It is categorically the most impressive and versatile British aircraft of World War 2, and a very slick and seductive one at that. The sheer number of mission roles it could play, in my opinion, opened eyes to the concept of a 'multi-role' aircraft and aircraft like the Eurofighter Typhoon and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter can trace their lineage back to the Mosquito. The fact it could deliver a 4000 lbs bomb to Berlin, tussle with a single fighter on equal (ISH) footing or speed past enemy defences to do a David Bailey impression before anyone had seen it coming is just incredible. As to the De Havilland museum, what a hidden gem it is. The Airfix kit looks impressive and shall have to be added to the stash (which will outlive me at this point). Thanks for the video. I love your content. Very inspirational. Thanks
I've built both the new Airfix releases and two of the Tamiiya ones. Also built the 1972 Airfix release which even though iy is an old kit builds up really nice. One of the Tamiya kits I built was kit number 60765 which is the bull nose version. It is a striking contrast to the usual fighter and bomber versions you see and one I recommend getting.
I've just read Rowland White's 'Mosquito'.. Fantastic book :) Love this build too :) I think the better thought out build process is probably worth the extra £5.
Very enjoyable video and great final result. When brush painting over tape, I always do a very thin layer of the first colour before painting the second layer to seal the edges of the tape giving a sharper line when the tape is removed.In this case, I would have applied the tape over the white base layer on the tail and then paint a thin layer of white again over the edges of the tape and then painted the black.
Great video. I was on the fence a bit on picking up the Airfix kit, but not anymore, moving it up my list. I will also be picking up the Tamiya one as well, as I definitely want to build the fighter/bomber as well. Love your content!!
Great build and video. The frustration for me with the new Airfix kits is how 'chunky' they mostly are: overscale panel lines and fine parts are not fine. You can see this on the video, the little illumination windows in the nose, the bars on the undercarriage legs (do they have something to do with opening the gear doors?), the pitot on the vertical tail, the thick canopies, these specific parts are not much better than the 1980s. Airfix do have a little more detail in areas, especially wheel bays and cockpits, but overall they have repeatedly failed to improve on exisiting offerings from Japan. The Lancaster (hard to fix warp-o-matic bomb bay doors), Beaufighter (chunky), Spitfires (just quite simple, lacking detail and being overscale compared to Czech models). Initially "new Airfix" kits were inexpensive, but successive price rises have put them right up there. I have bought and built all the models I mention in both Airfix and Japanese forms. As Japanese kits can actually be had fairly cheaply from Japanese sources, I still buy them: it's easy enough to detail up cockpits and wheel bays (even with sprue and Evergreen) but you can't do anything about trench panel lines and thick canopies. Thanks again!
In 1:72 scale, I have built the Airfix B.XVI and the Hasegawa B.IV. The Hasegawa kit is quite competitive except for one crucial decision made at the time of the design: the canopy is split in half. Most likely this was because they didn't want to compromise the convex shape nor invest in the slide-mold technology to effect it, which is a shame. I did my best trying to fill and hide the resulting seam right down the middle of the canopy, with only fair results. It still is too wide and quite noticeable. For the Airfix kit, I filled the offending rear bomb bay bulge to make it less TT.35 and more B.XVI. My experience with the overall build of the Airfix agrees with Cpt VFC: it's quite good. I've been working my way through nearly all of Airfix's 1/72 new-tool kits and have so say that they are quite enjoyable with excellent Cartograf-supplied decals. I would like to try a Tamiya variant of the Mosquito someday, but they are not readily available from on-line outlets at the moment in the US.
The only thing that annoys me about this kit is the decals - Airfix should've given the option to have the traditional South African roundels. They say in the instructions that they think the centres were red (rather than South African orange), but given this was a photo recon plane, I'm sure that the squadron would have painted the orange quite soon after receiving the plane. SAAF planes having red centres to their roundels was quite rare - I've only ever seen it on frontline aircraft that didn't have the time to paint them orange.
@simonmowatt An excellent point. It's nice that they have included the research notes, but that doesn't mean it's 100% correct. Would orange centres have been difficult to include on the sheet as well?
