"Highball" Sea Mossie

[PR19_Kit]

Something I've been trying to figure out about that arrangement.  Did he have an ejector seat and did it have a blow-out panel, immediately in front of the windscreen?  The Airfix kit, which formed the basis for my long-wing prototype PR9 has a stencil indicating that, which would make his seat inline with the pilot's.  Yet the kit has it in the same position as the B(I).8's, beside the pilot.

Yes, the Nav's seat in a PR9 banged out through that panel. The kit could have been a B(I)8 and that DID have the Nav's seat behind, below and slightly to one side of the pilot's.

[sequoiaranger]

Not having left alone the tail, nose, top fuselage, bottom fuselage, engine, nacelle, landing gear or armament, why not try something different in the camo?

I have two shades of some (acrylic?) "Glimmer Mist" spray-on "shimmer" that might make the topside look like abalone shell, a not-unpleasant effect if it turns out "as advertized". I have an old painting-dummy Mossie, Airfix (1962 vintage, from a three-shilling BAG), upon which I had crudely put a cut-down B-17 glass nose for a "bomber" version (Airfix only made the fighter version back then). I'll use that for trials. I have a darkish blue for the top, and a medium blue for the sides (American 3-tone naval camo of 1943). That is a long way off, but I like thinking about it.

Not worthy of a picture, but I have the engine nacelles all PSR'd, as well as the main body of the fuselage. Now I have to paint the pilots, insert them in the cockpit, slap on the top fuselage cover with their heads sticking out the holes, mask them off and PSR all the edges of the cover.

I may have to take some time off from modeling the Flounder for some medical procedures/recovery I had not counted on. 'Twas a bad weekend.

[Hman]

Where did you get the Highballs from, who makes them?

[sequoiaranger]

I got an aftermarket set of two Highballs and the bomb-bay bulges, in the 1980's, from "Paragon". My current project was supplemented by "Wooksta" with two more, of a slightly lighter and softer (better) material.

Googling, I came up with this:

http://www.nahobbiesestore.com/servlet/Detail?no=1150

This set has more "goodies" than my old set, but looks to fill the bill. I think they make them in 1/48 as well as 1/72. The set shown is for the Tamiya kit, which needs additional goodies to make a "Highball" version of the Mossie (that the Airfix Mossie kit already comes with). I'm a little surprised that the set includes the two-stage supercharger inlet, as the low-level Mossies did without them.

I think I will make my Flounder with a spring-loaded tilt-up (back) canopy (only the section where the two bubbles are). The under-fuselage hatchway (or even the side hatch on some Mossies) would be problematic with the likelihood of a water landing. Can't show a pic of it yet. This new scheme will also alleviate a PSR problem and "afford" more colorful markings as I will "outline" this panel and perhaps put "rescue" arrows there as well.

[The Wooksta!]

That's the revised version Paragon released about four years ago to go with the Tamiya Mosquito. They're not two stage intakes but tropical filters - and they're wrong: too flat,too boxy and they don't follow the curve of the nacelle.The Vokes filter in the Hobbyboss Hurricanes are nearer the mark.

The normal Mosquito canopy has an escape hatch in thetop.

[TallEng]

I have two shades of some (acrylic?) "Glimmer Mist" spray-on "shimmer" that might make the topside look like abalone shell, a not-unpleasant effect if it turns out "as advertized".

you mean like the "Haze Blue" colour scheme used on some American PR A/C.? (Lockheed Lightning) springs to mind

[sequoiaranger]

>They're not two stage intakes but tropical filters - and they're wrong: too flat,too boxy and they don't follow the curve of the nacelle.The Vokes filter in the Hobbyboss Hurricanes are nearer the mark.<

I kinda don't get the "tropical filter" idea. Seems strictly a British thing. I don't recall "tropical filters" on *ANY* Japanese or American aircraft operating in the tropics. I can see a "particle filter" for desert sand or even crushed-coral airstrips, but still, American and Japanese seemed to do fine without them.

What do "tropical filters" do for British engines that seem so mandatory?

[PR19_Kit]

What do "tropical filters" do for British engines that seem so mandatory?

Keep the sand out of the engine.

We Brits spent many years flying over 'sandy places' in the 30s and found the value of using such filters. I'd venture that the Japanese didn't spend so much time flying off of sandy fields, and never found the need for such filters.

[sequoiaranger]

>Keep the sand out of the engine. We Brits spent many years flying over 'sandy places' in the 30s and found the value of using such filters. I'd venture that the Japanese didn't spend so much time flying off of sandy fields, and never found the need for such filters.<

Sure, I can see a practical use for "sand filters", but again, American aircraft were used in the Tunisian/Italian campaigns, etc., and I don't recall see them using enlarged air intakes in the same manner of British aircraft, nor American "complaints" about excessive sand/wear on the engines. So is the British penchant for tropical filters "much ado about nothing"?

[Martin H]

Sure, I can see a practical use for "sand filters", but again, American aircraft were used in the Tunisian/Italian campaigns, etc., and I don't recall see them using enlarged air intakes in the same manner of British aircraft, nor American "complaints" about excessive sand/wear on the engines. So is the British penchant for tropical filters "much ado about nothing"?

More a case of a restricted supply chain so we would go overboard on looking after our engines. Not so much a problem for the US forces with what appeared to most Brits as unlimited supplies of just about everything.

[PR19_Kit]

So is the British penchant for tropical filters "much ado about nothing"?

No, the Luftwaffe used tropical filters on their North African based aircraft too.

I suspect that, as Martin said, the USAAC just replaced the whole engine or aircraft if it went U/S.

[NARSES2]

So is the British penchant for tropical filters "much ado about nothing"?

No, the Luftwaffe used tropical filters on their North African based aircraft too.

I suspect that, as Martin said, the USAAC just replaced the whole engine or aircraft if it went U/S.

Think Martin has hit the nail on the head. In the early days of the desert campaigns aircraft had to be staged through West Africa to Egypt. Anything coming through the Med was liable to go swimming  So "we" worked on the principle that replacement aircraft/engines might not be there

[Weaver]

Did you get tropical filters on British radial engines? I'm just thinking that clearances are bit looser in an air-cooled engine, which has the bonus of making them more dirt-tolerant, so another factor might be the relatively greater emphasis on radial in the US and particularly Japanese forces. And, yes, I have remembered the P-38, P-39, P-40 and P-51: "relatively".....

[The Wooksta!]

Blenheims certainly had them in the Med/far East and the Beaufighters seem to have had them too.

Most post war Mosquito T birds seem to have been fitted with tropical filters as standard, judging by the photos.  RR299 certainly did.

[sequoiaranger]

I have "finalized" my "Flounder" individual airplane nose art (actually, it might go in the tail instead) of the giraffe motif with the inscription, "The Highballs are on Me", and made it into a decal. It has a cartoon giraffe spread-legged, with three "testicles" in the shape of the Highball weapons. Truly, if the image is deemed objectionable (anatomical as it is), I will remove it and leave it merely described (on the model itself it will be too small to notice any detail):



I tried out the "Glimmer Mist" on a painting dummy Mosquito, and...it seemed inappropriate. When I do my "Fairey Marlin" whif with a marlin-painted fuselage, I think this Glimmer Mist will come in handy. I think my Flounder will have a British-style wavy camo on top with two American naval colors to "conform" to the British style while the carrier USS Lafayette operates with them in the Med.

I have attached the wing, fuselage, and tail assemblies together and primed them. Need to do a little PSR in the tail, then begin the camo!!! It's been a lot of hard, exacting work, and repetitive PSR, but I think it is paying off with an unusual (dare I say UNIQUE) "Mossie" look.