SPA Modeler

Stikpusher wrote: ↑Thu Sep 21, 2023 8:50 am I’m pretty sure that the tail flight control surfaces were doped fabric over the frame work. The rudder certainly was, as this battle damage photo clearly shows,,,

Thanks for that neat pic, Carlos. It shows that Mr. shortcummins might've erred in doing his control surfaces in metal. Your pic sent me into further research and I find claims that the nacelles were also mostly wood. Again, unlike the linked build...

"The wing contained metal-framed and -skinned ailerons, but the flaps were made of wood and were hydraulically controlled. The nacelles were mostly wood, although for strength, the engine mounts were all metal, as were the undercarriage parts.[86] Engine mounts of welded steel tube were added, along with simple landing gear oleos filled with rubber blocks. Wood was used to carry only in-plane loads, with metal fittings used for all triaxially loaded components such as landing gear, engine mounts, control-surface mounting brackets, and the wing-to-fuselage junction.[87] The outer leading wing edge had to be brought 22 in (56 cm) further forward to accommodate this design.[85] The main tail unit was all wood built. The control surfaces, the rudder, and elevator were aluminium-framed and fabric-covered.[86] The total weight of metal castings and forgings used in the aircraft was only 280 lb (130 kg).[88]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havill ... o#Variants

I haven't watched the whole thing yet but there's some great video of the bird here. Might be a good reference for you Gary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rauNQgkOJhU

Very cool, John! Thanks for that! It is a very interesting video, and one thing seems obvious; the nacelles appear to be metal on that plane. Wouldn't it be fun to work on a project like that? I would've volunteered to work on the project that produced a handful of Me-262 replicas up in Washington State several years back if the commute from central Texas hadn't been a deal breaker.

Time for a bit of an update on this Skeeter! I got the underside painted in Humbrol Metal Cote Polished Aluminum and it turned out okay. I have a couple small touch ups to do, and I also forgot to install the aft wingtip light covers before I painted; they were painted over in Israeli service. So, a bit more silver and then the bottom can be masked off and I can spray some Vallejo white primer on top in preparation for the finished Vallejo colors.









I covered the kit canopy with tape and liquid mask to use it for protecting the cockpit. It should "pop" off without too much trouble in order to mask and paint it before final install.



Some of the bondo work prior to painting:





I will be using the kit's exhaust shrouds (remember, no scratch building or replacement-OOB! ) and finally did find a photo reference showing a silver-doped Mossie with the shrouds, which were mostly deleted due to overheating issues by the time of these planes' service in Israel. I wanted them to show some contrast against the silver nacelle, so I painted them Metal Cote Polished Steel, with some Testors 1/4oz flat steel and Model Master Jet Exhaust thrown in for good measure. I tried coloring them a little with some blue pastel powder but that hasn't been effective so far.





The main gear doors have been painted, along with the two bomb pylons:





And that's where the Skeeter stands at the moment. I'll be back at it in a few days; today is my wife Jackie's birthday and we're going on an overnight trip this afternoon. I'll report more on this model, and try to get more pics, next week! Thanks for your interest!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V8zVkqZa98

Very nice!

Great update Gary! The silver undersides look good. I wonder if some other method of discoloring the exhaust covers might work better? Perhaps some of the clear blue paint airbrushed on, or maybe the Tamiya Weathering Master set D



Happy Birthday to your wife, and enjoy your trip together!

Jackie said "Thanks", Carlos and I thank you for the reply and for the useful tip! I did once have some clear blue acrylic and sprayed it over aluminum for aotake color on Japanese planes, but it eventually went bad. I'm in Temple, Texas, where there is a Hobby Lobby and may look into what they have available there tomorrow. That's an easy sell for my wife too!

Gotta another small update, and a few pics to add from an earlier stage. At this point, I do believe the bottom side paint is finished. It received another coat yesterday and turned out pretty good. I don't like how the wingtip light covers look after painting but I'm not futzing with them anymore. I'm going to give the silver paint a few days to cure and fully harden, then it's on to masking off the lower and painting the upper primer and camo colors.

















You can see my landing light lens mask came off; I only discovered this after looking over these pics. I've since picked it off the wing, removed the errant silver paint and reapplied the little circle mask:





I did buy some paint at Hobby Lobby and went over the exhaust shrouds once again; they're better now and considered done until installation and some exhaust staining. I used fluorescent blue Testors 1/4 oz from HL and some Grape Pearl in Colors by Boyd from Testors that I had around for ages to tint those shrouds.





And here are some pics I forgot to post earlier. They give a good idea about the extent of the Bondo usage on this old bird:









So, slowly but surely, we're getting there! I have placed a call to Chris Loney of EZ Masks, inquiring about the availability of his Mosquito canopy mask set. His website isn't working so I called and left a message. I sure hope he can help; there are about 20 different sections of glass on that canopy!

mighty fine looking Mossie. Those are such iconic aircraft and you are certainly doing it justice. Someday, when I grow up....(never mind).

I really like the Bondo. Doesn't seem to shrink, dries fairly fast and sands esily.

Thanks so much, Lyle! I'm getting kinda ready to finish this one up and move one to another project. And I get a little closer each day, I guess. Yeah, I agree with you regarding Bondo; gotta like that stuff-can a million body-shop guys be wrong?!?

I'm conducting a test of flexible masking materials. I'd like to not have to use masking tape of any sort for the topside colors and am going to try using "worms" of either Silly Putty or poster tac. I have both genuine blue poster tac as well as some white generic stuff. In the past one or the other of these did leave a somewhat oily residue behind on the paint when used to mask a pattern. I'd rather avoid that problem here, hence this test.

I rolled a long worm of all three materials; they had not been used for years and of course, were quite stiff. After a lot of kneading though, I rolled my own! I place sections of each across the corners of a painted, plastic car dealer's license plate. And I also wrapped worms of each around the silver-painted body of my paint mule, an old 1/72 Hind that my son once had. I applied those on Sunday afternoon and will remove them later today. That should be long enough to see any results that might occur and probably longer than they would normally be left in place on a model.

I'll give a report on the findings when I'm finished!