Well here I am again with more news and info about my build. While the dry fit of the wings was good on the upper surfaces the lower surfaces had a prominent gap but this was easily taken care of with a little plasticard strip.

With the fuselage zipped up and the cockpit in place the need for a two piece tab on the wings became obvious. As the cockpit insert bisects the tab mounting point on the fuselage. This also ensures the wing sits in the right place against the fuselage as well.

The side windows on the SM.81 in this kit are punched acetate and fit snugly in the recesses provided. I glued them in place with Humbrols Clearfix, I'm hoping this will be rigid enough to keep them in place as I figure out just how to mask them without knocking them out. I think I have a hole punch that is the correct size to punch out some masks in low tack masking tape, only time will tell.

The radio decals look great and the wash provides some nice shadows in the fuselage. Just got a little seam work to do and some supports to go on. Then it's time to concentrate on the landing gear and painting!

Hi Chris,
Looking good! Those turrets make it look tougher than the Sparviero which had flexible mounts. Are those guns .30 cal, or Breda 12.7mm?

Gary

Actually they're 7.7mm (.303) License built Vickers, so think rifle caliber. Pretty poor for a bomber really, can't shoot down cannon armed fighters as they can simply stay out of range. The ventral turret is a nightmare the gunner literally stuck his head down into it and moved it under his own steam I believe!

Chris,
Excellent progress. And you're right, those wing roots look darn good.
Joel

Great update!

That top turret looks pretty impressive.

Why did you chose for acetate windows? Was there no plastic provided for the side windows?



Jelger

This is a very interesting model. I will be watching this one.

@Jelger: It's what was provided in the kit by Italeri. From what I've read about the Supermodel kit the clear parts for the fuselage windows were pitiful. So Italeri came up with a solution to get perfectly clear parts. They are also lenses for the landing lights.

@Bill: Welcome aboard Bill great to have you along. I'm guessing by your call sign you're more of an armour fan. Really pleased to have you here and I hope to infect you with my particular breed of model madness.

Good job with this kit so far, Chris ! Guess the real challenge of this build will be the camo scheme.

Hi Bernd my thanks for your kind assessment! You quite correct the camouflage will be an interesting challenge, but if I can get it to work for me it'll look simply stunning.

So things progress a little further, I have the control surfaces attached and the graceful curves look just great! After drying overnight I then built my replacement wheel for the co-pilot and placed both canopies. The underside bombardiers canopy needed a little finesse to get a good fit but I found it very easy to get it to do so. The canopy over the flight deck just needed a couple of licks with the scalpel to remove a little flash and it settles right down into place. I have the bombardiers canopy masked and I just need to do the same to the cockpit canopy. Then it's onto painting the base camouflage before working out just how to proceed with the mottle.

After painting the interior of the spats and the wheels I assembled them as per instructions. The wheels themselves look good with a good level of detail but once ensconced inside the spats little will be seen. I then attached the supports to the spats and carefully followed the instructions but realised as I was putting it together that Italeri had the part numbers reversed and the fairings for the supports that attach to the fuselage sloped the wrong way. I suggest that you look carefully at the parts as you assemble them and be aware of this possibility, as although I felt I was careful I may simply have gotten the parts wrong.

Italeri also provide slight outlines on the wing surface where they think the supports should sit but I found them to be way off. Everything was assembled while still "wet" so there would be some adjustment possible to get the wheels straight and the angle of the spats relative to the wheel flats correct once assembled. Which proved somewhat tricky and I felt I needed another pair of hands whilst putting it together.

While the spat supports had tabs and slots to fit into there was nothing between the spat and the part mounted to the wing. I went about by gluing this butt joint first and then gently adjusting the assembly till the supports contacted the wing and I could flow Tamiya extra thin cement into the slight gap. After both sides were done and were drying I put the plane on it's landing gear to check that the flats on the tyres sat flat on the ground and much to my pleasant surprise they were spot on. see accompanying pics to see for yourself.

I think a more positive attachment between wing mounts and spats would be helpful here. I did toy with the idea of pinning it but put it aside because I felt that a little "play" was essential to get a good fit to the wing for the spat supports. And all in all it worked better than I thought it might.

She certainly looks more and more like a proper aircraft as this build proceeds, but I guess you could say that of just about any kit you build.

Chris,
I'm really impressed at your progress to date. Those supports and flaring for the Spats certainly look like they were a major issue to get right. As you said, the end result is that both the wheels and Spats look straight and square. Nicely done.

