Duxford Mossie – The New Colours

I think it’s wonderbar!!!!!!!!!!!

Love the mossie scheme. It also shows that aviation heritage exists after the second world war, contrary to some peoples beliefs. As was mentioned earlier, the Mosquito served a very valuable role into the sixties and this is recognised.

I think it looks great. It’s a vast improvement on what it used to look like.

One question though and this is something I noticed with the Spitfire 24 that was recently completed. There are no stencils anywhere on the aircraft. Are these going to be added to make the paint schemes complete?

it seems to me that putting aircraft into peace time livery is all part of “don’t mention the war” mentality.

They’ll have a fit then when they remember what the museum is called! 🙂

Seriously Neilly, don’t you think its important to show how crew trained for war as well as how they actually went to war. The truth about joe public really is that they they will either go and remember a few highlights (concorde, spitfire etc or maybe even the mossie now that its so unmissable!) and then probably not visit again or it may a spark a genuine interest or even just a little interest which will lead them to know a little more about what the mossie did.

I think it looks great. Fantastic work.

best regards, steve

I’m pleased to see someone’s finally put a Mossie in a TT scheme. Considering that a large proportion of surviving Mossies are only here because of that service, it is worth having one in the appropriate scheme.

Hi All,

I’m not in favour of the target tug colour scheme one little bit. Whilst I see the point made by several people about this particular Mosquitoes history & it’s non-wartime record, it seems to me that putting aircraft (particularly an aeroplane such as the Mosquito, which did so much for the war effort) into peace time livery is all part of “don’t mention the war” mentality.

In the future, Joe Public, will think this is all the Mosquito did – tow targets! Recently at work, we were discussing hobbies/ interests etc. & I said I was a Mosquito Anorak, thinking the other guys would think de Havilland Mosquito aeroplane & not Mosquito – nasty little gnat. Guess what, none of them even knew of an aeroplane called a Mosquito, thinking interested in nasty little gnats (??)! Even when I said Wooden Wonder, I got blank looks from 5 of them & the 6th descibed an aircraft that could’ve come out of a Jules Verne book & definitely not a Mossie (Neilly went away shaking head Doh!) .

I would also point out that TA 719 left the factory as a B 35 & was converted the a target tug, so I would guess it left Hatfield with a wartime camo paint job, not the pewky paint job it’s got now! (I wasn’t impressed with the Tempests colour scheme, either & said so at the time!).

TTFN,
Neilly

“Don’t mention the war, I just did, but I think I got away with it!”

Far too many I imagine 🙁 – not forgetting the risks involved in operating what was fairly basic winch equipment, such incidents obviously having the potential for, well severe unpleasantness…

That Mosquito looks superb, well done the IWM team. A very, very nice paint job.

It is an interesting scheme and is certainly different from any other Mossie preserved around the world.

Congrats for also remembering the target tug pilots. My great-uncle was shot down by an American Corsair while towing a target in a Harvard in WWII. He survived but I wonder how many target tug pilots have lost their lives.

Albert

Apologies. I too think that when the time comes a Reds Hawk should be preserved in a museum. It was my response to Greyfly’s post regarding bright schemes.

Maybe the clue to the poster’s colour preferences is in the poster’s name?

What on earth possessed the management at DX to use this scheme …is beyond me. Fair enough the aircraft may have ended its flying life in these colours, but why not show her in her prime, in wartime colours as a mark of respect, to her crews and the contribution she made to history and our freedom.

The fact that this is the correct and authentic scheme for this aircraft during the time it flew in RAF service is what possesed them. WWII colours would not have been correct as the aircraft was not constructed until after VE Day.

Re ..The Mosquito

Looks like I’m about the only one, but I think the paint job is awful….it looks more like a pretty toy in its bold colours, than a historic Warbird.

What on earth possessed the management at DX to use this scheme …is beyond me. Fair enough the aircraft may have ended its flying life in these colours, but why not show her in her prime, in wartime colours as a mark of respect, to her crews and the contribution she made to history and our freedom.

This Toy town fancy paint job shows lack of forsight and respect by the mangement and does nothing but insult the intelligence of the public (who paid for it via our taxes)
with its “Ooooh! look at me!” colours.

Bottom line….It looks C***P!

