1:32 de Havilland Mosquito PR Mk.IX/Mk.XVI of Czechoslovak airmen

A wooden machine that defended itself with speed

The Mosquito arose from an idea that seemed mad at the time: build a bomber out of wood, give it not a single defensive weapon and rely on nobody being able to keep up with it. It worked. The reconnaissance versions took this logic furthest. They were lightened, fitted with cameras instead of bombs, and with two supercharged engines they got to altitudes where fighters caught up with them only with difficulty.

The later variant added a pressurized cabin to this, thanks to which a crew could take long flights at great altitude without exhaustion. The flights lasted hours, led deep over the enemy's territory, and their result were the photographs on which air raids and ground operations were planned.

Three crews, two versions

The sheet offers three machines. The first comes from October 1943 and belonged to a squadron that had devoted itself to reconnaissance from the start; the remaining two are from November 1944 and belonged to the second of the reconnaissance squadrons. For each one the names of both members of the crew are given along with their ranks. Two machines are of the older version and the third is the one with the pressurized cabin, so the sheet covers both forms of the machine.

For a collector this trio is also interesting in that reconnaissance machines tend to be rarer than combat ones. They flew alone, relatively few photographs of them have survived and their color schemes differ from the classic camouflage patterns.

Working with the decal

The thin carrier films of today's production will take even a broken surface if they are helped with a softener. On a wooden airframe with no rivets the situation is noticeably easier than on a metal aircraft, because a decal has nowhere to sink in. On the other hand it pays to watch the symmetry of the national insignia, which are clearly visible in a large scale.