Tamiya 1/48 Mosquito FB.40

The Australian built wooden wonder, FB Mk 40 featured 2 Merlin 31 engines behind bulbous prop spinners and a sleek glazed cockpit for two crewmen. The Mosquito was one of WWII’s most attractive aircraft. It was a potent weapon with 4-20 mm cannons and 4-.303 machine guns as well as rear bomb bay for 2- 225 kg bombs, and if that weren’t enough, 8 rockets or two more bombs could be carried under the wings. A top speed of 385 mph and a 2,850 fpm climb rate made it a serious threat.

I was recently inspired by a stunning online image showing the sleek lines of an Australian Mosquito flown in the CBI in 1945, painted “Speed Silver” with bright blue prop spinners complimenting the attractive blue RAAF markings.

The box was dusty, and the faded price sticker read $14.98. The 1:48 Tamiya Mosquito kit had been purchased in 1998, probably right after watching the excellent Mosquito movie, “633 Squadron”! The 1:48 Tamiya Mosquito is perhaps one of the best model kits ever! Parts clicked together requiring almost no use of adhesive! It was built strictly O-O-B and required very little putty. I will not go into great detail of the construction as it really is a “shake and bake” kit, and it is beautifully engineered! The instructions are 12 pages of excellent pictorials and good color callouts.

Tamiya’s clever inclusion of Sutton seat belt/harness decals allows for an accurate looking O-O-B build without the hassle of making them from tape or metal foil…. nice touch Tamiya! Fortunately, a set of Eduard masks were found in the folded instructions making almost effortless work of the 25-pane canopy, wheels, landing lights and belly window masking.

The cleverly molded wing nav lights were drilled and given a tiny drop of blue-green and red, nicely replicating the nav light bulbs.

They were faired in, polished, and masked for painting. After model painting, the tail nav light was painted white and given a coat of clear white glue.

It was decided to open the rear bomb bay to display the 2-225 kg bombs and the Ace Hardware, Red Oxide painted fuel tanks.

Red Oxide was also used on the engine oil tanks and Bare metal Foil was used to replicate the metal retention straps, although once installed are barely visible. The trombone exhaust stacks were sprayed with Model Master Steel and dry brushed with Testors Rust and when almost dry, given a light brushing of Orange/Brown pastel chalk. Gun Barrels were painted Model Master Gunmetal and lightly dry bushed with Model Master Steel. The spinners were painted Tamiya TS-44 Brilliant Blue, a close match to the subject image.

A nylon thread antenna wire was stretched from a pre-drilled #80 hole in the tail leading edge to the tip of the radio mast.

The crew door was positioned opened with a “beware of propellers” decal on the inner side and the kit provided ladder installed.

The big decision was what color to use for the factory silver lacquer? After all, it was a wood aircraft, not metal, so it couldn’t be too shiny. I decided to use Tamiya TS-30 Silver Leaf that provided the finish I desired. The interior was painted with Tamiya XF-71 Cockpit Green and the prop spinners with Tamiya TS-44 Brilliant Blue.

The decals used were from Eagle Strike 48176 and they performed perfectly. There are no underwing roundels as many period photos show Australian Mosquitos without them.

The model is unique in RAAF scheme of silver lacquer rather than the ubiquitous green and gray camo. It’s one of those model kits that when a part or assembly of parts just falls into place and makes you smile. It is a kit that can be built by a beginning modeler if he/she takes their time and follows the excellent instructions.

Squadron Mosquito in Action # 127

H Davis Gandees