This is a very narrow view of aviation history, from one of those that seems to think aviation history IS World War Two. If you want to see a camouflaged Mossie, go to the RAF Museum at Hendon or Cosford. Those that flew target-tug aircraft are over-shadowed by the glamour of WW2 operations and are rightly now being recognised by the RAF Museum and the IWM. After all, they got shot at as well!!! 😉 It certainly does NOT insult the intelligence of the public, but ADDs to it, as many may know nothing about what happened to the Mosquitos after the war.I think the Mossie looks superb and a refreshing change from camouflage. I wonder if they will add dayglo orange panels as well? Well done Duxford!

I hope we don’t end up with any RED ARROWS Hawks on display in any museums. That bright garish paintwork is clearly not representative of a service aircraft. :dev2:

Now THAT remark has hit a raw nerve! I DO hope we get a Red Arrows Hawk preserved, because this is the most famous Hawk scheme in RAF service.
Aerobatic Teams are a very important part of RAF History and if they all got scrapped, you would then complain that one wasn’t preserved. The last “Black Arrows” Hunter is now in South Africa, so the RAF Museum doesn’t have one and we very nearly didn’t have a genuine Red Arrows Gnat preserved, when the original surviving machines in the ‘XR99*’ series were all sold to the States! It was only through some fast action that we got one from the last Gnat team at Cosford. Just because some of us take the Red Arrows for granted today doesn’t mean that future generations don’t want to see one in a museum in the future!

617sqn Camo TSR2- funnily enough an idea I had had for a R/C model.

Damien.. was it you that had built the little 1/144th scale TSR2 in that ‘hypothetical’ scheme, or am I thinking of someone else?

Nice photos by the way, it has been an interesting and busy few days in this particular corner of the interweb 😀

You’re probably thinking about this lot at Scalemodelworld, Telford last November 😮

Hi Guys
Can anybody please tell me if Duxford is having a photo shoot for theTSR2
on roll out or will it go streight in the hanger, it would be nice to shoot it
outside before it go’s in the museum. 😀
Phil.

Re ..The Mosquito

Looks like I’m about the only one, but I think the paint job is awful….it looks more like a pretty toy in its bold colours, than a historic Warbird.

What on earth possessed the management at DX to use this scheme …is beyond me. Fair enough the aircraft may have ended its flying life in these colours, but why not show her in her prime, in wartime colours as a mark of respect, to her crews and the contribution she made to history and our freedom.

This Toy town fancy paint job shows lack of forsight and respect by the mangement and does nothing but insult the intelligence of the public (who paid for it via our taxes)
with its “Ooooh! look at me!” colours.

Bottom line….It looks C***P!

GREYFLY, I personally like its “Ooooh! look at me scheme!” but I can see your point. If I was choosing a scheme for TA719, I would have had her repainted as a 633 Squadron aircraft. It would have hopefully pleased both camps: Wartime camouflage with markings original to the airframe.

You are of course entitled to your opinion but was your statement “It looks c***p!” really necessary. The IWM conservation team have spent hundreds of hours refinishing TA719 to a standard considerably better than before, and all they get is brickbats. Its a wonder why they bother!

JDK, Don’t forget the RAFM Tempest.

Septic.

I hope we don’t end up with any RED ARROWS Hawks on display in any museums. That bright garish paintwork is clearly not representative of a service aircraft. :dev2:

MMMM,OK, throwing the cat back amongst the pigeons…

Anybody doubting the relevance of target tug liveries/restorations ought to seek out a copy of ‘The Long Drag’-sorry, forgot the author, book not with me at the moment- the pilots and winch operators were true unsung heroes in terms of the preparation for war, it was a taxing and suprisingly dangerous job. OK, by no means as taxing as flying into the heart of enemy territory etc.., but interesting and worthy of representation at Duxford.

careful, so what if it looks like Noodys person Bomber, it makes a nice change to camo

Re ..The Mosquito

Looks like I’m about the only one, but I think the paint job is awful….it looks more like a pretty toy in its bold colours, than a historic Warbird.

What on earth possessed the management at DX to use this scheme …is beyond me. Fair enough the aircraft may have ended its flying life in these colours, but why not show her in her prime, in wartime colours as a mark of respect, to her crews and the contribution she made to history and our freedom.

This Toy town fancy paint job shows lack of forsight and respect by the mangement and does nothing but insult the intelligence of the public (who paid for it via our taxes)
with its “Ooooh! look at me!” colours.

Bottom line….It looks C***P!

I believe the Bolly for the IWM may well appear in stripy-colour too.

With the (nearing-airworthy) restoration in Canada of the CWH Lysander, in TT colours, looks like yellow ‘n black is ‘in’! 😀