Mosquito Mayhem

[Leigh]

Lovely Mossie Nev
There were alot of complicated fixes to your spray boo boo, I had the same canopy mishap with the Pink Mig I did before Christmas, just took a Q-Tip moisten with mineral spirits gave it a quick wipe, most of it came straight off. The stubborn spots came off with a Q-Tip moistened with alcohol, cos it took the future off too. Quick brush of new future and all was perfect.

[NARSES2]

She sure looks good Nev - Somehow the RAAF roundels look better on the Silver Dope finish than RAF

Chris

[nev]

Always interesting to see how other people solve similar problems such as your painted over canopy.  You sure pulled off a significant fix there, Nev!

Now, conversely, Mr. Dumb-Dumb over here would have instead:

1. drilled 5000-plus pin-holes along the outlines of the two glazing panes using 27 number 90 drill bits (as they kept breaking);

2. carefully scribed along the dotted outline;

3. removed the painted "panes" of clear glazing;

4. used digital photos to ascertain the exact size and shape of the required replacement panes (forgetting all the while that the outlines from the aftermarket mask set would have worked perfectly well for this);

5. cut out the requisite pair of panes from .010" clear styrene;

6. glued these carefully cut bits of clear plastic into place, forgetting to first Future-coat them----resulting in crazed plastic and those sexy glue smears;

7. re-done steps 5 and 6 above;

8. finally (but not unexpectedly) break the fragile canopy frame;

9. gone to hobby shop and bought another Mossie kit; repeat ALL steps above.

ROFL!!!    


In the words of Homer J Simpson, "its funny cos its true!"    

[Jeffry Fontaine]

My own twisted view on this thread would be to create a what if Mosquito that would be manufactured under license in America as a heavy fighter and light bomber with mission profiles along the same lines as the B-26, A-26, & A-20.  If the design were modified to be manufactured from metal, the end result would be a very wicked looking aircraft without the worries of glue laminations failing in the tropics or other "wet" climates.  

Power plants would be the license built RR/Packard Merlins with three blade, four blade, or five blade propellers.  I personally like the idea of five blade Rotols myself.  A post-war modification would be to upgrade the aircraft with turbines in place of the RR Merlins and use the existing five blade propellers or a newer six blade design.  Maybe use the T53 or T56 to keep it standardized with the then current fleet of other turbine powered aircraft.  

My design would incorporate a battery of six or eight nose mounted .50 caliber machine guns instead of the four cannon/four .303 Vickers arrangement of the British version.  Reason for the .50 Brownings is that the ballistics would be the same and they are well known for their destructive power on maritime targets.  

Weapons would be stored in the internal bomb bay and under wing stations.  Bomb bay would be capable of holding either four 1000 pound bombs, two MkXIII torpedoes, or two to four aircraft delivered anti-shipping mines.  The wing mounted stores would be mounted on three to four wing pylons under each wing and would include but not limited to 4.5 inch FFAR, 5.0 inch HVARs, drop tanks, or bombs up to 500 pounds.  The wing spar would be strengthened to withstand the increased weight and stress.  

[NARSES2]

Thanks Jeff, second idea you've given me this morning

Chris