1:72 MosquitoSeat with Safety Belts

The real subject

The de Havilland Mosquito is a British twin-engined aircraft of the Second World War, famous for its wooden construction and for the wide range of duties it performed, from reconnaissance to bombing and night fighting. The crew sits in the forward fuselage under glazing, so the inside of the cockpit is visible on a finished model. The seat is the first thing the eye finds in an open cockpit, and the kit part tends to be thicker than the real thing because of the production mold.

What the set contains

A replacement seat for a model of the Mosquito in 1:72 scale with safety belts molded directly on the part. That does away with gluing separate belts, which is a thankless job in this scale: the belts hold their correct position by themselves and there is no need to shape them laboriously over the edge of the seat. The material is not polystyrene, so the part can carry finer edges and a more sculpted shape than an injection mold allows.

Building and painting tips

• Cut the excess material off with a sharp blade a little away from the part and sand the remainder so that the seating surface stays flat.
• Wash and degrease the part before painting, otherwise the paint peels.
• Use super glue; ordinary cement for polystyrene will not bond this material.
• Try the fit in the cockpit dry before you glue the fuselage together.
• Distinguish the belts from the seat with color and pick the buckles out in a metallic shade, otherwise the relief is lost.

Who it is for

For modelers who want a cockpit rendered in detail even in a small scale and do not want to build the belts from strips of foil for it. The kit, paints and glue are not included in the package, unless stated otherwise.