Airfix kits have become too expensive for my limited model budget ,and I have heard they are going up again! I now buy secondhand kits .Well tidy review.
@@kennethjames9416 I bought a 2nd hand Airfix Swirdfish for about half the current RRP - total bargain. Got a few more 2nd hand purchases that will be reaching the channel soon!
@blarrrggg bomb bay open is fine. The shape issue is more to do with the fuselage just aft of the bomb bay, and the raised detail on the doors that the real one doesn't have. It's mostly me being pedantic - the kit builds fine either way
Colour matching decals with base colour is pointless because the base factory colour is enamel and the markings are applied with a clear lacquer coat over them so colour change is going to occur. An aircraft maintenance engineer friend of mine has to argue with people at model displays and competitions about this. Even 2 aircraft off the same production line in series will have slightly different shade of paint because of the nature of painting aircraft. Built both the Tamiya and Airfix offerings and i prefer the Tamiya. I cannot justify paying for another Airfix version, i also prefer the Tamiya decals.To be fair I've moved on from Airfix,it seems to be that they are making the same subjects constantly or new moulds of old subjects they have previously covered. For example, my latest acquisitions are an Amodel Bf109X and a Micromir Su7BMK( Indian Airforce boxart) and have recently completed the Kovozadvody Cessna 180( your video convinced me to get one) and the Piper Pawnee. Just too much of the same for increased prices. Each to their own, whatever makes you happy, that's what it's all about.
It is categorically the most impressive and versatile British aircraft of World War 2, and a very slick and seductive one at that. The sheer number of mission roles it could play, in my opinion, opened eyes to the concept of a 'multi-role' aircraft and aircraft like the Eurofighter Typhoon and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter can trace their lineage back to the Mosquito. The fact it could deliver a 4000 lbs bomb to Berlin, tussle with a single fighter on equal (ISH) footing or speed past enemy defences to do a David Bailey impression before anyone had seen it coming is just incredible. As to the De Havilland museum, what a hidden gem it is. The Airfix kit looks impressive and shall have to be added to the stash (which will outlive me at this point). Thanks for the video. I love your content. Very inspirational. Thanks
Dear Cpt, I have a life long love affair with the Mossie! Great overview - thank you for sharing. Best Wishes Johnny
Beautiful build Cpt.
The Mosquito is my favourite aircraft and I've built a few in my time.
Keep up the great work son 👍
I've built both the new Airfix releases and two of the Tamiiya ones. Also built the 1972 Airfix release which even though iy is an old kit builds up really nice.
One of the Tamiya kits I built was kit number 60765 which is the bull nose version. It is a striking contrast to the usual fighter and bomber versions you see and one I recommend getting.
I've just read Rowland White's 'Mosquito'.. Fantastic book :) Love this build too :) I think the better thought out build process is probably worth the extra £5.
Great build video CPT, really enjoyed it
Very enjoyable video and great final result. When brush painting over tape, I always do a very thin layer of the first colour before painting the second layer to seal the edges of the tape giving a sharper line when the tape is removed.In this case, I would have applied the tape over the white base layer on the tail and then paint a thin layer of white again over the edges of the tape and then painted the black.
@binkbonusgbr I usually do that when spraying, but with brushing invasion stripes I find I am good enough to not need to bother
Great stuff, looks excellent. I haven't built a wooden wonder for many a year, maybe I should rectify that.
Anyone else hearing the theme from 633 squadron 😊
Great video. I was on the fence a bit on picking up the Airfix kit, but not anymore, moving it up my list. I will also be picking up the Tamiya one as well, as I definitely want to build the fighter/bomber as well. Love your content!!
Great video build my friend and you made me want even more to build my one 😂
Cool model. 🛩
Nice build 😮
Great build and video.
The frustration for me with the new Airfix kits is how 'chunky' they mostly are: overscale panel lines and fine parts are not fine. You can see this on the video, the little illumination windows in the nose, the bars on the undercarriage legs (do they have something to do with opening the gear doors?), the pitot on the vertical tail, the thick canopies, these specific parts are not much better than the 1980s.
