"Highball" Sea Mossie

[Captain Canada]

Nice.....

[sequoiaranger]

>This has got my attention Craig <
>Oh I am getting far too excited about this!   Calm down take deep breaths!<
>Nice...<

Kitnut,Hman,CC--thanks. I'm hoping this "Mosquito" will be "one for the books" when I'm done.

I made an "executive decision" yesterday and just made the nacelles "short" (somewhat like the prototype Mosquito)--the "extension" needed to fill the gap between the Twin Mustang nose and Lanc tail of the nacelle was just too complicated. They fitted together nearly perfectly as they were, so...I may work a "fairing" or "wing fence" or something to extend the nacelle airflow back to the trailing edge of the wing. I had thought of using a Vee-Tail, too, but I had already done that for a Pe-2 whiffed carrier torpedo-bomber, and the tail might end up the only "recognizeable" Mosquito part by the time I'm done! Still a conceptual WIP.

I am awaiting some components from "Wooksta" which will enhance my whiff fuselage, and am consulting various Mossie reference books for details. BTW, the Airfix (most recent iteration) Mossie kit is FAR better than the Matchbox kit I have, though I may well use the M-box kit for extra pieces and filler.

[Pablo1965]

I follow closely this thread, and the way you follow is similar to my way to work. How usually I wait the next thread desperately.
Ah! It´s truth, the airfix is a better kit, but the kit you have belong to a superior level, I have the 03019 and is a very old kit.

[sequoiaranger]

I just received a TREASURE TROVE of goodies from "Wooksta" that I plan to incorporate into my "Flounder". Since I got an extra set of Highball rotating bombs, I may make a "tray" of three in the bombay instead of the "standard" two. I plan to lengthen the nose a bit anyway, and move the tailplanes (now formed into a "T-V" tail) farther to the rear to balance the look (luckily the Mossie had a long tailpiece there). The bug-eyed "Flounder" will look somewhat like my crude hand sketch below.



OK, you can wipe that silly, disbelieving grin off your face, now!  

[sequoiaranger]

For my "Flounder" I wanted the "muscular" Griffon engine-cowl look with the bulged rocker-arm covers. I acquired some nacelle "tops" with the requisite bulge, and hoped to adapt them to my Flounder's "Mustang" cowls. Here is the yet-untreated cowl:


I got a test-piece from another 'Stang, and CAREFULLY cut out the nacelle top over the exhausts....:


...and fitted the new "Griffon" tops over that---I like it!


Now that I know it can be done, I will do it on the model itself!

[The Wooksta!]

Did you try the Pegasus MB5 cowlings?

[sequoiaranger]

>Did you try the Pegasus MB5 cowlings?<

I did test-fit them, but I like the "American" look of the Twin Mustang cowls better. I have some filling-in-of-gaps to do, and a little (NEVER really only a little, is it?) PSR, but the "Griffon" tops you gave me fill the bill for the "muscular" cowling look I sought.

The Tamiya Mossie you gave me has the best "nose", so I will use that to graft onto an artificially-lengthened Airfix Mossie fuselage that can take a bay of THREE "Highballs" (the third Highball will be "forward" of the normal load, in the longer nose). I'll be assembling the cockpit soon, to test where the individual bubble canopies will go so I can shape/replace the former large canopy opening with "fusealge". I *MIGHT* be able to get away with using the bomb-bay area (that I will need to cut out to fit the Highballs) for that. We'll see.

Landing gear in the nacelle will probably be single-oleo, single door, with those curvy-triangle door openers.

Lotsa work to do, but some of the concept is coming to fruition.

[Pablo1965]

a very complicated, and many hours work. I like 

[kitnut617]

Landing gear in the nacelle will probably be single-oleo, single door, with those curvy-triangle door openers.

The drawing of the DH.101 Tony Buttler sent me, shows it to have single leg u/c (similar to the DH.103 Hornet but bigger).  I asked if the DH.102 would have them too and Tony said yes, the drawing he has of that shows single leg u/c, so your plan is in keeping with what could have been.

Interesting thing I noticed on the DH.101 drawing is that the hinge point of the legs is just in front of the front wing spar but low down, almost at the bottom of the nacelle.  I think this was done so the u/c leg was kept as short as possible so when retracted, the wheel slipped in between the front and rear spars.

