EXCLUSIVE BUILD
David Holmes builds Airfix’s newly tooled 1/72 Mosquito B.XVI out of the box to represent an aircraft from RAF Bomber Command’s Light Night Strike Force.
De Havilland’s Mosquito may have been nicknamed the ‘wooden wonder’ due to its laminated birch/balsa plywood construction, but to its crews it was just the ‘Mossie’. From mid-1942 to 1943, Mosquito bombers flew high-speed low and high-altitude missions against factories, railways and other strategic targets in Germany and occupied Europe. From late 1943, squadrons were formed into the Light Night Strike Force and used as pathfinders for Bomber Command. By 1944, frontline units began taking delivery of the final major bomber variant, the B.XVI. It was developed from the B.IX and incorporated a new pressurised cabin to allow high-altitude operation, plus a modified bomb bay and bulged doors. While the initial 12 airframes were limited to a 3,000lb bomb load, all the subsequent 390 machines were modified to carry a 4,000lb ‘Cookie’ blockbuster bomb –a munition previously used by just the RAF’s heavy bombers.
MODEL SPEC
KIT SCHEMES
Airfix’s newly tooled Mosquito B.XVI will feature two schemes:
• ML963/8K-K, 571 Squadron, 8 (Pathfinder) Group, RAF Oakington, England, 1944
• ML957/HS-D, 109 Squadron, England, RAF Little Staughton, 1944