Airfix do have a little more detail in areas, especially wheel bays and cockpits, but overall they have repeatedly failed to improve on exisiting offerings from Japan. The Lancaster (hard to fix warp-o-matic bomb bay doors), Beaufighter (chunky), Spitfires (just quite simple, lacking detail and being overscale compared to Czech models).
Initially "new Airfix" kits were inexpensive, but successive price rises have put them right up there. I have bought and built all the models I mention in both Airfix and Japanese forms. As Japanese kits can actually be had fairly cheaply from Japanese sources, I still buy them: it's easy enough to detail up cockpits and wheel bays (even with sprue and Evergreen) but you can't do anything about trench panel lines and thick canopies.
Thanks again!
Very informative most enjoyable. 👍😊
In 1:72 scale, I have built the Airfix B.XVI and the Hasegawa B.IV. The Hasegawa kit is quite competitive except for one crucial decision made at the time of the design: the canopy is split in half. Most likely this was because they didn't want to compromise the convex shape nor invest in the slide-mold technology to effect it, which is a shame. I did my best trying to fill and hide the resulting seam right down the middle of the canopy, with only fair results. It still is too wide and quite noticeable. For the Airfix kit, I filled the offending rear bomb bay bulge to make it less TT.35 and more B.XVI. My experience with the overall build of the Airfix agrees with Cpt VFC: it's quite good. I've been working my way through nearly all of Airfix's 1/72 new-tool kits and have so say that they are quite enjoyable with excellent Cartograf-supplied decals. I would like to try a Tamiya variant of the Mosquito someday, but they are not readily available from on-line outlets at the moment in the US.
this was a fun build :)
The only thing that annoys me about this kit is the decals - Airfix should've given the option to have the traditional South African roundels. They say in the instructions that they think the centres were red (rather than South African orange), but given this was a photo recon plane, I'm sure that the squadron would have painted the orange quite soon after receiving the plane. SAAF planes having red centres to their roundels was quite rare - I've only ever seen it on frontline aircraft that didn't have the time to paint them orange.
@simonmowatt An excellent point. It's nice that they have included the research notes, but that doesn't mean it's 100% correct. Would orange centres have been difficult to include on the sheet as well?
Top job..😎
Airfix kits have become too expensive for my limited model budget ,and I have heard they are going up again! I now buy secondhand kits .Well tidy review.
@@kennethjames9416 I bought a 2nd hand Airfix Swirdfish for about half the current RRP - total bargain.
Got a few more 2nd hand purchases that will be reaching the channel soon!
Obeying the Algorithm
how gruesome is the bomb bay on the other one? I like looking at bombs, and the tamiya one doesn't seem to have a bomb bay
@blarrrggg bomb bay open is fine. The shape issue is more to do with the fuselage just aft of the bomb bay, and the raised detail on the doors that the real one doesn't have. It's mostly me being pedantic - the kit builds fine either way
@@VFCproductions thanks
And the TseTse version.
Think you need to buy the tamiya 1/48 mosquito
@davidAB779 I'm not giving away spoilers, but no I don't...
Colour matching decals with base colour is pointless because the base factory colour is enamel and the markings are applied with a clear lacquer coat over them so colour change is going to occur. An aircraft maintenance engineer friend of mine has to argue with people at model displays and competitions about this. Even 2 aircraft off the same production line in series will have slightly different shade of paint because of the nature of painting aircraft. Built both the Tamiya and Airfix offerings and i prefer the Tamiya. I cannot justify paying for another Airfix version, i also prefer the Tamiya decals.To be fair I've moved on from Airfix,it seems to be that they are making the same subjects constantly or new moulds of old subjects they have previously covered. For example, my latest acquisitions are an Amodel Bf109X and a Micromir Su7BMK( Indian Airforce boxart) and have recently completed the Kovozadvody Cessna 180( your video convinced me to get one) and the Piper Pawnee.
Just too much of the same for increased prices. Each to their own, whatever makes you happy, that's what it's all about.