This is going to be one very brief history, having basically said all there is in the preview of the Hasegawa 1/72 Mosquito B.IV. I'll direct you to that review for the historical background.

For those of you who don't keep up with what goes on in the industry, Tamiya started on a major kit release program about 10 years ago and concentrated on 1/48 aircraft. Many figured it was because they had run low on armor subjects as they have slowed down new releases in that area to a crawl (pun intended!). Much to the delight of 1/48 modelers, a wave of new kits started coming from Tamiya, Japan's and probably the world's largest modeling company. It started with the F4F Wildcat and grew to include Corsairs, Beaufighters, Ki-46s, G4Ms, Meteors, Mustangs and a bevy of other planes, including the Mosquito. Now a plane like the Mosquito that was modified for so many uses was bound to generate several different kit variants; and it has. 

About two years ago, Tamiya started hearing the pleas of 1/72 modelers and has begun a program of scaling down its 1/48 kits. Actually this was done with one of the earliest new 1/48 releases, the M6A Serian back when the 1/48 version was released, but nothing more really happened until a few years back. Now, much to the delight of 1/72 modelers everywhere, the program is gaining momentum and was bound to include the Mosquito versions. As with the 1/48 kits, the detailing is superb with a full cockpit and instruments offered as both raised detail and decals. The rest of the kit looks like a smaller version of the 1/48 models and you know that the engineering of these models is first-rate.

This particular kit does the bomber and photo recon versions, the B.IV and PR.IV. The biggest change from the Mk VI is the bomber nose and a new set of bomb bay doors with camera holes in it. The lower right hand sprue and clear bits are all that are different from the earlier variant. Tamiya provides two different props, shrouds for the exhaust and different wheel inserts for the different versions. For this kit there are underwing rocket and bombs that are not used. The same can be said for the underwing long-range tanks that are not used on this kit, but were used on other versions of the Mosquito. To my knowledge, these underwing tanks are not even offered as options with the Hasegawa kit.

Instructions are typically Tamiya and superb. They also continue the trend of offering only Tamiya paints in the color reference. Fortunately, Tamiya makes all the RAF colors so no paint mixing and guessing are required for this kit (well, sorta as they suggest using USN Intermediate Blue in place of the PRU blue really used on the PR Mossie). Decals are offered for three planes. The first is a B.IV of 105 squadron in Ocean Grey and Dark Green over Medium Sea Grey. Next is another B.IV from 109 Squadron in the same upper colors, but with a black underside. Finally, a PR.IV from 540 squadron in overall PRU Blue. Though a trifle thick, the decals are well printed and have all the required stencils.

I really look forward to building this kit and plan to do some modification to it using some resin aftermarket goodies. It should turn out to be a cool model

Review kit courtesy of  North American Hobbies. 
Steve has this and many other fine models in stock at very good prices. I'd recommend a visit. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

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