Joel

Hi Joel! Thanks for that kind assessment! Yes they didn't exactly fall together and I see why Italeri did it the way they did. However a little more possitivity in the assembly would be helpful. Once the landing gear were rassembled and stuck down to the wing it all lined up pretty much right on the money. I was very careful though to try to ensure that one side mirrored the other and I was rewarded with a resonably square set of gear. But it could just as easily been a disaster

Hey Chris,
Looks great from here...though it does make the plane look quite cumbersome and antiquated.

Best Wishes,

Gary

Chris! OK, the Italian aircraft were seldom top-of-the-line in any aspect but they were always unique, unusual-looking and in some cases even beautiful! Italeri has loads of old Supermodel moulds for those strange aircraft that are seldom seen built. The kits could be better but for the builder with the stamina to tackle them there will eventually be an unusual subject for the display case!

Magnus! Always good to see you wander past one of my builds! I agree when it comes to Italian aircraft these are the only way to go. Typical of our Italian brethren there is some outstanding style attached to these birds. I've not let a kit beat me yet and this one won't be the first to do it. Most of it is together now and I'm 1/3rd of the way through masking the canopy. Pretty soon it'll be paint time!

The more parts are attached the more impressive the build becomes. The weighted wheels definitely adds to size of this aircraft.

I agree that we can't have enough unusual topics, like the Polish aircraft we see being build in the Fixed gear campaign.

Looking forward to see the painting stage.



Jelger

Looking good Chris, impressive work on the undercarriage!

Cheers, D

@Gary: Yes the Pipistrello (Bat) was well obsolete by the time WW2 rolled around. But for its day (first flight 1934) it was cutting edge. It wasn't retired until 1950 though! It was a flexible and dependable second line/transport aircraft.

@Jelger: Yes the tyres look great and give a sense of the size of the aircraft. I agree with you we need more mainstream kits of the aircraft that aren't usually kitted the weird, the odd and the also ran.

@Damian: Glad you like it so far!

Well after two almost solid weeks of trying to master the camouflage I have to admit defeat. Even with the airbrush doing some very fine lines I can't match the required size. I did momentarily toy with the idea of doing it by fine brush but the sheer magnitude of the job hit me and I decided that for now I would look at doing something else. I hope that the artificers in the field had a mask or they would have spent literally hours painting this camo!

Hi Chris,
I'm sorry to hear about your camoflaging woes. Your biggest enemy I believe is that the finest line you can make with an airbrush is much larger than a reglar spray done on a full sized aircraft.
One thing I might suggest is copious use of liquid mask for one color over the base, then removing all of that and recovering with liquid mask to paint the final color. The lines between your mask will have to be very fine, and I reckon it'll be a tedious task.
Another option might be foto frisket paper. It is clear and has a backing of waxy paper. You could cut slender squiggles out of it, and re-use the piece you've carved over and again because it stays sticky for quite some time.

Good Luck,

Gary

Hi Gary, yes I've had similar thoughts about various masking techniques and haven't found anything that wouldn't drive me nuts working out the how to's of it all.

Although I have just come to realise that it's a pattern of green squiggles broken up with the odd brown. I know that there are decals of this particular camouflage but I don't fancy the idea of decaling such large surfaces.

I might just bite the bullet and try to spray the finest lines I can and the devil with the scale thickness! It's still going to look great .... I hope! LOL

Chris,
Believe me, I feel your frustration. Free hand camo paint schemes with those very thin and tight squiggles, and extremely difficult. Many of the German Camo patterns fall into that category.

You need to really thin your paint out, drop the psi to as low as your AB and compressor will let you paint a fine line, and keep the tip only a inch or two from the aircraft surface. The smaller the dia. of the cone opening, the better. .2mm would be ideal. Having a lightly pre-drawn scheme in which to paint over makes it that much easier.

Another option is to make some paper card stock templates, and alternate them so that the pattern isn't noticeable. It's a lot of work, but there will be no over spray.

Joel

Hi Joel! My thanks for the advice I have already made use of it previously. I'll go with free hand and paint it as the mood takes me I can guarantee it will be unique!

Chris,
Just get it as close as you can. Those are drawings to start with, and I'm sure that the camo scheme varied quite a bit from one aircraft to the next.
Joel

Crazy Italians, cool looking plane.