3D WIP: De Havilland Mosquito FB Mk VI

[Skyraider3D]

Here's my current WIP project, the famous "wooden wonder": the De Havilland Mosquito.



This is actually my first British WW2 project since I started doing 3D some fifteen years ago! About time too, as I lived in the UK for the better part of a decade!

I've started with the most common version, the FB Mk VI. The Mosquito served in no less than two dozen countries and about 60(!) pilots made ace on the Mosquito, so it's a nice and versatile subject!

Day...


...and night.


Tail feathers:


Four .303 machine guns, four 20 mm cannon and a bomb bay:


Pitot tube in the tail fin:


Port aileron trim tab linkage:


Still some modelling left to do, but it's starting to look like a Mosquito! As per usual there were no "perfect" drawings available again, so it's a combination of known dimensional data, scale plans, engineering drawings, manual drawings, DH fuselage lofting data generously supplied by Mark Gauntlett (many thanks Mark!), AAEE reports, NACA reports and hundreds of photographs. I.e. plenty of research! Mark's drawings are the most accurate around, by the way, and form the basis of this model, though especially on the tail, wing and engine nacelles I've deviated from them were necessary. My goal is to make this an absolutely accurate 3D Mosquito.

The Mosquito will go well with the Junkers Ju 88 I made last year. These two aircraft are perfect adversaries and during the course of WW2 they fought each other around the clock, over sea and over land, in all bomber, fighter and recce roles. Interestingly the battle between the Ju 88 and the Mosquito started even before the prototype was finished! On 3 October 1940 a well-aimed attack by a single Ju 88 flying at just 60 ft destroyed most of the jigs and killed 21 De Havilland staff, while injuring another 70. The prototype escaped major harm luckily, and as a sign of things to come, the Ju 88 was shot down by small arms fire...

I should be rounding this up this month, so stay tuned!

[GiantFlyingRobots]

Saw this on fb and MM today it looks fantastic, look forward to seeing it progress.

On a side note, I'm currently working on a commission for exactly the same model Mossie, I just hope my client doesn't come across any of the aforementioned threads.

[Maciej N]

Amazing!

[Supah]

Nice work so far Ronnie It must be quite taxing on your PC once it nears completion?

[Skyraider3D]

Thanks GFR! Better hurry then, I'm on a tight schedule and will be shopping around with this "investment"

Thanks Maciek!

Lieuwe, it was hell on my old PC (2005-vintage!), but I upgraded last summer and it's no problem at all now.

[Mangas]

Perfect work! I wonder how much polygons is there?
And what sim is it for?

[helischmidt]

a great 3-D animation

[wildr]

Looks to be excellent, like all the other work you’ve done.

[gamary]

Looks like a very good start. Can't wait to see it finished.

[Skyraider3D]

Thanks a lot guys!

Mangas, the number of polygons depends on how many subdivisions I do
Nowadays, at render time I'm somewhere around 1 million I think, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Mosquito is going to exceed that as I'm not saving on detail! For example today I modelled the screws, hexnuts and retainer clips inside the wing tip lights...