.7 mm caliber stayed in the nose and four 20 mm cannons were added under the cockpit floor, complemented by bombs or rockets under the wing. The night fighter NF Mk.II had the same armament, but its nose was filled by a radar with the characteristic arrow antennas that jutted forward from it.

In the box you will find

A cockpit mask in two pieces, for the outer and the inner side of the glazing, and five sets of national insignia masks. The code series joins turned metal parts for the weapons to the masks.

Two calibers right next to each other

The nose of the Mosquito is a textbook case where the distinction of diameters matters. The machine gun muzzles are small, the cannon ones distinctly thicker, and they lie only a few millimeters apart. If both are made of plastic, the difference is sanded away during clean-up so much that eight tubes merge into one width. Turned metal keeps the diameter exactly and the difference between the two groups stays legible even after painting.

Before you reach for a drill

The nose is worked in a tight space and the holes lie close together, so first measure the spacing from the drawing in the instructions and mark the points with a needle. Drill in stages, from the smallest diameter upwards, otherwise the bit slips into the neighboring hole and the wall between them breaks. Insert the metal parts dry and check whether they all protrude the same distance; only then fix them with a drop of cyanoacrylate applied with a pin.