Tony's Airfix Tsetse 1/72

[papa 695]

Outstanding work on the cockpit Tony, coming along a treat.

[Geoffers]

Cracking job so far Tony, cockpit is unrecognisable from where you started :thumb2:

Really like the seatbelt technique too, I’m going shopping later to find some wine with a gold foil top :smiling3:

Geoff.

[yak face]

Fuselage now closed up and despite the heavily framed canopy quite a bit is visible. The kit would have you fit the machine guns through the back of the nose before fitting it but this would inevitably lead to them bring broken off during building and paint. I glued a piece of plastic card at the back of the holes and will fit the guns individually after painting.
Another area ive been looking at is the nav lights on the wingtips. The kit has them moulded solid - not so much a problem if they were colored green and red light covers but they arent. The ones on the FB XVIII are clear with a red/ green bulb at the front and a clear bulb at the rear. A piece of clear sprue was sanded flat on one edge and holes drilled to simulate the bulbs . Red , green and silver was put into the holes and the clear sprue pieces superglued to the wings after i had razor sawed the solid lights out. Once set the clear sprue pieces were sanded to shape and then it was out with the nail buffers to polish it up to clarity again .

[Jim R]

Those seatbelts are great Tony - and cheap

[JR]

Heavens above I hope you don't expect a mere motel like me to produce something as good as this ! Having seen what scale it is mine has none of the kit detail that you have, yet alone the additions.Tony.
Great work .

[Tim Marlow]

Nice work. The wingtip bulb detail always lifts a build :thumb2:

[adt70hk]

Tony,. Those lights are brilliant. Very well done indeed.

ATB

Andrew

[scottie3158]

Some very nice additions, they are what make an ordinary build something special.

[Fernando N]

Neat work Tony, turing a gem out of an oldie

[yak face]

Got the nose fitted and blended in ( carefully so as not to lose the raised detail ) . The engine nacelles have been fitted too , a fair bit of dry fitting and fettling was done to ensure as good a fit as possible ,again so the raised detail wasnt lost if they needed sanding.
Ive been looking at the canopy too, its not quite correct . The mosquito had an internal framework that sits inside the canopy , Airfix have tooled this as raised frames on the outside , plus there are three external frame members that should be there that arent . So out with the scalpel and scrape off the incorrect frames then polish up back to clarity with the trusty nail buffer. . I used adhesive aluminium tape for the missing frames and dipped the canopy in Klear , its now curing in a sealed container to stop any dust falling on it. The inside frame work will be added ( not sure how yet ) before its attached .

[Allen Dewire]

Sorry Tony, but you are loonier than Richard, with his 10X smaller stuff!!! How you guys do it is just amazing to this old git....Respect and your Mossie is looking good too, even without the canopy work..........

Prost
Allen

[Mickc1440]

Wow Tony some brilliant work to get this one how you want it, especially those wing lights. The one I built came with two separate wing tip options and associated clear parts fortunately. Keep up the great work

[Tim Marlow]

Looking very fine mate.

[Mark1]

Nice, I can't even get a good fitting canopy to fit good lol.

[tr1ckey66]

Love your work Tony! The details added to the interior are really something. Great scratch building skills.
Looking forward to seeing the paint scheme go on.
Cheers, P