Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Mosquito: cockpit complete

I've been away from this kit for some time, because it is at a friend's house and progress means finding time to work on it while visiting. A push got the cockpit complete and installed in the right side (starboard?) fuselage half.



The pilot is jammed in pretty tight, and the navigator/gunner/bomber sits in slightly behind him because the cockpit is too narrow to sit two side by side.



It all looks pretty good, even the wiring harness that broke when I cut it off the sprue.



This shot shows the forward bulkhead in place ahead of the instrument panel. Arguably much of this will be obscured once it is all complete, much like the wiring on a 917 motor ...



The instructions have step 5, joining all the cockpit floor sections together at 90 degree angles, followed by a long series of steps to put in seats and controls.



Step 38 then consists of inserting the completed cockpit into the fuselage half as a unit. I figured this was a recipe for disaster, given the poor fitting of the various floor pieces (no way to mechanically lock in the 90 degree angles), and the resulting high probability of misalignment arising at some point in the process, so I completed all the intermediate assembly steps (6 through 37) on the individual cockpit flooring pieces, then inserted them one at a time into the fuselage. This requires test-fitting everything, then working quickly once the glue is on the first piece, but it all seems to be positive at this point.



This last shot shows the second fuselage half test-fitted to the first. This is pinned at several locations and it all looks good, but I think a large assortment of rubber bands will be needed to get it all to hold together once the glue is on it. Not unlike the original Mosquito assembly procedure -- glue the two halves together in a jig. So I'll need to drop by an office supply store to get rubber bands, and paint one or two more small bits to go inside the fuselage, then it all gets glued up and I can move on to the next major subassembly, namely the wing. Progress is being made!

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