1/48 Tamiya Mosquito NF.XIII

[TJ]

Its a Tamiya kit. 

[406 Silverado]

This one is supposed to be one heckuva kit to put together in a good way. Your camo work sure came out good and the amount of weathering looks spot on Johnny! If I remember correctly the cockpits were supposed to be pretty well detailed. Got any shots of that? Beautiful end results here bud.

[deafpanzer]

Love it! Believe it being an armor guy I happen to have that kit in my stash along with growing number of wings kits!

[stikpusher]

Beautiful Mossy TJ! Of course just being a Tamiya kit doesn’t guarantee a great looking build. There is some input required from the modeler 😉 And you did some mighty fine work here.

[thechaos]

A great Mosquito.

[TJ]

Thanks everyone.  Joe I was going to look, but Postimage seems to be down. Will try again tomorrow

[jeaton01]

As you would expect the detail in the 1/32 kit is astounding, but I can see some nice details in there already in this 1/48 example.

[stikpusher]

Jun 9, 2023 19:44:31 GMT -5 TJ said:

Thanks everyone.  Joe I was going to look, but Postimage seems to be down. Will try again tomorrow

Yeah, but Postimage appears to be back online now

[TJ]

[buddho]

Jun 9, 2023 5:41:03 GMT -5 TJ said:

Its a Tamiya kit. 

Simply stunning.

[handiabled]

Beautiful camo on this!

[Medicman71]

Great work! Very nice!

[Joe Rix]

Well TJ, you took a typical excellent Tamiya kit and turned it into a thing of beauty. That cockpit looks the part. Sharp paint work and subtle weathering look great.

[TJ]

Thanks. Its a great kit.

[dupes]

Whoah, very sharp! Did you use the kit decals? Or go aftermarket/masks?

[TJ]

Many thanks for this being on the top showcase. I'm honored

[stikpusher]

Jun 19, 2023 11:20:30 GMT -5 TJ said:

Many thanks for this being on the top showcase. I'm honored

The top banner display is well deserved.

[TJ]

Jun 14, 2023 7:29:20 GMT -5 dupes said:

Whoah, very sharp! Did you use the kit decals? Or go aftermarket/masks?

Sorry for the very late reply. Used the kit decals. They weren't that bad

[adt70hk]

Jun 9, 2023 5:41:03 GMT -5 TJ said:

Its a Tamiya kit. 

Hi Johnny

Firstly, a top-notch finish indeed, a really great finish!!  These Tamiya kits do go together nicely, don't they?

I actually have the 1/72 version of this kit in the stash (different markings though) and actually know quite a bit about this very plane too....if you don't mind me hijacking your thread a bit???

As you will have no doubt seen from the instructions Mosquito HK415 'KP-R' flew with 409 Sqdn RCAF aka 'The Nighthawks'.  It was delivered to the squadron late 1943/early 1944 (link).  It was then written off in an accident in January 1945 (link).

I know this because I have built another plane from this squadron, HK425 aka 'Lonesome Polecat'.

I had a big problem though in that sources differed on the plane ID - almost all said HK425 was 'KP-D' but all the available aftermarket decals had  'KP-R'.

I was therefore faced with the fact that two planes supposedly had the same ID - your HK415 and my HK425.  After a lot of research I came to the conclusion that HK425 was initially marked as KP-D but changed to HP-R after the loss of HK415.  You can find my working out on this post on the other site I am on (link).  You will find the finished build of my KP-R in my 'Hunters and Hunted' collection - link in my signature.

I may be wrong but in this case I think Tamiya may have put the wrong nose on this kit.

HK425 had the so called 'thimble' nose, not the 'universal/bull' nose.  However, according to the above production link both planes were from a batch that had a mixture of noses but I have a picture of your very plane...and to my eye the line of the nose, although not a full front on view and so the angle may be deceptive, looks like a thimble nose.  I am of course happy to be wrong - I am not an expert by any means!!

Below is a picture of your plane before it was written off and you may see what I mean.

Apologies again for the hijacking of your thread!

ATB

Andrew

[stikpusher]

Good info Andrew. Having two aircraft carry the same code letters in a squadron was routine, due to attrition and replacements. The trick is, as you have found, to track down the serial number of an individual aircraft. Some airframes have quite a long lifespan and service with many squadrons, pilots and crews.

[TJ]

No worries Andrew. Its good to know these things. The other thing I noticed from your pic is the spinners look white

[adt70hk]

Jul 9, 2023 13:48:01 GMT -5 stikpusher said:

Good info Andrew. Having two aircraft carry the same code letters in a squadron was routine, due to attrition and replacements. The trick is, as you have found, to track down the serial number of an individual aircraft. Some airframes have quite a long lifespan and service with many squadrons, pilots and crews.

Thanks Carlos.

I have found plenty of occasions when the same code letters were used.  What I couldn't fathom though, is why go the trouble of changing the plane ID on my 'KP-R'  after the original one was written off.....why not just allocate it to the replacement plane?  Guess it's one of those things I will have to just accept!

[adt70hk]

Jul 9, 2023 16:18:50 GMT -5 TJ said:

No worries Andrew. Its good to know these things. The other thing I noticed from your pic is the spinners look white

Hi Johnny

I think that is a trick of the light.  In the photo of my KP-R, whilst it's much lighter than the usual grey camo, I'm not sure it's white.


It's certainly something I build I found on the Hyperscale site commented on.....so I just copied him and used a lighter grey.  I can only assume your was the same given how close they were in the production run.