Airfix DeHavilland Mosquito
1/24th Scale

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Big box, Lotsa bits...

That'll Do Nicely To Begin With!

Hearty greetings people!
Well now, as a break from the usual I decided to get this rather nice beastie to build.
Just for myself and I did promise myself this kit when word of it first came about some years ago.
One of my all time favorite WWII aircraft this lass so just had to have it.

So this is sorta a potted kit review to start with.
Not too in depth technically speaking as i'm no expert on the Mossie.
Others are and the relevant accuracy or lack thereof with this kit i'll happily leave to others way more learned than yours truly.
That said, she is one of the aircraft of that era that fulfills the 'If it looks right, it is right' saying to me in full.
From this kit you can build either a night fighter or fighter/bomber variant in four different colour/marking schemes.

Now cheap maybe ain't what this kit can be described as.
Very little change out of £130 GBP retail but that said and in this scale and injection plastic, pretty much the only game in town if 1/24th is your thing.
Resin/vac versions not withstanding of course.

So let's be about it then.
First off, the somewhat substantial box.






Measuring 27 & 1/2" long, a smidgen under 16" wide and some 6 & 1/2" deep.
Weighs in at about 7lbs.

So What Be In This Nicely Coloured Box Then?

A lot to put it plainly.


And so the trip through the parts begins.
As a size guesstimate, the green mat you see in the pics is A3 size.

First two sprues out of the box...
Control surfaces, wing detail parts and cockpit stuff.






A black rubber/vynil sprue with the main gear tyres, tail wheel and some other bits.
The main gear tyres are already 'weighted and bulged' in proper fashion.
Like apparently all of the moulding, pretty damn crisply done.






And the next lot.
More control surfaces and engine nacelles.










Some small evidence of sink marks but nothing too drastic.

Next two sprues!
Guns, bombs, rockets and piping detailing








Aaaaaand the next two.
Cockpit/internal detailing parts and crew figures.
Two types of crew figures supplied, one lot for filling out the 'front office' and two standing crew figures.












Love the big handlebar moustache on the pilot figure, nice touch!

Smaller sprues now then, five of, here's four of them.
Props both leaf and paddle blade types, two complete Merlin engines, mount frames and piping akimbo.








The fifth sprue and clear parts.
Excellently moulded clear parts they are too.






In the foam bag with the clear parts were two small bags with the instruments.
These already had the instrument faces applied, nice touch again methinks.


Then the main fuselage parts proper.




And right at the bottom of the box, the wings.
Always useful having them I reckon.
Oh, for size note, this sprue pretty much covers the whole bottom area of the box.




And so to the very necessary paperwork.
The instruction manual.
Well ya can't just call it an instruction sheet considering it's 52 pages long.
Clear and concise layout covering some 250 plus stages of assembly depending on the variant you're building.




A two sided colour folded A3 sheet with the external color scheme and markings for the four different squadrons.




A colour, single sided A4ish size sheet showing the crew figure painting details.


And last but by no means least, the decal sheet.
Beautifully printed and in as near perfect register as I could see.






So a final roundup like.
What ya got is a kit that will build into a big Mossie.
By 'big' I mean a approx 21 & 1/2" long and a smidgen over a 27" wingspan big.
I don't know about you but that translates as 'NICE!' to me in the size dept.
As noted before, four colour schemes comprising of:
All over black NF.II, 157 Squadron RAF from 1941.
All over silver FB.VI 1 Squadron RAAF from 1945.
Grey and 'Sky' colour FB.VI 143 Squadron Costal Command 1945.
And dark green/medium grey FB.VI 487 Squadron RNZAF 2nd Tactical Air force for Op. Jericho 1944.

Most likely I would say possibly not a kit for the faint hearted.
Not just for the cost wise but the 617 parts count may worry some.

Moulding wise, all as crisp and clean as it could be.
Ok, maybe that should be expected in a new kit tooling but thought i'd say it anyway's.

Any assembly hiccups will doubtless show themselves as I go along.

Build and display options are as wide open as I think you can get in an of the shelf kit with no aftermarket stuff.
For the detail nutters out there, I think you will not be disappointed in this kit.
If you are, well just no pleasing some people.
As I said before, how right on or not is something I can not reliably tell you.
All I can say is it certainly looks like a Mosquito to me and that's good enough to go with personally.
Your take may differ of course.

As to what I got in mind for this?
Well to my mind there's only one environment where the Mossie looks her best.
In the air, so that is how this lady will be.
Electric motors for the props on their way so as sorted as it gets in the start of the extra needed gear dept.
Worry not about the parts I won't be using.
They will have a purpose believe me.

And that's all for now, construction hoo-ha at a later time.
Untill then, go easy all!

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