Mosquito: Rescue from the Shelf of Doom

Well, I knew life was short, but I guess we forget... Raimo Leino, the admin of one of the more interesting scale modeling Facebook groups, died suddenly a week ago of a heart attack. He was retired from the Finnish air force, but he certainly wasn't "old"... As the group he founded (Oldies and Goldies Scale Models) featured mainly aircraft builders, I guess my memorial will be to get back to the 1/24 scale de Havilland Mosquito I started about 3 years ago. (My last post on this was December 2019). 

After the war, the Canadian aerial survey company Spartan Air Services bought several Mossies and flew them all around the world. (Although they sadly no longer fly Mossies, the company still exists under the name Sanders Geophysics, located at the international airport in Ottawa). The plan is to reproduce this civilian application. 

The first challenge will be the decals for CF-HMS, which are no longer available from canmilair.com. Most of the text and straight lines can be reproduced; and I have uncovered the Calgary Mosquito Society which is rebuilding CF-HMS to see if they have some additional image files, such as the Spartan Air Services logo (yellow triangle with a blue wing) in higher resolution that I might be able to print. 

 

 

The second challenge will be casting a clear nose cone... this will be an opportunity to get off my duff and work on the necessary techniques. Apart from that I need to complete the second of two engine and landing gear nacelles, and scan through the instruction book for remaining work needed.

Stay tuned!