[sequoiaranger]

>The drawing of the DH.101 Tony Buttler sent me, shows it to have single leg u/c <

Good research, kitnut! I am relieved that my single-oleo "Mosquito" is not so "radical" after all!

>the hinge point of the legs is just in front of the front wing spar but low down, almost at the bottom of the nacelle.  I think this was done so the u/c leg was kept as short as possible<

I will have something similar, kinda by accident. The way my complicated, six-piece nacelle is done, I don't have a wheel well (nor want one, really), so will "fake" one with decal (as I have been known to do), and have a short, single oleo jutting out from the bottom of the nacelle! I have some nice spoked-and-treaded wheels to choose from, too, courtesy of Wooksta.

BTW, I bought and watched "633 Squadron" for "inspiration", and chuckled at the cheezy special effects, but it was more than fabulous to see REAL Mossies flying around the Scotish countryside!!

[sequoiaranger]

I remember the old joke: "This giraffe goes into the bar and announces, "The highballs are on me!"

So.....MAYBE I will have the "Squadron Emblem" for the Highball-equipped Flounders be a cartoon giraffe, with the above inscription!



And MAYBE...draw in three pieces of said ordnance in the appropriate anatomical location!

[sequoiaranger]

Here is the delicately-cut top fuselage piece (from the bottom of a Matchbox Mossie) that will go over the cockpit. I used the excellent Tamiya cockpit and forward fuselage, doctored a bit to fit the "burly" pilots that will be squeezed in later. Unfortunately, the bubbles will obscure most of the interior from view.  



Then, here is the "cover" in place, with the 1/144 Catalina (salvaged from another's throw-away pile) side bubbles as individual canopies (TIGHT squeeze). They are too bunged-up to use, and a Vac-U-Formed pair will be too much wider, so I will acquire a fresh Cat to borrow from. You can just barely make out the pilot's heads. In this view you can see the "lengthening" of the Mossie forward nose. That little raised triangle (trapezoid?) in the middle of the side is part of the wing-root radiator in both Mossies, so that measures the actual lengthening (good for an additional Highball underneath, too!). The Twin Mustang cowls will jut forward more than the old Mossie ones, so the nose "protrusion" will not be so pronounced when I'm done as one might think. Really, it will look like a Mossie when I'm done!



PSR-ing this will be a nightmare, as I need the cover piece to blend in with the lower fuselage and nose, but need the cockpit painted and pilots in place before that. I'll improvise.

[tc2324]

Liking this alot.     Great work so far sequoiaranger.

[The Wooksta!]

A pair of Aeroclub Supermarine Attacker canopies may be a better bet for those blisters - they certainly don't fit the Frog Attacker they're intended for!

[sequoiaranger]

Aha! Fairchild's US Navy manufacturer's designation for Fairchild Aircraft Corporation was "Q", so my Flounder designation is quite appropriate (my "Douglas Decimator" being the TB3D)! So "4Q", enemy ship--The Flounder is "comin' to git cha"*!!

Below is a mock-up of the main Flounder parts minus the Highball apparati below. The "post" in the tail is merely a guidepost for proper final fixing of the Vee-tail's angles (they are a little askew in these photos). I made a slotted paper template for the tail looking like a chicken-foot that will use the post as "vertical" and has cutouts at 45 degrees left and right for aligning the tailplanes (aftermarket resin ones from Wooksta with enlarged mass-balances). Eliminating the "forward" vertical tailplane (dark stretched oval) and moving the horizontal tailplanes out to the ends of the tail visually "elongates" the look of the rear fuselage to "balance" the lengthened nose.



In the view below you can see the bulged "Griffon" engine cowlings (note "handed" 5-bladed props!) and the crew blisters better.

>A pair of Aeroclub Supermarine Attacker canopies may be a better bet for those blisters<

I think you are on to something--though I like the look of the blisters, I think a flat faceplate for the pilot would be more "real". I think I will forsake the 1/144 Catalina blisters for one "Ohka" (small conventional canopy with a flat faceplate) and a "DH Hornet" aftermarket radar operator's dome (barely more than room for a head) for an asymmetric look (might as well go all-out weird!).



*From Jimi Hendrix's "Foxy Lady"